Reborn in Japan as a Chef God

This is a Christmas Eve where some cry and others laugh.

The shop is filled with laughter like bells.

Watching Yuchuan Meisha hand Sen Tian Makoto a hot red wine, Xia Yu suddenly remembered something, got up to the door, but the car waiting nearby had left only a faint shadow.

Under the street lamp, an exquisitely wrapped bag catches the eye, Xia Yu opens the bag and takes out a note with scribbled handwriting, obviously left in a hurry:

Merry Christmas!

The exclamation point even pierced through the paper, its sharpness fierce.

Yet, Xia Yu burst out laughing.

In formal Japanese, there are no question marks or exclamation points, the punctuation marks are the same as in Chinese, comma and period. Influenced by Chinese, Neon increasingly uses question marks and exclamation points in informal written occasions.

Isn't that the case now, Alice expressing her anger and helplessness with an exclamation point?

To this, Xia Yu could only shrug.

If he had planned to respond to Alice, he would have taken up arms on the night of the raid, charging in and out seven times would have been exhilarating.

But today, he planned to give everyone the cold shoulder, not convsersing with anyone, but who knew Sen Tian Makoto was too clever, it was only at this moment he realized, on this Christmas Eve that made other admirers weep, Xia Yu sighed, "Makki is indeed impressive!"

He took the bag back inside.

Sen Tian Makoto, who was happily chatting with the Yuchuan sisters, glanced toward the young man's gift bag, her eyelashes fluttered, and suddenly she said, "Hey, Yu, you've received another Christmas gift. What about your return gift?"

"Return gift?"

His footstep halted as he was about to go upstairs, Xia Yu was quite astonished, looking at the girl with a chuckle.

"A return gift is weird, didn't you prepare one?" said Sen Tian Makoto.

"Uh…"

Xia Yu touched his head in slight embarrassment.

Ignoring the gifts was a part of giving them the cold shoulder; naturally, there was no expectation of return gifts. But picking this girl up in the snow seemed to break that rule.

"Yes, a return gift. We also want a gift from Boss Xia!" Yuchuan Meisha raised her hand, her voice sweet.

Not far away, Yuchuan Ayaka cast a glance over.

Zhu Qing reveled in his misfortune, muttering, "You just focus on putting out fires!"

Before Xia Yu could respond, Sen Tian Makoto had already started tallying on her fingers, sitting there, "Polar Star Dormitory—Xiao Hui, Yuji, Reiko, and Mrs. Wenxu, Ten Master Mechanism includes Senior Sister Xiaolin, Eriina, and other girls like Hizaki, Midori…"

Listening to her counting in a cheerful tone, for some reason, Xia Yu began to sweat.

"Stop, stop, stop!"

He waved his hand to interrupt, rubbing his forehead, "Can I prepare now?"

Sen Tian Makoto nodded her head, her gaze clear, "It's just a token of etiquette, it doesn't have to carry any special meaning. Just a representation of well wishes to friends."

When she mentioned friends, the girl's eyes finally shone with a cunning gleam.

"Okay, as you say!"

Xia Yu shrugged and then turned into the kitchen.

Zhu Qing, Meisha, Ayaka, and Makoto all sat at the bar, watching him through the window as he busied himself.

In less than ten minutes, Xia Yu had prepared the materials. He planned to spend half the night preparing the Christmas gifts for the next day. Nothing complicated, just food, Christmas treats to express his feelings.

The main ingredients were water, flour, and yeast.

The supplementary ingredients were more complex, including dried tangerine peel, cinnamon, cardamom, other spices, almonds, and other dried fruits.

Glancing over the counter filled with ingredients, Yuchuan Ayaka and Morioka Makoto, who were adept at making sweets, were astonished.

"Isn't this the ingredients needed for a German Christmas cake?"

"Oh, cake?"

Zhu Qing, intrigued, said, "A chef who opened Qilin Gate, what kind of Christmas cake will he deliver? Tsk, suddenly looking forward to it!"

The people needing return gifts were many, but if each person got a small cake, the production wasn't too complicated, just time-consuming.

Taking bottled, salt-cured lemon peel, orange peel,

Xia Yu used a small bowl, poured in the salt-cured lemon slices, orange peel, and raisins, then turned to take a few tablespoons of alcohol, mixing it into the ingredients to soak together.

"Ah, usually isn't rum used here to soak the ingredients to get that rich Western flavor?"

Morioka Makoto was astonished.

"Shh!"

Zhu Qing held a finger to her lips.

In the kitchen, Xia Yu studied the mixture of ingredients in front of him, his eyebrows knitted together.

He realized that at this stage, it was necessary to make an extraordinary change. Using only ordinary wine seemed too simplistic.

In fact, the "German Christmas Cake" was his backup choice for today's culinary festival, and if roasted chestnuts and Christmas mulled wine hadn't paired better, he might have sold slices of the cake tonight.

So naturally, Xia Yu was proficient in the recipe for the "German Christmas Cake."

Hmm?

Xia Yu tapped his forehead and glanced at the task bar, cursing under his breath for forgetting the task involving "Merck's Stars" from the system, which resembled more a spice formula than a recipe. Thus, the cuisine didn't have to stick to the so-called Italian spice bread, as the "German Christmas Cake," from a material perspective, was also a spice pastry.

A return gift, a mission, he shouldn't neglect either!

"So, at which stage should Taboo Spices be used?"

He pondered.

Although he was inspired in the first stage, if he wanted to add "Merck's Stars," it was better to keep the wine ordinary; the recent thought of adding rainbow wine had been promptly discarded.

Wake up, he hadn't yet mastered the art of managing two Forbidden Ingredients simultaneously!

Xia Yu reminded himself.

He went through the "German Christmas Cake" making process in his mind. Several people saw that Xia Yu didn't pour out flour; instead, he took a bag of powdered sugar, which puzzled them.

Powdered sugar, as implied by the name, is powdered white sugar.

If one must find a difference from white sugar, then powdered sugar usually contains about 3% starch.

The starch is mixed in to better store the powdered sugar, as it's well known that white sugar easily clumps, even more so for powdered sugar. A little moisture in the air and it clumps badly; starch helps prevent this.

But not just powdered sugar.

Then, with some reluctance, Xia Yu took out a precious glass bottle, the entire bottle shimmering with gold—clearly, it was "Merck's Stars."

White dust mixed with golden dust.

After some thought, Xia Yu used the "Spice Inequality" to quickly draft a spice formula, constructing the framework for managing Taboo Spices, starting with searching his knowledge of those spices, which was crucial.

"Merck's Stars are composed of novel amino acids and, in terms of deliciousness, surpass most ingredients in the world. Consumed directly, they can cause severe addiction symptoms..."

"Moreover, it's said that the CP component pair for Merck's Stars, the taboo spice, is Shiny Silk-footed Fish!"

Xia Yu began to think about the other Forbidden Ingredient, "Shiny Silk-footed Fish."

"System, could you provide a comprehensive research report on Shiny Silk-footed Fish?" he communicated with the entity in his mind.

"Ding, your request has been received. Purchasing related knowledge will cost 100,000 Fame Points…"

His heart skipped a beat.

Just ingredient information, and it costs 100,000 Fame Points? A total rip-off!

With veins popping on his forehead, Xia Yu looked at his Fame Points reservoir, fortunately having saved a massive amount recently. He grit his teeth and made the payment.

Looking at the valuable information that appeared on his retina, Xia Yu's eyes reflected a thoughtful expression.

It seemed he was starting to get an idea.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

Shaking his head, Xia Yu looked up at the premises. The crowd that had initially sat at the bar to watch the cooking performance now looked sleepily cute, yawning incessantly.

Morioka Makoto was propping her head up, dozing off, then jerking awake, still groggy.

"I might have to battle through the night, everyone please disperse!"

Xia Yu was speechless.

"Go for it, Boss Xia!"

Yuchuan Meisha and Yuchuan Ayaka got up to return to the neighboring apartment.

Zhu Qing, however, waved her hand, "You go on with your work; don't worry about me."

"I, I'm not sleepy!" Morioka Makoto stammered. She had been helping out at home, and the food festival had definitely worn her out, now she was clearly struggling to keep her eyes open.

Xia Yu chuckled, "I'm not kicking you out, but you should take a nap, right? You can go upstairs or to the neighboring apartment, I promise you'll receive my Christmas gift first thing in the morning!"

"Then..."

Morioka Makoto's face turned red, Zhu Qing laughed and gently pushed the girl's back, "Come on, let's go. I'll take you up."