Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 720 - 364: Xu Nuo (Part 3)

Xu Nuo thought seriously for a moment: "Probably not. I’m also not sure what I want to do; I have no clue. Moreover, I think that in this life, I am unlikely to succeed in my tribulation. To be honest, I’m not lying to you, nor do I feel embarrassed not to tell you what my obsession is. Sometimes I really can’t figure out what my obsession is."

"I don’t know if I hate my own powerlessness, or if I am dissatisfied. As you know with our auspicious beasts’ tribulations, either we succeed easily, or if we fail, we need the right opportunity. I also don’t know where my opportunity lies."

This complex issue clearly surpassed Dang Kang’s scope of knowledge. Shi Dadan chopped the meat stuffing vigorously for a long time, pondering for a while but couldn’t come up with a way to answer. He had no clue, and might not even have understood completely.

"I don’t know, but you’re much smarter than me, so you must succeed in your tribulation!"

Faced with Shi Dadan’s blind trust, Xu Nuo could only smile and continue kneading the dough.

When Xu Nuo finished kneading the dough, he walked into the kitchen and stood beside Shi Dadan, watching him chop meat for a while. Confirming that Shi Dadan’s brute force miracle was not a problem, he began handling the crabs, specifically taking out the fresh crab roe.

The technique was very adept and mature, clearly showing a wealth of experience in extracting crab roe.

Then came the seasoning.

The actions were swift, with no hesitation when adding the seasonings, and the control over the quantity was very precise, evidently confident.

Once Xu Nuo finished processing the crab roe, he had Shi Dadan stop, mixed the crab roe with pork, and added two eggs, seasoning and stirring again.

By this step, the meat stuffing was basically complete, and it was just a matter of rolling the dough and making the buns.

Then Xu Nuo did something Qin Huai had not expected: he lit the coal stove and began heating the oil.

Qin Huai: ?

Does the filling for pork and crab roe buns also need to be stir-fried or cooked?

Qin Huai watched Xu Nuo stir the filling.

He seemed less like he was stir-frying bun filling, more like he was stir-frying a dish, cooking a dish called Pork Stir-Fried Crab Roe.

Even at the end, Xu Nuo thickened the dish with cornstarch.

The aroma was very fragrant.

It was the fragrance from stir-frying.

Standing aside, Shi Dadan swallowed, foolishly asked, "Xu Nuo, is this still bun filling? Why do I feel this smells better than the cafeteria’s stir-fried meat!"

"The filling of the bun I ate in Hangzhou was made with this kind of method. You must treat this bun filling not as filling, but as a dish, then wrap it in buns."

Shi Dadan obviously did not understand.

Xu Nuo was used to Shi Dadan not understanding and explained it in a way Shi Dadan could understand: "It’s like in the team if you want to be a driver, you can’t just learn to drive. After learning to drive, you must know how to repair, because if the car breaks down on the road and you can’t fix it, you can’t deliver the goods."

"But in reality, you can just drive as long as the quality of the car is very good and doesn’t need repairs. Your team doesn’t have this condition, so if you want to drive, you must also know how to repair."

"This bun is the same. If you treat it as an ordinary bun, it can only be an ordinary bun. Because its filling is like a dish, like stir-fried meat, the final tasting experience is extraordinary."

Still, Shi Dadan didn’t understand.

Xu Nuo continued to explain: "When you’re driving, do you think about what to do if the car breaks down on the road and can’t be repaired?"

Shi Dadan shook his head: "I must learn to repair before setting off, and I always check before departure."

Xu Nuo nodded: "This bun is the same. You must first achieve the level of wrapping stir-fried meat into the bun filling before you can make it. Its concept is different from ordinary buns, so you can’t use normal thinking to make it."

"A normal person making this bun would think about how to use meat cooking techniques to make pastry snacks, thinking about how to integrate, how to balance. This idea isn’t wrong, but if always thinking like this, it’s easy to get bogged down."

"Of course, integration is fine, but the premise is that the snack master who makes the buns has sufficiently high skills."

"In my opinion, the most remarkable point about this bun is that the chef is clearly showing off his skills. He’s telling you that my level of meat cooking is good, and my pastry skills are even better, I’ve made a great dish into bun filling and wrapped it in buns, isn’t that amazing."

"So, should we integrate, or not?" Shi Dadan was even more confused.

"Either is fine," Xu Nuo said, "That’s how I see it."

"If the chef’s meat cooking and pastry skills are both very high, then of course it’s better to integrate. But if the chef is just a simple pastry snack master with not-so-high meat cooking skills, he shouldn’t overthink."

"Because no matter how this bun is made, it’s right, it’s just an innovative bun."

"In all the years I’ve made snacks, the first time I’ve encountered such an unconventional bun. It feels like I just put a great dish into the bun filling, and what can you do about it? It’s delicious, it’s a bun, it’s unique and innovative."

"Just like Yuan Mei said that crab roe can’t be paired with shark fin, yet crab roe and shark fin is a renowned dish, some good dishes just defy logic."

"Who’s Yuan Mei? From our factory?" Shi Dadan asked.

Xu Nuo: "...It’s not important, actually, I have an idea."

"What idea?"

"When I was in Hangzhou, I heard that the snack master who made this bun loves to sell recipes. I want to pay a high price to buy that recipe."

"And then give the recipe to Master Jing."

"This bun was originally going to use sea cucumber and crab roe as filling, but I don’t have the skill, so I could only use ordinary crab roe pork as the filling according to this concept to make buns. But I really like this snack, and I think if it were Master Jing, he could definitely create it."

"Even improve it."

"I think Master Jing would be very happy to see this snack recipe."

Shi Dadan listened for a while and caught an unexpected point: "Xu Nuo, that’s awesome!"

"You haven’t even spent money buying that bun recipe, but you understand the bun so well."

Xu Nuo: ...

Xu Nuo shifted his gaze a bit sheepishly and said quietly, "Actually, I wanted to buy it, but the exclusive was too expensive, and I didn’t bring enough money. So I spent 160 yuan letting that snack master explain it to me."

"He saw I was young and felt I wasn’t a professional chef anyway, so he agreed, thinking I wouldn’t be able to learn just by listening."

Shi Dadan: ???

"You spent 160 yuan just to listen to a few words, how much does the recipe cost to buy!"

"1000, but I think I can bargain."

Shi Dadan gasped.

"That’s too expensive, I’m still hesitating. So I thought I’d try making the pork crab roe filling with the mindset of that recipe and see if there’s value in spending 1000 yuan to buy it."

Upon hearing Xu Nuo, Shi Dadan’s view of the stir-fried filling in the pot instantly changed. He felt this was no longer just ordinary pork stir-fried crab roe; this was a 1000 yuan worth of pork stir-fried crab roe.

Shi Dadan swallowed.

He pointed to the pot and said, "I want to try some first."

Xu Nuo handed Shi Dadan a spoon, and Shi Dadan took a full spoon, put it in his mouth, and started chewing while nodding in affirmation.

"Delicious!"

"Stir-fried meat, delicious!"

Xu Nuo: "It’s not stir-fried meat, it’s bun filling!"

"When it’s wrapped into buns, it will definitely be delicious!"

Qin Huai left the memory.