Looking over the spread of dishes, Zhi can see many of them he is familiar with. But some of them look completely new. Before he picks anything up, he looks over at Zhao saying, “Zhao I want to explore your talent, if you would please pick the dishes I pick to start. So I can find out more about your talent and how it actually works.”

Zhao nods his head in reply, “Sure, I’m also curious how it works.”

Looking around the table, no one has begun to serve themselves yet, all just wondering what Zhi is going to do. Zhi looks at the 3 dishes in his reach before selecting one, he holds it up with his chopsticks to show the table. “Like I said, I have traveled from far away, so I might not be familiar with the names of dishes or what might be in them. This looks familiar to me, they have a few names, depending on region and the way they were prepared.”

A piece of dough is in a crescent shape, with one side is crispy, golden brown in color. The other two sides are white and doughy with five pinches along a ridge keeping the whole thing together. “I would call this a pot sticker, it’s normally made with some type of ground meat or vegetables, sometimes a mix of both. Which is then wrapped in a thin piece of dough and cooked. Yongzheng, could you tell me what this is called?”

Yongzheng responds with a hint of pride in his voice, “Those are also called pot stickers here, ours are made with a mix of ground pork, seasonal vegetables and some local spices.”

Zhi nods his head, before setting three of them on his plate. “Great, we will start with this one. Everyone please serve yourselves, you don’t have to wait for me and Zhao. If I have any questions I will just ask.” Everyone seems to take that as the signal to start. Before long the lazy susan is moving back and forth on the table and people pull off items they want. While Zhi use’s his spoon to try some of his soup first.

It is warm with a slightly spicy, briny taste. Taking his set of chopsticks he picks up a potsticker from his plate and takes a bite. His eyes are closed as he takes in the flavors of the dish. The slightly crispy, but delicate texture of the dough, combined with the succulent mix of fillings.

This tastes amazing, whomever made this, knows what they are doing or at least mastered how to make potstickers.

[Just because you are in another reality doesn’t mean people won’t master the same craft you did.]

That is a fair point, I didn't think about.

Taking the rest of the potsticker, Zhi dips it into his soup, holding it there till it soaks in some of the spicy, vermilion colored liquid. Removing it he places the whole thing in his mouth, chewing slowly and relishing the mix of flavors as the savoury tang of the soup complements the luscious fillings of the potsticker. He almost lets out a soft moan of pleasure, but somehow forces himself to stay quiet.

Alright, something is off. I mean it is just a potsticker with some soup. It shouldn't be “THAT” good?????

[Maybe you are experiencing sensory overload, would you like me to do a scan to find out the cause?]

Ya let's do that, just in case something is off. There is no way something this basic can taste that good.

[It is possible for someone with the Dao of cooking. But the possibility of someone having that in this area is 0.00347% chance. Running the scan now, sense of taste will be off for the scan. Duration approximately 2 minutes.]

Shit, tell me next time.

[Host, please read the user manual so you are no longer surprised.]

Wait, you have a user manual?

[No.]

… I really dislike you.

Looking around, everyone has begun to quietly eat, except for Zhao who has three pot stickers on his plate. Zhao is patiently waiting for Zhi, before starting to eat. “Sorry I was lost in thought for a minute. Now we just have to test a few things, and see if we can bring out your talent.”

Zhi points at the potstickers in front of Zhao. “Take one of those and eat it slowly. While you eat it, I want you to concentrate on the taste. And after I want you to tell me your thoughts on what you just tasted.” Zhao nods his head in reply, picking up a potsticker and placing it in his mouth, he closes his eyes and begins to chew slowly.

As he is chewing Zhi can see a little bit of surprise on his face the longer he chews. After he finishes, he sits with his eyes closed and begins to speak. “The outer dough was fine, but it might have been slightly over cooked. It is really hard to tell. But the pork was over seasoned, and the cabbage was still somewhat hard. I don’t think it should be like that though. But overall, it wasn’t that bad. If I just ate it like normal, I would not have noticed it at all.”

Yongzheng frowns slightly at Zhao's remark about the food. But says nothing in response, just quietly eating while watching the boy. Zhi smiles, then says, “Alright, I want you to try that again. But this time just focus on the filling of the potsticker. Tell me everything you find.”

Zhao nods his head, picking up another pot sticker and repeating the process. Taking slightly longer this time. After he finishes he begins talking while his eyes are still closed. “Slightly over salted pork, the cabbage and scallions are kinda chewy. There is a hint of ginger? I can also taste garlic, sugar, salt, and soy sauce?” Opening his eyes, he looks over at Zhi to see how he did. Zhi actually looks at Sun Yongzheng. “Yongzheng, Did he correctly name off the ingredients you use to make the fillings for your pot stickers?”

“He did, but I don’t think the pork is over-salted or that there is any issue with the cabbage or scallions. They taste just as good as they always do.” Meifeng and Xiulan nod their heads in agreement. “They taste fine to me.” Zhao’s aunt replies.

“I agree, they tasted fine to me. But Zhao has a talent for taste. If it’s not too much trouble, could we speak to the cook who prepared the fillings for these? Just to sate my curiosity mostly.” Yongzheng doesn’t even take a second to consider the request. His honor as the restaurant owner demands that he prove there is nothing wrong with the food that was provided. Even if it was slightly over salted meat and possibly undercooked vegetables. He picks up the service bell, ringing it.

Ye Bojing walks in, “How can I be of service?”

Looking at Bojing, Yongzheng says, “Bojing, go find whomever made the fillings for these pot stickers and bring them here please.”

“At once sir.” With a small bow he is out the door.

[Scanning complete, no abnormalities found. Sense of taste is now turned on.]

Setting the bell down, Yongzheng is satisfied. He begins to eat again while waiting for the cook.

Zhi picks up another pot sticker before dipping it in his soup. After soaking it, he places the whole thing in his mouth. His eyes light up in pleasure, while he suppresses the urge to make another moan.

Nothing was wrong? Then why the heck does this taste so damn good I almost moan in pleasure?

[Most likely possibility is spirit Qi infused into some or all of the ingredients. It has been known to cause issues with some people and make things taste a lot better than they actually are.]

But what about the other stuff I ate? All of that tasted normal, some of those trail rations were pretty bland actually.

[Those most likely didn’t have any infusion of spirit Qi. Although not perceptible by you, spirit Qi saturation has risen by 1% from your start point.]

Okay so you are saying I will pretty much want to moan with pleasure whenever I eat something with even a little bit of spirit Qi?

[I can adjust your ability to taste if you wish, till your body becomes used to it. Then change it back afterwards. It should only take 3-4 weeks for your body to adjust.]

Let's do that please Buddha. Thank you.

[Body and taste sense adjusted.]

Zhi looks around to see everyone eating, only Zhao is not eating. He is sipping his tea while waiting for Zhi to do another experiment. Zhi looks at his last potsticker, then picks it up and dips it in his soup. This time when he eats it, he can taste the pork is slightly over-salted. While the cabbage and scallions are definitely not cooked all the way. Satisfied he set his chopsticks down and waits for the cook to come in.

It doesn’t take long before a knock is heard and the door opens. In walks Ye Bojing, followed by an older man wearing a slightly stained white cooking apron. Ye Bojing doesn’t speak, but the other man does. “Sir you wished to see me.”

“Yes I did, this young man said that the pot stickers didn’t taste correctly. I wanted to confirm that they were made normally, like always.” The cook looks a little surprised, but replies “We did have a slight issue, but we fixed it and there shouldn’t have been a problem with the end result. I tested them myself for quality.”

Yongzheng raised his left eye brow at the man's answer, Zhi was the first to speak. “Zhao, please eat another pot sticker and tell us what you find.”

Taking the last pot sticker, his eyes close as he begins to eat it. Everyone has stopped eating, and are watching. After he finishes he begins talking while his eyes are still closed. “I am pretty sure the outer dough is fine. But the pork is over seasoned.” The cook's eyes go wide at that statement. While Yongzheng frowns slightly at the reaction.

“While the cabbage and scallions are slightly chewy, like they were possibly undercooked? There is a hint of ginger, with some garlic, sugar, salt, and soy sauce mixed in.” Zhi nods his head, “That is what I also determined after eating mine.”

The cook looks between Zhao and Zhi a couple times before Yongzheng says, “So explain what happened when making the filling for the pot stickers.”

The man nods and says “The new kid we hired to replace Tan Xianliang accidently spilled too much salt into the pork. So I took over to fix it. I just doubled the recipe, but didn’t really season the extra meat. When I tested it it tasted fine. So I didn’t think anything about it. But doubling up on the veggies might have caused the issue with the cabbage and scallions. I cooked them the normal amount of time. I am sorry sir.” The man bows his head to Yongzheng.

“It’s fine, you can go back to work.” Yongzheng doesn’t look upset, but he does glance at Zhao, then at Zhi for a moment before going back to his meal. Ye Bojing and the cook leave the room, while Zhi looks over to Zhao before saying, “So you ready for the next one?”