Quadruple split.

Chapter 2961 The Master Chef in Distant Land

A moment later, the man who had been standing outside in the rain was called back. He stood behind the old man with his head down, as quiet as a chicken.

After a while, once the Five Tigers of Yanshan had resumed their laughter and conversation, the proprietress and the waiter emerged from the kitchen one after the other. The proprietress carried a large tray filled with several fragrant dishes, which, according to Mo Tan's estimation, were roughly as follows:

Steam mandarin fish or sea bass until cooked, remove the bones and meat, then simmer with shredded ham, shiitake mushrooms, etc., until thickened with cornstarch, and drizzled with fragrant vinegar. The resulting West Lake Fish Soup has a tangy, spicy, and savory flavor, and a smooth texture similar to crab meat.

Crab roe and meat are stuffed into hollowed-out oranges and then steamed. The salty and savory flavor of the crab blends perfectly with the sweet and sour taste of the orange, creating a refreshing and aromatic dish called "Crab-Stuffed Orange."

The pork kidneys are cleaned until they are white and tender, and scored to resemble lychees. They are then cooked in a delicious broth, resulting in a dish that combines elegance and richness: "Lychee White Pork Kidneys".

Plum blossoms and sandalwood are soaked in water and kneaded into dough, then pressed into dough pieces using a plum blossom-shaped mold and cooked in chicken broth. The fragrance of flowers blends with the freshness of chicken, creating a truly creative [Plum Blossom Soup Dumpling].

【Wow, this is really serious!】

Mo Tan was shocked. After all, to add some color to her barren and impoverished life, and to make herself feel more at ease when forced to eat at Yi Dong's house, coupled with her rather picky appetite—she couldn't accept takeout when she was particularly craving it, regardless of her mental state—Mo Tan had been studying cooking since elementary school.
That's why, even though Mo Tan isn't a chef, he understands the nature of ingredients better than most chefs. He knows which piece of pork is suitable for braising and which is suitable for char siu, what gluten content of flour is suitable for making pasta, and what oil temperature is suitable for frying what. He can not only leave people like Yi Dong speechless, but his cooking skills can also leave them speechless.

From everyday braised pork belly to Wellington steak for entertaining guests, from hand-pulled noodles to French desserts, he can do almost anything, and his range of expertise is outrageous!
Chinese food, Western food, Japanese food, Southeast Asian food, frying, stir-frying, braising, stewing, steaming, roasting, fermentation, smoking, molecular gastronomy, he can serve them all, and he almost never makes a mistake.

In terms of knife skills, Mo Tan, in his current mental state, can cut a cucumber into fine, spring-like lines without cutting it completely; Wensi tofu is as tender as hair, and it disperses into flower shapes when added to soup; he can debone a whole chicken cleanly and neatly, with the tip of the knife following the bone, leaving the skin and meat intact.

When it comes to controlling the heat, Mo Tan, in a state of absolute neutrality, can stir-fry pork kidneys over high heat, making the wok hei (wok aroma) rise half a meter high, while the pork kidneys are crisp, tender, and free of any fishy or gamey smell; he can also simmer a pot of Dongpo pork over low heat, with the soup surface just bubbling, the meat so tender that it falls apart when picked up with chopsticks, yet still retains its shape when eaten. In his eyes, knowing which ingredients should be cooked over high heat and which should be simmered over low heat has become instinct.

When it comes to mastering the art, Mo Tan, in his state of chaotic neutrality, has an almost morbid pursuit of cooking. He has mastered the signature dishes of various cuisines, from Sichuan's red oil, Shandong's scallion-braised dishes, Cantonese's blanched dishes to Huaiyang's broth dishes. From the Zhou Dynasty's "Eight Delicacies" to the Song Dynasty's "Crab Stuffed Orange," and then to the Qing Dynasty's "Manchu Han Imperial Feast," he can even restore some lost dishes according to ancient methods.

He often tells Yi Dong BB that the highest level of Chinese cuisine is not "delicious", but "perfect", that is, perfect cooking time, perfect knife skills, and perfect seasoning.

What he strives for is to make every dish perfect.

To be fair, about half a year ago, Mo Tan was quite confident in his culinary skills. Even in his current humble and low-key state, he believed that among his peers, even those who had undergone specialized training in cooking, nine out of ten would find it difficult to surpass his level. After all, the amount of effort Mo Tan put into cooking was indeed frighteningly high.

Especially that night, when Yinan and Gu Yanyue had only let little Motan into the kitchen with the intention of 'coaxing the child,' but actually had takeout, bezoar, emetics, and other backup plans ready at any time, a dinner that made the three of them almost swallow their tongues, made Gu Yanyue add a bowl of rice for the first time ever, made Yi Dong compromise with broccoli, which he regarded as a scourge, and made Yinan, who never drinks alcohol in front of the child, open a bottle of red wine, directly ignited the passion of the three of them.

"I understand."

Gu Yanyue sighed with a heavy heart and said, "Tanjiang is trying to tell us that an outstanding kid like him can live well anywhere, so we don't have to worry about him all the time. Sigh, I want to cry. In terms of cooking skills, I have completely lost to Tanjiang in the training of the perfect bride!"

"It's ok."

At that moment, Inan took a sip of red wine and said earnestly, "At least you have the upper hand over him in terms of gender."

"I'd rather suffer a complete defeat."

Gu Yanyue sighed deeply, her face full of resentment, and said, "In that case, our son's marriage will be directly..."

"I'm still eating."

At that moment, Yi Dong glared fiercely at his mother, then narrowed his eyes and looked at Mo Tan, saying seriously, "But to be honest, just for your skills, if you were a woman, I might hold my nose and marry you."

Mo Tan at the time said: "Get lost."

……

In conclusion, Mo Tan's culinary skills are indeed undeniably superb. In fact, during several previous gatherings, the group even fought over the inexplicable right to "order food and have Mo Tan cook it." In the end, Ji Xiaodao, who won, chose to cook instant noodles—a dish that could smooth out the world's differences—in order to avoid upsetting her sister too much.

Then, a miracle happened.

After the first pot of water boils vigorously, the dough is added and precisely removed at the 45-second mark, just as the noodles begin to loosen. This process ensures the outer layer of the noodles is cooked through while the inside remains firm, thus removing the palm oil and preservative flavors from the coating on the dough.

Next comes a smooth "cold water rinse," which simply means quickly immersing the noodles in ice water after they are scooped out of the water to thoroughly wash away the slime and surface oil, then draining them and placing them in a bowl to ensure that the noodles are exceptionally springy and chewy.

After that, stir-fry the powder and seasoning packets over low heat for a few seconds in a dry pan to fully release the aroma of the spices. Then add two-fifths less water than the usual recommendation on the packaging. In another pot, add the sauce packet and a small spoonful of lard and stir-fry until fragrant before combining them.

The cooking process is as follows: [Sauté over low heat until fragrant] → [Cook over high heat to make soup] → [Keep boiling over medium heat] → [Poach eggs over low heat] → [Return to the pot over high heat] Finally, turn off the heat, cover and let it simmer for 1 minute to allow the residual heat to infuse the flavors and make the noodles soft but not mushy.

Add a few drops of balsamic vinegar and lemon juice before serving to balance the sourness and prevent the noodle soup from becoming too greasy.

Add a small pinch of soaked dried scallop shreds to enhance the flavor while simmering (originally it should be dried shrimp/dried shrimp, but because Ji Xiaodao instinctively frowned when he took out the dried shrimp in Mo Tan, he replaced it with PLAN B dried scallop shreds which have the same effect).

Then comes the process of scalding the bowl, adding the noodles, pouring the soup, drizzling the oil, and sprinkling the toppings all in one go.

A bowl of instant noodles almost made these people cry while eating it. Even Ji Xiaodao, who was the most picky and concerned about her sister's feelings, couldn't help but drink all the soup.

From then on, no one questioned Mo Tan's culinary skills.

However, as the saying goes, there's always another mountain higher, and another pit deeper. Although the world's highest peak has an altitude of over 8,800 meters, the world's deepest trench is over 11,000 meters deep. Moreover, Mo Tan is certain that he is definitely not Mount Everest in the field of culinary arts, but he always feels...

Ji Xiaoge's skill on this track is almost on par with that of the Mariana Trench.

……

In short, Ji Xiaoge rekindled Mo Tan's reverence for cooking, broadened his horizons, and greatly improved his vision and mind. In just six months, he made another breakthrough and his culinary skills reached a new level.

Even without going up to this floor, Mo Tan could tell that the proprietress's skills were a bit outrageous.

The reason is simple: theoretically, it's impossible for dishes of this caliber to be prepared in just over ten minutes. It's no exaggeration to say that the time from when the owner and waiter enter the kitchen to when they bring the dishes out is even faster than most restaurants in reality. While it doesn't have the absurd speed of fast food, its efficiency is definitely comparable to normal pre-prepared meals, and even more so to a high degree of pre-preparation.

Even by pre-prepared food standards, this speed is a bit too extreme. The fish soup needs to be steamed, deboned, skinned, ground into powder, and refrigerated beforehand. The broth also needs to be prepared and frozen in advance. Even excluding the time for blanching the side dishes, it will take at least ten minutes. The most complicated part of stuffed crab oranges is removing the crab meat. If it is prepared in advance, it should take about eight minutes. Lychee white kidneys, if the knife work is done in advance and they are marinated, should take about six minutes. As for plum blossom soup dumplings... you need to prepare chicken broth and plum blossom noodles. The maximum speed should be five minutes. Hmm, it's definitely not enough.

Mo Tan squinted his eyes, thought for a while, and then gently patted his forehead to refocus his attention. It took a lot of effort to get his attention away from the kitchen.

If the waiter is telling the truth, and only the proprietress can cook, then she is undoubtedly an extremely skilled chef, one whose culinary skills far surpass her martial arts abilities. If someone like that wanted to poison the food…

Mo Tan's gaze narrowed slightly, his eyes fixed on the four plates of delicacies placed on the table, his brain starting to work at lightning speed.

"Hey."

The woman sitting opposite her, Lady Su, smiled slightly, casually took out a silver ingot, raised an eyebrow and said, "If you're craving it, I can pay for those dishes and treat you to them."

"Not necessarily."

Mo Tan did not deny the appeal of the delicious food at this moment, but replied in a light tone, "It's just that the proprietress seems a little unwilling, so let's not force her."

Lady Su narrowed her phoenix eyes and asked, "Do you think she's very beautiful?"

[So that's how it is. That person's identity is indeed extraordinary.]

Mo Tan noticed that the young man who first pushed open the door quickly tasted every dish, and even drank a cup of the hot wine brought by the waiter before stepping aside to let the middle-aged man at the table enjoy it slowly after confirming that there was no problem. Only then did Mo Tan breathe a sigh of relief and laugh self-deprecatingly.

Clearly, he had worried for nothing and underestimated the guardedness of these people in the martial arts world.

Of course... there's also the possibility that he's not a 'person of the martial arts world'.

Mo Tan's gaze casually swept over the brocade robe under the old man's raincoat, and he silently added a sentence in his heart.

Then Su Nvxia got angry.

"say."

Suddenly, Su, the female knight, kicked Mo Tan under the table, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she said, "Why did you start grinning like an idiot as soon as I asked if the proprietress was pretty?"

"Sorry, I was thinking about something just now."

Having almost certainly confirmed that Gun Soul had provoked someone, whether willingly or unwillingly, Mo Tan shook his head and asked Su in a serious tone, "Speaking of which, this isn't the only place in the entire Northern Territory that's so lively tonight, is it?"

"of course not."

Su shook his head and said calmly, "After the Marquis of Gaoyang died for his country, countless righteous men spontaneously went north. Especially after Bai Xiaosheng announced in the last issue of 'Weapon Ranking' that someone was going to die at the Di Rong camp at dawn tomorrow, there are at least several hundred Jianghu people gathered in the northern border at this moment. This shop... is not very lively."

Mo Tan nodded slightly and said softly, "I see. So it's just a coincidence that we met here."

"It's a coincidence that you met other people here."

Su chuckled and raised an eyebrow, saying, "As for me, I followed you here."

“Follow me…”

Suddenly remembering that his Snow Spear had been shattered by someone in the 'last game', Mo Tan's gaze sharpened slightly, and he asked, "You followed me all the way here?"

"No."

Su shook his head, looking somewhat annoyed, and said, "I lost them on this last stretch of road and only just found them again."

It wasn't her after all.

Mo Tan nodded slightly, said nothing more, and continued to observe the people in [Relief from Worries].

The proprietress was scolding the waiter for only making things worse.

The waiter was being scolded by the proprietress for only making things worse.

The Five Tigers of Yanshan continued their conversation while frequently glancing at the dishes on the middle-aged man's table.

Xie Yu'an would occasionally glance at Mo Tan, occasionally space out, and occasionally look at the dishes on the middle-aged man's table.

Ms. Su crossed her arms and lowered her eyes, seemingly sulking, occasionally glancing at the dishes on the middle-aged man's table.

Among the last group to enter, the young man and the burly man stood by the lobby and the window respectively, while the elderly man in his fifties sat opposite the middle-aged man at the latter's suggestion and smiled as they shared a drink.

It seems that apart from the proprietress's truly tempting cooking skills, everything else is fine.

Then the problem arose.

With a barely perceptible 'thud,' Mo Tan, who had just reached for the Su Xue Spear behind his back but suddenly realized he couldn't use a gun, stared wide-eyed as he watched helplessly as the third of the Five Tigers of Yanshan was pierced through the body by several spears that pierced down from the roof and died on the spot!

Chapter 2952: The End