[Genshin Impact]: I can become stronger by cooking.

This unique mode of transportation is indeed a rickshaw, but according to Liyue's current understanding, it should be classified as a sedan chair.

Chao Ke remembered that it was shown in the Yelan PV that there were people in Liyue Harbor who engaged in this profession. Now that he had encountered it, Chao Ke naturally wanted to experience it for himself.

"Young master, where are you going? Why not take a ride in my sedan chair? I guarantee I'll get you to your destination quickly and safely."

"Oh? I need to go to 'Tiger Rock' for a meal. I'll trouble you, Mr. Liu."

"Oh, no trouble at all. Young master, please get in the carriage, and we'll set off right away."

Chao Ke stepped into Liu San's sedan chair and sat down.

The seats inside the sedan chair were covered with thick cushions, making them quite comfortable to sit on.

"Young master, buckle up, we're about to depart!"

After saying that, Liu San picked up the handrail, grabbed Chao Ke, and ran towards the direction of "Tiger-Eating Rock".

Sitting inside the carriage, Chao Ke observed the street scenes of Liyue Harbor on both sides, as well as the coachman named Liu San and the rickshaw.

The coachman, Liu San, was quite burly; it makes sense, you can't make a living like that without some strength.

Even in the classic literary work of my previous life, "Rickshaw Boy," the protagonist Xiangzi is described as "a man with a very strong physique and muscles."

But what really interested Chao Ke was the rickshaw used by the driver Liu San.

Upon closer inspection, there was a small wooden sign on the rickshaw, engraved with a number and the Liyue General Affairs Department's logo.

Chao Ke's lips twitched. Surely there aren't license plates in Liyue Harbor too?

Driven by a desire to verify, Chao Ke raised a question to the driver, Liu San.

"Hi! Young master, you ask about this? It's obvious you don't live in Liyue Harbor often."

"This small wooden plaque was issued by the Liyue General Affairs Department. Each plaque is for one carriage and is used to record the owner of the sedan chair and related information. It's very precious."

"You can't drive on the road without this little wooden sign. The General Affairs Department has people patrolling the streets. If you drive on the road without a sign, you will not only be severely punished, but your sedan chair will also be impounded."

Chao Ke put his hand to his forehead, "Wow, it really is just as I guessed."

Byd, same world, same Liyue, right...?

Suddenly, Chao Ke thought of something.

As the economic and political center of Liyue, will it be so easy to get this palanquin license plate for Liyue Harbor?

After the question was posed to the driver Liu San, Liu San suddenly became agitated.

"Indeed, young master!"

"You have no idea how difficult it is to apply for a license plate for a palanquin in Liyue Harbor!"

"Let me tell you, one of the older guys in our car dealership saved up money for several years and bought a rickshaw, wanting to leave the dealership and go into business on his own."

"But you don't know, my older brother filled out the application form for the wooden plaque last year, and this year, the new sedan chair has been replaced with an old one, but his plaque still hasn't been approved."

"I'm still working at the car dealership today."

Chao Ke's lips twitched. Classic, too classic.

This familiar feeling... it really feels like coming home...

After a moment of silence, Chao Ke slowly said, "Be content, at least Liyue Harbor hasn't started implementing odd-even license plate restrictions yet."

Coachman Liu San: "?"

------------

Upon arriving at "Chihuyan", Chao Ke paid the full fare and also gave Liu San a small tip.

But the driver Liu San's expression remained blank, as if Chao Ke's words had had too great an impact on his worldview, and he had not yet recovered from them.

Chao Ke shook his head, got out of the car, and strolled around "Eating Tiger Rock".

Compared to the streets near the General Affairs Department, the atmosphere of everyday life is noticeably more vibrant at "Chihuyan".

The cries of fruit and vegetable vendors, the storytellers' chants, and the spicy and fragrant aromas of food mingled in the air, all entering the senses of passersby along with the fallen leaves from the trees.

Walking through it, one feels a strange sense of comfort and peace.

Since it was still early, Chao Ke didn't plan to rush to the Wanmintang restaurant. Instead, he decided to sample the street food in Liyue and experience the local flavor of the city.

The first thing that made Chao Ke stop was a grilled fish stall.

The shop owner was exceptionally quick and efficient, cleaning the fish in no time and setting it aside to be grilled over a high flame, then seasoned with spices.

The reason Chao Ke stopped at this stall was not only because of the aroma of grilled fish, but also because of the stall owner's knife skills.

The scales and entrails were removed, the knife moved swiftly and skillfully, the movements were highly methodical.

"Hey! Chef Chen, give me a grilled fish!"

"Alright, please wait a moment, sir!"

A passerby's address to the shop owner reminded Chao Ke, "I was wondering how a fish vendor could have such good knife skills. Turns out he's the Quick-Knife Chen from the game."

The current stall owner, Chen, neither has the later store nor the name "Quick-Knife Chen," which is why Chao Ke didn't recognize him.

However, although his reputation has not yet been established, Chen's knife skills, which originated from the Guhua School, are by no means weak.

When used to process fish, it's a game-changer.

Chao Ke also ordered a skewer of grilled tigerfish to try.

Thanks to the intense roasting over high heat, the golden-brown skin locks in the tender fish meat. However, the freshly cooked fish is still too hot to handle, so you need to blow on it while slowly savoring it.

Speaking of which, the dish of grilled tigerfish is actually quite complex.

The original pronunciation of "烤吃虎鱼" should be "烤螭虎鱼", which specifically refers to the "螭虎鱼" fish that has been grilled.

However, as the dish spread, "roasted tiger fish" gradually became known as "roasted tiger fish".

Furthermore, the fish species originally used in this dish, the "Chihu fish," became endangered many, many years ago as the number of the marine mammals that lived alongside it decreased sharply.

Therefore, the grilled tigerfish sold in Liyue now has undergone a complete transformation in terms of both name and ingredients compared to its original form.

Of course, in terms of whether it tastes good, not much has changed; it has been a delicacy from ancient times to the present.

For the people living in Liyue, good food is enough.

Chapter 82 The Reasons for the Decline of Wanmintang

[Note: The information in this chapter is based on Xiangling's character profile, Ningguang's character profile, and the author's personal speculation.]

Chef Liu's grilled tigerfish is very good, but the recipe for this dish was not obtained from him, but from the nearby Wanmintang restaurant.

Now that we've finished this snack, it's time to move on to today's main course: the [Wanmintang] restaurant.

At this moment, inside the [Wanmintang] restaurant.

Master Mao couldn't help but sigh; business at the restaurant hadn't been very good lately.

Of course, the restaurant's poor business was not due to his poor cooking skills; the problem lay in the restaurant's ingredients.

As is well known, Liyue Harbor has two major traditional cuisines: "Licai" and "Yuancai".

These two cuisines each occupy half of Liyue's culinary scene.

In order to determine who was superior, the two sides continued to fight and constantly developed their own supporters.

Over time, the two factions launched a "food war" that disregarded taste and focused solely on price.

This "war" has directly led to the monopolization of all the rare ingredients in Liyue Harbor, and is also subtly changing the Liyue Harbor people's evaluation and pursuit of food.

It seems that whether a dish contains rare ingredients is more important than whether the dish tastes good enough.

Rumors circulate that the owners of [Liuli Pavilion] and [Xinyue Pavilion] are behind this "food war."

These two restaurants, as the best of "Licai" and "Yuencai" cuisines, have joined forces to control most of the rare ingredients in Liyue Harbor.

The freshest and finest fish, rare mountain delicacies, are reserved by the purchasing staff of these two restaurants as soon as they enter the market.

Of course, no matter how bold [Liuli Pavilion] and [Xinyue Pavilion] are, they wouldn't dare to openly monopolize the market. They would still deliberately leave some rare ingredients out for other restaurants to share.

Even this small amount has to be divided among other "Rina" and "Yukina" restaurants, leaving very little for Manmindo.

Logically speaking, a restaurant like Wanmintang, which specializes in Jianghu cuisine with its generous use of oil and thick sauces, should have a good customer base.

However, today's customers are more willing to pay for rare ingredients. Ordinary consumers would rather choose a restaurant where there is only a small amount of rare ingredients in the whole dish than consider a restaurant that does not contain rare ingredients.

This has resulted in the fact that those who come to Wanmintang Restaurant are either seasoned gourmets who are keen to appreciate the taste of food and do not care about the quality of ingredients, or customers who do not care about the taste at all and only want to fill their stomachs.

However, Wanmintang is ultimately a business that offers affordable prices, and its target audience is the general public.

Currently, the restaurant is not gaining favor with its target audience, and the financial situation of [Wanmintang] is truly worrying.

If the restaurant hadn't coincidentally gained the favor and appreciation of Lady Ningguang and received her multiple donations, it would be a mystery whether the Wanmintang restaurant could have survived to this day.

Suddenly, a voice came from beside Master Mao's ear.

"Dad, I'm going out to find ingredients!"

"Go on, go on, be careful on the road."

Watching his lively daughter go out to find ingredients, Master Mao felt a sense of relief.

Born into a family of chefs, his daughter Xiangling possesses exceptional culinary talent and is willing to take over his mantle, something that has always been a source of pride for Chef Mao.

Furthermore, as a child, my daughter is at an age full of enthusiasm and ideals.

After learning about the changing tastes of the people of Liyue and the current predicament of the restaurant, he made a vow.

That means "good food should have no distinction between expensive and cheap!"

Following this philosophy, Xiangling started by finding new ingredients and constantly sought breakthroughs in her dishes.

From the initial ice mist flowers and slime condensate, to the later strange insects, crystal butterflies, and even the Hilichurls' wooden sticks, they all became "new types of ingredients" in her eyes.

Xiangling wants to break the blockade of some restaurants on precious ingredients through innovation in ingredients, so as to guide the people of Liyue back to the essence of food, rather than constantly pursuing ingredients.

After careful consideration, Master Mao decided to fully support his daughter's bold ideas and novel creative approaches.

Although these decisions led to an unusually rapid consumption of cookware at the Wanmintang restaurant, the restaurant's expense list was often updated to include the price of a single pot.

There are many reasons why the pot was destroyed.

This includes, but is not limited to, cracks appearing due to the rapid cooling of the Ice Mist Flower, the bottom of the pot being scorched by the high temperature of the Fire Slime, and sometimes even small explosions coming from the kitchen. When Master Mao went in, he would see Xiang Ling with a blackened face and a wrecked iron pot...