Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 669 - 344: Practice More

Zhang Chu also contributed the bamboo sticks from his own house.

Beside him, Zhang Zhiyun was explaining to Qin Huai that these bamboo sticks were used by his dad to whip him before, and it really hurt. They’re also of exceptional quality, and hadn’t broken after all these years of use, so Zhang Chu couldn’t bear to throw them away.

Qin Huai: ...

Qin Huai could only say that he really didn’t understand the Zhang Family; if they had more bamboo sticks, he was tempted to get one.

It was already 9 PM by the time the others left.

Qin Huai felt it was time to start the lesson.

He just didn’t know whether tonight they would be slicing yams or practicing thickening, since all the radishes had been sliced in the afternoon, and there were no more to slice.

However, there were still quite a few yams left. Earlier, Qin Huai had sneaked a peek into the storage room and saw it was full of yams.

Cao Guixiang asked Qin Huai with a smile, "Are you ready?"

"Ready, Master! Are we practicing knife skills or thickening tonight?"

"Both."

Cao Guixiang instructed Zhang Chu to first move a box of yams into the kitchen and pointed at them, saying, "Start by slicing the yams, but not too many at once, ten at a time."

"After slicing, stir-fry them yourself, and at the end, thicken the sauce. I’ll watch from the side, and if there are any issues, like while practicing knife skills before, I’ll point them out immediately."

Qin Huai didn’t expect this kind of practice; it wasn’t just a simultaneous focus on knife skills and thickening, but all three skills: knife skills, thickening, and fire control.

If it were yesterday, Qin Huai might have sheepishly mentioned to Cao Guixiang that his knife skills were shaky, his thickening average, and his fire control even worse. The final stir-fried yam dish might be, as it appeared on the video call before, indescribable.

Looking through the phone was indescribable; seeing it in person was even more so, especially compared to Cao Guixiang’s level.

But now Qin Huai had no such concerns; since he had already called her master, there was nothing to worry about.

"Okay, Master." Qin Huai, full of confidence, put on an apron and stepped into the kitchen to start slicing the yams.

Compared to slicing radishes, slicing yams was slightly more challenging because yams weren’t as suitable for practice due to their texture.

It wasn’t a big problem. Qin Huai felt that with his entry-level intermediate knife skills, he could handle most issues he might encounter while slicing yam slices.

Qin Huai quickly finished slicing ten yams and began stir-frying them.

Cao Guixiang didn’t teach Qin Huai how to mix starch water with the right ratio, leaving it to him to balance by feel.

While Qin Huai was stir-frying yams, Zhang Chu curiously moved a small stool to sit at the kitchen door and watch.

Randomly stir-frying.

There was fire control but not much, at least he didn’t burn the pan.

Thickening.

A dashing bit of thickening. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Then continued with more random stirring and frying.

Out of the pan.

A dish that visually wouldn’t exceed a D-grade in stir-fried yams. Okay, perhaps D-grade might be a bit of self-praise, but Qin Huai felt it didn’t quite feel like E-grade, so let’s call it D- for now.

Somewhere between E+ and D-.

Cao Guixiang took a bite, didn’t say much, and let Qin Huai continue frying.

Qin Huai continued his performance, and soon, the second plate of stir-fried yams was out of the pan.

As usual, Cao Guixiang tasted it without saying anything further, and let Qin Huai continue.

Qin Huai continued.

The third plate, the fourth plate...

Qin Huai kept frying plate after plate, unable to stop.

When Qin Huai finished stir-frying all sliced ten yams, Cao Guixiang finally spoke slowly:

"I’ve seen your problems."

"From knife skills to fire control to thickening, there are issues with all of them."

"The knife skills issue is because you haven’t sliced enough yams, so you’re not very familiar with it. The problems were quite obvious at first, but later on, you got the hang of it and it was okay. With more practice, you can overcome this."

"Remember one thing: slicing yam slices is to allow for better cooking. How you want to slice them depends on how you want to cook them."

"If you think there’s an issue with the yam slices during the cooking process, then there definitely is. Look for the direction to improve and trust your instincts."

"The issue with fire control is the least, Master Huang taught you well. Although during frying it looked like you were randomly moving the spatula, the timing for stir-frying was okay. Unlike cutting vegetables before, where it looked right on the surface, in fact, holding the knife was wrong. Fire control still needs more practice."

"As for thickening..." Cao Guixiang showed an indescribable expression, "Forget your thickening skills like you did with knife skills before."

Qin Huai: ...

He thought his worst skill was fire control, but it turned out the worst was thickening.

"You’ve mimicked some of my actions and a part of the thickening technique, but it’s not a formula that everything can fit into. Plus, you have a lot of basic issues, so next, slice 10 more yams, I’ll fry them, and you watch how I stir-fry and thicken."

"Old Zhang, you talked to the pig farm? From tomorrow we’ll be sending them stir-fried yams instead."

"I did, they’re thrilled, saying the pigs prefer eating the stir-fried yams."