Qin Huai knew he was a bit full.
This glutinous rice ball was large, even larger than the ones he made a few days ago.
But he felt he could manage to eat one more!
Noticing Qin Huai’s intention, a quick-witted Zhiwei Restaurant chef swiftly rushed in front of Qin Huai, eagerly bending over to take the bowl and asked, "Master Qin, would you like a little more?"
Qin Huai nodded slightly, raising one finger: "Just one more."
"Alright!" The Zhiwei Restaurant chef quickly filled Qin Huai’s bowl with a large glutinous rice ball.
Qin Huai cautiously took a bite.
Qin Huai nearly cried tears of joy!
Finally got to eat it, no need for a sixth one!
If he had to eat a sixth one, having such a heavy breakfast before making snacks would be quite overwhelming.
Qin Huai squinted slightly as he began to savor this mixed fruit filling glutinous rice ball that Zheng Da had been researching for several days after slipping home.
First, the glutinous rice ball wasn’t bad.
These days, for the mixed fruit filling glutinous rice ball not to be bad was already high praise in Huang’s Kitchen.
Secondly, it was sweet.
Qin Huai knew this description was a bit like Ouyang’s review, but after days of failures, Qin Huai deeply realized that "sweet and not bad" was actually the highest praise for the mixed fruit filling glutinous rice ball.
Why were the glutinous rice balls Qin Huai made a few days ago so bad? It wasn’t just his; the ones made by Zheng Siyuan were also bad, and Tan Wei’an’s were bad enough to make you want to call the police.
It was because the mixed fruit filling made according to Huang Shengli’s recipe was sweet and bad.
Sweet in a very chaotic way.
The sweetness of various candied fruits mixed together wasn’t a delicacy, but rather a confusion of primary and secondary flavors, a mess, disorderly, numbing the tongue, a lethal dose of sugar.
Because the sweetness was wrong, so the various candied fruits became a mistake, and the abundant nuts became useless.
But the mixed fruit filling Zheng Da made today was the right kind of sweet.
Its sweetness was clearly defined, allowing the diner to distinctly taste what primary sweet flavor or two were provided by the candied fruits in the glutinous rice ball, able to taste the nuts the chef intended for you to taste. It was an orderly, planned sweetness and combination.
What Qin Huai made a few days ago was simply an interstellar species melee.
Qin Huai took another bite.
Hey, why does this main ingredient feel so familiar?
Upon further savoring, wait, this mixed fruit filling doesn’t seem to have so many ingredients.
Isn’t this the recipe Tan Wei’an took out, learned from Master Zhou at Zhiwei Restaurant?
The texture was slightly enriched, but not by much, clearly had a few more nuts added, but only a few. The amount was so small that it almost didn’t affect the overall texture and taste.
Qin Huai was a bit puzzled, holding up the bowl, he looked for where Zheng Da was, and found him by the floursack in the corner, so he walked over.
Zheng Siyuan got there quicker than Qin Huai.
"Dad, did you make today’s mixed fruit filling glutinous rice ball according to Uncle’s recipe?" Zheng Siyuan directly asked the question Qin Huai wanted to ask.
Zheng Da, still squatting and examining the flour, replied without looking up, "Of course not. The recipe your Uncle gave, is that made for people? Let alone mixed fruit filling, I wouldn’t even use it to cook porridge, the taste is too mixed."
"Your dad found a very reliable master in the industry, and after a few days of learning and discussion, made a slight modification and figured it out. It even uses a full 10 ingredients!"
"Look, I was able to achieve this level with 10 ingredients for the mixed fruit filling today, tomorrow it’ll be 12, the day after that 14. Given time, your Uncle’s messy recipe can surely be figured out."
"Now I’m starting to doubt if the recipe he gave is really legitimate. I vaguely remember the master’s mixed fruit filling glutinous rice ball back then used plenty of nuts and candied fruits. Nuts probably weren’t expensive back then, but top-quality candied fruits were truly rare, and it took a long time to gather the ingredients."
"But was there really that much? Could his recipe possibly have been just scribbled?"
"Dad, stop beating around the bush. Just tell me, did you ask Master Zhou at Zhiwei Restaurant for the recipe these past few days?" Zheng Siyuan asked.
Zheng Da looked up in surprise, his eyes full of unspoken words.
The father and son locked eyes for over ten seconds before Zheng Da slowly spoke: "How did you know? Have you been secretly going to Zhiwei Restaurant to buy snacks behind my back?"
Zheng Siyuan: "...Tan Wei’an also knows this recipe, and Qin Huai and I already tested it yesterday, there’s no problem."
A misstep, forgot that Huang Ji now has Tan Wei’an, the direct disciple from Zhiwei Restaurant.
"If there’s no problem with this recipe, doesn’t that prove your Uncle’s recipe is the problem? There’s no way a human could follow that recipe. How could there be so many ingredients in this world for mixed fruit filling? Everyone has only one tongue, how could anyone possibly taste so many flavors in a bite? If everyone could, then everyone would be a gourmet critic." Zheng Da softly mumbled.
"I just got here and heard you mumbling bad things about me behind my back. Zheng Da, you’ve gone missing for a few days and even your voice has gotten smaller?" Huang Shengli, with a glowing complexion, walked quickly into the kitchen, giving Qin Huai an approving nod, his back straight, striding over to Zheng Da.
"I thought you wouldn’t come today, couldn’t reach you on the phone, so I sent An Yao to find you at home." Huang Shengli said.
"Why are you looking for me?" Zheng Da was a bit baffled.
"The report already says, you’re the Bo Le of the Thousand Mile Horse. Now that the Thousand Mile Horse is famous everywhere, from Southeast Asia to the Atlantic, guests want to come and see the Thousand Mile Horse’s grandeur, shouldn’t you, the Bo Le, also shine bright?"