"Squirrel Mandarin Fish Pasta?" Bai Zishu thought of the same thing as Zhang Yu.
Indeed, most pasta dishes are paired with a sweet and sour tomato base flavor. Thinking of it this way, using Squirrel Mandarin Fish to pair with pasta is not problematic at all.
While Zhang Yu and Bai Zishu were still astonished by Mo Bai's whimsical idea, Mo Bai had already cleared the fine scales from the Mandarin fish with a few strokes of his knife. After applying a cross-hatch cut and coating it in starch, he slid it into hot lard.
The surface of the oil immediately surged with large bubbles. Under the effect of the hot oil, the Mandarin fish meat stood up strand by strand like the spines on a hedgehog's back.
Once the shape was set, he turned off the heat and quickly removed it. Mo Bai switched to a clean kitchen knife and shaved the meat off; the upright, deep-fried fish meat fell into the dinner plate one after another.
Subsequently, he threw the Mandarin fish carcass, which still had quite a bit of meat attached to the bone, into a pot where scallions and ginger had been stir-fried to release their fragrance, and began to boil fish soup.
"What is the purpose of boiling fish soup?" Now, let alone the other judges, even Zhang Yu and Bai Zishu couldn't figure out Mo Bai's plan at all.
The Mandarin fish meat wasn't fully cooked, just set in shape, and put aside, while the fish head and bones were used to stew soup?
Could this be the legendary 'discard the meat and eat the pot'?
An absurd joke shared among old friends surfaced in Zhang Yu's mind.
While the fish soup was cooking, Mo Bai turned on another burner and began making handmade tomato sauce.
Blanched tomatoes were peeled, stir-fried until soft, and crushed with brute force. Minced garlic, sugar, salt, light soy sauce, white vinegar, and lemon juice were added in sequence.
Adding dark soy sauce for color, and finally adding a little lard, the bright red and oily tomato sauce was quickly finished.
Just at this moment, the service bell rang.
Mo Bai turned his head. Mark was looking at him with an unbridled smile.
"Main Dish: King Crab, Lobster, and Oyster Platter, complete."
The onlookers from Phoenix Academy exclaimed one after another.
"Oh my god! That is the dish Mark served when he successfully promoted to a Six-Star Chef two years ago!"
"Yes, I also heard that the judges at that time unanimously believed that once perfected, this would be a high-star cuisine."
"Does Mark bringing it out now mean he has already perfected this Main Dish?!"
"High-star cuisine!" The heated discussion among the Phoenix Academy students caused the Tōtsuki Academy students to scream repeatedly as well. "Doesn't that imply that this Mark possesses strength equivalent to the First Seat of the Tōtsuki Ten Elites?!"
Hearing the support from his companions around him, Mark's confident smile overflowed even more.
"That's right, I have already perfected this dish."
"And after returning to my country this time, I will apply for the IGO Seven-Star Chef assessment."
His words immediately sent the entire venue into a frenzy.
Unfortunately, Mark did not see any change in expression on Mo Bai's face.
Mo Bai remained in that indifferent manner of 'Acting cool is like the wind, always by my side'.
"Eh, a high-star chef?"
"Impressive, impressive."
Mark: "... (Profanity)"
For some reason, looking at Mo Bai's calm face, Mark always felt a thick aura of mockery.
"Hmph!" Mark turned his head and walked away.
"Wait," Mo Bai called out to stop Mark. "It's still the same old saying."
"Listen to my advice."
"There is no meaning in serving your Main Dish right now."
Just like last time, Mark, who was determined to walk a single path until it went dark, didn't give a damn about Mo Bai.
"...Sigh! The young people nowadays, why is every single one of them so hard-headed?" Mo Bai shook his head and said.
Little Bai stared at Mo Bai, countless 'MMP's drifting through its heart.
"You, who dared to offer a Divine Festival to the First Emperor and vainly attempted to feed the Administrator, are the most hard-headed one here!"
Although his Side Dish, the Sweet and Spicy Roasted Quail, did not channel its Culinary Heart to deliberately suppress other dishes, it would inevitably influence subsequent dishes within the time the taste memory remained.
At this stage, it had been less than twenty minutes since Mo Bai finished the Sweet and Spicy Roasted Quail.
Mo Bai could already imagine the despairing scene after Mark served his dish.
High-star cuisine? Even higher-star cuisine would be crushed in minutes by a Culinary Heart.
A Culinary Heart is, after all, a product of the Special-Grade realm; it is something on a different level from high-star rankings.
The gap between the two destined this to be a strike from a higher dimension.
"High-star cuisine?" Nakiri Erina felt her God's Tongue reviving under the stimulation of the aroma.
On the silver-white metal platter paved with green leaves, there were steamed King Crab legs paired with golden sauce, sea urchin and cheese baked crab shell, and crab shell steamed egg. Just the King Crab cuisine alone dazzled Nakiri Erina slightly.
Following that was a Splendid Spiny Lobster as thick as an arm, half coated in cheese and half original flavor paired with cream sauce. The Brandy fresh oysters were smooth and white, while the baked oysters were golden and alluring.
"Not bad. Although it's a bit scattered, the theme firmly grasps the contrast between cheese-baked and original flavor, and there is the steamed egg used to reconcile and soothe the appetite."
"Moreover, the combination of these three has no conflict in terms of taste, smell, or shape."
Hearing even Bai Zishu voice her praise, Nakiri Erina picked up the communal knife and fork on the platter and selected some of each dish to put onto her own plate.
"Curry?" Nakiri Erina knew the identity of the golden sauce the moment the crab leg entered her mouth.
Next, the sea urchin and cheese baked crab shell was incomparably rich, and the crab paste within the crab shell steamed egg matched with the egg was delicious, soft, and smooth.
The cheese-baked lobster meat was firm and bouncy, like a delicious bomb exploding continuously in her mouth; every chew was delightful.
The cream sauce original flavor lobster had a rich milky taste that set off the fresh quality of the lobster.
The Brandy oyster was smooth, tender, fresh, and sweet.
The baked oyster was plump and delicious.
Nakiri Erina ate until her eyes shone.
"As expected of high-star cuisine, the completion level is also quite high. The God's Tongue cannot pick out any faults." After tasting the platter cuisine, Nakiri Erina leisurely entered a trance.
Before her eyes was a winding coastline. Tribal fishermen who made a living by fishing were living harmonious and peaceful lives. However, in the azure ocean, a pitch-black figure was driving toward the shore.
The fishermen's small boats were overturned, and the giant black shadow finally revealed its true colors—a giant calcified armored lobster with six long legs!
The strange lobster's two giant pincers possessed astonishing strength; a single sweep caused a swath of wooden houses to collapse.
The peaceful daily life was broken, and the tribal fishermen picked up their weapons and gathered one after another.
A tense battle was triggered at the touch of a button. Just at this moment, a sound incomparably familiar to Nakiri Erina suddenly came from the edge of the sky.
"Chirp Chirp"
A giant black shadow swept past, and the sea monster-level lobster instantly lost its trace.
It wasn't just Nakiri Erina who felt bewildered; the tribal fishermen had dumbfounded expressions on their hundred faces.
The gourmet illusion immediately shattered.
Nakiri Erina: ???
Her eyes scanned the surroundings without focus, and a trio of dumbfounded questions burst forth in her heart.
What the hell? What happened? What do I do now?
"It's gone?"
"How is it just gone?!"
Disappearing along with the sea monster lobster was the aftertaste in her mouth, as if it had been abruptly cut off by an editor.
All that remained was a familiar chirp.
Looking at Nakiri Erina's incomparably confused appearance, Bai Zishu shook her head helplessly.
It was true that it was high-star cuisine, but every single one of Mo Bai's dishes that had a Culinary Heart added was a top-tier dish approaching the Special-Grade within high-star cuisine.
Mark's Culinary Heart was still very immature. Choosing to go head-to-head with Mo Bai, who possessed several complete Culinary Hearts, during the time when the taste memory had not yet disappeared—the result would naturally be like this.
—Erasure!
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