“Let me take advantage of your hospitality.”
“Don’t say that. It’s not a big deal.”
Responding to him casually, Anderson pulled Min-joon’s carrier to one side. Janet, whose baby bump stood out more than before, glanced at him and opened her mouth.
“We’re not cooking for you here.”
“I think I’m going out before you guys have breakfast.”
“No. Have breakfast before you go out.”
“You’ve just said you won’t cook for me?”
As if he was a bit confused, Min-joon looked at her face.
Smiling at him, she shook her head and said, “Because breakfast is not just breakfast.”
“Thank you. Can I help you?”
“Sure, it doesn’t matter if you do it all by yourself. My kitchen is always available.”
“It looks like you want me to cook for you.”
She laughed again at his words. He thought seeing her smiling was actually as rare as seeing it raining in Santa Monica, so he thought he might have to change that stereotype.
“It’s nice to see you happy.”
“If you’re newlywed but not happy, your life must be really miserable.”
“It’s nice to know you don’t deny you are happy.”
When he smiled at her while saying so, Anderson, who just put his suitcase in the working closet, opened his mouth.
“Are you guys tired?”
“Oh, not really.”
“Then, shall we have tea after a long time?”
“Right now at night?”
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to.”
“Oh, I like it of course!”
Min-joon followed him with a hearty laugh. But Anderson, clearing his throat, glanced at him. Min-joon seemed to understand why he was doing this.
Their matrimonial house was pretty nice. The two bedrooms were on the semi-basement floor, and the first floor was a living room and kitchen, but the ceiling was as high as that of a four-story house. In the attic attached next to the stairs on one side were several tables and bookshelves placed together.
However, even the beauty of the house was nothing compared to their kitchen. When Min-joon opened the sliding closet, there were all kinds of spices, and the refrigerator was almost as big as one for a restaurant. Looking at the kitchen knives attached to the magnetic holders on the wall, he couldn’t tell whether this was really a house or a restaurant.
“You guys have deliberately invited me to show this kind of stuff here, right?”
“You can use as much as you like. Herbs or whatever,” Anderson said with an elated voice.
Min-joon nodded with a giggle as if he was cute.
“I’m sure you need something to eat with tea. What do you want me to make?”
“I guess you have some cookies, so it would be okay if you can make panini or bruschetta. You want to make it? I see a panini grill here.”
“Man, you want me to make a panini.”
Min-joon shook his head, grinning at him.
Anderson said as he swung open the drawer compartment of bread.
“I’ve Michetta and Focaccia or just normal bread. Which one do you prefer?”
“Give me just normal bread. I think it would be okay if you can make some tramezzini. Don’t you have Ciabatta instead of Michetta or Focaccia? I like Chiabatta best.”
“We also like Ciabatta best. That’s why we don’t have it.”
“Why don’t have it when you like it best?”
“Well, we’ve eaten them all.”
“Oh, I see. Let me have Focaccia then. That’s more common.”
They usually used Chiabatta to make paninis, but it didn’t mean that Focaccia wasn’t good.
Focaccia was mainly used for pizza dough and sandwich bread, but panini was a kind of sandwich in the broader context.
“Gosh, we don’t have tomatoes.”
“Hey, you guys live in a nice house, but you don’t have any tomatoes? Italian cuisine is your specialty, isn’t it?”
“Well, we’ve eaten them all like Chiabattta. Since we’re busy, it’s not easy to go to a grocery store everyday.”
“Yeah, I understand that the chefs are busy…”
Nonetheless, it was unreasonable to ask Min-joon to make a panini without tomatoes.
But because of that, he felt the urge to challenge. He glanced around the kitchen.
Then he looked at Janet.
“Hey, you are not cooking?”
“Well, I’m pregnant. But let me cheer for you.”
“Good. Then Anderson, how about you?”
“I have to take care of my wife.”
“Gosh, you guys are so mean.”
Kaya would have been mad if she had been here, but Min-joon grabbed the ingredients while trying not to recall her face.
“I need a suitable replacement to make up for the acid-like tastes of tomatoes.”
Of course, he couldn’t use something like pickles. If he used pickles, he would have to add as many other ingredients to kill the strong taste of the pickles, which would mean more work than needed for tea time snacks.
So, he needed just the right acidity. And the best thing for its replacement was fruit. He looked into the fruit basket on the kitchen Island, then picked up a green apple. Its skin was too shiny, so he didn’t like it, but it was pretty solid and sweet-and-sour.
“Are you going to make an apple panini?” Anderson asked.
While cutting the apple, Min-joon said, “Yep, do you have Brie cheese?”
Anderson, currently his cooking aide, replied while bringing the ingredients, “Sure.”
“Give it to me then.”
“By the way, I heard you visited Lisa today.”
“Yeah, she didn’t look as good as I thought.”
“I guess so. You know she just had surgery. She will overcome it.”
“I’ve decided to be a godfather.”
“What?”
“I mean Ella’s godfather. I was afraid she might be more weak-hearted if she relied on me to be her daughter’s godfather, but I had no other choice. As you know, she is in the worst situation at the moment. How can’t I reach out to her for help? Ah, give me bacon, too. I was going to use chicken, but it’s too heavy. Let’s have a light snack. Classic cut.”
When he said that, Anderson brought back the bacon that was cut thinly. While Min-joon, who set the sandwich, pressed the panini grill, Anderson asked again, “If Lisa’s condition gets worse, are you going to take care of Ella?”
“I don’t know because I’m not thinking about the worst situation. But if the day comes when Ella is left behind alone…”
Pressing down the focaccia with all the ingredients stacked on the panini grill, he said, “I won’t let her be left behind alone.”
“You’re cool, man,” Anderson replied briefly. He didn’t respond perfunctorily. He felt that Min-joon didn’t make the decision lightly because he knew what type of person Min-joon was.
Min-joon looked at him and Janet, who was stroking her stomach on the sofa in the living room.
“You’re cool, too, dude. Give me Cheddar cheese and tomatoes… Oh, you said you don’t have tomatoes. Then bring me some Cheddar cheese, lettuce, and pesto. If you have canned tuna, give me some.”
“Well, I want to have you cook for me, but I feel like I’m cooking for you…” said Anderson.
“I’ve been working as a sous chef for several months now, so I’ve gotten a little used to how to manage people.”
While grumbling, Anderson brought all the ingredients he mentioned.
Tramezzino had a grand name, but it was actually just a simple sandwich. After cutting the crusts of bread, he put some layers of ingredients in the bread before eating it. Of course, it was necessary to have the best combination of ingredients.
The way Min-joon put tuna, lettuce, and cheese between the bread left quite an impression on Anderson. As a matter of fact, it was simple enough for even a child to make it, but the way Min-joon put lettuce on bread looked somewhat luxurious, just like sushi with just a piece of sashimi on rice looked like a work of art.
“Your plating skills have improved tremendously.”
“Really?”
“Chef Rachel is better when it comes to plating itself, but you might learn more from Chef June, I think. When Chef Rachel focused on cutting the ingredients with her cutting skill, Chef June studied how to make customers drool with the ingredients as they were.”
“Thanks for saying that.”
Smiling at him, Min-joon put the tramezzini on the bowl, cut the finished panini, and put it on a plate. The smell of bacon and apple juice mixed between the heat-melted Brie cheese was so fascinating that it made their mouths water instantly.
The scores were 5 points and 6 points, respectively. It wasn’t strange at all because Min-joon made it quickly like an instant food. However, its taste was way beyond 5 and 6. At first, Janet looked at the panini with a sincere glance, like an appraiser who distinguished original from fakes, then opened her eyes wide after taking a bite of it.
“It’s so delicious. What is this?”
“I put some apples in the panini. I also put classic cut bacon and Brie cheese. So I guess you can feel more of a sweet and fresh taste. I didn’t put much bacon in it, so the other ingredients might taste sweeter because of the salty taste of bacon.”
“Gosh, it stimulates my appetite after a long time. As a matter of fact, my appetite has become weird since I got pregnant, so it was quite difficult to find the food I liked.”
Smiling at her, Min-joon looked at her baby bump. Someday Kaya might have that baby bump, too. He wished the day would come faster when he could see Kaya with a baby, but at the same time, he wanted to put it off as much as possible because he was more than happy now. He even felt sorry for his happiness now being forgotten by another.
