In truth, relying on the system, Yuan Zhou could win without doing anything. In the system’s own words, Yuan Zhou could master both Chinese and Western cuisines.
But Yuan Zhou himself had once said that he first learned cooking to make money, but as his skill improved progressively, he started getting interested in cooking.
Yuan Zhou was similar to many people. When he first learned cooking, he did not like it. But as time went on, he started liking it and eventually even started pouring in a large amount of time and effort to it.
Thus, during the free time in the afternoon, Yuan Zhou would not slack around. Perseverance was crucial to improve cooking skills.
More importantly, if he did not practice cooking in his free time, he did not have anything else to do anyway. This was a luxury only afforded by singles.
“Many chefs can sculpt a flower out of tofu, but what about sculpting a blossoming flower with a lot of minute details to it?” Yuan Zhou considered.
Tofus were tender and fragile. Thus, the majority of the flowers sculpted out of tofu would focus on simplicity. The so-called blossoming flower mentioned by Yuan Zhou was not a specific flower. Rather, it was any flower with complicated layers to it.
Time would never stop, and Yuan Zhou would never stop challenging himself as well. He started attempting the complicated design he had in mind, one that even the veins of the leaves had to be clearly visible.
And it was no surprise that his first attempt ended with a failure.
“Shaping a tofu is too hard. I was already very careful in my application of force,” Yuan Zhou muttered with a frown.
If it was a radish or something else, a slash of the knife would leave a clear outline behind. But when it was a tofu, the outline would be gone in the blink of an eye. Thus, Yuan Zhou failed to form the outline during his first attempt.
“Slice, slice, this is so hard,” Yuan Zhou muttered while he contemplated without stop.
Regardless of whether it was radish or ice sculpting, the subject was a hard object yet tofu was a soft object.
In a way, this was somewhat similar to the minute details of ice sculpting when one had to be very precise when slicing. However, the precision in applied force needed for tofu sculpting was even greater.
Moreover, there were specialized knives for tofu sculpting. These knives were small and exquisite, making it easier for one to sculpt, engrave, or dig at the tofu. If one wasn’t using one of these specialized knives, using a bamboo knife was still a good choice.
But Yuan Zhou behaved like the lyrics of a certain famous song: “We are all different, everyone lives a different experience…”. He directly used a kitchen knife, the hardest knife one could choose for tofu sculpting.
“Again, again,” Yuan Zhou took out a new piece of tofu from the kitchen and continued.
This lasted until 5:00 pm. His neck was already going stiff after maintaining the same posture for so long.
Yuan Zhou raised his arm and found that his arm was already aching. Thus, he decided to stop and start cleaning up the mess.
Those tofus could no go to waste. Thus, Yuan Zhou used all the failed tofu sculptures into tofu pudding of two flavors, sweet and spicy.
Yuan Zhou knew all the dishes in Sichuan Cuisine, snacks included. Thus, his spicy tofu pudding was truly delicious.
Yuan Zhou stood before his condiment counter. Currently, excluding the different spices, he had over 200 different condiments here on the counter. It was worth noting that Yuan Zhou himself had also created and mixed numerous unique condiments.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that any other chef would be stunned by the sight of all these condiments. For example, for something like vinegar, Yuan Zhou had mature vinegar, wheat vinegar, persimmon vinegar, bran vinegar, draft vinegar, malt vinegar, peach vinegar, grape vinegar, jujube vinegar, glutinous rice vinegar, corn vinegar, and so on.
In the beginning, Yuan Zhou was quite slow when locating condiments on this counter. But with practice, he gained familiarity and the counter was now akin to an extension of his arm.
A few drops of oil, half a spoonful of aromatic vinegar, a spoonful of chili oil, Sichuan pepper, ground pepper powder, a tiny amount of chicken powder, and with no other unique gravies or sauces, he was done mixing the condiments of this dish.
Next, he poured it into the scalding hot tofu pudding before sprinkling some bean sprouts to improve the flavor of the tofu. Then, he added eight soybeans to uplift the color of the dish and also added some turnips to give some crispiness to the dish. Finally, he added some chopped onions to complete the dish.
“I feel hungry just looking at it,” muttered Yuan Zhou. He was not feeling hungry before this, but after looking at what he made, he felt like he could eat two bowls of it.
The tofu pudding was fair and tender, and resting atop the tofu was a layer of red chili oil. Sprinkled all over were some crisp-fried soybeans, turnips, and bean sprouts. The entire dish looked incredibly appetizing.
Yuan Zhou scooped up a spoonful of tofu and stuffed it into his mouth. The fair and tender tofu mixed with the crimson chili oil together. The tofu was hot yet tender at the same time, and when he pressed his mouth together, he could feel the tofu melting within. At the same time, the turnip pieces in his mouth were springy and chewy.
The second scoop was more balanced in terms of condiments and ingredients. The chili oil was still wrapped around the tender tofu, but at the same time, the aromatic vinegar’s sourness caused his mouth to secrete a large amount of saliva. The tofu was hot and spicy, and when swallowing, even his throat was subjected to the intense sensation. Even so, he could not bring himself to stop eating.
Just like that, one scoop after another, he stuffed the tofu into his mouth without a stop. Every now and then, he would add some of the soybeans into his mouth. The soybeans were crispy, and the more he chewed, the more fragrant the soybeans felt. The flakes of the chewed soybeans also matched perfectly with the hot and numbing tofu pudding.
“This tofu is sour, spicy, and fresh at the same time. The texture is tender and the flavor is intense and hot. It has already reached the summit of Sichuan’s hot and spicy tofu. I believe the chef in charge of making this dish has already reached enlightenment, a person who has found his true self in the path of life,” Yuan Zhou praised himself shamelessly. He did not forget to deliberately use a low-pitched tone of voice to differentiate from his usual voice.
After the praise, the regular voice of Yuan Zhou rang out, “You are too kind. I am just casually cooking some random dish.”
“Brother, you are too modest. You are totally the hope of Chinese cuisine, the pillar of the Chinese cooking world,” Yuan Zhou spoke with the low-pitched voice.
“You are too kind, too kind,” Yuan Zhou’s regular voice rang out as he cupped his hands politely to the thin air.
“Too modest.”
“No, no.”
“Yes, yes.”
“No, no.”
“Yes, yes.”
…
When Yuan Zhou finally got bored of it, he coughed. His throat was in a slight discomfort due to speaking in a low-pitched voice.
It was actually quite convenient when someone was good at cooking as that person would be able to make anything he wanted to eat for himself.
“I should have prepared more crispy soybeans.” This was Yuan Zhou’s sole regret.
The spicy tofu pudding was for himself. As for the sweet tofu pudding, it was for Broth. Before making it, Yuan Zhou had already researched online. He found that dogs shouldn’t be fed too much salty and spicy food. As a dog’s sweat glands would deteriorate over time, it’s perspiration system wasn’t very good. If it ate too many salty and spicy foods, it would be very easy for a dog to have some skin diseases.
Usually, if a dog was lacking in salt, it would find something to lick by itself.
Of course, Broth wasn’t too picky and would eat anything. But Yuan Zhou still knew that he had to be careful. That was why he had prepared two flavors of tofu pudding.
When the tofu pudding cooled down, Yuan Zhou carried it to Broth’s lair.
“Broth, roll on the ground. I’ll reward you with some good food,” said Yuan Zhou the moment he saw Broth.
“Woof. Woof,” Broth barked twice. He sniffed a bit and after smelling the fragrance in the air, he rolled on the ground without hesitation.
“Good boy,” Yuan Zhou poured the tofu into Broth’s bowl and said, “Come, one more.”
Alas, Broth no longer bothered to even raise his head and focused on eating.
“Broth, I already gave you good food. Come on, roll one more time,” said Yuan Zhou. He even spoke louder as he was afraid that Broth didn’t hear him.
Broth was still concentrating on the tofu, joyfully eating it up.
“You ungrateful dog!” Yuan Zhou complained. He felt like Broth was without conscience, but nevertheless, he did not take back the tofu pudding.
After all, in terms of snatching food, Wu Hai was probably the only match for this extremely intelligent dog.
After returning to the restaurant, Yuan Zhou went upstairs. Although the system had an automatic trash removal function for the restaurant, for his daily trash, he still needed to deal with them himself.
By the time he was done cleaning up, it was 5:30 pm. It was time for him to prepare for dinner.
The day before, Yuan Zhou bought a few lunchboxes. One should not misunderstand, however. Yuan Zhou’s restaurant had not unlocked the take-out service.
Yuan Zhou had a different usage for the lunchboxes. He gathered the ingredients that the system had not taken back and after adding some condiments, he made a big portion of mixed fried rice.
While the rice was still warm, he put it in a lunchbox. After properly closing the cover of the lunchbox, he placed it on top of his trash bag.
This was a very weird action…
