Chapter 124: Boss Yuan, Use My Prawns Please
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
"Gu Lu"
Having swallowed up the last mouthful of the smooth rice wine, Man Man felt that her entire body had started to sweat and she felt a sense of comfort washing over her body. It was like the feeling of drinking some hard liquor but without the acrid feeling at all.
"Boss Yuan, I want to order another serving of rice wine for tomorrow," Man Man decisively ordered another serving of the rice wine again.
"Ok. Same time tomorrow," Yuan Zhou agreed with a nod.
"Alright then. I’m leaving," Man Man walked away unhurriedly, slightly tipsy.
It was really worrying that she stumbled while walking.
Yuan Zhou answered her by a simple nod.
At this time, someone brushed past Man Man. He wore an orange-colored baseball cap on the head, a white T-shirt and pale blue jeans on his body and a pair of white shoes on his feet with a bag held in his hand, looking both refreshing and energetic.
As soon as he entered the restaurant, he took the seat where Man Man had sat just now and took off the cap, revealing a bright and handsome face. Then, he said, "Boss, I heard the Phoenix-Tail Prawns cooked by you is top-notch. So you must be able to cook one serving for me with these ingredients, right?"
"What are they?" Yuan Zhou looked at the bag taken up by the youth and then opened it for a look. Inside the bag were many live and fresh river prawns, each of them still alive and kicking, appearing exceptionally fresh.
It was the first time that Yuan Zhou saw a customer come while bringing the raw ingredients himself.
"No need. They are not as good as mine," Yuan Zhou was quite confident of his raw ingredients. What’s more, the prawns were truly inferior to those provided by the system.
"That’s impossible. These prawns of mine are definitely free from the slightest pollution and haven’t ever been fed with any feed. Besides, they have been reared for quite a while," the bright and handsome youth frowned, with a full expression of disbelief.
"But it’s the truth," Yuan Zhou crossed his arms against his chest and showed an incontrovertible manner.
"Boss, don’t tell me you’re afraid of being unable to cook a decent dish with my prawns?" the youth was quite suspicious as to Yuan Zhou’s abilities.
"Your prawns are inferior. I won’t use them," Yuan Zhou pointed it out straightforwardly.
"Impossible. How do you know if you don’t give them a try," the youth still said persistently.
"What about you trying Boss Yuan’s Phoenix-Tail Prawns first?" somebody beside him suggested.
"Exactly. I believe the dish cooked with Boss Yuan’s ingredients would definitely outclass the same dish cooked with yours," immediately, another person chimed in.
"That’s true. You’ll know after you taste that," other people in line also started to persuade him.
These people were so dutiful in strenuously promoting Yuan Zhou’s Phoenix-Tail Prawns to the youth that one would think they were shills employed by Yuan Zhou.
"Ok, offer me one serving, please," After hesitating for quite a while, the youth decided to taste it first to see what exactly it was like.
"Sure. 1288 RMB, please," Yuan Zhou first told him the price of the dish.
"Payment first?" the young man asked for confirmation.
"Yes, payment first," Yuan Zhou nodded affirmatively.
"No problem," then the young man brought out his wallet and took the money out before giving the notes to Yuan Zhou.
While stretching out a plate, Yuan Zhou signaled him to put the money on it.
Then he picked up the small change with a clip and gave it to the young man, without touching the cash all along.
Yuan Zhou was quite familiar with this action already.
Every time before he cooked, Yuan Zhou would wash his hands for at least three times. Fortunately, the water provided by the system was quite comfortable and well balanced with the acidic-alkaline ratio, providing the perfect effect for cleaning.
Yuan Zhou scooped up the prawns precisely and started to process them. When he worked on that, the young man was closely watching, trying to compare the superiority and inferiority of the prawns with his.
However, Yuan Zhou’s actions of dealing with the prawns were so proficient that it was difficult for him to watch clearly. Even before he could compare, Yuan Zhou had finished dealing with one prawn. It was probably when the prawn meat was laid out on the plate that the young man had the clearest sight.
Since it was meaningless to compare them by then, the young man had to give up. He carefully stared at Yuan Zhou’s actions, looking extraordinarily earnest.
This young man was actually called Yu Mu. His father was just the head chef of World Foodie Hotel, Chef Yu. Since his father lost to Yuan Zhou in the contest, he took several days off in order to recover to his usual state.
During the period, Chef Yu spoke highly of Yuan Zhou, of which Yu Mu wasn’t convinced. The Phoenix-Tail Prawns cooked by his father was definitely top-notch in this city. How was it possible that he suddenly lost to a person whose name was unknown by the people.
However, when he saw his father was free from any complaints at all and even had a happy expression, he had no dislike of Yuan Zhou but was merely not convinced of, and moreover curious about his capability.
Therefore, he brought the prawns that were ecologically farmed by the joint business of his friends and came here today, to personally witness if this Master Yuan was really so awesome as his father mentioned to be. Of course, he still believed the prawns farmed by his friends using scientific and proper means were better to be used in cooking the Phoenix-Tail Prawns, which had been proven true by his father Chef Yu.
Before long, Yuan Zhou came up carrying the Phoenix-Tail Prawn dish, which resembled a phoenix resting in a phoenix tree and ready to be revived by fire. The appearance of the dish corresponded to the name a lot.
"Please enjoy." Yuan Zhou lightly set the plate down.
"Thank you." Yu Mu politely expressed his gratitude.
With his dad being a chef, although Yu Mu knew little about cooking, his mouth had been trained to be fairly sensitive. Therefore he had a distinctive method of tasting dishes.
He first meticulously smelled if there were any peculiar odors in the dish. Such a situation was basically impossible. After all, a chef admired by his father was not supposed to make such a small mistake. As expected, there was not the slightest peculiar odors but only faint fragrance, a rather light fragrance.
When Yu Mu picked up one prawn and stuffed it into his mouth, he found the fragrant scent, which he was basically unable to smell just now, suddenly burst out. It was as if the fragrance were fully wrapped in the prawns without any leakage; all the delicate taste was contained inside, making it exceptionally fresh and delicious. The prawn meat was also firm and elastic with a slight hint of sweetness.
After tasting the dish a few times, Yu Mu finally had to admit that Yuan Zhou’s culinary skills were far above his father’s but only for the Phoenix-Tail Prawns dish. This was because he had never eaten other dishes cooked by Yuan Zhou. As for the prawns that he had brought here, he still wanted to compare them with the live ones of Yuan Zhou’s, in order to know the difference.
Yuan Zhou might have made best of the prawn meat to present the delicacy. His farming method was supposed to have no problem. As he was eating more, however, such thoughts were getting weak. Basically, all his mind was immersed in the delicacies.
In just a little while, Yu Mu ate up the full plate of the prawns, including the decorative stuff, of which he had already known to be eatable.
"Boss Yuan, you really have a well-deserved reputation," he said admiringly. Now, he finally understood Chef Yu’s words. The culinary skills of Yuan Zhou were truly beyond his father’s reach and were definitely world-class level.
"Thank you," Everyone loved hearing words of praise and Yuan Zhou was certainly not an exception.
"I hope Boss Yuan could allow me to see the prawns used in the dish. Those that I brought with me just now were also farmed with the most natural and most scientific methods," Yu Mu hadn’t given up, hence still wanted to see the prawns used by Yuan Zhou in the dish.
Having considered for an instant, Yuan Zhou said with a nod, "If you see it, you have to buy it. But you can’t take it away, as it couldn’t be eaten by others anymore.
"What the f*ck? Why?" Yu Mu instantly got stupefied.
"Because it will be contaminated with your presence," Yuan Zhou’s eyes seemed to imply that meaning.
"..." Yu Mu could not say anything. He continued saying after considering a while, "Then why can’t I take it away?"
"It’s my rule. Taking food ingredients out is not allowed," Yuan Zhou said primly.
"So I must put it in the restaurant even after I buy it, right?" Yu Mu took a deep breath and then said with a calm mood.
"Yes, you can fill it in a cup and put the cup over there," pointing at the flower rack, Yuan Zhou said.
"Alright. How much for one?" In order to prove the quality of his ecological friendly prawns, Yu Mu agreed to accept this obvious scam.
.....