Zhang Li kept thinking about one thing.
Why?
Why is it that the more well-behaved a child is, the more they get bullied?
Why?
’Don’t I deserve even a single bite of Boss Su’s new Kung Pao Chicken?’
’WAAAH... Sister Ling, I miss you!’
Shang Mingke was a little embarrassed but maintained his composure. "Everyone, please get in the cars. Let’s head back to the guest house."
...
After Su Chen and his group left, in the back kitchen of the Cuihua Building.
Wang Peixing stood frozen in place for a long time. He felt as if everything he had known for years had been completely and utterly shattered.
"Master, was what that guy made really that good?" asked a chef in charge of fish dishes.
They had been standing toward the back and didn’t even get a chance to taste a single bite before that President Shang took the entire plate away.
"As much as I hate to admit it," Zeng Ming, the senior disciple, said with his head lowered, "what he made was truly fucking amazing."
"He managed to remove the gamey smell of the chicken without using any cooking wine. If I’m not mistaken, his method must have been blanching it in low-temperature water," Zeng Ming said, trying to understand Su Chen’s technique through the lens of his own knowledge.
"And he even managed to get the oil to run on the hot plate without a trace of sauce left clinging. I always thought that was just a myth... For someone to actually be able to flash-fry the sauce to such a perfect consistency!"
The more Zeng Ming spoke, the more he felt he couldn’t comprehend the situation.
Just then, Wang Peixing spoke up. "Prepare ten... no, twenty portions of ingredients for me."
The boss had spoken, and the chefs immediately sprang into action.
Wang Peixing placed the diced chicken into low-temperature water, just as Su Chen had done, attempting to blanch it according to his own understanding.
"Damn it! The chicken’s cooked through!"
A few minutes later, Wang Peixing kicked a cabinet door. "But he only took six minutes!"
Leaving that mess behind, he immediately ran over to the wok.
’I’m usually at least twice as fast as him when I make this dish. Could it be because I’m too fast?’
Wang Peixing recalled Su Chen’s technique and began to slowly stir-fry the sauce as well.
For a master chef of his caliber, this step wasn’t difficult. But when Wang Peixing poured all the chicken into the wok...
’Boss Su stir-fried it over a high flame, so high that flames were leaping up in the wok at the end!’
He unhesitatingly cranked the flame to its highest, and after just three or four seconds, he took the chicken out of the wok.
On the plate, he had indeed managed to avoid any clinging sauce.
But... Wang Peixing bit into a piece of chicken. The CRUNCHY texture told him: ’You idiot, the heat was way too high!’
’Not good enough. Again!’
’Again!’
’Why is it getting worse and worse? It’s not even as good as when I first started!’
According to some tourists who later posted online, they discovered that the lights in the back kitchen of the Cuihua Building restaurant weren’t turned off at all that night.
Moreover, the delicious aroma of food would drift out from time to time, but the restaurant remained closed for business.
The next day, many tourists even called the Cuihua Building’s corporate complaint hotline, and their messages were surprisingly consistent.
Why was the Kung Pao Chicken suddenly taken off the menu?
"We came all this way just for the Kung Pao Chicken, and you’re telling us you’re not making it anymore?"
That night, the staff in the Cuihua Building’s kitchen weren’t the only ones who couldn’t sleep.
The employees of Delicious all slept quite comfortably. They had expected the guest house to be rather simple, but it turned out... the City Construction Group was truly loaded.
Aside from not having a swimming pool or a gym, the facilities inside the guest house were practically on par with a five-star hotel!
The only exception was Liu Ahbao, who didn’t get a good night’s sleep at all.
"Master, I’ve told you everything I can! That’s just how it went down!"
On the video call, Lu Yongliang was so energetic he didn’t seem like a man in his seventies at all. "Tell me again, just tell me one more time. What did that stuff taste like?"
"Master..." Ah Bao’s eyes were so heavy with sleep he could barely keep them open. "It was just... really delicious!"
"That Manager Wang must have looked absolutely awful, right? Ahaha! Let’s see if Cui Yufen dares to be so arrogant now! Every time I cook with her, she acts like she’s hot stuff. What are you guys doing tomorrow?"
Ah Bao’s eyes were glazed over. "We don’t have a plan yet. Anyway, Boss Su said the whole point of this trip to the Capital City is to eat. He said the old, time-honored brands are just so-so, nothing special. He’s planning to take us to try some new things."
"Alright, got it!" On the screen, Lu Yongliang’s face was flushed, clearly a little tipsy from drinking.
Who could blame him? The food he’d had to go with his drinks today was just too incredible!
"Remember to study hard under Boss Su. This Boss Xiaosu, who knows how many tricks he still has up his sleeve? He completely stunned the disciples of a Master of Shandong Cuisine, tsk! You learn from him, you hear?!"
"Mmm-hmm..."
Liu Ahbao slowly drifted off to sleep amidst his master’s nagging.
He even had a very amusing dream.
In his dream, he was standing before the stoves at the Cuihua Building. He used Su Chen’s ’Wild Blade Skill’, and his Kung Pao Chicken left Wang Peixing and the others so shocked they were speechless!
In the end, Wang Peixing was on his knees, begging him to stay and become their head chef!
"Boss, I gotta say, it’s pretty funny how Ah Bao can laugh so happily in his sleep," Bai Xiaobo said, sitting on the edge of the bed, feeling a bit speechless.
Su Chen stood by the bed, looking at Liu Ahbao who was giggling foolishly with his eyes closed. "Fat guys are all like that. Hurry up and get washed so we can head out."
According to Su Chen’s original plan, the visit to the Cuihua Building was just supposed to be a taste test, but Shang Mingke had turned it into such a big ordeal.
They had tried the *chao ge da* from under the viaduct, and it was good enough to be added directly to the menu at Delicious.
Then there was the matter of... he had originally wanted to go to Changdian Outside Peace Gate to look for Douzhi Zhang, but after asking an old-timer in the neighborhood, he found out.
Douzhi Zhang had quit the business decades ago after his son got into university. So, Su Chen just found a random shop and bought a bowl of *douzhi*.