Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 823 - 413: Zhao Cheng’an
8:12 AM, Qin Huai held a plate with his left hand and chopsticks with his right. On the plate were 18 small, delicate Xiao Long Bao, steaming hot with translucent thin skins, each pleat perfectly crafted as if they had walked out of the painting of a meticulous artist with OCD.
These 18 Xiao Long Bao matched everyone’s fantasy of the perfect Xiao Long Bao.
They were crystal clear but not completely transparent, the skin was so thin that it didn’t need strong light. Even under natural light, you could feel the light was about to penetrate the skin, showing the soup and meat inside.
The shape was exquisitely beautiful, with each pleat seemingly meticulously designed, and the whole bun’s lines were exceptionally comfortable, forming an irregular yet perfect triangle from top to bottom. Just by looking at the shape, one could imagine how much soup was inside. The moment you take a bite, the warm, tasty, slightly sweet soup with a meaty fragrance would flood into your mouth; it’s such a wonderful feeling.
And the imagination perfectly matched reality.
Qin Huai had two ways of eating Xiao Long Bao.
The ordinary way was to directly dip it in vinegar, gently using chopsticks to pick up the Xiao Long Bao and roll it in a dish of vinegar, letting the skin soak in the vinegar flavor, then swiftly stuffing the entire Xiao Long Bao into the mouth and devouring it.
This was Qin Huai’s most often used method.
The second method Qin Huai learned from Qin Luo, who loved dipping baozi in vinegar while eating. Not only Xiao Long Bao, but even regular meat buns, radish silk buns, and string bean buns had to be dipped, and not just a light touch.
Qin Luo’s favorite way to eat meat buns was to pour half a bowl of vinegar, tear the bun open, press the side soaked with meat juices firmly into the vinegar, dyeing the bun skin black with vinegar, and then take a bite with the meat inside.
According to Qin Luo, the oilier the bun, the better it tasted with this method. Qin Luo loved using this method when eating Qin Congwen’s buns because Qin Congwen’s skills weren’t very good, and he often made the meat buns too oily, while Qin Huai’s buns weren’t suitable for such extreme eating methods.
If too much vinegar soaked into the bun skin, one would only taste vinegar and miss the bun’s flavor, while Qin Huai believed buns needed to maintain some original taste and not let vinegar overpower it.
In such extreme eating methods, Qin Huai derived a way to eat Xiao Long Bao by first taking a small bite to puncture the top and then pouring vinegar into them, swallowing them in one go.
Exactly how much vinegar to pour, whether to fill it up or just add a drop, depended on the eater’s fondness for vinegar and whether their hand trembled.
Initially, Qin Huai stayed far away from Qin Luo’s extreme eating method until one time, at Qin Luo’s strong invitation, he tried it and found there was some merit to it.
Especially when eating Xiao Long Bao with very delicious soup, adding a little vinegar inside tasted much better than just dipping in vinegar.
Regarding this, Qin Luo also concluded: dipping vinegar is external, pouring vinegar is both external and internal, and using both external and internal application is most effective.
Qin Huai opted for external and internal application.
He stood by the culinary counter, with both hands occupied and unable to hold the vinegar dish on the plate.
However, it didn’t matter because these items could be placed at the corner of the culinary counter.
The corner of the culinary counter also held not just the dish for vinegar, but a small pot with a fine spout convenient for pouring vinegar into the Xiao Long Bao, a cup of suitably warm hot tea, and a steaming bowl of Chicken Soup Noodles, most suitable for breakfast.
The Chicken Soup Noodles were something Master Hua insisted Qin Huai have, saying that since Master Hua tried Qin Huai’s cooking yesterday, it was only fair for Qin Huai to try his today.
The corner of the culinary counter could be said to be filled with Qin Huai’s items, and this culinary counter belonged to Su Qian.
Su Qian, under the watchful eye of Master Zhou, was diligently kneading dough, not daring to slack off, a complete contrast to his usual demeanor at Yunzhong Restaurant.
At Yunzhong Restaurant, Su Qian was the deputy leader, the core of the team, handling things with ease, including making snacks. But here, Su Qian was Master Zhou’s assured Closed-door Disciple.
Being assured meant that he still wasn’t a Direct Disciple, so he remained the most pressured and competitive apprentice at Zhiwei Restaurant.
Several culinary counters near Su Qian belonged to his future senior brothers, the three Direct Disciples under Master Zhou.
These three Direct Disciples had been introduced to Qin Huai by Master Zhou while Qin Huai was carrying and eating the Xiao Long Bao, each had distinctive appearances and personalities. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
Master Zhou’s eldest disciple was named Wang Jiayi, older than Huang Jia by several years, with a daughter about to start middle school. Wang Jiayi was not only Master Zhou’s Direct Disciple but also the head chef at Zhiwei Restaurant, enjoying nearly the same privileges as a master chef, and he also had two apprentices of his own.
Regarding culinary skills, Wang Jiayi was very mature, only one step away from reaching the mastery that would give him his unique style, which was Master Zhou’s expectation.
In terms of talent, Wang Jiayi was of above-average innate ability, but his extreme hard work made him the type Master Zhou favored, somewhat like an upgraded version of Guli.
Master Zhou didn’t elaborate much on personality, but Qin Huai could see that Wang Jiayi, with his chubby look, seemed very approachable and might be even more so than his appearance suggested. Because when Qin Huai came over with the Xiao Long Bao and strongly observed Master Zhou’s apprentices, Wang Jiayi took one look at the Xiao Long Bao in Qin Huai’s plate and handed him a small dish of vinegar.
