There is a night market near a university. The night market is popular with the staff and students of the university. Each night, groups of students can be seen wandering around the night market. Shopping at the night market is also a common pastime for the students residing near the university campus.
After all, there is a wide variety of things on sale in the night market. You can find all sorts of clothes, toys, and accessories there. But the major attractions in the night market are the food stalls that reside there.
There were all sorts of food stalls within the night market. From smelly beancurd, piping hot noodles, green bean cakes, fried bee hoon, etc…, there was a bewildering assortment of food being offered. The sheer variety of food being sold here is able to satisfy all but the fussiest eaters.
Two days ago, something strange happened in the night market. There is a food new stall that opened in the night market. Now, this night market already had several dozens of stalls selling food, and a having a new food stall is nothing strange. But this stall had barely opened for a week, and it has already become one of the biggest draws in the night market.
"There are so many things to eat here! What should I have for dinner?"
"It is easy to tell that you have not come to the night market for some time. Let's go, I will bring to you eat something really tasty!"
"What is the tasty food that you are talking about?"
"Hehe, this small stall had only opened for just 1 week. But the food there is really good, and you will not be disappointed if you try it."
"Is it really that tasty?"
"If I lie to you, I will be a dog!" [1]
This is a conversion between a couple who are on a date. Having said, the guy began to bring the girl towards an inconspicuous corner of the night market. To say that the place is inconspicuous is not really an apt description. This is because the place is very crowded.
A typical street stall in the night market with 4 or 5 customers queuing for their turn at any time is considered relatively busy. But there are about 40 to 50 people queuing up to buy the food from this stall.
If not for the fact that the stall is located in a relatively remote corner of the night market, just the sheer number of customers here may disrupt the flow of human traffic in the night market.
The couple quickly joined the queue.
The girl was quite familiar with the night market, having frequented it in the past. While they were queuing and waiting for their turn, the girl inquired, "What type of food is it that attracts so many customers here? Yi…, what a detectable fragrance! I almost salivated!"
The man proudly proclaimed, "On the first day that this stall opened, I chanced upon it. I like the food here after trying it. At first, I only purchase 2 skewers. Then I discovered once I tried the food, I could not help wanting more. It looked like it is simple to cook, but the taste is really superb."
"Is it really that incredible?" Looking at the long queue of customers, her curiosity got the better of her, and she asked, "You still have not told me what sort of food it is."
"Hehe, I had not heard of this type of food before either. It is called roast lamb skewers!
…….
What? You had never heard of roast lamb skewers before?
About half a month ago, when Ye Chui mentioned roast lamb skewers, he discovered that nobody had ever heard of this dish. He was astounded. Roast lamb skewers is a common food in China, but for some strange reasons, nobody seemed to have heard of this dish before.
After he understood the situation in this world, Ye Chui finally accepted this fact.
This world is in many ways, similar to Earth, but there are some differences. This world is currently undergoing a 'food revival'.
As for Ye Chui, he did not belong to this world. In his original world, he is a 30 years old master chef who has made a name for himself. He was born in an ordinary household. Through his skills in cooking, he had won numerous awards in overseas cooking competitions. There is a common saying among many of the finest food critics in the world, "If you had not taste Ye Chui's dishes, then you have not tasted all the finest food in the world."
Among his fans, he is known as the 'God of Cooking'.
There is a Chinese idiom that says.
文无第一，武无第二
For scholars, there is no such thing called 'best scholar'. This is because, for scholars, it is difficult to say which piece of research is more important - they are all equally important.
For martial artists, there is no such thing called 'second best'. For martial artists, nobody remembers who the second best is. Everyone only remembers the champion.
In short, every industry has their rules and standards.
In the cooking world, it is no different. It is extremely competitive and difficult to climb to the apex in the cooking world. This is because everyone had different tastes in food. The food that one person thinks is amazing may be repugnant to another person. But the fact that many people thought that Ye Chui deserved the title of 'God of Cooking' is a testament to his cooking skills. Even the food critics acknowledged his title.
For Ye Chui, he had a dream. His childhood dream is to revive the entire Qing Han Imperial Feast [2] and share it with the world. He had always fantasized about the legendary 328 dishes in the Qing Han Imperial Feast. Many of these dishes had been lost due to the ravage of time. He had used all his resources to find out more about these dishes, and conducted several experiments for each dish. He believed that he had finally unraveled the puzzle of the missing dishes.
On his 30th birthday, he finally announced his discovery and offered guests a chance to sample the Qing Han Imperial Feast. The tickets to this event were in sold out within minutes of his announcement. After all, who does not want to taste the food that existed only in legends?
This event quickly became a legend among chefs. But at the same time, it also signaled his downfall. For this event, he had given his all, and just when he was about to receive the acclaim, he collapsed due to exhaustion. Several days of non-stop cooking, without sleeping or any rest in between, had taken its toll on his health.
When he next woke up, he found that he had crossed over into this world.
He did not know if it is fate, but the name of the person whom he inherited is also called Ye Chui. The Ye Chui in this world is a 17 years old teenager. His father has passed away when he was very young, and he was raised in an orphanage. At first, things were not too bad. Although life was hard, at least he had food to eat and clothes to wear. But about 2 years ago, the orphanage closed down due to financial problems. He and the other orphans in the home were rendered homeless.
He is not a man to give up easily. He dropped out from school and found a job, and single-handily provide for himself and two of his sisters.
He is only a teenager, and two years of holding several jobs to support himself and his sisters had taken its toll on him. About half a month ago, after completing his night shift job, an exhausted Ye Chui returned home to sleep - and never woke up. Instead, Ye Chui, the master chef crossed over into his body.
In this parallel world, everything seems similar to the life he had on Earth. Even the science, history, and government are all similar. The only significant difference that this parallel world had with his life on Earth is that there was a massive event about 80 years ago called, "Vegetarian movement".
Vegetarians, as their name implies, only eat fruits and vegetables. They had decided not to eat meat or meat products, including fish, poultry or meat. Some of the stricter vegetarians also rejected food that contains eggs or milk.
On Earth, there are also vegetarians. The vegetarians on Earth learned to live in harmony with others who do not agree with their view. However, the vegetarians in this world actually created a vegetarian virus. This virus rapidly spread throughout the world.
This virus does not directly hurt human beings nor does it wipe out all the animals. But this virus can make the animals' body produce a complex protein. And this complex protein is poisonous to human beings!
This virus is difficult to destroy, and had wiped out over a third of the world's population. It also caused some of the carnivorous animals to go extinct. For people who love to eat meat, the virus is a source of despair.
About 2 years ago, scientists finally managed to overcome this problem. They developed a vaccine for this virus, and begin to inject these vaccines into animals. Finally, meat is once again, safe to be consumed.
Since time immemorial, humans have hunted animals for their meat. To humans, eating meat is a natural part of their diet. But after the vegetarian movement, for the first time, humans found it strange and weird to eat meat. After the vaccine had been developed, many people had found that they had forgotten how to cook these meats. A countless number of recipes had also been lost to the ravage of time.
Hence the 'food revival' movement was born, as humans begin to experiment with cooking meat dish again.
Under these circumstances, Ye Chui, the God of Cooking, was reborn in this world.
Notes:
[1] "骗你是小狗！" common Chinese saying translated as 'If I lied to you, I will be a dog'. The actual meaning is 'it is the honest truth.'
[2] Qing Han Imperial Feast and Manchu Han Imperial Feast are referring the same thing. When the Mongols conquer China, they established the Qing dynasty. For this reason, the words Qing and Manchu may be used interchangeably. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchu_Han_Imperial_Feast
Xinjiang Lamb Skewers Recipe This article is about Xinjiang Lamb Skewers recipe. It provides a step by step guide to making the dish, “Xinjiang Lamb Skewers “. It includes a video, some background information as well as the recipe. Note that this recipe is ... February 24, 2018 / ,