Chapter 154: Chapter 154: Poetic
Translator: 549690339
“But aside from the ingredients, there’s another requirement.”
Yunqi walked to a wall full of books, carefully selected one, and handed it to Qin Lang. “The dish you’re going to cook needs to relate with this book.”
A dish related to the content of a book?
Linking the two wasn’t going to be easy.
He might as well see what this book was about first.
With a serious look on his face, Qin Lang took the book and began to flip through it.
Dan Bao and Spicy also peeked out from both of his shoulders, trying to offer him their advice.
The book Yunqi handed to him was called “Poems in the Wind”.
Upon flipping through it briefly, Qin Lang found it was a collection of poems from this world.
Some poems were styled with an ancient flair, while others bore a more modern touch.
If so, he just had to make a dish that matched with one of the poems. It wasn’t entirely impossible.
He began to read each poem in the collection and match them to dishes from the vast library of dishes in his mind.
This process was bound to take some time, Yunqi didn’t seem to mind waiting.
She took out another book, sat back down, poured herself a cup of tea, and began reading while sipping her tea.
After a while, Qin Lang, having browsed through half of the poem collection, had his gaze fixed on a certain page.
It was a poem about a deer, written in a free, poetic style.
The scenery it painted was somewhat similar to that of the “Deer Cry” in the “Book of Songs” from his previous life.
A dish related to ginkgo came to mind like a flash of electricity.
He slowly closed the book he was holding.
“Seems like you’ve got an idea,” Yunqi commented, sipping on her tea, her gaze moving from the book to Qin Lang. “The kitchen is over there. The ingredients in the pantry should be more than enough for you to use.”
“All right.” Qin Lang nodded, picking up the ginkgo fruit and striding toward the kitchen.
The two Food Spirits quickly caught up, their eyes filled with the same curiosity.
What kind of dish would Qin Lang cook this time?
After selecting the appropriate ingredients from the pantry, Qin Lang stood in front of the table and started to get busy.
He shelled the fresh ginkgo, soaked them in alkaline water, then carefully skinned them.
He boiled water, blanched the peeled ginkgo to remove the bitter taste, then in a separate pot boiled them until they were slightly soft, and set them aside for later use.
Then, Qin Lang started processing a large piece of pork fat on the table.
“Gurgle Gurgle-”
I know this, it can be used to render lard, and also to make delicious pork cracklings.
Dan Bao leaned over to Spicy, chimed in and explained.
“Crack?”
What are we going to cook next?
Spicy couldn’t contain her curiosity.
“The next dish is called Poetic Etiquette Ginkgo,” Qin Lang responded while cutting the pork fat into mahjong-sized pieces. “Although the cooking process for this dish isn’t complicated, the plating is quite involved.”
Fine food is relished for its texture and presentation.
Confucius Mansion Cuisine is the epitome of this principle.
The Poetic Etiquette Ginkgo, originated from Confucius Mansion Cuisine, is an outstanding example.
Using the mildly toxic ginkgo to create a dish, it’s a delicacy if consumed in moderation, but a poison if overindulged.
After proficiently rendering the lard, Qin Lang sprinkled a small pinch of salt on the pork cracklings and placed them in front of the two little spirits, “Eat up.”
“Gurgle!”
Pork cracklings!
Dan Bao cheered, quickly drawing close.
It has been quite a while since it had such a meal!
Beside it, Spicy had already been enticed by the rich aroma from the stewing lard. At this moment, its speed was hardly slower than Dan Bao’s.
Both their heads leaned close to the plate as they ate cheerfully.
With the cooked lard set aside to cool, Qin Lang began the other part of the task in preparing the Poetic Etiquette Ginkgo.
Plating.
He added a full two pounds of white sugar into a small amount of water and put it into the pan. When the sugar was thoroughly melted into a clear syrup, he poured it into a chilled container through a sieve.
The entire piece of clear, bubble-free sugar quickly solidified within the container.
As Qin Lang overturned a palm-sized piece of sugar and fixed it on the table, Dan Bao and Spicy exchanged glances before leaning in.
From Qin Lang’s increasingly solemn demeanor, they could guess that the next step was not going to be easy.
As expected.
Qin Lang picked up a tiny, sharp file and swiftly began to carve the piece of sugar.
With each wave of the file, pieces of sugar crystal fell off.
The previously square piece of sugar began to gradually change shape under the fileing.
As time ticked away, the expressions on Dan Bao and Spicy’s faces grew more and more surprised.
A deer crouching on the ground slowly took shape in Qin Lang’s hand.
Outside the kitchen, Yunqi took a sip of her tea and put down the book she was reading.
Then, she pulled out her own laptop and began to examine Qin Lang’s background information.
With her authority as the vice president of the Spirit Chef Association of Bai Lu Mountain City, all of Qin Lang’s experiences since becoming a Spirit Chef came up without any difficulty.
This is something Yunqi always did for every Spirit Chef that came for her assessment.
Only by understanding the past history of a Spirit Chef could she make a more accurate judgment when tasting their dishes. This has always been Yunqi’s practice.
Soon, a look of surprise surfaced on Yunqi’s face.
This Spirit Chef’s progress was unexpectedly fast.
He had consecutively won three First-level Food Recommender Badges in Dongxia City in three days, and then won the championship in the Dongxia City Cooking Competition?
And now, he hasn’t even been a Spirit Chef for a full month?
Yunqi had encountered many talented Spirit Chefs, but none at the level of Qin Lang.
She opens the video archives of the cooking contests stored in the Spirit Chef Association’s system and watches with interest.
She sees Qin Lang presenting vegetarian braised pork in the Scoring Competition, and Wen Si Tofu in the Elimination Competition, as well as the Snowflake Chicken and Twice-Cooked Pork that Qin Lang prepared in the Rankings Match.
Closing the video, Yunqi now had an understanding of Qin Lang’s cooking style.
This will be important evidence in her determining whether his dishes are qualified to receive her Second-Level Food Recommender Badge – the Deer Spirit Badge.
Yunqi sweeps through the record of Qin Lang’s experiences after winning the Dongxia City Cooking Competition, and her face immediately turned into shock.
“Huh? The youth training competition started?”
She slapped her forehead, suddenly feeling she wasn’t doing her job as vice president of the Bai Lu Mountain City Spirit Chef Association properly.
She didn’t know anything about the competition hosted by the Association.
But knowing now is better than never.
“Let’s see how the select fights are going.” she pulled up the replay video and began to examine it, “So many competitors? Must be the influence of the provincial training competition.”
Yunqi skimmed through the video and quickly pulled the progress bar to the time when the four contestants advanced.
Watching Xu Qingmo, surrounded by thirteen spirit executors, personally hand a piece of the Starstone to each contestant, Yunqi frowned.
Something’s wrong.
The Association chairman was keeping something from her!
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