"Could it be the other head chef who also cooked?"

The two suddenly realized this possibility, and turned their heads simultaneously, only to see another chef dressed in a black and gold uniform, clearly resembling a man from Romantic Country, leaning over the counter sniffing the bottles in his hands.

Judging by their positions, he was standing outside, while only Lin was inside, and still wiping the countertop.

No matter how you look at it, this guy doesn't seem like someone who just cooked a meal!

"Hmm?"

Jonathan seemed to notice their gaze and turned to glance at them, his eyes lighting up with a 'swish', and he greeted them with a charming smile and a nod.

"Good evening, lovely ladies, is there anything I can help you with?"

Lin Chen, who was cleaning up the mess, heard his greeting and, out of courtesy, also lifted his head.

"Good evening... hmm?!"

"Hi~ Chef, we meet again!"

One of the beauties waved enthusiastically at him and took off her sunglasses, revealing a pair of lake-blue eyes.

Lin Chen was taken aback at first, countless memory fragments flashed through his mind, finally stopping at yesterday afternoon.

"You are... Nicole?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Yes! That's right, it's me. I didn't expect you to remember my name, Chef. I'm honored~"

Nicole's lips curved into a visible smile as she walked briskly over, placing the bag in her hand on the table and extending her arms in an embrace gesture.

"?!"

Seeing this action, Lin Chen was startled, Dreya's pretty face flashed through his mind, and nearly forgotten fragments were instantly awakened.

This damned etiquette!

He couldn't figure out why Nicole, whom he had only met once, would greet him with such a gesture, as this is typically a social etiquette reserved for familiar friends, right?

Shouldn't unfamiliar strangers use the hand-kissing ceremony?!

There was no time for him to hesitate, as Nicole leaned her upper body slightly forward, already crossing the midpoint of the counter, ready to tumble over at any moment.

With no choice, Lin Chen was forced to respond, leaning his head forward.

No need for him to make a move, Nicole's smile widened, and she proactively pressed her soft cheek against his, making two clear 'muah muah' sounds.

"?"

"?"

"?"

Everyone present was dumbfounded, especially Jonathan who was in close proximity, his eyes filled with puzzlement.

"Lin, is she a friend of yours?"

He couldn't help but be curious, as Lin Chen was a foreigner who typically didn't use this French greeting, and he hadn't seen him do it with anyone here in a long time.

Even Dais and Elsa were curious, while Lucas had even pulled up a chair, ready to observe with interest.

If anyone knew Lin Chen, it was him!

The two had been working together for nearly two months, spending long hours together almost daily, and he had never seen Lin Chen have such intimate contact with any opposite sex.

Moreover, he knew well that Great Xia People usually wouldn't have physical contact with unfamiliar people of the opposite sex, except maybe for a fingertip touch.

Even if adapting to local customs, why specifically a beautiful stranger?

Dreya and Anna were beautiful enough, and they were models, yet Lin Chen never greeted them with a cheek kiss.

Something was definitely off!

Lin Chen, who had been forced to complete the cheek kiss, stood upright again, feeling the gaze of everyone in the room fixated on him, thinking to himself that this was bad.

He had been tricked!

But the issue was he couldn't explain his predicament right now.

If he were to put it bluntly, the girl was just simply saying hi, which is normal behavior in Romantic Country.

But he wasn't someone who usually engaged in such mushy greetings, especially in front of Lucas.

The guy's face might as well have had the words 'waiting to watch the drama' written on it!

Nicole had no idea that her simple and ordinary gesture would trigger such a chain reaction. She was just genuinely curious about the man in front of her and signaling friendliness.

To her, this meant she already considered Lin Chen a friend.

"Lin, are you free now? We brought some ingredients over and would love to taste your cooking."

"...I'm free, but our restaurant has two head chefs who can prepare dinner for you simultaneously, saving some time."

Lin Chen gestured with his chin, indicating the person next to her was the restaurant's other head chef.

Jonathan smiled and nodded again, greeting them.

"Emmm"

Nicole tilted her head and pondered for a few seconds, moving her gaze between the two, finally resting on Jonathan.

"Does this chef know how to cook Chinese food?"

Jonathan's smile froze instantly.

"I-I'm more skilled with European cuisine, and I'm somewhat familiar with North and South American dishes, but Asian cuisine... I haven't had the chance to learn yet."

"Well, there's nothing we can do then. We came today to try some authentic Chinese food. If there's another opportunity next time, we'll trouble you then, chef~"

Looking at Nicole's eyes filled with laughter as she glanced back at him, Lin Chen sighed quietly and stretched out his hand.

"Hand it over. What ingredients did you bring?"

"Oysters!"

Nicole casually handed over the bag on the table next to her, inside were cans filled with plump oyster meat, the shelled variety.

A rough estimate showed there were at least over a hundred oysters, including large, medium, and small sizes.

It's even possible there might be dozens of oyster meat in a single can of the small variety.

"Only oysters??"

Lin Chen widened his eyes and quickly rummaged through the bag, turning it upside down. Sure enough, besides a few cans of oyster meat, there was nothing else.

Isn't this a joke!

"Yeah, yeah! Only oysters," Nicole nodded repeatedly, clasping her hands, her eyes full of imagination. "My friend and I want to taste again the grilled oysters you made last week, they were just too delicious!"

"Besides that, if there's any other tasty oyster dish from Great Xia cuisine, you can make that too, we haven't tried any of them anyway."

"..... Can your stomachs handle eating so many oysters all at once?"

"Don't worry! We'll deal with that later; right now, it's important to fill our stomachs!"

Helplessly, Lin Chen nodded and began to think of dishes involving oysters.

These oysters didn't have shells, so if he wanted to grill them, he'd have to use an iron plate or skewer them on bamboo sticks.

The iron plate has a large contact area and high temperature, which can cause oysters to shrink quickly, so grilling is more convenient and aesthetically pleasing.

He's already very adept at making garlic sauce, so it wouldn't take much effort.

Firstly, he disassembled the large oysters and immersed them in a basin with clean water, then turned to the back kitchen to get garlic cloves.

Most ingredients purchased for the western kitchen have been previously processed by wholesalers, garlic being one of them; whole jars of peeled garlic cloves.

While chopping the garlic paste, he continued to think about oyster dishes.

After pondering for a while, he came up with oyster omelet and then fried oysters.

But fried oysters aren't really part of Great Xia cuisine; any coastal region should have them. At most, you can change the seasoning, which isn't particularly special.

"I've got it!"

"If fried oysters are too ordinary, why not stir-fry them after frying? Make a typhoon shelter flavor, they surely haven't tried that!"

"And then make an oyster omelet, garlic vermicelli oysters - this should roughly consume half of them, then what other flavor... How about marinated raw oysters? It seems there aren't many other well-known oyster dishes?"

After thinking it through, he could only come up with these few methods. There's also oyster scrambled eggs, but it's similar to oyster omelet, which already contains eggs.

Having four flavors is probably sufficient; you can't just have one bite of each flavor, right? The quantity should still be adequate.

When making garlic vermicelli, the garlic must be in slightly coarser granules for it to taste good, giving a noticeable sweetness when eaten.

But for the typhoon shelter stir-fry garlic, it needs to be very fine, almost the size of breadcrumbs, which can be achieved using a food processor to save time.

The key to making the typhoon shelter dish delicious, besides the freshness of the ingredients, lies mainly in the stir-fried topping.

As long as the topping is tasty, the dish is already halfway to success.

Such an important recipe should obviously be traded from the system to ensure it's reliable, and it will surely be useful frequently in the future.

Both types of minced garlic need to be rinsed with clean water, one to prevent it from burning too quickly during frying, and the other to wash away the garlic's bitterness.

He knows this little trick by heart now; countless experiences have proven that garlic prepared this way indeed tastes sweeter and more fragrant.

Having made garlic sauce countless times, he could do it with his eyes closed, focusing mainly on the typhoon shelter stir-fry topping this time.

Keeping the oil used for frying the garlic sauce garlic heated, he continued on low heat to fry the finely chopped garlic cloves that had been washed and drained.

Since the garlic is chopped very finely, the heat should not be high; even slightly higher and it can burn easily, so it can only be fried slowly over low heat.

Once the garlic turns golden, add a few pieces of chopped dried red chili, soak for seven to eight seconds, then immediately remove to drain the oil. The next step is to lay them on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil, with paper both above and below to ensure the garlic retains a crispy texture.

Continue pouring breadcrumbs into the hot oil on low heat for frying, following the exact same procedure used for the garlic, just with a shorter frying time, requiring complete focus to avoid burning.

The oil used for frying two batches of garlic by now is filled with a garlic aroma; using garlic oil to fry breadcrumbs will result in an equally strong garlic fragrance.

Once fried to a shade of orange-gold, remove and drain with the same oil absorption method used for garlic.

Add mala spice and pepper salt powder to the dry, water-free bowl, adjusting quantity based on taste, usually about one-tenth the amount of garlic is used.

Chop a small amount of fermented black bean, drizzle some garlic oil into the pan to fry it briefly until fragrant, then pour it out and mix evenly with all the ingredients above to create this fragrant, spicy typhoon shelter topping.

After preparing the topping, it can be set aside to cool naturally. Meanwhile, Lin Chen continued cooking his secret golden silver garlic sauce.

While simmering the sauce, he took some time to make batter for the medium-sized oysters.

Add two whole eggs to the cleaned oysters, beating them evenly so the golden egg liquid fully coats the surfaces of the oyster meat, seasoning with a little salt and pepper, then slowly add starch in portions to mix into a thick batter.

The thickness of the batter should be such that the batter completely adheres to the oyster surface and drips down slowly.