Chapter 146 – An Approaching Storm?

Translated by Kitchennovel dot com

 

“That damned pig killer…” the old woman’s cheeks flushed red, and could not finish her sentence.

The others exchanged glances and looked away, a strange and rather awkward silence descended upon them.

“I’m going to have a look too. Just what kind of food that man made to seduce so many customers into his shop.” the lady with the flowered apron also stood up, took off her apron and made her way towards the restaurant.

“Let’s go too, we should go see what’s all the fuss with that man’s food. I’m sure once we know what he’s doing, we can all work together and find out.” the uncle with a rather shiny head said. He also took off his apron and trotted after the two other chefs.

The others also laughed out loud and one by one, they pulled off their aprons and made their way over to Mickey’s Restaurant.

— do read this at kitchennovel.com —

“Another wave of new customers.” the corners of Mike’s kips went up at the sight of the long line. When the clock chimed, he pulled open the door.

The people in the line all looked up at the chime that signalled the opening of the door. Quite a few people have been in line for a long time, however, regular customers knew that the rules of the restaurant so no one actually came to bang at the door to disturb Mike.

“Boss Mike, I’ve been here since early afternoon, my legs are all numb.” at the head of the queue was Wayson Neo, who looked dourly at Mike. His voice was very faint, and he was clutching at the door frame to stay upright.

“The business hours are all written here, the restaurant will only serve customers at these times.” Mike looked at Wayson Neo with some amusement, after having rested, his face seemed to have regained some colour.

The saying ‘Women are as ruthless as tigers’ was not without basis.

“Alright, would you please lend me a hand? My legs are really numb, I don’t think I can really move.” Wayson Neo did bother to argue this point any more. He lifted one leg, and then put it back down, before looking up at Mike with pitiful eyes as he clutched at the door frame for dear life.

When nearby customers heard this, they all grinned to themselves. Well, this guy sure has put in a lot of effort for the sake of being the first in line.

“Alright.” Mike held out his hand and helped Wayson Neo into a seat near the entrance.

“I want three portions of [Yang Zhou Fried Rice], two having here and one takeaway.” said Wayson Neo the moment he sat down. After a short hesitation, he grabbed Mike’s hand and asked in a low voice, “Boss Mike, you’re sure that this dish is especially good for warming the body? My little brother really can’t take it any more.”

“Please be at ease, its effects is even better than [Juicy Burger].” Mike retracted his hands to pat Wayson Neo on the shoulder.

“Alright, I believe you.” Wayson Neo nodded, like a man who had resolved to face his death properly.

“Everyone, please come in. Your orders will be taken according to the sequence you come in.” Mike opened the door the rest of the way to smile at the customers streaming into his restaurant.

“Welcome to Mickey Restaurant.” Abbé Mia hurried out of the kitchen with a big smile on her face and started to take orders from the customers.

“Boss Mike, I think you should allow us old fellows a senior pass, ah. Compared to the young folks, we older folks have greater difficulty standing around like this all day, ah.” Klaus was also one of those in the front, and took the opportunity to present his piece to Mike.

Among the customers trooping in behind Klaus was Julian, who quickly shot Mike a glance. This afternoon, after putting up Charcoal Black and Green Beans to watch the shop, he’d hurried over to line up. The time he spent waiting was about half an hour.

Other customers also turned around to look at Mike, if he gave senior citizens a pass, there was no reason for them to come in early any more.

“Apologies, all those who enter here are our customers and will be treated equally. Moreover, you’re always ordering two portions of [Yang Zhou Fried Rice], I’m sure you won’t lose to young people in anything.” Mike smiled, there’s no need to negotiate on this, it’s not like he’s running a hospital or a clinic, so there’s no need to start things like senior citizen passes.

Klaus looked at Mike a little helplessly. No matter what, he’s Amy’s master, right? Moreover, his status was not low, to think that this man would remain stubborn no matter what. Well, no one could say that he hadn’t done his best.

The seats in the restaurant filled up very quickly. Customers who came later had to stay in line outside. However, there were quite a few who just came to buy [Juicy Burgers] as takeaways so the line still remained quite long. Starting from the edge of the counter tables stretching all the way outside.

Mike let his eyes wonder over the people in the line, his eyes widened in astonishment when he noticed that the last seven people looked very familiar. Just where had he seen them before?

However, now was not the time to think about these things, he quickly made his way to the kitchen to start fulfilling the various orders that came in when it suddenly struck him where he had seen one of those people before. The one in the lead, that shiny oily face, that fat as a barrel body, was the boss of a restaurant famous for their pork chops. That man stuck out in his memories, he remember seeing this boss kill a pig right in front of his own restaurant. The sight left quite an impression on Mike. The others with him were probably chefs or bosses from other restaurants.

“What are they doing here? Are they planning to make trouble?” Mike frowned, ever since Mickey Restaurant started to become popular, it made quite a name for itself. Though this restaurant was not in an ideal location, but the sight of long lines waiting to come in everyday could be seen from far away, and this alone captured quite a lot of customers.

Naturally, this kind of popularity was quite the thorn in the side of other restaurants. After all, customers are the most important thing to restaurant operators. Mike’s restaurant was now taking in hundreds of customers everyday. Moreover, his customers were rich, high quality ones. Naturally, his restaurant will effect the businesses of other restaurateurs.

Mike already foresaw that people in the same business would come to analyse his restaurant. He had, after all come from a business minded family in the past, and though he had never really participate in the family business. Quite a lot of the information was passed to him through sheer osmosis, in short, he was not at all worried by this development.

In fact, he could already foresee that recipes imitating his [Yang Zhou Fried Rice], [Juicy Burgers] and more would soon appear in Aden Square. At the very least, once these cooks encountered the pinnacle of cooking that he had brought into this world, their own cooking would change too.

As for shops who wish to imitate his food, Mike wish them luck. It would be interesting to see how far they could push their own cooking in order to make these imitations, at the very least, it should be quite amusing.

In fact, if they could come up with something that’s half as delicious, he would concede defeat.

He was willing to share new cooking concepts into this world, however, he was no mother Mary. There was no way he was going to teach them how to make the [Yang Zhou Fried Rice] or [Juicy Burgers], money making was still money making after all.

However, if they wish to try the food themselves or bring their takeaways home to properly analyse the food, Mike had no intention of stopping them. Even if he did, how was he going to monitor all [Juicy Burgers] bought as takeaways?

“Hows does one fry the rice so that each grain is wrapped in egg, how the meat is stewed, how to knead the bread for a soft bun, how to turn soybeans into [Beancurds]… with the goal in mind, it would probably take them a few years to master these techniques, even then not many would reach the pinnacle needed to recreate his cooking.”

“As a final obstacle, the ingredients. The special ingredients supplied to him by the [System], and his access to new recipes. These two things remained the core of Mickey Restaurant’s strength. In short, within this Nolan Continent, a second restaurant like this could not exist at all.” Mike smiled to himself.

“A storm is coming?” Mike shook his head. “We can’t even consider this a little wave.”

 

[Gumihou: *dabs eye with hanky* Poor Wayson Neo, you and your little brother stay strong.]

 

  ^_^

 

Translated and edited by Gumihou from kitchennovel dot com.

 

For anyone who wants to chat with me, do come over to discord !

<Previous><Index><Next>