Chapter 224

Ouyang stood at the back kitchen door, gnawing through a slightly cool Guozi, smacked his lips, and looked like he wanted to gnaw on a second one, but he restrained his desire.

A slightly cool Guozi is still not delicious enough; it's only delicious after going back and heating it in a steamer for a few minutes.

"By the way, has that Mr. Xu who wrote 'Zhiwei' left?" Ouyang asked curiously.

Under normal circumstances, Ouyang chats with Qin Huai about gossip at home every morning and evening.

But there was an accidental situation yesterday; Qin Huai got up late in the morning and made Four-Joy Tangyuan, so Qin Huai and Ouyang talked about serious business, not gossip. At night, Ouyang nearly tasted the tears of the iron bars at the police station and was educated until 1:00 AM before being released home, so they didn't chat either.

Needless to say this morning, Ouyang didn't get up, and Ouyang didn't even get to eat the Four-Joy Tangyuan Qin Huai made; Qin Huai served Ouyang's portion to the neighbors.

Just thinking about the experience from yesterday to today, Ouyang wanted to shed two lines of clear tears.

Hearing Ouyang say this, Qin Huai knew it was time for gossip.

Although the occasion wasn't quite right, standing at the Huang Ji back kitchen door to chat about gossip didn't seem very good. But it didn't matter; Huang Ji has Dong Shi, and Dong Shi has already unlocked the achievement of chatting about gossip in every corner of Huang Ji.

From the back kitchen to the warehouse, from the warehouse to the lobby, from every corner of the lobby to the private rooms on the 2nd floor and even the restroom, there are traces of Dong Shi chatting about gossip and inquiring about gossip.

Anyway, there are no customers in the lobby at this time, so you can chat anywhere.

"He left," Qin Huai said. "He left the day before 'Zhiwei' was published, saying he had business to handle in Hong Kong and went to Hong Kong overnight."

Admittedly, as a well-known wealthy person, Xu Cheng has countless industries under his name, and it is very reasonable for him to have sudden situations that require him to rush to Hong Kong overnight to handle business matters.

However.

Qin Huai always felt that Xu Cheng was just finding an excuse to slip away because he didn't want to eat pastries anymore.

Although Qin Huai hasn't had much contact with Xu Cheng these days (basically never seeing him), he has heard a lot from Huang Anyao. As a loyal fan of Xu Cheng, Huang Anyao knows every home-cooked dish of every head chef in every restaurant Xu Cheng loves to eat like the back of his hand; he didn't have a chance to say it before, but after Xu Cheng came, he kept chanting it on his lips.

If someone said Huang Anyao was a socially anxious person who wasn't good with words, Qin Huai would definitely carry recording equipment and rush up to play these nonsense words of Huang Anyao for him to hear.

Who said Huang Anyao is socially anxious? He is simply a chatterbox!

Through Huang Anyao's strong recommendation, Qin Huai also has a certain understanding of Xu Cheng's picky taste.

Simply put, it is one sentence: only eat the best.

If you use the dish ratings given by the game system to score, then B-grade is for casual eating, A-grade is for serious eating, S-grade is for eating heartily, and below B-grade is like chewing wax.

Qin Huai knows how to make many pastries, but not all pastries can guarantee quality control at the B-grade.

Xu Cheng wants to eat different pastries, and Qin Huai can make them. Six pastries a day; for the first few days, he could guarantee quality control at the B-grade. But as he went on, Qin Huai could only try his best to pick the ones he was good at, try his best not to flip the car, and guarantee quality control above C-grade; whether it could reach B-grade depended entirely on his performance.

Xu Cheng has been in Gusu for a while.

By the time he ate later, Qin Huai could clearly feel that Xu Cheng actually didn't want to eat anymore; he had completely stopped showing his face and only let his assistant buy them on his behalf, but. He seemed to just want to see how many pastries Qin Huai actually knew how to make.

Eating while biting the bullet.

For Xu Cheng, not eating the A+ grade Guozi and eating those pastries that didn't even reach B-grade was definitely asking for trouble.

So the day before 'Zhiwei' was published, Xu Cheng couldn't hold on and found an excuse to slip away.

If he didn't slip away, loyal readers of 'Zhiwei' from all over the world would rush to Huang Ji to eat Guozi. If there were some among these loyal readers who had a relatively good relationship with Xu Cheng, or even Xu Cheng's friends, and they inquired and found out that Xu Cheng was also in Gusu, and then inquired and found out that Xu Cheng was staying in Gusu not eating Guozi but eating some messy pastries, how would Xu Cheng explain it?

Saying he was used to eating delicacies and wanted to eat something approachable.

It can only be said that Xu Cheng also suffered these days to test how many kinds of pastries Qin Huai actually knew.

"Why did you suddenly think of asking this?" Qin Huai asked.

"I ran into Mr. Gong going upstairs when I went out and went downstairs this morning. He said on the phone that there were no private rooms to borrow, and the private room for next week was borrowed by Xu Cheng. I thought Xu Cheng hadn't left and planned to keep eating until next week," Ouyang said. "Aren't Sister Hong and Huihui coming soon? I originally wanted to borrow a private room from Mr. Gong to invite Sister Hong and Huihui to a meal."

"Don't even think about a private room; I'll have Head Waiter Cao save you a small table in the lobby," Qin Huai directly shattered Ouyang's fantasy. "Huang Ji's VIPs can book private rooms up to a week in advance at most, and now all the private rooms that can be booked have been booked."

"I heard that now people are even sharing tables in private rooms. Dong Shi was still saying in the back kitchen this morning that he heard the phones of old customers with Huang Ji VIP cards were blown up. Some people are buying spots at high prices, ranging from 500 to 1000, and there are scalpers acting as middlemen wanting to earn the price difference and so on."

"You know about Huang Ji's VIP cards; they are all eaten meal by meal. There aren't many old customers with VIP cards, and some are even directly neighborhood residents nearby; they have eaten all their retirement pensions at Huang Ji over the years."

"Some people are short of money, and some people are not. Head Waiter Cao has been thinking about how to handle this since he learned about this this morning. Sharing private rooms is inevitable, but if scalpers really get involved, it will ruin Huang Ji's reputation. And some customers are not financially well-off and are willing to book private rooms to sell the spots."

Ouyang listened in a daze, subconsciously took out another Guozi from the packing box, and only realized what he was doing after grabbing it, silently putting the Guozi back.

Qin Huai saw Ouyang like this and knew that he must be feeling uncomfortable if he didn't eat something at this moment. After thinking about it, he turned and entered the back kitchen to grab a Zhiwei Ju chef.

"Are there any pastries?"

Three minutes later, Ouyang was eating flowing sand buns.

The chatting location of the two also changed from the kitchen door to a corner table. Yu Yang, who has a name, thoughtfully served a pot of freshly brewed tea and incidentally told Qin Huai the progress of Guli stirring the sticky rice cakes—

The stirring has ended, the sticky rice cakes are being steamed in the pot, just waiting to be stirred again after being steamed.

Qin Huai:?

Why is it Guli stirring the sticky rice cakes? Wasn't it Tan Weian who was stirring them?

Ouyang gnawed on the flowing sand bun, amazed: "My god, this bun!"

Qin Huai:?

"What a wonderful feeling!" Ouyang rarely published a serious food review. "So chewy; I have never eaten a bun skin with such a magical texture."

Seeming to prove that what he said was true, Ouyang took another big bite and exclaimed: "Really, I have never eaten a bun skin with such a wonderful texture. Wow, this feeling, this chewiness, delicious!"

Hearing Ouyang say this, Qin Huai was a bit curious. The flowing sand bun was made by Yu Yang, and Qin Huai had tasted it; the taste was very average and normal, at the level of flowing sand buns that every restaurant selling morning tea in Guangdong province can make, and it couldn't be considered very distinctive.

As for the bun skin being very chewy, it was even more inexplicable. Yu Yang's level of kneading dough was very average, and the bun skin of the flowing sand bun he made was soft; it couldn't be very chewy.

Qin Huai picked up a flowing sand bun and was about to taste it when he looked closely, and then looked at the flowing sand bun Ouyang was holding that had already been eaten halfway.

"You didn't remove the paper underneath," Qin Huai was speechless for a moment. "When practicing usually, flowing sand buns are steamed in small cages and have paper underneath; you didn't remove the paper."

"This bun should have been steamed for more than ten minutes; the paper stuck to the bun skin, and you didn't notice."

"The wonderful texture you mentioned is eating paper."

Ouyang:?

Ouyang looked closely and suddenly realized: "I said why the buns I bought at the convenience store before all had paper underneath; so that's the function."

Qin Huai:...

That's not the function!

Not brother, you...

I...

This bun...

Paper...

Forget it, I'm tired, let it be destroyed.

Brother, I'll just assume it's because you didn't sleep well after coming out of the police station late last night, and your spirit is a bit dazed.

Qin Huai looked at Ouyang: "I finally know how you managed to lose 6.6 million in one year of running a fish hot pot restaurant."

"Listen to me, don't change the recipe yourself when your hand-beaten lemon tea shop opens; just follow the recipe for hand-beaten lemon tea when you were at the Yunzhong Canteen." "How did you know I've researched several recipes during this time?" Ouyang was shocked. "If I only sell hand-beaten lemon tea, I think it's too monotonous. I've drunk a lot of hand-beaten lemon tea in Gusu during this time and feel that there is still a lot of room for change in hand-beaten lemon tea."

"Sea salt cheese, sour plum peach, coconut milk, cola, Sprite, AD calcium milk; I think they can all be added to hand-beaten lemon tea."

Qin Huai:...

Qin Huai looked at Ouyang, his eyes full of sincerity. At this moment, he empathized with Jiang Weiming.

"When your hand-beaten lemon tea opens, don't tell them the initial recipe was given to you by me."

"Just say you learned the craft from a master outside."

Please.

Ouyang indicated he understood: "I understand. Our two shops are so close; if I say the recipe was given by you, I will be scolded for rubbing off the popularity of the Yunzhong Canteen. Don't worry, brother, I understand this principle!"

"Entrepreneurship depends on yourself."

Qin Huai was very gratified and decided to give Ouyang two more Guozi tomorrow.

Qin Huai chatted with Ouyang about gossip for another 20 minutes. During this period, Yu Yang added tea once and served two batches of pastries; Qin Huai only tasted the flavor simply, and the rest were all eaten by Ouyang.

Incidentally, Qin Huai didn't forget to approve the memorials in his Moments while chatting about gossip, liking what should be liked and commenting on what should be commented on.

During this period, he swiped to Bing Bingzi's Moments. Bing Bingzi actually took advantage of the New Year's Day holiday to come to Gusu with classmates for two days, taking a hard seat back and forth, university student special forces eating and shopping in Gusu, and came to Huang Ji to check in for Guozi.

The beautifully decorated Moments praised the Guozi as being the best in the world.

Qin Huai was very gratified and decisively liked and commented: It looks delicious at first glance!

Ouyang was full and ready to go home to continue developing new lemon tea products, wiped his mouth, and sighed: "I didn't expect Huang Ji to have so many kinds of pastries. How come I haven't seen them when I came to eat a while ago? Are they new?"

"New product tasting; if you like them, come every morning and afternoon, there's plenty."

The craftsmanship of the Zhiwei Ju chefs in making pastries is uneven. Although Tan Weian is not much compared to Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan, he is already top-notch among the 6 people in Zhiwei Ju.

The people in the Huang Ji back kitchen can basically eat Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan's pastries every day, and their mouths have become a bit picky from eating pastries during this time, so they don't really like the pastries trial-made by the few people in Zhiwei Ju.

Of course, except for the particularly unpalatable ones.

For example, the mixed-fruit filling, which is in short supply.

Whenever Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan make a particularly unpalatable mixed-fruit filling, it will attract everyone to scramble for it. Everyone wants to taste how unpalatable it can be, and how it could be more unpalatable than what they ate last time.

At this time, someone might ask, doesn't anyone scramble for the mixed-fruit filling Tan Weian made?

The mixed-fruit filling Tan Weian made is not unpalatable enough.

If Ouyang is willing to come for a tasting, the people in Zhiwei Ju would be too happy to be in time.

Ouyang's eyes lit up: "There is such a good thing; you should have said so earlier! I'll come earlier tomorrow morning!"

Qin Huai ended the pleasant gossip break and returned to the kitchen to see how the sticky rice cakes were doing.

Guli was stirring the sticky rice cakes.

Making sticky rice cakes by hand is like this; it requires repeated stirring and repeated steaming. In terms of technical content, there is nothing, it's just very troublesome.

Of course, it's not completely without technical content; the quality of sticky rice cakes made by different people is also different.

As far as the current situation is concerned, Qin Huai feels that the quality of sticky rice cakes made by Zheng Siyuan is undoubtedly the best; Zheng Siyuan's Jiang Mi sticky rice cakes and lard sticky rice cakes are both more delicious than the ones he makes himself.

Qin Huai's own skill in making sticky rice cakes is average; he made more Jiang Mi sticky rice cakes a while ago, so they were slightly better, but now that he hasn't made them for two months, his skill has gone back.

Tan Weian's skill in making sticky rice cakes is actually not bad. According to him, he knows how to make sticky rice cakes, and he also has several recipes for sticky rice cakes in his hands.

It's just that Tan Weian basically hasn't made sticky rice cakes by hand like this in the past few years; they have all relied on machines.

Qin Huai doesn't think there is anything wrong with relying on machines; technology is advancing, and kitchenware is also advancing. Making white-case pastries purely by hand requires a lot of manpower and material resources, is time-consuming and laborious, and chefs don't have that much energy; using machines can greatly improve efficiency.

White-case pastries require large output; if the pastries are very delicious but can only be made in extremely limited quantities every day, it is not a good thing.

The reason Qin Huai doesn't use machines to make Jiang Mi sticky rice cakes and does it purely by hand is that Qin Huai discovered that Qu Jing seems to be able to taste the difference between handmade and machine-made, and Qu Jing prefers handmade sticky rice cakes.

Even if such sticky rice cakes might have various problems, Qu Jing likes them. Even if they occasionally flip the car, and the production process, time, and force are not well controlled, leading to sticky rice cakes that are too soft or too hard, Qu Jing also likes them.

It can only be said that Qu Jing really loves eating sticky rice cakes.

Qin Huai looked at the state of the sticky rice cakes and felt a bit like sighing.

In a certain sense, Guli is really magical.

He clearly doesn't have bad attributes in various aspects, and his basic skills are very solid, but he is just a little worse than others in everything he does. It seems that because he is just a little worse in understanding, he is worse in everything and worse at every step.

No wonder Guli became a well-known mediocre person in the chef circle; being so un-enlightened, it is indeed very easy to become famous.

"Master Qin, is there something wrong with the sticky rice cakes I made?" Guli asked nervously.

He can feel that the state of the sticky rice cakes he is stirring now is a bit wrong, but he doesn't know exactly why it is wrong.

"The fire was too big when steaming," Qin Huai said. "When steaming sticky rice cakes, if the ingredients are of relatively poor quality and the purity of the sticky rice is not enough, the sticky rice cakes will collapse and not take shape."

"When I gave instructions, I said to steam on high heat for three to five minutes for the first two or three times, and the last time, stir the sticky rice cakes that have already formed into a viscous state, then steam them into shape, and cover them with a damp cloth to rest for 12 hours."

"The time and heat in this must be decided according to the state of the sticky rice cakes at that time. You controlled the time, but you didn't control the heat well, so do you feel that the sticky rice cakes are very hard and not viscous enough when you stir them now?"

Guli nodded.

"That's it, it flipped the car," Qin Huai summarized. "You haven't made sticky rice cakes much, have you?"

Guli nodded honestly: "Very rarely; I helped my senior brother as an assistant in previous years."

That is understandable; Guli didn't have enough understanding to begin with, and he didn't have experience, so it is normal to flip the car.

"Where is Tan Weian?" Qin Huai asked.

If Tan Weian was on the side helping to watch, Guli wouldn't have made such a basic mistake.

"When Senior Brother went to the warehouse to find sticky rice, he hooked his pants and went back to change them."

Qin Huai:...

6.

"There is still time; I will demonstrate how to make sticky rice cakes for you once. You have a sample, and it should be easier to understand after watching it once. Continue to finish the sticky rice cakes in your hands, and come to see the state tomorrow; you will know what the difference is between the two," Qin Huai said.

It doesn't matter if there isn't enough rest time; Qin Huai is already Master Qin now, and there are many physical jobs without technical content that can be done by helpers.

Qin Huai even wanted to call Ouyang back; having eaten so many pastries, it was time to do some physical work to digest.

Although Ouyang's taste is very unique, he really has a unique talent in some things.

Like stirring sticky rice cakes, hand-beaten lemon tea, those are all selected by Master Qin.

Everyone who has eaten them says they are good.

(End of chapter)