Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The precious bluefin tuna on the azure stone countertop attracted many tourists while Yuan Zhou’s ice blade attracted even more people that surrounded him to watch the bustling scene.
With a sound of “Ceng”, Yuan Zhou took out the first knife. It was shaped into a kitchen knife with its back wide and thick and the blade appearing thin and sharp. Beneath the sun rays of Tokyo, it glistened brightly.
“It really is a kitchen knife made of ice. How can it cut things like that?” The onlookers at the side started to discuss with each other.
“It seems this person doesn’t know that the skin of the tuna is very thick and hard to cut through. Considering the strength of the ice blade, it will break.” Somebody who knew the ropes shook his head.
“Maybe this person just took the ice blade out to show off. However, it’s indeed worth a look.” Another person sighed.
“The thing outside actually isn’t the fish skin. It’s the scales, to be exact, the scales of a tuna.” Somebody brought up a reminder.
That’s right. This layer of outer skin looked black, strong and glossy. When one touched it, it felt soft, ice-cold, fine, and smooth. It was indeed the fish skin of the tuna.
“With such an ice blade that isn’t specifically hardened , one could hardly cut the fish open.” A person said with puzzlement.
“Indeed. The ice blade can probably cut the soft and tender fish flesh open, but not the fish skin.” As the onlookers all came from more than one country, therefore, among them, there were some that understood the problem and thus couldn’t help discussing.
Most people had only heard something about the ice blade, but never seen it personally. After all, it was rare for any chef to actually use this thing to cut flesh or meat.
If it was an entire block of ice, it would naturally be very hard. But such a thin ice blade like Yuan Zhou’s could only cut the surface rather than slicing anything open.
“This is the raw fish slice.” Yuan Zhou suddenly raised his head and said to Zheng Jiawei at the side.
“Okay, Boss Yuan. I understand now.” Zheng Jiawei almost understood Yuan Zhou’s meaning instantly; therefore, he nodded his head immediately and answered.
During the gap, Zheng Jiawei slightly went up and started to explain what Yuan Zhou was going to make in Japanese and English.
Unexpectedly, the Japanese almost understood him immediately upon hearing that. They knew the raw fish slices Yuan Zhou was about to make was a kind of delicacies passed on from ancient China, but they had never seen it before.
Just like the Han Chinese Clothing that Yuan Zhou wore. There were also many Chinese people around, but only the Japanese knew what kind of clothes it was.
Zheng Jiawei didn’t explain the difference between the ancient fish slices and the current one in details, either. After all, these people would know that by themselves after Yuan Zhou made the dish and they ate it.
“Money, money, money. Zheng Jiawei, give me the money. I remember that you exchanged many JPY notes.” Wu Hai said that immediately once he saw Zheng Jiawei return to his seat.
Following Yuan Zhou’s rules had almost become the habit of Wu Hai. His first reaction was that luckily Zheng Jiawei had exchanged so many JPY notes. After all, Zheng Jiawei was a person that had an international account.
“Little Hai, how many plates do you want?” Zheng Jiawei nodded his head and then took out his wallet.
“Of course as many as the money in your wallet can pay.” Wu Hai said immodestly.
What a joke! It was a rare event for Yuan Zhou not to do his business in his restaurant. Furthermore, he didn’t say that they can’t continue eating. Of course, he must eat his fill.
“Alright.” Zheng Jiawei agreed and then brought out all JPY notes in his wallet, putting them Yuan Zhou’s drawer.
“I also have some notes. Put them all inside. You can calculate the money shortly and tell me when it’s used up.” Wu Hai took out a few JPY notes from his wallet.
Wu Hai looked at the money in the drawer contentedly and waited cooperatively for Yuan Zhou to cut open the tuna while stroking his small mustaches.
The loud discussions just now receded a bit as Yuan Zhou started to cut the fish skin and in the end, disappeared.
They watched Yuan Zhou cut open the fish scales on the belly easily from head to tail.
The cut was neither deep nor shallow. As the fish skin was originally very compact, the silvery-grayish fish body immediately came into sight. If somebody went up and observed the fish carefully, he would find that there wasn’t a scar on the fish body.
“Awesome. This cut is quick and accurate.” Wu Jun revealed a look of admiration at the side.
Yuan Zhou didn’t stay still too long before he continued.
Fast! Yuan Zhou waved the ice blade in his hand extremely quickly. Even the onlookers felt that the silver light was dancing in the air.
They couldn’t keep up.
“This speed should be good.” Yuan Zhou continued with absolute focus as he had decided on his speed before he even started.
After all, as the temperature rose and the more it was used, the ice blade would become blunt which would affect the slicing feeling.
“Oh, my god. Who is this person? Is he a chef from any Michelin Restaurant? Waving it so quickly, I can’t even see the knife in his hand clearly.” A well-dressed pretty lady sighed with emotion.
“Yeah, yes. It’s really impressive,” said two white-collar workers in Japanese who worked nearby.
“The knife was originally transparent and he is waving it so quickly, I can’t even tell where it is now.” A middle-aged man sighed with emotion.
“I’m really worried that the knife will break. A kitchen knife made of ice is so interesting.” Somebody else looked at the kitchen knife nervously and then looked at the fish in front of Yuan Zhou.
It seemed to be quite easy for Yuan Zhou to cut open the scales of a fish with a length of 2 meters from head to tail. Not long after that, he stopped his hands.
“Sh. Stop yelling. Let’s see what happened to the fish.” The people around emitted the same sentence on one accord.
Wu Hai and Zheng Jiawei naturally didn’t worry at all and they did nothing but wait for the result. After all, they knew Yuan Zhou’s culinary skills very well.
Alike to other onlookers, Wu Jun was both expectant and nervous in case any problems arose.
However, when Yuan Zhou rubbed the fish body gently, the fish skin on the surface separated and turned into long and narrow strips, which then piled up at both sides of the fish.
As a result, the entire silvery-grayish fish body appeared on the upper side of the fish. It was beautiful and perfect, devoid of any bruising.
And the silvery-grayish thing was the authentic fish skin.
“Wow!” All the onlookers emitted a sound of admiration.
“It’s like the masterpiece of God. Impressive.”
“Gosh. It’s simply at the standard of the Great Emperor Palace. He’s so awesome. Did you see the fish body? There were no bruises at all.”
“I think I have to savor the taste of the fish.”
“You are right. Of course, I have to taste it, too.”
“Hey. is there anyone receiving money?”
Somebody in the crowd waved the bank notes and prepared to taste this miraculous fish.
Zheng Jiawei, who mastered several languages, stood out at that time and started to explain the prices of the fish portions.
Though it was far higher than the market price, the prices were quite deserved since Yuan Zhou had performed so well in slicing away the fish scales with the ice blade just now.
One had to admit that these tourists were really rich. Many of them weren’t stingy at all to spend hundreds or thousands of RMB on a plate of the raw fish slice just for a try.
Yuan Zhou didn’t divide up the entire fish, but only split the single side that faced him.
Of course, Yuan Zhou first sliced off the layer of silvery-grayish fish skin before he divided up the fish body.
Then, that single side of the fish revealed a beef-like red color.
Subsequently, the fish body was divided into the Senaka part, Chutoro part, Akami part, Sekami part, etc. Each part was sold at different prices.
“Peng”. Yuan Zhou set down the remaining half of the fish into the carton that had just been filled with more ice and then covered it, leaving only some meat of the Chutoro part on the chopping board.
“Now, let’s start to sell the meat of the Otoro part. Presumably, you all know that the meat of this part tastes best. And the price is exactly what I told you just now. Now, we are open to receive money.” Zheng Jiawei said timely.
The entire pink flesh was placed on the azure stone countertop like that. At that moment, Yuan Zhou nevertheless opened the metal box again and took out a knife again.
Well, it was still a kitchen knife…
