Dinner Party

Jiang Feng tinkered in the kitchen all afternoon, watching Jiang Huiqin's cooking video three or four times. He swapped out the ingredients for better ones, enriched the seasonings, and followed Jiang Huiqin's original steps to make the Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices.

Looking at the F-rank rating for his improved dish given by the game, Jiang Feng stared at the food in front of him with a complex expression.

The plating was beautiful. To add color, he'd included a few extra vegetable leaves.

It was just the taste…

It lived up to the F-rank evaluation the game had given it.

Mushroom soup, quail eggs, tremella, luncheon meat – what a disastrous combination!

It was a testament to Jiang Huiqin's high culinary skill that she could achieve an E-rank with such a deathly pairing.

Jiang Feng silently poured the failed dish into the slop bucket.

He wasn't a particularly gifted cook. The game's Dish Tasting rating for him was only Beginner. It was just that he'd been spoiled by the food from Jiang Weiguo and Jiang Jiankang since he was young. When he was with people who didn't know much about food, he could talk a big game about dishes and fool outsiders.

Jiang Feng had never even heard of geniuses like those in novels who had incredibly sensitive taste buds, could tell if ingredients were fresh just by looking, identify all the ingredients and seasonings after one bite, and deduce a dish's recipe after eating it.

He didn't believe such people existed.

A cook, after all, could compensate for a lack of innate talent with hard work. Very few people were truly born to do this job.

Unable to figure it out himself, Jiang Feng went to ask Jiang Jiankang for advice.

"Mushroom soup, tremella, quail eggs, luncheon meat?" Jiang Jiankang's frown deepened with each ingredient he named. After a long pause, he looked at Jiang Feng with a complicated expression. "Son, let's just stick to cooking normally. Don't try those 'innovative dishes' you see online."

It was clear that the fear from yesterday's Pure Meat Wontons still lingered.

Jiang Feng: ...

Dad, you should be saying that to Great-Grand Aunt...

After Jiang Feng's persistent pleading, Jiang Jiankang finally relented, saying, "I'll look into it," before slipping into the back kitchen to chop vegetables.

Jiang Feng returned to his dorm to change.

He had a dinner party to attend later.

It was the Chess Club's first gathering of the semester, and also the most formal, largest-scale, and most expensively organized dinner party the club had seen in four years!

Jiang Feng vaguely remembered last year's gathering, where they pooled together the remaining funds. Ji Yue had even contributed her prized Butter Hot Pot Base and a pot she'd hidden in the dorm. They bought a bunch of noodles, vermicelli, rice cakes, greens, enoki mushrooms, and other staple ingredients. Each person got one fish ball, and that was it. The eight of them went to a classroom to steal electricity, like thieves, to have a uniquely memorable meal.

This year was different. Not only did the Chess Club have over thirty members, but they could also have their gathering at a restaurant!

This was an unprecedented breakthrough in the Chess Club's history. Ji Yue, who had been the Club President for three years, had never experienced a restaurant gathering before.

For this occasion, Ji Yue had even taken leave and paid out of her own pocket to attend.

This was tough on Wang Hao, as he was the only one helping at the restaurant today.

Over thirty people, a whole busload.

The gathering was at a barbecue and hot pot buffet not far from the school. It was 69 yuan per person, with an additional 15% discount for students, making it very affordable. Because of the large group, Jiang Feng had reserved the seats in advance: two rows, one with four tables and another with five, all pushed together to make it easy for everyone to chat while eating.

Although the ingredients weren't very fresh, clearly processed and frozen meats, the variety was rich. Besides barbecue, you could also do hot pot. And because of the individual hot pots, the seasonings were plentiful: oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, minced garlic, chili, and various dipping sauces were all available.

Jiang Feng was at a table with Ji Yue, Liu Qian, Liu Zixuan, and Liu Qian's fellow townsman, Wu Minqi, who was considered the future hope of the Chess Club.

Liu Qian returned with two large plates of cooked food, sat down, propped up her phone to face her, and started talking to the camera: "Hello everyone, I'm Qianqian. Today is our club's dinner party, a buffet of barbecue. This..."

"Live streaming?" Jiang Feng, returning with a plate of meat to be grilled, saw Liu Qian talking to her phone.

"She's been doing this for a week or two. You haven't noticed her phone in front of her every meal?" Ji Yue said, unfazed, placing chicken wings next to fatty pork belly on the grilling paper.

Jiang Feng: ...

He thought Liu Qian was watching a TV show.

"Brush on some oil. How are you going to grill it if you don't brush on oil?" Jiang Feng reminded her.

"Their oil isn't good," Ji Yue said, moving the fatty pork belly from the plate next to the chicken wings. "The oil from the pork belly is delicious when grilled!"

Jiang Feng: ...

"Their chicken wings are marinated and really good. The lamb doesn't have much of a lamb flavor. The tenderloin is just okay. Oh, and their Finger Rice Cakes are also good. They're really chewy when cooked in the hot pot. Hey, Qianqian, why aren't you grilling anything?" Ji Yue knew the restaurant's ingredients like the back of her hand. Seeing that Liu Qian was only eating braised duck gizzards and had another plate of pastries, she asked.

"I'm not good at grilling. When I've gone to buffet barbecues with others before, either it wasn't cooked through or it was burnt, and it didn't taste good even if I did grill it. Once the pot is boiling, I'll just eat the hot pot stuff," Liu Qian replied.

"Liu Qian, where are you live streaming? I'll go give you a follow," Jiang Feng felt that since one of his club members was live streaming, he should offer a little bit of help as the president.

"Certain Point Live. My stream name is A University Foodie Daily." Liu Qian was happy to have Jiang Feng follow her.

Jiang Feng downloaded the streaming app and entered Liu Qian's live stream room. The first thing that greeted him were her prominent nostrils.

Only 47 people were watching, including Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng: ...

With that awkward camera angle, the other 46 viewers were truly dedicated fans.

The live stream chat was also quiet, with no one talking. Liu Qian was also very chill. After the initial greeting, she focused entirely on eating, seemingly forgetting she was live streaming, and barely spoke to Ji Yue.

Jiang Feng gave a follow and quietly exited the stream, focusing on grilling meat.

Ji Yue was an experienced griller, picking out marinated fish and meat, and the sizzling oil from the grilled pork belly looked quite appetizing. Liu Qian stared longingly at the chicken wings. Ji Yue grilled four at once, distributing one to each person.

As someone who usually couldn't even cook a dish, Ji Yue's chicken wings were considered quite successful.

"Senior Ji Yue, you're amazing!" Liu Qian, who struggled with grilling, looked at her with admiration.

As soon as the chicken wings and pork belly were brought out, the grill pan was empty.

Liu Zixuan placed the enoki mushrooms he was holding onto the grill. While they cooked, he boasted, "I'm not bragging, but my grilled enoki mushrooms are delicious. They're not bad compared to Brother Feng's cooking either."

As he spoke, he sprinkled cumin and chili powder from the shaker onto the enoki mushrooms.

However, because the shaker hadn't been cleaned in a long time, all the holes were clogged. After trying to sprinkle for a while, not a single grain came out. Liu Zixuan got anxious, brought the shaker to the edge of the table, and banged it hard, then shook it with force.

A large clump of bright red chili powder landed on the tender, white enoki mushrooms.

After a series of suffocating maneuvers, Liu Zixuan predictably messed up.

The enoki mushrooms were spicy and salty, and also burnt.

The grilling paper was also scorched by him.

Ji Yue returned with half a plate of finger rice cakes, preparing to add them to the grill once the current batch of meatballs was done cooking.

"Ah, I really want to eat spicy stir-fried rice cakes," Liu Qian sighed, looking at the finger rice cakes on the plate. "The spicy rice cakes at school are awful. They're neither spicy nor salty, and the club president's restaurant doesn't even sell them."

Her tone was full of resentment.

Looking at the freshly changed grilling paper, Jiang Feng had an idea.

"Do you want me to make it for you?"

The seasonings in this restaurant were more than enough to make spicy stir-fried rice cakes.