Chapter 55 - Temporarily Closed for Business? Producing a Lost Dish!
Chapter 55: Temporarily Closed for Business? Producing a Lost Dish!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Previously, the system’s mission was to let him win the competition. This time, it only asked him to enter the top three. Xu Le’s intuition told him that this competition would be tougher than the previous one.
When the invitation card arrived, he immediately booked a flight to Beijing.
Before closing for the night, he hung a ‘temporarily closed for business’ sign on the eight-year-old cafeteria. The last customer was an Internet celebrity who seemed to weigh two to three hundred pounds. He was tall and stood in front of Xu Le like a small mountain.
He was praising the food in the restaurant in the live-stream. “My friends, next time when you come to Shanghai, you must eat their Oil Doused Noodles and Pork Flatbread! It’s even more authentic than the local ones. This spicy flavor is fragrant and refreshing. If you don’t try it once, you’ll never feel complete in your life.”
Xu Le took off his apron while cleaning the place. When he heard this, he could not help but feel excited.
The dishes in the restaurant were just like the works that he had painstakingly presented. In his eyes, they were no different from the works that were displayed in art exhibitions. If the creator could hear his works being praised in front of others, of course he would be happy!
The host bit off half of the Pork Flatbread in one bite and said with delight, “The outer skin is crispy, and the ratio of fat and lean meat inside is just right. Mmh~ The little Boss also added a spoonful of sauce when it was ready to be served, so the flavor is rich. The more you eat, the more fragrant it is.”
He ordered everything in the store and now he was almost finished.
Xu Le tidied up the kitchen. At the thought that he was going to participate in the competition in another city soon, before he left, he wanted to see if Xu Tian had any stationery or clothes that she was lacking, so that he would bring her out to buy everything.
Just as he was thinking about his younger sister, the host suddenly let out a miserable howl, giving Xu Le a fright.
“What’s wrong?”
The host faced the camera and said with a face full of tears, “My friends, it can’t be, the store isn’t open for business tomorrow! I even planned to stay for another day and come back for a meal tomorrow.”
He cried out to Xu Le, “Little Boss, why aren’t you opening for business tomorrow?”
Xu Le was a little embarrassed as he kept calling him “Little Boss”. He explained, “I have a competition to attend.”
“Wow!” The streamer said exaggeratedly, “Could it be the same competition as last time? I even specially went to the live broadcast. Back then, the slicing of the pagoda meat was amazing!”
His tone was like that of a Xu Le’s fanatic fan as he said passionately, “Can you please greet the fans in the live-stream? Everyone likes you, you’re so cute!”
Xu Le nodded in agreement. Just as the camera turned to him, all sorts of gifts bloomed on the screen.
The host ‘Uncle Bull is everywhere’ first expressed his gratitude enthusiastically before saying, “Is it convenient for you to tell everyone what competition you are participating in? We will cheer for you when the time comes.”
“That kind of competition doesn’t seem to allow any spectators.”
Xu Le scratched the back of his head and smiled. The comments section immediately exploded because of his smile, and the screen was filled with “cute” comments.
“Oh,” Uncle Bull said with a sense of propriety, “It’s not convenient to reveal, right? Then we’ll wait and see! I wish you good results!”
“Thank you.”
Xu Le smiled and thanked him.
The comments section exploded once again.
“Look at how much money he made from being a chef at the age of eight. My eight-year-old child is still playing with mud.”
“Seeing the genius Master Chef, I really want to kick my son who’s rolling on the ground.”
“Gosh, how outstanding must his parents be to have such a child?”
“Uwuwuwu, tomorrow I shall go to the temple to pray that my family’s genes would undergo a mutation so that I can also give birth to a genius like Xu Le.”
On the plane, Xu Le knew that time was precious. After putting on the earpiece and eye mask, he entered the space system. As he browsed the menu, he saw many recipes that he had never heard of before.
Before he came, Grandpa Cai Lan had specifically mentioned that there were many restaurants in Beijing.
Due to the tradition of the Qing Dynasty, they were very picky about their food.
There were all kinds of delicacies: bear paws, grouse, deer tendons; abalone, sea cucumber, shark’s fin, fish maw…
The most famous local cuisine was the Tan and Kong residence dishes.
The cuisines from the south could hardly move them.
Therefore, Xu Le wanted to choose a Northern cuisine that was almost lost in history and suited the taste of the public judges. After a few strokes, he stopped at a page.
He took a deep breath and said, “System, why don’t you just rob me?”
At the bottom was written ’60 Gourmet points’. Up until now, it was the most expensive recipe he had seen.
Although Xu Le was complaining, he could not delay serious matters. He gritted his teeth and bought the ingredients. Then, he looked at the ingredients piled up in front of him and started to practise hard.
Not only was seafood difficult to deal with, if there was any mistakes during the cooking process, it would also taste vastly different, causing a huge disappointment.
At the end, he chose a long-lost dish [Three Stir-fried Baldy].
In the Suzhou dialect of Shanghai, ‘bald’ meant ‘all’ and ‘extreme’; it was the same as “too” and “only” in English.
It had too long of a history. Its cooking method was very troublesome. After the dynasty was destroyed, the chef did not manage to pass down his craftsmanship.
The first bald was male crab paste, the second bald was female crab roe, and the third bald was barbel fish lung.
The third bald seemed simple but barbel fish was a type of pufflefish and the barbel fish lung actually referred to the liver of the barbel fish. It was first recorded in the “Zhengzitong”.
Xu Le buried himself in handling the fish. The bottom of the fish belly was white, while its back was gray with stripes.
It was just like what was written in the book: “The taut fish is small like a pufferfish in the shape of a river. There are spots on its back, no scales, no discrepancies in its tail, and white spikes on its abdomen. It is commonly known as a barbel.”
In mid-autumn, when it was the seafood season, it was extremely fatty and delicious.
He quickly took out the fish lung, but the fish lung was too small, so it was really difficult to get enough for one dish.
The clock on the wall went one round after another for a full two hours before he finally managed to get a plate. It was barely enough to make one dish.
Xu Le wanted to wipe his sweat with a towel out of habit, but he remembered that there was a temperature system in the system, and he had not sweated, so he rolled up his sleeves.
He said to himself, “Isn’t it just stir-frying a dish, what’s so difficult?”
He then prepared other ingredients, took out the male crab paste and female crab roe, and started to search the records on the menu.
He practised for a whole two months. Just removing and obtaining the fish lung took him half an hour, which was reduced from his initial two hours. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”. He untied his apron and taste the dish on the plate.
Once it entered his mouth, the male crab paste was soft, the female crab roe was fragrant and the barbel fish liver was sweet.
After frying under higher heat, the aroma of the food wafted up to his nose. He took a big bite of it, and it was like flowers blooming in his mouth.
He squinted his eyes in happiness and couldn’t help but praise himself.
Indeed, delicious food was the best at curing people’s hearts.
When the plane landed, Xu Le opened his eyes. He had been training in the system for two months. Not only did he not feel tired, he felt refreshed.
Just like that, he dragged a suitcase and carried an invitation letter as he entered the airport.. Suddenly, someone patted his shoulder.