Seeing the viewers’ questions in the live stream chat, Li Xiao began to explain:
"Yakitori is a traditional grilled skewer dish originating from Japan, widely popular for its unique cooking style and texture."
"This dish typically uses various types of fowl as its main ingredient, such as pigeon, chicken, quail, and so on. After special preparation and cooking, the meat becomes tender and juicy, with a crispy skin."
"Of course, modern yakitori almost exclusively uses chicken."
"The preparation process for yakitori focuses on heat control and seasoning. It’s usually slow-grilled over a charcoal fire or in a special grill."
"During cooking, the chef skillfully uses a variety of seasonings—like soy sauce, miso, and honey—to give the grilled meat its unique flavor.
These seasonings permeate the meat during the grilling process, making it even more delicious."
"As for some of your guesses, you’re right. This is indeed that Akatori restaurant with the 1700 yuan per person price tag."
"I’ve seen a lot of mixed opinions about this place online, so I came to see for myself whether it’s actually any good."
After Li Xiao’s explanation, the live stream chat immediately became restless.
"So from the sounds of it, yakitori is just roast chicken??"
"A whole chicken costs next to nothing! How can they sell it for 1700 per person?"
"That’s not the right way to look at it. By your logic, a car is just a pile of steel, so how can it sell for hundreds of thousands?"
"I’ve seen a lot of streamers checking this place out recently. The reviews are all great, but the price is just too steep, so I haven’t gone! If the streamer says it’s good too, I’ll take my girlfriend this weekend."
"I knew it. No streamer can resist dirty money. See? This is definitely a promotion for this yakitori place."
"If streamers don’t do promotions, who’s going to show us where the good food is? It’s 1700 per person, 90% of people can’t afford that. What’s wrong with just watching?"
...
Li Xiao glanced at the bullet comments. Clearly, many people assumed that he, a food streamer, was probably here to shill for Akatori.
He shook his head gently.
"For my friends who suspect I’m taking a promotion fee, feel free to click on my profile picture and check my bio and pinned video."
"If you can find any evidence that I’ve taken a promotion fee, I’ll hand over 300,000 in cash, no questions asked."
At this, he lowered his voice, afraid the waiters and chefs in the room might hear him.
"I do have an ulterior motive for being here today, but it’s not to shill for them. It’s to see if this so-called Akatori is really worth 1700 per person!"
"Today, I specifically chose the Yamada House within Akatori. This private room seats sixteen and can be booked out entirely. Of course, since I made a last-minute reservation, I have to share the table with others."
"The head chef of this sixteen-seat Yamada House is Ikegawa Yoshihiko, the so-called ’Bird-Burning Immortal’ who’s been hyped to the heavens online."
"This restaurant has two other rooms, Nara House and Yipin House. In those rooms, his apprentices here in Xia Country are responsible for making the yakitori. The price is slightly lower, but the set menus still cost 800 and 900 yuan per person, respectively."
"But since the so-called Bird-Burning Immortal himself is in charge of Yamada Residence, the price is higher. The set menu is 1500 per person, not including drinks. If you order drinks, the price becomes the 1700 yuan that’s been circulating online."
The viewers in the live stream chat weren’t idiots. They could, of course, hear the sarcasm and disdain in Li Xiao’s voice. Many of them immediately grew excited, sensing that a good show was about to start.
After all, there were plenty of Li Xiao’s longtime fans in the chat.
These people knew that this was the same streamer who had once confronted Yun Ji Bamboo-Rising Wonton Noodles head-on for their fraudulent "bamboo-rising" technique, forcing them to change their name to simply Yun Ji Wonton Noodles.
The sign that had hung by their door for twenty years was replaced with a new one, and their business suffered greatly.
If he really found a problem here, things were going to get interesting.
Li Xiao chatted idly with his viewers, waiting in boredom.
Around 6:30, four other guests entered and sat down near Li Xiao’s group of four.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, the young woman in the kimono who had greeted them earlier came before the group and announced in a clear voice:
"Welcome, honored guests, to Yamada House. The head chef for Yamada House today is Japan’s Bird-Burning Immortal: Mr. Ikegawa Yoshihiko."
As the young woman finished speaking, the chefs who had been tending to the fire immediately began to applaud. Swept up in the atmosphere, a few other customers in the room, who seemed a bit confused, also started clapping.
Seeing Zhou Yu beside him also raise his hands, as if to applaud, Li Xiao rolled his eyes in frustration and pushed his hands back down.
He looked at the bewildered Zhou Yu and said irritably:
"Are you stupid?"
"We’re paying over a thousand yuan for a meal, and you’re applauding the chef before it even starts? Is your brain fried?"
Live Stream Chat:
"The streamer’s right. I don’t know if those women across from them are dumb or what, but why are they clapping?"
"You can’t say that. Our Xia Country is a nation of etiquette. What’s wrong with being a little polite?"
"Some people have been kneeling for so long, their knees have grown roots and they can’t stand up anymore."
"Seriously? It’s bad enough that we pay money and don’t even get treated like kings, but now we’re supposed to give them a welcoming ceremony? Why are those people so pathetic?"
...
The bamboo curtain directly opposite the counter was pulled aside, and a bald, middle-aged man walked out.
The man was wearing a white, short-sleeved Japanese chef’s uniform with a white headband, and he had a rather sturdy build.
Li Xiao had sharp eyes and immediately noticed the tattoos on Ikegawa Yoshihiko’s arms.
It wasn’t just a small tattoo, but a large, extensive piece.
Japan is a very traditional country.
Even in Japan, a country where crime syndicates are legalized, most of their members don’t get tattoos.
Because in Japan, the meaning behind a tattoo is not simple; you can’t just get one because you feel like it.
Only elite enforcers or core members of a syndicate would get tattoos.
That’s why in some Japanese videos, you see scenes in bathhouses where big, burly men immediately give a wide berth to a smaller man after seeing he’s covered in extensive tattoos.
But this so-called Bird-Burning Immortal, Ikegawa Yoshihiko, actually had both arms tattooed with a [Japanese Hanjia], which was quite intriguing.
[Japanese Hanjia: A hanjia is a tattoo style covering the area from the pectoral muscle to the upper arm.]
If things were as they seemed, this guy was most likely involved with a syndicate before he started grilling birds.
However, Li Xiao wasn’t worried by this revelation.
If this were Japan, he might have to be a bit wary of the man. But this was Xia Country; even if he really was a syndicate member, he couldn’t stir up any real trouble here.
He quickly shifted his attention away from the man’s tattoos.
The woman in the kimono announced:
"And now, our Bird-Burning Immortal will give everyone an introduction to the origins of traditional Japanese yakitori."
????
As she finished speaking, the lights in Yamada Residence slowly dimmed. Li Xiao raised an eyebrow.
’So this is their so-called ’sense of ceremony’—turning off the lights to tell a story?’