Life is a Game

Zhang Guanghang had been quiet before, standing on the sidelines like Jiang Feng, watching Sun Maocai make snake soup from a distance. I didn't want to disturb Sun Mao, so I made snake soup, so as not to overwhelm the host.

"Qiqi, what do you think of Lao Zhang's homemade dishes?" Jiang Feng approached Wu Minqi and asked in a low voice.

His culinary skills are already very superb now, but the speed of progress is too fast, which is a bit like in Xiuxian's novels. Luck is indispensable, and difficult dishes are not in his dictionary at all.

Wu Minqi thought about it, and didn't come up with a clue until Zhang Guanghang started to process the whole chicken: "I don't know, I didn't see him messing with dishes in the kitchen a while ago."

Zhang Guanghang usually cooks dishes in Fenyuan. For him, he only needs to go to work during the working hours, and the extracurricular tutoring is outside the office.

"What homemade dishes?" Sun Jikai fell too early last night and didn't know anything.

"We don't know the details. Anyway, Lao Zhang figured out a dish by himself, and we will know when he cooks it." Jiang Feng said.

Zhang Guanghang's homemade dishes belong to the category of roast chicken, but they are not limited to roast chicken. The recipe includes roast chicken and eight-treasure chestnut pigeon, which can be regarded as relatively novel.

Jiang Feng was watching from the side, watching Zhang Guanghang clean up a whole chicken, marinate it for a few minutes, and then fill the chicken belly with relatively light food such as glutinous rice, pigeon eggs, pigeon meat, and corn kernels , not stuffed, quickly pierce a few small holes in the stomach with a technique similar to the pine needles of the eight-treasure chestnut pigeon, and then put it in boiling water for a few minutes.

It looks like an oversized octopus chestnut pigeon.

Since the Eight Treasures of the Zhou Dynasty, chefs from all over the world have been keen to stuff a variety of ingredients into the bellies of various animals, either stewing, steaming or roasting, regardless of the method, cuisine or even the country. There are things like Babao Chestnut Pigeon and Babao Duck that are only stuffed with stuffing, and there are also things like roasted camels stuffed with sheep, sheep stuffed with chicken, chicken stuffed with pigeons, pigeons stuffed with fish, and fish stuffed with eggs. A kind of nesting dolls. There are also wild ducks stuffed with domestic ducks like the three sets of ducks, and pigeons stuffed with domestic ducks. This not only tests the chef's skills but also tests whether the wild ducks are big enough.

Some of these dishes are delicious and some are gimmicks. As long as the diners dare to eat them, the chefs dare to cook them. It is very clever to try to make homemade dishes as an entry point.

The chicken was rolled in boiling water for only a few minutes before being taken out by Zhang Guanghang. The surface was covered with butter and the favorite spices used in French cuisine. Pass a beef-based meat stuffing, stuff it to 60% full, and finally put an apple cut in half, fill the whole chicken belly again, and put it in the oven.

Halfway through the roasting, take the whole chicken out of the oven, which looks a bit like a roasted chicken, and take out the slightly shriveled apples from the belly of the chicken. Put the ingredients in, stir, the chicken body is again coated with butter and a little honey water, and put it back into the oven to bake.

Looking at the steps alone, this dish is more complicated than Babao Chestnut Pigeon and Paofu combined.

The more complicated the steps of a dish, the more chances of making mistakes in this dish. Zhang Guanghang's fruity chicken light stuffing needs to be stuffed three times, boiled and then baked, and butter needs to be spread twice, but judging by the production method and ingredients, Jiang Feng thinks that with his cooking skills, this dish will definitely not be difficult Eat it, maybe it will be very delicious, but there are too many steps and it will take too long. Unless it is a rare delicacy like boiled cabbage and chickpeas, it will always make people feel a little worthless.

Just like the snake soup that Sun Maocai made just now, it is delicious but troublesome.

When it was time for dinner, Zhang Guanghang's fruit chicken was finished roasting.

Cut a few slices of lemon for garnish, use the sauce to outline it on a large plate, and a roast chicken that looks like a Western food is ready.

Jiang Weiming and Sun Maocai nodded approvingly.

The old man has a straight temper, and he always says what he has. Seeing that Zhang Guanghang's dishes are ready, he said directly: "It's too troublesome."

Zhang Guanghang did not speak, and cut open the chicken belly with a knife, and the various ingredients wrapped in glutinous rice in the chicken belly tilted out like this. The white glutinous rice was spread on the slightly browned roast chicken, which looked very visually impactful. .

"It's a little troublesome. I also tried to simplify the steps, but the taste changed completely." Zhang Guanghang explained.

The old man nodded and understood, he scooped up half a bowl of stuffing with a spoon, cut off a small piece of chicken with a knife, found a place to sit down and ate it first.

The food tasting lasted from ten o'clock in the morning until dinner time. During this time, everyone ate six dishes made by Sun Maocai and the others, and there was no staple food. By now, everyone was basically hungry, so each person had a bowl of Zhang Guanghang The fruity chicken made is all divided.

The taste is still ok.

Because the baking time is not well grasped, the chicken is a little dry and the taste is not very good, but the taste is not bad. Because the chicken belly is stuffed with ingredients, the chicken does not appear, only the outside layer has a taste and the inside is bland and embarrassing. It tastes faintly fruity, with the sweetness of apples. The stuffing inside is well prepared. The glutinous rice absorbs most of the oil and the soup tastes the most delicious, but it is also because the beef is a bit dry and the taste is not very good.

These small problems can basically be eaten by everyone present.

"The dishes are very good and very thoughtful, but it's really too troublesome." Sun Maocai put down the bowl and chopsticks, "The steps are cumbersome, and it's difficult to control the heat. Too much spice will cover up other flavors, and too little will make the chicken tasteless. You still have some problems with the amount you apply now, it feels like you are holding back and dare not let go, the amount is still too small."

"There is also a problem with the choice of ingredients for the stuffing. The beef is delicious, but it will inevitably dry up with your method. Have you tried pork?" Jiang Weiming asked.

"I've tried it." Zhang Guanghang said, implying that pork is even worse.

"Try more, if it's cooked well, it might be a good dish." Jiang Weiming encouraged with a smile.

Although he had already guessed this result, Zhang Guanghang was still a little disappointed.

Jiang Feng noticed that Wu Minqi had been staring at the little chicken and chicken bones left on the plate, lost in thought.

The test dishes are over, and the menu is basically drawn up. Everyone has a rough understanding of the strength of Sun Maocai, who is about to become the third head chef of Taifeng Building. dealt with and resolved. As long as she and Wang Xiulian agree on a date and send out the invitation letter, and the summer feast is successfully held, the first phase of Taifeng Building's counterattack will be completed.

After the show, Jiang Feng wanted to take Zhang Guanghang to a small restaurant nearby to have a casual dinner, but Zhang Guanghang was concerned about his fruity chicken and declined to drive back to Fenyuan alone to continue improving the recipe. Fang Mei still had things to deal with, ordered takeaway, and went home. Master Wang came to join in the fun. Seeing the level of the new chef, she felt a lot more at ease, and went home to eat happily. When Qiu Fuchu arrived in Beiping, he was not familiar with the surroundings, so he wandered around and went to the supermarket to buy some fruit before leaving. Sun Maocai followed the two old men to eat at restaurants that middle-aged and elderly people love to go to, and talked about things that should be discussed between chefs by the way.

In the blink of an eye, only Jiang Feng, Sun Jikai and Wu Minqi were left at the entrance of Taifeng Building.

Sun Jikai, who seemed to be here to try the dishes, actually only made soy sauce for a day, asked the most critical question: "What shall we have for dinner?"

Jiang Feng thought for a while: "Do you eat fire?"

Sun Jikai:?

what burn?

Then Sun Jikai, who had never eaten fire, was dragged by Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi to He Yueru's fire shop to eat fire.

It's been a while since Jiang Feng went to He Yueru's family's burning shop. He Yueru was not there, but He Yueru's mother still recognized Jiang Feng.

"Xiaojiang, you've been very busy with work recently, so don't wear yourself out if you're busy. Last time, Auntie heard from Yueru that you worked so hard that you ended up in the hospital. That's not good. Can you make all the money? You see Your brother usually works very hard. Every time I come to my place for dinner, it’s almost nine o’clock, and I often persuade him that he just got off work. You young people just don’t care about these things. When we are our age You know it's hard." He Yueru's mother was chopping donkey offal for Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng didn't expect that news of him being hospitalized due to overwork would reach He Yueru's mother, so he quickly changed the subject: "By the way, auntie, where's Sister Yueru?"

"She went out to eat with your brother." He Yueru's mother said.

Jiang Feng:? ? ?

Didn't you just say that Brother De works so hard that he doesn't have time to eat?

"Yueru, this girl loves to eat. She has eaten in all kinds of restaurants in Beiping since she was a child. It seems that your brother is going to make a special topic these days, which has something to do with eating. Yueru, the child, is excited. Every day, I took him everywhere to eat, and I haven’t been home for a week.” He Yueru’s mother shook her head helplessly, “I saw that she seemed to be fat again this morning, and such a big girl doesn’t know how to love beauty, so I’m really worried. I'm dead."

Jiang Feng: ...

Brother De, a designer who created a column so well, why did he take over Wang Hao's job.

He Yueru's mother just complained casually, didn't talk much, cut the donkey offal and let Jiang Feng take it away, and the chat was over.

Jiang Feng returned to work with the donkey miscellaneous, Sun Jikai and Wu Minqi didn't touch the donkey broth and fire in front of them, one was looking at the phone and the other was in a daze.

Wu Minqi has been in a daze for a long time.

"Qiqi." Jiang Feng called her to bring her back to her senses, "What's wrong with you, I feel a little absent-minded since just now."

"Oh." Wu Minqi recovered and took a sip of donkey broth, "It's nothing, I was just wondering if Lao Zhang could make this dish."

Jiang Feng didn't quite understand, so he took a bite and said, "Which dish?"

"Today's this."

"Didn't he already make it? Although there are some problems with the heat and details, I think it's actually okay overall, but it's too troublesome. The requirements are too high. I can't pretend to be someone else. I guess it won't be on the menu." Jiang Feng said.

"He didn't make it." Wu Minqi shook her head, "Now this dish is at best a prototype, and it's still far from being made."

Only then did Jiang Feng understand what Wu Minqi meant.

"Difficult." Sun Jikai put down his phone, "It's too difficult to really make a qualified homemade dish."

Jiang Feng nodded in agreement. It's not that there are no famous chefs who have created their own dishes in recent years, and even many dishes have been published in magazines and won awards, but only a few are accepted and remembered by the public. Except for the extremely rare dishes such as Babao Chestnut Pigeon and Watan Huadiao Chicken, most homemade dishes are only short-lived. For example, a small stone falling into a deep pool can only stir up a little splash, and soon sink to the bottom and disappear. not see.

Wu Minqi sighed, with imperceptible envy in her eyes: "Although it's just a prototype, it's still pretty good."

"How many people don't even have a prototype."