Chef at the University Canteen-Chapter 407 - 256: This Flavor, He Can’t Bear to Forget! (Part 2)

Chapter 407: Chapter 256: This Flavor, He Can’t Bear to Forget! (Part 2)

She looked up at Jiang Yu and the others and said:

"Both these plates of sweet and sour fish are delicious, but for some reason, I just want to eat the one at the back."

She frowned, pondering for a moment, then added,

"How should I put it, you guys haven’t had depression, so you might not understand that feeling. People with depression are surrounded by sadness and despair every day, feeling very helpless.

When I tasted this plate of sweet and sour carp, it was as if a small crack opened up in the cage surrounding me, giving me hope of escape.

But the first plate of sweet and sour carp, while tangy and tasty, is merely a stimulation of the taste buds. Deep inside, there’s still a slight resistance.

Hmm, that’s about it. Do you understand what I’m saying?"

After hearing Pan Jingchen’s words, Jia Dequan and Jiang Yu couldn’t help but exchange glances, both seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes.

Jia Dequan couldn’t help but shake his head, his face showing a bit of disbelief, and he said:

"Miss Pan has described it very clearly. You can’t eat food made by others, but you can eat food made by Xiaojiang, which already says a lot.

It’s not about whether the food is tasty; what Xiaojiang makes is simply different from what others make."

"It’s the same ingredients, the same seasonings, just a different person making it, yet it turns out to be something different?"

Jiang Yu raised a hand to scratch his head. Although he had suspected as much, now faced with the truth, he was a little incredulous,

"I think Sister Chen’s situation might just be an exception. Why don’t we find more people to try it out?"

"No matter how many people you find, it will be the same."

Jia Dequan glanced sideways at Jiang Yu and said with a pout,

"You’ve been running this shop for so long, don’t you have some sense in your own heart?

Speaking of nothing else, just your soup dumplings can make Lao Lu’s precious grandson run away from home to work for you. Do you think that’s normal?"

Saying this, he shook his head again and muttered,

"I’m self-aware, no matter how good the food I make is, others might praise it as tasty, but they wouldn’t think of coming over to work for me."

Jiang Yu: "..."

Brother Xiaowu craves the deliciousness of the soup dumplings and wants to be able to eat them anytime, so he comes to work at my shop. Isn’t that normal?

Let alone Brother Xiaowu, aren’t you the same, Lao Jia?

I don’t see anything strange about it!

Of course, he dared not say this out loud, or else Lao Jia would definitely get angry and jump up to thump him on the head!

"Alright, Junior Brother Jiang, hurry up and eat, or else the fish will get cold and won’t taste as good."

Just then, Pan Jingchen called out,

"Old man, Xiaoyan, you all eat too!"

"Yes, let’s eat together!"

Jiang Yu nodded and decided not to think about these things anymore. He picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a piece of Jia Dequan’s farmhouse stir-fried pork, and put it into his mouth.

After chewing just a few times, his eyes lit up. The meat was tender and juicy, spicy and delicious, making his taste buds feel like they were about to explode. It was definitely a ’rice killer’!"

Lao Jia was indeed a top chef with the title of Master Cook. The dishes he made were incredibly good!

Like Jiang Yu, Jia Dequan didn’t eat his own cooking. He picked up some of Jiang Yu’s sweet and sour carp with his chopsticks and savored it.

To make this sweet and sour carp, you generally need to marinate the carp first, coat it in flour, fry it until crispy, and finally cook the sweet and sour sauce to pour over it.

The resulting dish has a crispy outer layer of the carp, with tender and flavorful fish inside, complemented by the tangy and sweet sauce which is not only appetizing but also pairs perfectly with rice.

For Jiang Yu’s cooking, Jia Dequan had never had anything that wasn’t delicious. This sweet and sour carp was no exception, with its tangy sweet flavor and tender, flavorful fish, it made him think of his late wife.

Even though decades had passed, he still clearly remembered that when she was young, she was beautiful, just like Yan Tongtong—vibrant, lively, and adorable.

She loved the candied hawthorn skewers he secretly brought her the most.

The hawthorn balls, wrapped in a transparent sugar coating, skewered one by one on long bamboo sticks, red and shiny, glowing enticingly.

With just one skewer of candied hawthorns, she was always reluctant to eat it alone, insisting on sharing it. So, she would take a bite, and then Lao Jia would take a bite, and they would just look at each other and giggle.

That bite of candied hawthorn—sweet with a hint of sourness, sour with a touch of sweetness—was just like those days of youth, and just like the love between him and her.

But alas, their promise of growing old together didn’t come true. She left him before his hair even turned white.

As he thought about this, Jia Dequan’s eyes, full of life’s changes, became blurry, as if a layer of mist had covered them.

He suddenly woke from his thoughts, quickly pulled out a tissue to wipe his eyes, and couldn’t help but keep eating the sweet and sour carp.

This taste—he couldn’t bear to forget!

Sitting to the side, Jiang Yu watched this scene unfold clearly. He was surprised—how could Lao Jia be tearing up while eating?

Seeing his face full of emotion, Jiang Yu wondered what had come to his mind.

He was about to ask but then thought better of it and decided against it.