Chapter 994: Red Pepper Prawn

It was as if the host wasn’t there. Even the start of the match was announced by Zhang Yan.

Since this was a formal match, it was natural for it to have a host, even if the host did not have the chance to announce the start.

Of course, the host still had some tasks since he was paid to be here. For example, right now, he was directing the assistants as they served the dishes one by one to the judges.

Then again, the assistants did not actually need any directing for something like serving food… but the truth was something that shouldn’t be easily spoken.

“In terms of speed, Boss Yuan seems to be doing better.” With great difficulty, the host finally found something to say.

“But the representatives from the seafood alliance are not to be outdone as they have quickened their speed. Their final dish seems to be something jointly prepared by the two head chefs and is near completion,” said the host while walking around the kitchen counter.

The cameras of the reporters followed the host around. When the attention was no longer on them, Chef Li was still able to smile calmly, yet that was not the same for Ao Pi who spoke with a frown.

“Are the final two dishes ready?” whispered Ao Pi.

Chef Li answered calmly, “Don’t rush it. We already lost in terms of speed so we have to obtain victory through taste.”

Chef Li’s words calmed the chefs of the seafood alliance. After all, as a person capable of inviting Zhang Yan and Zhou Shijie and also organizing such a large match, he was the backbone of the alliance.

That’s right. Although Zhong Lili had issued invitations to all the chefs, she did not give any explanation on how this match came into existence. Thus, the chefs all had a misconception.

Of the seven dishes of the seafood alliance, the three complicated dishes were already completed. The remaining four were relatively simple. For example, Salad Sea Snail was a dish that could be completed in a minute.

“Are the red ginsengs ready?” asked the head chef.

“Yes, we are preparing the sea snails right now,” answered a sous-chef.

In this manner, the seafood alliance finished all their dishes five minutes after Yuan Zhou was done.

Naturally, the seafood alliance’s dishes were arranged in a specific order, forming a straight line.

Chef Li’s Aromatic Spicy Mantis Shrimp and the Rolling Crab Dumpling which Chef Li made with Ao Pi occupied the central position in the line.

The moment the dishes were served, Chef Li raised his hand and gestured that they were completely done as well.

The host’s eyesight was pretty good. He spoke immediately, “Looks like the seafood alliance has completed their dishes as well. There is little difference at speed between the two parties.”

“Yes,” answered Chef Li confidently with a nod.

“Good. Let us invite the assistants to serve the dishes and arrange them along with Boss Yuan’s dishes,” said the host.

After the dishes were all served, the four judges stood up, studying the dishes.

“The seafood alliance has so many people yet they aren’t even as fast as Boss Yuan.” remarked a reporter in whispers. “Therefore, too many hands might cause confusion instead.”

“That’s so true. But I also heard Boss Yuan has always been good in speed. We can only judge according to the taste,” said a different reporter. “Boss Yuan is fast and his dishes are delicious. I wonder if he can maintain his quality during this match.”

“I thought we are only here to give more promotion to the Sichuan Cuisine exemplary restaurant?” asked a different reporter softly.

“Don’t speak that way. Perhaps something unexpected might happen later? That will make for good breaking news.”

There were quite a lot of reporters waiting for something unexpected to happen. It’s not like they wished for Yuan Zhou’s defeat. They merely wanted some material for some breaking news. Of course, not all would speak their minds.

Thus, the one reporter who voiced that out was despised by the other reporters.

“No matter what, as a journalist, one should always be striving towards the truth. Even Boss Yuan’s victory will make for a good article. I even have the title prepared already,” said a reporter confidently.

In truth, a majority of these reporters were invited here by Zhou Shijie. Some were invited by Hu Yue, the chief editor of Food Discovery Dog.

After all, what the seafood alliance did was the same as slapping Hu Yue on the face. Thus, he had the thought of giving their defeat some publicity.

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And since most of the reporters were invited by Zhou Shijie, they were naturally supposed to be here to cover Yuan Zhou due to Yuan Zhou’s relationship with Zhou Shijie.

Still, the reporters were inwardly wishing for something to happen so they could have some sensational news. Everyone was merely appearing outwardly polite.

Zhou Shijie and Zhang Yan were both fiercely protective presidents. Apart from giving Yuan Zhou more promotion, there were no other reasons they had invited so many reporters here.

“Since Head Chef Yuan is the one to finish first, I suggest we start with his dishes,” proposed Wang Xiang.

“But if we finish Head Chef Yuan’s dishes first, the seafood alliance’s dishes would be cold by the time we are done,” said Bai Xiaoxiao hesitantly.

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“Lets alternate between the two then, starting from Head Chef Yuan’s dishes,” Zhou Shijie decided. Bai Xiaoxiao’s concern was valid so they had to take note of that.

“That is how it should be,” Zhang Yan was the first to agree.

“Chairman Zhou is indeed well experienced in such major events,” praised Bai Xiaoxiao.

“Let’s start from this Bell Pepper Prawn,” said Wang Xiang as he pointed at the dish at the middle that was arranged beside the Bell Pepper Prawn.

That’s right. Due to the similarities between the two dishes, the assistants had arranged them together.

In other words, the two rows of dishes were arranged in similar order according to the dish types.

And yes, this arrangement method was under the direction of that host. In all honesty, it was unknown what was the point of inviting this host here as they still had to pay for him to be here.

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“I’ll try this prawn. It looks really good,” said Bai Xiaoxiao with a smile.

After they made their decision, the assistants filled their plates with a mantis shrimp each.

The outer shell of Yuan Zhou’s mantis shrimps were reddish-gold in color. A layer of red chili sauce was wrapped around the shrimps, and more importantly, the claws of the shrimps were still intact. The shrimps were rather whole in appearance.

“Both the claws are still there?” asked Bai Xiaoxiao doubtfully.

The first impression he had on this dish was that it looked pretty and the bright coloring scheme was incredibly appetizing.

But when the shrimps were taken out, one would notice that the claws were still intact.

Mantis shrimps had a wider torso that were split into six parts. Each part would have a pair of tiny claws on it. Thus, a single mantis shrimp would have about 12 claws in total.

When Bai Xiaoxiao lifted the shrimp with his chopsticks, the claws became even more obvious, while the astonishment on his face grew.

“Yes, all the claws are intact. Amazing,” said Wang Xiang. As someone specialized in seafood, Wang Xiang was naturally able to see how skilled Yuan Zhou was in achieving this.

“Nothing surprising about that,” remarked Zhou Shijie calmly.

Of course, his words would be more believable if he did not look so smug.

The judges all spent some time in astonishment when they saw the shrimps, yet that was not the case for Zhang Yan. He started eating directly.

With a crack, the entirety of the shell was removed.

“Chairman Zhang is pretty skilled in stripping a shrimp’s shell,” commented Wang Xiang.

“No, I’m not the skilled one,” said Zhang Yan after calming himself from the astonishment he was feeling.

Wang Xiang was confused, but he did not say much since Zhang Yan had already started eating.

But his confusion was answered shortly after. He only needed to slightly dig into the shrimp with his chopsticks and the shell was perfectly removed.

“This?” Wang Xiang looked at Bai Xiaoxiao’s bowl with astonishment.

Coincidentally, Bai Xiaoxiao had just removed the shell from his shrimp as well. Thus, Wang Xiang reached a conclusion.

“The shells have actually been removed in advance? But won’t that spoil the taste?” Bai Xiaoxiao frowned.

Bai Xiaoxiao was not a chef. Hence, he did not notice the greenish-color on the surface of the meat. Rather, he started worrying about the drainage issue from having removed the shell beforehand, affecting the taste as a whole.

Meanwhile, Bai Xiaoxiao lifted the thick shrimp meat with his chopsticks.

The meat of mantis shrimps are unlike other shrimps as it was very hard to cleanly remove the shell of mantis shrimps. Moreover, the mantis shrimp’s tomalley was harder and wasn’t as tasty as the tomalley of freshwater crabs.

Thus, Bai Xiaoxiao never really liked the tomalley of mantis shrimps.

But since he was now a judge, he decided to give it a try anyway.

He lifted the golden tomalley with his chopsticks. Like the tomalley of crabs, it was rough in appearance.

“Huh?” Bai Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened the moment he stuffed it into his mouth.

“It’s not rough at all and it’s very aromatic,” Bai Xiaoxiao remarked.

The tomalley was rather crispy as with a single bite, it broke apart while an astonishing aroma burst out within his mouth.

And due to how crispy it was, the more he chewed on it, the more aromatic it felt. It was the same as the core of a salted egg yolk where the flavor was intense and tasty. And since this was the tomally of a mantis shrimp, it had a unique flavor that was not present in salted egg yolk.

And the overwhelming sensation caused Bai Xiaoxiao to completely forgot about whether the meat would be nice after the shell was removed in advance. He quickly finished the tomalley before proceeding to eat the meat.