Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 944 - 463: Snack Encyclopedia (Part 2)

"Alright, stop daydreaming, hurry up and think about what you want to eat today." Although Qin Huai said stop daydreaming, he was actually looking around as well. When he saw the familiar Babaozhai gift box on the shelf, the things that were unclear yesterday suddenly became clear.

"Just the things I mentioned yesterday." Zhao Cheng'an was still intensely watching the precious ingredients, "Something simple like buns and rice cake that can serve as a meal. I wanted to dip buns in the broth from several dishes yesterday, but unfortunately, there were no buns."

"Alright, then let's make buns first." Qin Huai nodded, knowing Zhao Cheng'an truly wanted to eat what was easiest to accomplish. Right now, Qin Huai's bun-making skills were steady at an A-level.

Xia Mubing's mastery of hot dishes was obviously at the S-level; pairing A-level buns with S-level delicacies might seem a bit inadequate, but it wasn't too bad. After all, these days, pastry chefs who can create S-level snacks are extremely rare, even Master Zhou's snacks can't consistently reach S-level.

Facing the task at hand, Qin Huai was determined to focus on the task.

Qin Huai began to seriously knead the dough.

After observing all the ingredients, Zhao Cheng'an also returned to his culinary tasks, but unlike kneading dough, he was handling yam and soaking glutinous rice, purely as an assistant.

"Qin Huai, do you think we could consider ourselves having a buffet today? Making snacks with our own hands." Zhao Cheng'an joked coldly, making himself laugh.

And then he stopped laughing.

Xia Mubing arrived.

Qin Huai and Zhao Cheng'an had never seen Xia Mubing before.

As the only active Chinese chef among the top ten in the Chef Record, Xia Mubing was renowned but quite mysterious.

People said he had a volatile temper, but actually, few chefs had the privilege of being rebuked by him. Especially in the recent years, Xia Mubing rarely wished to leave his home; ingredients were delivered daily by familiar suppliers. When Zhang Guanghang was there, he was responsible for serving dishes, and when he wasn't, the task was handled by hourly workers or Xia Mubing's babysitter.

Most diners at Fen Garden were just like Qin Huai and Zhao Cheng'an yesterday, despite the dining hall being only meters away from the kitchen, and freshly cooked dishes taking mere seconds to serve on the table, diners never got to see the cook. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

If diners couldn't see, naturally nor could their peers.

This led to Master Xia being in a very peculiar status over the years; his notorious reputation being widely known, yet very few truly knew how furious he was. Everyone knew he had a bad temper, but weren't sure in what way exactly, although he was the country's most famous master of hot dishes, most diners didn't know his appearance, no photos of Xia Mubing could be found online.

Even the early years' column interviews in Taste concerning Xia Mubing only showed dish photos without his photos, as Master Xia was famously averse to being photographed.

Qin Huai pretended to unknowingly look up while kneading dough to glance at Xia Mubing, quickly averting his gaze while feigning seriousness, yet actually peeking from the corner of his eye.

Xia Mubing truly seemed very old.

Even without knowing his actual age, just by his appearance, one could discern he was definitely an elderly man.

His back no longer straight, skin dark and loose, aged spots specific to elderly people apparent on his hands and face; although he appeared fairly sturdy rather than frail, no matter his slightly cloudy gaze or the wrinkles on his face and the corner folds, all undeniably conveyed his age.

Xia Mubing indeed had a face that appeared tough to deal with.

But he was not like this when he was young.

Qin Huai still remembered the look of Xia Sheng from Zhao Cheng'an's memory. Although Xia Sheng often emitted an aura of keeping strangers at bay without much facial expression, it didn't seem aggressive, rather suggesting he had lived too much to bother with expressions.

At that time, Xia Sheng's eyes were clear and bright, slightly bigger than now, his features were lively, perhaps not handsome but full of vitality.

Xia Sheng's back was always upright, he walked swiftly, did things quickly, his hair was black but somewhat dry, the skin on the back of his hands and arms exposed had fewer hideous scars.

If not knowing the person before him was the same Xia Sheng from back then, Qin Huai would find it difficult believing they were the same person.

A person's youth and end stage seemed like two completely different beings.

Before meeting Xia Mubing, Qin Huai actually held high expectations of the encounter between Xia Mubing and Zhao Cheng'an. These two senior brothers who had never met, encountering each other again after more than half a century, seemed undeniably exciting.

But when Xia Mubing actually entered the kitchen, Qin Huai realized, this encounter felt quite ordinary. Like every passerby crossing paths on the street, unaware this passerby could be an old friend from a past life, failing to recognize former friends from earlier lifetimes, nor were past friends waiting in the past for him.

Unable to resist, Qin Huai turned to glance at Zhao Cheng'an; he knew what he was hoping for, but Zhao Cheng'an evidently couldn't fulfill his wish. Zhao Cheng'an merely showed slight surprise looking at Xia Mubing, as if worshiping every senior industry leader, then buried his head in continuing his work.

Unable to resist again, Qin Huai turned back to look at Xia Mubing, only to unexpectedly meet Xia Mubing's gaze.

Sharp.

Qin Huai: …

Sometimes he really wished he could slap his compulsive self to death.

For the first time, Qin Huai didn't know how to face an industry leader with his expressions and attitude.

Avoiding his gaze fearfully? It seemed quite impolite, might be mistaken for disdain towards Master Xia, what if Master Xia threw him out in rage?

Meeting Xia Mubing's gaze? Xia Mubing's gaze was sharp, even slightly aggressive, as if he could see right through the other person completely. With complicated feelings and myriad thoughts, Qin Huai feared Xia Mubing might ask him what he was thinking or whether he knew him?

Pretending to unintentionally meet his gaze, then quickly turning away to continue his work?

Though a bit deliberate, it seemed viable, Qin Huai opted for plan c.

Xia Mubing didn't give Qin Huai the chance to choose plan c.

"Ling Guangzhao mentioned your yam cake was learned from an old recipe sandwiched inside a book, do you still have a photo of that recipe?" Xia Mubing inquired.

"I don't have it anymore, I bought that book when I was in elementary school, back then my family didn't have a camera, never thought to take a photo of the recipe, only copied it onto a notebook," Qin Huai replied.

"Do you remember roughly what the words on the recipe looked like?" Xia Mubing pursued.

Words?

Qin Huai was startled but then realized Xia Mubing was trying to confirm who wrote the recipe. Qin Huai wished he could say he remembered, and then roughly describe the style of Chen Sheng's handwriting to substantiate the recipe was penned by Chen Sheng personally. Unfortunately, Qin Huai had never seen Zhao Cheng'an's handwriting in memory, unaware of what his friend's writing looked like.

In a flash, a brilliant idea flooded Qin Huai's mind.

"I vaguely recall bits, the words were quite beautiful. I learned penmanship as a child, and thought the handwriting was prettier than my calligraphy teacher's writing." Qin Huai said.

Xia Mubing frowned slightly in confusion.

"I don't remember exactly how it was, but I recall the strokes on those words were especially lovely, I wanted to emulate them, but couldn't manage it at the time."

Xia Mubing's brow instantly relaxed, murmuring, "So it was Ping'an who wrote it."

Xia Mubing showed a very familiar, helpless smile to Qin Huai: "Chen Sheng's yam cake, he could come up with that."

After speaking, Xia Mubing directed his gaze at the dough Qin Huai was kneading and asked, "Who is your master?"

At those words, Zhao Cheng'an perked up, looking expectantly at Qin Huai, urging him to quickly speak the answer he yearned to hear.

Qin Huai: …

How had he thought Zhao Cheng'an wasn't a spirit before? Even if his friend seemed a bit more normal in this lifetime, he sometimes resembled a lunatic.

Qin Huai took a deep breath, articulating clearly word by word the answer Zhao Cheng'an wanted to hear:

"Snack Encyclopedia."

Xia Mubing: ?

Snack Encyclopedia?

Wasn't that the book Qin Huai bought for one yuan at a flea market when he was in elementary school?

Does anyone in the country have the surname "Dian"?