Side Story 50. Baek Sang-ye Vs. Cheongho (3)

“Focus, focus!”

Tsering said that as she patted Baek Sang-ye on the back.
Only then did Baek Sang-ye snap back to her senses.
What was she going to do by fearing the Eastern Depot Eunuch? Cover her face and run away from here?
That was not something she could do.

“Water, boil water!”
“Yes!”

Tsering quickly filled a pot with water and placed it on the burner.
And Baek Sang-ye also began moving in earnest.
The theme of this match was ‘chicken dishes.’
Naturally, the organizers had prepared several dressed chickens.
She went to where the chickens were piled up and pondered for a moment.
They were not all one kind of chicken.
Even though all the feathers had been removed, the colors of the fat and skin differed. Perhaps their ages were different too, because even their sizes varied.
She had to choose the chicken suitable for her dish from among them.

Baek Sang-ye didn’t ponder for long.
She didn’t need a precious chicken. Nor did she need a large one good for making broth.

‘The color, I have to look at the color.’

A chicken with an appetizing yellow hue had thick skin and some age to it.
Such chickens had good meaty flavor, but were a little tough.
Those were the chickens she chose.

“The white-side contestant has an excellent eye! She has chosen Shanxi’s Jinhua chicken!”

Baek Sang-ye flinched in surprise and looked around.
A man in flashy clothes was commentating on Baek Sang-ye’s actions.

“A good chef must have the eye to recognize good ingredients. Impressive, despite how young she is!”

The Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild had even prepared a commentator for the competition.
With his naturally powerful voice, the commentator stirred up the audience’s excitement.

Baek Sang-ye was about to quickly take the chicken away when she looked back.
Cheongho was also choosing a chicken.
And he did something different from what Baek Sang-ye had expected. He chose the smallest and youngest chicken.

“Oh my, the red-side contestant! The red-side contestant has chosen a young broiler. A young one lacks flavor though!”

And cheers burst from the audience.
To draw out such loud cheers over choosing a chicken, he was surely a born commentator.

Baek Sang-ye looked at Cheongho with suspicious eyes.
If it was a chicken dish, one had to bring out the flavor of the chicken.
A chicken like that had tender meat, but its skin was thin and it did not have much flavor.

‘I should worry about myself.’

Baek Sang-ye quickly shook her head and returned to the cutting board.
After placing the chicken on the cutting board, she brought down her knife without hesitation.

Thunk! Thunk!

It was fortunate for Baek Sang-ye that chicken had been chosen as the theme.
She didn’t know about other meats, but she had learned enough about preparing chicken.
The large chicken placed on the cutting board began to be broken down in an instant.
She discarded the neck, removed the innards, and washed the cavity clean.
The parts where too much fat had gathered could give off a gamey smell, so she removed and cleaned them.

“Her knife skills are excellent!”

It was just as the commentator said.
Baek Sang-ye prepared the chicken as if possessed.
Then Tsering informed her that the water was boiling.

“Add ginger, scallions, pepper, and turmeric!”

She put those ingredients into the large pot, then added the chicken she had prepared and cut into suitable pieces.
Boiling it this way could remove most of the chicken’s off smell.
But what Baek Sang-ye had chosen was a fully grown Jinhua chicken.
If she boiled it only until before the meat turned tough, the smell might not be completely removed.
But Baek Sang-ye had prepared a countermeasure for that as well.

“Should I prepare the seasoning?”
“Yes. I’ll heat the chili oil, so prepare the other ingredients.”
“Yes!”

Tsering was performing her role as assistant splendidly.
There was no sign at all of the foolish figure who had set a pot on fire during the preliminary round.
She went back to the cutting board and prepared the ingredients needed for the seasoning.
She sliced scallions and minced garlic.
She was not especially fast, but her cuts were neat.

After confirming that, Baek Sang-ye heated the chili oil.
When she heated the chili oil with a little clove and star anise added, a spicy fragrance spread around them.

“What dish could that possibly be? The smell is incredible. My mouth is watering on its own.”

At the commentator’s words, Baek Sang-ye smiled faintly.

“Ah.”

The chicken should have been boiled to the proper point now.
Baek Sang-ye quickly took the chicken out of the pot.
As it boiled, blood and impurities had come out as foam. Without this process, it would certainly have had an unpleasant smell.
Then Baek Sang-ye gave a very unusual order.

“Tsering, ice water!”
“Yes!”

Tsering ran like an arrow and brought the ice water.
They had gone through quite a bit of trouble to obtain ice in the warm weather.
And surprisingly, Baek Sang-ye dropped the carefully boiled chicken into that ice water.

“Ah!”

The commentator exclaimed in admiration.
He truly had enough knowledge to serve as commentator for the Number One Cooking Competition Under Heaven.

“Mouthwatering Chicken! It is Mouthwatering Chicken!”

He had recognized that the dish Baek Sang-ye was making was a Sichuan dish called Mouthwatering Chicken (口水鷄).
Mouthwatering Chicken, just as the name suggested, was a chilled chicken dish that made one’s mouth water.
Chicken cooked tenderly while preserving its juices.
A delicacy eaten together with spicy chili oil seasoning, cucumber, shredded scallions, cilantro, and the like.
That sour, sweet, salty, and spicy dish was being prepared by Baek Sang-ye’s hands.

“But this isn’t the end yet.”

But Baek Sang-ye was not satisfied with ordinary Mouthwatering Chicken.
Wasn’t it a little lacking to use as a decisive move in the competition?
When she gestured, the servants of the Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild began bringing what she had prepared in advance.

“T-the white side has prepared charcoal fire!”

It was charcoal heated bright red.
She placed an iron plate over the brazier containing the charcoal, then put the chicken she had worked so hard to chill on top of it.
Moisture and fat from the chicken fell onto the charcoal, and white smoke billowed up.

“She is grilling the meat she worked so hard to chill over charcoal again! What could she be thinking?”

She quickly seared the skin and meat over the strong fire.
Then Baek Sang-ye put it back into ice water to chill, and repeated the process of grilling it again.

Even the commentator could not recognize what Baek Sang-ye was doing.
There were few among the audience who knew this cooking method.
A brief silence passed, then one person in the VIP seats shouted.

“It is Snowy Night Grilling!”

It was none other than the Eastern Depot Eunuch.
Perhaps excited by Baek Sang-ye’s cooking method, he began rambling an explanation all on his own.

“It is called Snowy Night Grilling because it is like grilling meat on a snowy night. To think I would see here the dish that Emperor Taizu of Song is said to have enjoyed!”

Snowy Night Grilling.
It was a cooking method in which meat was cooked, chilled, then cooked again repeatedly.
Doing so gave it a unique texture difficult to experience anywhere else.
Baek Sang-ye had combined Snowy Night Grilling with Mouthwatering Chicken.
She would only need to repeat this two more times.
At that point, something unexpected happened.

“Then!! The mid-cooking inspection will now begin! Judges and honored guests may directly inspect the cooking process!”

Suddenly, those seated in the VIP seats began walking out.
Above all, the Eastern Depot Eunuch was approaching.
He seemed to show great interest in Snowy Night Grilling.
‘That damn eunuch bastard, does he come all the way here because he only cares about food instead of doing his job!’
Baek Sang-ye was furious and flustered, not knowing what to do.
Her face, she had to cover her face.
As she flustered about, Baek Sang-ye did something absurd without realizing it.

She rubbed the charcoal soot on her hand across her face.
Tsering was greatly startled.

“Aaak! What are you doing!”
“I-it was a mistake! My face is black now, right?”
“Not that!”

But Tsering pointed not at Baek Sang-ye, but at the chicken.

“Aaah!”

The meat had been exposed to the strong heat for too long.
The skin had shriveled, and the meat had burned slightly.
Baek Sang-ye quickly put the chicken back into the ice water.
Tsering burst out angrily.

“What is wrong with you today!”

Baek Sang-ye’s face turned pale.
Certainly, her conduct had been terribly scattered.
Tsering was surely just as serious as she was, if not more.

“I’ll remove the burned parts. Please prepare the seasoning.”
“Y-yes.”

Baek Sang-ye left the handling of the burned chicken to Tsering.
Guilt and relief washed over her at the same time.
Because the Eastern Depot Eunuch had focused on Tsering, who was salvaging the Snowy Night Grilling, instead of Baek Sang-ye.

Baek Sang-ye prepared the seasoning frantically.
She mixed chili oil, salt, dark soy sauce, and black vinegar to make a sour and salty seasoning.

Then she sliced cucumbers lightly salted in advance, cut cilantro into bite-sized pieces, and placed them in a bowl together with shredded scallions.
Fortunately, the mid-cooking inspection passed quickly.
She had to recover from this somehow.

Tsering had kindly sliced the chicken.
Baek Sang-ye divided it among several plates and poured the prepared chili oil seasoning over it.
She sprinkled minced peanuts over it to reinforce the nutty flavor and texture.

Deeeeng!

“Time is up! It is over!”

Her mind was in complete chaos.
The fortunate thing was that, somehow, she had completed the dish.

“Since the white side finished first, we will begin tasting the white side’s dish first!”

Baek Sang-ye had succeeded in completing the Mouthwatering Chicken first.
It was fortunate.
Eating the stimulating and spicy Mouthwatering Chicken first would be advantageous for Baek Sang-ye.
Baek Sang-ye glanced at the dish Cheongho’s side had made.

‘…What is that?’

Cheongho’s dish was something even she had never seen before.
Was there a chicken dish like that in the Central Plains?
He had made a strange dish last time too, so what had he made this time?
Was that also a dish Baek Yi-gang had taught him?

“Ohh, a combination of Mouthwatering Chicken and Snowy Night Grilling.”

The judges began evaluating the Mouthwatering Chicken.
They smelled the dish and also turned over the Mouthwatering Chicken with their chopsticks.

“Do we simply eat it as it is?”
“Please eat it together with the cilantro and shredded scallions.”

Baek Sang-ye altered her voice into a strange tone.
It was such a peculiar voice that even Tsering flinched and looked at her.

Then the judges began tasting the Mouthwatering Chicken.
The Eastern Depot Eunuch did the same.
He soaked the tender chicken thigh meat deeply in the spicy seasoning and put it into his mouth together with the fragrant herbs.

Crunch.

The shredded scallions, with their harsh bite removed, crunched crisply, and his teeth sank gently into the flesh.
Then the meat juices pushed out in a rush.
Mixed with the saltiness of the spicy seasoning, they filled his mouth completely.

And the aroma that rose as he breathed out.
The freshness of the aromatic vegetables, the meaty flavor of the chicken, and above all, the deep fragrance of charcoal fire!

“So that is why she attempted Snowy Night Grilling!”

She had not used the cooking method called Snowy Night Grilling simply for texture or to draw attention.
She had added the most important thing, aroma.

“It is delicious. No, excellent! This is the finest Mouthwatering Chicken I have ever tasted!”

Relief spread across Baek Sang-ye and Tsering’s faces.
The other honored guests also judged it delicious.

The only thing that bothered her was that Seok Sung had not taken a single bite.
He only observed the Mouthwatering Chicken and smelled it.
What in the world was he doing?

“My stomach is not well, so I don’t think I can eat anything today and only smelled it…”

What happened to what he had said earlier about loving food?
Baek Sang-ye and Tsering’s expressions stiffened with tension.
But what came from Seok Sung’s mouth was, unexpectedly, a favorable evaluation.

“Excellent. When you get as old as I am, you know without tasting it. You are an outstanding chef.”

He even smiled at Baek Sang-ye as he said it.
There had been mistakes and hardships, but it seemed she had done what she could.

Then what remained was Cheongho’s turn.
Jin Li-yeon and Cheongho personally brought over their chicken dish.

Unlike the chilled Mouthwatering Chicken, white steam rose from it in puffs.

“…What is this?”

The Eastern Depot Eunuch asked as if he had seen something strange.

“Is it fried? I have never seen anything like this before.”

Chicken legs wrapped in a golden fried coating.
That savory aroma stimulated the judges’ appetites.

They asked the name of the dish, but Cheongho kept hesitating.
This time too, he could not quite remember the dish’s name.

“…Chiking.”
“Chiking?”
“Garlic chiking.”
“What a strange name.”

And with ambiguous expressions, the judges bit into the chiking.¹