Chapter 949 One More Bowl Of Rice For Me
Derrick was one of the senior food reviewers from Rodu Culinary Review Magazine, recognized as the top reviewer for vegetarian food. As a vegetarian, Derrick focused on vegetarian food reviews, and thus he was the favorite critic of the vegetarians. He was the expert in this field.
He had specially come to Chaos City from Rodu under the invitation of Robert. He was going to do a complete review and rankings on vegetarian classification for the completely revised Delicious Cuisine Rankings.
Derrick had lived in Chaos City for a period of time when he was little. He was a good friend of Old Lorry. One could say that he became a food critic due to Old Lorry’s influence when he was a young boy.
He was also involved for a period of time when Old Lorry was doing the Delicious Cuisine Rankings back then, so he did have some feelings for it.
Thus, because of this, he agreed on the spot when Robert went to him.
However, he hadn’t come with much expectations. The food scene in Chaos City had alway been far behind Rodu as it didn’t have a strong background and lacked creative chefs.
Although he hadn’t stepped into Chaos City for almost 20 years, after he had eaten at the few restaurants based on the list given by the Food Association this morning, it was exactly what he had expected. There weren’t any vegetarian dishes that could impress him. There were even many restaurants that had signature meat dishes having a perfunctory attitude toward vegetarian food. They gave him rather unpleasant dining experiences.
It was a relief that he had only agreed to do one review for Robert. He would return to Rodu afterward, most probably never to return again.
Mamy Restaurant was the sixth restaurant he had chosen to visit because there was a fine line of words printed after the name. “This restaurant has a high number of customers. Reviewers are advised to queue in advance to prevent wasting time waiting in the queue”. Hence, he had moved this restaurant from the back to the front so he could see what kind of restaurant it was that required the Food Association to purposely write a reminder.
The restaurant opened at eleven thirty, but he had already arrived at eleven. He didn’t anticipate there would already be customers waiting in the queue by the door. There were two lines with 20-odd people in them.
This made Derrick a little surprised. There were a few popular restaurants in Rodu that also had customers lining up in advance, but they were immensely popular restaurants with equally strong reputation and capabilities. However, there were only less than five of them.
He didn’t expect this restaurant in a remote corner in Chaos City to have this kind of popularity too.
As time went by, there were more and more customers queuing up behind him. The queue of 300-400 people had already reached the square even before it was open for business.
What made him even more amazed was that the two lines didn’t seem to be formed randomly. They were deliberately separated into two gangs because of a thing called “tofu pudding”. They were arguing passionately about it, and almost came to blows.
I didn’t expect this restaurant to be this popular. I wonder what’s its signature dish? Does it make an effort for vegetarian food? Derrick thought in his heart curiously. As a vegetarian, he hadn’t touched any meat dishes for more than 20 years.
Derrick tilted his head and asked a young man next to him, “Mate, this is my first visit to this restaurant. Are there any vegetarian dishes worth recommending?”
“Vegetarian dishes?” The young man pondered seriously for a while before hesitantly saying, “I wonder, can the sweet tofu pudding be considered as vegetarian? Still, the savory tofu pudding is definitely vegetarian. Uncle, you’re in the wrong queue if this is your first visit. The savory tofu pudding is the correct choice for you.”
A young lady standing behind Derrick glared at the young man, and unconvincingly said, “Uncle, don’t listen to his lies. The tofu pudding should be eaten sweet. Only the sweet tofu pudding is vegetarian, the savory tofu pudding is heresy.”
“Savory and sweet tofu pudding?” Derrick was deep in thought. So, the “tofu pudding” that they were arguing about was a dish, and the reason behind the argument was only the flavors.
Derrick was slightly embarrassed to see the two young people arguing. He quickly said, “If that is the case, I shall order both flavors. You two can stop arguing.”
“Fat hope, Uncle.” The young lady rolled her eyes.
“Boss Mag had made a rule. Everybody is only allowed to order one set of tofu pudding. You have to choose a flavor if you want to have it, Uncle. Everyone would like to have a second helping too. There are only 200 sets of tofu pudding at every meal. You won’t even be able to have it if you are late,” the young man explained.
“There’s even a rule like this.” Derrick raised his eyebrows, a little surprised. But, after he looked at the snaking queue, he seemed to understand why. There were so many customers, and if there were no purchase restrictions, the customers at the back of the queue would have waited in vain.
“Actually, the tofu pudding can’t be considered a vegetarian dish. It’s at most a snack. If Uncle would like to eat vegetarian food, you may not eat to the full in Mamy Restaurant. Even Yangzhou fried rice has eggs in it. You may not be able to stand the stinky tofu, and that is also a snack,” the young lady added.
“Really?” Derrick was a little disappointed to hear that. It seemed like this restaurant was also focused on meat dishes.
“Boss Mag is debuting a new dish again today. It could be a vegetarian dish,” the young man consoled him.
“Didn’t you read what’s written on the sign? They are debuting “eggplant with garlic sauce” today. It might not be vegetarian,” the young lady said.
“This…” The young man hummed for a moment, and then scratched his head. “It really might not be.”
“It’s fine. I will just try that tofu pudding.” Derrick smiled. It would be false to say he wasn’t disappointed that he couldn’t even have one vegetarian dish after queuing up for so long. However, if that tofu pudding could incite such a never ending argument amongst the customers, it had to have its unique quality. Since it was almost about to open for business, it was no harm to try it before moving onto the next restaurant.
…
“It’s so amazing! There’s only eggplants and no fish in sight, but why does it have a delicious fish fragrance? Also, it goes so well with rice!”
Yabemiya had a taste and couldn’t help praising it.
The others also looked at the half-finished eggplant with garlic sauce in amazement. The eggplants were cut into the shape of a fish. Scales were carved out using delicate knife skills, and the golden red garlic sauce was drizzled over it. It was tangy, sweet, savory, and spicy at the same time.
“Father, one more bowl of rice for me, please. This eggplant with garlic sauce is so delicious.” Amy showed her empty bowl, licked the drip of sauce at the corner of her mouth, and smiled.
“Okay.” Mag took the bowl with a smile and went to refill it. There was no praise in the world that could make him happier than those given by Amy.