Swallowed Star: Food Shocks the Universe

In this small kitchen, Xue Xi watched Tang Xiaoyou's movements meticulously.

After a few years, the clumsy little carrot head has now become a skilled chef. She holds a kitchen knife and quickly puts the cut ingredients into the hot pot. The aroma from the pot fills the whole space.

Xue Xi smiled and praised her apprentice's performance from time to time. On the wall in one corner hung a hand-painted picture by Tang Xiaoyou, which she drew when she watched Xue Xi cooking. Although the brushstrokes were a little immature, it was obvious that the painter was very attentive and all the key details were revealed.

On the other side of the wall are various seasonings and cooking tools, all of which are scaled-down versions suitable for her height and body shape. After every competition in the past three years, Tang Xiaoyou likes to recreate the dishes from the competition here and summarize the gains and losses. In her words, this is the place where she feels most relaxed and comfortable.

The dish was beautifully served on a plate, with strands of concentrated soup poured over the soft and tasty pig's trotters. Tang Xiaoyou nodded with satisfaction: "It's out of the pot!"

Then he brought the braised pork trotter to the small table in front of Xue Xi with an expectant look on his face: "Master, please try it. This dish should be good enough for the finals, right?"

Xue Xi picked up a piece of meat out of courtesy. Hmm, it looked soft and boneless. After taking another bite, Xue Xi frowned slightly, which made Tang Xiaoyou's heart skip a beat: Here it comes, the teacher's sharp judgment is here!

The next second, Xue Xi opened her Divine Tongue and gave her own evaluation: "First of all, I want to praise you because you did a good job in choosing the ingredients. The fresh pig's trotters are firm, the skin is shiny, and there is no peculiar smell. The front trotters have more meat and less bones, and the taste is more tender, which is very suitable for this dish."

Tang Xiaoyou remained silent modestly, because she understood that this was her master's way of judging by first praising and then criticizing.

As expected, Xue Xi began to criticize mercilessly in the next sentence: "It was clean, but you didn't control the blanching time well, and it even affected the final taste of the whole dish!"

"Secondly, you used too high a heat when frying the sugar color, so the color is only average."

“Finally, too much nutrition is lost when stewing the ingredients!”

Tang Xiaoyou's head, which was originally raised, lowered lower and lower. Xue Xi smiled and consoled him, "However, overall, you have made great progress. Your teacher is very satisfied!"

Then he pulled Xue Xi, who had her head drooping, to the stove and rolled up his sleeves: "Look, I'll show you. A chef must learn to face the changes in the ingredients in the pot and make corresponding changes to his cooking plan at any time."

Then he handled the ingredients with ease, blanching and stewing them all in one go. While doing it, he also taught me: "Use boiling water to blanch the meat, but don't blanch it for too long. After taking it out, rinse it with clean water in time to wash away the impurities in the meat!"

"When the rock sugar is melting, you must be very patient and control the heat to the extreme. When you notice that the nutrients of the ingredients are being lost, try adding a little aged vinegar. It will not only prevent the loss of nutrients, but also make the pig's trotters taste better, soft, glutinous, salty and fragrant. Do you understand?"

Tang Xiaoyou stared at Xue Xi's cooking in a daze: "Master, who are you? Every time I eat your dishes, they taste better than the dishes made by the great chef Xue Xi copied in the virtual restaurant."

Xue Xi smiled and said, "Oh, do you think you can't win the championship and give up in advance?"

Tang Xiaoyou was immediately furious: "How is that possible? Forget it, I won't ask. Wait until I win the championship and see how you cheat. Humph~" She pouted, took a piece of food from Xue Xi's pot and put it in her mouth without making a sound, then lit the fire at her own place and continued to practice tirelessly.

Xue Xi shook her head: Just a child’s temper.

Then she left the house, lay down on a chair, picked up a book and started reading with relish. It was the "Food Records" that she asked Sister Lan to scan in. It must be said that the more she read this book, the more interesting it became. She even had a feeling that she could continuously improve her understanding of the laws by lying down and reading the book.

The master was reading the classics in a rocking chair, shaking his head, while the apprentice was practicing diligently in the kitchen, and the days passed like this.

Half a month passed in a flash, and the final of the third Food Town Food Competition was held in the highest hall of this virtual world.

A huge and strange building that looks like a giant wok stands in the center of the world. Crowds of people are rushing here in an endless stream. Fortunately, the competition venue is open-air and the surrounding audience seats can definitely accommodate this huge flow of people.

The gold medal champions from 10 countries were teleported directly here, attracting the attention of the public and under bright lights.

Faced with such a scene, Tang Xiaoyou in the middle did not show the slightest bit of nervousness. Instead, he waved to the cheering team from his gaming country below like a star. Xue Xi was sitting in the front row of the audience, looking at the excited little girl on the field and felt a surge of emotion in her heart.

The batter girl whom she picked up casually in the Novice Village was actually standing in the hall of the food competition, which made her, as a master, feel proud and had a sense of accomplishment in nurturing her.

On the field, the host simply announced the process of the game and then announced the start of the game. The rules were very simple and it was a scoring system.

Each person makes three dishes, which are then judged. A qualified dish gets one point, excellent two points, and perfect five points. The ranking is determined by the scores.

There were five judges on the field. Xue Xi took a closer look and found that they were all familiar faces. Among them, Xu Xin was sitting in the middle seat of the chairman, and on his left and right were loyal gourmets in Chaos City who never missed a meal.

Except Xu Xin, the other four judges were all at the Venerable level. Xue Xi couldn't help but be amazed. She didn't think that these people were hired by Xu Xin with money. It was very likely that these people volunteered because of their foodie nature.

Shaking his head, he saw that the ten contestants on the field had already started cooking. The ingredients for each person were provided free of charge by the operation team, and each one was a perfect virtual ingredient.

Looking at the performance of the contestants, those who made it to the finals are not simple characters. All of them are top-notch in cooking skills. Xue Xi even met one or two world-class gourmets that she had met on Bai Shao Star. It reminded her of the food competition that she left halfway. She didn't expect that after going around in circles, they would meet again in the game of the virtual universe.

Xue Xi couldn't help but sigh. At that time, she was just a rookie who had just entered the universe, but now her own apprentice can stand on the same field with them.

Xue Xi was also very curious about how these local gourmets who stood at the top cooked. They couldn't all rely on technological equipment to perform molecular gastronomy like their old friend Kevin, right?