Chapter 700: Frozen Duck
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Wow, the Egg Fried Rice is indeed gold,” Unworried Mulberry looked at the bright and glossy golden fried rice and remarked.
Unworried Mulberry’s current expression was one commonly seen in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. A lot of people that were here to try the food would initially be very cautious.
And then, they would start chomping on the food without a care as to how they looked while eating. Thus, Unworried Mulberry’s cautious manner of eating was not really unconventional here.
The only reaction he got was some people muttering about how there was yet another disbeliever coming to test the food here.
“I reckon it must be another food critic,” Ma Zhida whispered beside Wu Hai.
“Um,” Wu Hai gave a nonchalant reply before fixing his gaze on Ma Zhida’s fried rice.
“Come on, you will s.n.a.t.c.h even Egg Fried Rice? You can order one yourself, right?” Ma Zhida felt like face-palming himself and said helplessly.
“No, if I order one more, I will have to eat one less dish. If you give me half your Egg Fried Rice instead, that will no longer be an issue,” Wu Hai seriously said while stroking his mustache.
“What am I supposed to eat if I give you half?” Ma Zhida was so stunned by these righteous words that he started laughing instead.
“You don’t eat much anyway. You might as well eat less to lose some weight,” Wu Hai sized up Ma Zhida and seriously said.
“Ho ho,” Ma Zhida sneered and pulled his plate nearer to himself and started eating while protecting it with his left hand.
He was obviously no longer willing to speak to Wu Hai and was also pretending to not know him.
Wu Hai would never try hiding the fact that he was trying to steal someone’s food. Therefore, the two of them did not lower their voice while conversing. Because of that, Unworried Mulberry heard what they said clearly.
“This fake customer is quite dedicated to his craft,” Unworried Mulberry sized up Wu Hai and muttered.
“Mr. Wu, your dish is here.” Zhou Jia arrived to save Ma Zhida who was guarding his food.
“These are the Dongpo Pig Knuckle, Phoenix-Tailed Prawns, Herbal Tea Eggs, Dual-taste White Oil Tofu and Braised Pork with Soy Sauce. You still need to wait a bit for the rest of your dishes to arrive,” Zhou Jia said as she gave Wu Hai everything on her tray.
“Um, thank you, Jia Jia,” Wu Hai said while staring at his food, a serious expression creeping onto his face.
“You’re welcome,” Zhou Jia shook her head and walked back to the counter to wait for more dishes to come out of the kitchen.
“Wow, this is quite a ruthless tactic. This person does not look rich. The dishes he ordered will probably cost him several thousand RMB already. If there are more dishes to come, does that not mean a single lunch of his is worth about 10,000 RMB?” Unworried Mulberry cursed inwardly, disbelief on his face.
If the regular customers hadn’t seen Wu Hai paying for his food everyday and knew what his job was, they would also find it hard to believe that Wu Hai was actually capable of treating Yuan Zhou’s restaurant as his personal dining hall and had all his meals here.
Just look at what Wu Hai was wearing. During summer, he would be wearing short pants and short-sleeve t-s.h.i.+rts that were clearly what one would wear to bed. During winter, he would be wearing some woolen sweaters with coral markings, sometimes paired with pajamas and a pair of slippers.
He looked every bit like a shut-in who never left his house. Of course, not even a regular shut-in was as uncaring of their personal appearance as Wu Hai was.
It was no wonder that Unworried Mulberry refused to believe that Wu Hai could afford what he ordered.
“Isn’t it quite obvious that he’s a fake customer?” Unworried Mulberry sneered before picking his chopsticks up.
He decided to ignore Wu Hai, the fake customer. Eating the food would be the most straightforward way to obtain proof for his theory.
A snapping sound emitted as Unworried Mulberry took a picture of the Egg Fried Rice.
After finished taking pictures, he started eating.
One had to admit that this Egg Fried Rice looked incredibly good. Even the chefs of those five-star hotels wouldn’t be able to make such beautiful fried rice.
Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. Unworried Mulberry stuffed a mouthful of fried rice into his mouth.
“Wu?” His eyes immediately went wide with disbelief.
Gulp. He swallowed it down and said, “This tastes way too good.”
“The moment I chewed on the rice, I feel like I can taste the rice juices in it. The rice is not too soft or hard, and when chewing on it, it even felt springy. The aroma would actually rush straight down my throat when I chewed on it,” Unworried Mulberry couldn’t help himself as he muttered while staring at the Egg Fried Rice before him.
“Onom.” He stuffed yet another mouthful of Egg Fried Rice into his mouth.
“The surface of the rice is soft. That’s probably the beaten egg wrapped around the rice grains. So the golden color is actually pure egg? This is so delicious.” As Unworried Mulberry ate, he became completely immersed in the world of the delicious Egg Fried Rice.
“Onom. Onom. Onom.” For a while, only the sounds of Unworried Mulberry eating could be heard. Since he was too focused on eating, he was no longer listening in on the conversations of others.
He ate quickly and finished it in a short while.
“That’s too delicious. It’s actually this good,” Unworried Mulberry stared at the plate that was cleaner than his face in astonishment.
After all, he had arrived believing that Yuan Zhou’s cooking skills must have deteriorated and had zero expectations on the food here.
But since this Egg Fried Rice was so delicious, instead of exceeding his expectation, it had exceeded his imagination instead.
He stared dumbstruck at the empty plate for a long time before suddenly thought of something.
“Wait a moment. Egg Fried Rice is this Boss Yuan’s signature dish, right? So it’s normal for his signature dish to be this good,” he recalled what he read online.
As the first dish released by Yuan Zhou was Egg Fried Rice, almost everyone online agreed that the Egg Fried Rice was his actual signature dish.
“In that case, this boss is still maintaining the quality of his signature dish. But that might not be the case for the Tea-smoked Duck,” Unworried Mulberry concluded.
If the quality of his food had not dropped, it would not make sense for him to have an online spam army to create hype for his restaurant.
“Tsk, tsk. I wonder how much has the quality has dropped for his other dishes. Then again, this Egg Fried Rice alone is sufficient to retain his customers,” Unworried Mulberry wondered as he rubbed his chin.
“This won’t do. I have to get a good look at how this boss appears when he is cooking. It will be even better if I can get a picture or two of him in action,” Unworried Mulberry raised his head and looked towards Yuan Zhou.
Coincidentally, Yuan Zhou was cooking the dish he ordered – the Tea-smoked Duck.
The Tea-smoked Duck was part of the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine, and the Chengdu School of Sichuan Cuisine was a cuisine that adhered most closely to the traditions. There were several traditional cooking methods for this duck. Therefore, Yuan Zhou used the traditional cooking method that was the most suitable for the duck provided by the system.
Naturally, the duck provided by the system was alive. Yuan Zhou would not slaughter the duck in front of his customers. Therefore, he had already slaughtered two ducks in advance before opening the restaurant.
Naturally, the slaughtered ducks were kept in the preservation cabinet provided by the system. Of course, from the outside, this cabinet looked the same as a freezer.
“Tsk, tsk. He’s actually using a frozen duck.” The little expectation Unworried Mulberry had after tasting the Egg Fried Rice vanished when he saw where Yuan Zhou was taking the duck from.
“Are you blind? You call that frozen duck?” Lee Yanyi who had just taken a seat near him sneered.
“It’s taken out of the freezer. Can it be anything else apart from a frozen duck?” Unworried Mulberry immediately countered. However, he was not a gourmet. That was why he immediately a.s.sumed that any duck taken out of a freezer would be a frozen duck.
Lee Yanyi sized up Unworried Mulberry before directly turning around. He did not even feel like giving him an explanation.
The contempt that was shown greatly annoyed Unworried Mulberry, “Wow, he sure has a lot of fake customers. He even has someone who will lie under the broad daylight.”