Chapter 25: The Deliciousness That Can’t Be Stopped~

Chapter 25: The Deliciousness That Can’t Be Stopped~

Perhaps because the black cat was too flirtatious, or perhaps because it held a high status, Chen Shijin eventually stretched out his hand and caressed its sleek fur, as smooth and luxurious as top-grade black silk.

Bad news, this texture feels even better than that white dog earlier! He nearly lost control and petted it again.

But Chen Shijin ultimately resisted.

He always felt there was something fishy about the deep blue eyes of the black cat.

Besides, now was not the time to indulge in petting cats; it was time to start making the salmon sashimi.

It was only then that Chen Shijin remembered his Atlantic salmon had been beheaded by the Gourmet Cat.

Looking at the fish head with its eyes wide open in an inexplicable expression of rage and sorrow, he began to worry if the taste of the dishonorable death might negatively affect the flavor.

Now, he could only hope that the cat's swift paw strike meant the fish's shock hadn't transferred from its head to its body.

Otherwise, forget about offering dishes to the cat; he might end up cursing this troublesome flirtatious feline.

Fish Slaughtering Brother initially thought his extensive experience would allow him to swiftly skin the entire fish, remove its fins, fillet it, and then cut it into pieces for Chen Shijin and the others to debone.

But Chen Shijin refused, "The requirement is for us to make our favorite dishes ourselves. If you do everything, we three might not count as having participated in the entire process."

"Even the task of cutting the fish into pieces must be done by me, and then I can distribute the portions to you. This ensures the fish is entirely attributed to me, maximizing your participation."

Tangyuan, Fish Slaughtering Brother, and the little Taoist paused for a moment and then nodded together, understanding the myriad risks in a devouring world; this was the safest approach.

If the fish pieces Chen Shijin gave them couldn't be considered their own ingredients, then it would be a lesson for them to catch their entire fish tomorrow.

The Taoist youth, Luo Bo, closed his eyes and counted on his fingers to divine for himself, then looked somewhat distressed.

Tangyuan couldn't help but ask, "What's with that expression?"

Luo Bo sighed, "Why bother looking for trouble? Come on, let's watch Xiaomo divide the fish!"

He had just calculated whether his fish preparation would be successful, and it's better left unsaid.

At this moment, Chen Shijin had picked up the sharp shark knife next to the chopping board, its blade gleaming coldly and even reflecting a person's silhouette, clearly a fine knife!

"Fish Brother Zhou, which part of the fish is the tastiest and best suited for salmon sashimi?"

Fish Brother Zhou cleared his throat, "You might as well call me Zhou Brother, or Fish Brother works too." Somehow 'Fish Slaughtering Brother' sounds a bit odd.

"Ahem, salmon can mainly be divided into the head, belly, and tail. The part we usually eat as sashimi is the belly.

The head is typically used for making soup, and it's already been cut off by the black cat, ahem, the Gourmet Cat. It's truly worthy of being a gourmet, cutting off the part so perfectly, even following the curve of the head without affecting any of the flesh in the midsection of the belly."

Fish Brother Zhou subtly flattered the Gourmet Cat lounging nearby, but didn't receive any playful rubbing in return, only witnessing a coldly indifferent cat licking its paw.

Fish Brother Zhou: .

Alright, he realized that in front of the Gourmet Cat, he had no appeal or face whatsoever.

"Then you separate the belly from the tail. The salmon's tail, being looser in texture and less fatty, is generally not used for sashimi. However, grilled salmon tail or salmon rice can also be delicious."

Fish Brother Zhou was detailed, aiming for more involvement. He pointed to a spot about two-thirds down the fish's body: "Cut from here, the rest towards the back is all tail meat, which we won't use for the sashimi."

Chen Shijin nodded, then with a swift motion of the knife, a cold light flashed, and he chopped off the tail of the willing Atlantic salmon.

"Meow-wow~"

An excited meow followed, and lifting his eyes, Chen Shijin saw the previously indifferent cat now lying on its side, using its paws to give him a round of applause with its pads from afar.

Chen Shijin: ...

"Oh, the Gourmet Cat is praising your knife skills for being cold and merciless, which surely means the dish will be delicious."

The tuxedo-clad chef translated with a smile, adding, "It seems the Gourmet Cat really appreciates you."

Chen Shijin's left eyelid twitched, thinking such appreciation might be better off declined.

Fish Brother Zhou felt envious on the side, thinking he could do it too! After all, he had been slaughtering fish at RT-Mart for ten years, and his knife skills were also superb!

"Can all of these parts be used to make salmon sashimi?" Chen Shijin asked him.

Fish Brother Zhou came back to his senses, nodding then shaking his head: "This portion here includes a small part that can't be used. Starting from where the scales begin to darken upwards is the back meat, which is firmer and less fatty, better for grilling or pan-frying. Using it for sashimi might lack a bit in texture."

"So it's best to use the meat from the lower belly and the flanks. Also, this salmon may have roe inside. After cutting it open and washing the roe with purified water, it can be a delicious delicacy that's safe to eat raw."

After listening, Chen Shijin gained a solid understanding of how to prepare salmon sashimi. Having a Fish Brother Zhou with ten years of experience guiding them surely saved them a lot of detours.

Then, he used the sharp knife to open up the salmon's belly from the bottom, and indeed, found it full of roe. After taking it out and slicing horizontally across the middle, he split the midsection of the salmon in two.

After some thought, he divided the two large pieces of fish into four.

He kept one piece for himself, which included most of the belly fat, and gave the symmetrical piece with belly fat to Fish Brother Zhou. The remaining two pieces, which almost lacked belly fat, were given to Tangyuan and Taoist Luo Bo.

A fair distribution, no issues there.

Tangyuan and Luo Bo had no complaints; the fish belonged to Chen Xiaomo, and Fish Brother Zhou provided the explanation. They did virtually nothing and still got a piece of belly meat, which was quite good.

Moreover, the salmon that willingly offered itself was quite large, so even the pieces given to them were enough to prepare a large plate of sashimi.

The beauty of salmon sashimi is that it can be served on a small plate as a dish.

This is quite friendly towards the raw materials.

Everyone received their piece of fish and was eager to start slicing, but Fish Brother Zhou reminded them for safety:

"Remember to slice off the skin first! When slicing, make it even and don’t leave the brown meat attached to the skin. Also, the meat around the bones has a row of large bones, use tweezers to pull them out! The rest is up to your fish cutting skills."

The three nodded in agreement.

Then, Chen Shijin looked at the large piece of fish, preparing to slice off the skin first. Filleting the skin is probably the most difficult part of preparing salmon sashimi, but if one isn’t too concerned about wasting a bit of the fish meat, cutting the skin a bit thicker makes the task simpler.

He held down the fish meat, and with a long knife, made a smooth horizontal cut along the edge of the flesh, skillfully slicing off the skin from front to back.

Hmm, the fish skin was slightly thick, but there was still plenty of the delicious, orange-yellow flesh.

Just then, the cat appropriately meowed and patted its paw.

Kudos!

Chen Shijin was about to glare at it when he heard a soft gasp from beside him. Turning, he saw Tangyuan sucking on her finger, her complexion somewhat pale.

She said a bit embarrassedly as a few people looked over, "I wanted to slice the skin thinner and ended up cutting myself. Don't worry, it's nothing serious."

Her words had barely finished when a louder cry of pain erupted.

A chubby boy was clutching his left index finger with his right hand, screaming in agony.

"Ah, my hand, my hand! My finger, ahhh!"

Shockingly, a piece of his left index finger was missing, continuously bleeding out. In front of him on the chopping board were a bloodied pig's trotter and a small piece of the severed finger.

"Quick, use a healing potion! Exchange for a healing potion with the guide!"

One of his companions shouted urgently.

The chubby boy, as if just remembering, shakily exchanged for a healing potion and stopped the bleeding from his finger. Then, he hurried to wash the pig trotter he was preparing.

Given the chubby boy's unfortunate situation, everyone became much more cautious with their knife handling.

At this moment, Chen Shijin felt his phone vibrate.

He set down the knife and glanced at his Golden Gem phone, where a message popped up.

[Ding, a refugee has opened the Guide's Shop. Would you like to hitch a ride? Secretly access the Guide's Shop?]

[To hitch a ride, a WiFi upgrade energy payment of 100 points is required.]

Chen Shijin slowly smiled.

Without hesitation, he chose [Yes].

Spending 100 points now could lead to reclaiming 1000, or even 100000, later!

The steps to outwit the Guide are steadily advancing.

Then, Chen Shijin put his phone away and started to remove fish bones.

He had just removed a couple when another loud noise and scream were heard. Looking up, this time it wasn't one of the refugees using a knife.

It was a refugee frying chicken legs in a pan of oil. The pan hadn't overturned, but frying chicken legs, especially juicy ones, in oil was bound to cause splatters.

Unwittingly standing too close, the oil splatters landed directly on his face, quickly causing several blisters to form, but the most severe injury was a large drop of oil splashing onto his eyelid, possibly due to the excessively high temperature of the oil, which caused his eyelid to be scorched off and fall into the bubbling pot.

Soon, that bit of eyelid became indistinguishable, stuck to the floating batter in the frying pan.

Meanwhile, the uncle continued to scream in pain, probably wanting to find cold water to quickly rinse his face, but, blinded and turning around, he bumped into a female exile chopping vegetables, adding another shriek to the chaos.

The atmosphere in the hall suddenly turned chaotic. Chen Shijin, having just removed the bones from the fish pieces and ready to slice the fish with his sharp filleting knife, sensed a disturbance heading his way.

It was the uncle still clutching his face in pain, turning in a direction that faced right towards Chen Shijin's knife-holding arm.

"Xiaomo, duck!"

"Watch out!"

Fish Brother Zhou, Tangyuan, and Luo Bo all urgently warned with changed expressions.

Chen Shijin looked down, his lips parting slightly as if to speak.

But then, an angry cat's meow pierced the air, and the black figure, like a small black tornado, rushed forward to swipe a paw at the uncle covering his face!

Bang!

With a single swipe, the uncle spun several times on the spot before crashing against the wall, dazed.

Everyone gasped in shock, looking at the Gourmet Cat's little paw, still showing its pink pads, with newfound respect.

This, this was a Herculean cat!

Then, they saw the Herculean cat proudly arching its tail and head, hopping onto the table and walking over to the young man with the supposedly friendly puppy eyes, tilting its head and rubbing against him in an affectionate manner.

"Meow-wow~"

Snuggle.

"Meow meow meow-wow~"

With the cat so protective of you, shouldn't you offer your cheek, lips, chest, behind, or waist in gratitude?

Chen Shijin: …………

"Meow-wow-wow-wow!"

Tsk! A hug, a cuddle, a lift in the air should be in order, right? After all, the cat is so enchanting!

Under the accusing glares of everyone, Chen Shijin somewhat speechlessly reached out and petted the black cat from head to tail.

"Hmm, thank you, cat."

Those two little bells of yours are rather plump and round, aren't they?

The black cat suddenly felt its bells cool down, quickly dropped its tail, and looked around warily, then, like seeking sympathy, slumped next to Chen Shijin, continuing to wait expectantly for delicious human offerings with a flick of its tail tip.

This incident increased the number of injured people to five, making the other exiles in the hall move with even greater caution to avoid any more bloody accidents.

Fortunately, with heightened vigilance, no further mishaps occurred, and as time passed, everyone gradually completed their intended dishes.

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, seemingly in unison.

But at this moment, everyone looking at the gourmet dishes in front of them simultaneously furrowed their brows, unable to muster a smile.

Chen Shijin was also frowning at the plate of salmon sashimi in front of him.

The plate of sashimi was beautifully arranged, with uniformly cut slices of fresh, orange-yellow salmon. Without any issues in knife skills or meat quality, it should have been incredibly appetizing.

But here lies the problem—

This plate of salmon sashimi, which should appear delicious and enticing, held no allure for Chen Shijin at the moment.

Something wasn't right.

Chen Shijin thought for a moment, then picked up a piece of salmon with silver chopsticks and put it directly into his mouth.

Upon tasting, a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes; the fish felt somewhat less fresh than expected.

It wasn’t inedible due to being unfresh, but he had tasted top-quality, freshly caught salmon before, which was even directly flown in chilled to high-end restaurants. This didn't come close.

It was edible but far from delicious.

Chen Shijin's brow furrowed deeper, and he tried another slice with a bit of Fish Brother Zhou's selected soy sauce.

The taste of this second piece was the same as the first: edible but not delicious.

He pursed his lips.

Reviewing every step of his fish slicing, he couldn’t pinpoint any mistakes.

Meanwhile, the reaction from others at the table was even more pronounced; a cautious lady who had prepared marinated butter crab suddenly changed her expression drastically and spit out the crab she had tasted.

"How is this possible? I’m sure I chose a very fresh butter crab, why does it taste sour?!"

She had chosen a very lively butter crab from the aquarium to ensure freshness, almost getting pinched by it in the process. The crab was still lively when it arrived at the restaurant. A crab that lively, directly marinated raw, should not only be absolutely fresh but also shouldn't taste sour at all!

Had she not done the entire cooking process herself, she would have suspected that her butter crab had been switched.

She wasn't the only one in disbelief.

"Good heavens, yuck! My ribs taste completely rubbery and dry, like they've been frozen for days! But that's impossible, I fought hard for these ribs from a pig that was bouncing around. Could it be that only non-frozen pork is fresh pork?"

He said this and then looked at another exile who was also preparing ribs, but the expression on this person's face was even more unsightly—

"Yours can at least be eaten; mine has already rotten and stinks."

The exile who had steamed ribs was dumbfounded as he watched his ribs, which started emitting a foul odor and turned dark and discolored within minutes of being cooked.

These ribs didn’t even need to be tasted to be deemed unacceptable.

In comparison, Chen Qiang's salmon, which was merely not fresh enough, seemed quite acceptable.

The atmosphere in the restaurant fell into silence for a moment.

Then, a voice filled with mirth rose in the restaurant.

"Oh dear, it seems everyone's love for gourmet food isn’t deep at all."

Chen Qiang looked up at the smiling tuxedoed chef, who seemed to have anticipated this outcome.

Just as Chen Qiang was about to speak, suddenly, a voice filled with delight exclaimed, "I think my braised pig trotters taste somewhat good?"

"Though the appearance is a bit lacking, the flavor is quite good?"

Everyone turned their gaze towards the chubby young man, who was missing a piece of his index finger, yet firmly held a glossy piece of pig trotter, continuously chewing on it.

"I think mine tastes pretty good?"

He repeated.

And then he looked towards the tuxedoed chef.

At this moment, Chen Qiang noticed a few other individuals in the hall whose expressions differed from the general air of gloom and skepticism; they were each enjoying their own culinary creations with evident delight.

Among them were the uncle who lost his eyelid while frying chicken, a girl who had her arm scratched when bumped into by the uncle, a young man who cut his own hand, and... Tangyuan, who was stuffing salmon into her mouth with an enchanted look.

Soon, everyone noticed the difference in these five people.

Then, Chen Qiang, with a frown, approached Tangyuan and reached with his chopsticks to grab a piece of her salmon, only to be fiercely glared at: "Are you trying to steal my delicacy?"

Chen Qiang's innocent puppy eyes briefly flashed a sharp look, but the words he spoke were soft and sweet: "Let me have a piece, beautiful miss."

Tangyuan's angry gaze softened instantly, as if snapping back to reality, she awkwardly swallowed the salmon in her mouth, quickly wiped her lips, straightened her clothes, and pushed the remaining slices of salmon on her plate forward:

"You eat, you eat!"

"Eat as much as you want! If you like, I'll make it for you always!"

She indeed craved delicious food, but, but he called me a beautiful miss!

What delicacy could be more important than being acknowledged as a beauty by a handsome man!

"...Meow shit."

The black cat nearby started scratching the table in extreme annoyance.

Amidst the grating noise, Chen Shijin took a slice of Tangyuan's salmon and tasted it.

Instantly, his eyes widened as the sweet flavor burst with rich fats in his mouth, and the tender texture left a splendid sensation on his lips and tongue.

He nearly couldn't control himself and almost swallowed it.

How to put it...

Chen Shijin, somewhat dazed, put down his chopsticks, recalling an episode of "Cooking Master Boy" where slicing raw fish was featured.

It felt like the waves were crashing; wow, the fish is still alive.

Chen Shijin: …

Chen Shijin: …………

Could it be that the gourmet dishes in this Culinary City come with their own special effects?!

At this moment, Tangyuan eagerly eyed the last two slices of fish and asked him, "Is it really that delicious? Are you going to eat more? If you're not, I will!"

Chen Shijin struggled to spit out the fish he hadn't swallowed and stopped Tangyuan from continuing to eat.

Meanwhile, others who found their dishes tasty were eating non-stop, heads down.

But the expressions on everyone's faces were not of envy but of an indescribable horror—

They quickly realized the commonality among those five people: they were all involved in accidents that led to their blood contaminating the ingredients while preparing their dishes.

At this moment, the voice of the tailcoat chef leisurely sounded, "Now that everyone has finished preparing their delicacies, let's have our cat food critic give out some scores~"

"Please welcome our cat food critic!"

The tailcoat chef led the applause, and the rest of the people in the restaurant followed, though with uneasy faces.

They hoped this Herculean cat would award them higher scores.

But the results were quite dire—

The black cat made a round of the stainless steel dining table filled with dishes without stopping at any dish. In the end, it returned to directly in front of Chen Qiang. With a wave of its black paw with pink pads, a glowing number appeared above each dish.

"Hiss!!"

"Oh my God..."

"No, please!"

Almost everyone's score was below 5. The food that had rotted or gone bad was directly given a 0 by the cat food critic.

However, those five individuals whose blood had mixed into their ingredients each received a score of 6.

Still 2 points shy of the passing score of 8.

Everyone felt a sinking feeling in their hearts—was adding human blood to the ingredients the secret to achieving high scores and freshness?

"Meow-wow~"

At that moment, a meow was heard, and everyone looked up to see the cat food critic waving its paw, adding an extra 2 points in parentheses to the score of 5 given to the puppy-eyed youth.

"Meow-meow-meow-wow~"

Everyone: ??????

Hold on, how can this cat blatantly favor one over others? Just because he petted you a few times, you add 2 points for him? If he were to cuddle and lift you high, would you just give him a perfect score?!

Cat food critic in a seductive pose: Meow~

Come on, cuddles and high lifts!

Chen Qiang: .