Youn’s Kitchen, Season 2 Episode 5 (Part 2)

What a long colourful day Youn’s Kitchen had! Of course, there is a case for celebration. But, there’s an urgent need for improvement in service.

On a record breaking customer count, Youn’s Kitchen gets seven group of customers within an hour after opening. Currently, there are two groups of customers in the Hall: the sixth customers, a local couple, and the seventh, a German and Chinese couple.

Youn’s Kitchen’s Fourth Day Still Continues…

Another couple stop by the entrance and read the menu. The lady waves back at the sixth customer lady. He decides to order what he saw earlier. Earlier that day, the man had come to Youn’s Kitchen and been shown the menu. He was surprised to read a Korean ‘tortilla’ in it. His friend had told him to come back to Youn’s Kitchen later on. And here he is now, entering the Hall. His daughter follows.

The man greets the sixth customers and is told that the food is good. The sixth customer lady points out the changes made to the room. “Look at the colour of the bar,” she says. The father and daughter, Youn’s Kitchen’s eighth customers of the day take the table near the bar. They order two Japchae, two bulgogi bibimbab, wine, and water.

Meanwhile, the German and Chinese couple leave the restaurant.

Seo-Jin serves the water to the eighth customers. The man takes interest in the bottle as Seo-Jin says the water is Korean. Seo-Jin serves the wine. The man raises the wine glass in a toast, followed by the daughter. The other locals don’t have glass but they too cheer.

The eighth customer and the locals talk about a friend. “We’ve been exchanging lottery tickets for fifteen years,” the man says. The friend had asked him to split the lottery tickets and send it to the friend for another 53 years. ( An explanation reads “in Spain, friends or family give lottery tickets or shares to each other as presents or good luck”)

Then the sixth customer mentions another friend, who studied maths, had told him that the chance of winning a lottery is a zero point zeros that are so long, it is practically zero. “Like the chance of meeting a woman who pays first,” the man says. His wife laughs at his remark. “That’s a different matter,” she says. She puts notes on the table, which Seo-Jin picks up. “Thank you,” Seo-Jin says.

Seo-Joon brings two Japchae to the eighth customers’ table. They then discuss how to use chopsticks to eat Japchae. In the end, they stick to using spoon and fork. The daughter likes the dish. The father thinks of adding bread to it. “Dad!” the daughter says.

The father takes out his phone and mentions her mother. “She must be eating now,” he says. The daughter asks him to call mother for mother always answers his calls. “She answers mine just when she wants to,” she says. But mother doesn’t answer father’s call. “Your mum doesn’t answer calls well,” he says, disappointed.

He tries again and, this time, his call is answered. He tells her of a new Korean restaurant where he is currently eating at with their daughter. He also mentions changes brought to the Hall. “It looks lovely,” he says. The daughter asks for the phone and talks to her mother about their meal. “It’s really good here, Mum. The food is great, the people are nice,” she says, “I can’t believe you miss this.”

 

 

Since the eighth customers are enjoying the Japchae, Boss Youn thinks they can slow down a little and do the bibimbab later. Seo-Joon also tells the kitchen the same thing. “Tell us when they are about to finish,” Boss Youn says. She sits down, or crouches, on the raise platform by the stove. “My legs hurt,” she says repeatedly.

Seo-Joon brings out a chair for Boss Youn to sit properly. She sits on it for a while. Then she gets up to check and get ingredients and appliances ready. Yu-Mi does stretching. Boss Youn then does the same.

 

The eighth customer asks if any of the casts speaks Spanish. “I want to rent them my vacation home,” he says, which draws laughter. The sixth customer jokingly puts tip inside a box on the server table. Seo-Joon quickly fetches the tip. The local lady then asks if anyone speaks Spanish.

Seo-Jin, assessing the situation, goes out and brings the Spanish-speaking program coordinator who may be of help interpreting. Meanwhile the sixth customers are leaving.

Through the coordinator, the eighth customer explains himself. He then points at the locals who have just left. “That man is the former mayor of Garachico and I was mayor for eighteen years before him,” he says. He had been the vice governor of Tenerife for thirty years. “I’m retired now,” he says.

The program coordinator asks about the Korean food the man has. “It’s delicious,” he says, “and I like the decor.” The casts and crew thank him for the compliment.

 

Seo-Jin goes to the kitchen. Boss Youn asks if she should start cooking. Seo-Jin decides to close the shop after their eighth customers leave. “I really like you for telling me to close the shop,” Boss Youn says. They don’t have much left.

Seo-Jin then tells her about their customers, the father being a mayor and then a vice governor for a long time. “Ah, member of the power class,” Boss Youn says. She asks what they think about the food. Seo-Jin says that he likes the restaurant and the food. Seo-Joon enter the kitchen and asks Boss Youn to start cooking bibimbab.

Boss Youn cooks the meat and Yu-Mi cooks the eggs. “Let’s give them everything,” Boss Youn says, for they are the last customers of the day. “I hope he tells people about us,” Boss Youn says although she thinks they shouldn’t bow down to power. Once the dishes are done, they are done. Boss Youn does a cheer. “Manse!”

Seo-Jin and Seo-Joon bring the two bibimbab to the eighth customers. The daughter asks Seo-Joon to take their picture. She then hears sound of metal clanging and looks at her father. “Did you make that sound? While eating?” She looks shocked. The father doesn’t answer and instead, strikes the metal spoon to the metal bowl, making the same noise. “Dad!” she chastises him again and laughs. She had thought it was the bell sound marking the food coming out of the kitchen.

Seo-Joon sees that the daughter looks confused about bibimbab. He offers to show her how to mix sauce and bibimbab. “I actually did it on purpose so that you come and show me,” she says. They laugh. She takes a bite, carefully at first, and then another with silent approval. “This is delicious,” she says.

 

In the kitchen, Seo-Jin tells Boss Youn that they have made a record sales today. “We made more than €200,” he says. Boss Youn and Yu-Mi are impressed. “Shall we open the wine Seo-Joon brought, then?” Yes, they shall.

 

The eighth customers ask for espresso and americano, which Seo-Jin makes immediately and serves. As they take the drinks, Yu-Mi passes them. The daughter remarks that she is very pretty. The father thinks the drink tastes similar to the one her mother makes. “It’s delicious,” he says.

While he is on the phone, he sees a friend “Kiko”, with whom he’d come earlier to Youn’s Kitchen, making a turn at the intersection. “I should get him to come here for coffee,” he says and gets out. The friend joins them at their table.

The friend asks about the food. The daughter explains bibimbab in great details. “It’s delicious,” they both say. The friend is urged to take his wife to Youn’s Kitchen for dinner because the food is good here.

After the last customers leave, Seo-Jin puts up the closed sign.

A Night of Celebration

The casts prepare to go home, bringing tablecloths to clean. “I am so hungry,” Yu-Mi says. Everyone is tired for it’s been a very long day. Then they walk home as the day breaks. As they walk, street lights are lit. The night life in Garachico begins.

Seo-Jin and Seo-Joon arrive first. Boss Youn and Yu-Mi stop for a moment to admire the moon, not yet full but beautifully bright tonight. When they enter the house, the men are preparing ssamjang, the dipping sauce. Yu-Mi collects laundry, especially white shirts which will be worn on friday.

Boss Youn goes to the kitchen, looking for something to do. “Just rest,” Seo-Jin says while he is preparing meat. Seo-Joon cooks the meat. “It smells great,” Yu-Mi says. Boss Youn picks one cut and wraps it in lettuce. “You must be hungry,” Na PD says. “I must survive,” Boss Youn says.

The table is set for dinner. They all sit, raise glasses to a toast, and help themselves to the grilled meat.

Seo-Joon then asks about opening wine., the one he would open if they managed to get €200. He brought it for Boss Youn. “Let’s open it when we do well,” Boss Youn had said. They did well today.

Later that night, Yu-Mi takes care of the laundry. She hangs them to dry on a rack on the ground floor and the rails on rooftop. She then folds cleaned laundry, helped by Seo-Joon. She feels tired she wants to lay on her stomach and get stepped on. “You’ll split in half if I do it,” Seo-Joon says.

The casts retire for the night after exchanging ‘good night’, ‘see you tomorrow’ and ‘you’ve done well’.

 

Preparing A Better System and Improving Processes

Yu-Mi and Seo-Joon go to work first, as usual. They’ve got things to buy. “I’ve got the money,” Yu-Mi says although she wonders where and when she got it. Seo-Jin, with a playfully accusing tone, wonders if Yu-Mi took money from the deposit box. “No!” Yu-Mi vehemently denies.

“Aren’t you ‘Lupin’?” Seo-Joon asks after a couple of steps from home. “No, I am not!” Yu-Mi says. Seo-Joon goes on ignoring her strong denials. He concludes that she is the famous thief. Thus, the money may be of a questionable origin. “It’s my money!” Yu-Mi says.

Another few steps, Yu-Mi stops for a moment, scratching her ears. “I think someone is talking behind my back,” she says. They walk again to work.

Seo-Joon brings heavy duty appliances that had been used for oxtail soup. He will go straight to Youn’s Kitchen while Yu-Mi goes shopping to the greengrocer’s. Looking cool with the shades while holding the rattling pans and what-not, he crosses the town square. (A caption reads, “Pan Leon”)

Yu-Mi gets lettuce that is almost bigger than her head. Its wavy leaves resembles her frizzly hair. At the counter, another shopper notices a camera and asks if she looks pretty in Spanish. But no one answers her question. “Are we ugly?” the lady says playfully. Yu-Mi apologises that she cannot speak Spanish. After paying for the lettuce, she goes running to Youn’s Kitchen.

“Be in high spirit today!” Yu-Mi says. “You too,” Seo-Joon says. “Fighting!” Yu-Mi says. (They take sponsored energy drink supplement)

Yu-Mi’s got an idea to make garlic flakes faster and easier. “Let’s use the deep-fryer to make garlic flakes,” she says. The previous method, frying garlic slices on pan, takes 15 minutes. Yu-Mi slices the garlic then Seo-Joon tries frying some using the deep-fryer. “This must be done very quick,” he says. The result is garlic flakes as desired. He tries the whole batch of sliced garlic and within seconds they get the day’s stock of garlic flakes. Yu-Mi uses kitchen towels to absorb oil excess from garlic flakes.

Seo-Joon cleans up the order board. He has devised a better order-to-serve system. Last night, Boss Youn expressed concern that since the kitchen didn’t know the state of the Hall, they prepared the easier dishes of first incoming orders, in a first-in-first-served way. “Then what had happened will be repeated,” Boss Youn says.

Yesterday, a series of unfortunate incidents occured. First, the German couple’s order was forgotten, which would have been avoided had the Hall team and the kitchen communicated and shared information. Second, the lone Belgian man, who only ordered one bibimbab, had to wait for a long time for his meal because the kitchen did the others’ orders, which were many, first.

Today, the kitchen will no longer get table order. Seo-Joon will pool orders that come simultaneously and reorganise the priority of order items for the kitchen. This is to ensure that customers with smaller order don’t wait too long for their food because of other customers’ larger orders.

For example, table A’s three people order kimchijeon, Japchae, and bibimbab. Table B’s one man orders a Hotteok. In previous system, the kitchen processes orders sequentially: finishes A’s order and then processes B’s. In the improved system, Seo-Joon will reorganise the sequence on a different paper, an order consolidation, for the kitchen: A’s Kimchijeon, A’s Japchae, B’s Hotteok, and A’s bibimbab. This way, table A’s three people and table B’s one man get their food without waiting too long. The order list will be updated accordingly to reflect the Hall’s condition.

Will this system work better?

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