Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 722 - 365: Special Recipe (2)

In a certain sense, the Double Crab Bun and guo’er are somewhat similar, yet quite different. Guo’er is a white pastry snack forcibly made by a meat chef, resulting in a snack that is delicious but also somewhat awkward. This forcefulness is apparent from the recipe.

But the Double Crab Bun is more about showmanship.

It’s the work of an impressive pastry chef wanting to prove their meat cooking skills aren’t inferior, with a rebellious feeling of doing exactly what you’re told not to do.

Qin Huai now even suspects that Wang Gen Sheng’s recipe has actually been improved.

This is actually quite reasonable. Back then, Xu Nuo paid a sky-high price to buy the recipe and gifted it to Master Jing, who, given his skills, could develop a Crab Yellow Sauce version of the Double Crab Bun and naturally also make higher-level improvements to the original Double Crab Bun.

Originally a showmanship piece, Master Jing could enhance the showmanship further, removing the abruptness from its distinctiveness, leaving only uniqueness, handling the balance between meat and pastry excellently, even surprisingly.

But this difficulty isn’t apparent just from the recipe. When Qin Huai first saw the Double Crab Bun recipe, he felt it was a high-difficulty, babysitter-level tutorial.

Master Jing feared those buying the recipe wouldn’t understand it, so he detailed every step thoroughly. Any expert could instantly see the recipe is impressive, very technical, incredibly awesome, and the final snack made is sure to be top-notch.

However, apart from the inherent value of the recipe, Master Jing wrote it down and handed it to Xu Nuo, who then gave it to Wang Gen Sheng because Wang Gen Sheng needed money at the time and needed to sell the recipe to raise funds.

The improved version of the recipe certainly looked more valuable than the original, easier to fetch a high price quickly.

Because its showmanship is spelled out on paper, but the difficulty is hidden between the lines. Only after Qin Huai, Zheng Siyuan, and several others genuinely researched it and practiced hard without success did they truly realize how difficult the recipe is.

As for Xu Nuo’s culinary skills, which Qin Huai remembers seeing, they are better than his, but not by much.

If Xu Nuo could make the Double Crab Bun, Qin Huai probably could too.

After listening to Shi Dadan’s recounting of the events, Qin Huai pondered for a moment, opened the game panel to review the dish details, and then recalled the Double Crab Bun’s crafting concept and the approach Xu Nuo had explained to Shi Dadan in his memory.

"Is Xu Nuo good at meat cooking too? Meat cooking is stir-frying." Qin Huai asked.

Shi Dadan nodded, "Xu Nuo’s stir-fry is quite tasty, much better than the chefs at our textile factory, but not as delicious as his snacks."

"But Xu Nuo doesn’t usually cook much. He has a special relationship with Master Jing. Either Master Jing cooks privately for him, and he brings the dish back for us to eat together, or he stays to eat employee meals at the State-owned Restaurant with Master Jing and others."

"After all, he pays with money and tickets, so he isn’t breaking any rules. Sometimes at the end of the month, if he lacks money or tickets, Master Jing will cover him. People at the State-owned Restaurant are also very familiar with him. Truthfully, I think it would be good if he worked as a chef there, but Mr. Xu disagrees; Mr. Xu wholeheartedly wants Xu Nuo to enter university."

"Back then, I didn’t quite understand. Thinking about it now, I realize maybe it’s because Xu Nuo didn’t truly want to be a chef there; he just didn’t want to attend university, which Mr. Xu noticed. If he truly wanted to be a chef, Mr. Xu probably would have agreed."

"After all, his skills are really quite good."

Qin Huai nodded, saying nothing.

Seeing Qin Huai remain silent, Shi Dadan also said nothing, focusing on eating tangyuan. After eating two, finding the tangyuan quite palatable, he pushed them toward Qin Huai, offering, "These tangyuan are good too, do you want to try them?"

Qin Huai understood, Shi Dadan simply loves food, and as long as the taste is normal, it’s delicious to him.

Having made Four Happiness Tangyuan for so long, Qin Huai could tell whether a tangyuan is good just by its appearance. The tangyuan Shi Dadan was eating, Qin Huai knew with a glance was the ordinary frozen tangyuan available from any supermarket.

In his memory, Qin Huai also saw Xu Nuo’s stuffing skills, decent but not exceptional. They are akin to a regular restaurant’s meat chef, similar to Dong Shi, slightly better than Dong Lili.

But incomparable to Zang Liang.

Of course, definitely much better than Qin Huai, who is very aware of his own skill level.

Qin Huai took a token bite of the tangyuan, confirming it was just a premium rendition of ordinary frozen tangyuan, then looked around to see the shop still quiet, with the boss in the corner playing on his phone.

Feeling safe.

"Let me watch the video tutorial." Qin Huai said, and with a gesture into the void, started watching the video tutorial.

The video tutorial was the complete footage of the stuffing preparation he’d seen in his memory, filled with close-up shots and audible sound, with Xu Nuo and Shi Dadan’s explanatory segment also included.

Qin Huai watched attentively.

He watched it over and over.

Qin Huai felt this might be the most comprehensible and insightful video tutorial he’d seen. Not only because Xu Nuo’s skills were just slightly superior, allowing him to fully grasp Xu Nuo’s actions and thought process, but crucially, the video tutorial included explanations.

Because at that time, Shi Dadan had been learning for only a few years, with a cultural level equivalent to second grade in elementary school. Xu Nuo’s explanations were extremely detailed, meticulously breaking things down for fear Shi Dadan wouldn’t understand the concept.