Jiwoo's Special!
After hearing judging criteria brutal enough to make the backs of our skulls tingle, a thin current of tension ran through all of us.
"Don't look so nervous, everyone. If this were a genuine culinary management competition, I would have held you to that standard. But this is variety entertainment — play, in other words. I have no intention of being overly serious in a place where all of you are meant to eat and enjoy yourselves. Still... I would like you to observe at least the minimum of the basics."
Seeing our faces freeze over, Tsuki's mother let out a small laugh.
The bar she restated had dropped so far we almost wondered if she was looking down on us... but every word of it had been for our sake.
We'd done a light bit of cooking before the stream even started, and that was when Tsuki's mother had clapped a hand to her forehead.
"All right. You don't have time to stand around. Get moving."
"Ah... right. Let's all start cooking. Time limit is thirty minutes. Start!"
At my call the members scattered to their stations and got to work. I was no different. The moment I reached my counter I lunged for ingredients — and then my eyes snagged on the phone set up in the corner of the kitchen.
Right. This was a cooking contest, but we were also live. Tsuki's mother's speech had made me briefly forget and treat the whole thing like a real competition.
"Can you all see okay?"
"Don't worry too much. I've got a secret-weapon dish, you know."
"Ashamed? Absolutely not. You all shouldn't talk like that. And I've always liked watching anime. For example... things like Slam Dunk or Dragon Ball. Ah! I enjoyed One Piece too."
Ah... what is this person talking about?
"Me, a Slam Dunk stan? This person doesn't know a thing. I don't just watch the famous scenes — I watched the movie, I listen to the OST, I sing it, and!"
"What? Already?"
I checked around me and, sure enough, the others were already into their prep work. I couldn't lose either.
"The dish I'm making? That would be! The Jiwoo Special! A taste you'll never forget once you try it! A taste that makes you want another bite the moment you have one!"
"It's! Drumroll, please!!"
I drummed on my thighs, stalling for time.
Kumongdan was starting to get annoyed. This was way too fun.
"It's a ramen dish!"
I pulled the ramen out of my pants pocket. At the appearance of the most ordinary brick of instant noodles you could find anywhere, chat detonated.
Why was everyone reacting like this? This stuff was actually delicious. People these days really did judge a book by its cover.
"Just wait and see, everyone. I'll—"
I leaned in toward the phone and whispered.
"I'll cook you some ramen real soon~"
"Ahem! Watch your language, everyone. I don't want to see Kumongdan disappear."
"What? Me? I have no idea what you're talking about. Anyway, I'll start cooking now too."
Before I began, I checked on the members one by one. Hmm... was Yuwol unnie making soup? And Jina unnie was working with meat, and lastly Tsuki...
"Heh, heheh.. hehehehe...."
Let's just move on.
I filled a pot with water and set it on the flame. It would take time to boil, so I had to finish the rest of the prep in the meantime. I took out a cutting board and a knife and grabbed the colorful vegetables I'd bought.
Chop, chop.
The moment I started dicing them into even pieces, chat stirred again.
"What? Why...? Because that's how it tastes good? The noodles don't have any flavor on their own, right? So to add flavor, I put in mustard that's a little spicy and the same color as the noodles."
"Hey! Wrong flavor? This is the correct flavor. We've only just started. Just wait."
This time I grabbed a frying pan, slicked it with oil, and set it on the heat. After a short wait, a wave of hot air rose as the oil temperature climbed fast. Then I tossed in the chopped vegetables!
SSSSSSSSHH!!
"Ah.... hot!"
Oil splattered in every direction and kissed my arm.
"That's weird. It never splattered like this at home."
"Are you all right?"
Tsuki's mother had heard my yelp and crossed the kitchen in a single stride.
"Ah, yes. I'm fine. Luckily it only splattered enough that it shouldn't leave a scar."
"The heat here is much stronger than a home stove, so you need to be careful. I suppose I didn't check that far when I looked things over earlier."
Ah. So that was it. I wasn't a chef — I only ever made home cooking — so I hadn't noticed something like that.
"I'm glad you say you're all right, but please put on some burn ointment anyway. It will soothe the skin quickly."
Tsuki's mother drew a tube of burn ointment from her sleeve and handed it over. I wanted to ask why she even had that in there, but there wasn't much time left.
"Thank you! I'll get back to cooking, then!"
The vegetables in the pan were wilting and cooking under the fierce heat. I stirred carefully so they wouldn't burn and even nursed the flame.
"Now to pull the noodles."
I lifted them at about fifty percent done, shook off the water, and parked them on a tray to finish cooking with residual heat.
There is no single correct answer in cooking. Just doing your best to make something delicious — that was what cooking meant to me.
When the vegetables were almost done, I brought out my secret weapon: kimchi, the ultimate partner of ramen. It had taken a bit of work to find this. Nobody had the flavor I wanted.
I took out fully fermented, well-ripened kimchi, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and tossed it into the pan with the vegetables to stir-fry together. The smell of kimchi flooded the kitchen and hit my nose.
Gurgle—
"Ah... I'm hungry."
Kumongdan's reaction wasn't bad either.
After stir-frying the kimchi through, I tasted a bite of the separately cooked noodles. Mmm... perfectly chewy. I cut them into easy-to-eat lengths, added them to the pan, killed the heat, and let the residual warmth finish the job. Then I added the magical MSG to the finished fried ramen and mixed it through.
"Done! Jiwoo Special Fried Kimchi Ramen!"
I checked the clock — I had used the thirty minutes exactly. I'd cleaned as I cooked, so once I did the dishes, my entire process would be finished.
"Dark cuisine? I did my very best, I'll have you know. All right, time to go get judged."
Thirty minutes later, every dish was finished. All that remained was to hear Tsuki's mother's critiques.
"First of all, well done cooking, everyone. I'll taste them in the order they came out."
Because I'd cleaned as I went, even though I had finished first, I ended up submitting third.
"First, Miss Yuwol."
"Yes..!"
Yuwol unnie stepped forward, her face tight with nerves. This atmosphere was like...
Kumongdan was thinking the same thing I was. It really was suffocating.
"This soybean paste soup of Miss Yuwol's isn't bad. It has no distinctive character. It's a flavor you could taste anywhere."
"...Yes."
"However, I could feel that a great deal of care went into it. Well done."
"Ah.. thank you!"
Yuwol unnie made it through safely. Next was Jina unnie's turn.
"Is this a steak?"
"Yes! I kept cutting it to check it was cooked evenly all the way through... it got smaller, but you can think of it as cube steak."
"Even cube steak is larger than this."
"Yes..."
I translated for unnie, whose Japanese was lacking, and she visibly wilted. Calling it cube steak when it was smaller than a pinky finger. It couldn't be helped.
"Still, it is thoroughly cooked through. Even so... as a dish, this is a failure."
"Yes.."
"Then I'll taste the next dish."
Gulp.
After watching the people ahead of me get torn apart that thoroughly, I was nervous.
"Here it is."
"Then I'll have a taste."
Tsuki's mother abandoned her chopsticks, scooped up my dish with a spoon, and put it in her mouth.