Chapter 988: Ma Zhida Arrives
Even until the pub was closed, Yuan Zhou still hadn’t found any novels with dishes that met the requirement. This was starting to test his patience.
During noon the next day, Zhong Lili suddenly called him and told him that in the coming match, the 28 allied restaurants had submitted seven challenge dishes.
Naturally, Yuan Zhou was told what those seven dishes were. In fact, that was not cheating. After all, this challenge had been greatly publicized by Chef Li and Ao Pi and was no longer a secret.
The details of the match had even been released online. It was unknown whether the match would shock China’s cooking world, but at present, the entirety of Sichuan’s cooking world had been shocked.
For the very first time in history, the officially acknowledged Sichuan Cuisine exemplary restaurant was challenged. How could this not cause a sensation?
After Chef Li submitted the list of challenge dishes to the organizers, he immediately released the list online. Thus, Zhong Lili only told Yuan Zhou to make it easier for him to know the list of dishes.
Yuan Zhou remarked, “Those seven dishes are really quite ordinary.”
The seven dishes were respectively Hot and Numbing Mantis Shrimp, Winter Bamboo Shoots With Sea Cuc.u.mber, Pickled Pepper North Sh.e.l.lfish, Dried Pot Little Yellow Croaker, Salad Sea Snail, Flaming Squid, and Rolling Crab Dumpling.
There were cold dishes like the Salad Sea Snail, also common dishes like Rolling Crab Dumpling, and dishes cooked with different methods such as dried pot, iron plate, simmer-fried, stewing, and so on. That was quite a rich menu, one that had been decided after two days of discussion between Chef Li and the other chefs.
The Rolling Crab Dumpling was a dish Ao Pi used to be very good with, while the Flaming Squid was the signature dish of the Number One Sichuan Squid Restaurant. Simply put, all the submitted dishes were what they were good at, dishes they had carefully selected from among the 28 restaurants.
For Yuan Zhou, the seven dishes were very simple. The only slightly troublesome dishes among them were only the Hot and Numbing Mantis Shrimp and Rolling Crab Dumpling.
There was also a particular required ingredient that was rather rare and expensive: sea cuc.u.mber.
Yuan Zhou decided to fight them with the same seven dishes. When Zhong Lili heard that, she sank into a short silence before speaking again.
“Are you really going to fight with the same dishes?” Zhong Lili asked.
“Yes,” Yuan Zhou replied.
Zhong Lili said, “Looks like they have truly angered you.”
This time, Yuan Zhou stayed silent.
“Ok, I will submit the list,” replied Zhong Lili. She was extremely efficient in her job. Thus, after making the confirmation, she ended the call.
That night, Yuan Zhou practiced his cooking skills as usual.
When he first obtained the system, he was feeling rather uneasy, worried that the system would one day disappear.
But subsequently, he realized something. The only way to stop that uneasiness was to convert the cooking skills provided by the system into his very own skills.
The current Yuan Zhou had much higher confidence in himself. After all, his cooking skills had long reached the top.
This was something he obtained after digesting all the knowledge provided by the system and transforming them into his own.
During dinner the next day.
“Us commoners, so happy today. Us commoners, so happy today…”
Mr. Wei arrived while humming a song. He ordered two dishes and started eating when the dishes arrived.
Why was he in such a good mood? Because Xie Hao was in a bad mood.
Initially, being transferred away was, in a way, an act of transforming into a big shot of a different region. No matter what, that was something to feel happy about.
But because Xie Hao had failed to guess what Mr. Wei was plotting, until the day he left, he still felt extremely uneasily.
Of course, Xie Hao was no idiot. On the second day on his new job, which was today, he called Mr. Wei.
“I have seen through your trick. You are not doing anything at all. You are merely scaring me!” Xie Hao said before immediately ending the call.
However, a profound smile appeared on Mr. Wei’s face as he muttered, “Seen through? Alas, the true trial has just started.”
While Mr. Wei was happily enjoying his meal, Ma Zhida arrived in a rush. For some reason, his four limbs were trembling, as if he had lost control over them. The last time someone like this appeared was when a nervous system disorder patient came eating at the restaurant.
Of course, Ma Zhida did not have any disorder. He was merely excited as he was about to solve a great mystery.
A great mystery.
He picked up the menu. At first, the dishes were the same. There were Jin’ling Regional Cuisine, and the dishes of several other provinces. On the second page were the Sichuan Cuisine dishes.
In the past, the second page was also the last page. Ma Zhida flipped the page and found that there were two more pages.
These were dishes that weren’t on the menu before.
“Hahaha!” Ma Zhida laughed loudly with pride, attracting the attention of the other customers.
“Car Brand, why are you laughing like a madman?”
“He’s turning mental.”
Ma Zhida looked at the two with disdain.
He spoke, “Indeed, I was right. That was indeed the case. Boss Yuan, don’t think n.o.body noticed the many new dishes you have secretly released. I am Ma Zhida, the new dish expert!”
New dishes.
Many new dishes.
All the customers did the same thing: looking down at the menu.
They no longer cared about whether Ma Zhida had gone crazy or not.
In truth, it was very easy for one to form a habit of eating at Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. Yuan Zhou’s cooking skills were too good. Thus, it would be very rare for someone to be fed up with his food.
Due to the steep price, many people would only eat their favorite dishes when they were here.
These people would usually order without checking the menu.
Thus, Yuan Zhou’s new dishes went undiscovered for quite a while.
Of course, the reason he hadn’t notified the customers was because he thought it funny.
“There are really new dishes! When were they released?”
“My favorite Pepper Intestine and Pepper Hare are part of the new dishes! Great!”
“There are so many new dishes! Too bad I already ordered. If I order more, I won’t be able to finish.”
“My wallet is going to lose weight today.”
As of this moment, the restaurant was separated into two factions. One faction comprised of those who had yet to order their dishes and were happily ordering the new dishes.
As for those who had already ordered, some even already had their dishes served, had no choice but to watch on. Some of them even rubbed their bellies before clenching their teeth and ordered a new dish they liked.
Initially, Yuan Zhou had no idea why the system set a rule that all the dishes must be finished. Of course, that was a way to avoid wastage.
Yuan Zhou first thought that as the master chef, shouldn’t his food be something the customers would voluntarily finish?
He greatly disagreed with that rule.