Three Meals a Day in Deukryang-do Ep 6

Three Meals a Day in Deukryang Island Episode 6; Fishing Village Edition 3

The island of supplies delivers and delivers all the time, from razor clams to octopus, to the delight of our three hungry men. What will it be today?

Night falls at Deukryang Island and since winter’s coming too, SeoJin the experienced works the Ondol (indoor floor heating) to ensure that they have a warm night. At the same time, Eric prepares to make Soy Sauce Crabs, the dish that they’ve been talking about all. the. time.

While SeoJin rubs soot out of his eyes, Eric washes the crabs while KyunSang uneasily looks around. Then his eyebrows go up because the fires from hell are back, HAHA. But at the distance they are from it, it’s just warm like crackling glowing embers in the fireplace.

Eric guesses that he’ll be done with the crabs at 10pm.

In Daddy’s room, Koong wanders around, mewing and pushing at the doors, looking like he wants to go out. Lemme out!!!! He’s so cute. “Why isn’t the door opening? I wanna see Uncle SeoJinnie.” Then the fat cat rolls around.

 

A bang comes from the door but it’s not Daddy. It’s Uncle SeoJin! Koong-ie lies right in front of him but the moment SeoJin snarks that the cat’s not the main, he rejects all of SeoJin’s attempts to pet him, to the amusement of Na YeongSeok. Poor SeoJin, hee. Pwahahaha, SeoJin doesn’t let that deter him and he pulls the cat over by the tail, commenting that he’d found Kong cute from the first time they met. They’re now good. SeoJin Luv Koong 4eva.

Outside, Chef Eric is having a mini crisis, needing KyunSang’s nose to tell if something is spicy or not. Chef E turns into Deputy E and this time, he thinks and thinks and thinks so long that Na PD makes him realise it for himself.  Eric: “Oh, it’s been 10 minutes. I said I would be done by 10 right?” Hee. He claims that all he has to do is mix the ingredients and in front of him at the washing area, KyunSang hums to himself.

He even talks to himself to Na PD’s amusement and when he whines that his habit has always been a little severe like that, Eric good-naturedly snaps that he never knew he himself was that slow either, hee! But Eric wasn’t lying when he said he was able to do everything in time, since there’s nothing to cook until tomorrow. That soy sauce can only be cooked once! SeoJin is surprised that he’d finished up so early and that makes the youngsters both wary too, because it feels like it’s too good to be true.

 

Soon, they’re done working for the day and Uncle Eric heads to his room to stare at the cats. Daddy KyunSang plays around with Mong and generally just laughs at all the cat’s antics as he jumps into his mini sock-house over and over again. This curious active cat is beyond adorable! Mong goes flying tonight too!

SeoJin joins in the fun too, wriggling a fake butterfly that Koong tries to catch. The three men share snacks, words and laughter and night passes like that.

The seagulls squawk and the waves roll over. Morning comes again and the other cats on Deukryang Island wander lazily around the landmass… and among our guys’ pots and pans. Uh… Koong and Mong are finally let out to breathe the fresh air and like the pampered cats they are, they lie in beds of flowers. Hee.

Eeeps, the rouge cat of Deukryang, DoDo, stages his rebellion and eats the meat meant for the trio’s breakfast. While all that chaos goes on outside, KyunSang innocently and groggily sits up with terrible bedhead. HA. Then he goes back lying down, using Koong as his pillow.

Pfft, the intern has been trained because even though he can’t even open his eyes properly, he’s already off to the coop to get the eggs and building the fires. While waiting, he says that it feels good that the fires are burning. They should fish.

Back in the room, Eric has a little problem when Mong refuses to get off his luggage as usual but he realises that there’s a bigger problem when he sees the open packet of meat with more than half of it gone. The production tells him the truth and he simply laughs in disbelief. At least there’s still enough to make the Rice Cake Soup that SeoJin wanted… but it’s not like it’s a problem yet because that guy is still wriggling his toes in bed.

 

Eric gets started on breakfast and KyunTern is there to help him get the requisite soy sauces. Eric soaks a pack of dried seasoned daikon and shows the staff how even that got torn open. Cat terror, HAHA.

Once he’s done helping Eric with breakfast, KyunSang heads to the mandarin tree in their garden and picks three ripe mandarins. He sits alone and peels one open… and is caught by Eric. “Heol!” HA. He immediately gets up to share his spoils and Eric is happy with just a bite. So he goes off to get an onion for his cooking while leaving KyunSang to eat the rest of the mandarins except for one (for SeoJinnie).

Chef Eric chops his vegetables up and prepares the standard broth like he always does, with dashima, anchovies and the roots of a spring onion. He tells us all that Dashima shouldn’t be left in the broth for too long or it’ll make it slimy. Yup.

They wonder what the cats are doing and… pffft, they’ve turned the room into the Bruce Lee Action School as they prance and jump around.

Finally, SeoJin gets up and makes his appearance to the world. KyunSang laughs that his eyes are swollen while Chef Eric continues to cook and taste at the same time. He makes beans in soy sauce and easily and quickly seasons the soaked dried daikon while he lets that cook on small fire.

 

SeoJin finishes washing up just as Eric drains the broth and reuses the pot to stir fry whatever beef slices they have left. He pours the broth over and then adds corn syrup into the beans with soy sauce.

SeoJin stares at his juniors slaving away while he has nothing to do. That’s awkward so he goes to make them morning coffees, hee.

The soup bubbles and boils, and in the time it finishes up, Eric quickly and easily makes egg slivers. Breakfast, Rice Cake Soup with Beans in Soy Sauce and Seasoned Daikon, is done. SeoJin has a smile so wide, his dimples have dimples. He takes a sip of the soup and he goes, “I’ve received a lot of luck (aka, I’m lucky).” Hee.

Heh, Eric can’t keep the smile off his face too as KyunSang declares the soup delicious. There’s that, but the food itself is good too. SeoJin starts scooping his rice cakes into KyunSang’s bowl while KyunSang tells him to eat more. SeoJin: “You’re telling me to give you more?” Hee. They’re so close now and it’s like there’s a whole new SeoJin.

Autumn brings with it gifts of a different kind and KyunSang goes to pick those deep red persimmons hanging on the trees. They’re super, super sweet. *drooooooooools…*

SeoJin asks if Eric’s going to clean (since he’s holding some sort of mop) and despite him saying that he doesn’t like cleaning, Eric starts mopping all the rooms while Mong follows him, hee. Eventually, the cat takes over SeoJin’s bed.

Na PD plans out their day for them (heh), which is basically fishing, fishing and more fishing (if you wanna, he says).  There’s “ramyeon” in the middle of his plans somewhere, if you’re wondering if he’s really the devil.

SeoJin suggests a picnic instead and even mentions putting wine in the Budae-jjigae. *Snort*, he packs an entire pack of Ramyeon into a picnic basket and prepares a pot and a portable drum-can too and when Na PD suggests they work on the Yuja field too, he says that he has no thoughts of fishing. Ha. KyunSang feels like they’re going to do good today and he hopes that it’s true because he’s been sorry that he’s the only one who’s been catching the fish.

 

They ride Ericar out to the end of the island where the rocks meet the sea. Pffft, the climb down the slope to the sea is so hard that they swear not to go back until they catch something.

Na PD: “The best spot! It’s right there!”

Someone: “Where?”

Na PD: “Where KyunSang is.” HA!

While SeoJin meddles with his rod, a fish waves hi from the sea right in front of him. Whoa. Na PD nags at him to catch it and not just look at it, haha. They see more fish bubbles in the sea and wonder what the heck is going on. SeoJin is especially confused because he’s thinking that the fish have already eaten the bait he’d just put in. He’s not used to something reacting to his bait!

SeoJin isn’t sure of anything, so he reels the line in and WHOAAAA!!!!!!!!! It’s a huge one that sends EVERYONE screaming. It’s a sea bass! Wow. Those dimples come out again as the guy brags that he’s a guy who caught sharks. Yeah, good job. His juniors praise him, saying that it’s as expected of the captain while Na PD apologises for all the times he’d been cursing SeoJin in his heart, hee. Na PD: “Oh, really, I really cursed a lot, hyung!” Pfft!

 

With SeoJin’s catch, Eric declares that they’re good for dinner, so from now on, they can just treat it as a hobby. Don’t be burdened!

KyunSang on the other hand, can’t even throw his line properly and keeps getting it stuck on something. Then he has his bait eaten by a fish that got away. Eric pulls up something so small it’s inedible and that’s the last thing they catch for a long time.

Na PD calls them up for lunch and one by one, the guys leave their rods behind to go up for Ramyeon. They’re stunned by the sight of the seedlings they’d planted just weeks ago, now gigantic plants and radish tops are even peeking out of the soil. Heh, I still remember the stumps apparently called carrots Chajumma had to endure in Gochang.

The three guys fill the portable drum-can up with fire, boil water and chop sausages. In the field, SeoJin grumps at Na PD for eating their produce. Hahaha. Na PD just brings him over to the radishes and has him pull one out, saying that the viewers want to see it and calling it cute. Lol. They all share the cute raw radish together and when the water boils, they add the Ramyeon in. Chef Eric can’t leave the Ramyeon alone and keeps lifting it up, just so that it can keep that springy and chewy texture.

Lol, even Eric’s Ramyeon is good to SeoJin, who mutters that it’s okay though (aka, it’s not bad). The other two eat with relish too and even compliment the Kimchi. They slurp and slurp and slurp and right when KyunSang’s in the middle of his sixth bowl, Na PD comes toddling over to show them the seabass that the line KyunSang left between the rocks recently caught. They realised it when the camera director looked into his monitor. The fishing ace is one step above the others – he has wireless technology!

They go back to the fishing spot and KyunSang reels in his line. He immediately gets another big one. LOL. SeoJin has no chance of being the Fishing Ace at all. Eric comes bouncing over, and sees fish jumping in the distance. He reels one in and while he’s getting it off the hook, the other rod has yet another fish on the line. KyunSang comes over to reel it in, but unfortunately, he loses it. Oops! He loses yet another one too. Then it’s Eric’s turn to lose his fish. Aw. But this is so hilarious, heh.

 

They fish and lose fish over and over and soon, the frenzy calms and they sit. They have 4 fish now, so KyunSang reels in one more. They fill the bucket to the brim and KyunSang asks the staff to gift him a larger “KyunSang’s”.

Up on land and under bright blue skies, SeoJin is off picking citrons from someone’s tree. He picks half a boxful and deems that enough, so he goes home, huffing and puffing along the way.

Pfft, he takes a cluster of citrons out and hangs it on a pillar like a Christmas decoration. With the others, he washes and covers them in salt to wash. Once it’s done, he  removes both seeds and flesh and slices the peels. He puts them in jars and fills them to the brim with sugar. With that, he’s done making Citron Jam (that is mainly used to make Citron Tea (Yuja-cha). Go try it if you haven’t!)

While the sun sets, KyunSang pulls in yet another sea-creature, a seawater eel this time. He then pulls in another fish and Eric unhooks the fish like he did for the eels. “KyunSang’s” (the bucket) is really little too small.

 

They head back home and SeoJin laughs when he hears them loudly call in, sure that it means that they’re full of confidence (and fish). They come in with 6 sea bass and one saltwater eel and Eric decides that dinner will be raw fish, grilled fish (one for each person) and Spicy Fish Stew.

Eric suddenly gets up to go fillet the eel, to show them all what he’d learnt from the ajumma at Noryangjin Fish Market. KyunSang comes to sit beside him and Eric totally grins when he’s sure that he’s done a good job.

Deputy E has a clear plan this time and they all work together efficiently. He goes on to scale the other fish while SeoJin peels more garlic. Why don’t you just peel all the garlic and store them in jars? While his juniors deal with the fish, Sir Grumpypants sits nearby and shows the world the wet sock that he still wears on his foot, ha.

Chef Eric prepares the broth for Spicy Fish Stew, adding dashima as usual, but now adding fish bones too. He then goes back to the kitchen to deal with the fish fillets and hahaha, he and the staff think back to the tiny little things they caught back in episode 2. He laughs in glee at how easy it is to de-skin and slice the much larger fillets he has now.

SeoJin gets out of the “toilet” from behind just in time and Eric calls him over to feed him a piece. But the moment SeoJin moves to eat it, Eric takes the fish back to dip in sauce, making for a rather embarrassing scenario that Na PD laughs at, hee.

Eric can’t believe the amount of raw fish they have and while he prepares the other ingredients for the other dishes, KyunSang and SeoJin fiddle with the pot of Spicy Fish Stew. Chef Eric comes to take over.

 

Now that they have so many dishes, they decide to eat the “appetizer”, the raw fish, first. KyunSang eats a piece and can’t stop sighing in satisfaction, so Na PD teases him for forgetting all about his Japanese Whiting. Ah… I wanna eat the raw fish too… Na PD wants to eat too and asks if they’re not going to give him the remainders. All it takes is for KyunSang to mutter “then… allowance…” for him to retract his statement and snap that he’s not eating, HA. Even Koong gets a fish to bite on.

Welp, they finish appetizer but appetizer isn’t dinner and so they go off to restart making dinner again.

Eric tasks KyunSang with making the sauce for the eel and the kid immediately forgets his instructions and gets confused, haha. What… what is this Boys Before Flowers OST… But White Kimchi, he can make (just wash normal Kimchi), so they switch jobs.

Eric then calls SeoJin to make the fire bigger. They go on to grill the marinated eel, which is also KyunSang’s responsibility. Eric had told him to grill it on low heat and KyunSang worries incessantly about the fire being too strong. SeoJin grumps that it’s fine and ooops, KyunSang ends up burning it.

 

KyunSang gets into a little minor tizzy and SeoJin points out the fish scales on his butt, calling him a mermaid, hee. Pfft, Eric comes out right then and KyunSang immediately flips the eel over to the nice unburnt side. So when Eric comes to check, he assures the guy that it’s okay. Then he turns it over. Heeee.

Eric goes off to finish dressing the rest of the fish to be grilled… and KyunSang laughs at the fire from hell right beside him. Sir Grumpypants is no grumbling uncle today because he’s going around asking Eric for things to do. Huh. The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, they say. I think Eric owns SeoJin now.

While SeoJin busies himself, Eric goes on to grill his fish in a pan, constantly basting them with hot olive oil mixed with herbs and garlic. SeoJin sees that and gulps and when Eric requests for something, he hurries off to get it, hehe. Na PD gets so dramatically surprised when he realises that Eric made the Spicy Fish Stew at the same time too.

Meanwhile, KyunSang is in a corner elsewhere trying to scrape his eel off. HA. He asks Eric for help and the elder guy just tells him to use a knife and slice it off. They don’t want the burnt part any way. And when the eels comes off with the burnt flesh gone, KyunSang grins. It looks a little uneven, so they cover it with more sauce, hee. Na PD: “Are you doing surgery?”

Dinner time! KyunSang comments that the fish is really very tender and SeoJin laughs at how he’s already through half his fish. Quietly, this time, they enjoy their dinner. SeoJin jokes that he’s only going to say something when it tastes bad from now on and KyunSang laughs when he sees what’s behind SeoJin – Na PD sneaking a taste from the pot again, HAHAH! Na PD’s surprised at how clean the Spicy Fish Stew tastes and Eric credits that to the soy sauce he’d put in. Eric pities the guy and shares a piece of Sea Bass with him and Na PD walks off with a delighted grin, heh.

 

Dinner ends with Eric explaining that he’d started cooking because he’d wanted something healthy and the two elder ones end up lying around in Eric’s room. Eric sees the lazy cats and grumps about how they keep runming around relentlessly and crazily in the mornings. HAHAHHAHA! We’re shown how the kitties are vicious in stepping on Eric’s face and sitting on his legs while he’s still half-asleep.

So when SeoJin heads off to sleep, he and KyunSang concoct a little plan, carrying the huge furry things over to his room. HAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!!

 

 

Next Week!

Where’s the fish?? All I see is meat and fried rice, of which a GIANT portion has been set aside for KyunSang.