Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 20 - 19 Healthy Salad

After Qin Huai received the task, he discovered that the task progress was 6.1%/25% (23/94).

He did a quick calculation and figured out that achieving 25% required defeating 94 restaurants, and there should be around 375 restaurants in the vicinity.

At that moment, Qin Huai wasn't sure whether to marvel at the fact that there were as many as 375 restaurants nearby, or to mock the poor reputation of the 23 defeated restaurants, seeing as Yunzhong Restaurant had only been open for less than a day without any reviews on online platforms or paid promotions, yet managed to surpass them in reputation.

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However, this task clearly couldn't be completed in the short term, as reputation is a very abstract thing that fluctuates and requires time to build up.

Looking at the task reward of [Chen Huihong's Dream Sequence], Qin Huai felt that he wouldn't be seeing this dream anytime soon.

He set an alarm for 4:00 PM and lay down for a nap.

When Qin Huai returned to Yunzhong Restaurant, the two chefs in the kitchen had already started preparing ingredients, while the others sat in the first-floor hall chatting.

At Yunzhong Restaurant, they only sell set meal boxes for lunch, so ingredient preparation is relatively simple, needing only to cook dishes from the menu. In the evening, besides meal boxes, they offer stir-fries, which is a bit more demanding.

Seeing Qin Huai arrive, everyone greeted him, even the chefs in the kitchen stretched their necks to nod to show respect to the boss.

Through the morning and afternoon operations, everyone realized who the backbone of the restaurant was. While having a hands-off boss who doesn't interfere is undeniably enjoyable, having a hardworking boss who can lead the company to increase revenue and ensure the stability of everyone's jobs is more trustworthy and earns more respect.

Although Qin Huai hadn't even remembered everyone's names, he still smiled and nodded to everyone, pretending he recognized them all.

The elm bark was in the warehouse.

Qin Huai didn't buy much, just a small bag, and before coming he specifically asked customer service whether this elm bark was organic, if it hadn't undergone extra processing, and if it was edible.

Initially, customer service thought Qin Huai was joking, but upon realizing he was serious, they said it was edible, but remarked that times had changed, and even in this era, children shouldn't be forced to eat tree bark as a lesson of enduring hardship.

As long as it was edible, that's all that mattered.

Qin Huai carried the tree bark into the kitchen.

The two chefs were chopping vegetables in front of the cutting boards, while Qin Huai chose a culinary station farthest from them, carefully selected a piece from the bag of tree bark that seemed the easiest to chew, cautiously cut a small segment with a knife, and weighed it—3g, just right.

The next second, a prompt appeared on the tree bark.

[Tree Bark Grade F].

Success!

Qin Huai looked at the tree bark, pondered, then cut another small piece and put it into his mouth, wanting to taste it.

Qin Huai searched online for tutorials on eating tree bark, and theoretically, the correct way is to dry it and grind it into flour before eating.

The way Chen Huihong and Hui Niang ate it in the dream... was a bit too raw.

Qin Huai wanted to try it raw.

Better to act on impulse than to overthink!

He bit down.

It was hard to chew, like gnawing on cork.

The taste wasn't exactly unpleasant; after chewing for a while, there was even a slight sweetness, but it was very odd—not any usual flavor.

He wanted to swallow it but couldn't.

It caught in his throat.

After chewing hard for two or three minutes, Qin Huai realized that Hui Niang in the dream had some serious practice, as she could swallow a large chunk of bark in just two or three bites.

Having failed with the raw method, Qin Huai directly snagged some salad-mixable vegetables from the two chefs, chopped them quite randomly, mixed them with salad dressing, then found some tools to grind the tree bark into small bits, sprinkled it on top of the salad, mixed it around, and finally added mango and cherry tomatoes as garnish.

A healthy weight-loss salad was born.

Qin Huai carried the salad outside and asked, "Is anyone hungry?"

With this question, no one responded.

No one quite understood Qin Huai's intention, after all, Yunzhong Restaurant provided meals. Dinner was served after business hours, and short-shift workers could eat after their shift.

It was probably because the silence was awkward that a round-faced girl, who looked the youngest and almost like a high school student, timidly raised her hand, "I...seem to be a bit hungry."

Qin Huai vaguely remembered this girl; she was an affordable and efficient odd-job worker, with a middle school diploma, from Qianzhou, and seemed just newly of age.

"An..."

"An Youyou." An Youyou replied promptly.

Qin Huai placed the salad in front of An Youyou, along with chopsticks, "Something new I created, try it if you're hungry."

Though it was a meatless, pure veggie fruit salad, An Youyou was delighted to see mango and cherry tomatoes in it, picking up chopsticks, "Mangoes here are much more expensive than back home that I can't even bear to eat them, thank you, boss!"

Then she proceeded to eat voraciously.

In no time, less than two minutes, she devoured the entire bowl.

Qin Huai asked her, "How's the taste?"

An Youyou answered honestly, "Not good."

"It's just leafy greens with no real taste, only a weird taste from the dressing, but the mango is delicious."

Not tasting good was actually expected, Qin Huai didn't hope for it to taste nice.

"Still hungry?" Qin Huai asked her outright.

An Youyou, a bit stunned by the question, tried hard to sense her gut, not very confidently, "I guess... not really hungry now."

Qin Huai nodded, left satisfied, leaving a puzzled An Youyou and curious but too nervous to ask waitstaff.

Since applying the bark powder salad buff worked, it meant this tree bark could indeed be used as a buff-adding spice. Though this fullness buff was somewhat trivial, it could still be a weight-loss tool. Who knows, in the future, it might pair well with dishes or snacks involving elm bark for making diet meals.

Not bad, a worthwhile experiment.

Qin Huai decided to mix the remaining two portions of bark into salads and take them to Ouyang and Chen Huihong, to see if he could elicit a dream sequence.

After Qin Huai left, the waitress beside An Youyou eagerly asked, "Really not hungry? Every time I eat this, I feel like devouring a whole cow afterward."

An Youyou wasn't certain, "I'm not sure. I didn't quite dare to say earlier that the salad really tasted odd, and I was afraid I couldn't help but eat it quickly. No idea what the boss put in it that made the dressing taste awful. But anyway, I have no appetite now; earlier, I wanted to eat something, but now I don't feel like it anymore."

The waitress took a sharp breath, "It does taste that horrible."

"Good thing I didn't say I wanted to eat."

"Never thought the boss's snacks were so great, yet he can't even make a simple salad."