"Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak~"
The knife in his hand moved at an astonishing speed, dicing across the cutting board. Countless shredded potatoes, cut to uniform length and width, flew into the air, landing in a small, prepared water basin in less than ten seconds.
On the table now sat twenty stainless steel bowls of the same size, each filled with water in which uniformly cut shredded potatoes were soaking.
He julienned dried chilies, minced garlic, and sliced green peppers into equally fine strips, preparing twenty portions of each at once and placing them into three separate steel bowls.
"It's about time. Ikaros, let's open for business."
Seeing that the tabletop could hold no more ingredients, Okabe looked up at Ikaros, who was watching from the side.
"Yes, Master."
Hearing Okabe's words, Ikaros immediately sprang into action. She first set up tables and chairs in front of the stall with incredible speed, then brought out a sign from behind the counter.
Hot and Sour Shredded Potato Set Meal, 800 yen, limit 1 per person, free rice refills.
The sun began to set, and the streets filled with pedestrians.
Both sides of the street were lined with countless stalls. This was one of Tokyo's gourmet streets, where setting up required no rent—only victory against one of the stall owners in a Shokugeki duel.
The area was also located in Tokyo's bustling commercial district, so most of the passersby were office workers on their way home.
Many of them were still single.
And these young men and women, who were single and too lazy to cook when they got home, were his primary target customers.
At this moment, six or seven people had already gathered in front of the stall. Seeing the tables and chairs being set out, they immediately took their seats, their faces filled with anticipation as they looked at the "Now Open" sign.
Many of them were regulars at Okabe's stall, drawn in by the delicious and affordable Hot and Sour Shredded Potato Set Meal, becoming the stall's resident NPCs.
Even more were newcomers who, upon seeing that the chef was a young child, approached out of curiosity, wanting to see what kind of dishes he could make.
Some even raised their phones to sneak a picture, capturing Okabe's small figure in front of the stove to check in on their social media.
[Tokyo street corner, a tiny chef. I hear the Hot and Sour Shredded Potato Set Meal is famous. This gourmet is here to investigate, ehehe ૮⑉・-・⑉ა]
On the internet, unbeknownst to Okabe, he had already become a minor online celebrity on the streets of Tokyo.
Although his following wasn't large, it was enough to attract quite a few fans from surrounding cities who came specifically to see him.
There were two or three such fans in the current line.
"Are you finally open? I've been waiting forever!"
"I can't believe a kid this young is actually running a stall. Isn't he afraid of getting burned by the flames?"
"Ahh, it's really true! A five-year-old's Hot and Sour Shredded Potato stall! Isn't this world a little too surreal!? I can't believe it!"
"Is that his older sister next to him? She's so pretty, and her figure is amazing!"
As the customers sat down, whispers spread through the crowd, but Okabe paid them no mind. He had long since grown accustomed to similar comments every day.
His focus was now on the stove.
"WHOOSH~"
As he applied more force with his hand, a massive flame erupted.
A wave of heat radiated from the stove, spreading in all directions before being firmly suppressed by the iron wok.
"What a huge fire! Won't that just burn the shredded potatoes?"
A first-time customer commented. He was currently filming with his phone; a five-year-old cooking on the street was just too astonishing. He wanted to capture it to use as conversation fodder while slacking off at work next week.
He had specifically taken the subway to Ginza for this.
"You just don't get it. Potatoes stir-fried over high heat are the crispiest, you know?"
"Why is that?"
"Why else? After soaking the shredded potatoes in water, most of the starch on the surface is washed away, but there's still plenty of starch inside.
The high temperature instantly gelatinizes the starch on the surface of the potatoes, forming a protective layer that allows them to cook quickly while the inside remains crisp and juicy.
On the other hand, if you use low heat, the heat transfers slowly, and the pectin in the potato's cell walls will gradually break down and dissolve with prolonged heating.
The moisture inside will continuously seep out, causing the shreds to lose their structure and become soft and limp."
"Are you a chef too? You know so much! That's amazing!"
"I'm a graduate student at the biotech university nearby. I had an experiment that required studying potatoes, and we couldn't waste them afterward. The dish we made most often was this Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes. To be honest, we got sick of making it, and we were about to get sick of eating it too."
As if recalling unpleasant memories, the young man with glasses couldn't help but shudder, a hint of dread for the dish creeping into his voice.
"If you ate so much of it back then that you're even traumatized, why do you still come to this stall? Does this place's Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes have some kind of magic?"
The tough-looking guy sharing a table with him asked curiously, his gaze toward Okabe becoming more inquisitive.
"Of course it's because his version is different! I have never eaten shredded potatoes where the salty, umami, and sour flavors are so perfectly balanced!
Do you get it? The ones we ate in the lab were either too salty or too sour; the seasoning was never right.
And because the stove at home wasn't powerful enough, they were always sticky and mushy. Blanching them first helped a bit, but the taste was still very average."
The man with glasses rambled on, the misery on his face looking genuine, which only made the tough-looking guy more curious about Okabe's cooking.
Just what kind of dish could it be?
To be able to liberate the man with glasses from his psychological trauma, making him come to taste and check in every few days.
Coincidentally, after some simple preparations, Okabe officially began cooking.
His cooking was incredibly crisp and efficient.
First, he heated the wok until it was scorching hot, then added cool oil.
Next, he used a ladle to scoop a small amount of minced garlic into the wok to release its fragrance, followed by the shredded chilies. After stir-frying them until fragrant, he directly added the drained shredded potatoes.
He used new potatoes, which are harvested early in their growing season. They have higher water content and lower internal starch, making them the best ingredient for Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes.
As the temperature rose, the aroma of garlic, the spiciness, and the flavor of the potatoes themselves wafted through the air, causing the seated customers to involuntarily twitch their noses.
"This is the smell! If I'm not mistaken, it's time for the seasoning!"
Greedily inhaling the aroma in the air, the man with glasses muttered to himself as he watched Okabe. He saw him position the ladle over the seasonings, his fingertips flying as he scooped up salt, MSG, and rice vinegar all at once.
The next moment, the small figure lifted the wok high. Unrestrained by the wok, the flames from the stove shot up in an instant, a magnificent sight of crimson and orange.
The Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes in the wok flew high into the air under Okabe's skillful toss, while he simultaneously flung the seasoning from the ladle, allowing the two to merge perfectly.
"And then there's the aged vinegar. That's the secret to their delicious Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes. It contributes to the complexity of the sourness."
The man with glasses stared intently at the wok, only relaxing after seeing Okabe scoop a bit of aged vinegar from the seasoning area. Next came the shredded green peppers, used to provide another layer of crispness.
It wasn't just the sourness that needed to be complex; the texture did as well.
Only by perfecting both could a dish be considered a qualified plate of Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes.
"This is the moment!"
"Time to plate!"
In front of the stove, Okabe's expression turned serious.
The iron wok traced a clean arc through the air, and the flames instantly subsided.
Golden shredded potatoes and a few decorative green pepper strips cascaded down like a waterfall, landing precisely on the waiting white porcelain plate.
The tangy aroma, stimulated by the hot oil and rice vinegar, exploded with wok hei. Every single potato shred was coated in a crystalline sheen of oil, trembling with crispness.
[Congratulations, Host, for advancing the general skill Stir-Frying to Mastered]
[Stir-Frying]: Mastered (1/10000)
[View proficiency panel?]
[View]
[Name]: Okabe
[Age]: 5 years old
[Strength]: 10
[Spirit]: 14
[Charm]: 18.8
[Basic Skills]: Knife Skills (Purple)
[Advanced Skills]: Body Control (Gold), Five Methods of Fruit and Vegetable Identification (Blue), Elementary Sense of Taste (Blue), Japanese (Green), Chinese (Blue)
[General Skills]: Stir-Frying (Purple), Soup Making (Purple)
[Passive Skills]: Gustatory Image Deduction (Purple)
[Recipes]: Three-Freshness Five-Flavor Vegetable Soup (Green), Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes (Green)
[Cookware]: Seven-Star Knife: Wu Qu
[View Knife Skills proficiency]
[Knife Skills]: Perfection (1/50000)
As the saying goes, focus on one point to achieve the pinnacle. After one year and ten months of effort, Okabe had finally raised his Knife Skills to the level of Perfection just before closing the stall yesterday evening.
However, as the proficiency level increased.
Making Hot and Sour Shredded Potatoes no longer caused any fluctuation in his Knife Skills proficiency.
This was the result of today's practice.
It was time to switch to a more advanced dish for training.
_____
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