I'm the Culinary God-Chapter 872 - 374: Northwest Hearty Dish That Requires Almost No Cooking Skills—Hand-Pulled Lamb!
Entering the system, Lin Xu opened the points mall.
The countdown on the special tool section page had been canceled, and he could click in.
The special tool section was still a pile of tools with question marks.
When he finally flipped to the bottom, he found a newly refreshed tool:
[Eye-as-Ruler: A special tool that can accurately measure the length of an item, slightly improving knife skills and other techniques. Exchange price: 2,888,888 points]
Still 2.88 million?
Lin Xu felt this special tool wasn’t very useful.
But the line about slightly improving knife skills and other techniques made him feel a bit tempted.
The higher you go with a chef’s cooking techniques, the harder it gets. Even a slight improvement shouldn’t be missed.
Looking at the remaining points, there were a total of 2.9 million. Redeeming this would set him back to square one.
"Do you want to spend 2,888,888 points to exchange for the special tool Eye-as-Ruler?"
"Yes!"
As soon as the words fell, the system notification sound echoed in his mind again:
"Exchange successful, this skill can provide some enhancement to knife skills, plating, pastry making, making the host’s dishes more aesthetically pleasing."
Not bad, it didn’t lure him into an upgrade.
Of course, at this moment, the system only had about ten thousand points left, probably not enough for an upgrade even if he wanted to.
After obtaining this skill, when Lin Xu looked around, he was fully aware of the length and width of various items.
Pretty good.
Cutting things would now definitely yield accurate measurements.
After the exchange, he took another look at the special tool section, which now displayed a locked status, with a line of text beside it:
[This page will refresh after 1439:59:52. Pay 7,500,000 points for immediate refresh.]
Over a thousand hours, roughly two months?
Lin Xu calculated that it would be around New Year’s Day when it refreshed again.
Wondering what special tools might appear then, he felt a little anticipation.
As for the on-page prompt about refreshing immediately for 7.5 million points, he simply ignored it.
How idle would one have to be to spend that many points just for a refresh?
"Master Lin, welcome, welcome."
Just as he was complaining, Yin Hongbin came out of the restaurant. Seeing Lin Xu standing outside, he quickly greeted him.
"Here to learn some skills from Head Chef Yin today, am I disturbing you?"
"Not disturbing at all, it’s rare to see a red station chef willing to delve into the pastry side. We’re more than happy to welcome you."
A well-known red station chef researching pastry would be considered straying from their main line, but Yin Hongbin was naturally more than welcoming of Lin Xu’s interest.
"Your senior... he didn’t come, right?"
"No, I came straight to you without turning towards Building No. 2."
"Good, good that he didn’t come."
Yin Hongbin sighed with relief; that troublesome guy was even harder to handle than Dai Jianli. Every time he came over, the entire kitchen felt like it had been ransacked.
Yet just as he was feeling fortunate, Xie Baomin’s voice came from the front gate:
"Old Yin, the persimmons from Building No. 8 are ripe and taste good. I specially picked a bag for you. When there’s good food, I think of you. Just say how strong our bond is."
Yin Hongbin: "..."
Are you making me the scapegoat?
Who doesn’t know that the persimmon tree in the Building No. 8 yard is Executive Chef Yuan Debiao’s favorite? You’ve picked so many of his persimmons, he’ll take a knife and come after me!
Building No. 8 features Northeast cuisine, and Chef Yuan Debiao particularly loves frozen persimmons, so he specifically grew hard persimmons, waiting until after the snow to pick and eat them.
Just the thought of old Yuan wielding a knife in a rage gave Yin Hongbin a headache.
Xie Baomin chuckled and said:
"Junior brother, try it, these persimmons really are good, just the skin’s a bit thick... Old Yin, don’t get emotional, quickly try one."
Try my ass... Yin Hongbin asked irritably:
"What do you say when old Yuan comes looking later?"
"That’s easy, just say you were learning to make dried persimmons with Old Fan. Every year, they’re flaunting their strings of dried persimmons from Building No. 14; we should learn too."
You cunning rascal just rely on your high skills to do whatever you want.
Your comeuppance is coming.
Figuring that Yuan Debiao would come sooner or later, and he’d be considered an accomplice even if he didn’t eat, he might as well taste them.
He took two persimmons from the bag Xie Baomin was carrying, handed one to Lin Xu, and rubbed the other with his apron before taking a bite.
Hmm, quite crunchy, with plenty of sweetness and no hint of astringency.
Persimmons are indeed best eaten after they’ve hung on the branch until frost falls.
The three of them munched on their persimmons while heading into the restaurant.
"Old Yin, my junior brother is here, we have to have a good meal today, no vegetarian table accepted."
Yin Hongbin took a bite of persimmon:
"Can’t guarantee anything else, but there’s plenty of meat. Just this afternoon, Old Huang delivered the two cows I specially ordered. We’ll have something simple in the morning, and go big on beef bones in the afternoon."
Every time Building No. 12 breaks down a whole cow, the other head chefs come over to help.
They say they’re helping, but really, they’re just there for a meal.
To Lin Xu, it felt like those times back in the village during Chinese New Year when a family slaughtered a pig.
Every time a pig was slaughtered, neighbors would come to help with boiling water and removing hair, ending the day with a lively feast.
Who would’ve thought that the chefs at the Fishing Platform had the same hobby.
Though this afternoon it was beef instead of pork, it was bound to taste... very delicious indeed.
