A Bite of Douluo Continent

Even though they live in different worlds, they share a common language when it comes to cooking methods.

After finishing the three pastries, Qi Han continued to drink his sweet porridge, one spoonful after another, until he finished it. Only then did he put down the bill and turn to leave.

He made sure to save room in his stomach today, so he can still stroll around the food street now.

Chapter 318 The Food Street Vendors Lying Down

Time flies, and lunchtime is fast approaching.

It wasn't until lunchtime, just before the restaurant was about to open, that Qi Han leisurely returned to Han Shi with Gulu in his arms. By then, there were already people queuing outside, and the seven employees had also arrived.

Seeing that Qi Han was walking from the street next to them, the seven employees exchanged glances, their faces showing a hint of surprise.

"I went to the food street this morning and tried all sorts of delicious food." Seeing the expressions on his employees' faces, Qi Han explained, then opened the shop door. "Come in."

As the staff entered the store, the lunch break was just around the corner.

...

This is the third and final day of the Shrek Food Festival.

After midnight tonight, the voting results for all the participating dishes will be tallied and announced tomorrow morning. Special personnel will then be responsible for promoting the top ten dishes, giving them an unprecedented boost in prestige.

Therefore, at this time of year, all participating restaurants are extremely nervous, hoping that their dishes will make it into the top ten and gain more attention.

However, this year's edition will probably be a little different.

The strong appearance of the Cold Food Festival left only two spots in the top ten list, and these two spots were directly taken by the two best restaurants in the food street on the first day of the food festival: Linlangfang and Jiulongxiu.

No miracle occurred. Over the next two days, no new dishes entered the top ten; instead, the top ten dishes simply swapped positions.

The top dish has changed hands several times, but it always comes from the same restaurant.

Cold Food Festival.

From this perspective, the Cold Food Festival might make many shop owners jealous and resentful, but almost all shop owners feel helpless about this situation and have no complaints.

Because I am indeed less skilled than others.

The Cold Food Festival has been in Shrek City for several months now. How could the food street vendors possibly ignore such a close-knit threat?

Over the past few months, whether they went openly or secretly, they had almost all tasted the dishes served at the Cold Food Festival.

Once they've tasted it, it's hard for them to muster the will to fight again.

With such a huge gap, it's more satisfying to just give up and lie down.

Moreover, it is undeniable that many aspects of the Cold Food Festival have had an impact on and brought about changes for them.

Chopsticks go without saying; now almost every food court provides these new utensils to diners because they are much more convenient than the previous knives and forks, and some dishes have even been improved as a result.

Using tableware to drive innovation in food is a completely new approach.

On the other hand, there was an endless variety of delicious food during the Cold Food Festival.

Qi Han is launching new dishes too quickly.

Compared to other restaurants that launch one dish every few months, Qi Han launches new dishes almost daily; either they don't launch any, or they launch them continuously.

Who can withstand this?

With the Cold Food Festival leading the way, other restaurants were also forced to start developing new dishes and consider how to provide diners with a better experience.

But this raises new questions.

To research new dishes, you need inspiration and ideas, right?

This thing didn't appear out of thin air.

Where does inspiration come from?

After a while, everyone started to focus on the Cold Food Festival.

Each new dish launched during the Cold Food Festival is quite different from the dishes commonly found in Douluo Continent, which has given the food street vendors a lot of inspiration.

It's not about plagiarism, but rather that some things are easy to understand, but no one had thought of doing it before.

For example, fried rice with eggs.

While there is no stir-frying method in the Douluo Continent, that doesn't stop restaurant owners from drawing inspiration from fried rice.

In the past, people would simply prepare white rice for guests to eat as a regular staple food and side dish.

But now, fried rice with eggs makes them focus more on the rice itself.

Although I don't know how to stir-fry, is it okay to add something else when cooking rice?

Of course it is possible.

After trying it out, many shop owners were surprised to find that adding other ingredients to rice and cooking it together was more feasible than they had imagined.

For example, there was a shop called Lao Li's Food, which was originally an ordinary shop on the food street. The owner had a very creative idea: he added some finely chopped dried plums when cooking rice.

The amount of dried plums was not much, but during the cooking process, the sweet and sour flavor of the dried plums was incorporated into the rice. The small plum pieces also brought a change in the texture of the rice. He found that the rice cooked in this way tasted especially sweet when eaten with other dishes, and it was also sweet and sour and appetizing.

Many diners have increased their appetite after eating at his restaurant, which has made his business suddenly boom.

The simple act of adding some dried plums can bring about such a big change. Seeing this, other shop owners also began to study rice, which was originally an ordinary staple food.

Even at this food festival, many new dishes based on rice have appeared.

A dish called beef and green bean rice even received a considerable number of votes.

This beef and green bean rice dish is made by cutting stewed beef into small pieces, adding it to rice along with green beans, and then adding some seasonings.

It's somewhat like the glutinous rice on Earth, except it's made with regular rice.

The rice cooked this way, after repeated research and improvements by the shop owner, turned out to be exceptionally delicious. Moreover, it didn't need to be served with any other dishes; it could be eaten directly like fried rice. It received rave reviews immediately.

This was just an inspiration sparked by the dish of fried rice.

Fried rice with eggs is one of the cheapest foods during the Cold Food Festival, and it was also the earliest to appear, so its influence is more profound.

But the other dishes also brought fresh ideas to the food street vendors.

This is also evidenced by the list of participants in this food festival.

At this food festival, the proportion of soup dishes has increased significantly.

In the past, there might only be one soup dish per festival, or even none at all. But this year's food festival has a total of seven soup dishes. Although they are not comparable to the soup dishes of the Cold Food Festival, with the example of soup dishes like pork tripe and chicken soup, this type of soup dish, which was extremely rare in Douluo Continent, has made significant progress and development.

Erquan single-handedly revived the glory of Beast Taming, while Hanshi, through his own efforts, made soup dishes begin to shine on the culinary stage of Douluo Continent.

In addition, this food festival featured more dishes made with pork knuckle, and people began to try cooking vegetables and fruits together with meat. Cucumbers were used in various cold dishes, and even... many restaurants started to use offal such as intestines.

Of course, the last batch of shops were destined to fail, because there was no way to process internal organs in the world. They had to figure out how to remove the odor and fishy smell from scratch.

How could someone who specializes in something be dull-witted?

These chefs, who deal with food every day, are only lacking a little guidance and a bit of inspiration.

And this is exactly what the Cold Food Festival has in abundance.

People's attitude towards the Cold Food Festival has long since changed from initial vigilance and caution to a bittersweet experience.

Being tortured by the Cold Food Festival is very painful.

I was very happy to absorb inspiration during the Cold Food Festival.

Because everyone has benefited from the Cold Food Festival to some extent, no one expressed dissatisfaction or opposition to the Cold Food Festival's dominance on the list.

Just lie down and you're done.

Chapter 319 All Good Things Arrive as Expected

The third day of business proceeded smoothly without too many setbacks.

Whether it's lunchtime or evening business hours, everything ends in harmony.

If there is any difference, then there is.

Fuya told Qi Han that during lunch and dinner today, there were basically no regular customers; most of the people who came to the restaurant were new faces.

On the other hand, Ping Xinyan and Ji Yunruo said that many of the takeout orders they delivered today were for customers who don't usually order takeout and prefer dining in.

It's as if the regular diners of Hanshi Festival have made a pact to order takeout today and not come to queue.

Qi Han had not heard any prior rumors about this situation, but he quickly understood the reasons why everyone was doing this after a little thought.

This is the last day of the food festival, and everyone must want to leave the opportunity to enjoy the delicious food in the store to more diners who haven't yet tasted the flavors of Hanshi (a traditional Chinese cold dish).

If other diners haven't actually tasted the deliciousness of Hanshi, they won't just vote for Hanshi based on its reputation or the high number of votes it receives. So, the purpose of this move is clearly to win more votes from new diners for Hanshi.

Qi Han was deeply moved by the spontaneous and tacit understanding between the diners.

It seems necessary to launch another round of events to reward our customers.

The last time there was a promotion for Hanshi Festival was when they first launched candied hawthorn skewers, where you could get a free candied hawthorn skewer with every purchase.

As for the system's rules against discounts and treating guests...

Last time, the system turned a blind eye, but now that the system has transformed into Ruyi, which has emotions and greater autonomy, it is even less likely to disagree.

As for the specific activities, Qi Han hasn't decided yet; he'll decide when he does.

Yes, it's Qi Han who hasn't decided yet, not the author.

After the business closed for the evening, Ping Xinyan and Ji Yunruo, who were always concerned about the rankings, brought the latest ranking information.

First place: Squirrel Mandarin Fish, 56 votes.

Second place: Shredded pork with garlic sauce, 52 votes.

Third place: Steamed fish head with chopped chili peppers, 45 votes.

Fourth place: Bodhi Jade Studio, 40 votes.

Fifth place: Longjing Shrimp, 36 votes.

Sixth place: Swallow skin wontons, 33 votes.