I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 252: Chapter 246: Another Old Customer Arrives

The random ingredient reward was large river shrimp, which surprised Li You a little.

He’d originally thought the reward would be ingredients for one of his existing recipes, but he hadn’t expected to get something he couldn’t use right away.

But that was fine. Even though he couldn’t use it right now, he was sure he’d find a use for it eventually.

So, despite his surprise, Li You was still thrilled.

After all, shrimp of all kinds were extremely popular ingredients, and they weren’t cheap.

River shrimp were no exception.

Over a thousand pounds of high-quality, live large river shrimp would sell for tens of thousands, even if he just sold them as is.

Of course, Li You had no intention of selling them.

The large river shrimp were in his Spatial Fish Pond.

Li You opened the Spatial Fish Pond, and sure enough, he saw a huge swarm of river shrimp.

Each one was massive, about 15 centimeters long.

’They really are ”large” river shrimp. You don’t see them this big very often!’

’The more I look at them, the more I like them.’

Besides the thousand-plus pounds of large river shrimp, he also had one lottery draw.

’I’ll do the draw later. For now, it’s time to head back to the restaurant.’

The three of them left the wild fruit orchard and returned to the restaurant.

After a short break, customers started arriving for their meals.

Li You got busy once again.

At eight in the evening, after the last customers had left, he prepared a few pounds of spicy crayfish and a braised chicken. Then he joined Ye Shengge and Ling Xiaoru upstairs for dinner and drinks.

It was his treat tonight, something they had agreed on that afternoon.

Li You felt that having two beautiful women to eat and drink with every evening was a pretty great life.

After they finished their leisurely meal, the two women went to take their showers one after the other. Li You, meanwhile, opened the lottery interface. It was time to do his draw.

The same four categories appeared: Recipes, Ingredients, Cookware, and Other.

The lottery wheel spun rapidly before coming to a stop, the pointer landing on the Recipes category.

’A recipe? Excellent.’

This meant Li You would soon be able to introduce a new dish.

’Now, what kind of recipe will it be?’

’This is so exciting!’

The answer was revealed instantly. Amid a flurry of digital confetti, the result appeared.

Longjing Shrimp!

’Longjing Shrimp?’ Li You was thrilled. He never thought the thousand-plus pounds of live large river shrimp he’d received earlier would come in handy so soon.

One of the main ingredients for Longjing Shrimp was, in fact, live large river shrimp.

The dish had to be made with river shrimp; saltwater varieties like white shrimp or tiger prawns wouldn’t do.

Of course, you *could* use white shrimp or tiger prawns in a pinch, but the resulting Longjing Shrimp wouldn’t have the authentic, superior flavor.

Besides live large river shrimp, the other key ingredient for Longjing Shrimp was, as the name implied, Longjing Tea.

Longjing refers to Longjing Tea, of which West Lake Longjing Tea is considered the finest.

West Lake Longjing Tea is the cream of the crop among Longjing teas and is also ranked as one of China’s top ten famous teas.

Longjing Tea is produced in many parts of Zhejiang Province, but true West Lake Longjing Tea only comes from the mountains surrounding West Lake, in areas like Lion Peak, Wengjiashan, Tiger Spring, Meijiawu, Yunqi, and Lingyin.

When the Qianlong Emperor toured West Lake, he praised West Lake Longjing Tea effusively, even designating the eighteen tea bushes in front of the Hugong Temple at the foot of Lion Peak as ”Imperial Tea.”

He had the live large river shrimp now. ’But is there a way to get my hands on some top-quality West Lake Longjing Tea?’

’If I can get some, this dish will be perfect.’

Longjing Shrimp is a part of Zhejiang cuisine and one of the province’s most iconic dishes.

After getting Chopped Pepper Fish Head from Xiang Province, he now had Longjing Shrimp from Zhejiang Province. It looked like he’d be accumulating more and more famous dishes from other provinces.

Of course, that was a good thing. While his restaurant specialized in Sichuan cuisine, it couldn’t be *all* Sichuan cuisine. Adding some famous dishes from other provinces was an excellent idea.

Longjing Shrimp was a well-known dish across the entire country.

The dish blended tea with shrimp, resulting in a fresh, delicate, and tender creation. The shrimp were a beautiful jade-white and succulent, while the tea leaves provided a gentle fragrance and an elegant touch of color.

When you ate it, you could taste the fragrance of tea in the shrimp and the savory essence of shrimp in the tea. It cleansed the palate, stimulated the appetite, and left a delightful, lingering aftertaste.

Li You had long heard of this famous dish. The thought of finally introducing it at his own restaurant was both exciting and something to look forward to.

’That’s right,’ he thought. ’A couple of days ago, when Zhang Hongyi’s film crew came to eat, there was a lighting technician named Song Changgeng who’s from Zhejiang Province.’

’At the time, he’d eagerly mentioned that he hoped to one day eat his home province’s famous Longjing Shrimp here.’

’And I told him I’d probably introduce it in the future.’

’I never expected to get the Longjing Shrimp recipe so soon.’

’This way, I won’t have to go back on my word to Song Changgeng.’

Li You was delighted. It seemed his luck today was exceptionally good.

Of course, to actually serve Longjing Shrimp, he still needed to get his hands on at least medium-quality Longjing Tea.

West Lake Longjing Tea would be ideal.

Could he substitute other types of tea instead of using Longjing Tea?

That was certainly possible. But it would be best to choose another green tea, not a black or dark tea.

After all, both Longjing Tea and West Lake Longjing Tea were types of green tea.

But Li You had no intention of using a substitute. He was determined to use, at a minimum, medium-quality Longjing Tea.

When it came to dishes for his customers, he couldn’t be careless with the ingredients.

If he were just making it for himself, it wouldn’t matter as much.

His next ingredient goal was now Longjing Tea.

...

「The next day.」

Li You, Ye Shengge, and Ling Xiaoru woke up one after the other.

After breakfast, the three of them went to the wild fruit orchard to check on the two types of wild fruit plants they had transplanted the day before.

The previous evening, before dinner, both Ye Shengge and Ling Xiaoru had been upstairs watching TV.

Li You had used a break from cooking to go to the wild fruit orchard by himself. He’d taken some fruit tree fertilizer from the Storage Pavilion and buried a bit around both the Roxburgh rose and mock strawberry plants.

And so, at this very moment, both Ye Shengge and Ling Xiaoru were staring in amazement at the Roxburgh rose and mock strawberry plants.