Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 641 - 640: Nijo Fish Market (Part 2)

Chapter 641: Chapter 640: Nijo Fish Market (Part 2)

Nijo Fish Market Auction, indeed one of the most concentrated places for seafood resources in Hokkaido, even in all of Japan, Xia Yu had to buy-buy-buy at the market to prepare ingredients outside the IGO store.

But then a problem arose.

Just like most seafood, Hokkaido hairy crabs die once dehydrated. The hairy crabs in front of him were on ice, thus when he bent down to examine them, the cold air hit his face.

When it comes to eating seafood, freshness is key.

And "freshness" also greatly affected the completion of the "Four Divine Seafood Eight Treasure Soul Suppressing Dumplings" recipe. With his current financial power, buying was not a problem for Xia Yu; he was perplexed about how to store these ingredients to use in the upcoming competition after several days.

Ingredient storage!

As Xia Yu listened to the auction staff’s chants and observed the eager atmosphere of chefs nearby participating in the auction, he immediately frowned.

"Your dish, isn’t it supposed to use shrimp and crab?"

Eriina was anxious, noticing that he was squatting motionless. She shook his shoulder and said, "If it were shark fins or scallops, it would be fine to use dried goods, which wouldn’t affect the quality of the dish, but for shrimp and crab, it must be fresh!"

"Hokkaido hairy crab, Emperor crab, Matsutake crab are your best choices. These top-quality hairy crabs are rare to come by..."

Her voice carried a sense of urgency.

"It’s not hard to buy, but how do we store them?" Xia Yu looked at her.

Hearing that, Eriina paused, then bit her lip reluctantly and said, "Are we really going to wait until the day before the competition to come to the fish market and rely on luck? That’s too risky!"

Xia Yu shrugged and reached out to her.

"...?" The girl’s face was full of question marks.

"What for?"

"Grab the card to bid!"

"Isn’t it difficult to store them?"

"Who cares, let’s just bid on them first. Even if they can’t be used for the competition, they won’t go to waste. Cooking them for our own meals isn’t too bad either!"

Eriina was choked by the boy’s impulsiveness and extravagance.

"Wait a minute!"

She stood up, squeezed out of the crowd, and soon the auction staffer on the stage received a bidding card and his voice immediately became high-pitched: "Oh oh oh, buyout! A guest has directly given the buyout price!"

"Congratulations to her for getting a total of 10 top-quality Hokkaido hairy crabs!"

The nearby chefs looked at each other.

A buyout means a fixed price set by the consigner, and as soon as someone offers that price, the auction ends immediately.

"Ah!"

Many chefs slapped their thighs in regret, "If only we had known, we would have bitten the bullet and offered the buyout price right away!"

Eriina, who had made a successful bulk purchase, came back with a smile curling at the corners of her lips.

Xia Yu gave her a thumbs up, "Extravagant!"

The two lingered in Warehouse No. 1 for a while longer and, seeing no more good items, moved onto the next auction venue.

Thus, after spending almost half the day, Xia Yu and Eriina went bulk buying at Nijo Fish Market, starting with Hokkaido hairy crabs, moving on to Hokkaido sweet shrimp, and later even encountering plenty of high-quality seafood dried goods.

After a spree of shopping, when the two returned to Ookura Mountain Villa, a small transport truck was following behind their car.

Since the villa was already fully staked out by journalists, in reality, everyone’s movements in and out of the villa were being recorded. When their car drove through the gate, it inevitably got photographed, and Xia Yu and Eriina, pulling down the car curtains in the back seat, could feel the swarming crowd of reporters outside.

"Click!"

The door to the villa’s professional storage warehouse opened, and maids and guards busied themselves moving the ingredients.

Dojima Yin stood by with his arms crossed.

"Did you go out for the whole day just to buy ingredients?" His gaze swept over Xia Yu and Eriina, who were disguised, and his expression looked a bit odd.

"What do you think?"

Xia Yu had someone bring the ingredients to the cold storage for freezing, then slightly frowned, "Hokkaido hairy crab and sweet shrimp, not sure how well they’ll match the recipes, but good, we bought plenty, let’s try some out first!"

"Help out!"

So, he himself carried two heavy foam boxes from the small truck, holding one and passing the other to Dojima Yin.

"What a strong fishy smell!"

Dojima Yin, dressed in a suit, looked disgusted, his hands covered with a lot of fishy water from the fish market, the smell of fish almost choking.

"Tonight’s dinner, I’ll handle one dish, and the ingredients are right here!" Xia Yu patted the foam box filled with ice, gesturing to Dojima Yin and Eriina, and the group headed inside the villa.

...

In the evening, the follow-up report on the Sapporo competition was broadcast on various news channels.

The three competing teams, naturally the focus of media attention, every action of any team was recorded and discussed extensively. Today, the Far Moon Team’s black car that went out early and returned late seemed to be tracked first to the lodging place at Pavillon, then to Nijo Fish Market.

Even the news of a tycoon sweeping goods at the Nijo auction market was connected by those who were interested, of course, the transaction records at the auction market are strictly managed, so the media could not find more accurate information, they could only speculate wildly, and they didn’t know that their speculation was astonishingly accurate.

"Seafood?"

During dinner time, as the Pavillon team had their meal, the TV broadcasted the evening news, Little Fairy Wu Yingying slammed her bowl down, her eyes wide open, "Seafood ingredients, the Yin Yang Five Elements... is there a connection here?"

She wasn’t dull, thinking back on Xia Yu’s visit this morning and then seeing that car on the news, she immediately confirmed it was Xia Yu’s car.

This car went to the manor, then to Nijo Fish Market, stopping for a good half day, combined with the news of sweeping goods, many things gradually came to light.

Yan Mo, in his red outfit, was also full of curiosity.

Now about Tang’s Team.

Tang Shan stayed at the lodging place, but Yuqiong had returned to her country for a trip, bringing back a new batch of Dragon Pot sauce.

Beep!

Turning off the news, Yuqiong murmured, "A dish whose main ingredient is seafood?"

She rubbed her temples, threw off the blanket draped over her, not planning to rest anymore, first went to the bedroom, hurriedly grabbed a suitcase and rushed upstairs, and indeed saw an elder facing away from the door, motionless like a mountain at the cooking station.

"Elder, how is it? Is this batch of sauce suitable?"

Yuqiong placed the suitcase down, took out a sealed jar from it and placed it on the table, watching Lin Giant Tangshan pour the newly brewed sauce from this jar over a freshly oven dish.

Tang Shan shook his head even before tasting it:

"At this level... it’s not close to ’Guiding, Ferrying’!"

"Damn it!"

Perhaps due to the lack of results over the past two days, Yuqiong felt quite frustrated, and slammed her fists on the table, "The last round’s ’Ultimate Good, Like Water’ was manageable, but this round’s ’Guiding, Ferrying’, it’s just restricting the dishes too much!"

"Elder, how should your Mountain’s culinary righteousness merge with the essence of Dragon Pot’s sauce to give the dish a relevance to the theme?" Yuqiong asked.

Tang Shan’s eyebrows furrowed tightly, "What are you thinking?"

"Maybe we could do it this way..."

Yuqiong boldly voiced her ideas, and upon hearing them, Tang Shan’s grim expression turned to astonishment.

"It’s not the form of the dish that matters, the key is in the ’meaning’ of the dish!"

"Elder, we are out of time!"

Tang Shan hesitated slightly.

"Let’s give it a try then!"