Universe Infinite Canteen-Chapter 582: Snack Coupons

"The theme for the second round of the competition is — street food."

The female host said, "I know all of you are chefs from top-notch restaurants, many of which have successfully won stars, serving celebrities, tycoons, social elites, and even royalty daily.

"But this round, you will need to tackle the more universally loved street food.

"Every city has its own street food, like a business card of the city itself, infused with local culture, connecting the hearts and stomachs of the city's people, soothing their weary souls.

"Street food is the most egalitarian and inclusive type of food, and in this round, we are also handing the judging power back to the public."

"500 ravenous members of the public as judges, each holding 5 snack coupons, will use them to buy the food they like, and collecting 100 votes will allow you to advance."

"Why are you laughing?" Sun Mei asked Ma Lu.

"Do you know what I did before I opened a restaurant?"

"You're so young; you must have been a university student."

"That's true, but between being a student and opening a restaurant, I used to have a snack stall for a while," Ma Lu said, "right outside the school gates."

Sun Mei was indeed surprised because Ma Lu's culinary skills were outstanding. A chef of his caliber could easily earn a monthly salary of thirty to forty thousand with just a casual position in a big hotel; he wouldn't have needed to resort to running a stall.

Additionally, Sun Mei witness once again Ma Lu's robust mental strength, considering he had set up his stall right back at his alma mater.

This guy's thick-skinned.

There was no more time for chatting as the second round had already begun.

The competitors selected their ingredients even faster this time than in the last round, as if hoarding food during a pandemic.

This was because each member of the public only had 5 votes, and it required 100 votes to advance; in other words, optimistically speaking, only 25 people could advance this round.

Moreover, since those who were eliminated would also take some votes, the actual number of people who could advance would be even fewer.

Many also realized that being early to finish cooking could offer a significant advantage in this round.

Because at that time, there were no other competitors, and all 500 public judges had snack coupons in their hands.

The host had earlier used the term "ravenous," meaning they likely hadn't had breakfast.

Most people would tend to buy a portion of food first, regardless of its quality, and eat while waiting for more.

Thus, getting the upper hand became particularly important in this round, which was also a significant characteristic of street food.

Many commuters would buy food on their way to or from work, and if the cook wasn't fast enough, they would turn to other faster stalls.

Some competitors caught on to this; they grabbed several large trays of eggs and started frying them on the hot plate, as the scent of fried eggs wafted through the air.

Indeed, some could not help but salivate, but no one came to buy the fried eggs.

The reason was simple; although all the judges were ordinary people, they were not the rush-hour commuters.

Everyone had been selected to witness the God of Cooking Competition, clearly hoping to see and taste some food that differed from their everyday life.

For this, waiting a bit hungry was not unbearable.

It wasn't just about frying eggs; other competitors seeking shortcuts, like those who made plain pancake batter or grilled ordinary meat skewers, also ended up with sales in the single digits.

This made more and more contestants realize that in addition to speed, creativity, and flavor could not be ignored.

Eventually, the first to see an increase in sales was a Thai competitor who cooked a dry-fried Tom Yum Soup.

The traditional Thai Tom Yum Soup required using a broth, but preparing the broth took too much time.

Therefore, the Thai competitor gave up on the broth and instead stir-fried shrimp, squid, and scallops with ingredients like lemongrass, chili, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice, onions, tomatoes, coconut milk, and ginger slices.

The Tom Yum produced was equally delicious, and the seafood was obviously much more attractive to the customers than eggs and pancakes.

Moreover, he filled the plates generously, putting three to four kilos of seafood in the pot and only serving four plates.

As soon as it was ready, it immediately attracted a crowd of more than a dozen patrons, who all pulled out their snack coupons.

The Thai chef, seeing this, grinned, collected four coupons, and immediately started on the next batch.

In this round, Chuan Ye Zhengming, who had hesitated and acted indecisively in the previous round, suddenly became one of the fastest to complete his task.

He chose to make tempura, one of the four great cuisines of Japan and a common street snack.

Besides traditional tempura with shrimp, fish, shellfish, and sea urchin perilla, Chuan Ye Zhengming also experimented with tempura of coconut meat, fresh flowers, wild greens from Wuzhishan, sweet potato leaves, and mint leaves.

His melancholy air, which closely resembled that of Odagiri Joe, immediately captured the attention of a large group of female fans.

Leveraging his years of sea fishing experience, he selected only the freshest ingredients, covered them with a perfectly thin layer of wheat flour, and strictly controlled the oil temperature and frying time.

The tempura he cooked was crisp and delectable, and the mix of meat and vegetables effectively mitigated the greasiness of the fried food, quickly bringing a booming business.

Sun Mei initially planned to make stir-fried ox noodles, but halfway through, she suddenly remembered something.

This round of the God of Cooking Competition in the Asian Region was held in Sanya, meaning the public judges invited were all locals.

This was both good and bad.

The good part was that as a fellow compatriot, Sun Mei understood their taste preferences better, but the bad part was that local snacks might not be as tempting to them as foreign ones.

It wasn't that local snacks were not tasty, but people naturally enjoy trying new things, especially at an event like the God of Cooking Competition, where they would naturally prefer to try something they hadn't eaten before.

Therefore, foreign snacks were generally selling better.

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Having studied in Europe for years, Sun Mei had also tried quite a few European snacks.

With her culinary skills, replicating these snacks would have presented no difficulty. However, Sun Mei chose not to do so after a quick glance revealed that other competitors were mostly using snacks from their own countries.

Moreover, the female host had mentioned earlier that every city has its street food, somewhat like a city's calling card.

It wouldn't be appropriate for her to use European snacks either.

But this didn't stump Sun Mei.

With China's land area ranking third in the world at 9.6 million square kilometers and being a multi-ethnic nation, besides the well-known national snacks, there were also many lesser-known snacks with strong regional characteristics.

For instance, she was now making "spicy jars," a snack from the Xibo ethnicity, similar to stuffed green peppers.

Besides that, she also prepared snacks from the Tu Nationality called Hali Hai and Bamboo Chicken from the Hani people.