My Restaurant's Guests are All Abnormal

Chapter 199: Chapter Fifty-Nine: About the Names of Dishes

Chen Ze felt that his cooking skills were improving every day, and at this rate, he was confident he could make a complete glowing dish.

"Truly... the pinnacle of deliciousness," Alisa said with satisfaction, opening her eyes. Unknowingly, she and Betty had finished all the sashimi.

"How does it feel?" Chen Ze was very proud. This dish could be said to be a very successful one, although he did take a bit of a shortcut.

After all, if Chen Ze really had to use ordinary dorado, it would be impossible to achieve this level of Fierce Ice Fresh Dorado Mountain.

"Manager, how much do you plan to sell this dish for?" Alisa took a handkerchief from her bosom and wiped her lips.

Chen Ze was taken aback; he hadn’t really thought about this question.

Firstly, this was a dish of fine quality, and its ingredients dictated that the price couldn’t be too low.

Ten Ice Fish a year, Chen Ze thought, using one-tenth of a fish for this dish, he should at least charge a high price.

"Alisa, how much does one Ice Fish sell for in your area?" Chen Ze decided to ask about the market price before deciding how much to charge.

"Ice Fish are usually auctioned. The last transaction price for an Ice Fish was around 100,000 Gold Coins," Alisa replied quickly, as her commerce guild had also participated in that auction.

"Then let’s set it at 10,000 Gold Coins a serving," Chen Ze nodded. Using one-tenth of the fish for an Iceberg Fresh Mountain, he felt that charging 100,000 Gold Coins was a very reasonable price.

"I think that’s a very reasonable price too, then I’ll just..." Alisa touched her Space Ring.

"Wait, Alisa, you only ate a small portion; just pay with ingredients worth 5,000 Gold Coins for this meal," Chen Ze stopped Alisa’s action.

The Succubus also ate quite a bit, and if Chen Ze charged the original price, he felt it would be a bit unfair to Alisa. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

"Ingredients worth 5,000 Gold Coins?" Alisa nodded, that seemed good to her.

"Yes, but it’s best if they’re rare ingredients," Chen Ze nodded. He still had a large stock of exotic ingredients in his warehouse that hadn’t been used.

"Alright, then I’ll visit again next time." Alisa gracefully performed a noble’s curtsy and then left.

Betty looked as if she still hadn’t had her fill, still immersed in the deliciousness she had just experienced.

Chen Ze frowned and took out his phone, feeling it vibrate just now.

Upon turning it on, he saw three missed calls and two text messages, all from the same unfamiliar number.

Chen Ze was puzzled; he didn’t remember doing anything recently that would cause someone to contact him.

He opened the text message and glanced at it. It was from a sales rep, and after a brief look, Chen Ze understood what this person was looking for.

It was common knowledge that restaurants now have menus, even roadside stands will have a menu listing prices.

And with menus came the birth of a magical industry – dish name design companies or menu item designers.

Chen Ze felt that restaurants these days were straying further from their essence. In the past, when he saw a dish named "Bamboo’s Journey Across the River" on a menu and ordered it, only to find a piece of green vegetable floating in soup, he felt the urge to make a complaint call. Later, at some Internet-famous restaurants, he encountered names like "Popcorn with the Beat of Your Heart" and "Love-Struck Potato."

It confused Chen Ze completely, and he just couldn’t accept it.

Especially when some menus had names that gave no clue as to what the dish was, and the waitstaff would look at you with a caring gaze.

Chen Ze once ordered a dish called "Endless Sorrow Without Respite," which turned out to be durian mixed with yogurt, and after that, Chen Ze never visited that restaurant again.

Now, by some means, Chen Ze had been targeted by a menu design company.

The salesperson used sincere words to invite Chen Ze to visit their company’s homepage to see the designed menu names, and also briefly explained the importance of menu names.

Then Chen Ze replied, "No need, thank you," before blocking the salesperson’s phone number.

"Manager, why did you suddenly want to look at the menu?" Betty asked curiously as she handed Chen Ze the menu.

Chen Ze took the menu and stuffed it into WALL-E, the gift Tony had given him.

"In the future, when customers come, you can call WALL-E over and press this button," Chen Ze demonstrated to Betty, pressing the red button on WALL-E.

A burst of light flashed, and a fully virtual projection of the menu appeared in the air.

Betty curiously tapped "Buffet," and then a cup appeared on the table in front of her.

Betty reached out her hand, but it passed through the cup of Buffet.

"It’s a holographic model," Chen Ze explained. This would make it easier for customers to order.

"Okay, it seems very practical," said Betty, clearly enjoying it.

"By the way, what does this say?" Chen Ze asked, pointing at the curry pork cutlet rice.

"Oh, since we don’t have these terms where I’m from, I wrote ’Meat dish with an average thunderous taste,’" said Betty proudly.

Chen Ze took a deep breath.

Meat dish with an average thunderous taste? Why not write "Empire’s Brutal Meat" or "Tomorrow’s Star Absolute Delicacy"?

Chen Ze felt a strong urge to criticize, which reminded him of how often translations can become particularly jarring when language barriers are involved.

Take the world-famous Sherlock Holmes, for example; some say that according to transliteration it shouldn’t be "Holmes." It’s because the first translator was from Fujian and influenced by the local dialect that it ended up being translated as "Holmes."

Chen Ze didn’t fully believe this explanation but understood how vital a good translation could be.

The thought of his curry pork cutlet rice being known as a "Meat dish with an average thunderous taste" made Chen Ze feel like turning Betty into a thunderous meat dish.

"Can’t you translate it a bit more accurately?"

"How about ’Yellow Thunder Meat with Rich Yellow Vegetables’?" Chen Ze took a deep breath. That name sounded utterly unappetizing.

What customer would want to order such a dish that sounded vaguely nauseating?

Chen Ze suddenly felt it might be better to have no descriptions at all and just set everything as the "Chef’s Special Recommendation."

"Hastur, is this the restaurant you were talking about?" an unfamiliar male voice spoke, and then Chen Ze saw Hastur walk in with a man.

Chen Ze raised an eyebrow. The man before him possessed power similar to Hastur’s—so who exactly was he?

"Long time no see, Manager. This is Nyarlathotep," Hastur introduced his companion to Chen Ze.

The corners of Chen Ze’s mouth twitched—Nyaruko, huh...