Side Story 36. Hangzhou, Mancheon Inn (2)

What the man proposed to the innkeeper was a cooking match.

“Yuk Man-cheon, proprietor of Mancheon Inn. Runner-up in the Hangzhou cooking competition thirty years ago. Did you think I wouldn’t know that?”
“Huh, huhuhu! What nonsense.”

The “Mancheon” in Mancheon Inn came from the innkeeper’s own name.
Even after the man exposed his illustrious past, the innkeeper only ground his teeth.

“I don’t know where you picked that up, but there were only five participants in that competition, me included. What’s the point of being runner-up out of five?”
“…….”

It seemed even the man had not known that, because he looked briefly thrown off.
But his momentum only faltered for a moment.

“That doesn’t matter either way. The fact remains that these noodles are dreadful. And I cannot pay for dreadful food.”
“I’m calling the constables!”
“Let’s not call the constables.”

The man said that shamelessly.
But the innkeeper did not actually call the constables.
First, with not even a server around, he could not leave the inn unattended.
Second, if he called the constables over something worth only three coppers, he would lose more money to extortion than the matter was worth.

While the innkeeper fumed, the man kept pressing for a cooking contest.
The trio watching it inwardly hoped for it, but they had not thought the contest would really happen.

“What are you hesitating for? As you said, it’s only three coppers. But if you win, I’ll give you this.”

And what he held out, astonishingly enough, was one nyang of silver.
The innkeeper’s eyes wavered.

“There are customers here, so what are you….”
“Hey, innkeeper. Weren’t you somebody in your day!”

But the onlooking customers got excited and egged the contest on.

“He looks like some drifter from who-knows-where. Go on and show him your skill.”
“Yeah, I think your noodles are tasty, innkeeper!”

The mood began to shift in an odd direction.
The trio, who still had not gotten their noodles, were hungry, but the situation rolled on beyond their control.

“Damn it!”

The innkeeper took the towel in his hand, wrapped it around his head like a bandanna, and tied it tight.

“Fine. Let’s do it.”
“Ooooooh!”

Cheers burst out.
In the end, the contest was on. The fewer-than-ten customers became the audience.

“Good. Time limit, half an hour. The judges will be you and me.”
“What? How am I supposed to trust your judgment!”

At that, the man barked out,

“How dare you!”

His voice rang through the inn.
It carried unmistakable internal energy. The trio realized the man was someone trained in martial arts.
The man growled at the old innkeeper, who had shrunk back in surprise.

“I am Ma Bi-hong! I never make light of the taste of food. A man like you would do that instead.”

The man, introducing himself as Ma Bi-hong, pointed at the trio.

“Right, we’ll use those three as additional judges.”

The three, suddenly singled out, flinched in surprise.
Only then did the innkeeper seem to remember they were there, and he looked embarrassed.

“Honored guests, would you really go along with what this fellow says? You came here to eat, so I feel terrible about this.”
“We don’t mind.”

Baek Sang-ye smiled gently and nodded.

“We’ll judge it fairly.”

There was no way they could let something this interesting pass by.

“Yuk Man-cheon. What dish are you making?”
“Didn’t you hear me say I don’t have ingredients? Noodles and stir-fried vegetables, obviously.”
“You won’t win a contest with mere noodles like that.”
“Don’t worry. They’re special noodles and special stir-fried vegetables!”
“Good!”

If the inn had no ingredients, then what did Ma Bi-hong intend to cook with?
That answer was revealed when Ma Bi-hong pulled out a wooden box he had kept under his table.

Kwaang!

“I…”

The box shook ominously.
What he pulled from the box was a live carp as thick as a forearm, still flapping.

“Hangzhou’s famous West Lake Vinegar Fish!”
“Goddamn it!”

The old innkeeper gaped, dumbfounded.

Ma Bi-hong.
The strange man who had appeared with a strip of white cloth tied around his forearm.
He had picked a quarrel with the innkeeper in a way that was all but forced.
The whole thing looked like a joke, but he was clearly serious.

“Isn’t that carp way more expensive than a bowl of noodles and stir-fried vegetables put together?”
“Three coppers? Of course. A grass carp that size would cost more than the one nyang of silver that man put up.”

One nyang of silver for a single fish was an exorbitant price.
But Baek Sang-ye’s eye was accurate.
The fish Ma Bi-hong had pulled out was a grass carp.
It was a common fish, but one that was large and thick with flesh could really cost a whole nyang of silver.
And because it had to be kept alive in water to get rid of the muddy smell freshwater fish carried, it was also troublesome to handle.
The customers who had been eating crowded toward the kitchen to watch.

“The kitchen is kept fairly clean.”
“Of course.”

Ma Bi-hong grinned and set the fish on the chopping board.

Peok!

He struck the fish at the neck, killing it instantly, then scaled it.
He stripped away the shimmering iridescent scales in one go and dressed the fish on the cleaned cutting board.

“Hoh! His knife work looks as if it’s possessed by a god.”

As someone had shouted, it truly looked that way. The knife did not even seem that sharp, yet when it slid smoothly along the belly, the fish opened cleanly to either side.
After cleaning out the innards, he rinsed it in clean water and removed the bones.
His hands moved so fast they were almost impossible to follow.

“If you don’t remove the bones properly from a fish that large, it’s a major point deduction.”
“Is he doing it well?”

At Tsering’s question, Baek Sang-ye shrugged and said they would only know once they tasted it.
Then he began poaching the fish in water seasoned with ginger, aromatic vegetables, and salt.
All of that happened in the blink of an eye.
And what had the innkeeper been doing during all that time? At best, slicing vegetables.

“Heh.”

Ma Bi-hong’s mocking laugh.
And the disappointed sighs of the regulars who had been secretly rooting for the innkeeper.

“Hah, look at him showing off.”

The old man’s knife work was not particularly impressive.
It seemed less because his skill was lacking and more because age and years of drinking had made his hands tremble.

The man did not poach the fish for long.
He took it out of the pot before the innkeeper had even finished prepping the vegetables.

“Won’t it be undercooked like that?”
“He blanched it to get rid of the odor. He’s doing it properly. The actual cooking will be with oil.”

Baek Sang-ye’s commentary was sharp.
Everyone in the room listened closely to what Baek Sang-ye said.

“See? Here it comes.”

The man set the iron pot he had been carrying on his back over the fire.
Then he laid the blanched fish on it, scored it with a knife, and scattered finely chopped aromatic vegetables over the flesh.

“With oil? Is he frying it or stir-frying it?”
“No. He’s pouring it.”

Ma Bi-hong ladled oil from the deep pot already heating over the fire and poured it over the fish.

Sizzle—

The oil sizzled the aromatic vegetables, and the resulting fragrant oil cooked the fish in its aroma.
At once, an extraordinary fragrance spread through the air.
At that rich and fragrant smell, everyone’s expressions softened.

“Khk!”

The innkeeper, growing anxious, furiously stir-fried his vegetables.
His skill in tossing the wok as he stir-fried was decent enough, but in the end it was still just an ordinary stir-fried vegetable dish.

“Mm, the quality of the fish is good.”

After pouring oil over the fish several times to cook it through, the man transferred it to a plate.
Then he poured water straight into the same pot that still held the fragrant oil and began to boil it.

“With grass carp, the sweet-sour sauce is what matters most. That’s why I use a special vinegar. It’s vinegar made by fermenting and aging rice.”

As costly sugar, dark soy sauce, and vinegar went into the boiling water, a sharp tangy aroma spread out.
It was the kind of scent that made saliva flood the mouth on its own.
He added starch water to thicken the sauce, then poured the rich, almost broth-like sauce over the fish.

Then he banged the empty pot with a ladle.

“West Lake Vinegar Fish, complete!”

It felt as though they had just watched a play.
People applauded the process, which had flowed as smoothly as water.

“Uh, the noodles and stir-fried vegetables are done too….”

Fortunately, the innkeeper finished his dishes as well.
But the applause for him was pathetically sparse by comparison.
A refined dish like West Lake Vinegar Fish and a simple stir-fried vegetable dish were never going to compare.

“Huhu, go on, have a taste!”

Ma Bi-hong was the first to finish his dish.
He handed over the chopsticks with a confident look.
The innkeeper grumbled, but he still took the chopsticks.
When he parted the brownish sauce colored by vinegar, the snow-white flesh of the fish was revealed.
It had been cooked so perfectly and so tenderly that the flesh came apart with ease.
He put the steaming piece of fish into his mouth.

The innkeeper’s wrinkled eyes flew wide open.
He froze with the chopsticks still in his mouth.
He even began to tremble.

“Hmm, hmmm…!”

He swallowed the food in his mouth with an incomprehensible groan.
Even then, he smacked his lips repeatedly.
It was as though the fish flesh had melted away the instant it entered his mouth.

Ma Bi-hong sneered.

“Well? Isn’t it incomparably more delicious than your cooking?”

Everyone swallowed dryly and waited for the innkeeper’s answer.
The innkeeper fidgeted, then squeezed his eyes shut and said,

“I-I think my noodles taste better.”
“Ha!”

It was an obvious lie to anyone watching.
Ma Bi-hong flew into a rage.

“So you’ll sell your soul for one nyang of silver, Yuk Man-cheon!”

It sounded like a beast growling.

“You three over there, hurry up and taste it!”

The innkeeper suddenly looked stricken.
No matter what judgment he gave, there were still three more judges present.
The trio picked up their chopsticks as though they had been waiting for this.
The very dish Baek Sang-ye had been longing for, West Lake Vinegar Fish, was here before them.

And by Baek Sang-ye’s own estimate, that level of cooking skill surpassed even the chefs of high-class restaurants.
Tsering, brimming with anticipation, put a piece of fish into her mouth.

“Mmmmmm!”

It really was the sort of taste that made one’s eyes snap open.
When one thought of steamed fish, one imagined a mild, delicate taste, but West Lake Vinegar Fish was not like that.
The sweet-and-sour sauce burst across the tongue in a sharp wave.
After that rush of stimulation, what remained was the soft richness of the flesh.
The fish flesh, infused with a gentle richness of oil, carried the fragrance drawn out from the aromatic vegetables.

Without realizing it, Tsering grabbed her own cheeks and broke into a radiant smile.
That was simply the sort of reaction that came naturally when one ate truly delicious food.

That said, the reactions of the other two were a little drier.

“Oh my, this is good.”
“It’s good.”

Baek Sang-ye had already tasted the finest delicacies under heaven, and Cheongho had always been reserved by nature.
Even so, it was true that the West Lake Vinegar Fish was excellent.

“At this level, he’s on par with the top chefs of Beijing.”

Ma Bi-hong flinched at Baek Sang-ye’s words.
Then he cleared his throat and pointed at Yuk Man-cheon.

“Are you still going to tell such disgusting lies? That my food is lacking?”
“……Ugh.”
“Answer me!”

Yuk Man-cheon dropped heavily to the ground.

“I-I lost.”
“Hahahat!”

Ma Bi-hong burst into triumphant laughter.
He had declared his victory.

“I, Ma Bi-hong, have won once again!”

It was just as he said that and reached to untie the white cloth around his forearm.

“Wait.”

The quiet Cheongho raised an objection.

“Shouldn’t we taste that side’s dish too?”

Only then did the audience realize it too.
No one had yet tasted Yuk Man-cheon’s food.
But surely it was only ordinary noodles and stir-fried vegetables.

Cheongho was the first to taste the noodles and stir-fried vegetables.
Only after crunching and swallowing the vegetables did he speak quietly.

“This tastes about as good too.”
“What nonsense!”

At Cheongho’s words, Ma Bi-hong lost his composure.
He snorted, then picked up his chopsticks.
And the moment he put the noodles into his mouth without much expectation,

“……!”

His eyes snapped wide open.

Clatter.

The sound of chopsticks falling to the floor shattered the silence.