Chapter 319: The Laid-Back Food Street Vendors
Time flew by, and soon it was almost time for the lunch rush to begin.
Just before the lunch hours were about to start, Qi Han leisurely returned to Han Shi carrying Pururu in his arms. By then, people were already lining up outside the shop, and all seven employees had arrived.
Seeing Qi Han coming from a side street, the seven staff members exchanged glances, a look of surprise appearing on their faces.
"I went to the food street this morning to try some dishes," Qi Han explained, noticing their expressions. Then he opened the store door and said, "Come on in."
With the employees entering the shop, it was almost time for the lunch service to begin.
...
This was already the third day of the Shrek Food Festival—and also the final day.
After midnight tonight, all the votes for the competing dishes would be fully tallied. The results would be announced tomorrow morning, and a dedicated team would promote the top ten dishes, giving them unprecedented exposure and fame.
So, during this time of the festival each year, all participating vendors would be especially nervous, hoping that their entries could make it into the top ten and attract more attention.
However, this year was likely to be a bit different.
Han Shi's dominant presence had left only two open spots in the top ten, and those had already been taken on the first day of the festival by the two best restaurants on the food street: Linlang House and Nine Dragons Delicacy.
No surprises occurred in the following two days. No new dishes made it into the top ten; the only changes were in the rankings among the existing ones.
And the dish in the number one spot changed a few times—but it always came from the same restaurant.
Han Shi.
From this perspective, it seemed like Han Shi would stir jealousy and resentment among the other vendors. But in truth, almost all of them could only accept the situation with resignation, without a trace of dissatisfaction.
Because they truly were outmatched.
Han Shi had been in Shrek City for several months already, and the food street vendors couldn't possibly ignore such a close threat.
Over those months, they had either openly or secretly visited Han Shi, and nearly all of them had tasted its dishes.
And once they had tasted it, it was hard to muster the will to compete.
The gap in quality was just too great—it was simply easier to lie flat and accept it.
Moreover, it couldn't be denied that many aspects of Han Shi had influenced and changed them.
Take chopsticks, for instance. This new kind of utensil was now offered by nearly every vendor on the food street because they were clearly much more convenient than knives and forks. Some dishes had even been improved as a result.
Driving culinary innovation through utensils—this was a whole new way of thinking.
Another major influence came from the sheer variety of dishes Han Shi kept introducing.
Qi Han's pace of launching new dishes was astonishing.
While other restaurants might introduce one new dish every few months, Qi Han was doing it at a pace that could be measured in days. Either he introduced nothing, or he launched several dishes in a row.
Who could keep up with that?
With Han Shi leading the charge, other restaurants were forced to start developing new dishes constantly, and to think more deeply about how to offer better dining experiences.
But that brought a new problem.
Creating new dishes requires inspiration and ideas—these things don't just appear out of thin air.
So, where could they find inspiration?
Soon enough, all eyes turned to Han Shi.
Every new dish Han Shi introduced was quite different from the typical fare seen on the Douluo Continent, sparking new ideas among the vendors on the food street.
It wasn't about copying—some things just made immediate sense once seen, even if no one had thought of them before.
Take egg fried rice, for example.
Stir-frying as a cooking method wasn't common on the Douluo Continent, but that didn't stop vendors from drawing inspiration from it.
In the past, they would simply serve plain rice as a side to accompany other dishes.
But now, egg fried rice had shifted their focus, making them pay more attention to how rice itself could be transformed.
Although they didn't know much about stir-frying as a cooking method, adding other ingredients during the rice-cooking process—was that possible?
Of course it was.
After some experimentation, many vendors were surprised to discover that adding various ingredients to the rice while cooking opened up far more possibilities than they had imagined.
For example, a modest eatery called Old Li's Delicacies—once an unremarkable place on the food street—had an owner with a broad imagination. He began adding finely chopped preserved plums into the rice while cooking.
He didn't use a large amount, but the sweet and tangy flavor of the preserved plums infused the rice during the cooking process. The tiny bits of plum also added an interesting texture. He found that rice cooked this way paired wonderfully with other dishes—it was sweet, tangy, and incredibly appetizing.
Many customers who ate at his restaurant found themselves eating more than usual, and as a result, his business suddenly began to flourish.
That such a simple adjustment—just adding preserved plums—could create such a dramatic improvement, inspired other food vendors to start researching how to innovate rice, once considered a plain and humble staple.
In fact, this food festival saw the emergence of many new dishes that took rice as their foundation.
One such dish, called Beef and Green Pea Rice, even garnered a significant number of votes.
This dish involved cooking stewed beef, chopped into small pieces, together with green peas and seasoning, all mixed with rice and cooked together.
It resembled glutinous rice dishes on Blue Star, except regular rice was used.
Through repeated testing and refinement by its creator, the resulting rice was surprisingly delicious. It could be eaten on its own, much like egg fried rice, without needing any accompanying side dishes. It quickly gained rave reviews.
And this was just the creative boom sparked by egg fried rice alone.
Because egg fried rice was one of Han Shi's earliest and most affordable dishes, it had an especially widespread and lasting impact.
But Han Shi's other dishes had also inspired entirely new culinary directions among the food street vendors.
This was clearly reflected in the list of entries for this year's food festival.
For instance, the number of soup dishes had noticeably increased.
In the past, there might have been just one soup dish—or none at all, since soups were considered niche—but this time, there were seven different soups. Although they still didn't measure up to Han Shi's soups, having examples like pig stomach and chicken to draw from had significantly improved this rarely seen category on the Douluo Continent.
Just as Erquan had single-handedly revived the prestige of beast taming, Han Shi had single-handedly brought soup dishes into the culinary spotlight of the Douluo Continent.
Besides that, this year's food festival saw a rise in dishes featuring pork knuckle, and people began experimenting with cooking vegetables and fruits alongside meat. Cucumber began appearing in various cold dishes, and—perhaps most notably—many vendors started eyeing offal, like pork intestines, as potential ingredients.
Of course, those last few were unlikely to succeed anytime soon. This world lacked established methods for cleaning and preparing internal organs. Deodorizing and removing the gamey odor would require entirely new approaches.
But a person devoted to a craft is never truly slow-witted.
These chefs, who worked with food every day, only lacked a spark—just a bit of inspiration.
And Han Shi had no shortage of that.
Over time, the vendors' initial wariness and hostility toward Han Shi had transformed into a bittersweet acceptance.
Being outshined by Han Shi—painful.
Gaining inspiration from Han Shi—delightful.
Because they had all, in one way or another, benefited from Han Shi's influence, no one resented or objected to Han Shi's dominance on the leaderboard.
They'd simply accepted it—laid back, and let it be.
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