Chapter 690 - Zero Point Five Yuan
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Manager Yu, you’re done eating so fast?” asked the driver in doubt when Yu Chu got onto the car.
After all, it hadn’t been 15 minutes since Yu Chu got off the car. This eating speed was too fast.
After all, he still needed to order and wait for his dishes to arrive.
“Yeah. Go to the Ganjiang Hotpot at Nanchang Street. It’s unit number 187,” Yu Chu nodded and gave a new address without saying anything else.
“Ok. It’s not too far. We will reach in 10 minutes.” The driver nodded and set off.
“I wonder how will that hotpot tastes like.” Yu Chu frowned, appearing rather anxious.
However, he did not spend much time worrying. After all, he would usually read his documents whenever he was on the road, even if it was only a 10 minutes journey.
“Manager Yu, is this the place?” the driver asked while pointing at a red signboard after putting the car to a smooth stop.
“Yes.” Yu Chu nodded after leaning forward to take a look.
“OK. I will wait here,” the driver said, aware of what his job was.
“Um.” Yu Chu nodded and got off the car.
Thump. He shut the car door and walked towards the hotpot restaurant.
The moment Yu Chu entered, a middle-aged woman wearing an apron welcomed him and said, “Welcome, please take a seat. The menu will be on the table. If the food is not salty enough, you are free to add more salt. You will be billed based on the number of bamboo sticks you have later. Meat sticks will cost 2 RMB while vegetable sticks will cost 1 RMB.”
“Ok.” Yu Chu nodded and sat down.
“This hotpot restaurant is quite weird.” Yu Chu scanned the restaurant.
This Ganjiang Hotpot was different than all hotpots Yu Chu knew of.
Not only was the entrance into the restaurant narrow, there were also only two pots in the restaurant. However, the pots were very big. It resembled the huge pot Yu Chu had at his home when he was young. However, the pots here were not as deep as what he used to have.
A counter was around each of the pot, forming a circle. All around the counter, plastic stools were arranged. On each of the stools were a bowl of chili powder.
Each pot looked like it could serve about 12 or 13 customers. With two pots, this restaurant could serve more than 20 customers.
Splashing sounds could be heard as both meats and vegetables were being boiled in the pots. All of them were skewered on bamboo sticks that were about as long as a forearm.
This was what the boss meant earlier when she said that he would be billed based on the number of bamboo sticks he had later.
A customer could start eating the moment he sat down around the pot. This looked quite interesting.
In the past, Yu Chu would never think that something like this was interesting. He would only analyze how much time would be wasted to cook with this pot.
After all, eating in itself was a huge time-waster for the previous Yu Chu.
“It’s still this hotpot restaurant that has better food. This kelp tastes amazing.” While Yu Chu was immersed in his thought, the customers near him started talking.
“Um. Yeah. This chili is so fragrant,” a young woman nodded and agreed.
“I think this kidney is quite nice as well. It’s very tender,” someone else joined the conversation. This person was seated beside the young woman, yet it was clear that they did not know each other.
“The pig intestine is not bad as well,” said the young woman while picking up a stick of skewered pig intestine.
“No way. I still think the tender kidney with chili is the best,” said a different young man.
“Which one do you prefer?” someone suddenly asked Yu Chu.
Yu Chu was quite astonished by the sight of strangers debating on which is the tastier food. Just as he was thinking of what to answer, the boss spoke.
“Haha, everything here is good. Eat more,” the boss said loudly.
“Yeah. Boss, all the food here is nice,” the more than 10 customers in the shop laughed and voiced their agreement.
Yu Chu picked up the chopsticks and prepared to start eating as well.
Of course, he was holding his chopsticks with one hand and holding the bamboo stick with the other. This was how everyone else was eating.
Ever since he got his Tangyuans scammed by the despicable Wu Hai, Yu Chu had learned to do what everyone else was doing. When it came to food, he would make no assumptions and reserve his judgment until he tasted the food.
The first food he decided to try was the kelp. After all, that was the first food he had heard someone praising here.
He took a stick of skewered kelps and dipped it into the chili powder.
The bamboo stick was colored in brown, the same color of the broth, after being soaked in it. The oil from the broth was sticking to the surface of the kelps, giving them a dark green glossy look. The kelps were emanating a thick fragrance of fermented soybean paste.
“It should be quite good,” Yu Chu muttered inwardly and stuffed one of the kelps into his mouth.
Yu Chu started chomping on the kelp. It was somewhat mushy after being boiled in the hotpot. Therefore, it was quite easy to chew, and although it wasn’t springy, it was smooth and tender from being boiled in the hotpot.
“Hiss, so spicy,” Yu Chu couldn’t help himself but to say this.
That’s right. Immediately after he felt the smoothness and tenderness of the kelp, the spiciness of the chili powder erupted in his mouth.
This spiciness was completely unlike the Sichuan’s spiciness that would be both spicy and fragrant at the same time. Rather, this was a spiciness that rushed straight into one’s throat before burning one’s stomach, a spiciness that would course down the throat together with the kelp.
“Cough. Cough.” Yu Chu couldn’t control himself and started coughing.
“So spicy.” Yu Chu reckoned that his tongue had probably turned completely red from the spiciness.
“So people from Gan River are actually capable of eating something this spicy,” Yu Chu said in realization.
Although he had been here for work many times before, he had only found out about this now. After all, in the past, he would always be eating oats in the office. The leftover oatmeals in the office proved this.
As the spiciness assaulted his senses, he immediately stuffed another piece of kelp into his mouth. Only by continuing to chew could he alleviate the spiciness in his mouth.
One stick after another, before long, there was a pile of bamboo sticks in front of Yu Chu.
“It’s too spicy. I can’t eat anymore.” Yu Chu frowned and stopped eating.
“Boss, give me the bill please,” Yu Chu said after wiping his mouth.
“Ok. Altogether, it’s 37 RMB,” the boss said. She did not count the bamboo sticks one by one. Instead, she mere gave it a glance before coming up with this price.
“Here you go.” Yu Chu handed her a 50 RMB bill.
“Please come again in the future,” the boss said while Yu Chu was leaving.
The first thing Yu Chu did after getting on the car was not telling the driver where to go. Rather, he picked up his glass and drank a big mouthful of water.
Yu Chu was being assaulted by an intense spiciness.
“Go there,” Yu Chu gave a new address and took out his notebook, preparing to write down his evaluation on the hotpot restaurant.
This time, what he wrote was: “The taste is acceptable, and the atmosphere of the restaurant is quite decent. The level of this restaurant is 0.5 Yuan.”
Beside this line was the evaluation for the first restaurant. There, he wrote: “Having a hard time putting the food there in my mouth. Zero Yuan.”
That’s right. To satisfy his stomach, Yu Chu had not only created a form. He had even invented his very own unit of measurement.
This was a unit of measurement using Yuan Zhou’s cooking as the base. With this unit of measurement, he would judge if the restaurants were worth returning to.
For example, in his opinion, the hotpot restaurant earlier had 0.5 of Yuan Zhou’s level. As for the first restaurant, the food there was unpalatable, completely incomparable to Yuan Zhou. Therefore, he gave that restaurant a rating of zero Yuan.
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