Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The noodles twisted and turned, and had the standard yellowish color of wheaten food. Above the soup, some vegetables floated. The soup was also yellowish in color, like something that had been deep-fried. Steam billowed up the noodles, while an aroma unique to instant noodles wafted around.
The noodles looked better than the picture one normally saw on the instant noodle packagings.
“Looks really good,” Mr. Wei said.
“Of course. I’m the chef,” Yuan Zhou said, as if this was common knowledge.
“I won’t be holding back,” Mr. Wei said and picked up the chopsticks.
The smell of instant noodles would always be better than the actual taste. Thus, people would usually spend more time smelling the noodles before eating it. But Mr. Wei did not care about that and directly stuffed some noodles into his mouth.
Slurp. Mr. Wei swallowed the noodles.
The noodles were tender and had an intense flavor of pork bones and deep-fried oil. They were cooked perfectly, feeling very springy. While being chewed, they also gave off a fresh flavor of vegetables.
Slurp. Slurp. Eating while drinking the soup. This was how one should be eating instant noodles.
After drinking a mouthful of soup, the flavor of the noodles, the oil, the bone soup, and the vegetables all mingled around in his mouth.
This brought back the feeling of eating instant noodles on trains when one was going back home for Chinese New Year. The entire coach would be filled with the aroma of instant noodles.
As his stomach was rumbling with hunger, the thick pork bone soup and noodles gave him a warm and filling feeling.
“Delicious.”
Mr. Wei ate quickly and finished the noodles in a short while. He directly wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his suit.
“It’s getting late. I’m closing the restaurant,” Yuan Zhou nodded and said from his seat.
“Right, it is getting late. It’s 12:30 am already,” Mr. Wei nodded after checking his watch.
“See you tomorrow,” Yuan Zhou told him to leave indirectly.
“Alright, I’m leaving,” Mr. Wei was tactful and stood up to leave.
Yuan Zhou did not say anything in response. He merely nodded.
Ta. Ta. Ta. Footsteps sounded at the door again. It was Mr. Wei.
“Thank you, Boss Yuan for the noodles. It’s very delicious,” Mr. Wei said before leaving.
“Of course. Even the wheat used was carefully chosen by me,” Yuan Zhou said after Mr. Wei left.
After finishing his instant noodles, Yuan Zhou stood up and started cleaning up.
Whoosh. Whoosh. While washing the dishes, Yuan Zhou suddenly spoke, “Wait, I made a loss. I think I forgot to charge him?”
Yuan Zhou was vexed that he had forgotten to charge Mr. Wei, while Mr. Wei had already droved away in his car.
Mr. Wei’s house wasn’t too far from Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. He reached after 10 minutes of driving.
Ding. The elevator arrived at his floor. Mr. Wei walked to his house and fished out his key.
Creak. The door opened. Inside, the lights were still on. Wei Wei was watching TV on the sofa.
“Working overtime again? Mom will be unhappy if she found out,” Wei Wei said the moment Mr. Wei entered.
“I’m going to bed,” before Mr. Wei could reply, Wei Wei stood up and entered her room.
“Good night, Wei Wei,” Mr. Wei said gently.
“So it turns out my daughter is still awake,” Mr. Wei softly closed the door. He felt like the instant noodles earlier had probably been digested as his body was now filled with energy.
At times, one was so tired from work one didn’t even want to go back home. But at times, home was also the place one could recover from the exhaustion.
The exemplary restaurant selection had been ongoing for several days. As they had not encountered the people from the Municipal Committee during the first few days, Director Gu had been finding time to tag along with the filming crew every single day.
That was his way of showing how serious he was towards this event.
The videos on the official website had also attracted a lot of attention, especially those in the cooking industry.
This website was already a website many chefs paid attention too. When they saw the video on Yuan Zhou’s restaurant, it caused an even bigger uproar.
In the past, people were already unhappy with the fact that Yuan Zhou’s website rated other restaurants with Yuan Zhou as the unit of measurement.
And with Zhou Shijie claiming to give Yuan Zhou full marks in the video, the dissatisfaction grew.
Ling Hong’s unrelenting promotion of Yuan Zhou’s website was also one contributing factor for the unhappiness.
After all, when the website’s traffic grew, the other restaurants could no longer ignore the reviews about them on the website.
Dignity had always been important and chefs were, in a way, artists as well. For artists, reputation was very important and they were naturally unwilling to accept this.
And as usual, bad news had a way to spread far and wide.
This was the kitchen of a restaurant specialized in prawns and crabs. As it was still 10:00 am in the morning, they were still preparing their ingredients. The restaurant was not opened for business yet.
The head chef was sturdy and had a big belly. In his white chef attire, he was seated to the side frowning. His apron rested beside him. One could see that there was some dirt on his waist, and his cuffs were also greasy and dirty. He was currently holding his phone.
Ta. Ta. Ta. Footsteps approached.
The newcomer was the sous-chef of this restaurant. He was around 30 years old. Currently, he was wearing a set of gray casual clothes. He had a lean figure and looked like a witty person.
“Chef Li, I already asked the people from the Seafood Club. They are interested to teach that Yuan Zhou’s restaurant a lesson as well,” they were speaking about Yuan Zhou.
“Um. Good. I will personally contact the head chef of Seafood Club later,” Chef Li stood up and said with a pleased expression while rubbing his belly.
“With your strength, Chef Li, you don’t need to work with others,” said the other person confidently as he caught the phone Chef Li tossed at him.
“What do you know? Talk again after looking at the phone,” Chef Li pointed at the phone.
“Let me give it a look,” that person turned on the screen.
Chef Li was reading the reviews on their restaurant that was written on Yuan Zhou’s website earlier.
[That Shrimp And Crab Gathering is really terrible. I have even checked the reviews before I went there. I thought they were really as good as 0.1 of Boss Yuan. What a disappointment.] Handsome Graduate
[0.1 Yuan Zhou is quite an apt rating. After all, compared with Boss Yuan, oh, not quite. They is no comparing the two. In any case, the cooking skills of that place is enough to say that the food is edible.] Sime9
[With this review website, I feel like I am able to avoid a lot of traps. That Shrimp And Crab Gathering is one of those traps. Everyone, be sure to not go to that place. When eating, you won’t be able to stop thinking about Boss Yuan’s Phoenix-Tailed Prawns. Then, you won’t even feel like eating anything there anymore. Shrug.] Drunk Ink
As he scrolled down, he saw that everyone was rating this restaurant as 0.1 Yuan Zhou, with some even ridiculing them for having bad food.
“Chef Li, that Yuan Zhou is going overboard. He has never eaten here. How can he claim that our food is not good?” complained the person resentfully.
“You are right. He is not a gourmet. What makes him worthy of criticizing everyone else?” Chef Li nodded.
“Chef Li, with my cooking skills, even if I’m not good with other dishes, I am confident I can cook better crabs than him. After all, he doesn’t even serve crabs in his restaurant. Shall I…” the sous-chef was stopped before he could finish.
“No need. I have my own plans,” said Chef Li mysteriously.
