Bulgogi Sandwich and Bulgogi Gimbap Eaten While Breathing Phytoncide-Filled Air
Bulgogi Sandwich and Bulgogi Gimbap Eaten While Breathing Phytoncide-Filled Air
If someone were to ask, "Are sandwiches Western food?"
Yes.
That would be the answer.
Neither baguettes, the mustard sauce you spread on a sandwich, nor the cheese layered on top are ingredients commonly found in Korean cuisine.
I'd certainly never heard of anyone using mustard back in the Joseon era.
And yet, the bulgogi sandwich was a proud piece of K-Food.
Why?
Because bulgogi, the main ingredient — that's Korean.
That's reason enough.
So wouldn't that make bulgogi pizza Korean too?
Now you're getting it!
Bulgogi pizza, bulgogi burgers — all proud K-Food.
A bulgogi sandwich wasn't hard to make, so long as you had the right ingredients.
Well-grilled bulgogi and perfectly caramelized roasted onions.
Fresh bread — whether baguette or sandwich bread, the type didn't matter.
Cut open a loaf with a golden-brown crust and a white, airy crumb riddled with tiny holes — the richer the roasted grain fragrance rising from it, the better the sandwich would be.
Crisp lettuce for crunch, cheese for richness, and finally a sauce of mustard and mayonnaise — just lightly sweetened with honey — to add a layer of savory depth behind the bulgogi.
If you had all that, it was a simple dish to put together.
Split a baguette with a bread knife, spread it with the mustard-mayonnaise blend, pile on the lettuce. Lay the bulgogi and roasted onions on top, steam still curling into the air, then drape a slice of cheese over everything.
Whoosh!
Hit it with a flame to melt the cheese until it picks up a few dark singe marks, close the bread, and you're done!
A picnic-ready bulgogi sandwich.
The bulgogi gimbap was what really took work.
Julienne and sauté the carrots. Blanch the spinach and dress it in sesame oil. For a thick egg omelet, keep it over a medium-low flame, turning it without breaking the shape.
Some people add cucumber, or so I'd heard — but when you already have danmuji delivering crunch and a cool, crisp note, did you really need it?
The pickled radish, steeped in vinegar and sugar and tinted yellow with gardenia powder, was cut long and squared off — chop, chop, chop — and rolled in alongside the rest.
Thinking about how I'd woken up at dawn to get all this ready...
"Hoo."
The sigh escaped on its own.
"Why are you sighing with food right in front of you?"
"She's right! Sighing over a meal drives good fortune away!"
Andrea's eyes were already fixed on the gimbap and sandwiches as if she were under a spell.
Before I could get a word out, she had already snatched up a sandwich.
"Thank you for the meal."
"Thank you for the meal!"
One elf with a sandwich, one beastkin lifting a spoonful of doenjang-guk — both called it out.
"Mmm~, delicious! The way that bulgogi just floods your mouth... haah."
Andrea let out a thin breath and squeezed her eyes shut. Cheeks bulging, she savored the sandwich with her eyes closed.
"Eating it out here makes it even better. It's a little sad that it's cooled off some, but... still delicious."
She'd been sighing praise nonstop; now her eyes glittered as she spoke.
I followed her lead and took a bite of my own bulgogi sandwich.
My front teeth cut through the baguette — the crust baked crisp and firm, the inside still moist.
Crunch!
And there it was: the crisp snap of lettuce. Just as I registered the living freshness of the greens, the mustard-mayonnaise blend spread across my tongue. The bulgogi and onions, resting gently on the lettuce, announced themselves as the stars only once my palate had finished its warm-up.
The rich, unctuous flavor of the meat and onions, balanced and supported by the nutty warmth of the baguette.
"Mmm~."
Delicious.
Seriously delicious.
I'd made it myself, and it was seriously delicious.
That pale yellow mustard-and-mayo sauce paired astoundingly well.
"I could put this on the official menu later."
Mentally resolving to test it on the knights back at the castle, I reached for a piece of gimbap.
Before my fingers even got there, three pieces had already vanished into Andrea's mouth.
"Bos, go aheaf."
Cheeks crammed so full of gimbap they were round as buns, she mumbled around the mouthful.
"I haven't even taken a bite yet..."
"Mmrphh, hmmmphrmm."
"I have no idea what you just said."
Probably some excuse for starting without me.
I went for the bulgogi gimbap this time.
The gimbap fell a little short of what I remembered from my original world.
The seaweed — maybe the flavor was a bit too strong?
But as the grains of rice separated and the carrot, spinach, danmuji, and finally bulgogi mingled together, the seaweed's intensity faded into the background almost immediately.
'It's good.'
Though I figured it was only good because it was bulgogi gimbap.
'The seaweed needs more work.'
If only I could find someone to properly cultivate the stuff.
If I could get the seaweed right...
I could assemble the perfect breakfast spread.
Seaweed, kimchi, fried egg, and a slice of ham — the ideal morning meal for the busy modern person.
The savory, salty smell that fills the air when you brush seaweed with sesame oil, sprinkle it with salt, and toast it.
Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.
Considering all that, the gimbap was a little disappointing — but the sea of grass and the birdsong surrounding us added their own seasoning. So what if it was slightly lacking? The whole charm of gimbap was eating it at a beautiful picnic spot, wasn't it?
Whish.
A breeze swept through, scattering the hair of everyone eating alongside me in a gentle flutter.
The scent of the forest — trees and leaves, earth and the countless tiny lives within it — tickled my nose.
I felt the stress of work simply washing away.
Seated on the rock we'd picked for our meal, I gazed out at the landscape below the mountain.
I could see Viscount Britten's territory stretching out beyond the slopes. The lord's castle wasn't visible, but one soldier standing atop the rampart kept nodding off — bob, bob — his head drooping.
A knight who could wield mana ended up with a field of vision entirely unlike an ordinary person's.
'That guy was drinking late at our restaurant last night.'
I'd let it slide.
If he'd been dozing off for some other reason, I'd have reported him to Lancelot, but he was a regular, so I'd pretend I hadn't seen.
The long road that began at the viscountcy and stretched into the distance lay before me. On either side of the road, I could make out the farmers' fields and pastureland — their livelihood.
At the far edge, shimmering faintly, were the pig ranch where I sourced Pog, the meat-cow ranch, and the chicken farm.
None of them were large operations, but they produced top-quality meat.
Not far off, I could see the forest where the hunters did most of their work, and merchants traveling the road.
Lately, the merchants had been visiting more and more often.
Ever since Camilla's deal with Viscount Britten, it felt like the number of traders passing through had risen.
'The territory developing is a good thing, so...'
I just hoped word didn't spread all the way to the capital.
If the imperial princess happened to show up, I'd be in real trouble.
If she found out I wasn't back home but here...
'Urgh.'
A shiver ran down my spine.
Just then, the wind blew again.
Sitting on the rock, eating from a packed meal while staring quietly out at the distant view — I felt my mind settle into calm.
So this was why people went forest bathing.
A deep sense of peace settled over me.
Good food, a pleasant breeze, and a view that was simply outstanding.
The food itself wasn't extravagant, but just being in a special place like this lifted my mood.
I was humming a tune and reaching for another piece of gimbap when—
"Cough! Hack!"
Andrea, who'd greedily crammed her mouth full of gimbap, pounded her chest and broke into a fit of coughing.
I thought she'd been eating an awful lot.
And there it was — the textbook case.
"There's doenjang-guk, so have some of that..."
I was just about to hand her the spinach doenjang-guk.
"Hnnng."
A strange moan came from beside me.
It was Veronia's voice. Emitting a peculiar, quavering sound, she was shivering as she drank her doenjang-guk.
Despite having said the bulgogi looked good, she hadn't touched anything else. She was carefully spooning up only the doenjang-guk and nothing else.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"Uh, hnn? Hah! N-no! Nothing!"
"Don't tell me you finished the whole thing?"
"Uh, huh? Well, the thing is... there's still some left."
"Give it to Andrea, fast. She's about to choke to death."
"Cough! Cough!"
"Th-this, you mean? Well, you see..."
Veronia glanced at Andrea for a moment, bit her lip, then lifted the portable soup bowl.
Shhhrrrrp!
She put the bowl to her lips and slurped it down, face flushed crimson as she stared into the empty air with glassy eyes and let out a heated sigh.
"Haah, that was delicious."
"Hey! You drank the whole thing."
"Cough! Cough!"
I grabbed the water bottle and handed it to Andrea, whose face had gone pale.
Gulp! Gulp!
She swallowed desperately, and only then did her expression begin to ease.
All the while, Veronia kept staring vacantly into space, giggling to herself as if still steeped in the aftertaste of the doenjang-guk.
"Hnnng. How fine! This too..."
Andrea, having finally forced down the gimbap that had been wedged in her throat, shot Veronia a murderous glare.
"Hey! What's the big idea drinking it all by yourself!"
"...Ah, you mean this?"
Veronia looked at Andrea with eyes that were still hazy, as though drunk on something.
"Ha, haha! I'm sorry. Hahahaha! It was truly delicious — no, was it truly delicious? Well, it was delicious all the same! Mmm, delicious! It was a delicious dish!"
Rambling. She looked so out of it I wondered if she was genuinely intoxicated.
"..."
Seeing her suddenly turn strange like that dredged up old memories.
-Hehehe, this is great.
-Aah, my strength is draining away.
-This is food? It's not food — it's a blessing...
The beastkin who'd eaten the manufactured doenjang-guk back then.
Their bodies had gone slack and languid, and they'd swayed from side to side as if they couldn't muster any strength — I could picture it clearly.
-I apologize. We've committed a discourtesy.
I still remembered the leader of the mercenary band, a beastkin himself, dragging those women away and apologizing to me.
Veronia seemed to be experiencing something similar.
'The mercenary captain never did explain the reason, right to the end.'
If I'd known why, I might have been able to find a solution.
The only thing I remembered clearly was...
After that day, the beastkin who'd been affected wouldn't even meet my eyes and avoided the mess hall entirely.
Like someone you run into the day after they've made a drunken spectacle of themselves.
'Is it some kind of alcohol-like effect?'
I looked at Veronia.
"You okay?"
"Uh, huh? Oh, of course! I'm fine! I am Lilyan's greatest warrior! I'm no she-beast who staggers around drunk on this kind of pheromone scent!"
She sprang to her feet on two legs, standing tall and proud.
Well — she seemed to think so, anyway.
"Whoops!"
I caught her just as she pitched forward.
"Boss, just leave her there and let's head down, just the two of us."
"How could I do that? She helped us out in her own way."
Leaning against me, Veronia pressed her nose into my chest and sniffed.
Sniff sniff.
"Male scent... how pleasing."
"Hey! Hands off!"
Andrea swatted away the hand reaching for my body.
"I'll be the one to hold up this perverted drunk!"
"Hmm? Elf! Hahah! Pointy-ears! Ridiculous! How on earth do ears get so pointy!"
Then her gaze drifted back to me.
"Take me to the human male at once! I wish to be beside him!"
"You're going down the mountain with me!"
"I shan't! I wish to go with the human male! Now take me—"
A drunk had appeared on the scene. Time to just head down.
***
"Urrrrgghhh..."
Veronia clutched her head as though it might split apart and sat up.
An unfamiliar space. A place filled with a deep, savory, delicious smell. She pressed a hand hard against her throbbing temple and looked around.
The rich scent of oil at a boil and the sweetness of honey saturated the room.
"You're awake?"
She turned toward the voice. There was the human male from earlier, wearing an apron and working on something.
He stood in what humans called a kitchen.
She'd heard kitchens were secret places never opened to outsiders.
No — more importantly.
The instant she saw the human male — Lucas — everything she'd done before blacking out came flooding back.
The image of herself kicking up a fuss as if dead drunk.
As a member of the Wolf Clan, she knew perfectly well it wasn't alcohol intoxication.
It had been.
Being drunk on what might as well have been a male's pseudo-pheromone.
Like a she-beast entering her heat cycle.
In a life spent solely on combat, the only male Veronia had ever met was her own brother. For someone like her, the pseudo-pheromone scent the doenjang-guk gave off was overwhelming.
She'd come all this way convinced he was a powerful male, even vowing marriage in her heart...
And it turned out to be nothing more than the smell of food!
Bewitched by a dish, she'd gulped down the doenjang-guk and lost control of herself entirely.
It was mortifying beyond belief. She'd never been so ashamed.
'I didn't... do anything, did I?'
She glanced at Lucas. His eyes met hers as he was rummaging through something, and she felt her face grow hot.
The previous day's events flashed through her mind, and she averted her gaze without meaning to.
Just as if she'd met a real Wolf Clan male.
"You seemed to like sweet things, so I'm getting something ready. Just wait."
"Sweet... things?"
Now that he mentioned it, she registered the scent of honey. Her tail began swaying from side to side of its own accord at the sweet fragrance.
Swish, swish.