Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 883 - 438: Two Recipes and an Astonishing Buff (Part 2)
The process of making rice cake is very simple. You soak the rice and glutinous rice, grind them into rice slurry, mix in yeast and white sugar, stir evenly, let it ferment, and after fermentation, add a little more white sugar, pour the rice slurry into molds, and steam over high heat.
It can be said to be one of the simplest types of snacks, very suitable for mass production.
In Jiang Chengde's time, there were no juicers, so the process of making rice slurry was slightly more complicated and physically demanding. But obviously, this wasn't much of a problem for Jiang Chengde. He used the most traditional methods to create a very fine rice slurry, with precision in every step.
It's somewhat like Zhao Cheng'an's textbook-like precision, but different. Zhao Cheng'an's textbook approach feels as if he has seen the original version of the tutorial and imitated it well, so it's like a textbook snack.
Jiang Chengde's textbook approach bluntly tells you, "Yes, I wrote this textbook myself."
Every step is perfect, every step is precise, every step is flawless. When you see it, you know, wow, this is my ideal textbook; this is the perfect tutorial I've been seeking!
Before watching the video tutorial, Qin Huai thought the rice cake would be like the locust flower buns, a bit incomprehensible. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
Alright, not just a bit, but completely incomprehensible.
When Qin Huai now watches the tutorial for locust flower buns, he still doesn't understand the key steps. He knows there are probably tricks, he knows they are crucial, but he simply doesn't know where the key is.
He feels like Jiang Chengde just flows through the operations with ease and then it's done. It's like listening to a teacher in high school explaining the solution to the last big math problem on a test; you hear the teacher ramble on for a long time, and then it ends. You've listened, but you have no idea what the teacher said.
But the video tutorial for rice cake is different.
Maybe it's because this rice cake is really too simple, too basic, so basic that there are no techniques to employ, so Qin Huai can understand it, even very clearly.
This rice cake video tutorial gave Qin Huai a standard answer to a question he had been pondering but didn't know the answer to before—
What does it look like to take the simplest snack to the extreme?
Now, Jiang Chengde has blatantly shown Qin Huai the answer in the video tutorial—it's like this.
No tricks, no high-difficulty operations, just filled values in every aspect and fluid operations.
The simplest is the hardest.
Imitating a textbook is easy, but becoming a textbook is hard.
Qin Huai couldn't resist watching the rice cake video tutorial over and over again. Although it's just these steps and nothing surprising can be seen, he just couldn't stop watching it repeatedly.
Too perfect, too amazing.
As a pastry chef, Qin Huai feels this isn't just making snacks anymore; this is simply art.
The definitions of beauty and art in the books Qin Huai read before were all forgotten when watching the video tutorial.
All those theories, this theory or that, don't matter.
This is true art!
All those flashy colors and various combinations are superficial; what Jiang Chengde showcases in this video tutorial is the art that Qin Huai loves the most.
It has a strong personal style, yet is very standard, so standard that you can't find any faults.
Qin Huai even feels he understands where Zhao Cheng'an's problem lies. The reason he doesn't have a strong personal style yet isn't that his direction is wrong but because his skills aren't good enough.
His techniques haven't reached the level where he can form this textbook-like personal style.
After watching the rice cake video tutorial at least nine times, Qin Huai reluctantly exited and started watching the red eggs video tutorial.
The red egg video tutorial is even simpler, except it took some effort in selecting them, the other steps are just ordinary boiled eggs with Su Mu added.
Su Mu is used for coloring because, in an era without dyes for coloring eggs, buying some Su Mu from a Chinese medicine shop to make red eggs was the most normal and cheapest method.
Qin Huai could tell that Qin Wan spent a lot of time and effort choosing the eggs, as each was a red-shelled egg. In an era with almost no large-scale farming and eggs needed to be collected household by household, Qin Wan worked very hard to select eggs she considered relatively good in size and appearance, controlled the water temperature and time, boiled them, and colored them.
No skills, just great care.
Maybe this is why red eggs are classified as Level C.
Qin Wan has the skill and is willing to put in this effort, so it's quite reasonable for the delicious red eggs she makes to be rated Level C.
Qin Huai couldn't resist watching the red eggs video tutorial three times, and when he realized he had been watching video tutorials for a long time, he snapped out of it and exited the game panel, only to find Shi Dadan already playing on his phone.
More precisely, he was scrolling videos but without sound, probably to avoid bothering Qin Huai.
"Old Shi, sorry, I watched the video tutorials a few more times and got absorbed." Qin Huai quickly apologized and glanced at the egg tarts on the table. "You probably won't eat the remaining egg tarts, they've been sitting for a while. Oh, I forgot to message Tan Wei'an to ask him to come over for the egg tarts."
"I messaged Xiao Tan; he should be here soon." Shi Dadan said, "No need to apologize, Xiao Qin, you're busy with important matters. At home, I also can't play on my phone with the sound on. My wife always thinks the kids' grades are bad because I play on my phone with the sound on and affect them. I either play silently or go outside."
"I'm used to it."
Just as Shi Dadan finished speaking, there was a knock on the door, and Qin Huai quickly got up to open it, only to find it was indeed Tan Wei'an.
Tan Wei'an walked in with excitement, saying, "Wow, Qin Huai, what made you suddenly decide to make egg tarts? Wow, so many! There are too many for me to eat alone."
"But that's okay, I can't finish them, I'll just put them in the fridge. I happen to love cold egg tarts. I'm telling you, cold egg tarts are just as good as freshly baked ones, with a unique taste." Tan Wei'an said, reaching over to the table, picking up an egg tart, and stuffing it into his mouth.
He took a bite, chewed.
Tan Wei'an: "...Why is it so sweet, is it because it's cold?"
"Never mind, I'll let the junior brother have some too."
Qin Huai: ...Thinking that it was too sweet reminded him of Guli, yet he hadn't mentioned Guli once just now?
"Qin Huai, I heard you didn't go to Zhiwei Restaurant this afternoon; it was Master Zhou's day off, so he let you and Zhao Cheng'an go to an exhibition. Is the exhibition any good? We're chefs; what's the use of an exhibition?" Tan Wei'an brought his own packing box, packing while gossiping.
His hands and mouth never stopped.
Of course, Qin Huai couldn't say the exhibition was useless; saying that would be like saying Master Zhou gave him a useless day off, wouldn't it?
Moreover, Qin Huai did indeed realize something while watching Jiang Chengde's video tutorial.
"To cultivate aesthetics." Qin Huai said, "I even bought a painting."
Tan Wei'an: ?
Tan Wei'an's face was full of: Brother, when did you secretly develop such highbrow interests?
"Should be useful, I guess." Qin Huai said mildly, giving Tan Wei'an a heads-up in advance.
No matter how much Tan Wei'an prodded afterward, Qin Huai did not reveal anything further, leaving Tan Wei'an to walk away with a head full of questions, disappointed, with the egg tarts in hand.
After Tan Wei'an left, Qin Huai took out his phone, entered the [Loving Family] group chat, and found everyone was chatting in the group.
Chen Huihong was eagerly sharing while taking advantage of a steak sale.
Qin Huai directly initiated a group video call; Chen Huihong joined instantly.
Without waiting for others to join, Qin Huai immediately asked, "Sister Hong, when you dined at Taifeng Building before, did you feel that there were other spirits in Taifeng?"
Chen Huihong was caught off guard by Qin Huai's question, stunned, and even a bit flustered, opened her mouth, showing a slightly silly expression:
"Ah?"
"Were... were there?"
"I... I'm thinking."
"That was in a past life, you asked me suddenly, I don't really remember."
