Chapter 647 - Attraction Of The Japanese Grenadier Anchovy (1/2)

Who the hell said the Japanese Grenadier Anchovy had too many fish bones but merely tasted ordinary? Who told me this chef’s culinary skills were just average? Tengyuan was so angry that he wanted to beat somebody, but he grudgingly placed the bowl down.

“Ba Ji Ba Ji”. Tengyuan savored the steamed rice and fish meat of the anchovies in his mouth.

“What a fresh and tender taste!” Tengyuan narrowed his eyes slightly and slurp a mouthful of the fish meat gently.

The fish meat of the Japanese Grenadier Anchovy immediately unfolded in Tengyuan’s mouth like the flower petals of lilies. It was fine and tender. Apart from the fresh taste that rushed straight into his throat, there was also the intrinsic faint scent of the steamed rice. Meanwhile, there was also a refreshing taste of the sweet wine mixed inside, too.

As the fish was steamed along with the rice, it was well cooked on the wooden strips as the rice below became steaming hot.

Because the fish bones had already been removed, the sparse wooden strips couldn’t support the fish meat and thus fell on the rice. The originally half-cooked fish meat turned into small pieces and instantly became perfect as soon as it touched the scalding rice water below. Also, the taste of the sweet wine penetrated the fish meat and then it was wrapped in a layer of rice water.

As a result, the rice water outside would be absorbed by the fish meat when the rice was well-cooked and the fresh and scalding fish meat was then revealed.

Apart from that, the fish meat wouldn’t be overcooked because of the sweet wine. Instead, a light fragrance of the sweet wine directly transformed the fishy smell into a fresh taste.

“It’s really an ingenious conception! The delicate fragrance of the rice is contained in the fish meat while the freshness of the fish meat was contained in the rice. It’s both rice and a dish. Marvelous!” Tengyuan thought inwardly. He appeared a little distressed on the surface, but then he returned to normal.

“Let me eat another mouthful of that. Maybe, he just added some more water than necessary in the rice.” Tengyuan took another mouthful of the steamed rice unwillingly.

“I heard that the more fish bones a fish has, the more delicious it is. It turns out to be true.” When he ate the fish meat mingled in the rice again, Tengyuan couldn’t help nodding his head.

The next moment, however, he was disappointed again when he bit into the rice. The rice was neither too hard nor too soft. Once he bit the rice grains open, he could even feel the rice juice inside. Meanwhile, the rice grains were quite elastic. The delicate fragrance emitting from the rice grains themselves and the freshness of the anchovies was simply faultless.

Just when he intended to nod his head, Tengyuan stopped midway. He could still remember the arrogance and impertinence of Yuan Zhou just now. How could he possibly praise him so easily?

“Pretty good,” said Chu Xiao earnestly. At that time, he had eaten up a full bowl of the Steamed Rice With Japanese Grenadier Anchovy calmly.

“Um.” Yuan Zhou nodded his head in an obvious manner.

“I just smelled the fishy smell,” Chu Xiao pointed at the pot lid that had just been removed and then said.

“That is why I lifted the pot lid in my direction,” Yuan Zhou took a look at Chu Xiao and then said.

Only then did the people around remember that Yuan Zhou took the lid sideways in his hand when he lifted it up. The opening was facing himself while the other side was facing the customers.

The fishy smell was stronger. So when it came out together with the fragrance, people could definitely smell the former first. Assuming that both had the same concentration, people would also smell the pungent odor first even if they were blended together.

As a result, the fishy smell vanished and there was only the fragrance left when the customers smelled it.

However, Chu Xiao took notice of that because he stood in the same direction beside Yuan Zhou.

The crowd didn’t notice that when they saw this scene at the beginning. Only now did they realize if it was necessary to perform such detailed actions just for the fragrance even though the Chinese dishes scored heavily on color, fragrance, and taste.

“I know. You are indeed worthy of being my rival.” Chu Xiao revealed a confident smile.

Instead of answering him, Yuan Zhou glanced at Chu Xiao contemptuously. They were already at this age, why was him still so childish by saying rivals?

Fortunately, Chu Xiao didn’t see Yuan Zhou’s contemptuous look. Otherwise, there would be another kind of chaos. At the other side, Yuan Zhou was just waiting unhurriedly for others to order dishes.

As for Dashi Xiujie who was immersed in eating and Tengyuan whose expression was unpredictable, neither of them was within the scope of consideration of Yuan Zhou.

“Slurp slurp”. Dashi Xiujie muttered while eating and appeared unhappy with that.

However, a bowl of Steamed Rice With Japanese Grenadier Anchovy wasn’t really much, thus he ate it up very soon. Not until he finished eating did he suddenly react.

“I actually ate it up?” Looking at the empty white and blue porcelain bowl, Dashi Xiujie knitted his brows discontentedly and started to think of the defects of the dish.

That’s right. He was thinking of the defects. How could he possibly think of advantages of Yuan Zhou dishes? Of course, he must think of the disadvantages.

“Holy sh*t. Why is there no bad points at all?” Dashi Xiujie tried to find fault in the dish according to various judging criteria, but he didn’t make it, even if he was quite picky.

For example, the fishy smell. However, there wasn’t even a flaw in this Steamed Rice With Japanese Grenadier Anchovy, let alone the fishy smell. When he realized that, Dashi Xiujie became quite angry.

After a sound of “Peng”, Dashi Xiujie straightforwardly set the bowl down. He really wanted to give an answer like what Yuan Zhou gave him before, “Everything is fine, it just doesn’t taste good.”

However, he found it difficult to bring that out when he looked at the empty bowl and Yuan Zhou’s confident look.

He couldn’t do such a shameless thing.

“What do you think?” Just like usual, Yuan Zhou asked coldly with neither sarcasm nor flaunting.

But Dashi Xiujie heard the face-slapping sound of “Pa Pa”. He could even feel the ache on his face subconsciously.

After all, he had declared publicly before that Yuan Zhou’s craftsmanship was only ordinary and he definitely couldn’t cook fish cuisine well. However, the truth was that he had been defeated by Yuan Zhou with such a simple fish cuisine on aspects of knife skills, appearance, and taste.

“Tengyuan Jiayuan hasn’t given his opinions. I’m not as knowledgeable as him.” Dashi Xiujie was still reluctant to admit defeat.

“Please.” Yuan Zhou nodded his head and then signaled Tengyuan to continue.

And Dashi Xiujie was more proactive than Yuan Zhou. He turned his head and asked immediately, “How do you like it? Is there any problem with the steamed rice? Please tell us.”