For a moment, the lobby on the first floor was in an uproar, as everyone condemned Grandma Ding’s immoral behavior of not following the rules.
Clearly, we all just sent fruit to Luoluo, why did you send it directly to Master Qin?!
And you even succeeded!
Aren’t you breaking the game rules!
All of a sudden, everyone was shouting:
"My daughter’s colleague’s hometown is..."
"My son works at the flour company!"
Grandma Ding ignored these obviously made-up fake messages, enjoying her jujube cake with pride, contemplating on how to handle the green bean cake for her eldest grandson after having sorted out the locust flower honey buns for her younger grandson.
Qin Huai changed clothes and entered the kitchen.
When Qin Huai entered the kitchen, the two chefs who were busy stir-frying at high heat were a bit surprised, thinking that the boss was there to inspect their work and see if they were slacking off. For a moment, both chefs exerted all their strength to toss the wok vigorously, almost wishing to show off their biceps to Qin Huai to prove their high-fire stir-frying skills.
But Qin Huai didn’t even look their way, heading straight to the back cabinet to get flour and search for rice wine lees.
"Huang Xi," Qin Huai popped his head out and asked, "Is there any rice wine lees for the yeast in the store?"
Huang Xi didn’t know what rice wine lees for yeast was, so he brought everything related over, even bringing two jugs of rice wine and two bowls of fermented rice.
Seeing that the store actually had fermented rice, Qin Huai was overjoyed.
When making Rice Wine Steamed Buns, you can use rice wine yeast, rice wine lees, or homemade fermented rice. These things don’t differ much, each has its benefits, and can even produce Rice Wine Steamed Buns in different colors.
For example, Rice Wine Steamed Buns made with yellow rice wine lees are red.
In the video tutorial, Qin Wan used homemade fermented rice. Qin Wan crushed the homemade fermented rice, mixed the rice wine and rice into a juice, and used the fermented rice juice mixed with warm water to control the temperature to knead the dough.
Now Qin Huai has more advanced equipment—a blender, saving time and effort.
Qin Huai juiced while considering the approximate temperature. To prevent failure like making Buckwheat Buns, he prepared several sets of dough, using warm water of different temperatures to knead the dough.
He added a small amount of sugar when kneading the dough.
Qin Huai recalled the steps in the video tutorial and did it slowly step by step. Before he knew it, his movements mirrored those of Qin Wan in the teaching video—slow and gentle.
Qin Luo, who had been delivering takeout by shared bike for a week and earned a bit of pocket money, originally planned to reward himself with a Crazy Thursday meal tonight: ?
Qin Luo, still holding a chicken nugget, squatted at the kitchen door, a bit puzzled: "Isn’t my brother making Buckwheat Buns? Why is he suddenly making Rice Wine Steamed Buns?"
Ouyang, who rushed over to eat as soon as he got off work, squatted next to Qin Luo, equally puzzled: "Didn’t you say your brother’s Rice Wine Steamed Buns were not good? They look pretty tasty."
Although Ouyang had only seen the dough kneading step, he already thought they looked delicious.
Come on, Qin Huai was so focused when kneading the dough, his movements so gentle that those who knew knew he was kneading dough, but those who didn’t might think he was giving the dough a spa.
With such an attitude, could the steamed buns be bad?
Ouyang had made up his mind. He would squat at the door and be the first to eat!
He wouldn’t eat dinner tonight!
Ouyang glanced at the chicken nugget in Qin Luo’s hand and felt he had already won tonight.
The Qin Huai in the kitchen didn’t know there were two people squatting outside, and he didn’t know that Huang Xi, thinking the two squatting at the kitchen door were a bit too abnormal and affecting business, had invited them to table number 9, giving each a cup of water to drink.
He just felt that making Rice Wine Steamed Buns wasn’t as easy as it looked.
Even though he had tried as best as he could to follow Qin Wan’s method, and tried to control the temperature during fermentation, constantly monitoring the status of the dough, the final product still wasn’t as good as in the video.
The moment he placed the steamed buns into the steamer, Qin Huai let out a deep sigh.
Indeed, it’s unavoidable to have failures on the first try.
And this time, the failure was different from before.
Previously, when Qin Huai failed, he was following the recipe and doing some creative improvisation. Failure was normal, so normal that Qin Huai himself found it strange if it didn’t happen.
But this time, there was a video tutorial. The tutorial was clear and detailed, with no secrets, leaving no room for blame except for not being taught hand-in-hand. Yet, he still failed.
"Indeed," Qin Huai murmured, "A family secret technique is indeed different from the Snack Encyclopedia."
The two sitting next to table number 9, drinking hot water, stared at Qin Huai.
"What’s my brother saying? Adding... jelly is different from snacks? My brother wants to eat jelly?" Qin Luo widened her eyes, trying to read lips.
What the heck is that? Qin Huai clearly said "Indeed," wearing boots at home and sticking warm baby packs is different.
Hey, what is Qin Huai talking about?
When the first batch of Rice Wine Steamed Buns came out of the steamer, Yunzhong Restaurant’s evening service was almost over.
Huang Xi was checking the inventory in the warehouse, Zhao Rong was directing the waiters to clean up the hall, and Qin Luo was assigned to the kitchen to help wash pots. Even Ouyang couldn’t be idle, since he was there, he was asked to throw out the trash.
Ouyang, who was throwing out the trash, missed the moment when the Rice Wine Steamed Buns came out of the steamer.
The moment the lid of the steamer was lifted, the kitchen was filled with a sweet rice wine aroma.
It’s the aroma of rice wine, just a bit milder, mixed with a wheaty fragrance, an absolutely unique and rare food scent.
"Wow!" Qin Luo, washing pots, exclaimed, fearing Qin Huai wouldn’t hear her, she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Bro, the Rice Wine Steamed Buns you made today smell so good!"
Qin Huai didn’t respond because he saw the score of the Rice Wine Steamed Buns.
[Rice Wine Steamed Buns B- grade]
There was a minus sign, marking his failure.
It flipped, but not completely.
Qin Huai took out a bun, broke it open, and sniffed.
A sweet aroma with a faint rice wine scent.
When all the buns were mixed together, the rice wine aroma was stronger, but individually, it smelled very natural.
Pressed down, it slightly bounced back.
The elasticity was pretty good, and naturally, it couldn’t compare to the one from his dream that could bounce back into its original bun shape after being flattened into a pancake, but it was much better than the Rice Wine Steamed Buns he made before.
Not bad, Qin Huai gave himself a 90 for this failure.
Though it failed, the end product was good.
Qin Huai took a satisfying bite.
Not just the sweetness from starch and sugar, but also the inherent sweetness of the fermented rice. The rice wine flavor was milder than the sweetness, acting more as an accent rather than overpowering. Qin Huai used to fail at making Rice Wine Steamed Buns because he felt the rice wine flavor in the buns was strange, neither bun-like nor rice wine-like.
This time, he finally tasted the delightful flavor of Rice Wine Steamed Buns.
Qin Huai ate bite by bite.
He felt this was probably one of the best buns he’s ever made.
But it was still a failed, unqualified B- grade Rice Wine Steamed Bun.
What would a qualified B-grade Rice Wine Steamed Bun taste like?
If B-grade buns were , what about S-grade locust flower buns?
For the first time, Qin Huai felt an immense enthusiasm and challenge in making snacks.
Indeed, getting off work at 12 is a bit early.
Getting up at 4 is already the limit, any earlier is unthinkable. How about...
Postpone getting off work by an hour, change to getting off at 1.
"Bro! Bro!" Qin Luo shouted at the top of her lungs—dedicated to her job and not daring to eat buns without finishing washing the pots, "Is it delicious? Is it delicious?"
Bro, don’t just eat by yourself! Look at me! Say something! Your sister really wants to eat!
Bro, pay attention to me! Don’t keep eating, bro! The more you eat so deliciously, the more I want to eat watching you!
I still have 3 pots to wash!