Chapter 87: A Temporary Mission
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
Generally speaking, vegetables would inevitably lose the moisture during the cooking process. This included the nutrition it contained as well. No matter how fresh and crisp the dish was cooked, it was the same. However, Yuan Zhou managed to master the skill of containing the moisture in the artemisia selengensis.
“Little Master Yuan, you really have superb culinary skills.” The grandpa nodded.
“Would you like a Herbal Tea Egg today?” Yuan Zhou first nodded, accepting the praise before asking.
“No, thanks. This old man can’t afford it.” the grandpa already noticed that the Herbal Tea Egg had risen back to its original price. It was better not to eat such an expensive egg as it brought about great heartache every time after tasting it.
“The original price represents one’s social status,” Yuan Zhou promoted the dish earnestly.
“This decrepit old man has no social status.” the grandpa shook his head, still refusing.
“Ok. Help yourself, please.” Although he had failed in promoting his dish, Yuan Zhou didn’t get discouraged.
“Pa,” the grandpa suddenly patted on his thigh, “I was preparing to eat it with the Clear Broth Noodle Soup. How could I have finished eating it so quickly?”
While saying that, he looked at the empty plate beside him with a helpless manner.
“Boss, did you grow the vegetable shoots over there?” seeing that Yuan Zhou had finished his work, Mu Xiaoyun asked in a whisper.
“No, they were already like that when I purchased them,” Yuan Zhou said decisively.
“Oh, so it’s like that. No wonder I didn’t see them yesterday,” Mu Xiaoyun muttered to herself.
“Concentrate on greeting the customers,” standing at the side, Yuan Zhou reminded her.
“Ok, sure, boss,” Mu Xiaoyun answered with a sweet smile on her face.
Yuan Zhou also looked towards the entrance, waiting for new customers to drop by. The most important customer was the super-wealthy Ling Hong since the Herbal Tea Egg was now back to its original price.
The reason why Yuan Zhou got so eager to sell the Herbal Tea Eggs, even going to the extent of promoting it himself, was quite simple.
The rewarded regional cuisine was Jin’ling Cuisine, a subcategory under Su Cuisine, which was one of the eight famous regional cuisines. A typical characteristic of Su Cuisine was that it emphasized on sculpt to match the dish. This also happened to be a weakness of Yuan Zhou.
To prepare the Phoenix-Tail Prawns, the tail of the prawn had to be styled into a tail of a phoenix. The heat control during cooking was not a problem for him, but the most important point was that some sculptings were necessary for the presentation.
Shredding was an easy job for Yuan Zhou but the sculpting was more difficult as he had never specifically learned that.
All these problems weren’t noticed by Yuan Zhou at the beginning. Only until the grandpa ordered the new dish of Jin’ling Grass did the system remind him of a temporary mission.
The system displayed, “Considering the host hasn’t mastered the sculpting skills required for the Phoenix-Tail Prawns, this new dish is temporarily unavailable for now. A temporary mission is hereby released.”
[Temporary Mission] Selling ten Herbal Tea Eggs at its original price within two days
(Only by selling out the Herbal Tea Eggs at its original price can one show one’s genuine abilities.)
[Reward] Sculpting Skills, Medium Part
“System, what does the ‘Sculpting Skills, Medium Part’ mean? Is there an Upper Part and a Lower Part?” Yuan Zhou asked while looking out for more business.
The system displayed, “The Sculpting Skills consist of Upper, Medium and Lower parts. When you finish the mission, you’ll be rewarded with the Medium Part.”
“What do the Upper, Medium and Lower part consist of respectively?” Yuan Zhou asked directly.
The system read, “The upper part is the sculpting for inedible objects; the medium part is sculpting for vegetables; the lower part is for meat dishes.”
“Understood.” Yuan Zhou felt that vegetable dishes were a major category, hence he could produce many different dishes.
“Boss, one serving of Egg Fried Rice Set.” Yuan Zhou was pulled back to reality from the deep thought by the voice of the little loli, Mu Xiaoyun.
“Humm.” Yuan Zhou turned around and went into the kitchen to prepare the dish calmly, just as if he were not the one who stared into space and had to be called twice.
“What’s wrong with Boss Yuan?” Wu Zhou asked in puzzlement.
“I don’t know. Maybe he is thinking about the dishes. After all, some new dishes are available now.” Mu Xiaoyun did her job well. She even started to promote the new dishes.
“New dishes? Let me have a look.” Immediately attracted by the new dishes, Wu Zhou turned his head to look at the price list.
“Tut-tut. It turns out that the Herbal Tea Egg really was on special offer before.” When Wu Zhou first saw on the menu, the Herbal Tea Egg costing 1888 RMB per serving, he sighed with emotion.
“What the hell is the new dish, Jin’ling Grass? Is it really grass?” Following the Herbal Tea Eggs, Wu Zhou saw the name of the new dish that sounded really amazing.
If he were at other restaurants, Wu Zhou would have never suspected that Jin’ling Grass was common grass. Normally, it was merely a kind of wild vegetable that he had never seen before. Of course, things were different in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. It was probably really grass.
“Not grass. It’s a kind of wild vegetable. Just now the grandpa also ordered this dish. Would you like one serving?” Mu Xiaoyun explained in detail at the side.
“No, not now. I will bring my girlfriend this weekend to taste it.” Wu Zhou shook his head, smiling. Unconsciously, he once again flaunted the intimacy with his girlfriend.
“Here is your set meal,” Yuan Zhou carried the dish to him.
“Thank you. Boss Yuan, which among the new dishes is the most delicious?” Wu Zhou asked curiously.
“Herbal Tea Eggs.” His mind was filled with thoughts about the temporary mission, thus Yuan Zhou subconsciously blurted out.
“Eh…” Wu Zhou had nothing more to say.
“Yes, it’s indeed the Herbal Tea Eggs.” Yuan Zhou even nodded affirmatively.
“No, let’s forget the Herbal Tea Egg first. I’m talking about the three new dishes. Which one taste better?” Wu Zhou emphasized again on the word of ‘new’.
“Vegetable dish, Jin’ling Grass; meat dish, Melt-In-The-Mouth Chicken Feet; feshwater dish, Phoenix-Tail Prawns.” Yuan Zhou said at a moderate speed.
“Boss Yuan, that really makes sense.” Wu Zhou was unable to say anything. What did that differ from saying nothing?
The key point was that he couldn’t say Yuan Zhou was wrong. Wu Zhou felt it was better for him to have lunch first, in case he got choked to death.
Yuan Zhou was nevertheless the most depressed one. Again, he had failed in promoting his eggs to the customer. Of course, if he wanted to sell his eggs with such a marketing manner, even the King of Salesman, Joe Girard, wouldn’t be able to do so.
During the 2 hours of lunch time, the wealthy man Ling Hong didn’t bring several others to queue in the line and entered the restaurant until forty minutes before the restaurant was closed.
“Good afternoon. What would like to eat today?” Mu Xiaoyun greeted him with a sweet smile.
“This little loli is very obedient, huh?” Ling Hong first praised Mu Xiaoyun after he sat down and then asked immediately, “New dishes, right?”
“Right. We have three new dishes today.” Mu Xiaoyun had already been accustomed to such kind of praise, as Ling Hong would almost say so every time he came.
“Then offer Tank and me two servings of every new dish, one for each of us; four cups of watermelon juice and four servings of plain rice.” Although he was fairly wealthy, Ling Hong had a sense of propriety. It was sinful to waste such delicious dishes.
“I’m sorry, the Phoenix-Tail Prawns cannot be served for now.” Yuan Zhou first explained.
“Why?” Ling Hong asked in puzzlement.
Normally, any dish on the menu could be cooked by Yuan Zhou as long as the customer didn’t violate Yuan Zhou’s rules. It was Ling Hong’s first time being refused.
“It’s written on the menu.” Yuan Zhou pointed at the price list, showing to them the conspicuous words “Not available temporarily” after the name of the dish, Phoenix-Tail Prawns.
“It really is true.” The several people turned their heads and saw it.
“Hey, the Herbal Tea Egg is now at the original price. You brat, treat us to that dish right now.” suddenly Tank shouted in blissful surprise.
“Really?” Ling Hong raised his head, taking a look at the Herbal Tea Eggs on the top of the menu, finding it to be true.
“Ok. Then offer us four Herbal Tea Eggs, three servings of the new dishes and four bowls of plain rice,” Ling Hong ordered the dishes again.
“Sorry, plain rice is unavailable for now.” Yuan Zhou was very happy to sell the Herbal Tea Eggs without any effort. However, he still didn’t have plain rice.
Serving dishes only without plain rice! Such thing could only happen in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
“Boss Yuan, it’s very easy to lose friends this way,” Ling Hong said directly.
“It won’t happen. Because I’m so handsome and can cook, moreover, cook well.” Yuan Zhou said in a prim manner.
“Ho Ho.” Ling Hong expressed his admiration to Yuan Zhou talking nonsense with a prim manner
“Then change the plain rice into four bowls of Egg Fried Rice.” This time, it was still Tank who ordered other dishes.
“Ok. One moment, please.” Yuan Zhou said.