Food Truck Owner Inside the Dungeon

“Chapter 13 of “The Food Truck Owner in the Dungeon”

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Still, it was too early to be disappointed. The business day had just begun.

To prepare for the possibility of arriving at such empty places, Ji-eun planned to split her operating hours into about 1 to 1.5 hours, intending to explore the dungeon as much as possible starting today.

Ji-eun immediately returned to the cooking area to prepare the beef seaweed soup, which was on today’s menu.

She crushed the dried seaweed and placed it in a large stainless steel bowl. Not knowing how many customers she would serve, it was better to prepare as many ingredients as possible. After pouring water to rehydrate a full bag of dried seaweed, she filled a large restaurant-grade stock pot with water.

“Ugh, it’s heavy!”

Having filled the pot with too much water, Ji-eun struggled to lift it onto the stove. She sighed once and then took out the strainer she had prepared for making the broth.

Inside the strainer, she placed anchovies, onions, and kelp, then filled it with large chunks of radish.

Since she planned to use brisket for the soup, she needed a clean broth with anchovies and kelp instead of using meat stock.

Splash!

The ingredients responsible for flavoring the broth dropped into the pot.

After turning on the gas and closing the lid to prepare the broth, Ji-eun placed a pot on the empty burner to stir-fry the meat and seaweed.

She poured sesame oil into the pot and took out the essential ingredient for beef seaweed soup: the brisket.

“Right… This is way too big.”

Seeing the thick brisket made her sigh. What she intended was finely chopped brisket for the soup, but it seemed that while the “dish of the day” provided top-quality ingredients for free, it didn’t automatically trim them. It required more effort than buying from the store.

Grabbing a chef’s knife, Ji-eun quickly began slicing the thick brisket.

Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop.

Since this was for soup rather than grilling, she needed to cut it into smaller pieces. Ji-eun’s knife skills sped up on the cutting board.

Carefully, she sliced through the thin membrane and tendons attached to the meat, eventually stopping when she saw a pile of meat accumulating on the board.

Taking several kitchen towels, she patted the freshly cut meat to remove some of the blood, which took quite a bit of time.

“It’s taking too long to prepare.”

Feeling that the preparation alone was taking too much time, she thought she needed to finish all preparations before using the skill “Opening and Closing Times” in the future.

Sandwiches could be made on the spot after preparing the ingredients, but cooking a full dish on the spot took too long.

If she spent the entire 1.5 to 2 hours of operating time just preparing and cooking, that wouldn’t be operating time but rather preparation time.

Having her first experience selling food, especially inside a dungeon, she discovered these unexpected trial-and-error moments.

Sighing, Ji-eun looked around the dungeon, feeling no signs of customers.

“At least it’s good that there are no customers during this operating time.”

If there had been customers, she might have had to send them away after just preparing ingredients.

Encouraged by Kkamang, Ji-eun glanced at the time. She then portioned the meat into two bowls and placed soy sauce, cooking wine, salt, and pepper on the counter for seasoning.

She poured six tablespoons of soy sauce and six tablespoons of cooking wine over the divided meat. Ji-eun sprinkled salt and pepper and put on plastic gloves to mix the seasoning evenly into the meat.

“Phew… Finally done.”

Since there was quite a bit of meat, she added soy sauce and cooked wine in increments while completing the seasoning, noticing the meat glistening.

Once that was done, she found the seaweed she had soaked in the pot had softened nicely.

She fished out the seaweed with her hands and squeezed out the excess water in the sink. If there was too much moisture, the flavor would end up bland, so she shook off the water from the seaweed and set it aside.

The bubbling sound of the broth in the pot filled the air. It was always a pleasant sound to hear.

“Nice tune, Kkamang.”

With the gentle music Kkamang had played, Ji-eun felt good and began humming along while moving busily.

When the pot with sesame oil was gently heated, she poured in the seasoned meat and began to stir-fry.

Sizzle!

The finely chopped meat cooked quickly.

She focused on stirring with a wooden spatula to ensure the meat cooked evenly without sticking to the bottom of the pot. The goal was to sauté it until the outside was brown but not fully cooked, as overcooking would cause the delicious juices of the premium brisket to seep into the broth.

Once the meat turned a nice brown, she immediately added the drained seaweed to the pot.

“Ugh. It’s too much.”

Feeling anxious, she knew that if she delayed even a moment in flipping it, the meat could burn or the seaweed could stick.

The seaweed, now fragrant from being stir-fried with the meat, needed to be cooked until it softened completely.

Ji-eun’s arms moved tirelessly as she vigorously stirred the meat and seaweed in the pot.

About 40 minutes had passed since she started boiling the broth. Ji-eun ladled some broth into a bowl and sipped it, nodding in approval.

“Mmm, delicious!”

It seemed the strong heat had quickly extracted the flavors. She wanted to let it simmer a bit longer, but time was short, and she felt regretful. The longer the beef seaweed soup simmered, the better the flavor.

Pouring enough broth into the large pot to submerge more than half of the seaweed and meat, Ji-eun adjusted the heat to a medium-low setting and closed the lid.

“Yeah, it’s easier to clean up before it piles up later.”

Taking out her invincible towel, Ji-eun wiped the dishes she had just washed with dish soap to make sure they were spotless.

Even though the invincible towel could make even the dirtiest items shine, it was still different from washing with a scrubber and drying them off.

The gas stove and sink were incredibly easy to clean. Just that alone felt like it cut her work in half, and Ji-eun smiled.

“Now it’s time to cook the rice.”

She pulled out a bag of rice from her inventory. As she had anticipated from the meat, a 30kg bag of rice popped out. Thankfully, Ji-eun had already placed the rice on the floor, so she managed to avoid the disaster of having the heavy rice bag land directly on the counter.

“Whew!”

Successfully lifting the heavy rice bag, Ji-eun straightened her back. At just 21 years old, she was already feeling back pain.

‘Will the skill level up and automatically portion the ingredients for me?’

That thought crossed her mind momentarily. Ji-eun cut open the rice bag with scissors and filled the pot with rice.

Her goal was to fill the rice cooker to the brim.

After pouring a moderate amount of rice, Ji-eun set two pots in the sink and turned on the cold water to wash the rice.

With a crunching sound, she mixed the rice thoroughly, washing it from top to bottom and pouring the cloudy water into another pot that she had set aside. She planned to keep the rice water for later use.

After repeating the washing process several times, she placed the pot into the rice cooker and pressed the cooking button.

“Starting cooking.”

The familiar sound echoed inside the dungeon.

In the meantime, Ji-eun opened the lid of the pot where the seaweed soup was simmering on medium-low heat. The seaweed was softening, and the juices and fat from the meat floated on top, creating a delicious broth.

It was time to season the soup.

Ji-eun took out the essential ingredients for Korean soup: soy sauce, fish sauce, and salt. After a brief moment of thought, she poured the soy sauce and fish sauce into the pot without using a spoon.

‘Adjusting the seasoning is my specialty.’

She recalled her grandmother, a master of Korean cuisine, saying:

“Seasoning is done by feeling. Who measures everything out?”

Of course, her grandmother had at least three times the cooking experience that Ji-eun had lived, so she could probably do it with her eyes closed. However, at a young age, Ji-eun had faced many failures while learning to cook.

Some dishes were too salty, and some were too bland.

Each time, her grandmother had noted the angle and timing of pouring the seasonings, and Ji-eun had applied those lessons, reaching a point where she could imitate her grandmother fairly well.

The fish sauce added umami to the broth. The slightly dull flavor from just the soy sauce was brightened with a bit of salt, completing the perfect seasoning for the seaweed soup.

Stirring the broth with a ladle to help the seasonings blend in, Ji-eun ladled the soup into a bowl.

The well-cooked seaweed and the stir-fried beef were both tender. At the same time, the texture of the ingredients was preserved. The broth, infused with the juices from the beef, had a rich and deep flavor.

“Mm, delicious.”

It was a perfect seaweed soup.

At this point, there was nothing more to adjust. To prevent the seaweed from breaking down too much, she turned off the heat and moved the pot to the back burner, covering it with a lid.

After putting the leftover brisket and seaweed in the refrigerator, Ji-eun turned to Kkamang, who was watching her intently and smiled.

“Do you want to try the seaweed soup?”

Kkamang, who had been lying down and wagging its tail, stood up at Ji-eun’s invitation.

“Here, it’s beef seaweed soup.”

Ji-eun ladled the finished soup into a small bowl and placed it in front of Kkamang, along with a spoon.

With a satisfied expression, Kkamang immediately grabbed the spoon with its paw, scooped up some soup, and blew on it a few times before bringing it to its mouth.

Even though it was a funny sight to see a cat using a spoon to eat soup, Ji-eun was nervously waiting for Kkamang’s evaluation, knowing it had a discerning palate.

“How is it? What do you think?”

<…….>

Kkamang silently took a big spoonful of soup along with the seaweed and meat, chewed, swallowed, and then set the spoon down.

Watching Kkamang with its eyes closed, Ji-eun cautiously asked, “ Is the seasoning a bit off? Or is the meat undercooked?”

In a tense moment, Kkamang lifted its front paw and raised its thumb.

“Yes!”

With Kkamang’s discerning taste satisfied, Ji-eun felt relieved about the seaweed soup.

Next on her list was to prepare stir-fried pork.