The Omnipurpose Restaurant in Dungeon City

What’s this Omnipurpose Chef skill, you ask?
It was the skill Jin obtained as a reward for achieving a world-first achievement.
It was both a reliable insurance for this sudden possession phenomenon and a contradictory thing that might be suspected as one of the causes.
To avoid being long-winded and uncool with a detailed explanation, let’s cut to the chase and say it’s a higher-level skill that’s an evolved comprehensive form of cooking skills.
It assists with deficiencies when cooking, stores recipes in a recipe book, and things like that.

Besides that, its biggest feature is, as the message shows, adding additional effects to completed dishes.
Dishes that would normally only have the effect of satisfying hunger become a kind of consumable item.
Gamers would understand how significant this simple difference is.
‘When I cook, it’s essentially producing potions or elixirs.’
And delicious ones at that!
Normally, potions and elixirs focus solely on medicinal effects, so it’s common knowledge that they taste worse than animal feed scattered on the ground.
Not only does this completely erase such drawbacks, but it even makes people want to eat them because they’re delicious. How amazing is that?
It’s not for nothing that strawberry-flavored cold syrup was a hit in the real world.
Successfully disguising medicine as snacks for babies with passive complaint skills is practically a holy relic for parents, equal to or greater than Polio or Calpol.
But that’s that.
Cooking is still cooking after all.
It’s not a potion or elixir, I’m saying.
Focusing on the additional effects rather than taste is truly putting the cart before the horse.
‘To begin with, the effects aren’t as powerful as potions or elixirs.’
Moreover, if you don’t make the dish properly, these additional effects won’t be added, so you’d just be counting your chickens before they hatch.
In the end, the most important premise is to make delicious food and serve it.
So now it’s time to cook for the hungry guest.
‘First, the ingredients.’
I opened the large refrigerator at the back to take out the ingredients for Jeyuk-bokkeum.
[Would you like to purchase ingredients?]
Actually, it only looked like a refrigerator on the outside, but was something entirely different in reality.
This was also convenience furniture that allowed you to purchase ingredients within the base without having to go out shopping.
A kind of ingredient-limited vending machine? Delivery? Something like that.
However, monster material ingredients are not possible, only ordinary ingredients can be purchased.
‘That’s enough for now.’
We can get monster material ingredients separately later.
And various seasonings and processed food ingredients used in modern times could also be purchased as special items.
Thanks to this, Jin could make various and advanced modern dishes without restrictions.
It was worth submitting suggestions multiple times in a 5700-character review to finally get this function added. Who knew the snowball would roll like this though.
“Pork shoulder, bean sprouts, dried pollack strips, green onions, onions, and garlic, please.”
I took out the ingredients I ordered in a small voice and returned to the kitchen.
The reason I ordered bean sprouts and dried pollack strips together was to make a soup to accompany the Jeyuk-bokkeum.
Serving just Jeyuk-bokkeum alone would be unbalanced, and for Korean food, it feels complete when there’s soup alongside it.
When you’re enjoying the Jeyuk-bokkeum and take a spoonful of soup, it cleanses the greasiness and refreshes your palate, doesn’t it?
You can think of it as Korean food pairing.
‘Since Jeyuk-bokkeum is a meat dish with a strong flavor, a light and clean style of soup would be better than an equally strong and greasy soup.’
Overlapping the same style doesn’t pair well.
Anyway, now that I’ve gathered all the ingredients, it’s time to prepare them.
First, the dried pollack strips.
Chop chop
I soak the dried pollack strips, cut into bite-sized pieces, in water for a while to soften them slightly.
It’s fine to put them in and boil right away, but there’s a slight difference, and since it’s not much trouble, it’s better to do it.
“What kind of ingredient is that? It looks very unusual, is it tree bark perhaps?”
At that moment, Kyle, who had been watching, expressed his curiosity.
It seems he was done being surprised by the air conditioner and was now looking at the dried pollack strips.
Inwardly smiling at the guest’s interested gaze, Jin immediately corrected to avoid misunderstanding.
“This is called dried pollack strips. It’s a fish called pollack that’s dried and shredded.”
“Wow, this is fish? I’ve never seen that fish before.”
It makes sense, as the dungeon city is quite far inland from the coast.
The river flowing around the city isn’t particularly good for catching fish either.
You can get fish from certain levels of the dungeon, but if you can get there, it’s more profitable to bring back loot instead of fish, so it’s still rare to see.
“So this is like fish jerky then?”
“Hmm, you could say that.”
Actually, if we’re being precise, there’s something called fish jerky, but there’s no need to state facts without empathy like T.
It’s not really wrong to say that, anyway.
“Adventurers often put hard jerky in soup to soften it or use it for broth, right? It’s used in the same way. Though the taste is different, of course.”
“Ah~”
When given a comparison he could easily relate to, Kyle seemed to feel more familiar with the unfamiliar ingredient.
While the dried pollack strips are soaking, I wash and prepare vegetables like bean sprouts and onions, and I should also make the seasoning for the Jeyuk-bokkeum.
I mix soy sauce, minced garlic, pepper, sugar, cooking wine, and sesame oil in a bowl according to the proportions.
I’m not using red pepper powder or gochujang.
When you think of Jeyuk-bokkeum, you naturally think of red seasoning with gochujang, but we shouldn’t forget that this is a medieval fantasy world.
The threshold for spiciness will naturally be lower than in modern Korea.
‘There’s a possibility that Kyle can handle spicy food well, but if our standards of spiciness are different, it could lead to a disaster.’
You know, when Koreans ask “Is it spicy?”, they’re asking if it’s going to torture their tongue and throat and set their stomach on fire.
But foreigners literally ask if the spicy component itself is present, don’t they?
What if Kyle thinks “I can handle it if there’s just a bit of spiciness” but Jin misunderstands it as “Oh ho, very well, I’ll thoroughly ravage you as you wish”?
It would be like becoming a terrorist who feeds biochemical weapons after offering to serve a meal.
And testing that standard by feeding something spicy on an empty stomach and upsetting his stomach… Is there really a need to do that right now?
Therefore, I boldly remove the red pepper powder and gochujang, and go for soy sauce Jeyuk-bokkeum.
Instead, I’ll add oyster sauce to provide the umami and saltiness that’s missing without the gochujang.
Now that the seasoning is done, next is the meat.
Jin placed the pork shoulder on the cutting board.
‘Shoulder is definitely the best for Jeyuk-bokkeum.’
Some people use pork leg, but Jin was of the school that preferred shoulder, which has some fat attached for a rich flavor and is more tender. Pork belly is a bit too much.
I slice the shoulder into appropriate size and thickness for Jeyuk-bokkeum. About 3mm should do.
Ah, perhaps due to the skill’s correction, the knife feels very light and cuts smoothly without resistance.
It’s quite fascinating to feel like I’m cutting tofu when I’m clearly cutting meat.
All preparations for the meat are done.
Now it’s time for the actual cooking.
The soup will boil on its own once it’s on the fire, so it’s better to start it first to save time.
I drain the soaked dried pollack strips, squeeze out the excess water slightly, put them in a suitable pot, drizzle a bit of perilla oil, and stir-fry on low heat.
This will add a savory flavor and aroma and help eliminate the unique fishy smell of dried pollack.
There’s no need to fry it too crisp; it’s enough when the moisture is about to disappear.
Once it’s fried, I pour in water and turn up the heat to boil it.
‘Now I’ll leave the soup for a while.’
I start on the main dish, Jeyuk-bokkeum.
I heat the pan and add the sliced meat.
Sizzle sizzle-
Without adding the seasoning yet, I sprinkle a bit of pepper and first brown the surface of the meat to extract the pork fat that the meat itself contains.
Gulp-
Kyle unconsciously swallowed his saliva.
The sound of sizzling oil and the smell of cooking meat were delivering a one-two punch to Kyle’s empty stomach.
Kyle thought this might be enough as it is, but of course, Jin had no intention of serving just pan-fried meat.
Jeyuk-bokkeum must be perfect as Jeyuk-bokkeum!
‘Now that the Maillard reaction has occurred sufficiently on the meat surface and the meat fat has been extracted.’
I pour in the seasoning I prepared earlier.
Tssss!
As the pork fat, Maillard reaction, and seasoning met and reacted, another violent aroma burst forth.
“It smells delicious…”
Kyle was now half-standing from his chair, leaning in and sniffing with his nose.
Although it was an ominous black sauce he had never seen before, the sweet and savory smell he had never experienced before was enough to instantly dispel such ominousness.
This wasn’t the end.
In the now boiling pot, I add bean sprouts and garlic and salt to adjust the taste.
In the pan, I add the sliced onions and shake it back and forth.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
As the sufficiently heated pan shook, the oil met the fire, creating intense pillars of flame.
“Wow!”
An exclamation involuntarily escaped Kyle’s mouth.
Every time the pan shook quickly back and forth, the waves of meat dish and the rising flames had a strange magic that caught the eye, just like the magic of wizards.
Seeing Kyle watching with shining eyes, a satisfied smile also bloomed on Jin’s face.
A customer’s positive reaction always gives a sense of fulfillment.
Especially if it’s a pure reaction from a customer seeing this for the first time, like Kyle.
This is why old hands can’t resist newbies.
“I’ll be finishing up now.”
If you cook it too long, the meat will dry out and become tough, or the seasoning will burn.
Now is just the right timing when the seasoning has reduced appropriately and the onions are still crisp before becoming completely mushy.
I add the long-sliced green onions and stir-fry them, and as soon as they wilt slightly, I immediately take it out and put it on a plate.
Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top as if carelessly, and the soy sauce Jeyuk-bokkeum is complete.
Right after, I sprinkle thinly sliced green onions and ground pepper into the milky white dried pollack and bean sprout soup.
The green onions add a refreshing taste to the soup along with the bean sprouts, and the pepper eliminates any remaining fishiness while adding a slight spiciness, completing the dried pollack and bean sprout soup as well.
Finally, I fill a bowl to the brim with the leftover rice.
“Thank you for waiting. Your Jeyuk-bokkeum set is ready!”
As I set the completed Jeyuk-bokkeum set in front of Kyle, a message popped up.
[Cooking complete.]
[Soy Sauce Jeyuk-bokkeum Set]
[Permanently increases Strength +2 upon first consumption]
[Increases Health +5 for 15 hours upon consumption]
Hmm, seeing that additional effects have been added, it seems the system acknowledges that it was made properly.
But as I said earlier, these are just additional issues when it comes to cooking.
“Would you like to try it now?”
What’s important is the customer’s evaluation.
Now it was time to hear the real review.