The Kpop Otaku's Dream

"How long do we have?" Yejin asks as she stands with a basket full.

"Let's set the time for cooking at 30 minutes. Any longer and you are out" I answer before I turn to the Pd, "PD-nim count us down and keep the time please"

The PD-nims face says it all, she's really enjoying how things are flowing, I swear I can see money symbols in her eyes. She's clearly expecting high ratings for our episodes.

She lifts her hands and begins counting down, "Chefs are you ready? 3-2-1 COOK!"

At our battle stations we ready ourselves and I face my 'competitor" looking over her ingredients. It's quite easy to see that she will be making a pasta dish of sorts. Classic Italian Cuisine quisine.

Ye-jin handles the ingredients very skillfully and in a practiced manner. She salts the boiling water like the ocean before adding in the pasta. While at the same time, prepares her sauce. Everything is done without a hint of waste. She clearly knows a thing or two

'This is going to be tough ' I can't help but comment internally.

Making my way over to the Icebox. I take out my main ingredient.

See Sea Bream! I'd be a fool not to make use of the freshness I'm available

More accurately, what I'm going to cook is Okdom a kind of sea bream that is caught only along the coast of Jeju Island and in the seas close to Japan. With a lean and light taste, whoever eats Okdom once will want to try it again. On Jeju it is known as 'Saengseon' or 'Sollany'.  Since Okdom has a high nutritive value and is a rich source of protein, people with low energy or patients under recovery from illness eat it frequently as a type of porridge.

"What kind of dish are you planning to make?" The PD asks, hoping for some camera engagement

" Roasted bream with pepper sauce."

"Are you confident on being able to satisfy the judges standards?" She asks in a pseudo serious manner.

Responding in kind, I put on a mock nervous appearance "I-I hope to"

" Good luck", she says chuckling before heading over to the other cooking 'station' that is as makeshift as the one I'm at.  Cooler boxes for counter tops with a mixture of gas plates for stove tops, very informal if you ask me.

After taking out my top quality ingredient, I grab towards the basket filled with herbs, saffron,  pepper, garlic, scallions, thyme, basil, olive oil, grape seeds oil, butter, salt, white wine, and bell peppers.

What I'm trying to make right now was a dish I've had eaten several times since meeting Irene. The bream that was roasted using the arroser technique, and the spicy yet sweet pepper sauce. It was one of the dishes Irene had learnt from her mother and even exceeded her in making. I decided to upgrade it a small bit.

First of all, I handled first, was the bell pepper. After turning on the fire, I put the bell pepper above it. And then poured cooking oil moderately onto a frying pan.

After that I trimmed the scallions. The skills which were used to sliced the white roots weren't ordinary.

The staff were clearly surprised at my semi-pro level knife skills. A camera man runs up to a upclose shot. The sound of the chopping serving as fan service to all ASMR listeners.

Proceeding to throw the sliced scallions in the hot oil. The nice aroma of the scallions expanded with the frying sound. Turning my sight from the scallions for a second. Moving it towards the fire, so that it got in contact and was burnt. Through all my Gordon Ramsey-nim watching days I learnt that if you burnt scallions, pepper or paprika, the smoked flavor would stick to it causing the original aroma to intensify.

Within a minute the scallions were well fried after and were taken out from the pan and put on a kitchen towel to drain the oil.

Taking the bell pepper out I wash it with cold water and put the garlic, thyme, basil, grape seeds oil, salt and pepper in a bowl. After that, I grate it with a hand blender as this was going to be the sauce.  A sauce that shines a delicate green after filtering it with a sieve and compressed it, till it became pure.

Wiping the sweat accumulating from my forehead as I finish the sauce. Finally! I'm onto the main ingredient. The last thing left, the bream. Spreading olive oil on the frying pan and turning on the fire, I then began to handle the fish, sprinkling it with some white wine instead of seasoning it with salt.

I put the bream skin side down on the hot oil and after I feel the skin getting crunchy, I flip it around making the skin face upwards. With fish the less you flip it the better. If you touch it too much the poking at your fish will cause its crunchy outer layer of skin, which traps delicious juices inside the fish, to fall apart as it cooks.

Adding a lump of butter which instantly started to mix and concentrate with both the olive and fish's oil, tilting the frying pan a little and using a spoon to sprinkle the oil over the breams skin.

If you sprinkle oil like this, the exterior got crunchy but the insides got moist.

When the bream was almost done, I still had 5 minutes left. I then begin my plating phase, slowly pouring the pepper sauce on to a white porcelain dinner plate. The green sauce slowly got larger as if a brush painting. I place the bream on top of it and gently lay the fried scallions as the finishing touch.