Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 629 - 329: I Truly Deserve to Die
Su Qian suddenly understood and noted it down again.
The Q&A session lasted over three minutes, and their first meeting ended satisfactorily. Seeing that everyone from Zhiwei Restaurant had more or less left an impression on Qin Huai, Su Qian took the initiative to propose not disturbing Master Qin’s research on snacks any longer.
They would head back to rest, and later he would come up with a new roster for Qin Huai to review.
Qin Huai watched everyone leave, then turned his head to see Zheng Siyuan still stirring crab roe sauce, somewhat surprised, "Didn’t you just say the crab roe noodles for today would end here? There’s still a lot of crab roe sauce unused, and we’ll need it for the noodles later."
Zheng Siyuan gestured with his eyes towards Tan Wei’an, "He wants more."
Qin Huai: 6
Sometimes Qin Huai had to admit, Tan Wei’an was the real oddity at Zhiwei Restaurant.
He was exceedingly rare—truly talented—yet connected, a super direct lazy bum.
Qin Huai looked at Tan Wei’an, "Why aren’t you going back?"
Tan Wei’an’s face was full of "What does their leaving have to do with me, the leader?": "Aren’t I supposed to research crab roe sauce with you guys? I’m not like them; I don’t work the early shift."
Then Tan Wei’an very earnestly asked, "Qin Huai, if I came to work at 7:30 every day, could I still get chicken soup noodles?"
Qin Huai: ...
Come on, bro, did you let Guli handle all your duties for your little junior? You’re not doing a single one.
"You can," Qin Huai said with a smile, "Tonight, find the recipe for the crab roe sauce. Not only will there be chicken soup noodles, but there will also be plenty of crab roe noodles and rice in the future."
.
That night at 8 o’clock, Tan Wei’an successfully found the recipe for crab roe sauce from his phone before Qin Huai went to bed.
Not just two, but a full six recipes.
Six!
When Qin Huai saw the recipes Tan Wei’an sent over, he was stunned. At first, he thought Tan Wei’an must have a network lag issue and was sending the same recipe three times. When he took a closer look and saw each recipe was slightly different, Qin Huai had only one thought.
Sometimes I really want to go head to head with you super well-connected types.
Come on, bro, are you serious?
Was your Tan family ancestry selling crab roe sauce? Otherwise, it’s really hard to explain having so many recipes.
Qin Huai carefully studied the six recipes sent over by Tan Wei’an and realized these recipes were paired—one for long-term preservation, one needing to be eaten quickly. They were respectively for buns, noodles, and rice.
Noodles and rice I can understand, given Tan Wei’an’s love for crab roe rice, but where did this bun recipe come from? Does Tan’s family also have a tradition of making Crab Buns?
After reading through all the recipes, Qin Huai even thought that this bun recipe was slightly similar to the crab roe sauce recipe developed by Master Jing.
The overall thought process is very similar, just differing slightly in the choice of ingredients.
The approach of these two recipes is the same as Qin Huai’s notion: if you want long-term preservation, you must add a lot of spices, making the flavor inevitably strong, which cannot retain the original taste of crab roe to the greatest extent. Since that’s the case, why not go all the way with the strong flavor, making the Double Crab Bun a vibrant addition.
But according to normal thinking, the Double Crab Bun shouldn’t be this way, so if you can add as little spice as possible during the crab roe sauce making process, allowing the sauce to retain the original flavor of crab roe, then this style should be completely opposite. The overall style of the Double Crab Bun should emphasize a light, original natural flavor.
This is closer to the typical version made with fresh crab roe.
Among the recipes provided by Tan Wei’an, there was one that met this requirement.
The moment he finished reading this recipe, Qin Huai couldn’t help but marvel at how genuinely complete Tan Wei’an’s ’Treasure Bag’ was, having every kind of recipe at his disposal.
Bro, if you’d mentioned earlier that your ancestors sold crab roe sauce, why are Zheng Siyuan and I messing around researching here? One call and rummaging through your ’Treasure Bag’ would probably pull out anything we needed.
Qin Huai reviewed this recipe multiple times and felt that he was not authoritative enough on crab roe sauce. His control was lacking; Zheng Siyuan was the one who did all the stirring recently. So, Qin Huai quietly sent the recipe to Zheng Siyuan, asking him to thoroughly study it.
A few minutes later, Zheng Siyuan sent a message:
"Is this the recipe from Tan Wei’an?"
Zheng Siyuan: "You should ask Tan Wei’an if his grandfather or great-grandfather used to sell recipes?"
Qin Huai: "Okay."
Without any hesitation, Qin Huai directly called Tan Wei’an.
Tan Wei’an answered instantly.
"Hey Qin Huai, isn’t it a big surprise? Aren’t the recipes I gave you so complete and numerous? Six recipes! Surprised? Unexpected? Let me tell you, my family doesn’t have much else, just a lot of crab roe sauce recipes passed down from my great-grandfather to my grandfather, and then to me."
"Back in the day, my great-grandfather specialized in making crab roe snacks—Crab Puffs, Crab Soup Buns, Crab Dumplings—they were unparalleled. People even offered high prices just to buy his recipes!"
Qin Huai interrupted Tan Wei’an, asking, "Did your great-grandfather sell them?"
Tan Wei’an thought for a moment, "Are you asking about which recipe?"
Qin Huai: ...
Awesome.
"The Double Crab Bun recipe." Regarding Tan Wei’an, Qin Huai didn’t bother with probing or subtle tricks, "Did your great-grandfather sell the Double Crab Bun recipe to a factory manager’s son in Gusu many years ago?"
"What?! The Double Crab Bun is my great-grandfather’s recipe?" Tan Wei’an was shocked, "Is that what you and Zheng Siyuan have been researching—the one notoriously difficult and supposedly lost recipe for the Double Crab Bun?"
"Was that recipe developed by my great-grandfather?"
Qin Huai calmly replied, "I’m just speculating because the philosophy of this crab roe sauce recipe is surprisingly similar to the Double Crab Bun. If your great-grandfather was indeed the creator of the Double Crab Bun, then it all adds up."
"Your great-grandfather sold the normal Double Crab Bun recipe to a guest of Zheng Siyuan’s master’s customer. After selling it, he couldn’t make the regular version anymore, but he could still make the typical Crab Bun. His approach didn’t change, hence why he developed a crab roe sauce suitable for buns based on the Double Crab Bun’s concept."
"In a way, every chef has their own culinary style. Your great-grandfather was exceptionally skilled in crab roe snacks, where the approach, habit, and general direction likely all stemmed from the same origin, bound to have similarities."
"If my assumption is correct, I might have another favor to ask of you."
"What is it?" Tan Wei’an was still immersed in the thought of "Whoa, such an awesome recipe was actually my great-grandfather’s creation, my great-grandfather was truly incredible."
"Do you have any more crab roe snack recipes over there, could you send them over for me to reference? What would you like to eat? Zheng Siyuan and I can cook it for you." Qin Huai said it, feeling guilty himself.
Qin Huai, oh Qin Huai, you’re no longer an entirely amateur wildcard, you understand the value of secret recipes to chefs. How could you ask for something like this?
While Qin Huai was internally chastising himself, Tan Wei’an, without hesitation, said, "Sure."
Qin Huai: I’m such a jerk.
Qin Huai felt like a scoundrel, lying to a gullible, sweet, rich girl.
"Wait a moment," Tan Wei’an said, "I’ll find them in my phone, there are quite a few." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
Five or six minutes later, Tan Wei’an sent over seven recipes.
Crab Puffs, Crab Bun, Crab Soup Buns, Crab Steamed Buns, Crab Dumplings, Crab Flaky Pastry, Crab Cakes.
Qin Huai then forwarded these seven recipes to Zheng Siyuan.
Qin Huai: I’m such a jerk.
Zheng Siyuan: You are.
Zheng Siyuan: How did you manage to get all these recipes from Tan Wei’an, is this okay?
Zheng Siyuan: Should we give him a few recipes in return?
Qin Huai: I do have quite a few recipes, but can he learn them?
Qin Huai: Tan Wei’an wants crab roe rice and crab soup buns tomorrow.
Zheng Siyuan: Understood, received.
