Chapter 63: The Pickle Dispute

  Since the reform and opening-up, foreign businessmen who were rarely seen in China before have emerged one after another like frogs after a spring rain, scrambling to occupy the market everywhere, making domestic businesses cry out in distress, exclaiming "the king of gamblers has arrived".

  The catering industry was originally the one that was impacted the least, and the Western-style red wine and Western food were just suitable for showing off. In fact, they didn't really suit the Chinese people's taste buds. It wasn't until the appearance of Japanese and Korean cuisine that domestic counterparts felt threatened.

  Among them, the most threatening is still the "Korean wave" of Korean cuisine, which combines the essence of Japanese and Chinese cuisine, with a strong flavor of kimchi and barbecue, and seems to be sweeping the Chinese market again after entertainment, fashion, cosmetics and other popular fields.

  The old place's main store is diagonally opposite, it is the 'Janggeum Restaurant' opened by Nanbang in Chudao. With the influence of a certain TV series and the strong support of the stick flow fans, this five-star hotel has been holding on tightly, even the 'Doulai Le' which was upgraded to a five-star hotel last year was suppressed by it, not to mention the old place which used to be just a mid-to-high-end restaurant.

  Zhang Zhao upgraded to five stars this time, and also held his breath to compete with "Chang Jin Restaurant". He didn't expect that the stick would treat the rules of Huaxia Qinxing as if they were in his own pocket, not giving him a chance to develop before issuing a challenge according to the rules. Although the threshold for entering the Jianghu in the 21st century has been lowered a lot, and Chu Du is not a place where mixed stars are born; if Zhang Zhao didn't accept the challenge, he wouldn't be ostracized or even expelled from the industry like in the old days; but Zhang Zhao just couldn't swallow this breath, and also couldn't lose face!

  Even if he was willing to admit defeat, if Cao Laozhang found out about this matter, he would be furious; if he provoked the old ancestor, Zhang Zhuang would never dare to cook Beijing dishes again, and Cao Laozhang would not pass on his skills to him even if he passed them on to pigs or dogs.

  So no matter what, Zhang Zhuang must fight and he must win!

  When Zhou Yi arrived at the old parking lot in his Land Rover, he saw Zhang Zhuang standing on the steps in front of the door, posing with a "big brother" attitude and looking anxious. As soon as he saw Zhou Yi's car, this guy rushed over in a few strides, opened the car door, and said urgently: "Old brother, you've finally arrived, I was almost worried to death..."

  "Take it easy, take it easy, Zhang Ge."

  Zhou Yi looked at Zhang Zhuo with some surprise. As a prominent figure in Chu's capital, he shouldn't have lost his temper like that. Doing such big business, didn't he need to maintain some dignity?

  "Zhang Ge, I've already arrived, what are you still worried about?"

  "Can I not worry?"

  Although it was a crisp autumn day, Zhang Zhuang was sweating profusely: "Banger is too ruthless. This competition was originally just an internal rivalry, at most it would be representatives from various restaurants in Chu City coming to watch; but Banger actually invited the famous foodie Chang Lao Yezi from the provincial capital and Yang Cai, the 'Food Flower' of Zhou Nan Daily, and even invited two top-level chefs from Japan as judges. This is a declaration of war, wanting to fight to the death with me."

  Zhang Zhuang said gritting his teeth, this is a hatred of three rivers and four seas, an enmity of five lakes and eight deserts...

  "Since it's a competition, there must be judges. But surprising the provincial capital and Nanjing High School's judges is not very decent..."

  Zhou Yi also slightly frowned, Yang Cai and Chang Aiguo had met at the banquet, one of whom was known as "Linglong Xiangshe" and had a reputation for being a foodie, representing the news industry; the other was personally in charge of compiling the "Tianxia Caipu", representing the authority of Lu Province. Is this an attempt to knock out the old place in both public opinion and professional fields at once?

  Zhou Yi glanced at Zhang Zuo and smiled lightly, "Brother Zhang, this isn't a place for conversation. Let's talk in your office instead? You don't have to worry too much, I'm here now."

  "Right, right, I was too hasty, brother. Sorry to make you laugh. Come on, let's go to my office and have a nice cup of tea while we chat..."

  The old place's flagship store, so-called expansion, is basically a rebuild on the original land, for which a large-scale demolition was carried out. With a 1,500-square-meter plaza, a 20-meter-high fountain, flags of all countries standing upright, an 18-story building with nine floors for accommodation and nine floors for dining, just looking at this wealth, Zhou Yi knew that Zhang Zhao's company, although not yet listed, could be ranked among the top ten in Chu City.

  The old place and Chang Jin restaurant have the same strategic idea, which is to attract consumers with excellent dishes. Therefore, catering has become the top priority, no wonder Zhang Zhao attaches great importance to this competition.

  Two people took the elevator to the chairman's office on the 18th floor. Zhang Zuo's life secretary, who had a youthful appearance and a sexy and innocent demeanor, was about to speak in a coquettish tone when she was interrupted by Zhang Zuo: "I have something to discuss with my brother, you go out first... By the way, let the kitchen send over a jar of pickled vegetables made by Yun's chef..."

  "Yes, Chairman!" The beautiful secretary gave Zhang Zhao a resentful glance and walked out with a swaying motion.

  "Little brother, try some of my 20-year-old Pu'er tea, the aroma is coming out..."

  He let Zhou Yi sit on the sofa, Zhang Zuo took over the tea set and personally poured him a cup. He himself didn't have the mood to drink tea and sighed: "Younger brother, don't blame Zhang Ge for not knowing how to speak. Zhang Ge just wants to ask one question, your culinary skills are indeed formidable, but... can you make kimchi?"

  "Kimchi, isn't it better than kimchi at a long-term restaurant?"

  Zhou Yi was taken aback at first, but then immediately understood why Zhang Zuo was so worried. The stick's kimchi is indeed world-renowned and has a wide variety of flavors. Although there are many skilled chefs in China, it's not necessarily the case that they can surpass the stick's kimchi. After all, each profession has its own specialized skills.

  "Is that so?"

  Zhang Zuo shook his head and said, "This is also a rule of the competition, challengers are guests, they can point out the content of the match; these sticks are cunning, actually wanting to compare pickled vegetables! This thing is small, but it's still a dish, right? Brother Zhang really has no way to refuse..."

  "That's it." Zhou Yi also nodded: "If our Huaxia didn't have kimchi, that would be fine. But we do have kimchi, and Sichuan kimchi is particularly famous. If we refuse, I'm afraid the stick will make a big deal out of it and say we're afraid of him."

  "Alright! Brother, I also think that one cannot lose face, so I agreed..."

  "However, I immediately regretted it. Brother, you also know that if we say that Chinese cuisine is comparable to a big dish, we may not be able to come up with tens of thousands of famous dishes to overwhelm the little stick... but when it comes to this pickled vegetable, it's really hard to take out..."

  Zhou Yi nodded. Zhang Zhuang was right, although Sichuan pickled vegetables are famous, they are relatively single in terms of variety and flavor. Naturally, they can't compare to the thousands of years of development of using pickled vegetables as the main dish, where even occasionally eating a meal with meat is like celebrating the New Year. After thousands of years of development, they have large jar pickles as one type, small jar pickles as another type, red pepper pickles as another type, green pepper pickles as another type, and stirring clockwise with a spoon as another type, while counterclockwise stirring is yet another type... Calculating like this, there are actually over a thousand types!

  China has all kinds of delicious dishes, but other people have a thousand types of pickled vegetables! Now I'm going to take off the old cotton-padded jacket on my body and compare its thickness with your underwear, isn't this cunning or what?

  Jian Zhouyi didn't say a word, and Zhang Zhuo couldn't help but sigh: "Younger brother, you don't have to be so troubled. Fortunately, my current head chef is well-versed in the three major cuisines of Lu, Chuan, and Yue. He has already tried making kimchi, and I think it's okay after tasting it. This time, I invited you here also to ask for your help in tasting it and seeing if there's still room for improvement..."

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