One Piece Gunslinger

However, when Sanji chased into the kitchen, he found that there was someone even faster than him: the owner of the Baratie sea restaurant, Baratie, barefoot Zeff.

It's a pity. Barefoot has now turned into wooden legs.

"How did you wake up?" Sanji asked in surprise when he saw Zeff appear in the kitchen.

"How can I not wake up? The place is in such a mess down there."

Unbeknownst to them, what was originally a simple matter escalated rapidly due to the commotion caused by Li Ang and the numerous chefs, coupled with the enthusiastic onlookers, even waking up Zhepu, who was resting upstairs.

Sanji felt a pang of self-reproach upon hearing Zeff's tone. He hadn't even been able to resolve a small matter like someone trying to dine and dash, and had instead allowed the situation to spiral out of control.

However, Zeff didn't blame him. Instead, he looked at the uninvited guest who had barged into the cafeteria and said, "You were the one who said those things just now, right? I can't pretend I didn't hear that. I taught Sanji how to cook. I know him best. Even if he's not quite there yet, he's definitely not as bad as you say."

Yuan, you came here to support Sanji because you were worried that Leon's words would shake Sanji's confidence as a chef.

Although Zeff is ostensibly Sanji's mentor, and their relationship is merely that of an old chef and his apprentice, Leon knows the plot well and understands that their relationship is more complex than that.

Zeff is not only Sanji's mentor, but also almost like a father to him.

So when Zeff heard Leon criticize Sanji's seafood fried rice so harshly, he finally couldn't sit still and got down from his seat.

"Oh, I see." Li Ang didn't refute directly, but said, "You can try that seafood fried rice and see if what I just said is right or wrong."

Without saying a word, Zeff took the plate and put a bite in his mouth.

"Oh no. Sanji is great in every way, except he's too impatient. He didn't put any effort into this meal." Zeff, as expected of the head chef who taught Sanji cooking, quickly noticed Sanji's problem.

But he didn't reveal his flaws. Instead, after putting down the plate, he said, "I admit that this child's skills are still lacking, but just this dish alone is definitely excellent."

Li Ang shook his head and said, "This can be considered excellent? It seems necessary to show you what truly excellent cuisine is."

After saying that, Li Ang took out a chicken breast and a sausage from the refrigerator: "I hope you don't mind if I use the kitchen."

Zeff laughed too: "If you don't mind, just show us what a great seafood fried rice is."

"Head Chef..." Sanji said anxiously when he saw that Zeff had actually agreed to this bastard's request to use the kitchen.

Zeff, however, was unfazed: "It's alright. If he can really produce an excellent seafood fried rice, then he'll learn that there are always people better than you, and stop thinking that your cooking skills are unparalleled. But if he can't, then I'll just throw him into the sea."

Since Zeff had agreed, Sanji had nothing more to say and picked up the seafood fried rice he had made to eat. After all, under Zeff's tutelage, wasting food was something Sanji could not tolerate.

"It's not that bad, I think it's alright." Sanji ate the food he had made, which solidified his belief that Leon was a fraud.

As for the other chefs besides Zeff and Sanji, they've all gone about their business. Anyway, Leon has Zeff keeping an eye on things.

However, in Zeff and Sanji's eyes, Leon didn't make much difference in how he handled ingredients; he would dice some and make soup others.

If there's any difference, it's that Li Ang's knife skills are better than Sanji's; he cuts ingredients neatly and evenly. He's also quite picky about ingredients, spending a long time carefully selecting even a single onion.

Sanji watched Li Ang's smooth movements and thought, "Although I have to admit that this guy cuts the chicken into more even pieces than I do, it probably doesn't have much of an impact on the taste."

As for Li Ang's knife skills, how could they not be good? A swordsman who doesn't want to be a chef isn't a good fighter.

However, after Li Ang finished processing the ingredients, something happened that surprised Sanji and Zeff.

Li Ang simply threw the chicken, sausage, and shrimp directly into the steamer to steam, a step completely omitted in his seafood fried rice.

That wasn't all. Li Ang then took out the rice that had already been steamed and threw it directly into the pot, stir-frying it with the other ingredients.

"What? What's going on?" Not only Sanji, but even Zeff was bewildered by Leon's actions. This wasn't how things were supposed to go.

This leads us to briefly mention how to make seafood fried rice.

First, put the rice and other ingredients into a pot and stir-fry. Yes, that's right, "rice." Stir-fry the rice until it's about half-cooked, then add chicken, sausage, shrimp, and other ingredients, pour in some seafood broth, and steam until the rice is fully cooked.

Yes, that's right, this is what's called "fried rice." Western-style seafood fried rice looks like this, and it's completely different from the fried rice in Eastern culture.

It's less like fried rice and more like fried rice, or perhaps steamed rice.

So Li Ang is making fried rice, but instead of frying and steaming the rice as usual, he's just frying ready-made cold rice.

Furthermore, Li Ang added the seafood broth to the wok instead of steaming it as originally planned. This was to allow the umami flavor to infuse into the rice grains.

After Li Ang and the others finished cooking the fried rice, he placed the steamed meat on top of the rice, and finally squeezed some tomato juice on the diced chicken and sausage. That completed the task.

"This is your answer? It doesn't seem any different," Sanji asked, puzzled. He had already finished his own portion.

Although Li Ang used different steps, the final product looked almost exactly like Sanji's.

"Hmph, you'll know once you try it," Li Ang said confidently. "Don't forget what I told you before, compare them carefully again."

Since Li Ang had said so, Sanji picked up the spoon and put a mouthful of rice into his mouth.

"Clang!" "This...this..."

As Sanji dropped the spoon to the ground, and saw his speechless surprise, Zeff already knew the outcome.

So Zeff also picked up a spoon and began to taste Li Ang's unique seafood fried rice.

"Ah, it seems there are indeed many talented people in this world. I've been cooking all my life, and I never imagined that a plate of seafood fried rice could taste this good." Zeff was much more mature and composed than Sanji, and he simply offered this compliment.

So, is Li Ang's seafood fried rice really that delicious, and is his culinary skill really that superb?

Actually, that's not the case. Li Ang isn't a top-tier chef, nor would he put drugs in his food. In fact, his dishes aren't even at the level of being unforgettable.

Li Ang's seafood fried rice was nothing special; it was just a standard, simple seafood fried rice.

However, Li Ang's seafood fried rice is also flawless.

Sanji's seafood fried rice has neither meat nor tomato flavor, but Leon's has both meat and tomato flavor.

Sanji's rice was steamed for too long and lacked chewiness. But Li Ang's rice had both.

It can be said that Li Ang has made up for all the shortcomings of Sanji's previous seafood fried rice. Compared with it, Sanji's version was really full of flaws.

That's what makes this seafood fried rice so terrifying: it has no special features, but it's flawless.

It's a textbook example of seafood fried rice.

Chapter 180 The package has been delivered

Faced with such a flawless seafood fried rice, it's no wonder Sanji was horrified.

It's like a question with a perfect score of 100, and Sanji scored 90, which means he has a few flaws, but he's still excellent.

Li Ang, on the other hand, scored a solid 100 points, though not by much. But for scores above 90, every step is a hurdle.

As for the level of Little Master, it's beyond what scientific cooking can explain. If I had to give it a score, I'd probably give it 120.

So how did Li Ang remedy those problems? It was all thanks to Li Ang's unconventional methods.

The sausages and chicken breasts had been frozen for a long time, and to fully bring out their flavor, they needed to be steamed for an extended period. However, the original recipe didn't allow for this long steaming process due to limitations imposed by the rice and other side dishes.

So Li Ang separated the food and steamed them separately to bring out their flavors.

This also reflects the principle of adapting to local conditions and using appropriate methods for specific ingredients. Therefore, the usual methods for preparing seafood fried rice are not suitable for this situation.

At the same time, because Li Ang directly adopted the Chinese fried rice method, the rice grains still retained their soft, chewy, and springy characteristics, unlike the mushy rice that becomes after being steamed for a long time.

In other areas, Li Ang was much more meticulous than he was with Sanji, paying attention to every detail of the ingredients and preparing them perfectly. This is what resulted in this flawless masterpiece.

"Blindly believing everything in books is worse than having no books at all. Recipes are written by people. The people who write recipes don't consider all sorts of strange situations, such as how to cook in the snow, how to cook at high altitudes, or how to cook when there are few ingredients. These practical problems have to be solved by the chef himself. Therefore, for a chef, experience and wisdom are more valuable than skills."

Zeff, standing nearby, nodded to himself upon hearing this. In truth, Zeff had already passed on all his skills to Sanji, but this had also fostered Sanji's habit of lacking critical thinking. Basically, he just followed Zeff's instructions when cooking.

Although Li Ang had dined and dashed today, he didn't intend to leave nothing behind. Consider this a motivational remark for Sanji.

Compared to Sanji's fighting strength and talent, improving his cooking skills is much more difficult.

Whether Sanji listened or not, Li Ang was ready to leave. He had eaten, he had been forced to act, and now was the time to run away.

"Alright, I'm leaving. You can think about it here at your leisure."

Just as Li Ang was about to leave the kitchen, Sanji called out to him, "Wait, is there anyone whose cooking skills are better than yours?"

"Above me?" Li Ang laughed. "There are far more than that. I've even heard of people who can make glowing dishes that bring happiness. I'm nothing compared to them."

Hey, that's right. Besides glowing dishes, there are also dark cuisine dishes that involve drugs and dishes that cause clothes to rip off.

"Will I ever see you again?" Sanji pressed on.

"Yes, kid. Although the ocean is vast, I believe it will be." With that, Li Ang turned and swaggered out without looking back.

"Food that glows, food that brings happiness? Does such a thing really exist?" Zhepu asked thoughtfully after Li Ang left.

There was a shovel; these things were from a completely different dimension than what we have now.

"Yes, I believe it exists." In contrast, Sanji was absolutely certain, just as he firmly believed in the existence of the legendary All Blue.

But just because it's not happening now doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. Li Ang still hopes to see Sanji reach that level in his lifetime.

Regardless of what Sanji and Zeff thought, the onlookers who had been sitting outside waiting for ages were utterly astonished to see Li Ang swagger out unharmed.

From the moment they entered this seaside restaurant, Li Ang always seemed to have a knack for surprising them. Just when they thought things were over and Li Ang had done a great job, he would always manage to surprise them with something new.

"Holy crap, did we really win?"

At this point, someone couldn't hold back any longer and, disregarding any semblance of a refined and gentle demeanor, whispered something.

"I think it's probably true, otherwise how could it be so easy to come out like this?"

What is elegance? Can you eat it? Another gentleman joined the discussion.

"Oh, I wish I could see with my own eyes how he did it." This was a regretful voice.

"I really want to try his seafood fried rice. I'm so curious about what it tastes like." This was a wealthy businessman who was itching to try it.

At this moment, everyone quickly shifted from highbrow to lowbrow topics, discussing the subject like ordinary onlookers. Some even tried to stop Li Ang to ask him what was going on, or to ask him to cook a meal.

Li Ang ignored all of this, carefully dodged the people, jumped onto the small boat, and rowed away.

Don't be obsessed with me, I'm just a legend.

These things become less mysterious once they're explained. To ensure the onlookers had a good experience watching the spectacle, Li Ang resolutely gave up the chance to show off one more time, leaving behind only a lonely figure.

Regardless of the impact of Li Ang's actions on the Baratie and Sanji, and regardless of when Li Ang will arrive at the next tourist stop under the pull of the manatee Moo Moo, let's turn our attention to the other side of this planet.

"Hey, what's wrong? It's getting dark so fast." After being picked up by the dragon, Karina's feet didn't touch the ground as the dragon carried her all the way here.

"It's not that it gets dark so quickly, it's just that it's nighttime here all along." Nami is indeed Nami; after eliminating all the impossibilities, whatever remains, no matter how incredible, is still the truth. In just a few hours, the three of them flew halfway around the planet, arriving on the other side.

The speed of a dragon is terrifying.

No wonder Long arrived so quickly after Li Ang's call, in less than two hours. Of course, that was also because Long was nearby; if he had been at headquarters, it would have taken much longer.

Karina, being a clever person herself, exclaimed in surprise upon hearing Nami's words, "It's supposed to be nighttime here? Wow, that was fast! I can't believe how far we've flown."