Putting Aside Nationalistic Bias, It’s Really Delicious

5 – Western-style pork cutlet is truly Korean cuisine. This is also mentioned in the Goguryeo watermelon seed story.

Fog, fog.

The plump and round Fog was a mammal that was slightly larger and rounder in appearance than the pigs of the original world.

With its pinkish skin, flipped-up snout, and curly, wirled tail, it looked quite alike, yet somehow cuter.

How should I put it?

It felt as though it popped right out of a cartoon?

However, above all else, the charm of the porg came from the taste of its meat.

Slightly more pink than pork, and with a more diverse distribution of fat, its flavor was richer.

There was a famous saying in this world regarding porgs.

– There’s nothing to discard from a porg except its innards.

From head to toe, its delicious taste made it a beloved ingredient among many.

Except for the innards, that is.

Porg innards were, unlike those of pigs, surprisingly tough and had a strong smell.

While I knew the proper way to remove the unique smell of porgs, it was not a dish to be featured in a shop opening in a rural territory.

‘I remember making dishes with innards a few times to save on the overstretched food budget at the Knights Order…’

My memories came back in a torrent… But hell no.

It was a time when I struggled because the Royal Knights ate so much, and the Royal Provisioning Department gave us a dog-like budget.

It was a decision I made to somehow feed the knights within the limited budget.

Considering the time when my body was full of the stench of porg innards because I had to feed the knights meat, had no money, and all that was left was time – I brought the innards that were discarded by the butcher, trying to get rid of the smell:

“Fuck.”

I couldn’t help but curse.

It came back to me.

Those dick-like memories from the military, no, the Knights Order days.

How did I survive seven years there?

I should have pretended to be an invalid and retired quietly.

Then maybe they would have left me alone.

No, I shouldn’t have even entered the Knights Order in the first place.

Why did the memories of my previous life pop up exactly when I was about to join the Knights Order? What was this?

If only I had left two days earlier.

Then I could have run away before becoming a knight…

What woke me up from my sudden reminiscence and a ride on the train of memories was:

“Boss, are you alright?”

It was Heimer, the knight of the self-publishing author.

“Ah, I’m sorry. When I prepare food, I sometimes get lost in thought. Haha.”

I checked the food ingredients that I had laid out on the cutting board, still lost in thought.

On the cutting board were a rosy pork loin, white flour, one white Coco egg, dried breadcrumbs, white cabbage, and various seasonings.

The menu I secretly prepared for my guest, Heimer, was pork cutlet.

Not a Japanese-style pork cutlet, but a Western-style King Pork Cutlet.

A pork cutlet soaked in a thick cutlet sauce, a tangy sauce-topped cabbage salad, a scoop of rice, and a thin soup.

Today, I was planning to show the essence of a Korean-style King Pork Cutlet.

Though the pork cutlet had undoubtedly crossed over from Japan as a western-style dish, these days, the Western-style pork cutlet was no different from Korean cuisine.

Considering the Korean-style taste reforms, it was essentially Korean food.

If you think about it, even the pork cutlet was passed down from the Western dish called cutlet.

This is even mentioned in the Records of the Three Kingdoms regarding watermelon cultivation.

Is it really written there?

I don’t know.

If it’s brainwashed and modified into a Korean style, it’s Korean food.

Didn’t espresso cross the Atlantic and have its brainwashing modified in America, turning it into a watered-down Americano?

Just like the coffee Americano that even mainland Italians refuse, the Western-style pork cutlet is also equivalent to K-Food.

Anyway, that’s the story.

I will show the taste of Korea’s Western-style pork cutlet.

It was a bit overwhelming for a morning meal, but the counterpart was a knight of a self-publishing author.

Knights, after all, are a race that eats a lot, moves a lot, and turns themselves into brutal battle machines.

Pork cutlet for breakfast?

Isn’t that a bit much?

At least, that’s how the princess knights I used to work with felt.

“Knight, can you eat a lot of meat for breakfast?”

“Ah, it’s fine since I just finished my morning training. If anything, I should eat heartily so I can train effectively in the morning.”

Of course.

I have an eye for these things.

“Understood.”

“But what’s the menu? The ingredients are quite different from what I heard from Ms. Liana.”

“Ah, it’s a Western-style pork cutlet today.”

“Pork cutlet? I’ve never heard of that dish.”

“Yes, we’ll be using this tenderloin. It’s a dish truly fit for a knight.”

I held up the thick, untrimmed tenderloin.

“Oh, I’m looking forward to it! Will you be using all of that meat?”

“Yes.”

Ordinary people could have enough with just a third of this, but my opponent is a knight.

I can’t underestimate them.

“By the way, it’s a special knight’s menu.”

“So it’s not for the general public.”

“That’s right.”

I tapped the thick tenderloin with a hammer.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

As I struck it with a mana-infused hammer, the pinkish tenderloin flattened out with a deep thumping sound.

I seasoned the flattened pork tenderloin with salt and pepper, then cracked a cocoa bean into a clear glass bowl.

Cocoa.

It was an animal in this world that resembled a chicken and had become domesticated, now a flightless bird.

This bird, which had a more developed breast than the chickens of this world, possessed flavorful chicken breast meat, making it one of the most beloved ingredients amongst the empire’s people.

The egg of the Coco also had a similar texture and taste to that of regular eggs.

‘The yolk’s texture is quite rich, more than I expected when frying it.’

However, its delicious taste made it a not-so-bad ingredient.

I cracked open the Coco’s egg and prepared the flour and breadcrumbs.

The ingredients for frying the pork cutlet were ready, so now it was time to shred the cabbage.

Sh-sh-sh-sh!

For me, who had mastered the ultimate cooking technique, imbuing the Chinese blade with mana was like a piece of cake.

As I thinly sliced the cabbage with the Chinese blade, Heimer looked at me with surprised eyes.

“It’s quite a peculiar feeling, watching you prepare food like this.”

“It’s my own kind of showmanship. It’s proof of how clean our kitchen is.”

“Is it okay for the family’s secrets and such to be leaked out like this?”

He seemed genuinely worried.

The concern of a knight, perhaps.

“It doesn’t matter if other people imitate it.”

I smiled at Heimer.

“It’s something that can’t be done unless you’re quite diligent. Even if they awkwardly copy it and open a store, they’d just end up losing money.”

“This is the confidence of a craftsman…”

The knight’s eyes lit up.

From that point on, Heimer began to closely observe me cooking in the kitchen.

Although his gaze was quite burdensome, it did not interfere with my cooking.

All the ingredients had been prepared.

The thinly hammered king pork cutlet.

I dipped the considerably larger piece of meat than the typical pork cutlets in flour, then soaked it in the Coco egg, and finally, spread breadcrumbs evenly over it.

He checked the temperature of the yellow cooking oil that had been boiling since he started preparing the meat.

Personally, he found it ideal to fry the pork cutlet at 170 degrees.

‘It’ll take some time for the ordered magical thermometer to arrive…’

For now, he had to rely on his intuition.

It would be nice if it was accurate, but a little error was fine.

He could decide by observing the reaction of the batter.

After checking the oil temperature, he dropped the prepared pork cutlet directly into the oil.

Sizzle!

The sound of the bubbling oil pleasantly tickled his ears.

This was the best moment.

Putting the battered meat into the boiling oil.

Watching the bubbling oil and the sizzling sound were his own small pleasures when cooking.

While the meat was frying, he placed a frying pan on the remaining flare range.

He was going to make the sauce while the pork cutlet was frying.

In Korea, it was enough to buy commercially available sauces and only do a bit of cooking, but it was not possible here.

He had to buy and gather each ingredient, then cook it himself.

It had improved since seven years ago, but still.

He turned on low heat and placed a piece of butter on top.

He poured about half a cup of flour over the melting butter.

The flour mixed with the butter and created a white roux.

Making a roux was the most basic of the basics when making Western dishes.

It was an essential ingredient for making pork cutlet sauce, and if he couldn’t make this properly, it was better to give up on making the sauce and buy it from the store.

“You say using roux is for Western dishes? Oh, please, no.

If all dishes using Western-style sauces were considered Western cuisine, then even a fried egg with ketchup would be Western.”

It’s fusion. Fusion K-food.

As the roux turned the color of scorched rice, I added soy sauce, sugar, ketchup, and lastly, a bit of vinegar.

And an appropriate amount of water.

Finally, I added the secret sauce.

What is this?

It’s the establishment’s secret.

The secret known to every Korean.

The magical white powder that starts with an “M.”

Nobody knows how much I’ve struggled to find this taste in this world.

Sizzling.

Next to me, the pork cutlets were frying in oil, and in front of me, the perfect donkatsu sauce was being completed.

“Now I just need to simmer the sauce a bit.”

I took out the fully cooked king-size donkatsu.

The surface bubbled and glistened with oil.

Just looking at the saliva-inducing donkatsu, I shook off the oil that was made from the fryer with a frying rack.

“It’s so huge.”

“It’s exclusive to the knights who visit the Knight’s Diner. You can finish it all by yourself, right?”

At my question, Heimer gave an embarrassed laugh.

“Ha, haha, I didn’t know it would be this big.”

“You have to eat it all.”

He avoided my gaze.

He didn’t know it would be this big?

Is he really a knight?

Is he just satisfied with this size?

If Captain Luke had just heard what he said, he would have ordered supplementary training, you jerk.

-You talk too much in front of the food? You lack perseverance! You need extra training!

New recruits always got scolded like that.

That’s how they filled the training ground.

“I have to finish it all.”

Leaving food behind was not tolerated.

Neither the cook’s pride could tolerate it.

“Of course! I’ll eat it all!”

Heimer, who met my eyes, nodded his head vigorously.

“If you’re a knight, you can finish it all.”

While waiting for the oil to drain out enough, I quickly made a soup that goes well with a simple Western-style pork cutlet.

A very smooth soup made by grinding boiled potatoes and milk in a blender.

Of course, there was no blender in this world, so I always ground it by hand before going to work or right after starting work.

Thanks to the guests who arrived before work, I ended up using the soup I prepared yesterday but didn’t use.

‘I prepared it for myself to eat…’

I rapidly heated the cold soup that was stored in the refrigerator using my mana.

It’s not a microwave, it’s a knight-wave.

I don’t use it unless it’s really urgent.

It consumes quite a lot of mana.

The cold and lumpy soup softened and steamed.

I sprinkled some pepper on it.

The soup for the Western-style pork cutlet originally had a slightly shabby charm.

The taste is like junk food.

A taste that makes you want to eat more and more.

I put the soup in a small dish on the tray, and next to it, I put lettuce and a scoop of freshly cooked rice in a large, wide white plate.

I placed the pork cutlet, which had all the oil drained on a wire rack, on the plate.

Before placing the sauce on top, they gently brushed the fried coating with tongs.

Grrrr.

Every time the tongs touched the crispy fried coating, they made this scrumptious sound.

Listening to it alone, you can feel the crispiness of the fried coating.

It’s the final ritual to make sure the coating is fried perfectly.

“Ah, delicious.”

Even just the sound is mouthwatering.

Those who know, know this sound.

The sound of a freshly fried pork cutlet, with a truly perfectly fried coating, proclaiming its deliciousness.

A taste that satisfies all five senses.

Sight and sound, taste, smell, and even the 100-point sensation of the fried coating felt at the fingertips.

And finally, they poured the completed pork cutlet sauce on top.

Steam rose from the sauce covering the pork cutlet.

They laid a knife, fork, and spoon next to the dish, and handed it to Heimer.

“This is the Knight’s Diner Special Western-Style King Pork Cutlet.”

“It’s similar to a meat cutlet.”

Disappointment was evident in their voice.

After hearing praise for the Bulbap from Laina, they were met with a common cutlet in this world.

It was a natural reaction for Heimer, who didn’t know about Western-style pork cutlets.

In this world, there existed cutlets where meat was coated with batter and fried.

But the level is different.

By the way, they didn’t serve pork cutlets to the Knights more than once.

Not only was it labor-intensive, but their eating so much exceeded the budget.

-Can you make that pork cutlet just for me?

The fair-minded Captain Luke even asked me privately, which said it all.

“The result is similar, but it’s a different menu from the cutlet.”

“Do I just slice it and eat?”

“Yes, cut it into appropriate sizes yourself.”

Heimer, who had been watching me for a moment, picked up a fork and knife.

Screech!

The knife sounded as it cut through the crispy batter and the texture of the meat.

I took a bite of the pork cutlet, which hadn’t fully absorbed the seasoning yet.

“Um?”

Heimer’s eyes widened as big as saucers.

His gaze turned to me.

How is it?

Delicious, right?

This is K- Food Western-style pork cutlet, buddy.