Thick, Sturdy, and Pitch-Black, It Looked Like a Beast... [Read More] -(Edited)
Thick, Sturdy, and Pitch-Black, It Looked Like a Beast... [Read More] -(Edited)
Vegetable Gimbap.
Gimbap, I'd argue, is the ultimate vegetarian dish.
I still remember the craze it kicked off way over in the Americas, back before I got isekai'd into this world.
Demand got so high that even people who wanted gimbap couldn't get their hands on it.
Of course, it probably wasn't popular purely because vegetable gimbap tastes incredible.
Tastes vary, but honestly, gimbap doesn't score that high on flavor alone.
'Gimbap is the pick you grab for team synergy.'
When you're at a snack bar with a bowl of ramyun.
When three guys each order one thing and it still doesn't feel like enough.
Or when you're on a picnic.
In moments like those, gimbap is the perfect sidekick.
Over in America—where none of those setups exist—it probably caught on because it was cheap, there weren't any real vegetarian meal options, and you could eat it on the go.
'There aren't any decent vegetarian meals in this world, either.'
To begin with, the vegetarian diet the Order provided was mostly soup made from corn and beans, some rye bread, and a leaf salad with stuff like lettuce.
How is anyone supposed to feel full on that?
Watery gruel just puffs up your belly with air.
But gimbap?
This is a food that flaunts a thick, hefty body depending on how you roll it. You can adjust the rice and vegetables to your liking—a truly excellent dish.
If you're not eating meat, you just leave out the ham, crab stick, and egg. In their place, you stuff it with yubu soaked in a sauce made of vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar, and that completely fills in the protein gap.
'A complete meal that delivers carbs, protein, and fat in one neat cylinder.'
Two days ago, I'd pressed and fried leftover tofu to make yubu that I hadn't given to Camilla. I'd been wondering what to do with it, so this was perfect timing.
'Vegetable yubu gimbap and a soft tofu salad—no one's going to feel weighed down.'
Making gimbap wasn't the hard part.
But it was undeniably a hands-on process.
You had to blanch the fillings—carrots and spinach—then julienne them. Cook the rice separately, then mix in sesame oil and salt. Thickly slice the sauce-soaked yubu and the pickled radish. It was endlessly fiddly.
And for everyone except the Saintess, I had to serve regular gimbap, which meant frying up Coco egg crepes was its own small chore.
"Boss, let me slice the ham!"
I stopped Andrea before she could charge ahead.
"Today I've prepped special gimbap, so there's no ham to slice."
"Special gimbap?"
Earlier, when the Pog Ranch sent over ham, they'd also included sausages.
Long, hefty sausages as thick as a grown man's thumb, flaunting their bulk.
"Today's menu is king-sized sausage gimbap."
"Whoa..."
Andrea's eyes sparkled at the sight of those thick sausages.
"I'm looking forward to it! Should I grill them?"
"Give 'em a good sear. Score the skin and the inside will cook through faster."
"Got it!"
Seeing that, Amelia averted her eyes from me.
"Eeeek!"
She started muttering something to herself, but I could guess it was nothing I wanted to hear.
The best move here was to pretend I hadn't noticed.
After all, I knew why she kept her distance from meat.
Sssss!
The kitchen grew busy.
The knights insisted on helping however they could, blanching vegetables beside me and mixing the oil and salt into the rice until everything was well combined.
"All done!"
Blub-blub.
While they prepared the gimbap fillings, I put a pot of water on the fire.
Since the main dish was gimbap, I planned on introducing them to ramyun—the pinnacle of modern culinary magic, the epitome of instant cuisine.
'Gimbap without ramyun is just wrong.'
It didn't need a complicated recipe.
Even without me personally cooking and supervising, as long as someone managed the water, they'd manage just fine on their own.
"Heimer, I already added the soup powder. Once the water boils, dump the noodles in and let it rip. Don't do anything else—just noodles in, and stir."
"Sir Lucas, what is this?"
"It's called instant ramyun. A culinary revolution that'll let even hopeless cooks throw together a meal in no time."
I grinned and stationed myself in front of the gimbap ingredients.
I laid a sheet of seaweed on a thin bamboo rolling mat.
Then I scooped up some of the rice Hamilton had thoroughly mixed in a mixing bowl and spread it thinly over the seaweed.
On top of that, I arranged the finely julienned carrots for color and texture, the blanched spinach, and the long, yellow strip of pickled radish. Lastly, I placed the yubu, still lightly soaked in its sauce, into a neat row.
"Saintess, do you abstain from Coco eggs as well?"
"......."
"Saintess?"
"Eeek! Y-yes? W-why do you ask, Sir Lucas?"
"I was simply asking whether you also abstain from Coco eggs."
"Ah, the eggs? Oh, yes. I do not eat them. The rule prohibits all meat."
With the fillings neatly arranged, I rolled the gimbap in one smooth motion.
One thick, lengthy gimbap lay finished on the tray.
The moment I set it down, my eyes met Amelia's.
Her face was flushed red, mouth just slightly—agape, as she stared at me.
Was I imagining things, or could I practically hear what she was thinking?
I rolled three gimbap for the Saintess, then moved on to the sausage gimbap for the knights and Andrea.
Especially the sight of those sausages nestled snugly between the fillings—Andrea's eyes took on an oddly intense light.
"...... haah, haah."
By the time I'd finished rolling all the gimbap, Heimer's ramyun had reached the perfect boil.
"Sir Lucas, it's ready!"
Heimer carried the bubbling pot of ramyun straight to the table.
Meanwhile, I took out the neatly rolled gimbap three lines at a time and set them on the cutting board.
Saint Amelia's gaze was fixed on the gimbap alone—not the ramyun. She watched me with rapt attention, as if deeply curious about how I'd finish preparing it.
Gulp.
Doing my best to ignore the sound of her swallowing, I picked up my knife.
"???"
Her face looked as if the question marks floating in her head were visible.
She really does wear her heart on her sleeve.
I sliced the gimbap.
"Kyaaaah!"
A shriek from Amelia.
"Wh-wha—!"
Heimer, who'd just set the pot on the table, jumped in alarm and looked at her. And the rest of the table followed suit.
"I-it... it got cut...!"
She'd been staring at the gimbap, entertaining some... warm thoughts.
Apparently way too engrossed—the moment she saw it being sliced, it startled her.
Thud!
Chair and all, she tipped backward onto the floor, blinking up at the ceiling.
'Surely she didn't think we'd eat the gimbap whole...'
...You know what, she might have.
"Saintess, what's the matter?"
The knights asked with startled faces. Amelia shook her head.
"I-it's nothing. A stray thought rose during my prayers. My apologies. Hahaha..."
She forced an awkward laugh as she picked herself up.
Face flushed red, sweat beading on her skin.
None of them knew the reason.
Why she'd gotten into that state.
None of them, that is, except one.
"Gimbap's ready."
I placed a line of neatly sliced yubu gimbap in front of Saint Amelia, and gave the knights and Andrea a line of sausage gimbap each.
The ultimate basic, most popular menu combo at any gimbap shop: ramyun and gimbap.
For Amelia, I served yubu gimbap with a soft tofu salad.
"Sir Lucas, why is my meal different?"
"This ramyun's broth is made by simmering Pog, cow, and Coco bones and meat. Since you abstain from meat, it couldn't be helped."
"Ah... Thank you."
After that, she silently gazed down at her gimbap.
Then she looked over at Andrea eating sausage gimbap.
Watching Andrea smile blissfully as she bit into a gimbap stuffed with a thick, prominent sausage, Amelia brought a hand to her mouth.
"Oh dear..."
"Boss, can't we just kick that so-called saintess out? You had to go to all that extra trouble handling different ingredients because of her. A woman who's clearly got something weird going on in her head—let's kick her out and just eat together."
Andrea asked after swallowing her mouthful.
I shook my head instead of answering.
"Tch!"
She looked miffed at my refusal for a moment, but then quickly returned to stuffing her face with meat-packed gimbap and slurping up ramyun—slurrrp!
"Mmm~! The boss's food is just too good! I seriously want to work here every single day!"
"Then we'd have to renew your contract."
"Renew?"
"It was a ten-month contract."
"Ah..."
Andrea was the only one eating freely at the table.
The other knights were all waiting for the Saintess to lift her spoon.
Dining etiquette dictated that the highest-ranked person ate first.
Since she held a rank equivalent to the Pope, everyone waited for her to begin.
"M-may I ask why you cut this? Is there some symbolism behind it?"
"It's just inconvenient to eat otherwise. If a piece this size went into your mouth whole, you wouldn't even be able to close your lips."
"W-wouldn't be able to close them, and it would ravage... the throat..."
I'm pretty sure our Saintess's pupils just turned into hearts.
"......."
The Empire's Order—are we sure it's alright?
After staring at the gimbap for a moment, she lifted a piece of yubu gimbap to her lips with her chopsticks.
"Ahh, Sir Lucas... My mouth is filled with yours."
"If anyone hears that, they'll get the wrong idea."
"Hoo-heh-heh."
Ever since that white porridge last time, something's been running unchecked.
Did I pick the wrong menu?
Of course, everyone else had no idea what the Saintess was actually saying.
They probably assumed there was some religious meaning behind it.
After all, nobody would suspect that a saintess was privately entertaining some extremely un-saintly fantasies all by herself.
"Thank you for the meal!"
The knights all lifted their chopsticks and began eating.
Amelia swallowed her first piece and stared down at the remaining gimbap.
Lucas had called this "vegetable gimbap."
A dish filled purely with vegetables and bean-based ingredients—not a single piece of meat in sight.
But the flavor it carried was on an entirely different plane from the Order's usual fare.
The seaweed wrapped around the gimbap had been brushed with sesame oil, lending a savory nuttiness. The grains of rice inside had a stickiness that rye bread could never hope to produce. And the carrots and spinach interspersed throughout added pops of texture that rescued the taste from ever feeling plain.
But what truly stunned her was.
Deep inside, the yubu, which released a sweet and savory juice with every chew.
Each time her teeth bit down, the yubu's juices seeped into the other ingredients.
Like an active person's clothes growing damp with sweat.
Just as sweat-soaked clothes cling and reveal the body beneath, the yubu's juice coaxed out all the surrounding flavors.
A salty, sweet, and faintly tangy taste bloomed.
That bold, complex flavor was in no way inferior to what meat could deliver.
Compared to the faint, distant memories of meat that remained from long before she gave it up, this yubu was far more delicious.
For someone who had spent her pilgrimages strictly limiting what she ate, this kind of stimulating flavor was dangerous—almost seductive.
The rich flavor spreading across her tongue briefly made her forget the hardships of the pilgrimage.
She placed another piece of gimbap into her mouth.
"H-hnngh..."
She hurriedly shut her lips so none of the overflowing yubu juice and rice would escape.
A trickle of yubu juice ran down the corner of her mouth.
"It's overflowing..."
Seeing her trying to swallow even the sauce that had nearly spilled, the knights felt only reverence.
Thanks to the title of Saintess and the spotless, upright image she'd always shown the empire.
But to exactly one person—Lucas—it looked very different.
'Real pious,' he thought.
Watching her dab her lips, for some reason it felt more like something... impious.
Unaware of Lucas's thoughts, Amelia watched him eating his own gimbap from the opposite side of the table.
He was a truly mysterious man.
He had already shown her the life force within food through that porridge, brimming with warm vitality, and revealed its deeper meaning to her.
And now, with a gimbap packed with various stir-fried vegetables, he was demonstrating that simply avoiding meat was not the real trial—that there was more to it than that.
Not merely abstaining from meat, but going beyond that to create food just as delicious.
She realized that this was the path that would let more people undertake the pilgrimage.
'How could he possibly know this many vegetarian dishes?'
He knew a frightening variety of meatless recipes.
She'd heard that elves lived their entire lives on a vegetarian diet and possessed a diverse repertoire of tasty plant-based meals.
'Could Sir Lucas actually be an elf hiding his ears?'
Because otherwise, he wouldn't have this many vibrant, flavorful vegetarian dishes.
If not that, then perhaps he was a vessel possessed by a god, sent to give her a new lesson.
The misunderstanding grew, and she put another piece of gimbap into her mouth.
Then she quietly watched the knights and the elf eating what they called ramyun.
On the surface, it was a dish with no visible meat, and watching them enjoy it so much made her mouth water.
'Once the pilgrimage ends... it might be all right to try it, wouldn't it?'
She wouldn't be eating the meat directly, after all.
Maybe that would be okay...
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★★★★★
Vegetable Gimbap.
A dish where the white rice, the vegetables packed alongside it, and the yubu brimming with savory juices all harmonize beautifully.
A dish that gives you the strength to endure asceticism and hardship.
When you lose your way, when your faith is challenged—this is a dish that can fortify your convictions.
Plain porridge may look like nothing at first glance, but the life force it carries is so warm and comforting that even I, a Saintess, can scarcely dare to feel it fully.
It is a dish that offers a place to lean on for the long-lost wanderer, and light to the pilgrim who has lost the light.
(And that sensation when the white, thick liquid filled my mouth—I still can't forget it. Likewise, the gimbap's thick, long, beastly size and length is like a beast's... [Read More]) — There are traces where someone erased it.
Recommended dish: White Porridge (Highly recommended for pilgrims who have set out for asceticism!!), Vegetable Gimbap (Highly recommended for those beginning to question their ascetic diet!).
- Saint Amelia of the Order -
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***
After a hearty snack-shop-style lunch, the knights were bustling with the dishes.
"That ramyun stuff really is amazing. You just add noodles, boil it, and you've got a top-tier dish! Hahaha!"
"I felt like I'd become a real chef."
Hamilton and Heimer laughed heartily as they shared their impressions of cooking ramyun.
"And the taste is phenomenal. I was so surprised. I never expected it to be this good..."
"Well, the boss personally prepared all the ingredients and made it from scratch, so obviously it is."
Andrea said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Then I went to help Amelia, who was packing her travel bag to head back to the capital today.
"You intend to accompany me, then?"
"Yes. I'll escort you as far as Lilyan."
"What about the restaurant?"
"Closing for a few days won't be a problem. I've already informed the knights—they'll pass the word. And I can't leave the cooking to Andrea."
"And are the knights coming as well?"
"No. Only Andrea and I will accompany you."
"I see..."
Amelia nodded.
"Then, will I be able to eat your cooking along the way, Sir Lucas?"
"On the first day, we'll have gimbap. The rest of the time, we'll be eating preserved food. I'll do some cooking while we camp, but please don't expect anything like what you get here."
"I'm looking forward to it. I wonder what magnificent thing you'll use to satisfy me this time..."
She was saying this with her face tinged pink and a hand cupping her cheek.
Bam!
"Good afternoon! I'm here for gukbap!"
The gukbap junkie—no, the romance fantasy male lead, Ivan, had thrown open the door and walked in.