The Spirit of Gourmet

Chapter 519 The Past of the Snake
As someone who has spent his entire life working with snake-based foods, Jia Long is a highly authoritative figure in this field.

So when Jia Long saw Qin Lang's decisive and efficient snake-catching technique, he realized that this young man was definitely not handling snake food for the first time.

For a moment, a hint of anticipation flashed in his eyes.

As he mentioned earlier, because snake ingredients are not a popular ingredient, the number of spirit chefs who come to him for the food recommender assessment is far lower than that of other food recommenders.

This has even affected Jia Long's promotion as a food recommender to some extent.

Even so, Jia Long never regretted choosing snake ingredients as his assessment target, because the study of snake ingredients had already been a lifelong pursuit for him.

Whenever he sees a new chef who understands niche and uncommon ingredients like snakes, he feels a strange sense of recognition.

Therefore, although the number of Spirit Chefs who are assessed is small, he always feels genuine joy whenever a Spirit Chef chooses him as their food recommender for the assessment.

Just like this moment.

"Mr. Jia Long, I'll go and start cooking now." Qin Lang, who had just subdued the beautiful purple sea serpent, wiped the sweat from his brow and turned to look at Jia Long.

“Go ahead.” Jia Long nodded, his smile much wider than before. “I look forward to your cooking.”

Seemingly sensing the meaning behind Jia Long's smile, Qin Lang paused slightly, then nodded vigorously, "I will definitely do my best!"

After saying that, Qin Lang strode towards the kitchen.

Jia Long's assessment cabin was excessively simple in structure. Apart from a dining room surrounded by beautiful purple sea snakes, the rest of the area was a very complete kitchen.

There was nothing else besides that, not even a bedroom.

So after Qin Lang left, Jia Long's gaze fell on Cao Dongdong and the other two who were traveling with him. "His cooking will take a while."

With that, Jia Long calmly sat down at the dining table, which was surrounded by a water tank filled with beautiful purple sea snakes. "Come in and sit for a while while he finishes cooking."

"Okay." Having gradually adjusted his mindset, Tang Yu didn't say another word, stepped through the snake-filled aisle, and sat down at the dining table.

"Hahaha..." Zhao Qian forced a smile that looked more like a grimace. "I think the scenery around here is quite nice, otherwise I..."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Cao Dongdong ruthlessly pressed her down. "Go inside and wait. Aren't you tired after walking for so long?"

"No! I'm not tired!"

Zhao Qian struggled and argued, but Cao Dongdong eventually pinned her down at the dining table. Looking at the countless snake tanks surrounding her, the girl quietly broke down.

"Hehe." Looking at Zhao Qian's terrified expression, Jia Long chuckled and shook his head. "Snakes aren't actually as scary as you think."

At this point, a hint of reminiscence appeared in his eyes. "Want to know why I became the food recommender for evaluating snake-based ingredients?"

Zhao Qian and the other two were all taken aback, then immediately showed interest. "Yes!"

"That all started when I was a child," Jia Long said with a smile. "My name is Jia Long. My parents named me 'Long' because they hoped that their son would become a dragon."

"The surname 'Jia' sounds the same as 'fake,' so when the two characters are put together, they become 'fake dragon.' Because of this, I was often ridiculed by my peers when I was a child."

"The worst time was when a naughty classmate secretly stuffed a snake into my desk." Jia Long shook his head and chuckled as he said this. "I still remember it to this day. It was a small, non-venomous black snake, only the size of my palm." "That kind of prank is too much!" Zhao Qian, who was afraid of snakes, couldn't help but shudder and show an angry expression when she imagined that scene.

“Indeed.” Cao Dongdong nodded in deep agreement. “The feeling of pulling out a snake out of the blue is truly terrifying.”

“Yes.” Jia Long chuckled. After so many years, he had long since let go of the past. “Before that, I had never been in contact with snakes. I was just as afraid of these long, cold, scaly creatures as you are.”

"The moment I pulled the snake out of my desk, I almost peed my pants. I hurriedly shook it off and was mercilessly mocked by the classmate who played the prank and some other classmates."

"They told me it was a non-venomous snake that could be easily crushed with one foot. I never expected to be so scared. It's embarrassing for them to be in the same class as me."

Upon hearing this, Cao Dongdong and the other two simultaneously revealed expressions of anger.

Unconsciously, they became immersed in Jia Long's recounting of the past, seemingly forgetting that they were surrounded by countless snake tanks, and only wanted to know what would happen next.

“But at that time, my focus wasn’t on being ridiculed,” Jia Long said softly.

"I happened to catch a glimpse of the little black snake that I had thrown to the ground."

“It was so small. It fell from a great height and struggled for a while before it recovered. Then it frantically tried to escape under everyone’s feet, and it almost got trampled to death several times.” Jia Long paused slightly at this point. “At that moment, I suddenly realized that I was scared, but that little snake was probably even more scared than I was.”

“Some things that seem frightening to you may not be so frightening after all.” Jia Long paused slightly. “Like the snake I encountered, or the prank I went through.”

"So, I did something that surprised them."

"I stood up again, mustered up my courage, and grabbed the snake."

"Amid their surprised and shocked gazes, I rushed forward and stuffed the snake into the collar of the prankster classmate. Seeing how scared he was, even more so than I was, I felt a surge of immense courage."

At this point, Jia Long chuckled, "After that, no one dared to laugh at me anymore. If anyone did, I would retaliate without hesitation."

"And it was because of that incident that I became interested in snakes."

"after all…"

"A fake dragon is just a snake, isn't it?"
-
"In cooking, snakes are often associated with the symbolism of dragons."

In the kitchen, Qin Lang was preparing the beautiful purple sea snake while chatting with Danbao and Lala, who were by his side.

"When talking about dragons, we must mention another special symbol, the phoenix. In cooking, chicken is generally used to represent the phoenix."

"Therefore, the combination of snake and chicken in cooking is quite common."

"Putting aside the symbolism, these two ingredients are also very compatible."

"Snake meat is very firm, while chicken meat is more tender. The umami flavors of the two ingredients can be perfectly blended to create a unique umami taste."

At this point, Qin Lang, who had almost finished processing the snake meat, pulled out a rare chicken from the Traveler's Book.

"So today's cooking will also use chicken."

(End of this chapter)