The Reincarnated Lizardman Wants a Hamburger

If you exclude side dishes like fried potatoes or salad, there’s only one dish left that can be called the main menu.

It was the omelet.

The surface of that omelet, without a single flaw, glistened with the oil of butter, exuding a lush, fresh lemon-like hue of pale yellow.

Its perfectly oval shape, rising plumply, made it seem as if it had been molded.

And the cute little wooden flag stuck on top.

It was nothing short of the ideal omelet.

“Hmm… an omelet…”

‘But what’s with that flag? It’s cute, but what’s it for? Is it edible too?’

However, Elsee’s reaction to such an omelet was somewhat ambiguous.

After all, having eaten hamburgers and pork cutlets, an omelet seemed a bit underwhelming.

Not that she doubted Kurt’s cooking skills, but compared to the meat dishes, an egg-based omelet felt like a step down.

Yes.

It was an inherent limitation of the ingredients, regardless of Kurt’s skill.

While everyone’s taste is different, for Elsee, who has the standard palate of a child, eggs inherently have a lower flavor ceiling compared to meat.

‘I do like omelets… but compared to the previous two dishes, it’s a bit…’

But what could she do?

She had already eaten the hamburger and pork cutlet.

‘Well, nothing to be done.’

If she had known, she should’ve started with the omelet.

Sigh

With such careless thoughts, Elsee repeated her mistake.

Thinking that this dish couldn’t possibly surpass the previous ones, she made the mistake of putting it in her mouth.

“…!?”

‘What, what is this!? This isn’t a meat dish! So why! Why is it this good!’

And the result.

Just like everyone else who had casually tasted Kurt’s cooking without proper mental preparation.

‘Why is it so delicious!’

Today’s second.

No, third.

She felt a shiver of delight.

No matter how well you make an omelet, it’s still just an omelet.

You can make it look pretty, but does that create a dramatic difference in taste? The answer is no.

Of course, the texture might be fluffier or the seasoning better, but that’s it.

An omelet can never surpass the limitations of an egg dish or beat a meat dish.

Or so.

Elsee, who had thought so just moments ago, felt her common sense shatter.

The moist texture of the egg, perfectly balanced between fully cooked and runny.

In the omelet, not just the aroma of eggs, but also the subtle scents of butter, vegetables, and even meat.

Even the aroma, while present, didn’t overpower the main flavor of the egg.

Children’s palates tend to be sensitive to complex and intense flavors, often rejecting them, but for Elsee, the aroma was just right, enhancing the rich flavor of the egg without being overwhelming.

How the flavor was infused into the omelet is unknown, but it was definitely more than just an egg dish.

‘Is, is this really an omelet…? Then what have I been eating all this time…?’

Chew chew

“…Ah!?”

But even that first impression of the deep, rich flavor of the omelet.

Compared to what truly shocked Elsee, it was just a teaser.

‘No, this is…’

“This isn’t an omelet!?”

Omelet. No, while chewing what she thought was an omelet, Elsee felt an unfamiliar texture and checked the menu on the spoon and plate again.

Seeing the red cross-section of the egg dish on the spoon, Elsee realized that what she thought was an omelet wasn’t an omelet at all.

The dish’s true identity was omurice.

The only element of an omelet was the outer layer wrapping the omurice.

Inside was…

‘This texture…’

“Rice!?”

The texture and the appearance of the grains were completely different from what she remembered, but it was a grain she definitely knew.

Yes. It was rice, a dish she had been served when she visited Jungwoo’s house, as his father called it his mother’s hometown food.

Perhaps because of her previous experiences eating that dish at Jungwoo’s house.

“Ahem, ahem!”

Elsee, momentarily shocked by the unfamiliar ingredient, soon felt embarrassed by her loud exclamation and continued her meal with a cough.

Chew chew

Her momentary panic over the unexpected ingredient was just that—momentary.

Soon, she couldn’t help but be captivated by the amazing taste and aroma of the fried rice inside the omurice.

The aroma of butter, used when frying the outer egg layer of the omurice, also infused the fried rice, spreading fragrantly with each chew.

Not just butter-fried rice, but a sweet and tangy flavor that perfectly targeted a child’s palate.

‘Ketchup! It’s ketchup!’

The base of the sauce was ketchup, a magical sauce that’s a staple in children’s meals.

But it wasn’t just the sweet and tangy taste of ketchup.

Frying rice with just ketchup could easily create a stimulating taste, but it would also bring out a cheap flavor.

Of course, in this world where spices and seasonings aren’t easily accessible, even that cheap flavor could be considered gourmet.

But Kurt wouldn’t allow that.

If he could be satisfied with that, he would have made the other two main dishes, the hamburger and pork cutlet, at the level of cheap frozen food, just like in his previous life on Earth.

The result was a dish that wasn’t just a common franchise restaurant’s kids’ meal, but a composition where each element was of the quality you’d expect from a proper specialty restaurant.

Though ketchup was the base, it was blended with demi-glace sauce used in the hamburger and pork cutlet, adding a rich umami that ketchup alone couldn’t provide.

Thus, a simple sweet, tangy, and salty ketchup fried rice was reborn as an excellent Western-style fried rice.

The texture of the finely chopped vegetables and meat mixed into the omurice added variety to the otherwise plain fried rice.

Chopped to the size of rice grains, yet not haphazardly, each ingredient’s texture was alive, recognizable on the tongue.

Despite the varying heat and time required to fry the rice, vegetables, and meat to the right level, every ingredient in the fried rice was perfectly cooked—nothing undercooked or overcooked.

It was a level of perfection impossible without a complete understanding of the time and heat needed for each ingredient and precise timing in adding them.

Thus, the dish completed within the framework of fried rice was in no way inferior to the hamburger and pork cutlet she had eaten earlier.

Just as the pork cutlet couldn’t replicate the Maillard reaction flavor of the hamburger’s meat surface, but instead offered the unique charm of its crispy fried coating, making it hard to compare.

Similarly, the omurice couldn’t surpass the realm of meat dishes, but it showcased its own charm in a direction that meat dishes couldn’t achieve.

“Oh, oh…!”

Chew chew

Sigh

Chew chew

Sigh

Chomp chomp

The more she ate, instead of her appetite diminishing, it burned fiercer like a wood stove, and Elsee devoured the omurice in a frenzy.

So much so that she didn’t even notice the flag in the center of the omurice falling.

“Ah!”

It was only when Jungwoo suddenly raised his voice that Elsee snapped out of her eating trance.

“Wh-what’s wrong!”

Elsee, startled by how engrossed she had been in her meal, quickly looked at Jungwoo, worried he might have been hurt.

But Jungwoo, far from being in pain, looked as if he had won a contest, happily pointing at the kids’ meal Elsee was eating.

“Brother, the flag fell! I won!”

“…Won?”

Elsee finally looked in the direction Jungwoo was pointing.

At the end was the wooden flag she had knocked over while eating mindlessly.

“Yeah! With this omurice rice, the one who knocks over the flag first loses!”

“Ah… I see.”

Feeling foolish for being so startled, Elsee’s energy drained.

‘So that’s what the flag was for.’

“Hehe! The way to eat this without knocking over the flag is to eat around the edges carefully, not just digging in from one side!”

“Right. Impressive.”

Elsee praised Jungwoo half-heartedly and was about to resume eating.

But at that moment, Jungwoo, basking in Elsee’s praise, remembered something and asked.

“Oh, right! Brother! What did you mean earlier?”

“What do you mean?”

“Earlier, you said to that bad man that I was precious… but you stopped. What was I precious as?”

“Ah. That…?”

“Yeah. I kept forgetting, but eating made me remember.”

“Why would eating make you remember that…?”

Elsee tried to subtly change the subject, but Jungwoo clung on.

“So what did it mean?”

“Well… it was…”

“Yeah? Yeah?”

Jungwoo persistently pressed, and eventually, Elsee surrendered, blushing as he spoke.

“Well, it means…”

“It means?”

“It means you’re like a precious little sister to me.”

“Ah! I see! I get it! You’re like a real brother to me too!”

With Elsee’s words, Jungwoo nodded as if a frustrating puzzle had been solved and went back to eating.

.

.

.

And watching the two young friends, I smiled contentedly.

“Well, I guess it turned out alright.”

Judging by how the two were eating, at least today’s memory would likely be remembered as a happy ending rather than a terrible nightmare.

Even if the final answer was a bit awkward.

It’s a relief we managed to end on a warm note.

“That’s right. It’s good it ended well.”

“After all, smiles suit children best.”

“Well, the final answer was a bit lukewarm though.”

The three agreed with my words, smiling.

To them, it seemed the two wouldn’t be traumatized by this event.

And so, we managed to make that day a peaceful one.

---