Chapter 39

Dang Jia's Nose

"Haha, the firm flesh and the light, refreshing taste within! And the sweetness felt at the end! How can there be sweetness in fish?!"

Peng Wuhuan, the head of the Peng family, who looked like a petty thief, took a piece of pufferfish into his mouth, chewed it, and after savoring the taste, began to share his thoughts.

"That is the taste of hodon. And the best hodon among all is the Yangtze River pufferfish you are eating now."

"Oh, so this is the Yangtze River pufferfish?"

The head of the Peng family seemed to be moved by my explanation.

In my previous life, the yellow pufferfish was only caught in Korea and China. During peak season, the price of 1 kg of yellow pufferfish could exceed 500,000 won, making it an incredibly expensive fish. Among many pufferfish, the yellow pufferfish was considered the best. Its firmness and sweetness surpassed any other pufferfish, and it was only caught between April and June when it ascended the river to spawn, which made it so expensive.

While he was savoring the taste of the yellow pufferfish, I prepared the pufferfish's testicles in a small bowl with a bit of soy sauce and salt.

"Here, this is xishiyou. They say only heroes and valiant men can take a beauty. Once you taste this, you will understand what it means. Try it."

"Alright, give it to me quickly."

The head of the Peng family eagerly took the pufferfish testicles from me and hurriedly put them in his mouth.

In an instant, the pufferfish testicles, lightly coated with sesame oil and salt, slipped into his mouth, and his eyes widened in surprise at the rich flavor that followed the taste of the sesame oil and salt. Unlike when he was eating the pufferfish flesh, he began to chew very slowly.

The martial artists' gazes followed his moving mouth, and the atmosphere in the hall became very quiet.

People swallowed their saliva as they watched his moving mouth.

One of them, unable to hold back, asked the head of the Peng family.

"Well, how is it? You should tell us about the taste!"

Feeling impatient with just the slow chewing, the man patted his chest.

After a while, the head of the Peng family stopped chewing slowly, swallowed the testicles, and with a very regretful look, asked me.

"Hmm... I need to taste it again to really... "

The head of the Peng family, who looked like a petty thief, was trying to think of a way to taste it again.

However, his cunning was quickly seen through by the other martial artists.

"There isn't much hodon testicle. If you don't know, the next person should try it, right?"

"If you can't tell the taste after trying it, someone else should eat it, shouldn't they?"

People asked the head of the Peng family with disapproving voices, as if questioning his trickery. The head of the Peng family cleared his throat and looked at a distant mountain.

As the Plum Blossom Otaku, the leader of Huashan, stepped forward for the next turn, the head of the Peng family returned to his seat with a regretful look.

"There are no words to describe this. Let the leader of Huashan try it. I want to describe the taste, but I just feel like I need to taste it again."

The martial artists looked very disappointed and focused their attention on the leader of Huashan.

In the focused gaze, the leader of Huashan took a piece of pufferfish into his mouth.

After chewing, his impression flowed out.

"The firmness and chewiness of the flesh are indescribable, and the light, refreshing taste is also excellent. It's like the light, refreshing taste you feel from bamboo shoots. And the sweetness felt at the end on the tip of the tongue. I didn't know hodon could be this delicious. It's like the sweetness you feel when chewing sugarcane. It's subtly felt, like the fragrance of plum blossoms. Haha, truly amazing."

Indeed, as the leader of the otaku, he described it using the fragrance of the plum blossoms he loved, truly a true otaku.

Nodding in agreement with his taste evaluation, I prepared the testicles in the same way, and he also slowly savored them after putting them in his mouth.

After savoring the taste for a moment, the leader of Huashan suddenly shouted with a flustered face.

"What, where did the thing in my mouth go?!"

'Wow! Such an overreaction.'

I was amazed by the Oscar-level acting of the leader of Huashan when his voice was heard again.

"The taste is so intoxicating, like walking under a blooming plum tree, and the texture is as soft as a plum petal... This is the beauty that captivates heroes and valiant men..."

Then, the leader of Huashan stared blankly at the sky.

Otakus are always a problem in any era.

They express things in their own way, which ordinary people can't understand.

'That obsession with plum blossoms is real!'

For a moment, I thought of the lines that otakus in my previous life loved, like "Ore! Mamoru!"

Finally, people's frustration was relieved after a few more tastings, including the Poison King, the head of the family, and Dang Yingying, who had helped with the food, or rather, watched the tasting.

"It's like rich milk. It's so rich that it feels sticky in the mouth."

After Dang Yingying's general description, the martial artists finally seemed to understand the taste of the pufferfish testicles.

It seems that her description of it as rich milk was easily understood by people.

In the Song Dynasty, drinking milk was a natural trend. There was a soup (tang) made with milk in pufferfish dishes, and there was a milky glutinous rice porridge called yuxiangeng (玉糝羹) developed by Su Dongpo, which shows how much the people of the Song Dynasty loved milk.

For this reason, when Dang Yingying described the pufferfish testicles as rich milk, everyone nodded in agreement.

Milk was considered good for the body and delicious, which was a natural part of Song Dynasty culture.

After the people's evaluations were finished, the Poison King asked the audience.

"Then, who is the winner of the dish?"

One name was shouted simultaneously.

'Of course, it's me.'

I made a gesture as if listening with one ear and gladly accepted the praise.

"Of course, Liu Xiaoxia's dish is the best. Not only did he express the Dang family with flowers on the plate, but he also created a dish that best suits the Dang family using pufferfish. The taste was so good that it was worth risking death to eat. Anyone who has tasted the hodon testicle and hodon meat will not doubt Liu Xiaoxia's victory."

"That's right. If this were a martial arts competition, Liu Xiaoxia would have already surpassed the late stage. How about we give him a nickname here? What do you think?"

"Good! Good!"

Thus, my first nickname was decided as Shilong (食龍).

'Is this a public humiliation in the style of the Central Plains?'

I was satisfied that my first nickname was "dragon," but the word "shi" (eat) in front of it made me shiver with humiliation, like a chimera. At that moment, a hoarse voice from the side caught my attention.

"I, I can't accept it!"

The atmosphere, which had been lively, suddenly cooled down.

The catfish beard, who was supposed to prepare the feast, had been flipping the banquet table since the beginning.

Perhaps, thinking he would never be able to cook again in his life, the catfish beard was making a last desperate attempt, shouting.

"The raw hodon is not a sign of the chef's skill but the excellence of the hodon itself. What he did was just a few cuts. This is a competition of cooking skills. It's absurd to say I lost."

The martial artists frowned at his voice.

Amid the disapproving gazes of the martial artists, the catfish beard continued.

"So, the heroes and valiant men of the martial world, please reconsider!"

Dang Yingying glared at the catfish with a woman's characteristic scolding expression, and the Poison King asked me with a sneer.

"Well, what do you think about that?"

Smiling, I asked the Poison King in response.

"Sir, was the taste of the hodon I served excellent?"

The Poison King also smiled and answered.

"Yes, I was very satisfied. Your skills are so outstanding that even I, the Poison King, acknowledge them..."

Confirming that the Dang family's background was to give praise gracefully, I slowly bowed to the audience with a smile and began to speak.

"As you may have noticed from the taste of the hodon, the meat of the hodon is very firm. I sliced the hodon as thin as paper not to show off or boast, but because even a slight thickness would make the hodon meat very tough and hard to eat."

Then, looking at the leader of Huashan, the Plum Blossom Otaku, I continued.

"Cooking is about bringing out the best taste of the ingredients. Even a simple cut involves the technique of my cooking to serve the hodon in its best state to people. How can you say my cutting is not cooking?

Saying my cutting is not cooking is like saying that sharpening a sword is just a cut, not martial arts, isn't it?"

After my words, the otaku leader was furious, and the martial artists who wielded swords or knives looked at the catfish as if they wanted to kill him, thinking, 'No, that guy said such a thing? Now that I think about it, he's right.'

Denying the hobbies of otakus is like denying themselves, and the sword and knife otakus were angry.

They looked as if they were about to draw their swords.

The catfish, frightened by their appearance, shouted.

"U, um, the, the crab wasn't even rotten, so, so it was absurd to have a cooking competition. L, look, I, I can eat it, so, so why is it rotten...?"

The catfish kept drinking water as if eating feed, trying to express his grievance, but the atmosphere turned cold due to his reckless words, which ignored the authority of the Poison King, who organized the competition.

The Poison King, sitting in his seat, slowly opened his mouth and spoke to the catfish.

"Are you mistaken about something, not being a martial artist?"

"Wh, what? M, me? W, what did I mistake?"

When the catfish asked what he had mistaken, the Poison King said to him in a voice devoid of emotion.

"Look at the table. See the crab."

Following the Poison King's words, the catfish and I looked at the table where the meal was in progress, and the crab was still on the table, untouched.

"W, why the crab?"

The catfish muttered in a daze, and the Poison King answered.

"Yingying confirmed that the crab was rotten, and no one touched it. The Dang family's nose said it was rotten, so who would believe you? Touching the crab would be questioning the Dang family's nose and soon ignoring the Dang family's face. What martial artists trust is not your three-inch tongue but the Dang family."

Dang Yingying, hearing her grandfather's words, looked at me and pouted her nose proudly.

And the dazed voice of the catfish beard from behind.

"B, but the crab..."

Cutting off his dazed voice, the Poison King continued.

"Moreover, all that is not important. The most important thing is, I, the Poison King, say! If I say the crab is rotten, it is rotten, and if I say it is not, it is not. So, whether the crab was rotten or not when you had the competition is not important. I just wanted to scare that annoying guy and humble him a bit.

It seems he wasn't even a match for that guy. I'll tell you exactly. The crab was rotten, and you brought a rotten crab to my birthday feast, disgracing me in front of the heroes and valiant men of the martial world and damaging my face."

'Oh...'

The old man, who seemed to have regained his senses, showed the characteristic of the Dang family's martial arts, a psychopath.

The aura was so overwhelming that it felt like it would crush me.

The Poison King glared at the catfish and asked.

"You need to answer well. Are you really a disciple of the Xian Gong?"

The catfish, banging his head on the ground, answered with a trembling voice.

"I, I'm sorry. P, please spare me."

The catfish was finally dragged out by two Wu Dang toads.

After the hall was cleaned up, the Poison King said to the audience with a voice full of regret.

"This has ruined the mood. I will bring out more hodon. How about we all enjoy the hodon together and taste it fully?"

"Good! There are still many who haven't tasted it. Sir!"

"This time, we want to taste it too!"

The Poison King asked me with a smile.

"Originally, guests invited to a birthday party should prepare a gift for the birthday person. Since I didn't receive any gift from you, can I ask you to do this as a gift?"

"Of course, sir."

Sashimi, soup, and fried dishes made from pufferfish adorned the first day's banquet of the Poison King.