Chapter 8

Jio had no thoughts whatsoever.

Because of his stiff expression, gloomy atmosphere, and overly polite way of speaking, people tended to imagine all sorts of things about him.

That he must have lost someone he loved, or that he must have done dangerous work in the past...

It was a misunderstanding.

'What should I make today?'

Seo Jio was simply a gluttonous couch potato.

"... Cheese fondue..."

A spring breeze drifted softly over the bed.

He had been sprawled out like a cat in his drowsiness, but now he sat up.

"Cheese fondue sounds good."

Today's content was fondue.

A pig did not hesitate before a meal.

Jio went down to the ice storage and picked out the cheese he would use for today's dish.

"What should I do?"

Cheese fondue was easy for anyone to make as long as they had the ingredients.

Of course, if he said that, hopeless cooks would come out to argue, but Jio was not a hopeless cook, so it did not matter.

Still, cheese fondue was not a dish that required especially complicated technique, and accordingly, there were many different recipes for cheese fondue.

"The base should probably be brie."

Brie was the safest choice among the ingredients used for making cheese fondue.

"Is this brie?"

The brie wrapped in white paper had white mold spreading over its surface like silk.

It was as if someone had sprinkled a thick coating of sweet powdered sugar over the sticky surface of the cheese.

There was no name written on it, so he smelled it and cut it in half, and sure enough, it was brie.

"It's mild and nice."

Brie was not a cheese with a strong aroma.

It was soft and had a faint mushroom and nutty scent, making it perfect to use as the cheese for fondue.

It paired very well with bread or fruit.

"If I only put this in, it'll get a little heavy."

The downside of brie was that if you ate a lot of it, it became greasy and burdensome.

Melted brie had a creamy quality, melting smoothly without any elasticity, and because both its aroma and texture were gentle, it had a tendency to become tiring quickly.

"..."

Jio blinked, then muttered.

"I'd like it to be a little saltier."

He was craving a cheese that was strong in aroma, salty, and sharp.

Brie was on the mild side, after all.

"Parmesan should do."

Its official name was Parmigiano Reggiano.

To Koreans, "parmesan cheese" was usually known as the seasoning sprinkled on pizza.

But that was an inferior version of Parmigiano cheese, and the two had almost nothing in common.

"There it is."

Jio found the parmesan cheese that had been divided into portions.

"It'd be a bit much to slice up a whole wheel..."

This cheese was an extra-hard cheese that required at least a year of aging.

That meant it was extremely hard, but even so, the grain inside it was distinct.

If it was not cut along that grain, it would shatter into pieces.

In that sense, the fact that it had already been portioned out was very welcome.

Parmesan cheese sold by the wheel was bigger than a tire and also extremely expensive, so Jio had never tried portioning it out before.

'I'm glad I don't have to waste precious cheese.'

Jio put the cheese cut into a suitable size into the basket.

"..."

The aroma was already strong.

"Nice."

Parmesan cheese, with its sharp aroma, had just as many layered flavors.

First of all, it was very salty.

Even if you broke off just a piece the size of your pinky nail and ate it, your tongue stung and the aroma shot straight up into your head, its flavor extremely intense.

At the same time, it gave the pleasure of a rich sweetness like honey gently wetting the tongue like a soft peach, then vanishing without a trace.

'That's why it's delicious eaten raw, too.'

Unheated hard cheese retained a much cleaner aroma.

If someone was new to cheese, he would recommend eating it raw, because in that state, between the layers of parmesan cheese, there existed the peak of flavor known as crystals.

"..."

Jio liked that small, crisp texture.

'It has a nutty aroma, too.'

Putting in too much would make it overwhelming, but adding a small amount would be perfect for bringing out the fondue's flavor.

"And..."

If he were to add one more.

"Gruyère."

Gruyère cheese would be suitable.

This cheese was a hard cheese like parmesan, but it was a little more flexible than parmesan, which aged for a year, and it was saltier than brie while being much sweeter.

'One of the fun things about it is that it has a subtle walnut aroma.'

The fact that it had a rich nutty aroma made it appealing in many ways.

This thick aroma would surely go well with the cheeses he had already gathered.

"... Should I stop with the cheese here?"

If he added too much, the aroma and taste would become strange.

Jio went up to the first-floor kitchen.

"Then now..."

CLATTER.

Jio found a thick earthenware dish in the drawer.

"Let's start cooking."

The cooking method was simple.

First, prepare the ingredients you wanted to eat with the cheese.

Anything was fine.

Cherry tomatoes, asparagus, sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, broccoli, zucchini...

Besides those, things like soft-textured sandwich bread, crisp croutons, or chewy ciabatta.

You could even eat it with fruit.

'But I'll pass on that.'

Since he was eating it as a meal rather than a snack, he was not drawn to anything sweet and tart.

"Should I just stir-fry them roughly?"

He put the ingredients, cut into bite-sized pieces, into a wok and heated them once, then Jio put all of those ingredients into the oven.

He planned to scorch the outsides hard and fast with strong heat, then take them out.

The ingredients roasted in the oven would have a faint smoky aroma.

Preparing good, fragrant firewood in advance had been worth it.

"This is ready."

Next was the cheese.

He finely chopped the cheese he had brought.

All the cheeses had to melt at the same time for them to mix well without separating, and if the chunks were too large, they would melt at different times, causing the oil and fat layer to separate.

'The first time I made it, I melted it whole and the cheese oil formed a whole Han River.'

'Even thinking back on it now, it was a total disaster.'

He poured olive oil once into the warmed earthenware dish, then added a clove of garlic to bring out the aroma.

"And wine."

It was the cheat key that tempered the cheese's pungent smell and brought out its flavor.

In Jio's underground storage, there were also wines bottled without labels.

Among them, he used the white wine with the cleanest taste, and it mingled well with the garlic and olive aroma, giving off a pleasant fragrance.

"..."

POP.

Jio closed the wine stopper and thought.

'I should try making alcohol someday.'

Time was what he had left over, so a process being troublesome was not a big deal.

Jio resolved to try making everything, starting with wine, then distilled spirits, flower liquor, and fruit wine.

An unemployed man had the right to waste time.

Around the time all the alcohol had evaporated, Jio brought over the cheese he had cut.

"Put it all in..."

He dumped all the fluffy cheese into the earthenware dish warmed over low heat.

"Then stir it."

Once it melted enough for the cheese oil to rise to the surface here and there, he added a little of the starch water he had prepared beforehand.

It served to emulsify the cheese oil and fat layer, which would separate no matter how well the cheese was melted.

"One spoonful of liquor."

Liquor with a high alcohol content and deep flavor, like whiskey or brandy, was good.

"..."

And so, a cheese fondue that was smooth like porridge or soup, yet somehow chewy, was completed.

"Ta-da."

He liked it.

Jio brought the cheese and various ingredients to the dining table and sat down.

He lit a small candle underneath so the cheese could stay warm and loose.

'This part is a little troublesome.'

If cheese was left cold, it would harden again, so it had to be heated continuously like this.

That meant fondue tools were essential if one wanted to eat cheese fondue.

"Good thing I made them in advance."

In any case, the meal began.

"First..."

Jio picked up a well-cooked asparagus spear first.

"..."

When he dipped it deep into the cheese and pulled it out, the cheese, loosened smoothly with liquor and starch, stretched along with it.

The asparagus, which had been roasted hard in the oven, still retained its deep green color.

The distinctive scent of fresh vegetables and the soft, subtle aroma unique to asparagus rose up.

In particular, the fresh flavor of asparagus, which paired well with fat, looked promising.

"Mm..."

CRUNCH.

The stalk gave a springy bite.

'Delicious.'

The sweet juice of the asparagus, flowing out like the juices of well-grilled meat, held a mysterious bitterness.

Not enough to get on the nerves, just like the astringency of citron tea, the bitterness of the asparagus showed excellent harmony with the other ingredients.

The surface that had been scorched once was like a thin, crumbling leaf.

The stalk immediately beneath it had been heated in the pan and oven, making it soft yet juicy and tender, while beneath that, the still-vivid life of the plant crunched under his teeth.

'It goes well with the cheese, too.'

The creamy, soft brie held the foundation.

It could have become tiring, but the sharp aroma of the parmesan held that in check, and the gruyère with its deep walnut fragrance connected the spaces between them.

The delicate flavor of asparagus went especially well with fat.

Cheese, heavy cream, butter, things like that, and it fit seamlessly with this fondue, whose aroma had been tempered once with garlic.

On top of that, thanks to the juicy, crisp texture, it felt like eating well-grown spring greens.

"..."

This was life.

"... A life where I get sleepy even while eating... It couldn't be more ideal."

With the gentle spring breeze drifting in through the wide-open window, and eating fondue that softly soothed his insides, this was heaven.

"Once I'm done eating, I'll go outside and take a nap."

"Where should I sleep today?"

The next thing he picked was ciabatta.

"It's baked nicely."

Ciabatta was a bread famous for its fluffiness and chewiness.

The surface, lightly dusted with flour, had been swept over with butter and gave off a flavor like the roux in soup.

Thanks to being baked in the oven, the outside was very crisp, and the surface heavily coated in butter boasted a texture that was crisp yet soft, like croutons soaked in soup.

"Then now, the cheese..."

He dipped it in deep.

"..."

Chew.

He put it in his mouth.

"..."

It was excellent.

'This is it.'

Jio placed a well-cooked potato on top of the cheese-coated bread.

"Mmm..."

As expected, the joy of fondue lay in eating it in combinations.

Crisp and chewy bread, cheese with varied textures, and even fluffy potato cooked in butter with a strong flavor.

From texture to taste, there was nothing to scold in this composition.

'I'll cleanse my palate with a tomato once...'

POP!

"... Ah, this is good too."

The cherry tomato, heated briefly and intensely so the flesh inside would not overcook, was still crisp while holding a faintly warm juice inside.

Its surface had a fragile crunch, like a well-cooked sausage.

"It'd go well with cheese, too."

After eating it with cheese like that, he became happy from the varied flavors.

"Should I try putting in a crouton this time?"

Jio ate whatever came to hand.

Once with a crisp crouton dipped deep in chewy cheese, once with soft broccoli cooked well without becoming too mushy and cheese spreading like cream, once with sweet, fluffy sweet potato and salty, savory cheese...

It was a fairly large amount, enough to pile up in a basin, but Jio finished it all quickly.

"..."

He marveled at the miracle his stomach had displayed.

At this level, if it could not quite be Noah's ark, it seemed like it could at least be Jio's ark.

"Has my capacity increased?"

He was certainly a big eater, but even so, before he entered the painting, he did not think it had been to this extent.

"..."

Jio's ultimate positive mindset activated.

'It's fun, so it's fine.'

Ta-da.

His rationalization was successful.

Even after eating this much, his stomach did not feel heavy.

For Jio, who was both a gourmet and a big eater, someone who truly felt joy in eating, this was a welcome thing.

"People these days even breathe fire from their mouths, so compared to that, I'm on the mild side."

As people went through life, they could evolve and such, could they not?

"Now I should take some snacks and go out for a nap..."

Jio put well-dried Mangdung Fruits, Baibameunil tea leaves, and a glass bottle filled with warm water into a cleanly washed basket.

The deep golden Mangdung Fruits had shrunk to about the size of raisins, becoming a useful snack.

'The ones drying outside have become completely hard, too.'

'Soon, I should be able to make medicine from Mangdung Fruits.'

Jio wrapped himself in the black cloak.

'I'd like to upgrade this later too.'

The cloak he had made when he first came to his senses inside the painting was still usable.

It was partly to keep from being spotted by any frightening beasts that might exist, and partly to prevent his body from being brushed by poisonous plants or his clothes from fraying.

Considering he had clumsily patched it together from fabric he found in the cabin, it was decent.

'It's light, thick, and breathable.'

His body did not feel the cold or heat very much, but he could not help his back aching when he lay down on bare ground.

In such a situation, the cloak would make a fairly good blanket.

After straightening his clothes, Jio headed for the spring.

As he walked slowly, the spring he arrived at before he knew it was still beautiful, quiet, and yet filled with the varied murmurs of all sorts of living things.

So what did that mean?

"..."

Time to sleep.

"Nice."

He was sleepy.

After chewing on some chewy dried Mangdung Fruits, Jio soon fell asleep without drinking even a sip of tea.

The cloak, large enough to wrap around his entire body, became an excellent blanket just as expected.

"..."

SOFT BREATHS... SOFT BREATHS...

Soon, butterflies resembling sunlight climbed onto him as he slept.

PEEP.

BRRR...