"Ye Chui, take a look at this!"
Lin Wei, who had just gone out with Dong Youyou to buy ingredients, hurriedly handed a flyer to Ye Chui after returning - this was a flyer from the Japanese restaurant next door, which showed the new sushi that the Japanese restaurant was about to launch.
It's not a big deal for a restaurant to attract business with flyers, but the reason why Lin Wei was so anxious to give this flyer to Ye Chui was because the new sushi on this flyer were really too much: this was sushi made with Hainan's four famous dishes!
The flyer also had phrases like "The most perfect way to eat these ingredients is with sushi" and "The best way to eat Hainan's four famous dishes is with sushi!" written in bright fonts, and also came with images of these new sushi varieties.
The four new sushi items are Dongfang mutton sushi, Hele crab and crab meat sushi, Wenchang chicken sushi and Jiaji duck sushi.
Dongshan lamb, Hele crab, Wenchang chicken and Jiaji duck are the four famous dishes of Hainan. However, the Japanese restaurant next door made sushi with these four premium ingredients and even said that the best way to eat these ingredients is sushi.
Ordinary people may not think anything of such remarks. From the perspective of diners, they naturally hope to eat more and more delicious food. However, from the perspective of a chef, it would definitely be unpleasant - these four ingredients are obviously from China, but they are said to be the most delicious way to cook them is sushi. This feeling is definitely not pleasant!
When Lin Wei found Ye Chui with the flyer, she also had an angry expression on her face: "They are going too far, as if Hainan's four famous dishes are prepared for sushi."
Ye Chui looked at the flyer, a hint of displeasure showing on his face.
Mixing sushi with Hainan's four famous dishes is obviously a way for Japanese restaurants to attract customers. The Japanese sushi restaurant opened by Zhang Huabin occupies a total of four store locations. These four stores sell sushi made with Hainan's four famous dishes.
In some ways, Zhang Huabin's business model is quite successful and full of gimmicks. However, such an approach is an infringement and betrayal of Chinese food culture.
Hainan's four famous dishes are gradually becoming obsolete in our hands, but they have to rely on Japanese sushi to make a name for themselves
Shortly after Ye Chui learned about Zhang Huabin’s plan for the Japanese sushi restaurant, Zhang Huabin suddenly visited the Hainan Chicken Rice Restaurant.
"You've renovated this place, yeah. It's pretty good." Zhang Huabin said, holding an elegant lunch box in his hand, looking around, "Our restaurant is so beautifully decorated, your Hainanese chicken rice would be too shabby if it's stuck in the middle of our restaurant. It would definitely affect our business."
"Zhang Huabin, what are you doing here?" Dong Youyou stood in front of Zhang Huabin with an unhappy look on her face, with her hands on her hips, looking like she was about to beat someone up.
Zhang Huabin trembled subconsciously, and then snorted coldly: "I'm here to see Mr. Ye Chuiye."
"Looking for me?" Ye Chui heard An Jing talking about Zhang Huabin's visit. He was just coming out of the kitchen wiping his hands. When he heard Zhang Huabin's words, he asked calmly, "What do you want to see me for?"
"Mr. Ye, you won the judges' award in the first round of the chef competition, so Mr. Ye's food appreciation ability must be very outstanding. So I want you to taste the latest sushi in our restaurant. Haha, your Hainanese chicken rice is a specialty of Wenchang chicken, so I brought some Wenchang chicken sushi for you to try."
Having said this, Zhang Huabin opened the exquisite lunch box in his hand, took out a plate of sushi and a stack of rice vinegar and placed them in front of Ye Chui.
Ye Chui frowned slightly. Zhang Huabin asked him to taste the wine, but in fact it was a provocation.
Whether it is Hainanese chicken rice or Zhang Huabin's chicken sushi, they all use Wenchang chicken as ingredients, which is a disguised way of challenging Ye Chui.
Although it was afternoon, there were still many customers in the Hainanese Chicken Rice restaurant. Seeing this scene, they all gathered around. Among them was a middle-aged man who was a regular customer here and an employee of Tianhai Resort. He was very familiar with what had happened recently. After seeing Zhang Huabin's provocative behavior, he immediately said with some anger: "Your Japanese sushi restaurant has recently challenged the restaurants on this food street that mainly serve Hainan's four famous dishes, and now it has targeted this Hainanese Chicken Rice!"
This was the first time Ye Chui had heard of this. He couldn't help but show a strange expression and looked at the middle-aged man: "What's going on?"
"Boss Zhang hired a Japanese chef to transform Hainan's four famous dishes into sushi. In the past two days, they have visited all the restaurants on this food street one by one and asked the chefs of other restaurants to taste their sushi. They want to challenge every restaurant one by one!" the middle-aged man said immediately.
"Those restaurants that use the four famous dishes as their signature dishes will be convinced after eating our sushi. It's their own fault that their sushi is not as good as ours!" Zhang Huabin laughed smugly and said to Ye Chui, "Mr. Ye, you should feel lucky. I was the last one to challenge your Hainanese chicken rice. This is enough to show how much I value you."
"What Japanese sushi? It doesn't make people appetite at first glance. Zhang Huabin tells you, even if other restaurants on this food street acknowledge your Japanese cuisine, don't even think about getting me to acknowledge it!" Dong Youyou's hot temper immediately flared up, and she said angrily.
"Haha, Mr. Ye is the chef, Dong Youyou. Mr. Ye has the final say on whether the food is delicious or not." Zhang Huabin ignored Dong Youyou's questioning and looked at Ye Chui. He already knew that Ye Chui was the key to Hainanese chicken rice's revival. "Mr. Ye, please try our Wenchang chicken sushi. I wonder how it tastes compared to your Hainanese chicken rice?"
Ye Chui glanced at Zhang Huabin calmly, then he suddenly smiled: "Okay."
As he said this, Ye Chui picked up the bamboo chopsticks and picked up a piece of sushi.
This Wenchang chicken sushi is about the size of a finger, with a thin layer of minced chicken on top of the long white rice.
When eating sushi, you must eat it in one bite so that you can taste the full flavor of the sushi. The shape of the sushi should also be moderate in size, and it should be made into a "bite-sized piece". Ye Chui briefly looked at the appearance of the sushi, then put the sushi into his mouth and chewed it carefully.
Zhang Huabin sneered as he watched Ye Chui's actions. Iijima Yanhao was a Japanese second-level chef. The evaluation level of chefs in Japan was somewhat different from that in China. A first-level chef represented a chef who had fully mastered the skills of a chef, which was equivalent to a third-level chef certificate in China, while a second-level chef represented a chef who had worked in a large hotel and won a large-scale cooking competition, which was equivalent to a fourth-level chef certificate in China.
This Iijima Yanhao has the ability of a fourth-level chef, so his cooking skills are naturally very good, at least, higher than the level of the chefs in other restaurants on this food street.
You know, the highest level of chefs in other restaurants in the food court is only level three. Previously, Zhang Huabin brought these new sushi to other restaurants in the food court and let the chefs taste them. Although those chefs were very reluctant to admit it, judging from their reactions, they were still impressed by the sushi.
The four famous Hainan dishes are best made into sushi. This is the main direction of Zhang Huabin's promotion of his Japanese restaurant. He does not think there is anything wrong with this, and it is not illegal. As long as he can make money, why not
With this thought in mind, he sneered and waited for Ye Chui's reaction.
The diners in the restaurant were all looking at Ye Chui at this time. Han Yuyan, Dong Youyou, Lin Wei, and even Wang Shiyu gathered around, staring at Ye Chui with nervous expressions.
After eating one piece of sushi, Ye Chui did not continue to eat the second piece of sushi and put down his bamboo chopsticks.
"Mr. Ye, how does our Wenchang chicken sushi taste?" Zhang Huabin asked with a smile.
Ye Chui thought about it and shook his head: "Not very good."
Zhang Huabin snorted coldly, thinking that Ye Chui was being stubborn. "Then Mr. Ye, please tell me. Why is our sushi not so good?"
"The temperature of sushi should be as close to body temperature as possible, but the sushi you sent was already cold. How can we eat it? The rice used in sushi should be full and sticky, but the original shape of the rice should be retained. The rice in your sushi is all mushy. How can it taste good? And the seasoning used in sushi, only a little wasabi and rice vinegar are needed to make it perfect, but you add all kinds of messy things. MSG, soy sauce, damn, there are even peanuts, what's going on? What kind of sushi is this? And the shape of this sushi is not good enough. It's not pinched properly, and I won't talk about the different sizes. The most important thing is that you can see that the rice grains are scattered. The most outrageous thing is the chicken in the sushi. Wenchang chicken is tender and fresh, and the best way to cook it is to boil it. It's fine if you use it to make sushi, but you even fried it. Don't think that I can't taste that the chicken in your sushi is boiled, fried, and then fried with starch. The most perfect taste of Wenchang chicken has been ruined by you. How can it be called Wenchang chicken sushi? It's not even sushi. How dare you show off like this?"
Ye Chui pointed at Zhang Huabin's nose and cursed him in one breath.
Everyone in Hainanese Chicken Rice: “…”
Ye Chui's nonsense sounded particularly satisfying, and most importantly, it made sense. It made Zhang Huabin stiffen completely. He could never have imagined that Ye Chui knew so much about sushi.
Others, including Han Yuyan and Lin Wei, who were very familiar with Ye Chui, had never expected that Ye Chui would be so familiar with the ins and outs of sushi. They all stared at Ye Chui in stunned silence for a moment.
What Ye Chu said was actually a way to vent his dissatisfaction. To be honest, the sushi that Zhang Huabin brought was indeed too bad - in his previous life, Ye Chu also knew a little about sushi.
Although sushi was first popularized in Japan, similar practices have existed in China since ancient times.
There is a kind of cylindrical rice ball called zifanbang along the coast of China, which originated in the Yue State during the Spring and Autumn Period and is almost exactly the same as sushi. Since the Post-Han Dynasty, a kind of food called zi (pronounced the same as zha) has begun to spread throughout China, which is also very similar to sushi. However, due to geographical reasons, this type of food has developed greatly in Japan.
But this method is not exclusive to them.
Ye Chui studied Chinese cuisine and conducted detailed research on each type. He was also very familiar with rice sticks and pickled fish that were similar to sushi.
The most important thing is that in his previous life, Ye Chui had visited Japan and had some exchanges with the famous "God of Sushi" in Japan, and learned the most perfect way to make sushi from him.
Simply put, although Ye Chui specializes in Chinese cuisine, he is also an expert in Japanese sushi. He is at least several levels better than self-righteous low-level chefs like Iijima Yanhao.
Zhang Huabin was choked by Ye Chui's comments and was speechless for a long time. His face turned red. After a while, he finally asked, "I heard you say that you are so great. Mr. Ye, you are also a chef. Why don't you try making sushi?"
"OK."
Zhang Huabin was just speaking in anger, but Ye Chui nodded and agreed. He smiled and said, "Ask Mr. Iijima to prepare. Tonight, I'll invite him to Hainan Chicken Rice to taste the sushi I made. Haha, sushi, I can make this kind of thing, too."
Zhang Huabin: “… ”(~^~)
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