In fact, Min-joon wasn’t sure whether he could call his cuisine Asian style because he could not call it Asian just because he used Asian ingredients. For example, braised ribs bourguignon was neither braised ribs nor beef bourguignon. The deep-fried sea bass was seasoned with something like a fruit sauce similar to a sweet and sour sauce, but it was rather ambiguous to call it a Chinese dish.
‘Maybe it doesn’t make sense to classify the food based on the country of origin.’
Min-joon wanted to convey what he just felt to the judges. Just as many literary writers and philosophers argued that every individual should be given freedom, he wanted to shout that all dishes should also be free.
“Min-joon, can you explain in which order should we try these dishes?”
“There is no order. The characteristic of an Asian dinner is you can eat anything first. If I may recommend it, however, I would recommend that you eat them step by step after moistening your throat with soup. It’s always the best way to start neatly.”
“What about rice? Do you eat rice first before side dishes or side dishes first?”
“As I told you earlier, you are free to eat anything first, which is the most important value of this table. Above all, it’s not me, but the table that will give you the answer.”
Despite Min-joon’s assurances, Sophie was still hesitating a bit with a perplexed expression. It was possible she showed such a reaction because she was in France with a more systematic view of gastronomy than any other country. Just as a man who had been accustomed to slavery would be embarrassed when they were freed, the judges here were long accustomed to the established course meal.
Watching them, Min-joon was surprised to find that they were so poor in the sort of food culture in which people just ate the dishes freely without being bound to any established table manners. Besides, even the French people didn’t eat course meals seven days a week.
But Min-joon wasn’t worried because he believed they would somehow learn how to enjoy the meals in their own way without being compelled to eat which food first.
Asher tried the wonton soup first according to Min-joon’s recommendation. Min-joon watched him enjoying the soup quietly. A gourmet would have no choice but to feel how rich and delicious the soup would taste because it had been soaked in the broth for 72 hours.
Asher opened his mouth after trembling.
“Wow! I think this is the Asian taste!”
“More precisely, I would say it’s a mix of Korean and Thai taste.”
“It’s not obviously pungent. It’s far from pungent, but closer to bland, but…”
As if Asher couldn’t describe it exactly, he couldn’t continue. In fact, its taste was so different from what he had been familiar with. There were lots of chefs in France who tried to bring out something pungent in bland taste.
‘But this is a soup.’
Asher had never doubted Min-joon’s cooking skills so far. However, his soup dish was somewhat new to him. Generally speaking, the French people tended to think soup was a low-level dish just designed to fill the empty stomach, not for delicious taste.
But Min-joon’s soup dish right now broke his existing prejudices of soup. Like him, other judges had never imagined that he could make a soup dish so delicious.
‘Anyway, he’s really good at making a dish that is beyond our imagination.’
Sophie looked down at the broth with an amazed expression. The taste of the wonton soup was rich and deep. So much so that she felt her existing perception of the richness of a soup was wrong. Of course, she was aware that French cuisine was not everything about cooking. France’s food culture was much more systematic than other countries, with all the details refined closer to perfection. She thought that was why French dishes stood out more than the cuisines of other countries.
This time, Sophie tried not only the wonton soup but also the dumpling in it. She crushed it a bit then put it in her mouth, uttering exclamations quietly. She was feeling the savory taste of the shrimp while chewing the meat inside the dumpling. At the same time, she found it hard to see if what she felt now was the shrimp chips in the sea bream ceviche she ate a little moment ago.
At that moment, she unconsciously lifted a spoon and scooped up a tablespoon of rice from the bamboo trunk then hesitated. She was embarrassed. Normally, she would not have eaten it by instinct. She would usually enjoy a meal, thinking about the best combination to enjoy cooking, etc, but when she put her spoon to the bamboo with rice, she was not thinking about anything.
‘Oh, that’s why…’
She recalled what Min-joon just said. As for the order in which she ate the dishes, he said that even if he didn’t say anything, this table would tell her everything. He was right. This table made her deeply faithful to her desires. It was completely different from the Asian dishes she had enjoyed before.
‘I was wondering why Asians were eating so much.’
In particular, when she saw Koreans eating Korean food, Sophie was surprised. Originally, carbohydrates like rice were regarded as the best food to fill an empty stomach for a long time, but Koreans simply ate too much rice as long as they had any side dishes.
To be honest, Sophie, who grew up in France where rice was not the main diet, could not fully understand Koreans’ food culture. Of course, she knew that rice had its own unique taste, but rice was rice anyway. If the side dishes were delicious, they could only eat them more, not rice. If the side dish was salty, they could make it less salty or drink water instead. So, she could not understand why Koreans loved rice so much.
But she seemed to understand their feelings now because she felt like eating rice now. Feeling her heart was beating, she scooped a tablespoon of bamboo rice and put it to her nose.
Even its scent was beautiful. It was sweet. She felt she would get used to that scent a little later. The scent of bamboo rice spread more pungently when she chewed it in her mouth. It wasn’t just the scent of bamboo. It was a mixed scent of bamboo, ginkgo, jujube, and sage leaves.
The moment when every ingredient was in exquisite harmony, Sophie felt like she was eating something other than rice.
What was interesting was that Sophie could not stand putting the spoon to the next dish while chewing food. She had never felt it while eating course meals, which was natural, given that there was only one meal on the table while the course was served. When she had something in her mouth already, she didn’t have to rush to eat some other food.
But this full Asian course on one table was different. “One table meal” meant that all the dishes were on one table, so one could easily enjoy another dish while eating as long as he or she put the chopsticks to it.
Actually, Sophie didn’t like this kind of one table meal very much. France’s insistence on course meals was not just for pretentiousness. They wanted to show respect for each dish and at the same time fully satisfy one’s taste that was supposed to change, depending on how hungry they were.
However, this one table meal made Sophie become more faithful to her desire. She was hungry, so she was curious about the taste. Her curiosity about how it would taste when the sauce touched her tongue made her even more anxious to try it quickly.
She picked several dishes with the chopsticks and put them in her mouth. She realized that she couldn’t determine which of these was the best because each and every dish was so delicious.It was the most delicious rice in her life and the most delicious one table meal. At some point, Sophie did not recognize the plates as separate dishes but regarded the one table meal itself as just one whole dish.
The rib bourguignon, marinated in the tomato acidity and banana sweetness, made the judges, who had no affection for rice, eat rice every time they picked up the ribs. When they ate fruit jam sauce made of strawberries and tangerines and the chopped jelly with the flesh of crisply ripe sea bass, they enjoyed its sweetness but naturally put a roll of matsutake mushrooms in their mouth to seek its bland taste.
Then, they fully enjoyed the flavor of the black garlic juice sauce filled with sous vide style chicken breast and steamed abalone, as well as mozzarella shrimp tempura on thin sesame leaves. The taste of the paprika puree flowing through the mozzarella cheese was so stimulating. However, its strange and thick taste eventually made them seek the wonton soup again. As the French judges, they found themselves eating the soup again and again, which had been looked down on in France as a low-level dish for a long time.
This was very unusual, of course. Watching the judges relishing in the Min-joon pair’s dishes, the spectators could not believe what was happening before their eyes. Soon, paper cups began to be distributed to them with an incredulous look.
They were served the wonton soup cooked by Min-joon Cho and Kaya. Although the pair made a huge soup, they could not throw away the leftovers when the judges were done trying, so they decided to have the spectators try it, too, as a small gift.
Of course, the French people might not be excited about it, but the fact that the pair made it and that the judges were deeply impressed with the soup was enough to make their eyes sparkle with curiosity.
Shortly afterward, the venue was filled with the sound of people sipping wonton soups here and there. Some might think it was just a soup, but it was something special because the French spectators were now enjoying it en masse, full of admiration for the taste.
“Wow, how could they bring out the soup’s complex flavor like this?”
“I can see why the two kept being praised by the judges.”
“Look at the judges. They keep eating the same side dishes again and again. It looks like they’re going to eat the whole dishes if we are not here.”
What the spectators guessed was true because the judges were feeling the same. They wanted to sit down and enjoy all the dishes right now without caring about their honor or responsibility as a judge. They wanted to eat the meals freely, which was far from a typical gourmet’s perception.
That was the gist of the Min-joon pair’s one table meal, which made those who were not gourmets and those who were gourmets forget their basic duty as gourmets. In other words, their dishes made anybody the slaves of gluttony who could not think of anything other than taste, which was primitive as well as wild.
That was why it was literally a weed-like dish.
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