Border Cook

Chapter 229 Making trouble
To put it simply, some things are hard to explain.

Xia Mingyue didn't care about anything else and hurried out of the main room.

At this time, all the people working in the central kitchen were standing in the yard, panicking and rushing. When they saw Xia Mingyue, they hurriedly said, "Madam Xia, come and take a look. What's going on?"

Xia Mingyue frowned and came forward.

Jiang Zhuguo handed the fish balls she had just made to Xia Mingyue, "Sister Xia, have a try."

Xia Mingyue took it and took a light bite.

The fresh fragrance of the fish balls instantly fills the entire mouth, but along with the unique fragrance of the fish balls is a bitter taste.

The bitterness is not strong, to be exact, it is quite light, and if you don't pay attention, you may not even notice it.

But this is just a small bite. If you bite hard and chew it, when the whole string of fish balls is eaten, the bitter taste will definitely be very strong and make you feel uncomfortable.

Xia Mingyue frowned and spit out the fish ball that was not completely chewed in her mouth. "Is it only the fish balls that are like this, or is it like this for everything?"

"The first two breakfast stalls to take the goods were the two that sold them. Before everything came out of the pot, I did what Sister Xia said and tasted and inspected them all, and there were no problems."

Jiang Zhuguo said, "Now, among all the food in the central kitchen, except for fish balls, all other oden meat, noodle stews at the food stalls, and wonton meat fillings all have a bitter taste."

"On the contrary, the braised meat and various braised dishes that I was most worried about did not have any problems at all."

Upon hearing this, Xia Mingyue frowned even more. She verified all the things one by one according to what Jiang Zhuguo said. As she said, these things all tasted bitter.

Not knowing where this bitter taste came from, Xia Mingyue did not dare to slack off. She did not dare to swallow anything and rinsed her mouth again and again.

"Sister Xia, what should we do?" Jiang Zhuguo was very anxious.

Lu also turned around several times. "Why is this thing so bitter and astringent when it's fine?"

"It wouldn't be like this for no reason. There must be a reason." Xia Mingyue said in a deep voice, "It all depends on what the reason is."

There are problems with the fish balls, meat and noodle stew, and these three ingredients are from different suppliers. So the problem is not just with the ingredients, but someone is doing something bad.

Then you need to ask a doctor to come and take a look to find out where the bitter taste comes from and whether it is poisonous.

The task of hiring a doctor fell on the shoulders of the brothers Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu. They did not dare to slack off and invited the most famous doctor nearby, Dr. Du, to come and check on the situation.

After Doctor Du arrived, he listened to Xia Mingyue's explanation of the whole situation and his expression became a little serious. He took out silver needles from the box he brought and tested them one by one.

After confirming that nothing was tested to be toxic, Dr. Du first breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, no one poisoned me.

Then, he tasted the bitter food, carefully compared and identified it, and stroked his beard, "If I am not mistaken, someone must have put coptis water in it. This thing is not poisonous, but it does not taste good. It seems that these things can no longer be sold."

Doctor Du also sighed about this.

He also liked Xia Ji's food very much. Now that Xia Ji had encountered trouble, they would definitely not be able to sell food today, so he would not be able to eat it.

"Well, it must not be sold anymore." Xia Mingyue nodded, "Don't worry, Doctor Du."

Coptis chinensis tastes bitter, and the bitterness lasts for a long time. No matter how you wash or soak it, the bitterness cannot be completely removed. Xia Ji's business has been built on word of mouth, and it absolutely cannot ruin its reputation because of this.

Doctor Du nodded when he heard this and started to pack up his things.

Xia Mingyue took out the purse to pay the consultation fee and sent him out. When she came back, she was still frowning.

The reason why all foods taste bitter has been found, but the culprit must be identified.

Who on earth managed to quietly put this coptis water into various foods? How did they do it?

Xia Mingyue was in deep thought, looking at everyone in the yard, and then looked at the various things in the kitchen, and couldn't help muttering to herself.

Under the current circumstances, the breakfast stalls and braised food shops are fine. It can be said that the problems are with the food stalls and oden food carts.

Is this a conspiracy targeting only these two types of franchisees, or...

Wait, in addition to the different types of food, it seems that the preparation time is also different.

All the braised dishes are prepared the night before, and the leavened dough used to make the various fried foods at the breakfast stalls is also kneaded and leavened the night before.

It can be said that the problematic food is all the food prepared in the morning.

In other words, the time to apply the Coptis chinensis water was only this morning.

But when the pork was delivered, it was cut into small pieces, the chickens for stewing were also whole, and the fish were packed one by one in several baskets, not in a concentrated manner.

Previously, Xia Mingyue had divided the work in the central kitchen. Each type of food involved in each franchise had a dedicated person in charge. So when they were making various foods, they would pick up the necessary materials from each place and would not pile them in one place.

If someone wanted to apply the coptis water to these things separately, they would have to walk back and forth, and such an obvious behavior would definitely be noticed by someone.

The only way to do this without anyone noticing is if that person put the Coptis chinensis water on top of an ingredient that is used in all food.

And if we talk about things that are used in all food...

Xia Mingyue paused and walked straight towards the water tank.

After opening the lids of all the water tanks, Xia Mingyue took a ladle and scooped a little from each of the water tanks to taste.

It tasted very bitter, and all five water jars were like this.

Sure enough, when the Coptis chinensis water was put into the water tank, it was not easy to be noticed, and it could ensure that the affected area was wide enough to cause the entire Xia family to suffer sufficient losses.

This person is quite smart?

Xia Mingyue held the water scoop in her hand, looked at the people working in the central kitchen again, and asked loudly, "Who has approached the water tank today?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone recalled everything that had happened since they arrived here in the morning.

"I went near the water tank today." It was Song who spoke.

"I went to fetch water too," said Guo.

"I saw Madam Wang go to fetch water..."

After some self-admission or identification, soon all the people who had been close to the water tank stood up.

There were five people, accounting for half of all the people working in the central kitchen.

Xia Mingyue's face darkened, and she said, "Everyone knows what happened this morning. Someone with bad intentions put coptis water into the water tank in our central kitchen. Not only did many Xia's businesses lose business today, but so many things were wasted. It's really abominable!"