The current time is 5 a.m.
Ma Lu had set off at 4:59 p.m., and exactly 12 hours had elapsed since then.
So he had to temporarily subdue the excitement in his heart and first went into the kitchen to take out all the ingredients.
This time, he had gathered a total of 23 Young Flame Lizards, 12 Gray Elephant Shrews, 12 Jumping Mice, 6 Two-Headed Hyenas, 3 Black-Breasted Chickens, 2 Angular Belly Black Swift Snakes, and 1 Sand-Spray Qiang.
Among them, aside from the Two-Headed Hyena being a 2-star ingredient, the rest were 1-star ingredients.
These items almost filled the small kitchen in the rental, with a rich scent of meat hitting the face.
Old Wang followed him into the kitchen, and before Ma Lu could speak, he saw a metal wire extend from under Old Wang's tactical vest and plug into the left interface of his wristband.
"I'm now transmitting the recipes to you. You can use them as a reference to develop and adjust the daily menu based on the ingredients at hand, and leave the cooking to me."
The entire transmission process lasted about ten seconds, after which Ma Lu found that an app named Recipes had been added to his wristband.
After clicking into it, the first thing that popped up was a sentence.
——There are no perfect chefs in this universe, only those who tirelessly chase perfection.
Ma Lu stroked his chin, "Eh, I always feel that the person who wrote these recipes is very harsh on themselves."
When Old Wang saw Ma Lu looking at him, he shook his head and said, "I don't know who left these recipes. Anyway, when I opened my eyes in this universe, they were already in my sector."
"All right then, let me see what's inside."
As Ma Lu spoke, he continued flipping through the pages, quickly becoming captivated by the bizarre dishes listed inside.
"Ah, you can eat Tri-winged Cockroaches? Just the name alone would make people feel uneasy, right?"
"Ma-style dry steaming with sulfur crystals, what kind of method is that?"
"And what about Huotong? What kind of ingredient is that?"
Old Wang reminded him, "Some dishes can't be cooked with our current tools. Also, some dishes require special ingredients, so you can exclude them for now. Moreover, if you want to start selling immediately, it's best not to choose the dishes with many preparatory steps. And the last, most important point, remember to utilize the search function effectively."
Ma Lu was nearly dazzled by various strange dishes, so upon hearing this, he quickly typed 'Two-Headed Hyena' into the search bar, and the 999+ recipes instantly dwindled to 13.
Ma Lu reviewed each recipe. Most of them didn't meet the cooking conditions; either they required special tools, or there were several unfamiliar ingredients.
In the end, only 5 recipes were viable to make, and even then, 3 of them were not suitable for street vending, leaving only two choices.
——[Jackal Meat Sausage]and[Fried Jackal Meat Cake]
Then Ma Lu searched for Young Flame Lizard and this time found 7 recipes, though even fewer were feasible at this stage, leaving only[Mustard Lizard Tail]and[Young Lizard Kebabs].
In theory, Young Lizard Kebabs were quite suitable for a street stall, provided that people could accept the shape of lizards without calling the police.
Unfortunately, it was very unlikely, and while Lizard Tails could masquerade as squid tentacles, it was unfortunate that 23 tails were not even enough for one dish.
After that, Ma Lu successively typed in Black-Breasted Chicken, Gray Elephant Shrew, Jumping Mouse, Angular Belly Black Swift Snake, and Sand-Spray Qiang.
The recipe options for the Black-Breasted Chicken were the most numerous, and they felt somewhat similar to chicken on Earth, offering a variety of cooking methods.
The gray elephant shrew and the jumping mouse look very similar, and to a certain extent, they can substitute for each other. The best flavor comes from making them into jerky, so customers won't see their original forms and avoid issues like those with the young flame lizard skewers.
As for the angular belly black swift snake, it can be used to make snake soup or soaked in liquor, while the sand-spray qiang can be made into clay pot meat soup.
Additionally, Ma Lu noticed numbers at the bottom of the menu, ranging from single to triple digits.
"What are these?" Ma Lu asked, pointing at the number 48 below the "Fried Jackal Meat Cake."
"Experience points," Old Wang replied.
"Experience points?"
"Yes, chef is a profession that requires repeated cooking to accumulate experience to improve skills. I don't know how far the former me had reached, but the current me has experienced extensive damage to the sector, and this part of the data has disappeared as well, so I have to start from scratch."
"I see, so what's the use of having a higher experience value later on?"
"Once the experience points accumulate to a certain level, my cooking skills will improve, unlocking more recipes, and I can also refine existing dishes to increase the Deliciousness Index."
"Deliciousness Index?" Ma Lu saw a ★☆ after the "Fried Jackal Meat Cake," "Ah, that's what you mean, so that means that right now you can make this dish with a Deliciousness of one and a half stars, what does that mean?"
"It's not very accurate to answer your question with just the language system, why don't I make a serving for you to try? But first, you need to gather the rest of the ingredients."
"Okay," Ma Lu said, perking up at the idea. After hunting outside for so long, he was hungry.
Ma Lu remembered that there was a farmers market less than two kilometers from the neighborhood, but he wasn't sure if it was open yet.
He had never cooked before and rarely got up early, so he hadn't paid much attention to that place. However, since he couldn't sleep anyway, he decided to go take a look.
After changing into a short sleeve shirt and shorts, Ma Lu went downstairs, got on his newly purchased tricycle, and headed straight for the farmers market.
To his surprise, the farmers market, which was open at 5:21 am, was not only bustling with people and vehicles.
Most of those riding tricycles like him were vegetable vendors coming to deliver goods. There were also trucks from large supermarkets and online shopping platforms loading goods at the entrance.
Chicken, duck, fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits piled up like mountains in the market, with people rummaging, picking, and haggling around them.
Ma Lu parked his tricycle in a corner without rush and took a stroll through the market first, to get a feel for the prices.
He paid particular attention to the meat prices. Currently, pork was still priced high; even the cheapest cuts were 13 yuan per half kilogram. Ma Lu did a quick conversion and realized that he had brought back meat worth at least 3000 yuan.
Considering this, his trip seemed quite profitable, but it was a pity that the meat of unknown origin couldn't be sold directly and had to be for personal use.
While wandering, Ma Lu also encountered some peers who seemed to be chefs or owners of local restaurants. In the market, they were treated like celebrities.
Wherever they went, people greeted them, and the stall owners would save their best goods or prime cuts for them.
Thus, the competition between restaurants actually started before they opened for business.
Being able to purchase the best quality ingredients at the lowest prices was like getting a forty-meter head start in a hundred-meter race.
Scratching his head, Ma Lu felt that next time he went to the other side, it was necessary to learn some skills in meat quality assessment from Boggy. Relying solely on the rankings provided by the bracelet was too vague; even if all were meat, the taste of different parts varied noticeably.
After feeling that he had browsed enough, Ma Lu followed the list, purchased the ingredients and seasonings Old Wang needed, and rode the tricycle back home.