Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 538 The Little Tricks of the Western Restaurant

Franxi Restaurant.

Out of professional habit, the two chose a window seat.

"5J ham, lobster salad, well-done tomahawk steak, pumpkin soup. Thank you." Julie didn't take the waiter's menu and simply rattled off a list of dishes.

Watching the waiter turn and leave, Chen Shu felt a little discouraged: "So you've eaten here before."

Julie was secretly pleased with Chen Shu's expression; this regret showed that he had truly put his heart into preparing for their date.

Yes, a date.

"Hey, I forgot to ask you what you like to eat. You don't mind, do you?" Julie, sitting at the table, rested her chin on one hand and tapped her index finger lightly on the table with the other, sticking out her tongue playfully.

Chen Shu waved his hand: "To be honest, this is really my first time in such a high-end restaurant. If I didn't have a question that I really had to get off my chest, I really wouldn't dare to be so frank."

"what is the problem?"

"Isn't it said that steaks don't come well-done? Usually, when you come to a restaurant, you order medium-well."

"Hey, they don't have the skill to make well-done steak, because well-done steak is the most difficult to make. Ensuring the steak is tender while preventing it from becoming overcooked requires a great deal of skill from the chef."

"In the past, steak restaurants didn't really care about how well-done they were, because most chefs couldn't control the doneness of medium-rare or medium. They just cooked it based on their mood, so whatever doneness they wanted was fake."

As Julie recounted her story, Chen Shu found the forensic pathologist, who was also a criminal investigator, to be quite an interesting person in his daily life. He wondered if this was a professional habit, but he had heard other colleagues talk about the forensic pathologists at the branch office, and they were generally described as arrogant, serious, and rigid.

Chen Shu was firmly opposed.

He laughed and said, "Julie, I have a problem with what you said."

"Oh? What opinion?"

"Actually, they don't cook based on their mood, they cook based on their watches. They time it by watching the watch when they're cooking steak, like an assembly line. They cook it for a certain number of minutes for medium-rare, and a certain number of minutes for medium-well. I've seen it in the kitchen."

"You argue with girls over such a small thing. Don't you get tired of being a person?" Julie covered her face and sighed.

Chen Shu was speechless.

Julie peeked through her fingers at Chen Shu's frustrated expression, wanting to say something but holding back, and decided to let this straight man off the hook: "Alright, alright, let's just leave it at that. But speaking of which, do you always like to sneak into the kitchen when you go to a restaurant?"

"Thank you."

At this point, the bread served before the meal was brought out.

Julie took a piece of bread, tore off a small piece, then used the tip of a knife to scoop up a little butter and spread it on top, then dipped it in the vinaigrette provided by the restaurant.

After looking around a few times, he placed the finished product on Chen Shu's bread plate with satisfaction.

Chen Shu shrugged: "It's a professional habit. When I get to a place, I always like to wander around and maybe discover something."

"Oh, then tell me, what have you discovered? Thank you."

A male waiter who looked like a foreigner placed a plate of sliced ​​ham on the table. Before leaving, he smiled and nodded to Chen Shu and Zhu Li, gesturing for them to enjoy their meal.

“For example, the waiter who served us the food just now should be the owner of this restaurant,” Chen Shu said casually.

He picked up a slice of ham and held it up to his eyes, wondering why such a thin slice of meat would cost so much. Julie raised the tip of her delicately drawn eyebrows, her eyes filled with undisguised surprise and curiosity: "Tell me, how did you find out? By the way, how does this ham taste?"

Chen Shu stuffed a piece of ham about 1mm thick into his mouth and swallowed it whole without realizing it.

Aside from a slight saltiness, it didn't quite match the satisfaction of eating braised pork with preserved vegetables cooked by Aunt Chen at home last night.

A quick glance at the seven or eight slices of meat on the plate made him realize that even if they were all put together, they wouldn't be enough for him to swallow in one bite.

"It's salty, but it should go well with congee. Hmm, the texture is not bad!"

Chen Shu wasn't a food connoisseur and didn't have many nice words to say; he just said whatever came to mind. However, this frankness earned him a lot of goodwill from Julie.

After all, some people like to put on an act as soon as they enter a Western restaurant, even if it's just a forced pretense.

Julie covered her mouth and chuckled, "With the way you swallow ginseng fruit like Pigsy from Journey to the West, what kind of taste do you expect?"

"Tch." Chen Shu curled his lips and retorted, "Don't look down on Zhu Bajie. He was a marshal in the Heavenly Realm who had eaten all kinds of delicacies. He got tired of them, so he didn't bother to taste them anymore and just swallowed them whole."

"Hey, so you admit you're Pigsy now? How about I get you some more wine and find a moon goddess to keep you company?"

"Never mind, there's already one."

The moment those words were spoken, the room fell silent.

Both of them felt that their conversation had become somewhat ambiguous, and they immediately stopped talking.

The atmosphere was a little awkward. Chen Shu pointed to the foreign waiter and changed the subject: "It's actually quite simple to deduce that this person is the restaurant owner. Just three points."

"First, it's not uncommon for foreigners to work as chefs in Dongzhou, but waiters are a rare sight. If it's about money, they could easily find a job at an English training institution and earn more than they would as waiters."

Julie placed her finger to her bright red lips and chimed in, “Indeed. Even if his English is terrible, with that foreign friend’s face, he could easily teach kids to read ABCD in any of the mediocre training institutions in Dongzhou.”

Chen Shu held up two fingers: "Secondly. You see, the bread or fruit salad served before the meal are brought by other waiters, but the more expensive dishes are served to the guests personally. This is both a way of ensuring quality and a common mentality among bosses to focus on the essentials."

Julie, however, was not particular. While listening to the explanation, she stretched out her two fair and slender fingers and picked up a slice of ham to eat.

"Mmm~" she hummed softly, lifting her chin slightly as she closed her eyes contentedly, savoring the lingering taste of the delicious food.

The exposed, smooth neck and subtly defined collarbone shone brightly under the light, as flawless as a meticulously crafted work of art, making it impossible to resist the urge to pluck them.

"Hmm? Just two points? It seems the evidence for a conviction is a bit weak."

Julie slightly opened her eyes, and her exquisitely crafted smile, like a butterfly spreading its wings, was sent towards the man sitting opposite her.

This kind of mature woman's charm was something Chen Shu had never experienced before.

He stared blankly for a moment before snapping back to reality, quickly shifting his gaze elsewhere, but still unable to hide the blush that was gradually rising at the base of his ears.

"Oh, and there's more." Chen Shu composed himself and looked at the food exchange counter between the transparent kitchen and the outside. "Look, although this person is standing outside the window, he's not just standing there waiting like the other waiters. Look, he's pointing and telling the chefs in the kitchen what to do, and the chefs' expressions are quite interesting. The way they're frowning, doesn't it look like a student in school facing a teacher's test?"

"Impressive! I didn't realize you were such a capable SWAT officer." Julie covered her mouth and chuckled, her eyes filled with undisguised admiration.

(End of this chapter)