"Is it just my imagination? Why do I feel like making this bun is so exhausting?" Chen Huihong seemed a bit puzzled, "Why hasn’t Xiao Ou come back with the sugar yet? Should I call and check?"
"It’s definitely exhausting." Qin Huai sighed deeply, for the first time feeling so helpless about his Basic Finger Skill, "The design of this bun is too intricate, I’m not used to doing it for the first time."
Actually, if Qin Huai had followed the general shape of the Qianhua Bun on the internet and randomly created a new design for the Qianhua Gongdeng Bun, it might not have been as strenuous as it is now. .com
But unfortunately, Qin Huai had seen the genuine one made by Zheng Da.
You could say Zheng Da is lazy, you could say Zheng Da is inattentive, but you can’t say Zheng Da is not talented.
Master Zheng, as a pastry chef, is also a hexagonal warrior.
Using Zheng Da’s fully loaded version of the Qianhua Gongdeng Bun, intended to showcase his Skills, as a template, Qin Huai felt like changing his hands during the replication.
Qin Huai clipped two more patterns and said, "Ouyang won’t be back quickly buying sugar, as all the regular convenience stores around here close at this time, and the nearest 24-hour store is 1.4 kilometers away. Plus, there are stalls selling roasted sausage, takoyaki, hand-pulled crepe, and grilled cold noodles at the store’s entrance. After having two mixed fruit filling glutinous rice balls tonight, Ouyang surely won’t resist these stalls and won’t return until he’s eaten his fill."
Qin Huai said he had arranged everything clearly regarding Ouyang.
"We don’t have much sugar at home, but it’s not that we have none. I just needed a simple reason to send him out."
Chen Huihong nodded: "Those mixed fruit filling glutinous rice balls are indeed hard to eat, too sweet and greasy, with a strange taste, no wonder even Xiao Ou couldn’t handle them."
"There’s nothing I can do, I tried my best, but the mixed fruit filling glutinous rice ball’s ingredients are just too many, too unreasonable. I’ve never seen such an absurd recipe. Now I just hope Gong Liang gives me another side mission quickly, so I can surpass and check out his memory, find the recipe for mixed fruit filling glutinous rice balls and see the correct tutorial."
"Who cooks , throwing all sorts of ingredients into the pot, isn’t this just messing around?" Qin Huai couldn’t help but complain.
Chen Huihong silently bit into a winter jujube without speaking, seemingly pondering something. Watching Qin Huai finish pinching a strip of petals, she slowly said, "Not entirely... nonexistent."
Qin Huai looked up at Chen Huihong and found her reminiscing in a reminiscent manner, realizing it wasn’t a memory from this life that needed searching.
"Back when I was still the crazy lady in Beiping, I actually had something similar."
Had the crazy lady suffered through such things back then?
It seems being an influencer isn’t easy, after all, money-making and dining still come with a price.
Seeing Qin Huai’s gaze with a hint of sympathy, Chen Huihong realized he misunderstood and quickly explained: "It’s not like you think, actually, it was quite tasty."
"Do you know roasted pork?" Chen Huihong asked.
Qin Huai nodded: "Of course I know, one of the eight treasures, it’s basically roasted suckling pig with a variety of ingredients stuffed into its belly. I haven’t had a proper roasted pork, but every year during the Chinese New Year, we eat roasted suckling pig. My relatives love sending roasted suckling pig, roasted goose, roast duck, char siu, and white-cut chicken to my grandparents’ house during New Year’s."
Your family sends these as New Year’s gifts?
"It might be common now, but back then, roasted pork was definitely a rare dish. Even a slightly impoverished Prince or Prince would only order roasted pork from a restaurant during New Year to save face."
"After Hui Niang passed away, I stayed in Beiping for a few more years. I thought maybe people guessed I wasn’t a real lady, but the nobles didn’t care, and I didn’t either, as long as there was food and fun."
"Once a Military Governor’s son came to Beiping, bringing along chefs, and competed in culinary skills with other young masters."
"Other dishes couldn’t be compared well, so they compared roasted pork, adding various bizarre yet precious ingredients worth their weight in gold."
"Fresh fish transported from the south, freshly hunted bear paw, bear bile, tiger meat, Matsutake from the southwestern mountains hard to collect, caviar from the West, foie gras, fresh vegetables difficult to find in winter, and if there were Dragon liver and phoenix gallbladder, they would add that too, if possible."
"The ingredients added were much more diverse than your mixed fruit filling mess, anything valuable or rare was stuffed into the pig’s belly, and the final roasted pork had to taste good, scaring some restaurant owners and chefs to flee overnight."
"Did the ones who didn’t flee make it taste good?" Qin Huai curiously asked, as Chen Huihong had never told such an exciting story before.
Thinking for a moment, Chen Huihong said: "Average."
"Well, you can’t say it like that, actually, it was just the taste of roasted pork. Thinking back now, those chefs were quite skilled, adding so much miscellaneous stuff yet the final roasted pork surprisingly tasted similar to its original version."
"At that time I didn’t understand, but now I really do. Those wealthy young masters weren’t pursuing delicious dishes, they pursued expense, novelty, exclusivity, just wanting to outshine others."
"Moreover, those restaurant owners would give it names like Dragon and Phoenix Auspicious Wish Roasted Pork, Eight Treasures and Blessings Eight-Favored Roasted Pork, all full of auspicious words, as if the rarer the ingredients stuffed in, the more fortune and joy they’d bring, making you feel like you’d live a long life after eating it."