Original God, starting from the sister against the brother

[Note: The information in this chapter is derived from Xiangling's character information, Ningguang's character information, and the author's personal speculation]

Master Liu’s [Grilled Tiger Fish] is very good, but the recipe for this dish was not obtained from him, but from the nearby [Wanmin Hall] restaurant.

Now that we have finished this snack, it is time to start today’s main course, the Wanmintang restaurant.

At this time, inside the Wanmin Hall restaurant.

Chef Mao couldn't help but sigh. The business in the restaurant hasn't been very good in recent days.

Of course, the reason why the restaurant’s business is not doing well is not because of his bad cooking skills, but the problem lies with the restaurant’s ingredients.

As we all know, Liyue Harbor has two major traditional cuisines, namely "Li cuisine" and "Yue cuisine".

These two major cuisines each occupy half of Liyue's food scene.

In order to determine the winner, both sides continue to fight and develop their own supporters.

Over time, the two factions launched a "food war" that focused on the quality of the food, regardless of its taste.

This "war" also directly led to the monopoly of all rare ingredients in Liyue Harbor, and is also subtly changing the Liyue Harbor residents' evaluation and pursuit of food.

It seems that whether a dish contains rare ingredients is more important than whether the dish is delicious enough.

Rumor has it that the bosses of Liuliting and Xinyuexuan are behind this "food war".

As the leaders of "Licai" and "Yuecai", these two restaurants work together to control most of the rare ingredients in Liyue Harbor.

The delicious top-quality fish and rare mountain treasures will be reserved by the purchasing staff of these two restaurants as soon as they enter the market.

Of course, no matter how bold [Liuliting] and [Xinyuexuan] are, they dare not openly engage in monopoly. They will still deliberately leave out some rare ingredients for distribution to other chefs.

It's just a small amount, and it has to be divided up among other "Li Cai" and "Yu Cai" restaurants. In the end, what is left for Wanmin Tang is very little.

Logically speaking, a restaurant like Wanmintang that specializes in Jianghu cuisine with thick oil and sauce should have a good customer base.

But today's guests are more willing to pay for rare ingredients. Ordinary consumers would rather choose a restaurant that only has a small amount of rare ingredients in the whole dish, and rarely consider a restaurant that does not contain any rare ingredients.

This also leads to the fact that those who come to dine at the Wanmintang restaurant are either experienced gourmets who are devoted to the taste of food and do not care about the quality of the ingredients; or those who do not care about the taste at all and just want to fill their stomachs.

But after all, Wanmintang is a low-cost business, and its target group is "everyone".

Today, the restaurant is not favored by its target group, and the financial situation of Wanmin Tang is worrying.

If the restaurant had not happened to gain the favor and appreciation of Lady Ningguang and received her multiple grants, it would still be a mystery whether the Wanmintang restaurant could have survived to this day.

Suddenly, a voice came into Master Mao's ear.

"Dad, I'm going out to look for ingredients!"

"Go, go, be careful on the road."

Seeing his lively daughter going out to look for ingredients, Chef Mao felt relieved.

Born into a family of chefs, his daughter Xiangling possesses a great talent for cooking and is willing to take over his mantle. This has always been a source of pride for Master Mao.

Moreover, as a child, my daughter is at an age full of passion and ideals.

After learning about the changes in Liyue people's pursuit of food and the current difficulties of restaurants, he made up his mind.

That is "There should be no distinction between expensive and cheap food!"

Following this concept, Xiangling starts from finding new ingredients and constantly seeks breakthroughs in dishes.

From the ice mist flowers and slime gel at the beginning to the strange bugs, crystal butterflies, and even the wooden sticks of the hillbillies later, they all became "new ingredients" in her eyes.

Xiangling wants to break the blockade of some restaurants on precious ingredients through innovation in ingredients, so as to guide the people of Liyue back to the original taste of food instead of pursuing ingredients again and again.

As for his daughter's bold ideas and novel creative thoughts, Master Mao considered it again and again and decided to fully support them.

However, these decisions led to an unusually rapid consumption of pots and pans at the Wanmin Tang restaurant, to the extent that the price of a pot was often added to the expense column of the restaurant's account books.

There are many reasons why the pot is destroyed.

Including but not limited to, cracks appeared due to the rapid cooling of the ice mist flower, the high temperature of the fire slime scorched the bottom of the pot, and sometimes there was a small explosion in the kitchen. When Master Mao went in, he saw Xiangling with a black face and the iron pot turned into a pile...

It can be said that Xiangling's food tasting behavior made the restaurant's already difficult financial situation even worse.

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When Chao Ke walked into the Wanmintang restaurant, he also discovered that there seemed to be some problems in the restaurant's operation.

Although it’s not dinner time yet, isn’t it a little too quiet?

He walked towards Ke and came in front of Master Mao.

When Master Mao saw the diners coming, his eyes lit up and he quickly stood up and spoke.

"Guest, would you like to taste the cooking of Wanmintang?"

"Of course, Master, please serve whatever specialties the store has."

"Okay, sir, do you have any dietary restrictions? Can you eat spicy food?"

"I can eat spicy food even if I don't have any dietary restrictions. Please go ahead and serve it, Master."

"Dele!"

Without any constraints, Master Mao was fully focused and used all his skills to complete Chao Ke's order.

The food was cooked over high heat and quickly, so Chao Ke didn't have to wait too long. Soon Chef Mao came over with two plates.

"Sir, this is [Four-Way Peace], and this is [Squirrel Fish], enjoy."

"Well, thank you."

Chao Ke looked at the two dishes served by Chef Mao.

The first one is [Four-sided Peace], which can be regarded as half a staple food. Various dried fruits are tightly stacked on the fragrant, soft and glutinous rice.

Take a spoonful and put it into your mouth. The sour and sweet taste of the dried fruits is intertwined with the rich texture of the rice. The hint of sweetness lingers on your lips and teeth, outlining a touch of happiness that comes from biological instinct.

Next, it’s the [Squirrel Fish].

It can be seen that Chef Mao is still relatively restrained. Although Chao Ke expressed that he could eat spicy food, Chef Mao ultimately did not choose dishes with high oil content or high spicy taste.

Instead, I chose the Squirrel Fish, which also reflects the chef's superb craftsmanship, but with a sweet and sour seasoning that suits the tastes of most people.

There's not much to say about dishes like Squirrel Fish; it all depends on the chef's knife skills.

You can tell at a glance how good a chef’s knife skills are by looking at whether the patterns are regular and the shapes are elegant.

But obviously, Master Mao's knife skills are impeccable. The fish meat coated with flour and fried has regular texture and elegant shape. Even the sauce used for seasoning has a golden sweet and sour ratio.

Master Mao's craftsmanship is truly convincing.