[Raccoon Man Beginning]
[Raccoon Man Beginning]
The next place we went to was the Facility one floor down from here. Just like the Amazon Tunnel, there was a Glass Tunnel Facility on the floor below. Since that place wasn't specifically for Amazon creatures but rather for seeing marine life, not only fish but also creatures like stingrays stood out.
"Ah, a Caricature. Come to think of it, the walls of our house were pretty bleak. Should we get one drawn and hang it up?"
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea."
At home, we mostly kept the photos we took in albums, so we didn't even have a single picture frame hook, which most houses have one or two of. It's also more convenient to just carry them on my phone if I want to show them to others.
So, I thought it would be nice to draw a picture and hang it up.
We stood in the line for the Caricature artist. There were fewer people than I thought, so we didn't have to wait for anyone other than the person in front of us.
There were two artists, a man and a woman, and I stood on the man's side, while Sion stood on the woman's side. When it was our turn, the face of the female artist who was going to draw Sion stiffened.
"U-um... I'm not sure if I'm up to drawing you. No, it's not that, it's just that I don't think I'd be able to properly capture your likeness..."
"It's fine. Please just draw as best as you can."
"Y-yes..."
Sion's face was overall too stunningly beautiful to draw as a Caricature. She's probably going to have a hard time, right?
As for me, I have the distinct feature of having mean-looking eyes, so if he captures that well, it should be relatively easy. The guy on the male artist's side knew that too and started moving his hand, but... Hey, you're drawing me, not Sion.
Look over here (JoJo style)!!
It didn't take long for me to get the rough shape down, but the female artist was still drawing Sion.
I snuck a peek behind her and saw that she wasn't drawing a Caricature, but just a portrait. She was slowly drawing Sion's face—hands politely clasped like the Mona Lisa, wearing a faint smile—like a work of art.
She was putting so much passion into it that despite the air conditioning being on indoors, the female artist was sweating buckets.
Since it would take too long to color it, we had intentionally decided to just go with a pencil sketch, but even so, she was doing her best with the shading of the pencil.
And a long while later. The woman finally took her hand off the pencil, let out a sigh of relief, and slumped over.
"I've burned it all up until it's pure white..."
"Noona! Wait, Noona?!"
The male artist, her colleague, supported her as she staggered. We received the drawing she had made. It wasn't a Caricature, but a portrait, but well... we paid for it, so it's fine to accept it, right?
My conscience pricked me, so I intentionally paid extra. A couple of the yellow bills. Maybe it was because the subject was good, but it was worth that much.
I thought it would get crumpled or torn if I just carried it, so I bought a frame and put it in there. I felt pretty good about this unexpected harvest.
"It's getting late. Even though summer days are long, the sun should have set by now."
"It should be almost time for the restaurant, too."
"Is that so?"
The lunch I ate had long since digested. It was time to go eat.
We left the aquarium and made our way to the Tower.
It was time to wrap up the day properly.
The tallest building in Korea that I knew of was the 63 Building, but it seems that has changed to this Tower these days. Back then, because the building was so tall, there were a lot of rumors, like how there was an anti-aircraft unit on the roof, or that the first Subway branch opened in the basement.
But it had an atmosphere that was just as high. The night view visible while riding the elevator up was incredible.
"Hey, look at those lights twinkling. It's pretty."
"Those are also the product of someone's overtime work."
"Ughhh. Can you not say such realistic things here? There's no dream or hope in that."
The place we reserved is a hotel restaurant located on the 81st floor of this Tower. It seems they use the floors above and below as a hotel, and use the entire 81st floor as a restaurant.
As we rode the hotel-exclusive elevator straight up, my ears popped. Since it doesn't stop at other floors, it needs to go up quickly, so the speed is no joke. In an instant, the people visible on the ground looked like nothing more than fingers.
Before long, we arrived at the 81st floor, and what greeted us was the name STAY written on a white sign with a wavy pattern. It seems that's the name of the restaurant here.
Below that, the chef's name was written. How do you read that... Yannick Alléno? That's a unique name.
"He's a French chef. They say he's a renowned chef with 6 Michelin stars, so he won't disappoint."
"6 stars? Isn't the maximum number of stars in the Michelin Guide 3 stars?"
"It's 6 stars because he has two 3-star restaurants."
"That's pretty badass."
I had also received a Michelin star quite a long time ago. Of course, I didn't get three back then, I got one.
Rather than fancy restaurants like this, my preferred way of running a restaurant was to mainly serve home-cooked meals so people could eat a lot of delicious food, so it would have been difficult to get a higher score than that.
These Michelin folks, they say with their own mouths that it only needs to be delicious, but seeing as they only gave my place one star, they definitely must care about the restaurant's atmosphere or hygiene. The atmosphere would be noisy, and while I could boast that the inside of the shop was clean, considering the hygiene of the neighborhood, it's a bit iffy.
"This place also received one Michelin star."
"Then isn't that chef, Alléno, a 7-star chef?"
"That's probably because this isn't his own restaurant."
Come to think of it, for a hotel restaurant in a tower like this, it's highly likely they hired him. They must have spent quite a bit of money.
We walked down the hallway and entered the lobby. The restaurant staff flinched when they saw Sion's face, but they didn't gawk. He smiled and asked if we had a reservation.
"It should be reserved under the name Choi Sion."
"Let me check... Yes, I will guide you inside."
As we entered, an interior with soft lighting welcomed us. The first thing that caught my eye was, of course, the view. The wall made of glass that looked outside showed the exterior scenery at a glance. And the golden bead decorations hanging from the ceiling created an atmosphere that was fitting rather than flashy.
For now, the interior gets a pass.
We were guided to a small round table by the window. The view was good, and it wasn't by the aisle, so I thought it was a good seat.
The menu was already placed on the table. We sat down, opened the menu, and chose our dishes.
"I think it's better to choose something like the menu of the day. Because there's less chance of picking a dud."
"Would there be a dud in a place like this?"
"At the very least, a dish that's been made 100 times will have better perfection than one that's been made 10 times, right?"
"That is true."
Cooking is created by practice and experience. No matter how high-end a restaurant it is, there's no guarantee that a dish that hasn't been made many times will be delicious.
If they received one star from the Michelin Guide, the taste should be guaranteed to some extent, but still, it's better to eat something even more delicious if possible.
"Here is the Amuse-bouche."
The server brought out the Amuse-bouche.
An Amuse-bouche refers to a simple dish eaten before a meal to stimulate the appetite. In a way, it might look similar to an appetizer, but the difference is that an appetizer is a dish included in the main course and can be chosen depending on the type, whereas an Amuse-bouche comes at the chef's discretion, so everyone gets the same thing regardless of who comes.
It's just that the Amuse-bouche is free. Since it's free, let's eat it gratefully.
There were a total of 3 types of Amuse-bouche served.
One was a flat wooden bowl with a square groove carved into it, topped with black beans, and on top of that, something green that had been minced and wrapped in something like a wafer cracker. Another was a potato chip on a transparent glass tea tray, with Tuna Tataki and sauce on top. Finally, there was a round fried item placed on a small spoon.
I thought I'd try them simply before choosing the menu, so I picked up the green wafer-like thing first.
If you ask why I chose this first, it's because the green color placed on top of the black beans decorating the wooden bowl caught my eye and stimulated my appetite. It's only natural that it would pique my interest just by looking at it, and make me want to taste it. This is why they say plating is important.
Looking at it up close, it was something like a finger-sized spring roll made by mincing something green to make a paste and wrapping the contents in a crispy wafer-like thing; just by looking at it, you couldn't guess what the contents were.
Once I put it in my mouth, what I felt was the scent of fresh lime.
When I bit into it, the wafer part crumbled crisply, and the taste of the paste inside felt nutty and rich with the flavor of fat.
"It's pistachio."
"Is that so? I thought it was avocado."
"No, it's avocado too. There's no way it could be made like this with just pistachio."
Pistachio is a nut. If you crush and mash it, it just becomes powder. In contrast, avocado is a fruit, and a fruit with a lot of fatty flavor at that. If you mash it, it turns into something close to porridge.
If you mix the two appropriately, a paste that can hold its shape and be fixed like this is created. If it were just the two, nuts and avocado, it might be greasy due to the high fat content, but the lime juice mixed in neutralized that and created an even more harmonious taste.
"Next is... let's try this."
The second thing I reached for was the one placed on the glass tea tray. Tuna Tataki placed on something like a potato chip, and sauce on top of that. It's a combination that's hard to imagine at first glance, but I decided to put it in my mouth first.
The potato chip didn't look like it was made by just slicing a potato, but rather ground up and mixed with something else and baked. I could see something black mixed into the potato chip here and there.
"Is this... seaweed?"
I put it in my mouth and smelled it first. Putting the scent of the Tuna Tataki and the smell of the sauce aside and focusing more, I could tell that the identity of that black thing was seaweed.
The crispness of the potato chip, the nutty and oily taste of the tuna, and the sauce on top had a subtle sweetness based on yuzu. The combination of potato and tuna, which didn't seem to go together, was balanced out smoothly by the seaweed added to it.
This is also good.
"Ah, you eat this."
".......Even I am not so gluttonous as to steal all of the only two pieces given."
"I just don't want to put something greasy in my mouth yet. You can eat it."
The last thing left was something placed on a small spoon... a dish made by rounding something into a ball and frying it. I'd have to eat it to know what the contents were, but I've eaten something similar to this in the past.
Sion refused at first, but when she realized I was truly giving it up, she decided to eat it. She lifted it up with the spoon, opened her small red lips, and put the fried food into her mouth.
Omul-omul, chewing and savoring the taste, Sion went "Oh," and exclaimed in admiration.
"The contents of this are cheese. What was it called... you know that white, thick-feeling cheese? Not mozzarella."
"Ricotta Cheese?"
"Yes, that's it."
Strictly speaking, Ricotta Cheese isn't classified as cheese. To use an analogy, it's like the okara that comes out when making tofu. Of course, okara is delicious too, so I don't care, but anyway, frying Ricotta Cheese, this combination is cheating.
To exaggerate a little, they say even fried shoes are delicious, so if you fry dairy products, the game is over. Sion quickly swallowed one and immediately ate the portion I had yielded as well.
"Now, shall we order..."
I looked at the menu again. On the first page, 3 types of today's recommended menu courses were written, and after that, a la carte menus were written.
The recommended menu is divided into appetizer, main, and dessert, and there were 2 choices for each course, totaling 6, and if you add up all the other courses, there were 18 menus written down.
Interestingly, you could also eat by course. For example, eating an appetizer and a main dish and skipping dessert, or eating the main dish right away and ending with dessert, etc. They had considered ways to save money.
Of course, since both of us are big eaters, we would be able to eat everything even if all the menus came out. Honestly, places like this are all good, but they come out little by little with too much of a gap, so that's a bit...
......No, is it just that Sion and I eat a lot? Anyway.
Well, everything looks delicious one by one. I agonized over what to eat, and eventually, I decided.
"I'll have..."