God of Cooking

Chapter 264

<A Surprise (3)>

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁

Nothing was as meaningless and empty as talking about skill without even having mastered the basics. Kaya sighed looking at Minjoon. She brought him here to rest, but his eyes were flaring up with passion again.

‘…I do like those eyes though.’

There were plenty other people at Grand Chef who were just as passionate, if not more so, than Minjoon. What really made Minjoon different at the time was the thirst in his eyes. The thirst that was buried incredibly deep inside.

She liked that about him. He was greedy, but he knew how to hide it. It made him look like a very refined noble to her. Kaya turned to look at the side mirror. On top of the unwashed, dirty mirror was her face, still looking as childish as ever.

“Why do I look like this?”
“Hm?”
“Just talking to myself. Forget it.”

Kaya responded with a bored tone. The highway didn’t have many cars on it, and they arrived at Minjoon’s home at Bundang faster than they thought. Kaya looked up at the apartment with surprised eyes.

“It’s really high. Is this a condo?”
“We call all high rise residences like this one an apartment.”
“What? You can’t buy houses in big buildings in this country?”
“No, you can.”

Kaya’s confusion was understandable. After all, Americans called condos the places with the purchasable units, and apartments the ones you rented. Kaya looked a bit confused even after his explanation, but this wasn’t what was important right now.

It didn’t take long for them to unpack. They didn’t need much considering they were only going to be here for a week. Kaya sat down on the sofa in the living room and let out a sigh.

“I’m tired.”
“You should sleep.”
“Maybe. But I’m not very sleepy after getting so much of it on the plane.”
“The time difference is seven hours. You might screw up your circadian rhythm.”
“You know I’ve been on planes more than you, right? Don’t try to advise me with stuff like this.”
“Fair point.”

Minjoon nodded in understanding. Kaya looked around calmly. The apartment unit with three rooms was a bit small, but it wasn’t uncomfortable either. It was almost as good as the current house they lived in in Los Angeles. Kaya opened her mouth slowly.

“How much is this house?”
“Dunno.”
“You lived well, with a spare house, even. We didn’t even have a spare room.”
“…Come on, do you really have to bring that up?”
“I can’t help it. It feels like you lived in a different world from me.”
“We live in the same world now.”

Minjoon sat down next to Kaya as he responded calmly. Kaya muttered, ‘that’s true’ quietly under her breath. She leaned slowly next to Minjoon. Right then, Bruce stepped in front of them with a little cough.

“Do you have any plans for today?”
“Minjoon needs to rest for now. He’s a patient.”
“…I’m really not.”
“Just don’t overwork yourself. I don’t want you collapsing on a vacation. Want food? Ah, your fridge doesn’t have food, does it.”
“Don’t try to make anything. We can just order lunch by delivery and eat out for dinner.”
“Delivery…?”

Kaya looked at Minjoon with a surprised look. She was picky with her food, but Minjoon was even worse than her. He was the type that would starve if good food wasn’t available. That’s why he usually ignored delivery food entirely. It was covered with MSG, and it was cold as well by the time it arrived.

Minjoon had his reasons for advocating for it now, of course. He opened his mouth calmly.

“You can’t forget about delivery food if you’re looking to explore our cuisine.”
“I heard it’s very developed… but to that degree?”
“It’s come to a point where our food developed solely for delivery. There are also plenty of people who cooked delivery food for decades here. It might be simple food that anyone can make, but that doesn’t mean you can take their experience lightly.”

Speaking with a bit of exaggeration, people who made fried chicken for decades were also masters of their craft in some sense. Just like a skilled noodle maker. Of course, not everyone becomes a master in time. Just like how you don’t study better than others just because you sat on a chair for longer.

If you wanted to become a master, you needed to dig very deeply into a topic. You also needed talent. And a good teacher. There were some who managed to become a master all by themselves, but they needed to work twice as hard as everyone else to become one.

“So? What are you going to order?”
“Not anything from a franchise. I can’t get anything about an owner’s skill or passion from franchise food. I’d like a well-established local business…”
“I don’t know Korean. You’re going to be the one doing the searching.”
“I know, I know.”

Minjoon picked up his phone. The distance between this home and his parents’ home wasn’t that far, but the restaurants you could get delivery from were entirely different. To begin with, his parents’ place was famous for having bad food in all of Bundang.

He searched around for a few places, but all of them were clearly advertisements. Minjoon quickly realized how foolish his endeavor was when he realized how hard it was to find famous delivery food places.

“…Let’s just go out.”
“I told you that you need rest.”
“Come on, we’re just going right outside. I’m not a sick old man, you know. Bruce, Grace, let’s go. We can eat something nice.”
“Ah, I’m good. I’m not very hungry right now. Jemma seems tired too. Why don’t you two just go on a date?”
“I’m hungry tho-”

Bruce shut himself right up at Grace’s glare. Grace gave them a quick glance.

“Go on. We’ll take care of the house.”
“…Okay. Do you want anything?”
“Ah, yes. Could you get us snacks? Or Korean cake?”
“Alright, sure.”

Thankfully, Minjoon actually knew a pretty good bakery nearby. It was expensive, but money was meant to be used for occasions like this. Minjoon and Kaya stepped out of the house carefully. March in Korea was quite cold, especially for their thin coats. Kaya stuck right up to Minjoon when she saw him tremble a little bit.

“Didn’t you say old men in Korea didn’t like it when they saw couples cuddle like this?”
“Dunno. A few decades ago, yeah, but I don’t think it’s a thing anymore.”
“I’m nervous. It feels like people are watching us for no reason.”

Minjoon looked around for a second. There weren’t that many people around them, but he did notice people giving them slight glances. The two of them were wearing masks, but that didn’t hide the fact that Kaya was white. Unfortunately, white people were still a bit of a rare sight in this country.

“Where should we go?”
“Don’t know. I was thinking of going to a Chinese restaurant, but we could go for something else… Do you want anything?”
“Chinese food? In Korea? Really?”
“Ah, sorry. Korean Chinese food. Er, Chinese-style Korean food? Chinese food here’s been turned into something almost entirely different over the years. Ah, right. You need to try our pizzas. It’s insane.”

How would she feel after seeing some of the crazy toppings here? America had its shares of crazy pizzas, like Chicago-style pizza, but that was more just an insane amount of ingredients rather than odd ingredients.

“So where are we going? I’m hungry.”
“Hold on, was there something famous here…?”

Minjoon took a look around for a bit. The area around Jeongja station looked like it would have good food, but he couldn’t find anything very special. Right then, Minjoon’s eyes settled on a single sign. Pyongyang cold noodles, 45 years of history.

‘45 years?’

He’s been tricked a lot by a lot of signs like that. But… Minjoon lifted his phone and searched the name of the restaurant. Kim’s Pyongyang Cold Noodles. There were a lot of reviews about the restaurant. They were split 50/50.

‘Then again, that’s just the nature of this dish.’

Not many people were fans of the dish’s mild flavor. That’s why restaurants selling Pyongyang cold noodles were pretty rare. Minjoon turned to look at Kaya.

“Want to try noodles?”
“Noodles?”
“Yeah, cold ones. They boil beef bones and meat for several days to make stock, and serve it cold with buckwheat noodles… want to try it? They’ve been here for 45 years.”
“Don’t know if that’s a very long time for a restaurant, but sure.”

Kaya stepped forward confidently. Despite it being lunchtime, the restaurant didn’t have many people. Only about ten, really. When Minjoon and Kaya took their seats, a young man stepped up towards them with a tired smile.

“Welcome. Two people?”
“Yes.”

Minjoon took off his mask as he responded. Kaya did so as well. The young man widened his eyes after looking at the two of them.

“Mr. Minjoon?”
“Ah, yes. You recognize me.”
“Of course I do. You’re a star in the industry right now. Also…”

The young man smiled awkwardly.

“We went to the same school. I’m Kim Minseok… Do you remember me? Naejung Middle School, third year… class one?”

Minjoon made a shocked face. Middle school? It was just 7, 8 years ago in reality, but even longer in Minjoon’s memory. Minseok looked down with an apologetic face.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.”
“No, I’m sorry. I just can’t remember things too well because of how busy I am… Ah, were you good at soccer, by any chance?”
“I’m sorry. I was always on defense.”

He tried his best to sort through his memories, but the silence that persisted during then only made things even more awkward. Right then, Kaya opened her mouth in curiosity.

“Someone you know?”
“Ah, a middle school classmate… I think.”
“Why do you sound so unsure?”
“Memory’s fuzzy.”
“…This is why I’m calling you a patient. You forgot about middle school already?”
“What, you remember all of your middle school days?”

Minjoon muttered annoyedly. Minseok looked at the two of them with an interested expression. They weren’t close friends, but he was very surprised when he heard of a classmate becoming a world star. He gripped his apron a little tightly. Here he was, unsuccessful, and yet his classmate had come back with both success and a beautiful girlfriend.

“What would you like to order?”
“Two bowls of Pyongyang cold noodles. Ah, should we… speak a bit more casually?”
“No, no need. Two bowls. Coming right up.”

Minseok rushed into the kitchen. Minjoon carefully took a look at the window next to the man.

[Kim Minseok] Cooking: 6
Baking: 3
Tasting: 7
Decoration: 4
‘…Looks like he’s cooked a lot before. Definitely not just a server. Does he cook in the kitchen?’

It felt like a rude question to ask. Kaya spoke to him with a quiet tone.

“It smells weird here.”
“It’s the stock.”
“I know. It’s just… really fresh. Kind of like grass?”

Grass? From beef stock? Minjoon sniffed with a confused expression. He didn’t get anything out of the smell. Right then, he looked at the bowls that the customers were eating next to them. An exclamation of shock came out of his mouth.

<A Surprise (3)> End.