A Bowl of Jjajang, The Son-in-Law of Jegalse - Chapter 537
Only Noblemtl
Get off the hook
Just by looking at the ingredients being prepared, I could roughly guess what the man would make.
That’s why I asked, and the man blinked behind the mask and asked.
“Oh, is that not possible? I don’t think it’s such a strange dish… No, it’s a delicious dish….”
As the man said, the dish he was making was definitely not strange.
Because it is considered a delicious dish.
But it is true that there are still problems.
‘I think it might be a bit dangerous to make this dish here.’
“Gaga, why? It’s much more normal than what other people were making before. And there’s no particular strange smell from the ingredients.”
“Yes, son-in-law, I don’t see anything particularly strange, so why are you doing that?”
“What’s strange? Cheongun. Oh, is it because the person who made it isn’t a woman?”
A barrage of questions arose because of my statement asking if I was really going to make it.
‘Ah! Times are different now, so maybe that’s not the name I know?’
First, I approached the man and whispered in his ear.
Come to think of it, given the times, there was a high chance that the names of the dishes were not ones I knew.
If that wasn’t the name of the dish, there would be no need to be careful.
[Is the name of the dish by any chance Du-myeon-go (???)?]
[Clothes! How did you know?]
[So you’re from the North?]
[That’s right. That stolen northern land is my grandfather’s hometown.]
[By the way, is there any other name for the dish you’re making?]
[Yes? Another name? Well? But is there a reason why you are asking this so secretly?]
He said with a smile, as it seemed like he hadn’t come up with a nickname yet.
“Okay. Then let’s make it quickly.”
“Yes? Yes···.”
The man nodded with a bewildered expression at my words.
The materials the man had brought began to be laid out on the stand.
-thud.
The first thing the man did was to place a large wooden board on the counter.
Then, he mixed the white powder he brought with water and kneaded it into a jelly-like dough.
-Chatter chatter chatter.
“What is the white powder?”
The man answered Garyeon’s question while stirring the dough in the bowl.
“It is the powder of rice ground on a millstone.”
“Ah, Nami’s powder.”
Nami is a Chinese word meaning glutinous rice.
At the man’s answer, Garyeon nodded her head and Yeongyeong asked again as if she wanted to hear the answer she hadn’t heard before.
“I wonder what kind of food it is. Oh, Gaga, but why were you like that earlier? You said something like it was a dish that shouldn’t be made. You didn’t answer me about that.”
“I was just mistaken. I thought it was a different dish.”
“Ah. Gaga sometimes makes mistakes.”
If you don’t know, there’s no need to tell you.
I sat around for a bit and watched the man cook.
-Whew. Whoosh.
A couple of flames shot up from the crater, and the man placed a large pot on top of it.
A man placed a pot filled with water on top of which a bamboo steamer was placed.
And first, divide the kneaded glutinous rice into earthenware bowls.
Since it has absorbed a lot of water, let’s put it in a bowl. The dough will settle to the bottom like water.
“I guess it’s a steamed dish?”
What Garyeon, who received basic cooking training from me, deduced upon seeing the bamboo steamer was that it was a type of steamed dish.
As Garyeon had expected, the man put it in the steamer and started steaming it.
‘It’ll take some time for the dough to steam.’
While the man kneaded the dough, I thought about all the dishes I had judged so far.
Since the cooking competition was almost over, I wanted to think about the dishes I had judged so far and think about which ones would be good to serve as the main dish at our night market.
Because now there are only about ten teams left.
It would be nice if every dish sold well, but that’s not always possible.
Usually, there are a few main dishes to attract people, and the rest are just for show.
Among the dishes judged today, the most impressive ones were, of course, Gwahoe (pot and pancakes), Joheunggoseo (roasted rat with zoheung), Yujakjukchung (fried bamboo insects with oil), and Seok-o-byeong (stone cakes with sap).
Gwahoe is a Chinese-style fried donut.
Choheunggoseo is grilled rat skewers.
Fried insects that resemble fried sweet potatoes are called yujakjukchung.
Seok-o-byeong is a crispy pastry baked on a stone.
First of all, it was clear that Gwahoe and Seok-o-byeong would win the prize.
Bread and pastries go well with night markets and are easy to carry around and eat.
Also, Yujakjukchung and Joheunggoseo are dishes that are enough to attract people’s attention.
However, there were some areas of concern.
The reason was that since Joheunggoseo was called Sanseo and used mountain mice as the ingredient, and my sister’s Yujak Jukchung was called Jukchung and used bamboo moth larvae as the ingredient, if business was good and the quantity increased, there could be a problem in securing the ingredients.
If my older sister, Deokgu, has good ears and Baekhwa, goes around the bamboo forest to look for larvae, it won’t be hard to find them. It would be a good idea to steam and dry the larvae in preparation for the season when they are not available, but the problem is in the west of Joheung.
If the quantity is insufficient, they might catch rats running around the houses and make it, because that is the central plains.
I remember hearing a story about a lamb skewer restaurant in my past life that, because they didn’t have enough lamb, they caught cats that were wandering around the neighborhood and made skewers out of them to sell instead.
This is the Central Plains, a place where if you close your eyes, not only your nose but also your liver will be ripped out, so it was clear that it would be very easy to disguise a rat as a mountain mouse.
‘But anyway, I’d like it if there were one or two decent dishes, or at least one dish that was really impressive and delicious enough to be considered the main course.’
Seafood skewers and various skewers are a great way to add variety to your meal.
There were four main dishes there, so I thought it would be nice to have one or two more dishes that would satisfy both the taste and the buzz and be worthy of being promoted as signature dishes.
A thought that suddenly passes by.
‘Wait!? Should I push this as a sign?’
After thinking about it carefully, I realized that it wasn’t a bad idea to promote a dish made by a man as a signature dish.
If the name had already been decided, it would have been a dangerous dish, but what if I had named it and made it?
If the name I knew in my past life had already been given to me, it would have been dangerous for the man, but if I give him this name, no one will say anything to me.
‘Okay! This is it!’
As I watched the man cook with a smile, I saw that he was already sprinkling yellow powder on the wooden board he had laid out.
“It’s definitely soybean flour because it smells so good.”
As Young-Young said, that’s bean powder.
The man nodded, saying that was correct.
“you’re right.”
Then, the earthenware pot that was being steamed was turned over onto a wooden board sprinkled with soybean powder.
-Thud!
A steaming hot dough rises and is placed on top of the soybean powder.
The man sprinkled soybean powder on the dough and began to roll it out with a rolling pin.
-Swish. Swish.
Glutinous rice dough that spreads out with each pass of the rolling pin.
Soon after the dough was rolled out, the man used a knife to trim the edges of the dough and finished forming it into a rectangle.
Next, the man took out red bean paste.
The man took out the red bean paste and placed it on top of the dough that had already been rolled out.
Then, the red bean paste was rolled out and spread thinly on top of the glutinous rice dough.
“Does it smell sweet?”
Yeong-yeong, who smelled the sweet scent like a ghost, made a face that said it looked delicious.
A man spread a thin layer of bean paste on the dough and began to roll it up.
When all the dough is rolled up like that, the finished product is Injeolmi, which is like a kimbap made with rice cakes.
-Crunch. Crunch.
The man cut the last rolled rice cake into bite-sized pieces, spread some more soybean paste on it, and held it out to us.
“Here, try some. It’s called dumyeon-go (???).”
The dish made by the man is called dumianmigo or dumiango, which is a traditional dish originally from the Beijing area.
It is a dish similar to our country’s rice cake, but the difference is that instead of making it by kneading steamed dough like we do, it is made by using thinly kneaded dough.
When I put one in my mouth, I first felt the rich flavor of soybean powder, then the chewy texture of rice cake, and finally the sweetness of red bean paste.
“That’s right. The process of making it was perfect, so there was nothing to find fault with.”
“Really. It’s so chewy and delicious!”
“Teacher, it’s really sweet.”
Since Ga-ryeon and Yeong-yeong are both women who like sweets, it seems like they like it.
The two craftsmen next to him, the medicine king, and even Brother Po and Elder Sosik said in a voice that they liked it.
“It’s unique. It’s very tasty. It sticks to the teeth a bit, but it’s still worth eating. How about the Sword King?”
“Just as the King said, the taste of chewing is very unique.”
“It’s a bit too chewy for an old person to eat, but it’s not bad. I like the rich flavor of the dried pollack.”
“Why do I keep reaching for this? It has a strange charm.”
“It’s sweet and nice. It’s the first time I’ve had a dish that I like.”
If you think of it as injeolmi with red bean paste inside, who would dislike that?
She smiled at the man.
I guess I should start working now.
“The cooking process was flawless, and the ratio of dough to filling was excellent. However, there was one thing that was a bit lacking…”
“What’s lacking? Ma, if you tell me, I’ll try to fix it.”
A man who gives me just the answer I need.
The man picked up one of the two-faced sticks and said:
“It tastes good, but the name is so weird that it’s not fun.”
“yes!?”
A man who blinks at the comment that his cooking skills aren’t even good and that his name isn’t funny.
I explained to him with a smile.
“The taste of a dish is important, but the name is also important. It is important to tell what kind of dish it is through the name, but for dishes like this that you buy on the street, it is better to have a name that people can easily call.”