Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 381 - 380: Awakening (Part 1)

Chapter 381: Chapter 380: Awakening (Part 1)

It’s worth mentioning.

Fugu skin is incredibly delicious, a luxury ingredient that is in no way inferior to its meat; hence, skillful skinning is a test of a chef’s reliability.

Xia Yu soaked the processed fugu meat in cold water.

Generally speaking, fish are freshest within 4-5 hours of death; thereafter, their flesh becomes stiff and their taste and texture sharply decline.

But this common knowledge does not apply to fugu.

The flesh of fugu is too delicate and firm; it only begins to soften a day after death.

So Xia Yu had told the elderly man to come back in a day.

The fugu prepared that day couldn’t be eaten the same day.

"Bang!"

Securely locking the kitchen door and triple-checking that it was locked, Xia Yu then turned and smiled at Yuchuan Meisha, "Let’s go—"

The old man had disappeared without a trace at some point.

As evening approached.

They stepped out of the culinary building to see the evening glow casting a peaceful and picturesque beauty over the courtyard.

Xia Yu and Yuchuan Meisha returned to their lodging via a small path in the woods.

As Xia Yu stepped onto the porch, ready to enter the house, his cell phone in his pocket rang with a pleasant melody.

After spending two days in Kamakura, Xia Yu finally inserted his other SIM card back into his phone, enabling his friends from Tokyo to get through to him.

Taking out his cell phone, he saw a familiar number and was momentarily startled.

Yuchuan Meisha smiled and waved at him, walking away on her own.

"Hello!"

Xia Yu walked over to a corner of the yard.

"Yu—" The voice on the other end immediately conveyed an uncontrollable excitement, "Are you, are you back in China?"

"No, I’m still in Neon."

"Eh... Neon?!"

The voice on the other end expressed surprise, and then there was a burst of noise. Xia Yu could hear Xingping Chuangzhen’s shouting, Yoshino Yuuki coming closer, and Reiko comforting Tanaka Hikari, who was crouched down drawing circles on the ground.

Ichise Hui, Marui Shanji, and Iwazaki Jun were acting as silent observers nearby.

Just by hearing their voices, Xia Yu had a vivid mental image.

Naturally, the person who had called him was his childhood friend.

After a pause.

"Right!" Xia Yu initiated another topic, "At Far Moon, is there any news about the ’Autumn selection’ yet?"

"I heard that they are discussing the first 20 spots for the first term, and those who get selected will definitely be the most outstanding first-years; there will be another 40 spots to determine later, but those individuals are doomed to be just background..." Sen Tian Makki said softly.

Listening to his childhood friend’s voice, Xia Yu silently nodded.

Speaking of the "Autumn selection," his ex-girlfriend’s tone was calm, without any nervousness, as though she wasn’t about to compete as a first-year.

The girl next door is growing up!

Xia Yu felt an indescribable joy.

In truth, from the first to the third year, while he had deliberately distanced himself from Sen Tian Makki, he had also kept a close eye on her.

His little girlfriend had matured a lot.

After all, a girl who had helped out in her family’s bakery since she was young was not on the same level as her peers in terms of social interactions. What was even rarer was her consistency, whether it be in culinary skills or in handling emotional matters.

Xia Yu wasn’t surprised at all by Sen Tian Makki’s progress.

After encouraging Sen Tian Makki to properly prepare for the "Autumn selection," Xia Yu handed the phone over to Tanaka Hikari.

"Instructor Xia!"

Tanaka Hikari nervously stuttered.

"You know, Xiao Hui, if you perform like this at the ’Autumn selection,’ Instructor Xia will be disappointed!" Xia Yu teased her with a playful smile.

"I’m sorry!"

The girl on the other end immediately apologized and then mustered her courage to say, "I’ll do my best!"

"Simply doing your best isn’t enough. How about this, I’ll make a plan for you to break into the top three? If you make it that far, no matter where you end up, Instructor Xia will give you a special gift!" Xia Yu offered in a mysterious tone.

"Instructor Xia, top three?" Tanaka Hikari stammered again.

"A gift?"

Then came the surprise.

On the other end of the call, the crowd at Polar Star Dormitory could see the girl with braided pigtails, glowing all over.

After chatting with Tanaka Hikari for a while, they hung up the phone.

Hearing the familiar voices of her friends, Xia Yu suddenly felt her heart filled with warmth.

Far Moon was a small world.

Beyond it lay the Bright Cuisine World and the Dark Cuisine World.

However, outside of these circles, there were unknown supernatural beings.

Perhaps only in the rural areas of Kamakura could these spirits be found; Tokyo had no place for them, as it was filled with people. In fact, it made sense; as human civilization progressed, the already marginalized circles naturally became even more marginal.

One might fear that in all of Neon, there were hardly any spirits left.

There was much more that Xia Yu needed to understand.

...

The next day.

Xia Yu continued to practice in the monastery’s kitchen.

However, while cooking, he placed his mobile phone on the cabinet, with a live video chat on the screen.

On the other side was a luxurious professional kitchen, and the girl with her blonde hair tied in a single ponytail, was standing with her arms crossed in front of the cooking counter, habitually biting her thumb, her teeth rubbing against the fingernail.

The girl was staring intently at the phone screen.

"You see that, the details! Pay attention to the details!"

Xia Yu stepped aside and pointed to a few things on the cutting board that had been twisted into something resembling hemp ropes.

This was the long-absent recipe for "Flame Dragon Roll Fish Fin Sausage."

By now, ’Divine Tongue’ Tiqie Eriina had learned enough to grasp the basics of the recipe, and Xia Yu was teaching her the more intricate skills, or the core essence of it.

Of course, culinary skills like "Bursting Flame" and "Spice Inequality" were secret techniques; even if Xia Yu was willing to teach them, they couldn’t be transmitted.

"I got it!"

Tiqie Eriina took fifteen minutes and finally managed to produce a few "hemp ropes" successfully.

Next were the steps of soaking in spices, charcoal grilling, and steaming, all of which Eriina had no significant issues with.

"All done—"

After clapping his hands and tidying up the kitchen waste and utensils on the counter, Xia Yu turned back and fished out the pufferfish meat that had been soaking in the cool water since yesterday.

He activated "Dialysis Vision"!

The system organized the fragments of information in Xia Yu’s mind into data:

"[Processed Pufferfish Meat] (Blue), Attribute: Fire, Toxin: Qualified, Other: 24 hours have passed since the pufferfish’s death, the flesh is currently most tender and smooth, it is recommended that the host processes and cooks it."

There were so many ways to cook pufferfish.

The simplest was to make pufferfish sashimi.

Besides, pufferfish could also be cooked using many traditional Chinese culinary techniques, such as braising in soy sauce, steaming, stewing, stir-frying; there were just too many, and Xia Yu’s mind was full of recipes. He shook his head and muttered to himself, "Hmm, pufferfish meat with the fire attribute, what kind of dish should it be used for?"

After all, it was not an ordinary ingredient, and should not be wasted.

It would be even more wasteful to refrigerate it, as the pufferfish meat in front of him would no longer be as fresh after today!

"Sashimi!"

A light, floating voice interrupted Xia Yu’s thoughts once more.

Annoyed!

Xia Yu turned around and glared at the white-haired elder who had unexpectedly appeared, then at the wide-open kitchen door behind him, overwhelmed with an indescribable sense of weariness.

Indeed.

Even a locked kitchen door couldn’t keep these entities out.

That meant he couldn’t use the conditions of the secular environment to limit the supernatural beings.

"A-Yu—"

At that moment, another head peered in from outside the door; Yuchuan Meisha waved from outside, greeted him, and then she and her grandmother entered the kitchen together.

Suddenly, the kitchen became bustling.