Chapter 26: Best Food Combination Tournament

“Chicken and beer versus tteokbokki and rice balls. In short, Chi-maek versus Tteok-bap… This is a tough one.”

[Tteok-bap for life LOL]

[Chi-maek is the classic. No competition.]

[Chi-maek all the way.]

[Lol, agreed.]

[Chi-maek > everything.]

[Isn’t chicken and cola better than chicken and beer?]

[Kids, go wash up and sleep.]

“Though, the second combo is no joke either.

Personally, I really like boneless spicy chicken feet with rice balls.

You know, those spicy dishes paired with steamed egg and rice balls.

Just talking about it makes my mouth water. Ssshh.”

<FlavorConnoisseur donated 1,000 KRW!>

– Honestly, rice balls are great, but tteokbokki? I don’t get the appeal.

“What do you mean, what’s wrong with tteokbokki? It’s so delicious! The sauce, the veggies, the chewy rice cakes—”

[Haha, touching the holy trinity of “girls’ foods”: King-bokki (tteokbokki).]

[Tteokbokki supremacy.]

[Oh, so Mollru can’t resist tteokbokki either.]

“Still, the classic is chicken and beer. Tteokbokki and rice balls just had bad luck with their match-up.”

[Wait, what?]

[Unexpectedly fair, huh?]

Without hesitation, I chose chicken and beer.

Chi-maek is unbeatable.

It was a day after I selected an editor and sent the email.

I had just started my stream, sharing the news that the editor had been chosen and mulling over what content to do today.

A viewer suggested a “Best Food Pairing World Cup.”

It sounded fun, so I casually decided to give it a try.

But before I knew it, I was completely absorbed in the match-ups, debating passionately with my viewers.

“Spicy noodles and fried dumplings versus jokbal (pig’s trotters) and chilled noodles…”

[Lololol easy choice.]

[Obvious.]

[OMG, why are you torturing us with food at night?]

[Lmao spicy noodles and dumplings are a must.]

“Jokbal is tempting though.”

This World Cup concept is surprisingly solid—great for stimulating the appetite.

Since I have a small appetite and don’t feel like eating much, this might be perfect for me.

“For me, I’d pick jokbal over spicy noodles and dumplings. I actually prefer pairing spicy noodles with grilled pork belly, so… jokbal it is.”

<SpicyNoodlesDribblingSue donated 1,000 KRW!>

– Pork belly is cheating. It’s meat, so of course, it’s better than dumplings.

“Uh… thank you for the donation, SpicyDribbleSue. But hold on, is pork belly the only meat? Dumplings are meat too. What kind of logic is that?”

[LOL Logic King strikes again.]

[True, dumplings are meat, pork belly is meat—it’s all the same.]

[SpicyDribbleSue in shambles LOL.]

After lightly shutting down that nonsensical claim, I moved on to the next round.

– Steamed rice & soy-marinated crab versus popcorn & cola.

[The ultimate rice thief, soy-marinated crab, enters the scene!]

[No contest.]

“Wait, is popcorn and cola even food? Does that fill you up?”

[It fills me up.]

[It’s just about combos, but yeah, popcorn and cola feels a bit off.]

“Hmm… this one’s tough.”

[Excuse me?]

[What’s hard about this, teacher? Obviously, it’s rice and soy-marinated crab.]

[Come on, how could popcorn and cola ever beat soy-marinated crab?]

“I have a shellfish allergy.”

[Oh…]

[An allergy is unbeatable, I guess.]

[Why not overcome it while you’re at it? Soy-marinated crab isn’t even real shellfish.]

[So the streamer can’t eat shrimp either? That’s so sad.]

[There are so many delicious shellfish dishes though…]

“I can eat fried shrimp. That seems to be okay.”

[What kind of logic is that?]

[That’s like a vegan saying they eat burgers.]

[Aren’t there vegan burgers?]

[Selective allergy, much? LOL.]

“Oh, and I can’t eat rice with beans, but I can eat marinated black beans. Also, tofu is fine.”

[That’s me too. Rice with beans feels like it gets stuck in your throat.]

[What a weird way to be picky about food.]

[But tofu is delicious.]

[Back in the day, we didn’t even have rice with beans…]

[If you were my kid, I’d make you eat it with a good smack.]

“So my choice is popcorn and cola~ It tastes twice as good when eaten at the theater~.”

[That’s just the theater buff, though.]

[What if you have no one to go to the theater with, teacher?]

[I’ve never seen a world cup where popcorn and cola beat soy-marinated crab. What is this?]

[Even for Mollru, this is pushing it…]

Ignoring the viewers’ grumbling, I continued with my decision.

The next food pairing appeared, and the viewers let out astonished exclamations. It was something familiar to me too.

“Mint chocolate versus pineapple pizza. This is obviously…”

[This isn’t food! It’s trash versus trash!]

[Gross… even my dog wouldn’t eat these.]

[Excuse me, but pineapple pizza is delicious.]

[Pineapple pizza deserves respect!]

While glancing at the chat, I accidentally bit my tongue out of shock.

“Obviously mint chocolate, right? Who picks pineapple pizza?”

[What do you mean? Pineapple pizza is great.]

[Don’t you know the sweet-and-salty combo?]

[The sweetness of pineapple balances out the greasiness of pizza.]

Unbelievable.

My viewers… are these kinds of culinary extremists?

This is a collapse of food culture.

“Have you ever seen Gordon Ramsay willingly eat pineapple pizza? Pizza is food, and pineapple is fruit—it’s dessert! Why would you even think of eating them together?”

[The version he tried wasn’t localized enough.]

[You should try it sometime.]

[There are Italians who came to Korea, tried pineapple pizza, and cried.]

[Okay, but mint chocolate is worse…]

[Isn’t pineapple pizza better than mint chocolate?]

[Both are terrible.]

Thankfully, a few enlightened intellectuals in the chat rejected pineapple pizza.

But they seemed to reject mint chocolate as well.

Why, though? It’s so delicious!

“What’s so bad about mint chocolate? Regular chocolate can be too sweet, but mint makes it refreshing. It’s such a perfect combination. Mint chocolate ice cream and Denmark Mint Choco Milk are both delicious.”

[Your logic sounds similar to the pineapple pizza fans, teacher.]

[Why are you eating toothpaste?]

[Gross.]

[LOL, it’s just toothpaste with sugar.]

[Looks like Mollu ran out of things to eat and resorted to toothpaste…]

What a bunch of tasteless people.

I carefully scanned the chat, but no one seemed to like mint chocolate. Well, except for one person.

An unexpected individual.

Sua: I like mint chocolate too!

“Oh, Sua! You like mint chocolate? You really have great taste.”

[Sua, really?]

[Sua is Team Mint Choco?]

[No way…]

Sua’s sudden appearance took everyone by surprise.

Thanks to Sua saying she liked mint chocolate, a few other viewers suddenly declared their support for it as well.

Where were they when I was passionately defending it earlier? Now they decide to chime in.

With Sua’s entrance, the chaotic chat calmed down somewhat.

Taking advantage of the distraction, I was about to declare mint chocolate the winner.

<Sua has donated 10,000 won!>

Mollu, have you ever thought about entering a competition?

“A competition?”

What competition is she talking about?

[Look at this person pretending not to know. You know, the competition with all the Aeowar streamers.]

“Oh, that one.”

Scratching my cheek, I realized what Sua was referring to.

There was a competition hosted for Aeowar streamers on Switch.

I remembered hearing about it and that it had a decent number of participants.

“Honestly, I’m not that interested…”

It’s a large-scale event hosted by the platform, which means mingling with a lot of people.

That alone made it seem uncomfortable, so I’d been putting it off. I’d planned to relax at home with some chicken and watch it live instead.

<Sua has donated 10,000 won!>

Come on, let’s enter the competition together, okay?

[Whoa, look at her instantly pulling out the cute act.]

[If Mollu teams up with Sua, that’d be such a strong duo.]

[But there’s no guarantee you’ll end up on the same team, right?]

“It just sounds like too much of a hassle…”

<Sua has donated 10,000 won!>

Would you really turn down a request from your precious student?

“Stop throwing 10,000 won donations at me!”

I was flustered by Sua’s relentless demands.

But then another username appeared among the flood of donations dominated by Sua.

<MollDaesikForever has donated 10,000 won!>

LOL, Sua, I think Daesik is the teacher’s precious student now.

[Sua’s student status is getting NTR’d. LOL.]

[A betrayal video featuring Sua?]

[Hold up.]

[Stop right there.]

[Golden-tanned Daesik, LOL.]

[GoldTanDaesik, hahaha!]

[Oh no, now I can’t unsee it, LOL.]

Oh, right. There *was* Daesik too.

It seemed like Daesik’s name was on the participant list too.

He’s someone whose skills improved significantly thanks to my special coaching.

I hoped those skills would shine in the competition.

As I pondered about my student’s recent progress, another donation alert sounded.

<Sua has donated 10,000 won!>

Teacher… have you been teaching someone else besides me?

The mechanical, feminine voice—often teased as “robotic girl” or “digital girlfriend”—sounded strangely cold.

It was the same automated voice I heard every day, so there’s no way it could feel different.

I brushed it off as my imagination and answered Sua’s question.

“Oh, yes. By chance, I ended up working with Daesik and helped him improve a bit.”

[By chance?]

[You said I was the only one! The only one!]

[When did Mollu ever say that? LOL.]

<Anon has donated 10,000 won!>

Sua vs. Daesik

[Is this a World Cup now?]

[Like a popularity contest?]

“Why are you asking such tricky questions? You’re putting me on the spot.”

It was a dangerous question that could easily spark conflict.

Especially since one of the main people involved was here.

<Sua has donated 10,000 won!>

You have to answer, teacher. A viewer even donated for this ^^.

The person in question clearly wanted an answer.

Fair enough. If someone spent a hefty 10,000 won on a donation, it would be disappointing not to get a response.

As expected of a professional streamer, Sua knew how to make moments like this engaging for the audience.

“What’s the judging criteria? Skill in Aeowar, for example, would be a fair measure, right?”

[Why are you asking us that? LOL.]

[We don’t know.]

[It’s about who’s in your heart, teacher. LOL.]

Let’s assess this objectively.

Both of them are students I’ve coached.

“Well, in terms of rank, Daesik is higher…”

The reaction was immediate.

[Victory for Daesik!]

[Daesik! Daesik! Daesik!]

[Look at how casually everyone’s just calling him Daesik without the honorifics LOL.]

[Ahaha, Daesik over Sua any day.]

<Sua has donated 10,000 won!>

I’m disappointed, teacher.

“I’ve only said one thing so far…”

It seemed like I’d chosen my words poorly.