Hot Pepper Chicken (2)

Old Master Su said sourly, "Lately I've been eating vegetarian every day; my mouth can't taste anything anymore."

"Right now, the only meat dish in my eatery is the Hot Pepper Chicken. Would you like to try it, Sir?"

Old Master Su had never eaten Hot Pepper Chicken before and frowned, asking, "Is this Hot Pepper Chicken a Sichuan dish?"

"No, Sir, it's a Xinjiang dish," Bai Yi Nuo replied. "Would you like to eat Sichuan food? I have Red Oil Cold Noodles, which is a Sichuan dish. Would you like to try it?"

"I don't want snacks, and I don't want Hot Pepper Chicken. I want meat; braised pork would be even better," Old Master Su said dissatisfied. "Why is there no other meat in your shop?"

Old Master Su didn't know that Bai Yi Nuo also wanted to put more new dishes on the menu, but currently, she was the only one in the shop and couldn't manage so many ingredients. Furthermore, the eatery's customers were mainly students from the surrounding area; their spending power wasn't high, so they couldn't afford expensive meat dishes. Bai Yi Nuo had thought for a long time before deciding to put Hot Pepper Chicken on the menu to try and increase income. Otherwise, Old Master Su wouldn't have seen any meat at all.

"My eatery has just opened, so I haven't been able to host guests properly. But on the other hand, the menu is twenty percent off. You could try some other dishes."

Originally, Old Master Su wanted to leave, but after looking at the characters Bai Yi Nuo had written, he felt very satisfied. Although the boss was a young girl, she had been immersed in calligraphy for so many years; it was clear she was a serious person. Even if the food was bad, it probably wouldn't be that bad.

Old Master Su sighed. Having no other choice, he said, "Then give me half a Hot Pepper Chicken."

"Would you like rice, Sir?"

"Yes."

Bai Yi Nuo stepped into the open kitchen, heated oil in the pot, and added spices like Sichuan peppercorns and green peppercorns. When the oil was seventy percent hot, the fragrance exploded, making a sizzling sound. The entire kitchen was filled with the aroma, which rushed into the nose. After cooling, she would have the soul of the Hot Pepper Chicken—the pepper sauce.

In the pot next to it was the broth, and inside a basin of ice water was the cooked free-range chicken. She put on gloves, took the chicken out of the ice water, placed it in a bowl, tore it into pieces, added the broth, then added the pepper sauce she had just made, added side vegetables, and finally mixed it all together.

Old Master Su had been waiting without much hope. As a result, as soon as the Hot Pepper Chicken was brought out, an alluring fragrance of Sichuan peppercorns and spicy peppers mixed together hit him. Old Master Su suddenly smelled the fragrance filling the air and felt his bland appetite suddenly awaken. He couldn't help but pick up a piece of chicken with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.

Immediately, he was captivated and softened by the new and delicious flavor of this Hot Pepper Chicken. As Old Master Su got older, his sense of taste had declined, making it hard to taste ordinary bland dishes. Therefore, he increasingly liked eating dishes with intense flavors. But he had never eaten a dish with such an intense flavor.

The pure pepper sauce was salty and fragrant, numbing the entire mouth, but when chewed carefully, there was a slight sweetness lingering on the tip of the tongue, which was very stimulating to the taste buds. Furthermore, the free-range chicken that had just come out of the pot was soft, tender, and sweet, with a smooth texture. Dipping it in the pepper sauce was truly a perfect match; the more he ate, the more the delicious flavor lingered.

Although Old Master Su's sense of taste had weakened, he could still clearly tell this was a top-quality chicken. He had never eaten a pepper sauce dish so fresh and delicious. The side vegetables and onions were soaked in the pepper sauce, so they didn't have the pungent taste they had before; the spiciness in the onions also had a particularly light sweetness. Every component in the dish seemed to have been measured to fit; the perfect combination finally formed a dish that allowed the taster to complete a wonderful flavor experience.

Old Master Su's originally frowning brows gradually relaxed, and the annoyance in his heart from eating vegetarian for several days in a row was washed away. His heart welled up with an indescribable sense of satisfaction. What a wonderful feeling!