***
11:30 AM.
Right on time for opening, the door to Sunflower opened.
The waiting customers rushed in and took their seats. Then, as was their routine, they approached Mongchi and petted him as he curled up.
"Aww~ So cute."
"Mongchi. How do you get cuter every day?"
Mongchi turned his head with a chic expression.
But as if he was used to such flattery, he reluctantly turned his head back and stretched his mochi-like cheeks with both hands.
"Meow~!"
Mongchi was especially popular with female and young customers.
He had never acted cute, but maybe that was his charm? Anyway, the customers cheered even more at Mongchi's dignified and chic behavior.
The two female customers, who were a bit disappointed that their playtime with Mongchi was cut short, returned to their seats.
They didn't need to look at the menu, but they skimmed through it out of habit. Then, they noticed a new menu item that they hadn't seen before.
"They have new drinks?"
"Please try them. They're delicious. We have lemonade made from squeezing a whole fresh lemon, and grape ade made with plenty of grapes."
Eun-jeong explained with a sales smile that she had learned from Min-ju.
Eun-jeong was in charge of taking orders in the dining room, while Min-ju was in charge of making the ades and overseeing the entire dining room.
In the kitchen, Hae-jun was in charge of overall management, fried foods, and the meat and vegetable omelet rice, while the youngest, Kang-hoon, who was a former military cook, was in charge of washing dishes and other chores.
With the number of staff increased to five, they were able to divide the roles and work efficiently.
"Should we order one of each and share?"
"Of course we should try them. We'll have a glass of lemonade and grape ade. And for food, we'll have the pork cutlet and omelet rice."
"Please wait a moment."
Soon, a sumptuous table was set.
Freshly baked dinner rolls and warm soup. Pork cutlet with a savory aroma blooming with seaweed, and tangy ade to cut through the richness of the fried food.
First, they took pictures. Tasting always came after.
The women got up from their seats and took pictures of the food, trying to make them as emotional and pretty as possible.
Then, they shared the drinks they had ordered. The lemonade was refreshing, and the grape ade was sweet with a unique, subtle flavor.
"Wow~ This is delicious. It's refreshing."
"Mine is sweet with a hint of grape."
"Let's switch."
The two friends switched drinks and savored the taste again.
Indeed, the two drinks had completely different flavors.
'It's a success! They're responding well.'
Min-ju, who was watching the customers' reactions from the small, separate drink-making area in the corner of the dining room, smiled with satisfaction.
When one table ordered the drinks and enjoyed them, other tables that hadn't ordered them started to order them one after another.
"Min-ju. Three more lemonade and grape ade."
"Okay."
"Table 2, one more of each. And this one's a refill."
Min-ju's hands were busy.
She had bought 100 cans of 200ml plain soda water by sweeping the nearby mart, but the stock was quickly dwindling because all the customers were ordering drinks.
'I should tell oppa to get some soda water in bulk.'
For now, she was using the canned soda water that she had bought from the nearby mart, but in order to make a profit, she needed to use large-capacity soda water. That way, the tangy taste unique to the ade would be lacking, but she couldn't keep using expensive canned soda water.
That was the know-how that Minju had acquired in running a cafe.
***
"Don't you have pickles here?"
"I'm sorry, sir. We don't serve pickles separately."
Hae-jun, who was frying the pork cutlet, had his ears perked up towards the dining room.
Ever since he added drinks to the menu, he realized that he had been too indifferent to the customers' needs.
'Another customer looking for pickles.'
This was already the fifth one.
He thought he had served a generous amount of side dishes on the pork cutlet plate, but it seemed that it wasn't enough, judging from the fact that people were looking for pickles.
'I should be able to make pickles with the ingredients we're harvesting now, right?'
Hae-jun, who had placed the pork cutlet on a wire rack to drain, glanced around.
Dong-sik was focused on making omelet rice, and Kang-hoon was busy washing dishes.
He carefully opened the recipe book.
A book that appeared in the air with a brilliant light.
After flipping through a few pages, Hae-jun found the recipe he needed.
‘There are a lot.’
There was more than one pickle recipe.
From the sweet and sour cucumber pickles commonly found in pasta restaurants to pickles made with peppers similar to jalapeños and even lemons and cabbage.
‘You’re telling me these are all pickles?’
To put it simply, pickles were Western-style pickles made by pickling vegetables or fruits in vinegar.
A recipe created to preserve perishable food for a long time. Among them, the pickle that goes best with the fried dish tonkatsu was definitely the cucumber pickle.
*
<Homemade Pickles>
-Ingredients: Cucumbers, vinegar, sugar, salt, water
-Cooking instructions
1. Wash the cucumbers thoroughly and cut them into bite-sized pieces.
2. Sterilize a glass jar and put the ingredients in it.
3. Bring a mixture of water, vinegar, and sugar in a ratio of 2:1:1 to a boil, and pour it into the glass jar while it’s hot.
*
The cooking method was also simple.
Looking at the usage, it said that it could be made with various vegetables such as cabbage, other root vegetables, celery, and paprika.
In addition, it said that using a combination of spices such as mustard seeds, coriander, pepper, bay leaves, and cinnamon can create different flavors and aromas.
‘If I make it and put it in the aging cave, will it taste good?’
There were already many different foods in the aging cave that needed to be aged.
The cheese made by Chloe, the wine, vinegar, and bread yeast that Hae-jun pickled himself.
When aged in a cave, the taste and quality are far superior to those aged in a normal environment.
‘I’ll go make it as soon as business is over.’
.
.
.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“I did. Let’s take a break for now and prepare for dinner service at 5:30 PM.”
“Yes, boss.”
Normally, the day’s work would have ended with the end of lunch service, but since they had increased the number of staff, they decided to operate until dinner from today.
When their salaries were raised accordingly, Min-ju and Dong-sik were even happier.
Hae-jun, who had finished his meal in a hurry, went into his room, saying he was going to take a short break.
He locked the door, pushed open the closet, and opened the passage to the dimension.
Since he had about an hour and a half to spare until dinner service, he could spend 6 hours on the farm.
‘I need to hurry over there and make it.’
His steps quickened at the thought of making pickles.
Mr. Haas and the villagers he had hired were in the middle of harvesting salad vegetables, and among the vegetables were cucumbers, the main ingredient of pickles.
‘Cucumbers? Perfect timing.’
He washed the freshly harvested cucumbers thoroughly in the well, found the other ingredients, and headed to the cave where the vinegar was.
There was already someone in the cave.
“Chloe?”
“Hae-jun. What brings you here?”
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Chloe had been living on the goat farm and in the cave these days.
She took care of the goats and spent the rest of her time, except for milking them, immersed in cheese research here.
The cheese Chloe had produced so far was Chevre cheese. It’s a cheese made with fresh goat’s milk that isn’t aged like regular cheese, and it’s characterized by its fresh, rich flavor, moist texture, and tangy sourness.
Hae-jun took it and mixed it in small portions in salads.
Chloe, who had taken a liking to producing butter and cheese, had been engrossed in researching different types of cheese in addition to Chevre cheese. The first cheese she perfected was Mozzarella, and thanks to that, Hae-jun was able to make and sell cheese katsu.
“Me? I’m here to make some pickles.”
“Pickles?”
“Yeah. How’s your cheese research going?”
“I’ve made a lot of different ones. Do you want to see?”
Chloe brought out a round lump of cheese from the corner.
“Ugh! What is this?”
It had a sour smell, and it was the kind of cheese that was more like it had gone bad than fermented… not cheese.
“Ugh. Does it smell weird?”
“Uh. Isn’t it a failed product? It looks like it’s gone bad?”
“Failed product? How dare you. You’ll change your mind once you taste it.”
“What kind of cheese is it?”
“It’s blue cheese. It’s the smell from this blue mold, but the taste is amazing.”
Chloe proudly smiled and brought the cheese up to Hae-jun’s nose.
In an instant, the smell of an old man’s feet that hadn’t been washed in ten days hit his nostrils.
It was a strong smell that was closer to being unpleasant than pleasant.
It was like the shock of smelling dried pollock for the first time.
“Do you want to try it?”
“Ah, no. I’ll pass.”
“Tch! Just wait until you want to eat it later.”
“Haha. Will there ever be such a thing?”
I didn’t know at the time.
That the blue cheese Chloe made would be a first-class gorgonzola when baked into a pizza and dipped in honey.
“Huh! Tch! It’s crap! I’ll never give it to you even if you beg me.”
“Haha. Don’t be mad. Show me something else.”
I coaxed and appeased Chloe, who was very upset and looked at the other cheeses.
Just as she said, there were various types of cheese.
She was researching various cheeses, from camembert and cheddar, which are originally made from milk, to Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, which is often mistaken for parmesan cheese.
“I’m almost done with the recipe research. I can mass-produce other things besides mozzarella cheese.”
Chloe said with a confident smile.
‘Hmm… I wonder if I can challenge myself to a new dish with these?’
But that thought was fleeting.
For now, I need to make pickles first.
“Thank you. I’ll let you know if I need anything later. For the time being, make as much mozzarella cheese as you can.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ve already made a lot.”
“I’ll need twice as much as I’ve been taking from tomorrow.”
“No problem.”
“I’m counting on you.”
Chloe, who was done bragging about her cheese, stretched and went back to her quarters, saying she was tired.
Come to think of it, she said she had been cooped up in the cave for days, sleeping fitfully to observe the condition of the cheese.
After Chloe left, Hae-jun took out the vinegar he had left in the corner. He mixed water, vinegar, and sugar in a 2:1:1 ratio according to the recipe, and added pepper as a spice and boiled it vigorously. Since pepper was the only spice available, he decided to add only pepper for now to enhance the flavor.
In the meantime, he cut the cucumbers and put them in a sterilized glass jar and poured the boiling water over them.
“This is easy.”
The pickles were done by sealing the jar.
He made 10 large jars that could hold 2 liters each.
Now, all that’s left is to age them. Pickles are a food that doesn’t have to be aged for a long time, so aging them in a cave for a few hours will be enough to bring out the flavor.
Hae-jun helped plant crops in the field while the pickles were aging.
Half a day passed quickly as he worked.
It was time to go back to the real world. Hae-jun stopped by the cave before going to Sunflower to taste the pickles he had just made.
Crunch-
Wow, crunch-
“!!??··· This is crazy. How can pickles be this delicious!?”
It was refreshing and savory without being too salty.
The texture of the crisp, not mushy cucumber was superb.
“It’s better than I thought? It would go well with tonkatsu.”
Only then did he realize why the customers were looking for pickles.
***
The next morning.
Hae-jun brought pickles from the dimensional farm before the employees came to work.
“Kang-hoon, serve pickles from today.”
“Did you make them yourself?”
“Uh. I made them last night because I was bored.”
“Boss, if you’re going to make something like this, tell us to stay late.”
Dong-sik said with a slightly resentful tone.
He always wanted to help Hae-jun in any way he could.
“I had nothing to do at night, so I made them because I was bored. Don’t worry about it.”
“Even so. I feel bad if you keep doing this. Don’t think about it too hard and just tell me to do it.”
“Haha. Yes. Then, try this. Kang-hoon, you try it too.”
Hae-jun said as he transferred the pickles to a small bowl.
Unlike the pickles mass-produced in the factory, the pickles retained the fresh green color of the cucumbers.
Crunch-
Crunch-
“Hmm?!”
“Oh~!”
“How is it?”
“It’s so delicious.”
“The customers will love it, won’t they?”
As the kitchen expected, the customers’ reaction was not bad. No, the response was quite good.
They praised it, saying that it wasn’t too sweet or salty and that it just made their mouths feel clean.
It was just a pickle that he made, but the response was so good that Hae-jun made pickles whenever he had time from that day on.
He made not only simple cucumber pickles, but also cabbage and broccoli pickles, and vegetable pickles with cucumbers, carrots, and onions.
The recipe was also upgraded little by little.
Haas ahjussi procured various spices such as bay leaves, cinnamon, and mustard seeds, which allowed us to create pickles with diverse flavors.
***
11:30 AM.
Right on time for opening, the door to Sunflower opened.
The waiting customers rushed in and took their seats. Then, as was their routine, they approached Mongchi and petted him as he curled up.
"Aww~ So cute."
"Mongchi. How do you get cuter every day?"
Mongchi turned his head with a chic expression.
But as if he was used to such flattery, he reluctantly turned his head back and stretched his mochi-like cheeks with both hands.
"Meow~!"
Mongchi was especially popular with female and young customers.
He had never acted cute, but maybe that was his charm? Anyway, the customers cheered even more at Mongchi's dignified and chic behavior.
The two female customers, who were a bit disappointed that their playtime with Mongchi was cut short, returned to their seats.
They didn't need to look at the menu, but they skimmed through it out of habit. Then, they noticed a new menu item that they hadn't seen before.
"They have new drinks?"
"Please try them. They're delicious. We have lemonade made from squeezing a whole fresh lemon, and grape ade made with plenty of grapes."
Eun-jeong explained with a sales smile that she had learned from Min-ju.
Eun-jeong was in charge of taking orders in the dining room, while Min-ju was in charge of making the ades and overseeing the entire dining room.
In the kitchen, Hae-jun was in charge of overall management, fried foods, and the meat and vegetable omelet rice, while the youngest, Kang-hoon, who was a former military cook, was in charge of washing dishes and other chores.
With the number of staff increased to five, they were able to divide the roles and work efficiently.
"Should we order one of each and share?"
"Of course we should try them. We'll have a glass of lemonade and grape ade. And for food, we'll have the pork cutlet and omelet rice."
"Please wait a moment."
Soon, a sumptuous table was set.
Freshly baked dinner rolls and warm soup. Pork cutlet with a savory aroma blooming with seaweed, and tangy ade to cut through the richness of the fried food.
First, they took pictures. Tasting always came after.
The women got up from their seats and took pictures of the food, trying to make them as emotional and pretty as possible.
Then, they shared the drinks they had ordered. The lemonade was refreshing, and the grape ade was sweet with a unique, subtle flavor.
"Wow~ This is delicious. It's refreshing."
"Mine is sweet with a hint of grape."
"Let's switch."
The two friends switched drinks and savored the taste again.
Indeed, the two drinks had completely different flavors.
'It's a success! They're responding well.'
Min-ju, who was watching the customers' reactions from the small, separate drink-making area in the corner of the dining room, smiled with satisfaction.
When one table ordered the drinks and enjoyed them, other tables that hadn't ordered them started to order them one after another.
"Min-ju. Three more lemonade and grape ade."
"Okay."
"Table 2, one more of each. And this one's a refill."
Min-ju's hands were busy.
She had bought 100 cans of 200ml plain soda water by sweeping the nearby mart, but the stock was quickly dwindling because all the customers were ordering drinks.
'I should tell oppa to get some soda water in bulk.'
For now, she was using the canned soda water that she had bought from the nearby mart, but in order to make a profit, she needed to use large-capacity soda water. That way, the tangy taste unique to the ade would be lacking, but she couldn't keep using expensive canned soda water.
That was the know-how that Minju had acquired in running a cafe.
***
"Don't you have pickles here?"
"I'm sorry, sir. We don't serve pickles separately."
Hae-jun, who was frying the pork cutlet, had his ears perked up towards the dining room.
Ever since he added drinks to the menu, he realized that he had been too indifferent to the customers' needs.
'Another customer looking for pickles.'
This was already the fifth one.
He thought he had served a generous amount of side dishes on the pork cutlet plate, but it seemed that it wasn't enough, judging from the fact that people were looking for pickles.
'I should be able to make pickles with the ingredients we're harvesting now, right?'
Hae-jun, who had placed the pork cutlet on a wire rack to drain, glanced around.
Dong-sik was focused on making omelet rice, and Kang-hoon was busy washing dishes.
He carefully opened the recipe book.
A book that appeared in the air with a brilliant light.
After flipping through a few pages, Hae-jun found the recipe he needed.
‘There are a lot.’
There was more than one pickle recipe.
From the sweet and sour cucumber pickles commonly found in pasta restaurants to pickles made with peppers similar to jalapeños and even lemons and cabbage.
‘You’re telling me these are all pickles?’
To put it simply, pickles were Western-style pickles made by pickling vegetables or fruits in vinegar.
A recipe created to preserve perishable food for a long time. Among them, the pickle that goes best with the fried dish tonkatsu was definitely the cucumber pickle.
*
<Homemade Pickles>
-Ingredients: Cucumbers, vinegar, sugar, salt, water
-Cooking instructions
1. Wash the cucumbers thoroughly and cut them into bite-sized pieces.
2. Sterilize a glass jar and put the ingredients in it.
3. Bring a mixture of water, vinegar, and sugar in a ratio of 2:1:1 to a boil, and pour it into the glass jar while it’s hot.
*
The cooking method was also simple.
Looking at the usage, it said that it could be made with various vegetables such as cabbage, other root vegetables, celery, and paprika.
In addition, it said that using a combination of spices such as mustard seeds, coriander, pepper, bay leaves, and cinnamon can create different flavors and aromas.
‘If I make it and put it in the aging cave, will it taste good?’
There were already many different foods in the aging cave that needed to be aged.
The cheese made by Chloe, the wine, vinegar, and bread yeast that Hae-jun pickled himself.
When aged in a cave, the taste and quality are far superior to those aged in a normal environment.
‘I’ll go make it as soon as business is over.’
.
.
.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“I did. Let’s take a break for now and prepare for dinner service at 5:30 PM.”
“Yes, boss.”
Normally, the day’s work would have ended with the end of lunch service, but since they had increased the number of staff, they decided to operate until dinner from today.
When their salaries were raised accordingly, Min-ju and Dong-sik were even happier.
Hae-jun, who had finished his meal in a hurry, went into his room, saying he was going to take a short break.
He locked the door, pushed open the closet, and opened the passage to the dimension.
Since he had about an hour and a half to spare until dinner service, he could spend 6 hours on the farm.
‘I need to hurry over there and make it.’
His steps quickened at the thought of making pickles.
Mr. Haas and the villagers he had hired were in the middle of harvesting salad vegetables, and among the vegetables were cucumbers, the main ingredient of pickles.
‘Cucumbers? Perfect timing.’
He washed the freshly harvested cucumbers thoroughly in the well, found the other ingredients, and headed to the cave where the vinegar was.
There was already someone in the cave.
“Chloe?”
“Hae-jun. What brings you here?”
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Chloe had been living on the goat farm and in the cave these days.
She took care of the goats and spent the rest of her time, except for milking them, immersed in cheese research here.
The cheese Chloe had produced so far was Chevre cheese. It’s a cheese made with fresh goat’s milk that isn’t aged like regular cheese, and it’s characterized by its fresh, rich flavor, moist texture, and tangy sourness.
Hae-jun took it and mixed it in small portions in salads.
Chloe, who had taken a liking to producing butter and cheese, had been engrossed in researching different types of cheese in addition to Chevre cheese. The first cheese she perfected was Mozzarella, and thanks to that, Hae-jun was able to make and sell cheese katsu.
“Me? I’m here to make some pickles.”
“Pickles?”
“Yeah. How’s your cheese research going?”
“I’ve made a lot of different ones. Do you want to see?”
Chloe brought out a round lump of cheese from the corner.
“Ugh! What is this?”
It had a sour smell, and it was the kind of cheese that was more like it had gone bad than fermented… not cheese.
“Ugh. Does it smell weird?”
“Uh. Isn’t it a failed product? It looks like it’s gone bad?”
“Failed product? How dare you. You’ll change your mind once you taste it.”
“What kind of cheese is it?”
“It’s blue cheese. It’s the smell from this blue mold, but the taste is amazing.”
Chloe proudly smiled and brought the cheese up to Hae-jun’s nose.
In an instant, the smell of an old man’s feet that hadn’t been washed in ten days hit his nostrils.
It was a strong smell that was closer to being unpleasant than pleasant.
It was like the shock of smelling dried pollock for the first time.
“Do you want to try it?”
“Ah, no. I’ll pass.”
“Tch! Just wait until you want to eat it later.”
“Haha. Will there ever be such a thing?”
I didn’t know at the time.
That the blue cheese Chloe made would be a first-class gorgonzola when baked into a pizza and dipped in honey.
“Huh! Tch! It’s crap! I’ll never give it to you even if you beg me.”
“Haha. Don’t be mad. Show me something else.”
I coaxed and appeased Chloe, who was very upset and looked at the other cheeses.
Just as she said, there were various types of cheese.
She was researching various cheeses, from camembert and cheddar, which are originally made from milk, to Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, which is often mistaken for parmesan cheese.
“I’m almost done with the recipe research. I can mass-produce other things besides mozzarella cheese.”
Chloe said with a confident smile.
‘Hmm… I wonder if I can challenge myself to a new dish with these?’
But that thought was fleeting.
For now, I need to make pickles first.
“Thank you. I’ll let you know if I need anything later. For the time being, make as much mozzarella cheese as you can.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ve already made a lot.”
“I’ll need twice as much as I’ve been taking from tomorrow.”
“No problem.”
“I’m counting on you.”
Chloe, who was done bragging about her cheese, stretched and went back to her quarters, saying she was tired.
Come to think of it, she said she had been cooped up in the cave for days, sleeping fitfully to observe the condition of the cheese.
After Chloe left, Hae-jun took out the vinegar he had left in the corner. He mixed water, vinegar, and sugar in a 2:1:1 ratio according to the recipe, and added pepper as a spice and boiled it vigorously. Since pepper was the only spice available, he decided to add only pepper for now to enhance the flavor.
In the meantime, he cut the cucumbers and put them in a sterilized glass jar and poured the boiling water over them.
“This is easy.”
The pickles were done by sealing the jar.
He made 10 large jars that could hold 2 liters each.
Now, all that’s left is to age them. Pickles are a food that doesn’t have to be aged for a long time, so aging them in a cave for a few hours will be enough to bring out the flavor.
Hae-jun helped plant crops in the field while the pickles were aging.
Half a day passed quickly as he worked.
It was time to go back to the real world. Hae-jun stopped by the cave before going to Sunflower to taste the pickles he had just made.
Crunch-
Wow, crunch-
“!!??··· This is crazy. How can pickles be this delicious!?”
It was refreshing and savory without being too salty.
The texture of the crisp, not mushy cucumber was superb.
“It’s better than I thought? It would go well with tonkatsu.”
Only then did he realize why the customers were looking for pickles.
***
The next morning.
Hae-jun brought pickles from the dimensional farm before the employees came to work.
“Kang-hoon, serve pickles from today.”
“Did you make them yourself?”
“Uh. I made them last night because I was bored.”
“Boss, if you’re going to make something like this, tell us to stay late.”
Dong-sik said with a slightly resentful tone.
He always wanted to help Hae-jun in any way he could.
“I had nothing to do at night, so I made them because I was bored. Don’t worry about it.”
“Even so. I feel bad if you keep doing this. Don’t think about it too hard and just tell me to do it.”
“Haha. Yes. Then, try this. Kang-hoon, you try it too.”
Hae-jun said as he transferred the pickles to a small bowl.
Unlike the pickles mass-produced in the factory, the pickles retained the fresh green color of the cucumbers.
Crunch-
Crunch-
“Hmm?!”
“Oh~!”
“How is it?”
“It’s so delicious.”
“The customers will love it, won’t they?”
As the kitchen expected, the customers’ reaction was not bad. No, the response was quite good.
They praised it, saying that it wasn’t too sweet or salty and that it just made their mouths feel clean.
It was just a pickle that he made, but the response was so good that Hae-jun made pickles whenever he had time from that day on.
He made not only simple cucumber pickles, but also cabbage and broccoli pickles, and vegetable pickles with cucumbers, carrots, and onions.
The recipe was also upgraded little by little.
Haas ahjussi procured various spices such as bay leaves, cinnamon, and mustard seeds, which allowed us to create pickles with diverse flavors.
