Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 984 - 483: Lessons from Zhao Cheng’an

Zhao Cheng'an set his sights on Qin Huai.

He quietly moved two steps towards Qin Huai, seeing that Qin Huai didn't react, he moved another two steps, but was stopped by Master Zhou's reprimand when he tried to go further.

"Lao San, what are you doing?" Master Zhou's face had a hint of irritation that just got better for a while, making me feel like you deserve a little slap.

Zhao Cheng'an chuckled: "I want to get closer to Qin Huai to share some good luck."

Master Zhou: ...?

Qin Huai, who was wrestling with orange dumplings and almost got beaten by them: ?

Is Zhao Cheng'an alright, has he got a bug in his brain again?

Qin Huai looked up at Zhao Cheng'an, saw he was already lowering his head obediently making snacks, so he didn't say anything and continued fighting with the orange dumplings.

That day, Master Qin, who arrived at Zhiwei Restaurant for work at 8 in the morning, left work early at 4 in the afternoon, leaving lightly with a pile of ugly dumplings behind.

Zhao Cheng'an, who made some progress today, sometimes acted erratically, sometimes returned to normal, and though the progress wasn't obvious, it was worthy of encouragement. Plus, Master Zhou had spent the whole day scolding and was exhausted, so he was allowed to leave early, and he went with Qin Huai at 4 to Qin Huai's house to eat fruits.

At 4:11, the banana-eating duo sat face to face at the dining table, looking at each other's bananas and the dumplings on the table, perplexed.

"So, you didn't swipe my phone today, instead took away the dumplings that weren't sold." Qin Huai looked at the ugly bananas and oranges on the table, momentarily speechless.

He left work early today because he had challenged himself with high difficulty tasks all day; physically tired, but more mentally exhausted, he was so shocked by the ugly dumplings he made, he wanted to leave work early to escape reality. Who could've known these ugly things would chase him home?

What can he say, the dumplings Qin Huai made today each had their own unique ugliness, every one was so ugly with character, completely different from his textbook-style other snacks.

The color of the banana dumplings was well-matched, and the banana-flavored filling was quite authentic, but there were major issues with the shaping. Compared to the orange dumplings which also have skin wrapped around fruit filling, banana dumplings are apparently less challenging, as shaping banana flesh is far less complicated than orange flesh, but Qin Huai's shaping on the banana dumplings was far worse than the orange ones.

The end results were either exaggeratedly fat bananas as if drawn from an anime featuring oversized bananas, or a long thing that was hard to call a banana. All were severely failed products, and the one on the dining table was considered relatively successful, with a vague banana shape, yet it didn't look right even from a distance, close-up was a disaster.

Qin Huai looked at the banana dumplings on the table and felt sorry for all the bananas he's eaten over the years; how could he have made such banana dumplings when he loves bananas so much? All those bananas over the years were eaten in vain.

There were severe issues with the banana dumplings' shaping, whereas the orange dumplings had certain problems in both shape and flavor.

Master Zhou has a very good recipe for dumplings, able to flavor fruit fillings to resemble real fruits, even better than the apple dough ball recipe Zheng Siyuan gave to Qin Huai, it's truly a top-secret recipe.

But Master Zhou didn't give it all.

According to Master Zhou, if Qin Huai wanted to improve in dumplings, he couldn't expect to succeed instantly. Directly receiving the most complete recipe would certainly be a shortcut, but would lose the joy of exploration, causing Qin Huai to lose the most basic respect and curiosity when first trying to make dumplings.

Simply put, Master Zhou felt Qin Huai needed to face some challenges in this aspect.

After all, given Qin Huai's talent, opportunities for him to encounter difficulties in pastry-making are few.

Qin Huai agreed with Master Zhou's viewpoint, but Master Zhou didn't want Qin Huai to face too many challenges, so he gave Qin Huai the complete recipe for banana dumplings, but only half the recipe for orange dumplings.

This teaching method is well thought-out, and Qin Huai realized deeply during this day's battle with dumplings. Banana dumplings' shape seems simple but are unexpectedly challenging.

Their form is difficult to mimic, banana dumplings ultimately need to be able to stand, like a real banana. This shape isn't traditional snack shape, while orange dumplings seem high-difficulty, they are smooth and round standard snack shape.

Not standard, not traditional means difficulty, because if it were easy it would be considered basic.

Banana dumplings can have a complete recipe because even with the complete recipe, Qin Huai, with his current Finger Skill, can't make them well for a while. Orange dumplings can't have a complete recipe because though their shape seems very challenging, the real challenge lies in the subtle requirements, actual difficulty is in flavoring.

Master Zhou believes given Qin Huai's astonishing talent in seasoning, the initial stage might be very tough, but as long as he studies diligently, finds the knack, and Master Zhou then gives him a rough direction, the path will be smooth, Qin Huai should quickly be able to figure out almost the complete recipe.

By then, handing him the complete recipe, Qin Huai will truly have learned, rather than just being able to make them.

The idea is great, Qin Huai got Master Zhou's intention, but he thinks Master Zhou overestimates him a bit.