The Reincarnated Lizardman Wants a Hamburger

“Waaaah…”

Elsee, who had been staring at the plate on the table as if entranced for a while.

“Wow! Elsee oppa! Try this! This hamburger is super delicious!!”

“Uh, uh.”

But that admiration was quickly shattered by Jungwoo, who was stuffing the hamburger into her mouth with cheeks bulging.

The hamburger steak was bite-sized, but that was by adult standards.

For kids like Jungwoo or Elsee, it should have been cut into two or three pieces to be bite-sized, but seeing her shove the whole thing in because it looked delicious made her look like a hamster stuffing its cheeks with nuts.

“Pfft, pfft. Jungwoo, eat slowly. No one’s going to take it from you.”

Elsee, calming Jungwoo down so she wouldn’t choke, finally stopped marveling and looked at the food.

Gulp.

After all, no matter how good the food looks, it’s useless if you don’t eat it.

Food exists to be eaten.

So Elsee picked up his fork and knife to eat the kids’ set menu.

“Now… what should I try first?”

And thus began the delightful dilemma.

The mini hamburger with its crispy exterior and rows of black grill marks, the mini tonkatsu with its shiny, golden breading under the light, and the omelet in the center of the plate, topped with ketchup.

The kids’ set was filled with dishes kids would love, making it a lineup so strong it was hard to choose.

“Uncle Lizard’s hamburger is the best!”

“Hmm. Is that so? Since you’re being so good, I’ll give you one more piece.”

“Yay!!”

‘Hamburger…’

At that moment, Jungwoo’s lively voice reached his ears.

Despite what had happened, she seemed to have already regained her energy, sounding as cheerful as ever, maybe even more so.

Thinking that, Elsee looked at Jungwoo and then back at the kids’ set, quickly making up his mind.

Perhaps because Jungwoo had enjoyed the hamburger so much.

Somehow, the hamburger looked even more delicious than before.

The scent of pepper, used sparingly to suit a child’s palate, mixed with the aroma of pork and beef, tickling his nose. Unable to resist, Elsee moved his fork and knife to cut the hamburger in half first.

Squish.

Cutting the hamburger in half revealed a moist interior, still juicy despite the crispy exterior.

Though no sound was actually heard, it felt like the sound of juices bursting out reached his ears.

Gulp.

His salivary glands exploded involuntarily.

Elsee desperately swallowed the overflowing saliva and lifted the hamburger.

Hap.

And just like that, the hamburger disappeared into his mouth.

And then.

Whoosh.

The flavor of the hamburger exploded in his mouth.

The aroma wasn’t from strong spices like pepper.

Rather, it was the pure scent of meat.

A rich, meaty aroma that combined the best of beef and pork, without any unpleasant smell.

Chew chew.

The texture was soft enough not to strain a child’s jaw, yet it still had the satisfying feel of meat when chewed.

Originally, making a hamburger isn’t just about grilling meat; it involves grinding beef and pork, mixing them, and forming patties, requiring more finesse than simply grilling meat.

If you use too little egg or breadcrumbs when making the patty, it crumbles easily when cooked, but too much makes it soggy or dulls the meat’s flavor.

But this hamburger had a perfectly crispy exterior while the inside was so juicy it could only be described as moist.

You could soak bread in this juice and it would taste three times better.

And the sauce, which Elsee was trying for the first time, was salty but not overpowering, with an addictive quality that left him spellbound.

This level of deliciousness was something he hadn’t experienced even at home or at restaurants in Astram known for their good food.

It was the kind of dish you’d expect only nobles, like the always elegant and beautiful Yuri noona, to eat.

“This is so delicious! It’s amazing! So good! I’ve never tasted anything like this!”

Elsee, deeply moved by Kurt’s hamburger dish.

He wanted to express his admiration, but limited by a child’s vocabulary, all he could do was repeat how delicious it was.

Was it okay to only say “delicious” while eating something this good?

Would the Astram gourmet guards arrest him for such a shallow appreciation of such a fantastic dish?

The taste was so incredible it made him worry.

Chew chew.

Hap.

Chew chew.

Though Elsee had scolded Jungwoo for shoving the hamburger in all at once, he couldn’t resist the intense flavor and ended up stuffing the remaining piece into his mouth in one go.

Elsee, moved by the experience, quickly devoured the rest of the hamburger.

“Sigh…”

And then came the emptiness.

Food exists to be eaten, but once eaten, it’s gone.

“Ah… I should have savored it more.”

Elsee regretted his impulsive decision to eat the hamburger all at once, looking at the plate with longing.

But no matter how much he looked, the eaten food wouldn’t return, so he reluctantly turned to the next menu item.

He chose the tonkatsu next.

But his feelings when choosing the tonkatsu were quite different from when he chose the hamburger.

If choosing the hamburger was driven by the shock of facing the kids’ set and the anticipation of the dish itself, choosing the tonkatsu was tinged with regret, as he had already eaten the hamburger.

‘Sigh. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten the hamburger first. If you eat the best dish first, everything else will taste worse. I should have saved the hamburger for last. Or at least left a piece.’

Naturally, Elsee thought the tonkatsu would be inferior to the hamburger.

But that assumption wasn’t just due to his naivety as a child.

Most people who ate Kurt’s cooking thought the first dish he served was the most delicious in the world.

Of course, that illusion shattered the moment they tasted the second dish.

Hap.

As Elsee, with a relatively diminished sense of anticipation, put the second menu item, the mini tonkatsu, into his mouth.

Crunch.

“…!?”

And then.

‘Is this even possible!? How can the second dish not be overshadowed by the hamburger at all!?’

Elsee, like most who had eaten Kurt’s cooking, couldn’t help but be astonished.

The hamburger alone was already the undisputed number one in his short life, but now the tonkatsu he was eating second seemed to rival the hamburger in taste.

The hamburger’s first bite was a harmonious blend of the meat’s unique aroma and the Maillard reaction at its peak.

It was the pinnacle of meat.

But the mini tonkatsu pursued a completely different path.

While the hamburger offered a satisfying meaty texture, the tonkatsu provided a crispy texture only possible with breading.

The high-temperature frying created a crunchy coating that, when bitten, crumbled with a rustling sound, creating a delightful collapse in the mouth.

Like stepping on fallen leaves.

Rustle.

Crunch.

Crackle.

And as if time slowed, each movement of the jaw clearly conveyed the texture of the breading, not soggy but also not so hard as to worry about injuring the roof of the mouth.

Moreover, the breading wasn’t just for texture; as it crumbled, it released the fragrant aroma and rich flavor of the frying oil.

And that wasn’t all.

While marveling at the breading’s texture and aroma, the thick pork hidden beneath revealed itself like an ambush.

It was like a sniper in a ghillie suit.

The pork, overshadowed by the breading’s strong impact, was no pushover either.

Looking at the mini tonkatsu’s cross-section, it had a tender pink hue, different from the hamburger’s moistness.

If the hamburger’s juiciness came from the meat’s juices, the tonkatsu’s moisture was inherent in the tender, pink meat itself.

And the meat was so tender it could rival the hamburger patty made from ground meat.

In a way, the tonkatsu’s texture was even easier to tear than the breading.

Chew chew.

Rustle rustle.

‘How do I describe this? Crispy yet tender!? Is this texture even possible?’

The texture was so astonishing it felt like magic, not cooking.

Having already peaked with the hamburger, Elsee was naturally shocked by the mini tonkatsu’s surprising flavor, as if mocking his earlier thoughts.

And when dipping the second piece into the sauce, it felt like the sauce had a will of its own, climbing up the breading and sucking it in.

Eating the sauced breading before it got soggy delivered another fresh shock.

Like a werewolf with two faces.

The tonkatsu without sauce was a straightforward assault on the tongue with the harmony of breading and pork, but with sauce, it became a trickster dazzling with all sorts of flamboyant gestures.

“Ah, ah… ahhh…”

Elsee, who had stood firm even under the merchant’s beatings, now trembled like a leaf in the wind, helplessly shaking under the consecutive shocks from the two dishes.

It was pure emotion.

But he couldn’t stop the fork and knife yet.

There was still one menu item left.

So Elsee turned his gaze to the final item, the omelet with a flag on top.

Gulp.

---