Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 350 - 209 ’Taste’ Publication (Those who do not like the content of ’Taste’ may skip)_2

Chapter 350: Chapter 209 ’Taste’ Publication (Those who do not like the content of ’Taste’ may skip)_2

Trust me, as long as Qin Huai, Master Qin, remains at Huang Ji Restaurant, his signature snacks are definitely worth booking a flight to the nearby city of Gusu, standing in line for a few hours to savor a delicious Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns and a Three Meat Buns. If you’re lucky enough or happen to know Master Qin, you might even get to taste his exclusive snack, guo’er.

This snack, although oddly paired, named, and prepared, will undoubtedly surprise every guest who takes the first bite with wide-eyed amazement. Because this, which looks like an apple dough ball tossed around in red vegetable juice by a naive child, then casually graffitied to create this extremely ugly snack, has a taste far superior to its appearance.

It is a marvelous snack composed of dough skin and bun filling. Before tasting this snack, I never imagined that carrot puree and meat filling could have such a wonderfully perfect combination. Readers who don’t like carrots, don’t be disappointed, because this snack was specifically created for a picky customer who didn’t eat carrots.

Before telling the story, I want to first praise the taste of guo’er. Eating this snack is like the first time years ago when I watched my son paint. At first glance, it seemed utterly inexplicable, a child’s casual graffiti that didn’t warrant a closer look. But once you are willing to understand it a bit, taking the first bite, you’ll find that this seemingly random creation is full of the creator’s intentions and cleverness. The boundless creativity it contains will leave every so-called connoisseur who thinks they know a thing or two clicking their tongue in amazement.

This is a wonderful pairing.

The carrot puree and meat filling wrap around each other, encasing meat juice, with a few bamboo shoots mixed in to add a crunchy texture. In this filling, it’s hard to taste the unique flavor of carrots; instead, there is a sweet inclusiveness, mixed in the meat juice, acting as a superb sweet seasoning. If the auxiliary ingredients are so delicious, naturally there’s no need to say more about the meat filling as the main character.

I’ve rarely encountered such perfect meat filling in snacks, and I’ve never seen a production process so complex and challenging for snacks.

The filling of guo’er needs to be stirred and fried to extract the aroma, then stewed to reduce the juice. Stir-frying even requires the Shandong cuisine’s secret big spoon stir-frying technique. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe this is the process of making snack filling.

Seeing this, I believe some readers are already surprised. Master Qin is actually proficient in the big spoon stir-frying technique. Don’t be surprised, if Master Qin were so adept at meat cooking, this article would be a solo interview with Master Qin, not an interview with Huang Ji Restaurant.

The filling of guo’er is handled by Master Huang Shengli, a famous meat Chef ranked 37th in the Chef Record. I believe there’s no need to say more about its significance.

This is also the most surprising aspect of this snack for me. This is a snack completed by the collaboration of a meat chef and a pastry chef. The division of labor is clear, each with their strengths, with Master Huang Shengli slightly ahead courtesy of his excellent culinary skills, but Master Qin’s pastry did not hold guo’er back. Such collaborations mostly occur between mentors and mentees, as the transfer of skills and years of rapport enable them to cooperate better in the culinary field.

And the collaboration between Master Qin Huai and Master Huang Shengli was even more unexpected and suits the character of the snack better.

Rebellious.

No one stipulated that bao bun filling can’t be wrapped in dough skin, nor that dough filling can’t be put into other skins, but no one does it. Because this way is really rebellious, but sometimes creating a great snack just requires a bit of rebellion.

After discussing snacks for so long, I believe many readers can’t wait to see the story behind the snack. Guo’er happens to have an exciting story, and readers, please be patient as I narrate it to you.

Sweeping through the wordy story, Qin Huai skimmed a few lines.

As Huang An Yao said, Xu Cheng loves to write stories in his food reviews and likes to use metaphors and parallelism to pad the word count, but Qin Huai had to admit that Xu Cheng put real effort into this article.

It’s long enough.

A full four pages of text, with only 3 pictures (of guo’er, Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns, and Three Meat Buns), and the font wasn’t deliberately made bold or large, the volume is definitely sufficient.

Qin Huai even suspected that Xu Cheng’s so-called writing the whole article at once that night was his boast, that night he probably only wrote an outline, and his recent mysterious absence was actually him holed up in a hotel writing the article.

Xu Cheng used the writing style of romance novels and refreshing novels to separately narrate the birth of guo’er and Qin Huai’s culinary journey.

Readers who bought this "Taste" magazine got a bargain, spending the price of a food magazine while also getting to see food reviews, romance novels, and genius-style refreshing novels.

During the interview, Qin Huai tactfully suggested focusing the article more on Huang Ji, mentioning him less, and more about Huang Ji.

Xu Cheng did just that.

He didn’t mention Qin Huai much, mostly using Master Qin instead.

Qin Huai had six points to make about it.

At the end of the article, Xu Cheng made a brief summary.

"Huang Ji is a very traditional, standard mentor-apprentice style restaurant. While adhering to tradition, it is also quite innovative. At Huang Ji, I not only saw the standard mentor-apprentice heritage but also the tireless help and guidance of the elder to the younger generation.

Master Qin is a very young chef who, in the absence of mentor guidance, was fortunate enough to meet Master Huang Shengli and Mr. Zheng Da. During the interview, Master Qin repeatedly expressed to me his respect and gratitude to these two elder mentors, and I could see their appreciation and tolerance for talent.