Bab 28: Chapter 28: God of Cooking Space
Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Having placed the order for ingredients, Xia Yu felt a weight lifted off his heart. Now he only had to rely on his own skills.
"Today's menu features Sichuan and Cantonese cuisine."
"Sichuan dishes are fish-flavored pork, mapo tofu, and sour and spicy potato strips."
"Cantonese dishes are satay beef, pineapple gulu meat, and braised assorted vegetables with red fermented bean curd."
Six dishes in total, all of which Xia Yu was familiar with. A bit of effort would earn him a passing score of 60 from the system.
As for tomorrow's menu, he'd repeat today's three dishes and add three from Shandong cuisine: braised prawns, nine-turned intestines, and exquisite seafood tofu.
A close look revealed that there were quite a few tofu-centered dishes.
This was indeed a somewhat helpless move by Xia Yu.
In the study of "Magic Mapo Tofu," he had almost maxed out his skill in tofu dishes. Xia Yu would not boast about other skills, but when it came to tofu, he was overflowing with confidence.
However, the other two Shandong dishes, braised prawns and nine-turned intestines, were relatively unfamiliar to him. Occasionally achieving a 60-point rating, Xia Yu needed to practice more to stabilize the dish quality.
But as he rummaged through the kitchen for ingredients, Xia Yu was dumbfounded.
The fridge was nearly empty; forget about shrimp and pork intestines, even other side ingredients were incomplete!
Moreover, it seemed very unreliable to Xia Yu to use the shop's purchased ingredients for practice.
When the old man was around, Xia Yu could empty his mind, no worries, take any available ingredient to practice with.
Especially this past week, recalling it made Xia Yu break out in a cold sweat.
The failed products of "Magic Mapo Tofu" filled basket after basket.
The consumption of tofu was equally terrifying, starting with soaking 5 kilograms of soybeans daily to grind soy milk, increasing to 10 kilograms by the third day and 15 by the fifth day. In other words, such practice without financial support could squander everything, and it was truly extravagant.
This was also why it was so hard to cultivate a chef.
If one did not attend a chef training school like Far Moon, they must find a mentor, assist in restaurant kitchens, run errands, and start from the very basics like chopping vegetables, gain experience, and work up to becoming a head chef. It took at least ten or twenty years of accumulation to achieve.
Money remained crucial.
The old man left only one million yen; this fund was obviously for purchasing ingredients, very tight. If Xia Yu continued using the purchased ingredients for practice, he'd inadvertently exhaust the funds, and the small cooking shop would transition from half-dead to utterly dead.
Yet, practice was essential, unless he used the same menu daily initially, just to muddle through.
Xia Yu shook his head.
Reducing from twelve to six dishes a day could be said to be a tough decision. That was the bottom line.
Any further cutbacks would feel like self-abandonment to Xia Yu.
Without pressure, where's the motivation to move forward?
"System, is there any way for me to practice cooking?" He could only turn to the God of Cooking System for help.
"The host currently has 220 Fame Points and can activate the God of Cooking Space for practice. Each hour spent in the space consumes 10 Fame Points," the system replied.
God of Cooking Space?
Xia Yu only asked tentatively, not expecting the system to actually have a solution, and he was delighted. But he immediately forced himself to calm down, "System, with 220 Fame Points, what can be purchased in the God of Cooking Store?"
"Blue recipes, average price 500 Fame Points."
"Blue permanent kitchenware, average price 1000 Fame Points."
"Blue extension skill book, average price 1000 Fame Points."
As expected!
With 500 Fame Points, he could buy a recipe, while with 220, he could open the God of Cooking Space for only 22 hours.
The recipes could be learned permanently.
Thinking of this, Xia Yu couldn't help but feel a pang of regret.
He was halfway to having enough Fame Points to purchase any blue recipe he wanted, then delve into it to master a brand-new glowing dish, increasing his trump cards.
However, due to starting too late and lacking culinary depth, a large amount of cooking practice was indeed necessary.
For example, there's the take on Xingping Chuangzhen, who began culinary training at three years old and had been rolling around the kitchen of Xingping Restaurant for 12 years, gaining extremely rich hands-on chef experience.
Similarly, Takeomi and Isami, Italian brothers, had rich practical experience as professional chefs before entering Far Moon.
Xia Yu had a solid foundation; even without the God of Cooking System, his knife skills stood out among Far Moon students. However, he lacked firsthand head chef experience.
This experience needed to be accumulated by running a small shop slowly, and before that, Xia's Chinese Restaurant also had to keep operating!
"Practice! Practice!"
Gritting his teeth, Xia Yu considered the Fame Points as an investment in the small shop.
"System, exchange for 22 hours of God of Cooking Space usage for me," he said, "Once the God of Cooking Space is open, can I freely enter and exit?"
"Yes, time freezes when the host leaves the God of Cooking Space."
"Open it then!"
Xia Yu dashed up to the second-floor bedroom, shut the door, and lay on the bed eagerly.
...
It felt like he had a beautiful nap.
Upon waking, Xia Yu found himself in a traditional, antique-style kitchen. Gas stove, cabinets, pots, pans, and an unopened array of jars, all sparkling.
Classical luxury akin to a dream.
Besides the chopping station, there was a station dedicated to fresh ingredients. Xia Yu walked over, pulling a plump salmon from a box filled with solid ice.
Smelling the fresh scent of salmon, Xia Yu's stomach seemed to protest. For some reason, the salmon transformed into various dishes floating before his eyes.
Simply holding the ingredients, inspiration flowed like a flood. Xia Yu couldn't help but take a light breath, enjoying the active state of his mind.
"Timing starts."
"The host can use the ingredients in this kitchen freely, with unlimited supply."
"Additionally, if the host creates a dish scoring 90 or above, a mysterious surprise reward from the system will be given."
With that, the God of Cooking System went silent.
A mysterious surprise reward?
His lips twitched. Although such temptations were akin to cliched master-clickbait like "dragon-slaying knife click to get," they just so happened to crudely arouse a person's desire.
Xia Yu began to anticipate, a score of 90, right? He'd show them!
He started sweating profusely from practice.
...
Today's rain in Tokyo was heavy and showed no signs of ceasing until evening.
Two female Chinese tourists, An Ya and Mu Xiaoyue, had practically spent the entire day freeloading on the internet at Xia's shop.
From two in the afternoon, the shop owner and head chef, a young boy, disappeared, leaving the two recently acquainted Chinese ladies to keep watch over the shop for him.
"Xiao Ya, our dinner is sorted tonight."
Mu Xiaoyue scrolled through Weibo again, stood up from her chair, stretched with a yawn, and touched her belly with a sweet smile, "Stuffed myself at noon; now, at last, most of it is digested."
"What should we eat tonight?" Her friend, the goddess-like An Ya, also propped both hands on her cheeks, leaned on the table, staring at the blank menu on the wall.
Knock, knock.
"Is anyone there?"
With the sound of knocking, a young couple entered, closing their wet umbrellas as they came into the store.
-- Hadiah diterima