A lost technique? Wasting ingredients? Time to show a little skill!

"Sure."

Auntie Gao answered without paying Gao Tang any mind.

As a vendor, she couldn't exactly chase customers away. Besides, he was only grumbling a little, not causing any real trouble. She might as well let him be.

Gao Tang looked at Jiang Yao and sighed. "Why won't you believe me?"

"Honestly, sometimes I really want to suggest that all the chefs on the Luofu hold a cooking championship together. Anyone who loses gets banned from opening a restaurant."

"And anyone lucky enough to win has to face me. I'll personally drive every last one of those chefs out."

Jiang Yao chuckled. "Oh? So you're a great cook, then?"

Gao Tang said, "I'm decent. But today, I'm just an ordinary diner."

After a pause, Gao Tang added, "I'd rather not call myself a chef here. After all, on the Luofu, anyone who can boil water can be a chef."

"I have some self-respect, so I have to draw a clear line between myself and them. I hope you understand."

"Oh, right. I opened a private dining restaurant on the Xianzhou, Supreme Flavor Garden. You can ask around about it. Seats are hard to come by, though. If you book now, you'll probably get to eat there in two years."

"But unlike the other chefs on the Luofu, I still maintain a basic respect for my customers."

"Take authentic Luofu snacks, for example. If I can't get the flavor right, I won't sell them. I went to learn, and what happened? Ugh, what a disappointment."

Gao Tang rattled on and on.

Jiang Yao's head was spinning.

Clearly, Gao Tang had standards when it came to food.

That was good.

"Hey! Auntie Gao, hold on!"

Jiang Yao stopped Auntie Gao before she could continue.

He felt he had it pretty rough, too.

He had to listen to Gao Tang ramble while keeping an eye on what Auntie Gao was doing.

He might have said he wanted to give it a try.

But Jiang Yao wasn't actually a masochist.

He wanted something good to eat.

And Auntie Gao's method...

Well, Jiang Yao suddenly understood why Gao Tang was so resentful.

The Qiongshi Bird Skewer was one of the Xianzhou's specialty snacks.

It sounded like a meat skewer.

But that wasn't what it was.

Qiongshi birds lived in symbiosis with plants, with clusters of fruit hanging from their tails.

So Qiongshi Bird Skewers were actually fruit skewers, and no Qiongshi birds were harmed in their making.

Jiang Yao was actually a little disappointed.

Plant-based ingredients at meat prices. Tsk, that said enough, didn't it? No need to go on, right?

Although Qiongshi Bird Skewers were fruit skewers,

But the Fruit on a Qiongshi Bird's tail had smooth skin and was a luscious, vivid red.

Once coated in syrup and made into skewers, the Fruit gleamed gold. It looked beautiful and tasted delicious.

Much like the candied hawthorn skewers from his previous life.

But the resemblance only went so far.

Actually, Qiongshi Bird Skewers tasted better thanks to the Fruit itself.

Auntie Gao, however, had gone down the Unorthodox Path.

She was deep-frying them...

The best method passed down for making Qiongshi Bird Skewers was actually to cook sugar into syrup and make it sticky.

In other words, whether a Qiongshi Bird Skewer tasted good depended on how the syrup was cooked.

But Auntie Gao really did things differently.

She heated oil in a pan and started preparing to fry the Fruit.

It wasn't that it couldn't be done.

But Auntie Gao clearly didn't have the ability to pull it off, you know!

Jiang Yao could already imagine exactly what Gao Tang had eaten.

Without careful temperature control, deep-frying the Fruit would completely destroy its original texture.

And if the taste of the oil wasn't handled properly, the Fruit's flavor would turn into a greasy disaster.

At that point, even cooking up sugar to coat it would only make the flavor stranger.

Jiang Yao really did eat just about anything.

But that didn't mean he wanted to eat just anything!

Why put himself through that?

"Hm? What's wrong?"

Auntie Gao was about to fry the Fruit.

Hearing Jiang Yao call out, she paused for a moment.

"Um, Auntie Gao, why do you have to fry these? Is it some special method?"

With his scalp prickling, Jiang Yao hurried over and took the Fruit from Auntie Gao's hands.

Then he popped one into his mouth.

Actually, the flavor was a pleasant surprise.

It wasn't like hawthorn, whose sweet-and-sour flavor leaned toward sour.

Instead, it was mostly sweet with just a tiny hint of tartness.

It was very good fruit.

Tastier than what he'd eaten yesterday.

Perhaps this was another case of fine ingredients needing only the simplest preparation—

all they needed was a wash before eating.

Still, there was a downside.

The texture wasn't crisp enough.

It didn't have that satisfying crunch of conventional fruit.

"Ah, to tell you the truth, this method was passed down by our ancestors. Unfortunately, the flavor isn't right anymore. I suppose part of the technique has been lost. This is the best I can recreate."

Watching Jiang Yao munch away on the Fruit, Auntie Gao explained with a wry smile.

"Oh, I see."

Jiang Yao smacked his lips.

It wasn't that he lacked manners. He was analyzing the Qiongshi Bird Fruit.

Generally speaking, the long-life species of the Xianzhou Alliance had lifespans measured in centuries.

It was very difficult for a technique to be lost, especially one passed down through a family.

No matter how slow or foolish someone was, practicing day after day for decades, or even a century, would make them proficient.

The flavor was wrong? The technique had been lost?

Jiang Yao didn't think so.

He didn't think the technique had been lost.

Rather, the ingredients' flavor had changed!

That was why the old recipe no longer suited the current ingredients.

In other words, as long as the method was adjusted and a new recipe devised, even an idiot could make it!

"Then you've lost an awful lot of that technique!"

Gao Tang chimed in.

"How could you deep-fry Qiongshi Bird Fruit?"

"The Fruit has a refreshing texture. No matter how you look at it, deep-frying it makes no sense."

"Whether you're making snacks or full dishes, you have to select your ingredients carefully and think through how to prepare them."

"How can you mix refreshing and greasy together?"

Gao Tang offered his critique.

Clearly, he really was someone who cared about good food.

Still...

"Auntie Gao, do you have any more Qiongshi Bird Fruit?"

Jiang Yao spat out the pit and asked.

Who said Qiongshi Bird Fruit couldn't be deep-fried?

You just don't know how to do it!

"Yes, I do. Here, have some on me."

Auntie Gao took out another handful of Qiongshi Bird Fruit and handed it to Jiang Yao.

Jiang Yao had spent quite a lot at her stall yesterday.

And he was sweet-tongued, too.

Auntie Gao was rather fond of Jiang Yao.

Giving him a few pieces of Qiongshi Bird Fruit was no big deal.

They weren't worth much anyway.

"Great, thank you."

Jiang Yao took the Qiongshi Bird Fruit and nodded his thanks.

Then he pulled out his interstellar phone.

"Credits or Strale?"

Auntie Gao blinked. "They're a gift. They barely cost anything."

Jiang Yao shook his head. "No, Auntie Gao. I want to rent out your whole stall and borrow your lovely setup. I'll make a serving of Qiongshi Bird Skewers myself!"

Auntie Gao froze again. "Huh?"

Gao Tang was stunned as well. "So you're also...?"

Jiang Yao grinned, tossing the Qiongshi Bird Fruit in his hand as he said,

"Auntie Gao, I know how to make that snack your ancestors passed down."

"You can deep-fry it, but you can't handle it as roughly as you did. There's a technique to it!"

Auntie Gao stood there blinking in bewilderment.

Gao Tang, meanwhile, raised his voice. "Impossible. Absolutely impossible!"

He shook his head like a rattle drum. "Deep-fried fruit? You're wasting ingredients!"

Only then did Auntie Gao recover. She looked at Jiang Yao hesitantly. "Well..."

Without another word, Jiang Yao transferred the money.

Auntie Gao beamed. "Use all the ingredients you like! Just let me know if you need more!"