Chapter 442: Chapter 441: Training the Molecular Queen (Part 1)
Bento?
As the mist dispersed and the lid was removed, Xia Yu was immediately astonished by the dish on the plate.
“Oh—”
He couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.
When the bento revealed its true form, it was like a jewel box meticulously crafted by a chef, incredibly beautiful and dazzling.
“Of course!”
But Xia Yu chuckled to himself.
This temari sushi was all too familiar to him.
In the original plot, Ailisha presented just such an exquisite answer, but what she got in return was an utterly predictable… defeat!
The first round of the elimination contest was held on September 15th.
According to the original work, the notice for the match was distributed to the students on the 14th.
In other words, both parties only found out their opponent and the theme a day before the duel, with only one day to prepare.
But with Xia Yu’s intervention, the Execution Committee had issued the notice today, on September 4th, a full ten days in advance, a period Xia Yu had fought for to specially tutor the students!
Beep!
The moment Ailisha’s dish appeared, Xia Yu suddenly received a system pop-up notification:
“New task available.”
“[Train ‘Molecular Queen’].”
“Hint: Guide Tiqie Ailisha to develop an embryonic form of Chef’s Heart Mark within ten days.”
“Reward: ‘Seeds of Big Tuna Belly Soybeans’ (Mutated).”
Before he even tasted it, a new task had popped up from the system.
Clearly, the system also wasn’t optimistic about Tiqie Ailisha.
If she didn’t even have the basic Chef’s Heart Mark, even if it was only rudimentary, Tiqie Ailisha was already at a disadvantage of at least half.
Eh!
Xia Yu was then drawn by the reward information.
“What’s this, mutated Fantasy Soybeans seeds?” he scanned the task bar.
There was one task that had been piling up for several months.
To make ‘Great Magic Panda Tofu’ with a 100% completion rate—reward, ‘Tofu Trilogy’, the supreme tofu recipe.
Could it be…
His heart skipped a beat, and at that moment, the system responded:
“These seeds can produce sweet soybeans containing rich black pigment.”
Damn!
He completely lost his composure.
Time to start the training!
“Instructor Xia, what’s going on?”
Seeing Xia Yu motionless, Ailisha was puzzled.
“This is my best dish. You could say that I have bestowed all the essence of my culinary skills into these dishes!”
Ailisha clapped her hands and smiled contentedly.
“I’ll eat!”
Xia Yu nodded, not fussy at all, and directly grabbed with his hands.
After a while.
Having finished off the temari sushi in the bento box, Xia Yu stretched out his tongue, licked his fingers clean, and smacked his lips, “These sushi, as I tasted them, formed in my mouth a bento—”
“A brilliant Japanese feast!”
That was all he said.
There was no need for more; he wasn’t knowledgeable enough about molecular gastronomy to talk more, otherwise, he’d just be an amateur meddling in technical matters.
But there was another way to tell Ailisha she was wrong.
“Ailisha, I’ll make a bento too, just wait…”
Without waiting for the girl’s response, Xia Yu made himself at home in the kitchen, opening the refrigerator to check the stored ingredients.
“Hmm? Bamboo shoots, excellent ingredients!”
“There are several kinds of fish meat as well, fresh enough, let’s use the cod for frying.”
“Hey, Ailisha, don’t you have any burdock or seaweed here?”
As he arranged the ingredients on the kitchen counter, Xia Yu asked the silver-haired girl.
“Seaweed?”
The girl tapped her chin.
“Yeah, have you heard of seaweed bento? But what I’m going to make isn’t just any seaweed bento.” Xia Yu smiled.
His training plan already had an outline.
No more to say, first using the original manga’s recipes, he planned to thoroughly defeat Ailisha’s proud jewel temari dishes.
First crush her pride, temper her arrogance, and let her know that molecular gastronomy isn’t undefeated.
That way, the subsequent teaching work would proceed smoothly.
Ailisha called over a maid.
The maid held a pen and paper, her face taut as she said earnestly, “Instructor Xia, what ingredients do you need? We will get them from the academy’s logistics in fifteen minutes.”
Moments later, the ingredients Xia Yu had requested were piled on the table.
He got to work.
First, he prepared the broth. Tiqie Ailisha saw Xia Yu take small fragments of bonito flakes, heat them in a frying pan to dry fry, allowing the moisture to evaporate completely, before these roasted flakes and long strips of kelp were simmered in clean water.
Then came a series of complicated steps.
Flour and beaten eggs were mixed evenly in a conditioning basin and placed in the refrigerator to chill.
Cod pieces were sprinkled with salt and pepper for initial marination, and a thin, barely there layer of flour was applied to the surface of the fish.
This was the “Evolution Seaweed Bento” recipe originally from Xingping Chuangzhen in the original work.
However, the first round’s opponent against Tiqie Ailisha turned into Sen Tian Makoto, with Xingping’s recipe doomed not to commence in this timeline, Xia Yu, intent on educating Ailisha, didn’t mind restoring this recipe.
About an hour later,
Tiqie Ailisha blankly pointed at the several lunch boxes on the table.
“Instructor Xia, are you sure this plain appearance… this extremely commoner-like cuisine, can compete with my Jeweled Temari Sushi?”
She began to laugh,
Squinting her eyes in a relaxed manner.
Resting her hands on the dining table, Ailisha looked across at the young instructor and said, “If this is the level of your extracurricular tutoring, I’d be very disappointed.”
“Come, try this first—”
Xia Yu smiled and pushed a small lunch box towards her.
Inside the box, there were three portions of steaming side dishes.
“Deep-fried bamboo wheel, deep-fried cod, and sautéed burdock strings.”
“Hmm.”
Inhaling the strong fragrance that wafted over, Ailisha slightly withdrew her smile, “Let’s start with the deep-fried bamboo wheel!”
She took a bite with her chopsticks; a light crunch and the crisp, tender wheel broke apart in her mouth. Following her chewing, an unbelievably refreshing taste of seaweed caused Ailisha’s eyes to widen slightly.
“It’s the seaweed batter. You added powdered green seaweed when mixing the batter. No wonder it melts in the mouth!” Ailisha licked the corner of her lips and continued chewing the rest of the bamboo wheel, “And there’s a faint, almost negligible, yet matching hint of alcoholic flavor with the seaweed batter… Ah, I remember now, Instructor, you added beer, no wonder there isn’t a trace of greasiness! Refreshing!”
“What about the deep-fried cod?”
Her mouth never stopped moving, and Ailisha devoured the food eagerly.
“The sautéed burdock strings are also quite good!”
“And the miso soup…”
Ailisha possibly didn’t realize, having tasted all three side dishes, the corners of her lips unwittingly curled into a genuinely joyful smile.
Even her tone sounded a lot livelier and playful than usual.
At that moment, Ailisha eagerly took a sip of the thick soup.
Hmm?!
She froze in her chair, Tiqie Ailisha murmured softly, “My whole body is tightly enveloped by deliciousness—”
“Why—”
She continued drinking, the more she drank, the redder her cheeks became, her drunken bashfulness apparent.
After a while.
A few empty lunch boxes rested on the table.
Ailisha took a deep breath and still, somewhat unconvinced, stared at the young Instructor, “Is this what you wanted to tell me?”
“Heart?”
She lightly patted her chest, a hint of disdain in her eyes.
“Should there be heart in the lunch box?” said Ailisha, “But, Instructor, isn’t the key to a dish its taste? Delicious or not is the essence of a dish…”
“I’d say ‘no’ to philosophizing about soul and spirit!”
Even Xia Yu was left speechless for a while.
Teaching had hit a snag!
Realizing Ailisha’s challenge, Xia Yu frowned.
“So let’s not talk about other things, just as you said, what matters is whether it’s tasty or not.” Xia Yu looked her in the eyes, “Just based on ‘delicious’ or ‘not delicious,’ what score would you give yourself?”
Scoring?
Points?
Ailisha was stunned.
“Surely my Jeweled Temari Sushi trumps all!” she thought, but another nagging thought reminded her—
No.
She had lost the taste competition as well.
“It seems you are still not quite convinced.”
Xia Yu sighed, encountering a stubborn girl, just as when he had to lay down a heavy dose for the “Divine Tongue”.
He turned back to the kitchen counter and returned with another lunch box.
Inside the box was rice doused in a thick sauce.
Additionally, a layer of fine, caviar-like granules covered the rice, gleaming tantalizingly.
“The ultimate form of bento—”
“Try it!”