Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 375 - 374: Raccoon

Chapter 375: Chapter 374: Raccoon

In Japanese cuisine, seafood and lemon juice are a very common pairing.

Even without mentioning sashimi, when eating Seafood Tempura, such as the famous Shirako Tempura, dipping it in fresh lemon juice while hot is an exquisite taste sensation that can make even the most unresponsive tongue convulse as if shocked by electricity.

"Oh, oh, oh, it’s finally here!"

The first judge, Lord Li, immediately put down his wine pot, jumped onto his chair with a thud, and banged on the table, shouting, "Meisha, give it to me quickly!"

"Right now, my stomach is full of alcohol..."

He patted his small belly, burped a boozy belch, and drunkenly slurred, "I need some food to sober up!"

"You drunkard!"

Beside him, the red-clothed woman gave an indignant look, her eyes hiding a sliver of helplessness.

The drunken Lord Li was clearly unreliable, and she sensed something was amiss, glancing at the judges from the third and fifth seats, her lips silently moving as if conversing and negotiating with them.

This scene caught Xia Yu’s eye, and all he could do was shrug his shoulders.

Reason with a non-human entity?

You must be joking.

That was like a scholar meeting a rogue. Moreover, Xia Yu planned to let his cooking do the talking—his dishes were his fists!

"Wait—"

Yuchuan Meisha set down her ice tray, turned to get a small plate, picked up a few slices of tuna sashimi emitting a faint chill, placed them on the plate, and offered it to Xia Yu, saying, "Would you like a taste?"

Xia Yu also set down his ice sculpture and handed Yuchuan Meisha a white ceramic plate filled with sliced fish.

Thus,

In front of the judge’s table, the two competitors, who should have been at odds, were instead exchanging taste evaluations of each other’s dishes in a friendly atmosphere.

"Oh!"

Yuchuan Meisha’s eyes widened as she picked up a slice of sliced fish with her chopsticks.

"So thin! It has no weight!" She could not hide the astonishment on her face, "There is no weight on the chopsticks, just like picking up a strand of hair!"

"How’s the texture? Such a thin slice should have a great texture, right...?"

Swallowing quietly, Yuchuan Meisha gently parted her red lips and stuffed a piece of the sliced fish into her mouth.

Crack!

At that moment, the woman with "super hearing" faintly heard the sound of a golden palm seizing the hands of a clock.

Time suddenly stopped.

A freezing sensation spread from her mouth down her esophagus to her stomach, then diffused from her stomach to her internal organs. At last, except for a barely clear head, Yuchuan Meisha felt as if her entire body was encased in eternal ice, losing all sense of time completely. She merged with the glacier, sinking into the depths of the sea, day and night surrounded by sea bream, becoming the queen of ice and the ocean.

Just a thin slice.

An indescribable sense of satisfaction soaked her soul and seized her spirit!

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

After an unknown amount of time, Yuchuan Meisha, trapped in ice, finally heard sounds from the outside world.

She opened her eyes within the ice layer, then her eyes revealed shock.

A gigantic Mystic Turtle, carrying a hero in heavy armor wielding a great sword, came before the glacier imprisoning her.

"Crack!"

A sword light suddenly appeared in the sky, breaking the magical barrier. Yuchuan Meisha tumbled out of the ice layer, her dress fluttering as she barefoot landed in the arms of the hero.

Then, Yuchuan Meisha blinked, her face full of astonishment.

The hero lifted his helmet’s visor, revealing, to her surprise, a much younger face than hers.

Her face flushed in an instant. Yuchuan Meisha quickly extricated herself from the hero’s embrace, and the moment her bare feet touched the icy layer, a chill crept up through her soles and invaded her body, causing the culinary visions in her mind to vanish.

The temple courtyard.

When Yuchuan Meisha snapped back to reality, her fair hand gently covered her mouth as she stared in astonishment at the small plate of sliced fish before her, unable to speak for a long while.

"Delicious! Delicious!"

"It’s definitely Meisha’s work, eh? One slice of sashimi, and it’s like a whole fish, no, it’s like having an entire school of fish!"

Lord Li was almost jumping onto the judging table, dancing with his hands and feet.

Hearing this, Yuchuan Meisha blushed with embarrassment.

"Lord Li, please try Yu’s fish slices!" she said hastily, wanting to share the same joy with the other diners, "His, his fish slices are more outstanding than my tuna sashimi. Although both dishes are evenly matched in terms of ingredients, I’ve lost considerably in knife skills, and the taste as well... that incredible taste... it’s no wonder it’s called ’time freeze magic’!"

Yuchuan Meisha murmured, her words bringing a wave of surprise and astonishment from the crowd.

"Meisha!"

The Yuchuan Abbot was the first to object; his white eyebrows twitched as he spoke sternly, "I believe your tuna sashimi, which you’ve tamed with ’Super Hearing’ and endowed with a spirit, won’t lose to that boy’s so-called fish slices!"

"Exactly!" the Red-clothed woman also slammed the table and shouted, "Buck up, Meisha! You’re the face of Yuchuan Temple! Don’t lose to some outsider kid!"

The young monk in the third seat and the long-haired person in the fifth seat who seemed neither male nor female also gave Yuchuan Meisha encouraging looks.

These non-human entities either saw Yuchuan Meisha as a student or considered her a friend.

Witnessing this scene, Xia Yu’s wariness towards these beings quietly subsided a bit; at least, non-human entities weren’t all malevolent. His paranormal encounters in Tokyo had made him treat such things like the plague.

But now, considering the current situation, it seemed right to regard them as a silly bunch of diners.

"No, it’s not that!"

Yuchuan Meisha frantically defended, "Yu’s cooking is really, really, really good—better than mine!"

She mustered up her energy, her voice growing louder, no longer the soft whisper it usually was.

She even became a bit annoyed at the end, pouting with cheeks puffed up, her face showing a hint of anger.

Whoosh.

The courtyard became quiet in an instant.

The Red-clothed woman stopped her clamor, and Lord Li, the old man, flipped over and sat upright in the judging chair without looking around, his comical face struggling to acquire the serious demeanor that a judge should have.

Astonished, Xia Yu quickly glanced at the annoyed Yuchuan Meisha and wisely chose to remain silent.

"Eat—"

Yuchuan Meisha, with a tense face, personally picked up a small piece of fish slice from the Mystical Turtle Ice Sculpture’s back with her chopsticks and placed it in front of Lord Li, who was in the first seat.

The old man subconsciously opened his mouth, the fish slice delicately entered and disappeared inside.

The fish piece, which should have brought no whiff of smoke to the air, stunned the old man’s face into motionlessness the moment it entered his mouth.

"Heaven!"

With his mouth wide open and the fish still on his tongue, the old man sat up straight in his chair as though frozen, "I—I’ve tasted heaven!"

"The wind!"

The old man’s head swayed uncontrollably backward, "The wind from heaven!"

A stifling summer night, complemented by a cool piece of fish slice.

The sensation of coolness in an instant led the judge to shed tears of emotion, "Such a smooth, silky texture, exquisite, one bite and it transports you straight to heaven! I can feel the spirit of the fish surging and leaping on the tip of my tongue, so full of life and vigor..."

As he spoke, the old man’s eyes reflected the image of the Mystical Turtle Ice Sculpture on the table.

An astonishing sight unfolded thereafter.

Fine brown fur emerged from the old man’s arms and head, spreading rapidly, and within the blink of an eye, the being seated on the judging chair had transformed into a fluffy animal, wrapped in clothes, mimicking the upright seated posture of a human.

A raccoon!