Girl who wants to be the king's cook?

Question

I am looking for an anime that I had watched fairly around a week ago on a school computer. Here's the details I remember.

It started off with an opening song. There was a little girl who had wanted to be a cook for the king. Her mother used to always love it when people enjoyed her food. Sadly, she passed away and the girl was left alone, I believe. She had this very fat relative or cousin too. He was very enthusiastic and looked after her? (Not really sure). I only got to watch two episodes of this series and I don't think it was the average 20-23 minutes but perhaps maybe 15?

The first episode I remember is that this girl who wants to become the king's cook accidentally let a puppy loose into the palace, which wrecked the noodles for the royal dinner. There was this other girl, who sounded spoilt rotten and was very unpleasant. I believe at some point she tried to get this girl into trouble. The next thing I remember is that the little girl said she could provide some noodles for wrecking the noodles in the first place since she grew some type of noodles. It could have been tadpole noodles? (I'm not quite sure on this either).

In the second episode there was the king. He was riding on horseback with a whole lot of troops and looked like he was dressed in traditional looking armour like a samurai. I believe they were looking to hunt down a giant boar. Next thing I remember is that there are these people dressed like ninjas who try to kill the king. Suddenly there is this big fight in a forest on horseback and some other elements such as the king chasing after the assassins after they fail killing him.

The final detail I remember is that girl that wants to be the king's cook and who ruined the noodles finds one soldier on the ground with her fat cousin and dog. Suddenly three assassins walk up to her and tell her to move out of the way. They were intent on killing the soldier. She refused and one of the assassins who was a girl was told by one of the assassin leaders to "take care of her". She closes her eyes as she is grabbed but then her cousin says something like "leave her alone" and throws a barrel of wine? which the boar that the king was hunting/looking for in the forest smells and quickly charges to where the smell was coming from and I think the girl, cousin, and puppy run away with the soldier.

There was also some sort of cooking competition on where you cook something really nice so you can become the king's cook. She ended up cooking rice since that was the only ingredient left when she finally came. She was late because she had to save that soldier so her cousin went and told her to get in the back of this pulley and pulled her all the way to the palace, and she almost got refused entry for being late.

I also remember a scene where that spoilt girl steals some other girl's frog/pet and pretends that the girl stole her ingredient for frog soup to try and eliminate her from being the thief.

Just on a side note: I think the girl who wants to be the king's cook is Ming or Mei? The graphics and art style weren't too dodgy but it did look a little old, although I wouldn't know the exact year it was released.

Update: The girl is not tsundere. It is more like an historic anime and there is nothing magical or otherworldly in it. It has a kind of ninja theme to it. The people in the anime do not typically look like the usual anime characters with unusual height or eyes or crazy styled hair and look pretty normal or well anime normal anyways. It looks like it was set in a Japanese (possibly ancient) setting similar to the medieval era. There was a castle but it didn't have a moat. The girl has black hair and everyone wears pretty Japanese looking clothing such as possibly in that of the feudal time period. Woman in the palace wore what looked like gowns and had their hairs in a bun.

While I am it, I just remembered that the female assassin/ninja had some type of symbol on her arm. I think her sleeves got ripped by the boar? and then she quickly covers it up. Also the girl who wants to be the kings cook and saves that soldier had two rings that she got from her mother. One was green and the other was some colour I forgot (maybe red). I have no idea but she ends up dropping it.

Does anyone know what anime this is?

Answer 1

I know the anime your talking about, I enjoyed watching it too. It's a korean anime called Dae Jang Geum: Jang Geum Dream.

First of all, I read the description posted, and it's an exact match for the anime Dae Jang Geum. The girl wants to learn to cook, and ends up be one of the cooking maids for the emperor. However, she unexpectedly rescued the emporer, not knowing it was him and the bad guys start causing trouble for her. She's clueless about the bad guys until the end of the anime.

Answer 2

It might be Chuuka Ichiban!. ^[MAL]

After the death of Mao's mother, Pai, who was called the 'Fairy of Cuisine', Mao becomes a Super Chef in order to take the title as Master Chef of his mother's restaurant. However, before he takes his mother's place as Master Chef, he continues to travel China in order to learn more of the many ways of cooking, in the hopes of becoming a legendary chef, just like his mother. During his journey, he meets great friends and fierce rivals who wish to challenge him in the field of cooking.

One of the main characters is named Mei Li:

The 16-year-old daughter of Chouyu. Originally, she was a helper at the Yang Spring Restaurant. She fell in love with Mao after seeing how much he loves cooking and how he also cares about others. She only knows a little about the cooking field, but she's useful when it comes to little facts and often tries to help Mao with various other things.