Chapter 241

Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi, a bun that requires high finger technique but isn't actually too difficult.

The biggest feature of this bun is that it looks good.

At first glance, it looks white and clean, with a milky white color, and is even a bit translucent. Like a palace lantern, it has eight lace edges, topped with half a red cherry. The colors are monotonous but distinct; it is a bun that is not flashy, simple, and good-looking.

But if you lean in for a closer look, you will find that this bun is not simple at all; on the contrary, it has many tiny patterns.

Every lace edge is meticulously crafted; all the leaves need to be slightly flipped outward, and the patterns on every lace edge are the same size and equal distance apart, clamped one by one with a flower clamp.

Even the overall round shape needs to be uniform and plump, presenting the most comfortable, generous, and simple effect visually.

The reason why the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi doesn't look flashy at first glance is because the maker wants to give you that feeling. The actual styling steps are very cumbersome, and even the dough skin needs to be made slightly hard, like the dough skin of dough fruit, to facilitate shaping.

At this point, some people might ask: Qin Huai hasn't made Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns before, and there isn't much information about them on the market, so how does he know so much about them?

Because Zheng Da knows how to make them.

Friends who read carefully must remember that Zheng Da has two characteristics when making pastries: he disdains making things that are too simple, and he often gets lazy and doesn't want to make things that are too difficult.

The Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi is precisely one of the pastries Zheng Da likes most.

In terms of technical difficulty, there really isn't much; it is essentially an ordinary red bean paste or sesame sugar-filled bun. If you want to be lazy, make it with red bean paste; if you want to increase the difficulty, make it with sesame sugar filling. No matter how you play with it, you can't come up with anything new.

The dough skin is also ordinary dough skin, without too high requirements or difficulty, except that it needs to be made slightly harder for shaping. And the shaping difficulty isn't as great as dough fruit, so the difficulty of making the dough skin is relatively not that high either.

The most difficult part is the styling, but the styling isn't as difficult as dough fruit either.

Dough fruit has extremely high requirements for the chef's aesthetics and imagination. You can't make good dough fruit by just copying; by the time you reach the end, dough fruit is already pursuing art. A chef without artistic talent cannot make good dough fruit.

But the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi is different; its styling is fixed.

It is purely cumbersome, requiring patience and meticulousness, testing the chef's finger technique.

Qin Huai previously thought that Zheng Da probably wouldn't know how to make Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns because he felt Zheng Da didn't like making such cumbersome pastries. Later, after Qin Huai asked Zheng Da, he realized he was wrong—very wrong. He still underestimated Master Zheng a little.

Zheng Da doesn't like making them usually, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know how.

At critical moments, Master Zheng still likes to take out this kind of pastry that looks very high-class to prove his strength.

The Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi is very high-class from its name to its styling.

Last time Qin Huai asked Zheng Da, Zheng Da took out his tools and made two for Qin Huai on the spot to prove he really knew how to make them, and even recommended his flower clamp to Qin Huai, saying it was particularly suitable for making pincer-flower buns.

It's just that for such a long time, Qin Huai hadn't tried it.

It wasn't that Qin Huai deliberately neglected the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi; it was mainly that Qin Huai didn't expect the Four-Joy Tangyuan to be so difficult.

When looking at the name, who would have thought that the production difficulty of the Four-Joy Tangyuan would be even higher than the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi?

Qin Huai initially wanted to get the Four-Joy Tangyuan done first before challenging the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi. After all, Qin Huai's finger technique was only at the beginner level. Although his apple dough fruit didn't look like beginner finger technique at all—like he had missed two sips of Meng Potang—it couldn't change the fact that he completely didn't do styling for pastries.

Zheng Siyuan still couldn't forget the black Doraemon flower steamed bun Qin Huai made a few months ago.

Although both Qin Huai and Qin Luo felt that this flower steamed bun was okay—Qin Huai felt the black Doraemon was very creative, and Qin Luo felt the meat-filled flower steamed bun was delicious—Zheng Siyuan just wanted to strangle the two siblings.

It can only be said that the fact that Zheng Siyuan could accept so many kinds of raw materials for the hundred-fruit filling now, and firmly believed that there must be delicious hundred-fruit filling made with such complex materials in the world, had a lot to do with the stimulation from a few months ago.

Zheng Siyuan had endured too much.

Qin Huai:? Why did he suddenly start feeling a bit sorry for Zheng Siyuan while making the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi?

Forget it, don't think too much, continue styling the bun.

Qin Huai held the flower clamp and clamped the patterns one by one.

Qin Huai began to understand Zheng Da a little.

If it weren't for showing off skills and acting cool, who would want to make pastries with such complex styling?

Dead hands, move quickly! There are still 7 lace edges to clamp!

While Qin Huai was making the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns, everyone in the house except Chen Huihong had returned to their own homes. Even Gong Liang and his wife returned to the house next door, waiting excitedly at home for the birth of the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi.

Gong Liang had already decided that when he ate the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi later, he must resist the urge to take a bite immediately and take photos for his WeChat Moments first.

Take a nine-grid photo, show the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi from 360 degrees without dead angles, and must become the most handsome guy in the WeChat Moments tonight!

Let everyone know who is the true first priority for Master Xiao Qin's private cooking.

Gong Liang was still looking forward to the styling of the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi at home, while Chen Huihong had already moved a small stool and sat in the kitchen, gnawing on winter jujubes while forcefully watching.

"Is it my hallucination? Why do I feel like this bun is so strenuous to make?" Chen Huihong didn't quite understand. "Why hasn't Little Ou bought the white sugar back yet? Should I call and ask?"

"It is strenuous." Qin Huai let out a long sigh, feeling so powerless for his beginner finger technique for the first time. "The styling of this bun is too delicate; it's my first time making it, so I'm not used to it."

Actually, if Qin Huai had followed the general styling of pincer-flower buns on the internet and created a new styling for a Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi himself, it might not have been as strenuous as it was now.

But Qin Huai had seen the authentic version made by Zheng Da.

You can say Zheng Da is lazy, you can say Zheng Da is not doing his proper job, but you can't say Zheng Da is bad.

As a pastry chef, Master Zheng is also a hexagonal warrior.

Using the fully-equipped Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi that Zheng Da previously made to show off his skills as a template, when Qin Huai tried to replicate it, he felt like he wanted to change his hands.

Brain: Got it, right?

Hands: Get lost.

Qin Huai clamped two more patterns and said, "Ouyang won't be back so fast with the white sugar. Normal convenience stores nearby are closed at this time, and the nearest 24-hour convenience store is 1.4 kilometers away. Plus, there are stalls selling grilled sausages, takoyaki, hand-grabbed pancakes, and grilled cold noodles in front of that convenience store. Ouyang ate two hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan tonight; he definitely won't be able to move when he sees these stalls and will have to finish eating before he can come back."

Qin Huai indicated that he had already arranged Ouyang clearly.

"It's not that there isn't white sugar at home, just not much. I just simply found a reason to send him out."

Chen Huihong nodded: "That hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan is indeed uncomfortable to eat; it's too sweet and greasy, and there's a messy taste. No wonder even Little Ou can't stand it."

"No choice, I tried my best, but the raw materials for the hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan are simply too many, unreasonably many. I've never seen such an outrageous recipe. I'm now wishing Gong Liang would quickly give me another side quest so I can overtake him on a curve, see his memory first, and figure out the correct tutorial for the hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan recipe."

"Who makes food like this, throwing all kinds of raw materials into the pot? This is just messing around," Qin Huai couldn't help but complain.

Chen Huihong gnawed on a winter jujube silently without speaking, as if thinking about something. Only after watching Qin Huai finish clamping all the lace edges did she slowly say: "It's not... completely non-existent."

Qin Huai:?

Qin Huai looked up at Chen Huihong and found that she had a look of reminiscing about the past, so he knew it definitely wasn't a memory from this life that needed to be searched.

"When I was still a crazy young lady in Beiping, I actually ate a similar type."

Qin Huai:??

The crazy young lady had suffered this bitterness back then?

It seems being a live-streaming influencer isn't easy; getting paid to eat really comes with a price.

Discovering that the look Qin Huai gave her carried a hint of sympathy, Chen Huihong knew he had misunderstood and hurriedly explained: "It's not what you imagine; it was actually quite delicious."

"Do you know about Pao Tun?" Chen Huihong asked.

Qin Huai nodded: "Of course I know, one of the Eight Treasures. It's actually roast suckling pig, stuffing all kinds of ingredients into the pig's belly to roast. I haven't eaten authentic Pao Tun, but I eat roast suckling pig every year during the New Year. My relatives love sending roast suckling pig, roast goose, roast duck, char siu, and white-cut chicken to my grandparents' house during the New Year." Chen Huihong:?

Your family sends these as New Year gifts?

"It might be more common now, but back then, Pao Tun was an absolute rarity. Even slightly down-and-out princes and nobles would only order Pao Tun from restaurants during the New Year to save face."

"After Hui Niang passed away, I stayed in Beiping for a few more years. I think some people might have guessed that I wasn't a young lady from a noble family, but the nobles didn't care at all, and I didn't care either, as long as there was food to eat and fun to have."

"Once, a son of some military governor came to Beiping, and he brought a chef with him to compete in cooking with other young masters."

"Other dishes weren't good to compare, so they compared Pao Tun, adding all kinds of strange but priceless ingredients into the Pao Tun."

"Live fish transported from the south, fresh bear paws, bear gall, and tiger meat just hunted by hunters, matsutake mushrooms that were hard to pick in the mountains of the southwest, caviar and foie gras from the west, fresh vegetables hard to find in winter—if there were dragon livers and phoenix gallbladders, they would wish the chef could add those too."

"The ingredients added were much more mixed than your hundred-fruit filling. Things that fly in the sky, run on the ground, swim in the water, and are buried in the soil—as long as they were valuable and rare, they all had to be stuffed into the pig's belly. In the end, the Pao Tun made still had to be delicious, scaring several restaurant owners and chefs into running away overnight."

"Were the ones who didn't run away delicious?" Qin Huai asked curiously; Chen Huihong hadn't told such an exciting story before.

Chen Huihong thought for a while: "Average."

"You can't say it like that; it was actually the taste of Pao Tun. Thinking back, those chefs were quite amazing back then; adding so many miscellaneous things, the Pao Tun made in the end was actually about the same as the original taste."

"I didn't understand at the time, but I can actually understand now. Those rich young masters weren't pursuing how delicious the dishes were; they were pursuing being expensive, fresh, and unique—they just wanted to outdo others."

"Plus, those restaurant owners would also come up with names, naming those Pao Tuns things like 'Dragon and Phoenix Auspicious Pao Tun,' 'Eight Treasures, Eight Delicacies, Eight Flavors, Eight Blessings, Eight Joys Pao Tun,' full of auspicious words, as if the more precious the ingredients filled in, the more blessings and joy were filled in, and eating them could make one live for a hundred years."

"At that time, the braised pork belly made by the owners of various restaurants didn't taste good, making the nobles above unhappy. As long as Taifeng Restaurant made a new flavor of braised pork belly, Boss Lu would call me over to taste it. I felt the taste was about the same every time, no difference, but it seemed Boss Lu could only rest easy if there was no difference."

Qin Huai commented incisively: "Because no difference is the safest. The noble was satisfied with this taste before, so he was afraid that if the taste changed, the noble would be dissatisfied and cause trouble."

In troubled times, even a chef wasn't safe.

"So, Hong Jie, do you know why the chefs at Taifeng Restaurant could make Steamed Buns with different ingredients taste the same?" Qin Huai asked.

Chen Huihong shook her head: "I don't know how to cook; someone who can chop their own heel while chopping vegetables at home wouldn't know such a secret recipe. But I think it was nothing more than fooling; at that time, major restaurants in Beiping were all holding an attitude of fooling the nobles above."

"You have to fool them in action, but pull out all the stops in words. The taste of the dish can be the same, but the ingredients must be different, the styling must be flashy, the name must be good-sounding, and the meaning must be beautiful."

Fooling.

Qin Huai's hand holding the flower clamp paused.

Wait, fooling.

Qin Huai suddenly remembered the deep impression Gong Liang and Zheng Da shared about that hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan.

It used a lot of winter melon sugar.

So much that Master Jing didn't have enough prepared himself, and Zheng Da had to go home and scavenge 5 jin of winter melon sugar to add.

Because winter melon sugar was originally one of the important main ingredients for hundred-fruit filling, and no matter what kind of hundred-fruit filling it was, winter melon sugar was the absolute protagonist, so Qin Huai didn't pay much attention to it.

But what if Master Jing deliberately wanted to use such a large amount of winter melon sugar?

What if the true meaning of hundred-fruit filling was fooling?

When the nobles in Beiping were competing in wealth back then, the owners of major restaurants were so worried their hair was falling out. Using the method of fooling to make Pao Tun, if the taste wasn't good, the meaning would make up for it. Eight Treasures, Eight Joys, Eight Blessings, double blessings, dragon and phoenix auspiciousness, hundred years of harmony, long life—linking the rarity and variety of ingredients directly to auspicious meanings. The more precious and varied, the more beautiful the meaning.

What if Master Jing thought the same way back then?

When Chen Huihong was freeloading at Taifeng Restaurant back then, the head chef was Jiang Chengde. Master Jing's real name was Jiang Weijin, and he was Jiang Chengde's son. At his age, he might not have understood the process of competing in wealth back then, but he must have had a deep impression of those strange Steamed Buns and remembered the beautiful meanings these Steamed Buns represented.

Whether it was Four-Joy Tangyuan or Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi, they were all foods with beautiful meanings.

Perhaps Master Jing used such complex ingredients, so much winter melon sugar, so many nuts, spent so much money, and finally made the hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan in a fooling mode, actually just wanting to give the younger generation a beautiful meaning and blessing.

Eight Treasures, Eight Joys, Eight Blessings, double blessings, hundred years of harmony, good health, long life.

Qin Huai suddenly realized he had thought too simply, and also too complexly.

That meal was Gong Liang's birthday banquet, and also the birthday banquet for Gong Liang to climb up from the bottom, regroup, see hope in life again, and start a brand new life.

Master Jing hoped that Gong Liang's future life could be like the blessings contained in the Four-Joy Tangyuan—smooth sailing, with no more twists and turns.

So even if it wasn't necessary, he still made such a complex hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan.

Because this hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan was very special, Master Jing basically hadn't made it since then.

After so many years, even the person who made the Tangyuan back then had passed away for many years, Qin Huai felt like he was in a similar place, in a different time and space, and understood the beautiful blessing of that Tangyuan chef.

Qin Huai silently styled the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi.

Chen Huihong continued to gnaw on winter jujubes.

She was waiting for the rabbit buns.

After Qin Huai finished the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns and put them in the pot to steam, he could just make a few rabbit buns for Chen Huihong during the steaming time, letting her take the raw embryos back for Huihui's breakfast tomorrow morning.

The Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns were ready.

Qin Huai felt his finger technique should have leveled up.

These two Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns had simply exhausted his energy for the whole night.

Ouyang happened to push the door and enter at this moment, holding a hand-grabbed pancake in his left hand and grilled cold noodles in his right, with half a grilled sausage still in his mouth. From the side of the grilled cold noodle bag, two bags of white sugar could vaguely be seen.

"Qin Huai, do you want to eat grilled cold noodles and hand-grabbed pancakes? They are delicious, I tell you, they smell so good!" Ouyang asked loudly, pushing the door into the kitchen and seeing the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Buns on the steamer, he was stunned.

"Holy crap, this bun..."

"Is it a bit crooked?"

Qin Huai: "... Shut up, mind your own business about the Pincer-Flower Palace Lantern Diced Baozi."

"By the way, Ouyang, are you free tomorrow? If you are, go buy me 40 jin of winter melon sugar."

"I want to practice hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan hard."

With a "clatter," the grilled cold noodles Ouyang was holding fell to the ground.

40 jin of winter melon sugar—how many hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan would that make!

Dad, I was wrong. This flower-something-bun of yours is so good-looking, not crooked at all; it was just my head that was crooked just now.

Good-looking, really good-looking, it's simply a work of art!

Let's make fewer hundred-fruit filling Tangyuan.

I really can't stand eating them every day!

Let's stop writing this year's novel here~

(End of chapter)