Chapter 13

Maisie felt uncomfortable. She held Marily’s arm and said, “Cousin sister, please stop!”

Marilyn knew that her insults had struck a nerve in her cousin sister. She shut her mouth after throwing Sean a dirty look.

“It’s late, Marilyn. Let’s go in!” Howard said.

“Alright!” Marilyn held Maisie’s arm and walked into the Royal Imperial Hotel.

“B…Boss!” The doorman at the entrance said in surprise when he saw Sean.

Sean Young made a ‘hush’ hand signal from behind the three of them. The doorman understood right away and did not call him out.

Maisie’s birthday was on the 15th; he wanted to give her a huge surprise, so he did not want to expose his identity too soon.

After they entered, they sat at a table in the lobby near the window.

Upon discussion, Howard suggested Japanese cuisine. Marilyn agreed to whatever he suggested, so Maisie could only go with their decision.

The Royal Imperial Hotel was a five-star hotel; they had various cuisines, and Japanese cuisine was, of course, included.

After a few moments, a portion of fresh-looking sushi was presented. Howard looked at the sushi and said with sophistication, “Marilyn, Maisie, please eat! Oh that’s right, remember, when you eat sushi, finish a whole piece in one bite.

“Only then, you can enjoy the delicious taste of the sushi, feeling the fragrance of the rice blended with the raw fish. The fragrance stays in your mouth for a long time and it’s absolutely amazing.”

“So particular!” Maisie exclaimed.

Marilyn laughed. “I guess you didn’t know, Maisie, but Howard actually studied overseas and he knows a lot about Japanese cuisine! Unlike some loser!”

“Studied overseas?” Maisie said surprised.

The way she looked at Howard completely changed. No wonder he could become the general manager of Millennium Corp at such a young age.

At Maisie’s admiration, Howard swelled with pride. He said in a gentlemanly manner, “Let’s not wait for the sushi to get cold; let’s all taste this top-notch sushi right away!”

“Top-notch sushi?” Just as everyone was about to start eating, they heard a dissonance in the conversation, Sean’s face was filled with shock.

Marilyn shot an angry glance at Sean. “You really doubt Howard’s words? He studied overseas; how could a bumpkin like you compare to him? If he said it’s top-notch sushi, it’s top-notch sushi!”

“This sushi is only slightly better than the ones you can get outside,” Sean said plainly.

Hearing that, Marilyn was furious. “What the hell do you mean, Sean Young? Do you know where we are? Royal Imperial Hotel. Do you suppose the sushi here would be some run-of-the-mill rice and fish? I think you’re jealous about Howard’s talent and you’re trying to save face!”

“You think too much!” Sean shook his head.

Howard laughed in disdain. “Perhaps you know sushi culture very well?”

“Oh, I know a little,” Sean Young said nonchalantly.

Marilyn was mad; she was sure that Sean was jealous and wanted to outplay Howard.

She looked at Maisie, who was also at a loss. She never knew Sean knew things about sushi!

Howard sneered, “Oh yeah? Then why don’t you tell us what’s wrong with this sushi?”

“That’s right! Explain it to us. Enlighten us!” Marilyn mocked him angrily.

They were so aggressive, as if wanting to tear off the mask that Sean put on and embarrass him.

Maisie felt very awkward. Sean had only been an average Joe since they got married five years ago. How would he know anything about sushi culture?

Just when Maisie tried to stop him, Sean looked over at Howard and said, “Normally, a complete set of sushi consists of five elements: shari, tane, namida, murasaki and gari.”

As soon as he said that, Howard, who was preparing himself to watch a comedy unfold, shuddered. He was shocked that Sean actually got it right.

“What?” Marilyn’s face suddenly froze.

She had eaten sushi before and learned about sushi culture, but she truly did not expect Sean to know something about it.

Even Maisie felt very surprised. Although that was common knowledge about sushi, there were not many people who ate sushi within the country; most people did not know it, so how did Sean?

Howard collected himself and asked coldly. “So what? This is rudimentary knowledge. It doesn’t prove anything.”

Sean held up a piece of sushi with his chopsticks and sniffed it. “The so-called ‘shari’ is actually what we know as cooked rice. Authentic shari is pure white, and it has a slight vinegar fragrance. This one is lacking a little of it, isn’t it?”

As soon as he said that, the whole table was dumbfounded.

Howard rolled his eyes wide, ‘How come this loser knows about sushi in such detail?’

Marilyn was complete at a loss for words; how could he spot such details at a glance?

Maisie was in even bigger disbelief that she covered her sexy red lips. Her glance at Sean was full of shock.

Truly, if it was not placed near the nostrils, one really could not smell the vinegar in the sushi.

“This doesn’t prove anything. After all, the Royal Imperial Hotel mainly makes cuisine from within the country!” Howard said frostily.

Sean continued, “The ‘tane’ in sushi, to explain simply, is the material of the topping on the sushi; it’s usually a slice of fresh raw fish. The raw fish slice on top-notch sushi is usually tuna or salmon that was caught on the same day. You can see that the fish on top of this piece of sushi is old; it’s clearly frozen.”

Under a careful scrutiny, the fish on top of the sushi really did not look fresh.

“We’re inland. The fish was already dead when it arrived. Of course, it can’t be fresh!” Howard said with a dark face.

Sean did not change his demeanor, he continued to explain. “The third element is the so-called ‘namida’: tears. Namida represents the condiment, and it’s usually made out of top-quality wasabi. Although mustard paste and wasabi taste similar, this clearly isn’t wasabi paste, but mustard paste.”

“Nonsense!” Howard barked.

That was a five-star hotel. How could they pass off mustard paste as wasabi?

“Don’t believe me?” Sean waved his hand.

Howard angrily summoned a server. “Is this mustard paste in your sushi?”

“Hello, sir. Yes, it is mustard paste. We’re not a specialized Japanese restaurant. High-level wasabi paste can only be imported if it’s ordered in advance!” the server said respectfully.

Gah!!!

As soon as the server spoke, Howard and Marilyn were both dumbfounded.

Was it really mustard and not wasabi?

At that instant, the two of them looked at Sean like he was some kind of monster.

Maisie was also stunned. She felt that the person sitting in front of her was not Sean at all, but a living encyclopedia.

Sean began to smile slightly and continued, “Murasaki is the soy sauce in the condiment. The condiment in authentic sushi is made out of boiled seaweed and dried fish, but this one obviously tastes like regular soy sauce!”

“Correct. Because we do not have professional sushi chefs here, we aren’t able to recreate the authenticity, so we can only use normal soy sauce as a condiment replacement!” The server could only tell it honestly as Sean was there.

Sean smiled and finished, “And forget about ‘gari’, the ginger; you can find it basically anywhere in the country. Now that four out of the five basic elements of sushi have problems, how could you call this top-notch sushi?”

Looking at Sean’s calm and easy demeanor, Howard almost puked blood out of frustration.

Marilyn also looked as if she swallowed a dead fly. She did not for a moment expect that the piece of garbage would steal their thunder.

“Hmph! So what if you’re right? This is still tastier than regular sushi you can find at the market. Maisie, have a taste. Take in the authentic Japanese culture with this sushi!” Marilyn immediately said, trying to end the conversation with less embarrassment.

Right in the next moment, the dissonant voice rose up once again, “Sushi is Japanese culture? Are you kidding?”