Gan Lan turned off the heat under the regular clear broth, filtering the boiled soup through cheesecloth into a clean pot.
Taking out the chicken, she minced it into a fine paste. She soaked it briefly in scallions, ginger, cooking wine, and clear water before adding it to the clear broth. She heated it over a high flame while stirring continuously. Once the soup boiled, she reduced the heat to a simmer, preventing a rolling boil. After the impurities in the soup were absorbed by the minced chicken, she filtered it out again using clean cheesecloth.
Pressed for time, Gan Lan only clarified the broth once. However, this single clarification yielded a remarkably good clear broth. At the very least, it made the stench of the Yao Yu tolerable to her now.
With all the prep work done, it was time to pan-fry the fish.
Heating the pan and adding oil, Gan Lan specifically chose rapeseed oil. Not only would it give the fried fish a beautiful color, but more importantly, this particular oil was highly aromatic, which could slightly mask the Yao Yu’s heavy stench.
She placed the drained, large Yao Yu into the pan and slowly fried it over low heat. Once both sides were golden brown, she plated the fried fish.
She switched to a new pan and added more oil. The truth was, during the frying process just now, an intense, indescribable odor had spread—a strange mix of fragrant and foul...
Once the oil was hot, she tossed in scallions, ginger, garlic, and dried chilies, stir-frying until their aroma was released. Then, she poured in minced bird’s eye chilies, beauty chilies, and pickled peppers, stir-frying until the red chili oil seeped out.
Life Is Too Hard: [I turned on the Taste-Testing System. It smells both fragrant and stinky right now, and I kind of want to eat it! What do I do? I saw the junior’s face suddenly calm down earlier, dropping that expression of utter despair, so I got curious about how the Yao Yu tastes. The moment I caught a whiff, I thought I was a goner, but now I think I can handle it!]
Anxious And Restless: [The commenter above is lying! BARF... I! Hmm... Wait, why does it actually smell pretty good? It masked a lot of the Yao Yu’s stench. This fragrant-yet-foul smell is making me drool a little!? It’s over for me. Am I poisoned??]
Chance Encounter With You: [I just went to check out other contestants’ tasting rooms, and some of them actually fainted from the stench! These fish are way too potent! Good thing I have fast hands and immediately turned off the taste system, but I still accidentally caught a whiff. I was just feeling dizzy when I stumbled in here. Suddenly, I smell this fragrant-yet-foul scent, and I’m not dizzy anymore. What do I do!?]
...
Gan Lan continued stir-frying. Once the spicy aroma began to spread, she poured in the refined clear broth she had just clarified. She added an appropriate amount of sugar for seasoning. Since the Yao Yu was already quite salty, there was no need to add any salt.
She placed the pan-fried fish back into the pan, covered it with a lid, and let it braise for a while.
Next, she opened the lid and turned up the heat to reduce the sauce. Once the soup thickened a bit, she turned off the heat.
Carefully taking out the fish, she placed it onto a specially prepared fish platter. Then, she drizzled the sauce and secondary ingredients from the pan all over the fish.
A plate of golden, vibrantly colored Stinky Yao Yu was complete.
Gan Lan no longer found the smell unacceptable. On the contrary, the fragrant-yet-stinky aroma made her mouth water slightly. She had never actually tried eating this herself, so she didn’t know if it tasted good. It should be good, right? After all, it was made with refined clear broth as a base.
She could only gaze at it greedily. She had only made one, and although it was quite large, it was unfortunately a competition piece.
There was only half an hour left. Fortunately, she had enough time. The competition organizers likely knew how difficult this task was, which was why they had generously allotted three hours.
She pressed the completion button, and the Isolation Shield opened. Expressionless, Gan Lan tidied up her somewhat disheveled appearance, trying to ignore the indescribable odor wafting off her body...
She had never looked this pathetic while cooking before. Not even during her days as an apprentice in her original world had she been this miserable.
System Broadcast: [Congratulations to Contestant No. 9 in Arena 99 for completing a culinary dish featuring a special fish theme. Time used: 158.58 minutes. Star Network tasting is now open. Voting will open in 21.02 minutes and will conclude in 48 hours. Hurry and taste-test to vote for your favorite contestant!]
Before Gan Lan had finished, the judges of Arena 99 were wearing masks and chatting idly.
"Which bigshot came up with the topic this time? It’s absolutely ruthless! At least five hundred contestants have already been eliminated. They either fainted from the stench and couldn’t continue, got severely nauseous, or spent half the day without even knowing how to kill a fish..." Judge 56 gloated.
Judge 78 chimed in, "Master Mo Ran came up with it. I didn’t expect such a terrifying topic either. Still, it’s not a bad test. Otherwise, how would we know that some contestants don’t even know how to kill a fish? Or even worse, that some would actually faint from the smell? It’s just..."
Judge 96 added, "This competition gathered all the outstanding rising stars of the entire Federation Star System. They fought their way out of a hundred thousand people, only to be defeated by this smell and the task of killing a fish. I truly couldn’t have imagined it..."
Liu Changyi sat glued to Ma Wenzhou’s side. After all, as Judge 1, he had special privileges!
What could Ma Wenzhou even say to that?
Liu Changyi leaned in close to Ma Wenzhou. "How are we handling what happened before the match started?"
"How else can we handle it? Fortunately, Gan Lan’s robot didn’t actually snap Ge Feng’s hand; otherwise, it would have been a massive issue. However, they’ve definitely forged a grudge over this." Ma Wenzhou lifted his eyelids to glance at Liu Changyi before continuing. "You can go check the Star Network on Banan Star. The top trending posts are all boycotting Gan Lan, telling her to get out of Banlan and demanding her disqualification. Good thing it’s only the majority of people on Banan Star; people from other planets haven’t joined in on the chaos."
The other judges were also very curious about the morning’s incident. They stopped chatting and pricked up their ears to listen carefully to Ma Wenzhou.
"This topic is actually beneficial for Gan Lan. It’s tricky, sure, but if she can amaze everyone and smoothly take first place, the voices boycotting her will naturally quiet down significantly." Ma Wenzhou swept a glance over the surrounding judges. Their eyes were filled with a thirst for knowledge, their interest completely piqued. "She built up a loyal audience during the first two matches, so even if she loses the votes from the people of Banan Star, she won’t lose too horribly. At the very least, she still has supporters from other planets. Now, it all depends on whether this dish of hers can stun everyone. If she can make people ignore that special smell and give them the urge to try it, then she..." Ma Wenzhou paused here, his gaze profound.
The group of judges knew exactly what he was implying and nodded in agreement. As long as her work was flawless, the current setbacks and boycotts wouldn’t mean a thing. Who could possibly resist delicious food?
At least they couldn’t. Otherwise, how could they be sitting on the judging panel? They were all here because they shared the exact same hobby.
Even though they were all wearing masks and seemingly disgusted at the moment, the stench couldn’t stop the heart of a foodie. When it came time to eat, they would still dig in.
For instance, as contestants had finished their dishes one after another recently, the judges had still gone to taste them. Even knowing they would be subjected to torture, they only hesitated for a moment before firmly making their way over.
Inevitably, some emerged with rather unpleasant expressions. Of course, there were also dishes that tasted good. But even after eating them—and despite knowing they were just simulated data—it felt as if that strange smell was permanently seared into their minds...
The group of judges tried to dilute this feeling by gossiping and chatting. While at it, they waited for the dark horses of this competition to emerge. They were most looking forward to Gan Lan and Ge Feng; after all, those two were the current center of attention.