Episode 18
24 Jul 2008 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: Episode 18
Yeon-Sheng tells Court Lady Han sang goon that Court Lady Jung sang goon didn’t display any symptoms of the illness like Court Lady Min sang goon had (Court Lady Min sang goon is the other Court Lady that nags Jang-geum a lot and has the philosphy that moderation is the key to survival). Court Lady Min sang goon asks Lady Court Jung sang goon why she was sent to the quarantine house if she’s not sick by the illness (a suspected influenza was looming the palace). Court Lady Jung sang goon who is seemingly healthy, ponders why she was sent.
The rest of the palace workers try to determine the cause of the epidemic by sanitzing the area to avoid any outbreaks.Geum-young suggests to Court Lady Choi sang goon to seek the shi-geh (food doctor) advice on the matter and reason for the outbreak.Jae-jo-sang goon pushes General Oh to elect the new kitchen leader since Lady Court Jung is gone. But the Head of the Royal Household minister Shang Shen – a enunch insists they should wait until Lady Court Jung returns first since she is still Head of the Royal Kitchen and that she has not reliquished her position.Jae-jo-sang goon then chose Lady Court Choi sang goon as Acting Head of Royal Kitchen while Lady Court Jung sang goon is away.
The first instruction as the Acting Head of Royal Kitchen Lady Court Choi orders Lady Court Han and Jang-geum to go to ‘ Tae Pyung Guan ‘(The Peace palace it’s where they house the Chinese dignitaries as Korea was then seen as a Ming Dynasty-Chinese protectorate at this period, hence the Korean King have to ask the approval of the Chinese Ambassador for his heir apparent which the task was given to General Oh to succeed after much delay).
Tae Pyung Guan is seen as a task that no one apparently wants to take on and also seen as a place of cold storage and exile as the Ming dynasty dignitaries are seen often with outrageous demanding behaviours and attitude that can be hard to please and in no position to disagree or refuse.The story was given by the Old Court Lady in the service of the Queen Dowager who was retiring was given a privilege to become an examiner for the Kitchen Court Lady where her daughter who was from the tailor department came to roomate with jang-geum and stole jang-geum’s ratio of flour to made dumpling for her mother as a farewell gift. She was posted to Tae Pyung Guan where she was young, and was raped by the Chinese dignitaries and had his child. Since the child was innocent, she raised her up under the shroud of the Court Ladies’s loyalties oath.
Lady Court Han and Jang-geum leaves for ‘Tae Pyung Guan’ posting. Yeon Sheng seen that Lady Court Choi sang goon have gained the upper hand plead to Lady Court Han sang goon to tag along as she is a lamb among the wolves.She refused Yeon-sheng’s plead as they’re not going for fun but Yeon-sheng worries that they’ll never return. Lady Court Han sang goon assured Yeon-Sheng that it is not so.
Master Min carries out the task of screening the people who may show any symptoms of illness at the entrance of the palace. Palace Cook Gam and Mrs. gam arrive at the entrance of the palace and met Lady Court Han and Jang-geum enroute to ‘Tae Pyung Gan posting.They ask Palace cook gam if he could go see Lady Court Jung sang goon at the quarantine house to check if she’s really ill with influenza and the severity of her illness.Palace cook gam tries to get out of it for fear of catching the illness but Mrs.Gam says he can do it for a fee.Lady Court Han sang goon agrees on the payment.
Master Min sees jang-geum and while Lady Court Han sang goon steps aside to talk with the gam’s to give them some instructions, meanwhile Master Min asks Jang-geum where she’s going seeing her packed for travel.Jang-geum tells him that she is off on their posting to ‘Tae Pyung Guan’ for the time being to prepare for the arrival of the Chinese dignitaries.Master Min says she will face a difficult task ahead of her and shows empathy for her.Geum-young walks by as she goes to gather cooking materials.Geum-young is upset seeing Jang-geum talking to Master Min so candidly.
Later,Master Min coincidentally bump into geum-young.Master Min asks geum-young on the happenings on royal kitchen but geum-young rebuked that he only to ask when crisis occured and shows she’s angry that he didn’t apply the same caring concern to her as he did for jang-geum.Master Min was surprised at her outburst and apologizes but geum-young walks away.
Right Minister Oh tells Choi pan-su that he didn’t expect the Lady Court Jung sang goon’s matter to be resolved so easily and tells choi pan-su he may have to go jeju-island to run some errands for him.Choi states he was planning on going there anyway to work on new money-making deals.Right Minister Oh shows his satisfaction in choi’s quick thinking.
Mrs.gam forces palace cook gam to visit Lady Court Jung sang goon at the quarantine house. Palace cook Gam fearing that he will catch the illness could only manage to stand outside and shout to Lady Court Jung sang goon that he was sent by Lady Court Han sang goon on her status of her health.Lady Court Jung sang goon tells him to enter her room to talk, but Palace cook Gam says he prefer to stay outside but Lady Court Jung sang goon ordered him in.Gam then asks the nurse for a mask for some protection and goes inside.Gam informs jung sang goon the news of Lady Court Han sang goon and jang-geum have been transferred to ‘Grand peace Palace’.
Lady Court Jung sang goon passed a letter to gam for Lady Court Han sang goon .After gam leaves Lady Court Jung sang goon brings out the Head of the Royal Kitchen secret historical journal.The journal which have references to the diet and recipes favoured by the Royal Household recorded down by past Head of the Royal Kitchen Ladies. It was secretly handed down from Lady Court Choi’s Aunt to Lady Court Choi sang goon . Lady Court Jung sang goon never had the journal in her possession and only had it when the guards ransacked Lady Court Choi sang goon’s room when a prowler hide in her room closet and Lady Court Jung sang goon accidentally found it while tidying up her room.
Palace Cook Gam passes the letter to Lady Court Han sang goon .In the letter, Lady Court Jung sang goon wrote that she is not stricken by the illness but she wants Han sang goon and jang-geum not to do anything for the time being and act as normal.
Right Minister Oh is entertaining the visiting Ming Dynasty (Chinese) Ambassador in the ‘grand peace palace’.The King has asked Right Minister Oh to have the Chinese Ambassador for the approval to the King heir apparent.Court Lady Han sang goon cooks up a light greaseless healthy food when she knew that the Chinese Ambassador was suffering from diabietes when the Royal Physician brought a prescription for the Chinese Ambassador who by now would have suffered from fatigue by the long journey from China which will add more weight to his diabietes.The Chinese Ambassador and Right Minister Oh were shocked by the presentation of the simple food and rebuke the food and asked to have it changed.The food was taken away but returned the same for the Chinese Ambassador.
Court Lady Han sang goon came to explain why she presented such food to the Chinese Ambassador stating his illness and after a long tiring journey and he cannot consume such rich food.The Chinese Ambassador was unimpressed with the explanation and Right Minister Oh gets the guards to drag Lady Court Han sang goon away.On seeing Lady court Han sang goon being dragged away from abiding to her conviction and principles,jang-geum comes in to plead to the Chinese Ambassador that the food served to him is good for his current health condition and Lady Court Han sang goon has forsaken her great culinary skills to make the food that will bring benefit to his health.And she asked them a chance of 5 days to present these simple food, and it will bring changes to the Ambassador’s health. On hearing this, Right Minister Oh was more furious that a mere maid is telling the ranked officials what to eat or not to eat.The Chinese Ambassador somewhat relented but at the same time was upset as no one never told him off about his eating habits, asks jang-geum to prove her theory correct.Jang-geum says that Lady Court Han sang goon will serve delicious beneficial food but the the Chinese Ambassador demand that jang-geum should be the one to cook since it was her suggestion and will be the one to prove it. The Ambassador gave jang-geum 5 days to prove her theory and if she can’t she will lose her life. He will eat everything she serve to him even grass but it must be delicious as he is a very picky eater, and if she failed in the 5 days to bring any results to his health he will punish her under the Chinese law for contempt.Which is a death sentence Jang-geum had no choice but to prove it.
Meanwhile Lady Court Han sang goon is placed under house arrest. The Head of the Royal Household Minister Shang Shen came to ask why Lady Court Han sang goon served such food to the Ambassador. She said if the King has the same illness, she will serve the same food as would Lady Court Jung sang goon will, if she was here to cook. Shang Shen then tell Lady Court Han sang goon about Jang-geum’s pact with the Chinese Ambassador and at stake was her own life.Lady Court Han sang goon was shocked at the remarks.
Words of the outburst from Tae Pyung Guan came to the ears of the Queen Dowager and orders Jae jo sang goon to settle this matter quickly and that a lot of decision where riding on the Ambassador approval and the need to make him happy.Lady Court Choi sang goon says she will go there and prepare a feast for the Ambassador.That night, jang-geum ponders and remembers her mother’s last words pleading her to find a way to survive even without the guidance of her father and mother.
The next day she picks up her confidence and jang-geum starts cooking for the Ambassador. Lady Court Choi sang goon came to ‘Tae Pyung Guan’ to take over the cooking duties herself and told jang-geum to give up the kitchen for them but jang-geum tells Lady Court Choi sang goon to leave instead, saying that the Chinese Ambassador have agreed to eat what she serve for 5 days. Lady Court Choi sang goon was offended by Jang-geum’s remark but geum-young persuades Lady Court Choi sang goon to leave as jang-geum have staked her life on it.They will wait patiently for her to serve the 5-day meals and they will then take over the kitchen and left.
Lady Court Choi sang goon tells Right Minister Oh not to worry about the Ambassador because she will cook up a feast of three days the ‘mahn han jung sung’ served in the royal palace of the chinese emperor. (This reference is not accurate, Mahn han jung sung was only serve during the Qing Dynasty under the reign of Kangxi. It was a feast of three days of both Manchu and Chinese (Han)cusine serve for Kangxi to thanked his cabinet.It was recorded in his annals and serve as a bible to Chinese cusine later.I assume that the scripwriter wanted to add flavouring to the story or Lady Court Choi sang goon was the inventor of it).
Jang-geum started using the flavouring seasoning receipe she learned from the temple keeper during her stint at the temple looking after the Queen old Court Lady Nanny. The flavouring contain the compound of sun-dried fried anchovies, sun-dried mushroom, sundried vegetable and salt. The stint teaches jang-geum that there are no secret recipes but through perseverance of preparation of food will bring out the true flavour of the ingredient. Jang-geum tried to artificially dry the rice and unsucessfully could not bring out the flavour the Old court lady nanny yearn for but the temple keeper patiently sun-dried the rice until it is ripe to consume and yielded result and the the Old Court Lady nanny died in peace.
The Chinese Ambassador started to eat but has shown dissatisfaction when eating it which worries Jang-geum. Still she persists to the principles of Lady Court Han sang goon and served him the 5 meals as per agreement. On the 6 day Lady Court Choi sang goon came to take over the kitchen and lay the dishes on the table which delighted the Ambassador. The Ambassador tried the dishes and marvelled on the taste. Right Minister Oh asks the Ambassador what should the verdict on jang-geum who was rude and contempt.
