Chapter 59: Cooking Experiment

Looking at the small yellow fruits on the tree, Zhou Yu couldn’t help but reach out and pick one, then put it into his mouth. A faint, refreshing fragrance reached his nose.

After chewing it a few times, he felt a pleasant aroma fill his mouth. A refreshing sensation spread over his tongue, and his whole body seemed to become more relaxed. After savoring it, he realized that although it was more fragrant than ordinary seasonings, besides that, he didn’t taste any so-called “immortal delicacy” flavor.

Could it be that you had to add some during cooking, blending it into the dish, to truly taste the flavor of an immortal delicacy? Seasonings, perhaps, were born to make dishes taste better. Tasting them alone couldn’t give you the deliciousness of eating a prepared dish.

Zhou Yu didn’t hesitate. He picked several dozen Immortal Flavor Fruits from the Immortal Flavor Fruit Tree and went to the nearby kitchen. He turned on the stove, poured oil into a pan, and took out an egg. He wanted to use the most common ingredient—an egg—to test the effect of the Immortal Flavor Fruit.

After the oil in the pan heated up, he first put in ten Immortal Flavor Fruits. The small yellow fruits turned golden after being fried. At that moment, an enticing, delicate fragrance wafted from the pan.

Smelling this fragrance, Zhou Yu poured the beaten egg mixture into the pan. He then used a spatula to stir-fry it for a while before placing the scrambled eggs onto a plate. At that moment, the plate of scrambled eggs emitted a rich aroma.

He couldn’t resist picking up his chopsticks, grabbing a piece, and putting it into his mouth. A look of surprise couldn’t help but appear on his face. This… the taste of these eggs was simply unbelievable.

The taste he experienced was indeed egg, but the flavor of the egg had fused with the fragrance of the Immortal Flavor Fruit, making the egg taste even more wonderful. When it entered his mouth, it felt very unique, as if all the taste buds on his tongue were stimulated and awakened by this flavor.

However, there was a slight drawback: it wasn’t sweet or salty; the taste was a bit bland. Zhou Yu looked at the row of seasonings beside the stove, and his eyes lit up, as if he had thought of something.

On the Radio, Song Qingxiu said to put some Immortal Flavor Fruit Powder when cooking, but he didn’t say you couldn’t add other seasonings. Based on his guess, this Immortal Flavor Fruit probably not only had its own unique fragrance but might also blend various ingredients and seasonings, allowing their flavors to reach their peak.

Zhou Yu didn’t hesitate. He went back to the frying pan and looked at the few Immortal Flavor Fruits he had just put in. He scooped up one or two with the spatula and smelled them near his nose—the fragrance was still there.

But to test for the best effect, he put in ten more Immortal Flavor Fruits, poured in a little oil, and continued frying a simple plate of eggs.

During the stir-frying, he added salt and monosodium glutamate in turn, stirred for a while, then removed it from the pan and poured it onto a plate. This time, the aroma seemed somewhat different.

Zhou Yu brought this plate of eggs to the table, picked up a piece with his chopsticks, and put it into his mouth. His eyes lit up again, revealing a delighted expression. “Haha, just as I thought. Immortal Flavor Fruit, Immortal Flavor Fruit, it’s truly extraordinary. This is the real seasoning, a miraculous seasoning!”

This piece of egg was completely different from the previous one that only had Immortal Flavor Fruit. The flavors of the salt and monosodium glutamate had completely fused with the egg. Combined with the unique fragrance of the Immortal Flavor Fruit itself, it made one’s mouth water, wishing they could devour the entire plate of eggs.

Although there was still a big gap from the immortal delicacy flavor of his dreams, this was just a plate of scrambled eggs. Yet, it made him feel as if he were eating rare and expensive delicacies. Based on his analysis, using Immortal Flavor Fruit with top-tier ingredients to make a dish would probably yield the true flavor of an immortal delicacy.

Immortal Flavor Fruit grew by absorbing Spiritual Energy within the Spirit Gathering Array. Combined with the reputation of the Divine Chef Villa, it was destined not to appear in ordinary taverns.

At that moment, looking at the remaining Immortal Flavor Fruits in his hand, Zhou Yu’s heart filled with excitement. In the past, he always complained that his cooking skills were terrible. But with Immortal Flavor Fruit, he could eat wonderful dishes every day that others couldn’t even imagine.

However, to make the Immortal Flavor Fruit more effective during cooking, he had to do as Song Qingxiu said: grind the Immortal Flavor Fruit into powder. That would make it easy to carry and more convenient when cooking; you could just sprinkle in the Immortal Flavor Powder directly.

Zhou Yu ate both plates of scrambled eggs clean. This everyday dish, which he was already tired of, let him enjoy a top-tier flavor. It made him want to eat more after finishing; he simply couldn’t get enough.

Thinking of this, he looked at the Immortal Flavor Fruit in his hand, and his expression changed slightly, as if he remembered something. A few days ago, he had seen old news playing repeatedly on his Mobile Phone, saying that some hotpot restaurant and noodle shop owners had put poppy shells in their dishes, making people addicted.

Zhou Yu took out his Mobile Phone, opened his browsing history, found that news article, and carefully assessed his body. Besides the wonderful, comfortable feeling brought by the flavor, he didn’t have any of the reactions mentioned in the news, including that illusory sense of pleasure.

This Immortal Flavor Fruit from the Immortal World should be different from Earth’s notorious poppy shells, right?

But just to be safe, Zhou Yu made a decision. After handling the matters he needed to do in the morning, he ate ten more Immortal Flavor Fruits, then rode his electric bike straight to the county town.

After asking around in the county town, he found they didn’t have the facilities for the test he wanted. He had no choice but to park his electric bike and take a bus to the city.

At the city hospital’s testing center, Zhou Yu told the doctor that he suspected someone had put poppy shells in his noodles when he ate them, so he wanted to get tested.

The doctor carefully observed his condition and couldn’t help but smile, telling him it might be a mild case of paranoia. However, due to his insistence, the doctor agreed to do a urine test. A few minutes later, the results came out—everything was normal.

Seeing that everything was normal, Zhou Yu felt relieved. It was much better to get tested himself now than to have others suspect and test him later. He took the bus back to the county town, retrieved his electric bike, and went to a nearby mall. He spent a little over two hundred yuan to buy a small grinder, similar to a small soy milk machine.

Since he wanted to make powder, a machine would grind it finer than doing it manually, and it was more convenient and faster. After buying the grinder, he also bought several dozen small round containers for seasonings. They had fine holes on top, allowing you to sprinkle freely without too much coming out.

Riding his electric bike back to Taoyuan Village, Zhou Yu started to busy himself. He picked all the fruits from the ten Immortal Flavor Fruit Trees. He wanted to see how much seasoning powder the fruits from ten trees could produce.

At the same time, he also wanted to observe whether these Immortal Flavor Fruit Trees, after having their fruits picked, would bear fruit again tomorrow.

The Immortal Flavor Fruit Tree was sturdier than ordinary small fennel trees, and its fruits were very dense. The green branches bore many small yellow fruits, looking very beautiful.

After picking the fruits, Zhou Yu laid them out in a sunny spot in the yard to dry, planning to grind them into powder once dried. He thought that given the size of the Immortal Flavor Fruits, half a day should be enough to dry them thoroughly.

At the same time, he also took ten seeds from the fruits and planted them in the nearby Shanzhai No. 2 Array. Although Song Qingxiu said that Immortal Flavor Fruit seeds needed to be catalyzed using the special method of the Divine Chef Villa, no matter what, he still wanted to give it a try.

Looking at the patches of small fruits on the ground, Zhou Yu roughly estimated that the fruits from one Immortal Flavor Fruit Tree, after being dried and ground into powder, could fill one seasoning container. The seasoning container’s capacity was about fifty grams.