Chapter 85: The Third and Fourth Dishes?

“You need to wait a bit. It’s still very hot and might burn your tongue,” Liu Heming said as he picked up a piece from the plate, placed it on a small dish, and handed it to Alex.

The little girl nodded vigorously, then focused all her attention on the Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet in front of her. As for the Bear Kids rubbing against her legs, trying to get a taste, she temporarily ignored them.

“You two aren’t afraid of the heat, are you?” Liu Heming said while preparing the other half.

Sasha hesitated a little but still picked up a fork from nearby, speared a piece, and began tasting it carefully. Robin had no such worries—his eating style had always been hearty.

Liu Heming was quite hopeful that Sasha would offer some comments. However, at that moment, the little girl couldn’t resist the temptation any longer. Urged by her growling stomach, she also picked up her fork, speared a piece of the Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet from her plate, and took a small, gentle bite.

Watching his daughter’s squinting, smiling expression and seeing the task progress prompt at the bottom of his vision—2/6—Liu Heming was overjoyed. His guess had been correct; there were indeed some tricks to completing this task.

Feeling very happy, a smile naturally appeared on his lips. However, he overlooked one thing: initially, he had been looking at his daughter, but after the system showed the task progress prompt, his gaze shifted slightly. Coincidentally, that direction was where Sasha was standing.

There was a height difference between them—Sasha was taller than him. He was slightly looking down, and the direction of his gaze was naturally noticed by Sasha, who was still tasting the Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet.

Sasha felt angry and glared at Liu Heming. But this guy continued to look at her with his “lecherous” expression, leaving her unsure of how to react. She had seen shameless people before, but never someone this shameless.

Robin, standing nearby, also felt a bit upset. He thought the fault lay with him. If he hadn’t encouraged Liu Heming, Liu Heming wouldn’t have been so blatant.

Liu Heming, who was feeling pleased, didn’t notice any of this. He scooped out some of the food—this portion was for the Bear Kids—and put the rest on another plate.

Without caring whether it was hot or not, he tasted the Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet from both plates and felt a little reflective.

If he gave the first batch of Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet a ten out of ten, the second batch would only get an eight at most. His mind had wandered earlier, and as a result, the control of the heat and the evenness of the sauce coating were both lacking. The second batch was inferior to the first in both texture and appearance.

It seemed his skills were still far from adequate. A real master chef wouldn’t be affected by external distractions and would focus solely on the dish they were cooking. His own skills were still lacking, and he realized he needed to practice harder in the future.

Today’s task was to speed up and complete this mission. He had already finished 2/6, with four dishes remaining. He felt that, with the little trick of involving his daughter, it should be easy to finish.

However, when it came to preparing the third and fourth dishes, he encountered difficulties.

He thought he had found the trick: as long as the food tasted good, his daughter hadn’t tried it before, and he involved her in the process, it should be easy to complete. So, he decided to tackle the third and fourth dishes together—he planned to make roasted potatoes and roasted eggs.

He took his daughter to the forest to gather some small branches, then started a small bonfire in a nearby open area. It was summer, and both father and daughter were sweating under the heat of the fire.

Even so, Alex was still full of excitement, delighted that her dad was letting her have such wild fun.

The branch fire was still quite strong, making it unsuitable for roasting either eggs or potatoes. Liu Heming came up with a simple solution: he added some sandy soil to the fire. After all, this area lacked many things, but there was plenty of sandy soil. Estimating that the temperature was about right, he buried the carefully selected potatoes and eggs in the ashes.

These were things he often roasted and ate as a child at home, and the taste was truly wonderful. This time, while it seemed like he was making delicious food for his daughter, it was more like he was reminiscing about that flavor himself.

After digging out the roasted eggs and potatoes from the ashes, his confidence soared even higher—the aroma was incredibly tempting.

Resisting the urge to taste them first, he gave his daughter one egg and one potato on a plate for her to try.

It was at this moment that something unexpected happened. The task was completed, but this time, it only counted as one dish. This result was far from what he had expected.

Could it be that his little trick didn’t fully apply to this task? But if it didn’t, why had the Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet worked earlier? Just now, whether his daughter was eating the roasted egg or the roasted potato, she had that same squinting, happy smile, which proved she genuinely liked both.

“Dexter, won’t food roasted like this be very dirty?” Sasha asked hesitantly after watching Alex and the others devour their food.

“Not at all. You just need to remove the outer skin, and the inside is perfectly clean. You should try some too—it tastes best when hot,” Liu Heming said with a grin.

After saying this, he immersed himself in reflection again, not even noticing that the two roasted potatoes on his side had been stolen by the Bear Kids, one for each.

After thinking it over carefully, Liu Heming concluded that the reason only one dish was counted might be related to the cooking method. Even though he used one egg and one potato, both were “roasted,” so the system considered them as just one dish.

He had found a little trick to complete the task and had hoped to finish it all in one go. But the system, being unreliable, seemed to have a glitch—it mentioned six dishes but didn’t specify that six different cooking methods were required.

This was a real problem. How many cooking techniques did he actually know? He was just using old methods from home.

“Why aren’t you eating? The taste is really good,” Sasha asked curiously, seeing Liu Heming still holding the egg, shifting it from hand to hand while his gaze drifted into the distance.

She was starting to feel a bit curious about Liu Heming. The information she had gathered about him didn’t seem to indicate any talent for cooking.

Yet now he was selling Dumplings and Chinese-style Burgers, had just made that dish called “Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet,” and now the roasted eggs and potatoes he made had a unique aroma as well.

Interrupted by Sasha’s question, Liu Heming grinned again. “I was thinking about what delicious food to make for the little one tomorrow. Even though she’s staying here a bit longer this time, it’s still not very long.”

Hearing his words, Sasha furrowed her brow. She couldn’t quite figure out Liu Heming’s true intentions.