Free Web NovelChapter 564: Chapter 476: An Unexpected Competition, Unspoken Bond Among Women
Chris felt as if she had grasped a key point, and quickly stuffed all the fish slices she had only bitten once into her mouth, chewing vigorously.
While chewing, her eyes still sparkled with a contemplative look.
"No wonder Great Xia Cuisine follows this pattern; they’re skilled at transforming meats into various forms for cooking, so they don’t have a fixed plating style."
"But if you think differently, could Great Xia Cuisine also have large chunk meat dishes like Western cuisine?"
"I really want to see what those dishes would look like..."
Before she came here, she had already gained some understanding of Great Xia Cuisine from the videos on Lucas’s homepage.
After coming here for just more than half a day, she found that the curiosity in her heart not only hadn’t diminished but grew stronger and more intense.
"Though this fish slice is delicious, its taste is a bit bland. It seems suitable for eating directly, but to pair with rice, this soup is needed."
After rapidly finishing two large slices of fish, she licked her lips and without hesitation scooped a full spoonful of rice into the fish soup.
The bright and translucent rice grains were instantly cloaked in a golden-green coat, prompting Chris, who already tasted the deliciousness within, to salivate uncontrollably again.
"Oh~"
"My God!"
As the spoonful of rice entered her mouth, the unparalleled feeling of satisfaction made her involuntarily close her eyes, marveling at the wonders of life.
She was not the only one; many employees, upon unlocking the secret way of eating soup-soaked rice, turned into super vacuum cleaners, bowl in hand, slurping without pause.
During the rice-digging process, the crispy bean sprouts paired with mildly sour pickled vegetables, eaten along with the fish soup and rice, were like side dishes meeting white porridge—simply a match made in heaven.
In the blink of an eye, these people had cleanly obliterated the food in their bowls, each wearing an expression of unfulfilled desire, with some even unwilling to put their bowls down, secretly licking the fish oil residue off the bowl wall.
This tangy fish soup perfectly matched everyone’s taste.
Usually, when eating salads, vinaigrette dressings are often made the main sauce due to their sweet and sour or sharp savory profiles, and seafood isn’t enjoyed without lemons present; even many cream soups or freshly squeezed juices, as well as desserts, feature lemon juice.
Now, the value of the pickled fish soup in everyone’s hearts instantly surpassed the stature of hot and sour soup, ascending to the throne of Great Xia soup dishes.
Even though almost none had tried other flavored soups.
Although there was some soup left in the basin, everyone exchanged glances, none daring to step forward to request more.
Seeing that everyone looked unsatisfied, Lucas’s lips curved upwards as he set down his utensils and picked up the small loudspeaker beside him again.
"Has everyone not had enough?"
"Yes!!"
A relatively outgoing girl already raised her hand actively, her eyes brimming with anticipation.
"So next, it’s the chefs’ turn to shine."
"There are over forty people present, fourteen chefs, the number of waiters we won’t count specifically, it’s not important."
"Next, please each chef form teams freely, two per team, with each team making a pot of pickled fish enough for seven to eight people, time limit of twenty minutes."
"You have five minutes to team up, two minutes to fetch ingredients from the kitchen, starting now!"
The sudden cooking competition left everyone stunned on the spot, their brains still detached from hunger pangs, completely unprepared for such a rapid shift in topic.
Taking advantage of everyone’s dazed state, Chris and Lin glanced at each other tacitly.
As the only two female chefs present, coupled with some simple exchanges during the day, just a glance was enough for them to rise decisively and dash toward the dining area.
Since it’s a timed competition, surely the team that uses the shortest time will receive higher scores!
Their swift departure startled the other chefs, causing them to look hurriedly around, eager to find a suitable partner.
But almost the entire day everyone mostly acted alone, not even knowing each other’s names, let alone cooking habits, making selection impossible.
They could only randomly grab someone who looked congenial and ask if they would pair up, nodding to each other meant a successful team formation.
The unforeseen competition had everyone fumbling, especially the few chefs Jonathan brought in just that afternoon were in worse shape.
They hadn’t participated in the morning or noon catering sessions, so no one knew their capabilities.
Watching helplessly as teams formed while no one approached them to team up, these individuals panicked, hastily clumping together.
Lin Chen’s team had nine people, while the other side had five, leaving one automatically forming a team.
Anyway, nobody knew anyone, even in free team formations, the atmosphere felt somewhat awkward.
As the last few teams assembled and began running toward the dining area, Chris and Lin were already propelling a cart out, swiftly returning to their daytime work positions.
"Should I take the pot or you take the pot?"
"I can’t chop as fast as you."
"Then you do it!"
Chris unhesitatingly relinquished the pot position, grabbing some garlic and starting to chop.
Lin couldn’t spare much thought either, quickly turning on the switch and adjusting the fire to the maximum.
Chris moved unhurriedly, supporting the upper side of the knife tip with her left hand, rocking the blade back and forth like a seesaw.
Every rise and fall of the blade further minces the garlic cloves on the cutting board.
In just a few seconds, the garlic and scallions were prepped, leaving the most troublesome ginger.
The ginger in the cold storage was whole, each piece shaped differently and varying in size.
To cut quickly, it’s best to choose the thickest rhizome.
Chris was smart and didn’t take the whole ginger, instead breaking off the thickest section.
She gently held the ginger with her left hand, slicing around the edges, then stood it up, using the tip of a Western knife to make a few tentative cuts in the air, gradually nearing the ginger’s surface.
"Slice."
The next second, the entire brown ginger skin fell away, revealing the light yellow fresh ginger inside.
The same happened on the other side.
This method suits those with good knife skills; otherwise, it’s easy to cut the ginger flesh while peeling, leading to unnecessary waste.
If your knife skills aren’t great, usually a spoon is used to scrape.
Due to ginger’s unique shape, a peeler can’t reach every crevice, so a spoon becomes the best tool.
When the iron wok began to smoke, the scallions, ginger, and garlic were all prepped.
"Heat the pan, cold oil, until it smokes."
Lin muttered these keywords to herself, taking the side dishes Chris handed over and flipping them into the pan with a reverse grip.
"Sizzle."
Accompanied by a pleasant sound, a faint aroma of scallions, ginger, and garlic wafted from the wok.
Lin quickly stirred with a spatula, slightly reducing the heat to prevent the minced garlic from burning due to high temperatures.
"Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!"
The clear sound of a knife blade tapping on a cutting board rang out, as Chris handed over a basin of chopped pickled vegetables and marinated peppers.
Though it was their first day meeting and first time working together, there was inexplicably a feeling of old partners.
Old Chen, watching from afar while eating pickled fish soup over rice, nodded to himself, as many girls watching also gulped.
Having not eaten enough, now it was the female chefs with the quickest action, and even the Head Chef nodded, indicating their skills were quite good.
Female chefs are normally scarce in a kitchen, and as women, they naturally hoped these two female compatriots could earn them some glory.
"Go for it!"
"You’re number one!!"
"We haven’t even seen the shadow of the second group yet, take it easy, go slow!"
The cheers around made Lin’s heart tighten. Instinctively, she looked up to find dozens of eyes casting glances from all directions, each filled with anticipation and curiosity.
Just as she was feeling panicked, a soft hand suddenly rested on her shoulder.
"Look down."
Chris said in a low voice, "Don’t look at them, the more you look, the more nervous you’ll become. Just think of them as trees swayed by the wind, all just noise."
Lin focused intently on her eyes, as if grabbing a lifeline, and her anxious emotions slowly relaxed.
She took a deep breath, nodded slightly, and refocused her gaze back on the wok in front of her.
Had it not been for the addition of the slightly soupy pickled vegetables lowering the oil temperature, just a few seconds of distraction would have likely caused the minced garlic in the pan to burn.
"Chris really is an experienced chef!"
Lin couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of admiration. "When will I be able to become a chef as skilled and confident as her?"
Seeing Lin return to normal, Chris breathed a sigh of relief, put on gloves, and began to coat the fish.
"It’s about time; just saute out the sour flavor. Don’t fry it for too long; add the broth now."
"Alright."
Lin obediently scooped a ladle of hot fish broth from a nearby plastic bucket and poured it in, repeating the motion.
The fish broth in the back kitchen was always stewing in a large pot, and when filtering, all you needed to do was open the switch on the drain below and catch it with a container. The pot had a built-in filter, so what flowed out was relatively pure fish broth.
But with only one spout, latecomers had to queue up.
Even though it was her first time handling the pickled fish dish, Chris was full of confidence, freely seasoning as she mimicked Old Chen’s actions with a few brisk ladles.
The washed fish slices still contained a bit of clear water at the bottom, which was gradually absorbed by the slices during mixing, causing the texture to become a bit sticky.
"After mixing evenly, add egg white and cornstarch... Mm, very good, just like this!"
In just a few blinks of an eye, the bowl of fish slices became quite thick, the surface seemingly coated in a thin batter, with each stir producing a notable sticky sound.
She didn’t take off her gloves but waited quietly.
The fish slices needed to marinate for at least five minutes before they could be used, the longer, the more flavorful.
Meanwhile, the second group was just now pushing their cart of ingredients out of the dining area, no need to rush at all.
