132 — Camping (2)

That’s why adding a bit more originality can be done with curry powder. If you want truly original curry, you should blend spices from scratch to make curry powder.

For a simple camping trip, there’s no need for that.

First, pour oil into the pan and sauté the onions. I prefer to finely chop the onions for the curry and sauté them until they turn slightly brown. This makes the onions smell really good.

The smell is better than when grilling meat, almost like grilling meat, and it stimulates the appetite.

At this point, Elena comes in to help.

To make cooking a bit faster.

“Ms. Elena, could you peel and chop these?”

“Really?”

Then Elena, who had been quietly watching me, smiled brightly and seemed happy.

The one being asked for help is happier?

Elena stood there looking like she couldn’t wait to help, and she eagerly started prepping the ingredients.

Mother Teresa?

Saint Mary?

Is this elf a goddess?

So I sautéed the onions, and she peeled the vegetables.

The cooking preparations continued. And to the sautéed onions, I added the vegetables Elena had prepped. These are known as carrots and potatoes in Korea.

Unlike Elena, the two dragons had no interest in helping and jumped into the water. And they started playing in the water.

Their water play was so aggressive that I worried the sweetfish might get hurt, but I confirmed that the fish would hide underground in the lake in such cases, so it should be fine.

“Can you hold your breath better than me?”

“Are you an idiot? I can do it for thousands of years.”

“Then it’s a thousands-year contest!”

The scale is huge.

I continued cooking, trying hard to resist interjecting in the dragons’ conversation.

If you add meat, it becomes a bit more savory, but it’s not a problem if you don’t.

Once it’s sautéed enough, add water. Stir a bit more to cook the potatoes, then add the curry powder according to the amount.

From now on, you need to stir. Stir and stir so the powder dissolves well in the water.

Eventually, you’ll have yellow curry.

The delicious smell of curry wafted into my nose. Most people would agree on how good this smell is.

Of course, except for those who dislike curry.

But my Korean-style curry doesn’t end here.

So far, it’s just ordinary curry, but with a simple method, you can subtly make it extraordinary.

There’s a trick to adding a deep flavor to curry very simply.

If you add yogurt, it tastes like yogurt curry. It adds a tangy sourness to the curry.

Yogurt curry is a type of curry. If you want to taste something similar with store-bought curry, I recommend it. Of course, it’s not exactly the same.

If you add milk, the color of the curry becomes much lighter, and the taste becomes incredibly smooth. It may seem like milk doesn’t go well with curry, but it’s actually a very good combination.

Curry sold in Korea often has an aftertaste that’s not very refined. It tastes a bit cheap, if you will. Compared to curry from specialty shops, mass-produced curry shows its limitations.

By simply adding easily available ingredients to such uniform curry, you can easily make it taste more refined. Curry is truly an amazing dish that absorbs these ingredients to create new flavors.

That’s why it’s also a favorite dish.

It’s not just milk or yogurt. There are many other options.

Tomato ketchup also enhances the sour and sweet flavors of the curry.

Coffee is another ingredient that enhances the crucial umami flavor of curry.

Add bitter coffee without sugar or creamer. This significantly increases the umami.

There’s another method. And this is actually my favorite method. My secret ingredient is chocolate.

The more cocoa the chocolate contains, the better.

When you add chopped chocolate to the curry, the yellow color becomes very deep. And the flavor also becomes richer.

This doesn’t make the curry taste like chocolate. The curry just absorbs the chocolate and becomes more refined.

Someone who doesn’t know might find adding chocolate to food strange or be very surprised.

But when these seemingly outlandish ingredients meet curry, they enhance the umami and make the curry flavor richer and more sophisticated.

Moreover, if you add chocolate and ketchup together, you can achieve a taste similar to curry from a specialty shop. Eating it with naan makes it feel even more similar.

There’s a definite difference compared to adding no ingredients.

It’s incomparable.

“Rurin, Sereina! Come out! Time to eat.”

The two dragons, who were competing to see who could hold their breath underwater for thousands of years, crawled out of the lake at the sound of food.

I placed a hot plate of curry in front of them.

“What is this? I’ve never seen this food before.”

“It’s called curry.”

“Curry?”

I served the chocolate-added curry to Rurin, Sereina, and Elena.

And mine is separate.

“Hmm? Well, I don’t like the color, but it tastes good.”

“It’s delicious.”

“It does taste good. I’m really glad we’re not eating some strange lunchbox.”

They all started eating the curry while talking. Water dripped from Rurin and Sereina’s bodies.

“You, eating while soaked is delicious too.”

“There’s no way. Of course, after playing in the water, eating makes you feel more tired and makes it taste better…but being wet is still a problem.”

I rummaged through the luggage, took out a towel, and began drying Rurin’s hair.

“Ms. Elena, please dry Sereina too.”

“Yes!”

Elena quickly ran to me, took an extra towel, and approached Sereina.

“You! Eating is so chaotic!”

“Water dripping is more chaotic. You can’t catch a cold, so you have to dry your hair properly.”

“A cold? It would be better if I caught it.”

Removing the water from Rurin’s hair, I wrapped a large towel around her shoulders.

Elena also wiped Sereina’s hair with a gentle touch, like taking care of a baby. Sereina remained calm.

No, it was natural.

Of course, the fact that she was arrogantly receiving the elf’s service was a bit of a problem.

Rather, the scene of the blonde elf wiping the red-haired beauty’s hair was dazzling. The bright blonde and red hair shone brilliantly. It was undeniably a fascinating scene.

After the ridiculous scene of stopping to eat and drying hair ended, we resumed eating.

My dish is a special dish.

Rurin, Sereina, and Elena had chocolate curry, but mine was a bit more special.

“You, why is yours red?”

“Indeed.”

My curry has none other than Buldak Bokkeummyun sauce. It’s a special spicy version.

Since it’s camping and I’m the one eating it, there’s no problem using pre-made sauce, right?

This curry, with its deep chicken soup flavor and burning spiciness, is similar to the spicy curry sold at specialty shops.

The spiciness that makes your tongue tingle permeates every corner of your body.

“I want to try it too!”

Before I could even stop her, Rurin fearlessly approached with her spoon.

“Wait…!”

“Yum!”

And before I could warn her, the spoon was already in Rurin’s mouth.

And five seconds later.

It’s needless to say that I struggled for a long time to prevent her from breathing fire into the lake.

---

After eating, we took a short break.

A debate broke out over washing the piled-up dishes, tidying up, and building the cabin.

Normally, I would just do it.

But since we were camping, I wanted to follow the rules of camping. In other words, divide the tasks by playing a game to determine the order.

My heart fluttered slightly at the situation I’ve never experienced before. It’s like a childhood dream coming true in this way.

Back then, I dreamed of doing this with same-gender friends.

For some reason, now it’s all the opposite gender. Whether that’s better or not is another matter.

Well, anyway, for that reason, it’s a game.

Among the many games, I chose a board game.

I had made a bet with Rurin with Jenga before. It was summoned along with the Jenga. It’s the national board game called BuruO-bul.

When I was young, almost everyone had played it.

And a few hours later.

Rurin and Sereina began to grin wickedly in front of the BuruO-bul.

“Ohoho.”

“Hehehe.”

Rurin’s original image is pure, but when she smiles like a devil, that expression is incredibly cute.

The gap created by a mischievous smile on a pure face.

The fact that the gap makes her more attractive is a secret. A secret.

It’s also cheating.

It could be said to be one of my favorite expressions of Rurin.

So I don’t dislike her smiling like that. But when Rurin smiles like that, she’s usually up to something ridiculous.

Of course, Sereina too.

Sereina always had a face that suited a mischievous expression very well.

Anyway, both of them had odd expressions with the corners of their mouths reaching their ears. Faces immersed in their desires.

In a word, they are really incorrigible.

“What are you laughing about? How much did you change?”

“We didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t do anything either?”

Rurin and Sereina looked at me simultaneously. Both of them filled their eyes with the word ‘unfair’ and looked up roundly. Their expressions saying they didn’t know what I was talking about were extremely pretentious.

But it’s fascinating to see the two dragons getting along so well like this, for the first time in a long while.

No, it’s not even that long, it’s actually the first time.

In a situation that usually never happens, I couldn’t help but chuckle. I’m sure they did something.

These, just for a trivial bet where the first place gets freedom, the second place does the dishes, and the last place does the cleanup and makes the bed, what on earth are they trying to do?

There’s a reason these two are laughing like this.

We started the game normally, but Sereina said it wasn’t fun or immersive since she didn’t know any of the cities, and wickedly suggested she’d change things up a bit. That was the beginning of everything.

Then the two dragons took the BuruO-bul and actually changed various things.

That’s the current situation.

“Suspicious.”

“Not suspicious. I’m just the same as usual.”

Rurin sat close to me, nodding vigorously.

The more she does that, I have only one thought.

“You’re being ridiculous.”

Anyone can see it’s a weird face.

“Anyway, we can’t decide with such a dubious object. It’s disadvantageous to me.”

When I answered with a shrug, the two dragons shouted simultaneously.

“That can’t be!”

Sereina had a face saying it wasn’t fun, and Rurin, not knowing what was going on, shook her head vigorously and expressed her strong stance.

“Yes, and no matter what we changed, we didn’t change the rules of the game, so rolling the dice and proceeding with the game is fair!”

“That’s right. It’s true!”