Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 196 - 155 Too Eager to Improve

Chapter 196: Chapter 155 Too Eager to Improve

The bone setting master’s skills were exceptional. Qin Huai went back after getting his bones set, and unusually, he fell asleep immediately, sleeping until 7:30 the next morning. By the time he arrived at Huang Ji, it was almost 8 o’clock.

Zheng Siyuan had already finished wrapping a batch of wontons and was eating a small bowl himself.

Seeing Zheng Siyuan already eating, Qin Huai felt a bit embarrassed and shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry, I woke up late."

Zheng Siyuan didn’t seem to mind and asked, "What are you making for breakfast today? Chicken soup noodles?"

This was Qin Huai’s plan yesterday morning.

According to Qin Huai’s original plan, since there was such a great opportunity to make an employee meal, he might as well practice making chicken soup noodles for ten days to half a month, anyway everyone loved it.

But wasn’t it by lunchtime that a new side task appeared, plans couldn’t keep up with changes, let alone waking up late today.

"Making shao mai," Qin Huai replied, "lamb shao mai."

It wasn’t that Qin Huai was unwilling to make crab dumplings, but rather he didn’t know how. Compared to ordinary glutinous rice shao mai, Qin Huai made better lamb shao mai, which Qin Luo loved more.

Learning to make crab dumplings abruptly seemed a bit too sudden, not to mention that Qin Huai indeed hadn’t made shao mai for a long time, so he was rusty.

He decided to practice making lamb shao mai for a day, and then crab dumplings the next day.

Zheng Siyuan had long been accustomed to Qin Huai’s unpredictable tendencies, with a different breakfast every morning, so he didn’t think much of it, nodded, and put down his bowl to help Qin Huai cook a small bowl of Zhou Sha wonton.

Qin Huai started to knead the dough.

Compared to the dough used for making steamed buns and bread, the resting time for shao mai dough was very short. If there was a helping hand, making shao mai would be relatively time-saving.

Currently, Qin Huai had no help.

Zheng Siyuan stood by, eating wontons while watching Qin Huai mix the filling.

The recipe for lamb shao mai that Qin Huai used was found online, and he hadn’t made any major changes.

The minced lamb was mixed with green onion and ginger, soaked pepper water was added and stirred until it was dry, then soy sauce and black pepper were added for seasoning. Then boiled bone broth was added repeatedly and stirred constantly until the meat filling was close to a watery but solid filling, which was the perfect meat filling.

Qin Huai himself didn’t like eating his lamb shao mai, as he always felt there was still a bit of a lamby taste, which he didn’t like.

However, Qin Luo really liked it. According to Qin Luo, if lamb was entirely made without a gamey taste, then it wouldn’t be lamb; a bit of gaminess made it delicious.

Qin Huai didn’t comment on this, knowing Qin Luo made a valid point, but he just didn’t like eating it.

Perhaps Qin Huai simply didn’t like eating lamb.

This was also why Qin Huai hadn’t altered the lamb shao mai recipe; he simply didn’t like lamb, and felt he had no right to change a well-established online recipe approved by Qin Luo.

"Your shao mai is quite ordinary," Zheng Siyuan commented honestly, "No wonder I haven’t seen you make shao mai before."

"My shao mai is very ordinary," Qin Huai agreed, "Have you had lamb shao mai before?"

"I have," Zheng Siyuan nodded, "In Chang’an, there’s a pastry chef with the surname Liu, who specializes in lamb shao mai. It’s a family legacy, and truly exceptional."

"Seven or eight years ago, I went to try it once, and it was indeed worthy of its reputation. The meat filling was perfectly balanced with fat and lean, filled with juices, the shao mai skin was paper-thin and translucent. I couldn’t quite discern what seasonings were used for the family recipe, but it surely didn’t include black pepper powder."

What Zheng Siyuan implied was that Master Liu’s lamb shao mai didn’t use black pepper powder as a shortcut.

Qin Huai noted this down and decided to try it if he had the chance.

Professionals are just impressive; they know exactly where and which master excels in what dish, unlike him. Even when traveling to different places, he wouldn’t know what to eat. Opening a picture food recommendation post might lead to soft advertisements, looking at the ratings on a review app might lead to inflated scores. After so much research, he’d most likely end up in a not-so-great trendy internet-famous shop.

No more words, it’s all tears.

"Isn’t crab dumplings particularly famous around here?" Qin Huai asked knowingly.

"They are famous, but not many people make them," Zheng Siyuan replied, "Now more places sell Crab Bun because it’s profitable."

Zheng Siyuan spoke the truth bluntly.

"I checked the crab dumpling recipe on my way back yesterday and found the online recipes to be both few and messy. Some used egg yolk, others used crab yolk. Which one is authentic?" Qin Huai asked.

"Both are considered authentic," Zheng Siyuan replied, "Whether to use crab yolk depends on the season, and also on the skills of the chef making crab dumplings."

"In the season when crabs are plump, like now, using crab yolk is definitely the best. However, if real crab yolk is used, the dumplings are tough to remove the fishy smell."

"Whether crab yolk or egg yolk is used, the filling for the shao mai is made from fresh shrimp. You know from making Crab Shell Cake with fresh shrimp filling that shrimp fillings are inherently difficult; adding heavy seasoning can mask the shrimp’s flavor, making it hard to taste its freshness. But add no seasoning at all, and it will be too bland and tasteless."

"Normal shrimp filling snacks are already difficult to make, let alone those with fresh crab yolk. Adding crab yolk without using sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, onion, ginger, and garlic to balance the flavor makes it hard to remove the fishiness, and if the skills are inferior, you might have to add pepper to suppress the flavor. Yet once shrimp filling snacks are made with pepper, the overall taste completely changes."

"Crab dumplings are all about the fresh taste of shrimp and crab. Back when shrimp and crab were cheap, there were quite a few vendors willing to sell crab dumplings. Now fresh shrimp is expensive, and plump crabs are even more costly, with the intrinsic difficulty in making them. If done well, customers think it’s normal. If done poorly, with such high prices, 8 out of 10 customers will complain, unless the pastry chef is highly confident in their skills, else who’d be willing to make such laborious and thankless snacks, taking losses just to draw attention yet potentially ruining their own reputation?"