Chapter 8: The Dining Experience
Several minutes later, the wooden doors that led from the kitchen to the dining area swung open. Butler Lee carried out several dishes of food on a dark hardwood tray while Grant followed behind. The middle-aged chef was wiping his sweat off on his sleeve and he looked extremely satisfied from cooking those few dishes. When the food came to the table, Muta saw the few dishes that was served. A piping hot plate of Mapo tofu, coupled with a medium-sized bowl of beansprout soup and two bowls of white rice was placed on the table. The presentation of the dishes were simple and looked too simple for such a prestigious restaurant. Is this how all top end restaurants serve their food, thought Muta. The young boy gave off a puzzled look which made his father chuckle slightly.
"Muta, I'm guessing you are puzzled by the fact that the presentation of the food is too simple?"
"Yes, father. I always thought that the food served in the high-end restaurants or even to the king would be way more classy than this."
"Well you are correct young one. The food you are eating right now is probably one of a kind since only the Dragoon restaurant has such privileges to present the food this way. All the other restaurants would not dare to serve such unstylish food." The clear sounding voice came from the main door of the restaurant. Muta looked to his right and saw the origin of the voice. It came from a middle-aged man dressed in a clean white tuxedo. The person had his hair comb to the side and he wore a pair of golden glasses. He looked like he came out of a children's book depicting the prince from a faraway land.
"Oh hey, Russell! Long time no see!" Gavin shouted out when he saw the middle-aged man by the door. It was at that instant when the man suddenly teleported right in front of Gavin and delivered a strong fiery punch. The man's hand lit up with fire and the strong blazing heat drifted outwards. Right when the fist was about to hit Gavin's face, the man who was previously sitting in his chair comfortably had disappeared and reappeared behind Russell, whilst placing his hand around the angry man's shoulder. "It's nice to see you again old pal! Looks like your hotheadedness has not toned down in the past seven years."
Gavin joked around with Russell as he commented on Russell's reckless actions. Currently, the residual flames had burned away the white pristine chair into a pile of black ash. The sight was rather shocking for the seven-year-old boy who was being exposed to such weird people for the first time. In Muta's head he was thinking, what kind of friends do father have? Why aren't any of them at least "normal" in some way. First was the big buff man, Grant, over there who appeared to have an angry persona, but turned out to be an emotional wreck. Next was this middle-aged "gentleman", Russell, whom I thought would be less crazy, but turned out to be as much of a nut job as Grant. What is going on? Not only that, how come father's speed is so fast that he was able to react to that punch in that instance?
It took several seconds before the situation calmed down and Russell had decided to hide away his angry emotions. He then turned to Muta and wore a slight smile on his face. "Hello young one, you must be Muta, the son of my ignorant friend. How is the food we served to you today?"
"Hello uncle Russell, and yes I am Muta. I haven't tried the food out yet, but the smell that accompanies the food means it should taste good too." Muta was still slightly shocked by how the man had changed his persona once again and masked away his previous actions. However, he didn't continue to pursue what just happened and decided to give the food a try. The smell that continuously steamed out of the Mapo tofu was simply too irresistible and coupled with the fact that he had not eaten since last night, he didn't really care if he was eating grass or even proper food.
The first contact with the tofu in Muta's mouth was on his tongue. The young boy did not even feel the tofu land on his tongue, but rather it melted away as if it was nothing. The first thing he tasted was a slight sweetness followed by a large spike of spiciness. The constant mix of the chilli oil and the five spice powder kept rolling on his tongue and it made Muta feel extremely satisfied. The youth who had to learn how to cook over a hundred odd dishes with Auntie and Uncle Nat was rather familiar with the ingredients that were needed to make this dish and thus could tell there were mystery ingredients that helped accentuate the taste of the spiciness that came from the tofu.
"The Mapo tofu dish contains… Chives and peanut sauce?" Muta had his eyes closed as he tried to sift out the mystery ingredients that were hidden in the sauce. The chef Grant and Russell had their eyes wide open as they were shocked at how accurate the youth was at guessing the additional ingredients. "I feel like there is another aspect that I am missing out. Something very important in the making of this dish.."
"The answer is fire, Muta. The strong burning flame that helps cook up this soft and smooth-like tofu lies in the power and ferocity of the flame. Grant over there is a fire-elemental specialist who is also a water-elemental user. He purposely imbued a slight bit of heat into the tofu where he afterwards complimented it by using the water ability to steam up the ingredients. In the end, it helped soften the inside of the tofu whilst the sauce melted into the beef."
"So it was the power of the elements that helped make the food that more delicious." It was at that moment when Muta realised how useful a person's innate ability was to the profession he specialises in. I wonder what element do I possess?
"Regardless, well done Muta! You manage to figure out the two special ingredients our restaurant uses to make this tofu dish. Plus it was without using your eyes and just by using the sense of taste." Russell spoke out on Muta's keen sense of taste and looked towards Gavin. "I sense that it must have been a result of your father that you were able to acquire such heightened senses at such a young age."
It was indeed thanks to Gavin. If it were not for the fact that he personally went to seek out Auntie and Uncle Nat to help take care of his son and even teach him those skills, the boy would not be where he was now. Every morning from a young age of four, Muta would head to the Nat's house to help chop some firewood which would be used to cook up the numerous dishes. He would then stand by Auntie or Uncle Nat as they taught him how to make it. In addition, he would be required to recreate it.
Don't think that the couple was very lax on the young boy. In fact, they were quite the opposite. Before the couple had come to Centriole to retire and live a peaceful life, the duo had opened a restaurant in the Earth section in Golgia and was deemed as "The restaurant with a hundred cuisines". Thousands of people would patronize their restaurant every day. Not only was their food cheap, but also delicious. The couple were offered by the king several times before to move into the Heaven section but decided to turn his offer down for fear that their customers with lower income cannot afford the food once they move up. They prefer to cook for people of all ranks in society and that was why Gavin wanted them to teach his son whatever they could during his childhood.
Whenever Muta makes a mistake in his cooking, they would not hesitate to make him eat up his failure. It was this that actually help build up his skill in cooking for fear of failing. He once had to eat up several plates full of burnt pork as his dish was created unsuccessfully. After that day, he learned to make food meticulously and understood each and every ingredient that he used before. Now, Muta knows over a hundred types of spices and how they compliment with each other.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Over_The_Horizon
Over_The_Horizon Oh man, this was a rather hard chapter to write since I am pretty bad at cooking myself and thus had to search up what ingredients were in the Mapo Tofu. Hope you guys like it and be sure to vote my book if you want more! :)
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