The next day, Lu Xinyi together with her team stepped inside a special kitchen, fully prepared to fulfill the orders for lunch. Their Silver Leaf black uniforms were replaced with professional white chef uniforms with neckties representing the team they were in.
It was six in the morning, and most students were still half-asleep, following the others as they made way to their counters.
The kitchen was divided into three sets. Each team had the same tool and cooking wares that the others had.
For the first day of the team battle, the theme was chicken. Three teams would offer one takeout dish with chicken as their main ingredient. The Green Team led by Tang Liang chose the popular General Tso’s chicken remaster while Yan Chen’s team picked the Kung Pao Chicken as their dish of the day.
Lu Xinyi’s team where the last one to pa.s.s their dish. Her team went overtime and had decided to take the other route and took the Hainanese Chicken Rice as their entry. With several discussion as to how and to what methods to use, they decided to prepare the chickens they needed the night before by seasoning it rubbing some salt and filling the inner cavities with aromatics to enhance the flavor.
Lu Xinyi tied her long hair in a single braid and adjusted her black ap.r.o.n.
“First things first, you need to present me the dish you are going to offer to the customers. I need to see the quality of the dish you are offering. As additional compensation, the food delivery app we’ve partnered with is willing to give each team member a cash prize.”
The other students squealed in delight while some nodded approvingly. The added reward was a good motivation for some—but not for the sponsored students.
“Xin Jiejie,” Tang Liang called from another kitchen counter across Lu Xinyi. “We don’t intend to lose today!”
Lu Xinyi lifted her chin and grinned back to her distant cousin that she didn’t know.
“Do your best, Fourth Master Tang.”
The first hour of the activity was filled with chopping sounds and sizzling meat. The first batch consisted of 200 servings. At the Red Team’ kitchen, one counter was filled with twenty electric rice cookers while ten pots were placed on the stovetop to prepare the chicken.
With her team divided into three smaller groups, four of her team members started chopping the aromatics they needed while another three checked the quality of the chickens they prepared last night.
“Why are these chicken look leaner than other teams have?” One of their team members asked. She lifted one chicken that weighed around three pounds.
“Sister Lu asked for a specific kind of chicken we should use for today. That’s also why we didn’t finish on time yesterday.” Another one explained.
“Sister Lu! Why we are using this kind of chicken?”
Lu Xinyi, who was busy chopping some gingers and spring onions, lifted her head and stopped.
“Those are free-range chicken. With free-range chicken, the meat would be leaner. Also, because they are free to move and can get some exercise, these chicken would produce meat that was tastier and more elastic than store-bought chickens available in the market. For this dish, texture is as important a consideration as flavor. Now, can you give it some stretching and ma.s.saging to help the chicken meat loosen up?”
The two gave a nod and decisively worked diligently on the chicken. They also removed the chicken fat according to Lu Xinyi’s instructions. Now, they understood why their team captain was willing to slow down and wait last night until these chickens were delivered unto them.
Lu Xinyi threw in the chopped ginger and spring onions with some salt at the pots and let her teammates filled it with water and set over the counter to boil. Meanwhile, Meng Jiao—with two other members—prepared the three condiments for their Hainanese Chicken Rice.
Meng Jiao chopped another batch of spring onions and pa.s.sed it to her teammate who was a.s.signed to pound it with a mortar and pestle while another one grated ginger to accompany the spring onions. While waiting for them to finish, she heated up some oil at the stove and poured it over the aromatics to finish their first condiments.
The kitchen was instantly filled with fragrance coming from the ginger and spring onions. Everyone within the room stopped and took in the delicious and aromatic scent of their first condiments.
Hainanese chicken rice could be found in most major cities within the country, and with its simple cooking method, it’s not too difficult to make the dish at home as well. There was only one problem—most chickens are bred for size, and as such, the taste was comparatively bland and flavorless compared to its free-range counterparts.
With it’s the superior breed of chicken plus its method of preparation accentuating those flavors, that what made Hainanese chicken rice in the apotheosis of all chicken dishes, that was superior to any other—including the most popular fried chicken.
—
Meanwhile at the Shen Group…
Shen Xue arrived late for work for the nth time for this month. He groaned as he sat himself at the couch at his father’s office.
“What did you do to your brother this time?” Shen Huang asked when he noticed the tiredness on his youngest son and the glares he threw on Shen Yi’s direction.
“What else but try to mess up with me using my wife this time,” Shen Yi said nonchalantly, fully aware that his brother was trying his best to hide it from his father.
Shen Huang shook his head and leaned his back on his seat.
“Xue, you are not getting young anymore. You cannot keep up doing this to your brother. He now had a wife, and soon, you’ll have nephews and nieces to look forward to. So now, tell me, what did you do to your sister-in-law?”
“Nothing much. I just made a deal with her with a great favor as a payment.” Shen Xue huffed. He didn’t understand why they were teaming up against him. “Big Sis helped me to close the deal with the w.a.n.gs. I’ll say she did a pretty good job convincing them.”
Shen Huang smacked his forehead after hearing his youngest son’s answer. Why wouldn’t Shen Xue be like his brother? The deal with the w.a.n.g wasn’t that critical for Shen Group, and the only reason why they put it in Shen Xue’s hands was for him to learn how to deal and came up with solutions himself.
Bringing his Big Sis on the scene ruined its purpose.
“Xue, next time, don’t drag your sister-in-law into our business matters. As for your next a.s.signment, I’m sending you to Country D to supervise the ongoing construction over there.”
Shen Xue’s face blanched instantly.
“What?! You can’t do this to me!” He complained. “Did Grammie know about this?”
“She’s the one who came up with this decision, Xue. You have three months to finish the project.” Shen Yi explained.
Shen Xue glared at his brother.
“This is your idea, right? You are throwing me out of here! Is cleaning all your cars with mere washcloths and cotton buds isn’t enough punishment already?” He groaned when he felt his back ached from the memory of it.
His brother has eight luxury cars and cleaning all of them in a day was frustrating.
Shen Yi scoffed but didn’t stray his attention away from his phone.
“I didn’t do such a thing. You brought it to your own self, Xue.”
Knowing that he wouldn’t win this time, Shen Xue begrudgingly accepted his fate. It was better than being demoted to being his brother’s a.s.sistant again.
“What’s wrong, Yi? You’ve been staring down at your phone for a while now? Waiting for something?” Shen Huang asked.
Shen Yi nodded, “Xinxin’s third team battle will start today. Silver Leaf partnered with an app, and I’m trying to figure out which one of the dishes is hers.”
“What? Let me see?” Shen Huang stood and took a peek over Shen Yi’s shoulder.
“Why are they offering takeout?” he paused. When he saw the price of each dish, his eyes widened. “They are charging ten times the usual amount?
“Because it’s Silver Leaf, and knowing Xinxin, she would only use the best ingredients she could get from the academy.”
“And they’re only offering 500 for each one.” Shen Xue checked his own app, “Say, bro, are we allowed to buy all of Big Sis’ dishes?”
“No, each user is only allowed to purchase one dish out of three dishes, and they set a distant limit that one account could order.”
Shen Huang then took his own phone and downloaded the app. His secretary, a middle-aged woman, gasped as she watched the three Shen men, glued at the screen of their phones, ready to place an order.
“So which dish we should order? I want to order Xin’er’s,” he asked.
“This Kung Pao Chicken looks delicious,” Shen Xue drooled over the picture of Kung Pao Chicken on his screen.
“I’m taking Hainanese Chicken Rice.” Shen Yi made up his mind and checked out his order.
Shen Xue gasped when he saw that the remaining stock for three dishes was down into twenty in just five minutes.
“What the h.e.l.l?! Let me buy Big Sis’s chicken dis.h.!.+”
Just as he was about to click the place order b.u.t.ton, an error notice popped out on his screen; and he screamed in frustration when he read it. The Hainanese Chicken Rice was sold out.
“No!!! This can’t be happening to me!”
Did he offend some kind of deity lately that he had to suffer such misfortunes in a day?
He then checked if he could order the other two chicken dishes and cried harder when he saw there was none left for him.
“Good thing I already ordered at once. Hehehe…” Shen Huang laughed at his son’s miserable form as he curled himself at the couch and cried for his loss.
“How come those twenty units were lost in just a blink of an eye?”
“I arranged Qiao He to place ten orders for our guests for today.” Shen Yi shrugged his shoulders before continuing his paperwork. His younger brother sat up. A glimpse of hope shone in his eyes.
“Bro, can I have one, please?”
“We will see.”