Chapter 165- Here’s Your Beancurd

Translated by Gumihou at kitchennovel dot com

 

After that little announcement, Amy scooped up another spoonful of [Beancurd] into her mouth. She rocked happily in her chair, little cheeks flushed with a rosy glow. Then, she put down the spoon and took a large bite out of her [Juicy Burger]. The sound of satisfied chewing soon filled the air. One spoonful of [Savoury Beancurd] followed a bite of the [Juicy Burger], her cute and enthusiastic way of eating was just too adorable, she giggled to herself, completely forgetting about her audience.

“Oh, so you can eat it that way?” though the bald uncle was a little crossed about being tricked, he could not keep his eyes away from Amy’s delicious way of eating. When she swallowed her mouthful, he could only swallow the drool pooling in his mouth. Watching Amy eat was a special kind of torture.

“Could it really be that delicious?” wondered some of the customers. Though some suspected that Boss Mike specially got Amy to eat in front of them (which he totally did!), they still could not take their eyes away.

“Oh ho, it looks like [Savoury Beancurd] and [Juicy Burger] makes the best combination, ah.”

“Boss, I want to add one [Juicy Burger].”

“I can’t stand it, I want one too. A [Juicy Burger] here, please!”

In the end, quite a few of the customers could not resist anymore, hands popped up and demands for [Juicy Burgers] increased.

Like dominoes, people fell under the spell of Amy’s wonderfully delicious eating show. Sale of [Juicy Burgers] soar, it’s just too irresistible, all right!?

“Just look at the wonderful way the Little Boss eats, as expected, [Savoury Beancurd] is better than [Sweet Beancurd]!”

“This is a win for the Savoury Faction. You Sweet Faction should reconsider your stand, how could [Sweet Beancurd] be eaten with [Juicy Burger]? That’s just too inhuman!” a young man declared passionately.

“Apologies, I am not human. I still prefer sweets!” next to the excitable young man, a red-eyed demon looked at him expressionlessly.

“You… are really inhuman.” the young man choked slightly, unable to find a suitable rebuttal.

Now that they had seen the actual [Beancurd], customers waiting for their food re-started the sweet vs savoury argument again with fresh information, hardly anything else was talked about.

“So that’s [Beancurd]? It certainly looks delicious, but that one should be savoury type, ba?” Sally’s eyes were also fixed upon Amy and the bowls in front of her. Her eyes travelled over to the untouched bowl, attracted by the brilliant orange hue drizzled over the tender white cubes. “That orange syrup, could it be boiled down honey? This sweet fragrance, is even stronger than honey from the Windstorm Forest.”

“The sweet one has to be delicious!” Sally suddenly sat up. She loved sweet things, sadly the cook at home only knew very few sweet recipes, and none of them could measure up to pure honey.

“That [Juicy Burger] looks good too, but it seems terribly greasy and fatty,” Lisa eyed the burger in Amy’s hands, dismissing it from her mind. She looked at the menu again, when she saw the 200 copper coin price tag, she blanched.

The 600 copper coins for the [Yang Zhou Fried Rice] already cost her a month’s worth of salary, if she get the [Beancurd] it would be close to one and a half months salary.

Though elves tended to have long lives, if she spend all her money on just a single meal a month, that seemed rather contrary to the reason why she left her family, ba?

Before she left home, Sally promised herself that she would fulfil her dream of exploring all of Nolan Continent, just like the princess did before her, depending only on herself, the clothes on her back, and those few dragon coins in her purse.

Her first stop was Chaos City, and already she was trapped by this little restaurant. She had already worked very hard these couple of weeks but the money collected weren’t even enough to eat one portion of [Yang Zhou Fried Rice].

But, but this [Yang Zhou Fried Rice] was just too delicious! And now there’s this mysterious [Beancurd]! At this rate, she would probably never leave Chaos City!

Sally felt herself floating into an abyss, what’s the use of dreams? What’s the use of travelling further? There’s delicious food to be had! A voice whispered into her ear: Work, Sally, work! Work, Sally, work for food…

“Amy certainly knows how to eat, as expected, that [Savoury Beancurd] certainly looks delicious!” Luna was also looking at Amy with bright eyes, but then she frowned, “however, if I eat the [Juicy Burger] here… there are too many people around, it’d be so embarrassing if I suddenly cry out, right?”

“Dear customers, may I take your orders now?” Abbé Mia smiled at Luna and Sally, she was actually quite intimidated by these two ladies. Though there were quite a few female customers coming in nowadays, none were as graceful or noble looking as them.

Having grown up in the dirty, greasy environment of the kitchen, Abbé Mia was especially envious of graceful ladies like them. She was quite ashamed of her own calloused hands and broken fingernails. She hurriedly tucked them out of sight under a menu.

“I’ll have… a [Yang Zhou Fried Rice]…” Sally looked up at Abbé Mia, and a sudden jealousy gripped her. She distinctly remember there had been no waitress the last time she was here. This half dragon girl must have gotten the job later, since she worked here, she must have been given at least a free meal a day, right? A free [Yang Zhou Fried Rice] everyday, how amazing is that?

By comparison, the vegetable noodles she was forced to eat everyday seemed so pitiful. Here she was working hard everyday for a month to have one single portion of [Yang Zhou Fried Rice] at the end of it. But here, here was a girl who could eat this wonderful dish everyday as staff meal, how pitiful, ah!

“And one [Sweet Beancurd]!” Sally nearly spat out the words, her voice pitched too high at the end.

“Very well, please wait a moment. Miss, what about yourself?” Abbé Mia turned towards Luna.

“I’ll have a [Savoury Beancurd], and…” Luna looked at Amy again, at the dwindling piece of [Juicy Burger] in her little hands. Memory of that [Juicy Burger] overcame her and she found herself nodding, “And one [Juicy Burger].”

“Very well.” Abbé Mia nodded, collected the orders from the two other ladies and continued taking orders from other tables.

“As long as I work hard, I can definitely earn it back!” Sally clenched her fist, and nodded firmly to herself. Then, she cast a wistful sight towards the kitchen, “I wonder if the boss needs any more staff…”

“If they have anything like live broadcasting in this world, I guess Amy should be quite popular as a food introducer?” Mike thought with some pride as he gave Amy’s audience a quick glance. He continued to pour piping hot syrup onto bowls of [Beancurds], and thought, as expected, having Amy eat the new dishes in front of the customers was an excellent way to advertise.

“Here you go, [Sweet and Savoury Beancurds], send them out together. Remember, never try to influence the customer’s decision.” Mike told Abbé Mia with a smile.

“En.” Abbé Mia nodded obediently, not at all wary of Mike’s words, she merely accepted the tray of [Beancurds] carried the lot out.

… please read this at kitchennovel.com …

After licking her bowl clean, Amy burped. She stuck out her tongue, trying to lick the tip of her nose, unfortunately her little tongue was too short. Amy gave up after a few attempts. She blinked, and saw the customers staring at her. Unperturbed by her little cross-eyed performance just now, she said seriously, “Actually, I think both savoury and sweet [Beancurds] are both really, super delicious.”

Everyone looked at Amy with her earnest expression and felt their hostility simmer down, however, they were still not sold by the idea of sweet and savoury [Beancurds] being in anyway equal. Amy’s opinion did not help weight in on their dispute in any way.

“Also, you know that you’re not allowed to make a racket in the restaurant, right? If you make too much noise other customers won’t be able to enjoy their food properly. As soon as you stepped into this restaurant, you should all be good, obedient customers.” Amy placed her spoon down and extended a little white hand. Blue-violate flames ignited on her palm, it shrank into a small fist-size fireball. Her little voice was stern, “If you upset my daddy, I will be very angry. I might actually cook you with my fireball.

“Sorry for the wait, here are your [Beancurds].” Abbé Mia just happened to choose that moment to sail out of the kitchen bearing a whole tray of [Beancurds].

 

[Gumihou: Um, I don’t know about you guys, but isn’t Boss Mike kind of like a drug dealer here…? Poor, poor Sally… although at this rate, she might as well just join a party and do missions for money.] [Gumihou: Linds brought up an interesting matter re the word ‘ba’ at the end of the sentences. Since it’s the second time this matter had been brought up, I’d like to find out what everyone else thinks. Not just ‘ba’, but also ‘en’, ‘aiya’, and the end of sentence ‘ah’. Is it annoying to see the ‘ba’? Should I desist with it completely?]

  ^_^

Translated and edited by Gumihou from kitchennovel dot com.

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