When Qin Huai returned to the kitchen, everyone was already eating the guo’er. Even Huang Shengli had one in his hand, already half-eaten.
Huang An Yao had taken only one bite of his, and Qin Huai had reason to suspect this was his second.
Each guo’er was nearly half a pound in weight, and Huang An Yao was eating two of them not long after finishing lunch...
Qin Huai could only say the young man had a good appetite; quite promising.
Zheng Siyuan saved one for Qin Huai.
He saved one that Qin Huai had made himself, which looked particularly ugly, yet was among the highest grade.
[Apple Dough Ball level B+]
Qin Huai rarely made snacks of B+ level.
An ugly-looking guo’er, yet with an alluring grade.
Qin Huai picked up the guo’er and took a hearty bite.
Warm and slightly hot, with a hint of sweetness from the carrot puree, the savory and salty juice from the meat filling exploded in his mouth.
The skin of the guo’er felt slightly hard, not soft enough while eating; the inside of the dough had already absorbed the color of the meat filling, fully blending together, tasting a bit like a bun stuffed with meat juices.
The outside still tasted like the skin of the dumpling, and combined, it had quite a unique flavor.
The filling goes without saying: in a word, delicious!
The meat filling is simply the best!
As the most common pork filling, its feature is being very versatile, as can be seen by the types of buns alone: pure meat buns, pork and green onion buns, mushroom meat buns, dried plum vegetable meat buns, cabbage meat buns, radish meat buns... basically, as long as you want it, there’s no filling that can’t be paired with pork.
Juicy, rich but not greasy, savory and perfectly balanced filling is the soul of a bun.
What? You say everyone is eating guo’er now.
Please, everyone present is a professional, even Huang An Yao can taste that the filling of the guo’er is simply a perfect bun filling.
But so what if it’s a bun filling? Stuffed into the skin of a dumpling, as long as the pairing is appropriate, with precise control over the thickness of the dumpling skin, without the filling spilling or oil seeping during steaming, the skin slightly hard but mixing with the meat filling gives it a distinctive flavor when chewed; it’s just delicious!
This snack should be made this way!
Huang Shengli’s filling is excellent, but Qin Huai’s dough doesn’t fall behind; their combination makes a good snack.
"It’s so delicious, how can there be something so tasty in this world! It’s simply a bun... oh no, a dumpling... also not right, dumpling... not that either, anyway it’s meat-filled, delicious!" Aspiring to be an excellent food critic, Huang An Yao at this moment realized, his knowledge was still too narrow.
He couldn’t find another snack to compare and describe the guo’er with.
None, absolutely none.
Bun filling, dumpling skin, superb technique, abstract shape.
No substitute, absolutely no substitute!
While the layman Huang An Yao marveled at how unique, outstanding, elegant, and distinguished this snack was, the professionals, Huang Jia and company, had already begun discussing the importance of the big spoon stir-frying technique for the filling.
"Just looking at this filling, the big spoon stir-frying technique is indeed important."
"Seems like it, without Master’s final touch, this filling would be scattered, unable to trap the juice during the later simmering. If the meat filling couldn’t lock in the juices, when simmering, you’d have to cook the filling dry, then eating it wouldn’t be as juicy, and during steaming, the meat juice couldn’t soak into half of the dough, making it originally a bit dry, eating it would be dry for sure."
"From what you’re saying, it seems that’s the case, if during simmering the filling isn’t cooked dry, it would seep oil during steaming. You don’t even have to taste it, just by looking at it, you can tell for sure it’s a flop."
"Qin Huai’s recipe has something in it."
"Not a single step can be missed, which Shandong cuisine master wrote this pastry recipe? The methods so tricky, isn’t this putting the chef in a tough spot?"
"I heard it was a recipe obtained by one of Qin Huai’s diners fifty or sixty years ago; looking back, it might have been passed down from the Republic era."
"Back then, it’s normal. I heard people mention before that in those days, rich people would show off and compete, deliberately making things hard for chefs, all kinds of bizarre recipes existed."
"I’ve heard about that too."
The people in Huang’s Kitchen gathered at the kitchen door, eating and discussing, and naturally, the talkative Dong Shi wouldn’t miss the chance to chat, actively participating.
As they chatted, Dong Shi noticed someone had been very silent.
"Brother Jun, why are your eyes red?" Dong Shi asked.
Wang Jun rubbed his eyes, pretending like nothing was wrong, yet his sad voice betrayed him: "It’s nothing, just remembered when I just started dating Mianmian."
"Back then, Mianmian never despised me, we would often stroll outside and eat snacks together. Boo hoo, if only I could have eaten guo’er with Mianmian back then, boo hoo."
A bald man sheds tears.
Such an odd perspective.
Dong Li quietly pulled Dong Shi back a step.
Sorry, my younger brother talks too much and too quickly, and he’s not good at reading people, forgive him.
In the kitchen, Huang Shengli had already started a new lesson.
Zheng Siyuan initially intended to go back and practice flipping sand, but since he was already here, he decided to take a day off and see how Qin Huai learned to cook.
Teaching to stir-fry filling was a brand new method by Huang Shengli, he didn’t demonstrate first but had Qin Huai fry a round first.
With no restrictions or guidelines, allowing Qin Huai to feel it out and fry a dish he was best at. It didn’t have to be ordinary shredded meat or meat stuffing, it could be fruit filling, or stir-fried green peppers with meat, as long as Qin Huai wanted, even a dish of scallion lamb stir-fry was possible.