Rui Yuchen casually picked up a pair of chopsticks and took a piece of pan-fried sole fish from Fitness Meal 2.0, putting it in her mouth.
Then, she tried small pieces of dragon fruit, egg, cherry tomato, corn kernels, purple sweet potato, shrimp, and kelp strips, among other things.
With each slight turn of the dish, she discovered new surprises.
Moreover, after putting them in her mouth, Rui Yuchen realized that these ingredients weren’t simply cut and left as they were, but had undergone special treatment.
For instance, the shrimp—if one wanted to eat them healthily, the best method would be to simply boil them in a small amount of salt water, or lightly stir-fry them with a small amount of oil. But the shrimp here had been marinated, carrying a special fresh fragrance.
Similarly, the eggs weren’t purely boiled eggs, but carried a hint of tea fragrance, though not as strong as the flavor of ordinary tea eggs.
Street vendors selling tea eggs often used tea leaves that had been boiled multiple times, while also adding a lot of soy sauce, so they weren’t healthy. But the food research laboratory had considered this point, only slightly flavoring the eggs without long hours of boiling and soaking.
Processing all ingredients before making them into a salad had indeed greatly improved the taste compared to Fitness Meal 1.0.
Soon, the plate in front of Rui Yuchen was empty.
The waiter cautiously asked, “Manager Rui, is the taste acceptable?”
Rui Yuchen nodded, “It’s acceptable.”
The waiter asked again, “Then… can it be promoted to all stores as Fitness Meal 2.0?”
To promote a dish meant that chefs at all stores had to master the method, and the dishes they produced couldn’t vary much.
On one hand, this required very precise control of the amount of various ingredients and cooking time; on the other hand, it also required the chefs to practice repeatedly.
Therefore, after promotion to all stores, it would still take some time before it could be officially launched to various gyms as Fitness Meal 2.0.
Rui Yuchen put down her chopsticks. “No.”
The waiter was stunned because he had seen Rui Yuchen finish the entire fitness meal in front of her, obviously feeling it was quite tasty.
Since it had already met the requirement of “tasty fitness meal,” why was it still not acceptable?
Rui Yuchen didn’t explain much, only saying, “This dish can be considered for addition to the permanent menu, but as for how to make Fitness Meal 2.0… I still need to think about it.”
Rui Yuchen turned and left, leaving the waiter bewildered as he cleared the plate.
…
After leaving Slackin’ Delivery Store No. 1, Rui Yuchen walked aimlessly on the street, passing one restaurant after another.
Smelling the aroma of food wafting from inside, although Rui Yuchen was already half full, she was still tempted.
“The fitness meal is indeed tasty, but… it still feels insufficient.”
“If eating it occasionally, it’s not bad, but eating it for a long time, it seems still unacceptable. Even if it’s tastier, it’s still not right.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s not because it doesn’t taste good, but because salad… seems to still not conform to Chinese people’s eating habits, and it doesn’t seem essential.”
“What are Chinese people’s eating habits?”
“First, it must be hot, it must have temperature—salad is cold, making people feel it’s not a proper meal; second, it must be fully flavored—bland tastes trigger instinctive resistance and rejection; finally, there must be plenty of meat.”
“And ordinary healthy meal salads don’t satisfy any of these criteria.”
“So, most people who clamor about losing weight and being healthy, hoping to lose weight by eating healthy meals every day, in reality, 99% of people will give up. Even with tasty, healthy meals, they still can’t persist.”
“Because this completely contradicts our dietary instincts.”
“Hmm… this is a serious problem, very serious! It might even affect Mr. Pei’s overall plan!”
Rui Yuchen suddenly became vigilant.
When she first received this task, she had already guessed that Mr. Pei’s vigorous promotion of Slackin’ Delivery was definitely to guide consumers, letting everyone begin a healthy lifestyle starting from diet, while Tenda could also take this opportunity to plan and lay a solid foundation for the development of various industries.
It was precisely because of understanding this point that Rui Yuchen boldly opened stores, crazily and frantically asking Mr. Pei for money.
Because she knew Mr. Pei would support this approach.
Mr. Pei had Slackin’ Delivery supply fitness meals, bundled with managed gyms, obviously to achieve better fitness results.
Originally, Rui Yuchen thought the problem with fitness meals was easy to solve—just have the food research laboratory improve their taste, right?
But today she suddenly realized that merely improving the taste was not enough!
If today she hadn’t realized that “Chinese people’s eating habits don’t accept salads,” and had directly promoted Fitness Meal 2.0 to gyms, it might have caused very serious consequences.
Fitness meals not only do not help gyms, but they would have a discouraging effect on gym customers!
Although these fitness meals were healthy, they inherently violated most people’s eating habits, so only a few people with very strong willpower could persist.
If they weren’t bundled together, it would be fine—if people got tired of them, they could simply eat something else without affecting their exercise.
But managed gyms and fitness meals were directly bundled—if customers got tired of fitness meals, they had no other choice, which would discourage many customers.
As far as Rui Yuchen knew, indeed, some managed gym customers had already “been refunded,” though she didn’t know how much of that was due to the fitness meals.
In other words, if Rui Yuchen hadn’t realized this point and had allowed the fitness meal policy to continue, managed gyms might never turn losses into profits, and Mr. Pei’s overall plan might be seriously delayed!
Of course, this couldn’t be blamed on Mr. Pei.
Mr. Pei was busy with work—how could he possibly specify what fitness meals should look like?
Rui Yuchen felt that solving this problem was her responsibility.