Side Story: Mackerel Sandwich
Side Story: Mackerel Sandwich
"Eun-ji, aren't you going to eat a sandwich?"
While everyone else was enjoying their food, Eun-ji had been locked in a fierce battle with her fishing rod for a while now.
She kept reeling in and letting out line, baiting the hook over and over, but...
It looked like the fish were just nibbling the bait and slipping away.
"I'm busy right now."
"It looks like you haven't caught a single one either..."
"What? I said I haven't caught one either!"
So she was just feeding the fish, then.
At this rate, she wouldn't get up until she caught at least one.
"Why don't you just catch some gobies too? They're really easy to catch."
"Hmph. You think I, as a woman, would be satisfied catching gobies in shallow water?"
"If you say that, what about our Arini... is she a man?"
"She's still a tiny. Tinies can be satisfied with that much."
Our Arini thought of herself as quite grown-up, so that kind of talk was deadly to her.
Naturally, Arini, pouting her lips, picked up a sandwich and went over to Eun-ji.
"Unnie, eat this."
"Huh?"
What Arini held out was a sandwich.
It was A-ra's exclusive sandwich with two gobies in it.
It seemed Arini was more bothered by the fact that she hadn't eaten the gobies she caught than whatever 'Tiny' talk was.
So she was holding out the sandwich, telling her to eat it quickly.
Isn't that too cute?
It's not just because she's my daughter; everything she does is just too cute.
Eun-ji accepted the sandwich Arin offered and smiled bitterly.
"Arin, I'll eat it well."
"Okay! If you want more, just say so!"
Then Arin headed back toward the short whip rod.
She fell back into fishing bliss.
"That's why I told you to eat quickly."
"Haah... I can't afford not to catch one this time either..."
"What could possibly go wrong?"
"The two times I went this month, I didn't catch a single one..."
That's a bit serious.
Our A-ra might be struggling a bit today, but normally when she goes fishing, she lands lunkers.
So she doesn't seem too disappointed, but Eun-ji seemed a little different.
"Judging by the fact that even A-ra noona is only catching minnows... I think the spot here isn't very good."
"Tsk... maybe because the weather is still cold."
Eventually, Eun-ji sighed and folded up her fishing rod.
She seemed to be planning to just play with Arin now.
She sat next to Arin and nibbled on her sandwich... should I say she looked like a big sister?
Somehow, the two of them oddly matched well together.
"Seong-hwan, grill some more gobies."
"Uh... I think I need to replace the charcoal too?"
Wondering what she meant, I checked inside the shichirin and saw that those two rascals had dumped gobies directly onto the shichirin to grill them.
Of course, if you put too many on at once, the oil causes a burnt smell and smoke.
It looked like someone had poured water on it after seeing that.
"Hey."
"Heeek."
"You two, light the fire for this."
"Ah... got it. You're scaring me, so relax your face."
"Ehew..."
These men can't do a single thing.
How is a housewife supposed to manage like this.
"Arin, shall we go to the store with Daddy?"
"Yeah!"
She put down the short whip rod right away and grabbed my hand, as if she had some snacks she wanted.
Daddy will buy you anything you want, aw, my baby.
***
The next day, we briefly stopped by the Busan Aquarium to look around and then headed back up to Seoul.
Calling it a trip was a stretch; it was no different from a day trip using a single weekend day.
I guess you could say we took the opportunity while down in Busan to look around a bit.
Next time, we should plan a proper Busan trip and visit.
"Aren't you a little disappointed we couldn't stop by Gimhae?"
"Huh? Since we can go next time, I wasn't really disappointed."
"Really?"
"Yeah. If we still hadn't found the keepsake, I might have had some lingering regret."
He must have meant the ring I'd found for her before.
That must rank in the top five best things I've ever done in my life.
A-ra beamed brightly as she changed clothes.
I heard she had a shoot near Gangwon-do today.
Was it that show about finding good restaurants she's been doing recently?
Apparently it's a beef special, so she was heading to Hoengseong.
The way she teased Arin about how she was going to eat lots of delicious food was so childlike.
It felt like I had two daughters.
"Tonight I'll make braised short ribs for Arin~"
"Euek."
"Noona, you're going to Gangwon-do and planning to eat lots of delicious food, aren't you?"
"W-Well, yes, but I'll be back by the evening too....?"
"Then how about you just eat rice and kimchi?"
"Heeek..."
Of course, it was a joke.
I patted her head, telling her not to worry and to go work hard.
No matter how much it involves eating, what noona does is still work, right?
It wouldn't be right to treat someone coming home from hard work like that.
"Well then, I'll be off."
"Take care."
"Mommy..."
Before we knew it, Arin had come to the front door, rubbing her eyes and calling for her mom.
In one hand, she held a teddy bear doll............ no, a robot.
"Arin, Mommy will be back."
"Take care.."
"Give Mommy a kiss on the cheek."
Smack.
Arin gave one on her left cheek, and I gave one on her right.
She was absolutely ecstatic.
***
The seafood center that boasted the largest scale in Seoul.
It was on such a massive scale that there was a legend floating around that whoever controlled this place controlled the entire Korean seafood market.
Just how much money does she handle?
Honestly, it was a little intimidating.
If you went inside and kept going further in, there was a spot where Jeong-hwan's Mother always sat.
If she wasn't there, I'd have to try visiting another time.
Actually, I had already informed her I'd be visiting, so I didn't need to worry about a wasted trip.
"Hello, Mother."
"Seong-hwan, you're here? Should I steam you some king crab?"
Every time I came, she would steam king crab for me.
Sometimes I paid, sometimes she gave it for free, but today I was here for business consultation, so I was going to pay.
"Please steam just one. And I have something I'd like to discuss today..."
"Oh right, right. What was it you called it? Mackerel sandwich?"
"Yes. What would you think about using imported Norwegian mackerel?"
Honestly, using domestic would be better.
Seafood is a bit sensitive in that regard.
But Norwegian mackerel is much tastier than domestic mackerel.
Especially when grilled, the difference in taste is like heaven and earth.
The ajumma nodded, saying she knew that well.
She must know that there's an unavoidable difference.
"Hoho, in that case, this ajumma happens to have something."
"Ohh..."
"This ajumma actually has a Norwegian salted mackerel factory."
She said her salted mackerel factory doesn't process them overseas and import them; it brings in fresh mackerel and prepares them here.
And since it's salted mackerel, it's already deboned, so it might be perfect for sandwiches.
"What about the unit price?"
"If you really want to do the mackerel sandwich properly, how about investing?"
"That's fine. This time, I want to try doing it as a franchise."
I wanted to receive investment from various places and scale it up.
A-ra noona had said she was thinking of investing about 100 billion won.
"There are many mackerel factories in Korea and Japan, so you don't need up to 100 billion."
"Then..."
"For a franchise, consistent taste is key, right? To achieve that, training has to be done well."
"R-right?"
"Take good care of the franchise owners... maybe that direction would be good."
She said I wasn't that interested in money anyway, and I nodded.
I was doing business more as a hobby, not because I was crazy about money.
To begin with, there were too many places where money came from.
I didn't know how well the business would do, but I had no intention of squeezing franchisees dry like a wet rag the way some regular franchises do.
"As expected, should this ajumma help out?"
"I'd be grateful if you did."
"I might not do it for others, but you know I'm helping because you're my son, right?"
"I know."
Jeong-hwan's Mother was someone people wanted to meet but couldn't.
She was someone who struck it big with everything she did, so how many people would want to hear her secrets?
But I had become friends with Jeong-hwan, and she also personally liked me, so I could ask comfortably.
If it weren't for that, my fried food shop might have gone under completely.
"Hmm... but what about the other things besides the mackerel?"
"Yeah, that's true. I need to think about that too."
"You're not planning to bake the bread yourself, are you?"
"Nah... wouldn't it be better to get it from a factory?"
"Good thinking. No matter what, nothing beats the taste of factory-made bread."
Sandwich bread is different from regular bakery bread.
Of course, sandwich bread made by a master baker would taste far better than mass-produced factory bread.
But could a master baker handle the volume a franchise would need?
Setting aside their own bakery?
In that case, it was better to just find a good factory bread and use that.
On top of that, there's the issue of unit cost.
"Otherwise, you could supply the bread as frozen dough and have them bake it on-site."
"But I wonder if that's feasible for a fast food place..."
"It would be tough. The burden on the franchise owners would be no joke."
So we decided to have the bread supplied from a factory.
For vegetables, we agreed to check with Nonghyup later.
Since we were going into business anyway, wouldn't it be even better if it helped revitalize the local economy?
Nonghyup has many small-scale farmers who sell their produce, so it would be nice if we could help them.
Sigh... but I did feel like maybe we were rushing into this a bit.
The fried food shop also happened almost by chance, after all.