Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 102 - 84: Leading the New Trend

Chapter 102: Chapter 84: Leading the New Trend

The mishap with the second batch wasn’t as serious as the first.

Half a batch of Crab Shell Cakes, half a batch of hollow Baked Buns. Compared to the first batch, the Crab Shell Cakes didn’t feel dry, at most they weren’t crispy enough.

However, Crab Shell Cakes are a kind of hidden crisp pastry, with sesame on the outside and a crispy dough inside. As long as they can crumble as soon as they enter the mouth, slight imperfections are hard to notice for most people.

Ouyang, for example, wouldn’t notice at all.

Even if the Crab Shell Cakes were so dry that they turned to powder with a bite, and the shrimp flavor was absent, he’d only think he arrived late and missed the freshest ones, rather than suspecting any problem with the snack itself.

Compared to the slightly flawed Crab Shell Cake, the issue with the hollow Baked Buns was more apparent.

People who often eat Baked Buns know that they should be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a high demand for fire control.

Using an oven can greatly compensate for the lack of fire control, but if you stubbornly carry on...

The hollow Baked Buns will tell you, I’m not something any chef can just make.

Qin Huai wanted to make another batch, but it was too late.

Zhang Shumei arrived.

The first attempt at making Baked Buns in the oven didn’t control the fire well, resulting in quite a mishap. This mishap was obvious enough not to require much feedback to improve, so Qin Huai thought it unnecessary to give them to Luo Jun forcefully.

An excellent taste tester should be used wisely.

Qin Huai gave all the Baked Buns to Ouyang and packed up the Crab Shell Cakes.

Ouyang happily took the Baked Buns, feeling that Qin Huai was really considerate, worried that he’d only have broth without any staple, so he added some food.

Baked Buns with soup, delicious!

But why are these Baked Buns hollow? Ouyang always felt there should be something stuffed inside them.

Zhang Shumei took the packed dishes and said, "Mr. Luo said he wants to drink Dried Tangerine Peel Tea again tomorrow, so I’m bringing more ingredients to Master Qin for you."

"Did he say he wanted to eat anything else?" Qin Huai asked.

Zhang Shumei hesitated a bit, then made up her mind: "He said you should stop being distracted, flitting about, east one hammer west another, making soup today, Crab Shell Cakes tomorrow, and focus on making sticky rice cake."

Qin Huai: ...

Great, Luo Jun found it unsatisfactory to send just a voice message and sent someone to relay it in person.

"Then I’ll make sticky rice cake tomorrow," Qin Huai said with a smile.

Sitting at Table 9, Ouyang curiously looked over, still puzzled as to why Qin Huai suddenly had such a good relationship with Luo Jun, even setting up a little special menu just for him.

Even though he and Qin Huai had been good buddies for so many years, he could only come over every afternoon for a bowl of soup.

"Sigh." Ouyang sighed deeply, taking another hearty bite of the Baked Bun.

The Baked Bun was really chewy.

It was all his parents’ fault for not being enterprising enough. Why didn’t they go to Guangdong Province when they had the chance and adopt Qin Huai?

Ouyang continued munching on the Baked Bun.

When Qin Huai was about to finish baking his third batch of Baked Buns and Crab Shell Cakes, Luo Jun’s WeChat voice message came in.

Luo Jun expressed his dissatisfaction with today’s Crab Shell Cakes with a mix of imperative sentences, a few exclamatory sentences, some rhetorical questions, and statements.

The feedback was quite fair.

One would expect no less from Bi Fang, who had lived 92 years in the human world, with such a discerning taste. Luo Jun might not know how Qin Huai made the Crab Shell Cakes, but he immediately spotted that the fire control during baking wasn’t even, causing the shrimp meat to lose moisture excessively, making it somewhat dry and lacking flavor.

Luo Jun suspected Qin Huai did it on purpose, because he thought Qin Huai’s skill level wouldn’t commit such a low-level mistake that only Chen Huihong would make, like setting the oven wrong.

Qin Huai could only explain to him that it was oven-baked today.

Luo Jun got even angrier, accusing him of making him eat experimental products.

Qin Huai asked if he wanted to eat the test sticky rice cake tomorrow, planning to make it softer and sweeter according to Qu Jing’s taste.

Luo Jun said yes.

Qin Huai continued baking Crab Shell Cakes.

The following batches of Crab Shell Cakes were distributed to the seniors hanging around the cafeteria, free of charge, purely as a gesture to returning customers.

After all, he wasn’t making much, and the quality wasn’t guaranteed.

The seniors were once again stirred up.

Before dinner time, residents from several nearby communities spread the word.

Master Qin had fallen in love with playing with the oven, using it laboriously to bake Crab Shell Cakes and hollow Baked Buns, anyone free should come quickly.

After delivering the last batch of hollow Baked Buns, Qin Huai asked An Youyou to clean the oven and put it away in the corner, and then went to rest.

No need for dinner, he’d filled himself up with the afternoon taste testing.

On the way home, Qin Huai messaged Huang Shengli, telling him he thought using the oven to practice fire control was very suitable for himself, thanking Huang Shengli for his attention.

This kind of peculiar method looked like something Huang Shengli specifically devised as a practice method for him.

No apprentice of Huang Shengli failed in pastry-making.

Dong Shi, holding Huang Shengli’s phone, read Qin Huai’s message aloud to him.

After listening, Huang Shengli chuckled and nodded, rubbed his waist, and in a distraction, ladled too much oil.

No worries, he planned to remember this dish and refrain from eating it himself at dinner, letting Zheng Da have more.

Zheng Siyuan, making Crispy Cookies nearby, paused his actions and thought for a moment: "Uncle, do you have another small oven at home?"

"Huh?"

"I also want to practice fire control."

Huang Shengli: "... Si Yuan, your fire control level is much better than Xiao Qin’s, you don’t need practice."

"There’s no end to learning," Zheng Siyuan said seriously, "Qin Huai and I are similar in pastry-making skills, but his fire control is far weaker than mine, which shows there’s still a lot of room for me to improve."

Huang Shengli found he didn’t quite understand the logic of this talk, whatever, he didn’t understand the young people these days.

"I seem to have one at home, I’ll have my son search the old house for it later. Do you want the tutorial I sent to Qin Huai?"

"Yes, thank you, Uncle."

Dong Shi, listening at the side, confusingly asked Dong Li: "Bro, if Brother Zheng also becomes Master’s apprentice, is he a senior or junior?"

Dong Li thought Dong Shi should go chop 200 jin of radish to cut away his curiosity.

"Is practicing fire control with the oven that effective? I watched for a while this afternoon and noticed that Qin Huai’s fire control seemed to have improved quite a bit. Bro, Master always says my fire control is not up to standard, should I also buy an oven to practice secretly at home?"

Dong Li pointed to the radishes not far away: "Stop thinking about it, go chop the radishes."

Qin Huai still didn’t know that he had already set a new trend for practicing fire control. He simply felt that using the oven to bake Crab Shell Cakes and hollow Baked Buns felt really nice.

Although prone to mishaps, it was very rewarding.

And also a lot of fun.

There was this joy of secretly playing with fire behind parents’ backs from when he was a child.

This joy lasted until the next morning, during the gap while waiting for the Three Meat Buns and Five Fillings Bun to steam, he unusually didn’t slack off, nor did he increase the workload to start the next batch urgently, but instead pulled out the oven from the corner to happily bake cakes.

The newly arrived breakfast chef was stunned by the variety of breakfasts in the shop and the unexpected making process.

The new breakfast chef was named Chen, called Chen An. He was indeed skilled, most importantly he worked quickly and knew a wide array.

He could handle buns, steamed buns, dumplings, shumai, wontons, and fried dough sticks all on his own, a standard breakfast hexagonal warrior.

Also, Chen An was very satisfied with the cafeteria’s 8-hour early 4 to noon work schedule. It didn’t require waking too early and allowed leaving work early, most importantly, two meals were included. He worked diligently that Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong almost had no work left to do.

At six, the jogging seniors stepped into the cafeteria as usual, and Xu Tuqiang, who was familiar with Qin Huai, stepped forward to greet.

"Master Qin, making traditional Crab Shell Cakes huh."

Yes, now everyone said the Crab Shell Cakes made by oven by Qin Huai were traditional Crab Shell Cakes, and the hollow Baked Buns were naturally traditional hollow Baked Buns too.

"What flavor is it?"

"Today it’s pure meat stuffing," Qin Huai said, "Yesterday’s attempt found shrimp was still not quite right."

"Meat filling is good, give me 5 when they come out!" Xu Tuqiang said boldly.

As soon as he said this, the senior next to Xu Tuqiang was displeased: "Hey, Xu, why is your appetite so big? Master Qin only made so few this time, and there are so many of us here. It’s too much for you to eat 5 by yourself, isn’t it?"

Another senior immediately echoed: "Exactly, you still haven’t returned the Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns you borrowed from me last time!"

"Didn’t I give you a box of tea leaves in return?"

"What do I need your tea leaves for? I wanted the steamed buns, don’t think you can get away with it!"

"Exactly, exactly."

"Exactly what, Xu, you’re not even from our district, I didn’t take any Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns from you."

"Xu Tuqiang, your words are too much, huh? Yunzhong District is all that? Just because you can enter through the inner door you think you’re all that? We come in from the outside, so what? I just live across the street, I’m happy to sit here every day, chat, and wait for snacks, I’ll eat whatever Master Qin makes."

Several seniors quarreled, the atmosphere intensified, and soon new seniors joined the fray, and the originally observing senior ladies were also influenced by the atmosphere and joined in.

The whole cafeteria suddenly turned into a boiling pot of porridge.

Huang Xi and the waitstaff hadn’t started work yet, there was no one to mediate.

"Crab Shell Cakes are out of the oven, line up to get some, two per person. We’re still in the taste testing phase so it’s free, feel free to give any feedback, and if adopted, you can choose a dish next time," Qin Huai said calmly.

The seniors immediately fell silent and lined up at lightning speed.

Chen An, witnessing all this: ...

Chen An, holding wonton wrappers that hadn’t been touched for 5 minutes, asked somewhat confusedly: "Qin... Brother Qin, does our cafeteria do this every morning?"

"You’ll get used to it, sometimes there’s a quarrel, but it doesn’t escalate," Qin Congwen comforted, "The morning snacks are fixed, usually it doesn’t cause a fuss."

"The afternoons, though, get intense. My son loves tinkering with odd stuff in the afternoons, sometimes there’s not much quantity, but there are too many buyers, that’s the real battle."

Chen An: Damn, I want to apply for an afternoon shift.

o’clock off work is still too early.