Chapter 283: High Soup

Qin Huai and Qin Luo hitched a ride from a warm-hearted big brother in the neighboring village whom Qin Huai didn't know; the big brother lived in the city and ran a rice noodle roll shop.

Originally, the big brother was going to return to the city to do business on the fifth or sixth day, but because of the Four-Joy Tangyuan delivery of the Qin family, and the neighboring village was really too close. Close enough that he didn't need to drive, just walk for 8 minutes, the big brother stayed in the village for the New Year just to eat Four-Joy Tangyuan, and only then could he grab the qualification to carry Qin Huai and Qin Luo to the city on the morning of the sixteenth.

This competition was very fierce.

In the morning, I don't know what was going on, but many people in Qin Village and several nearby villages inexplicably wanted to drive to the city.

"Master Xiao Qin, it's fine to drop you off here, right?" The big brother stopped the car in front of a well-known tea shop in the city.

"Yes, thank you, Brother Liu. Let's add each other on WeChat; I'll tell you next time I return to the village, and you can come to my house to eat snacks when you have time." Qin Huai said with a smile, exchanged WeChat with Brother Liu, and led Did Luo Luo into the tea shop.

Qin Luo didn't understand the situation and asked foolishly: "Brother, so Grandma Cao's house is a tea shop."

"What tea shop; we can't go empty-handed when visiting for a meal, we have to bring something."

"Why not bring fruit? There is still a lot of fruit at home, Grandpa and Grandma can't finish it at all." Qin Luo asked again.

"Buying fruit is so insincere; when going to the house of a master like Master Cao for a meal, you have to bring tea." After speaking, Qin Huai looked around in the shop.

A middle-aged woman sat behind the counter, and didn't even lift her eyelids when she saw two young people, Qin Huai and Qin Luo, come in, continuing to play with her phone.

Qin Huai turned around and found that although he had drunk a lot of tea in the Huang Ji kitchen, he didn't understand tea at all, nor could he understand tea leaves.

What he understood best was actually hand-beaten lemon tea.

Professional things should be left to professional people to do; Qin Huai didn't hesitate and dialed Tan Weian's video call.

The video call was answered almost instantly; at this point, Tan Weian was on his way to work at Does Zhi Wei Ju. Seeing Qin Huai asking for help, he asked about the general needs, helped Qin Huai pick two cans of tea leaves remotely, and incidentally helped Qin Huai bargain.

Finally, he told Qin Huai that if he wanted to buy tea leaves, he should contact him; he had many resources here. From tea leaves that cost a few yuan per liang, to tens of thousands of yuan per liang, to auction-grade tea leaves, he had many sources and guarantees.

Qin Huai was overjoyed, indicating that he would definitely contact Tan Weian the first time he had such needs, and incidentally let Tan Weian buy two boxes of the tea that the people at Does Zhi Wei Ju often helped him brew when he was at Huang Ji.

Very needed.

Every sip of tea Qin Huai drank during the New Year period wasn't that taste; he always felt it was strange.

After buying the tea leaves, Qin Huai led Qin Luo to take a taxi to the residential area where Cao Guixiang lived.

Cao Guixiang lived in an old residential area; there were no shopping malls nearby, and the location couldn't be considered prosperous, but it was a school district house, convenient for children to go to school, with parks and vegetable markets; just being close to it, one could feel the atmosphere of life.

The guard post of the residential area basically didn't check; the door for pedestrians was open, and the security guard was sitting in the guard booth playing with his phone, his work so leisurely that it made people yearn for it.

Qin Huai found Cao Guixiang's house according to the address; the unit door was also open; I don't know if it was deliberately left open during the day or if it was broken at all. Qin Huai and Qin Luo walked to the door of Cao Guixiang's house, and Qin Huai raised his hand to knock on the door.

Before knocking, Qin Huai asked Qin Luo: "Did Luo Luo, do you know what to do when you enter the door later?"

"Know, first call Grandma Cao good, then call Grandpa Zhang good; the voice of calling Grandma Cao good must be louder than Grandpa Zhang, highlighting the importance and respect for Grandma Cao."

Qin Huai nodded with satisfaction and knocked on the door.

It was Zhang Chu who opened the door.

"Xiao Qin is here; this is Did Luo Luo, right? The girl who fought with Zhang Zhiyun on the sixth day of the first lunar month, I have an impression. Zhiyun hasn't finished school yet, his dad went to school to pick him up; Yunyun was so happy to hear you were coming, and has been pestering his grandmother since yesterday, insisting that his grandmother make a few signature dishes." Zhang Chu said with a smile.

"Grandpa Zhang good." Qin Luo asked politely in a super loud voice; if she could have a smile on her face instead of a blank and excited expression, it would be even more polite, but this couldn't be blamed entirely on her.

It was really too fragrant!

From the moment Qin Huai and Qin Luo entered the door, a wonderful, indescribable, soul-striking, intoxicating fragrance drilled into their noses and struck their brains.

Let alone Qin Luo couldn't describe it, even Qin Huai found it hard to describe this fragrance.

This was a taste he had never smelled before, but it was clearly the fragrance of dishes; Qin Huai smelled it and felt it was a bit like the fragrance of high soup, the fragrance of very mellow chicken high soup and pork high soup.

Qin Huai had hung high soup; when he was in the Huang Ji kitchen, Qin Huai also smelled a lot of high soup fragrance.

Not this rich.

Qin Huai and Qin Luo almost swallowed a mouthful of saliva unconsciously at the same time.

Taking a few deep breaths, Qin Huai finally came back to his senses and started to look at the decoration of Cao Guixiang's house.

Very simple, plain, and home-style decoration; almost all the furniture in the house was wooden, the leather sofa looked like it had been there for some years, and the leather was a bit faded. The TV wasn't big, and it looked like it was bought many years ago, and it was playing the news.

There were a few dolls on the sofa that one could tell at a glance were caught from a doll machine, a few primary school winter vacation homework books that didn't know how many years they had been placed were hidden under the coffee table, and there were some CDs and discs on the TV cabinet.

A large family photo was hanging on the wall; looking at Zhang Zhiyun's age in the photo, it should have been taken three or four years ago; Zhang Zhiyun and Cao Guixiang's granddaughter Chang Qingqing stood in the C position, and the two children were laughing very happily, their gums almost laughing out, looking silly.

Qin Huai presented the tea leaves; Zhang Chu didn't look much and accepted them, letting Qin Huai and Qin Luo sit on the sofa for a while while he went to brew tea.

Before the paper cups were taken out, Cao Guixiang's voice came from the kitchen: "Is Xiao Qin here? Xiao Qin, do you have time to come to the kitchen to help me?"

"Yes!" Qin Huai said quickly, got up, and pushed the door into the kitchen.

As soon as he entered the kitchen, Qin Huai was stunned again.

It was even more fragrant in the kitchen.

But fragrance wasn't the point; dishes were the point.

Cao Guixiang's kitchen was slightly larger than an ordinary family's kitchen, but only slightly larger, not as exaggerated as Zheng Da's kitchen.

In the limited space, Cao Guixiang utilized the kitchen to the extreme.

There were three stoves in the kitchen, three pots on the three stoves, and there were dishes in every pot.

On the cooking table were various processed ingredients, all placed neatly in small bowls. Seasonings were placed on a dedicated seasoning rack, knives were neatly arranged on a knife rack, plates were placed on a storage rack, and unprocessed vegetables were placed on a vegetable rack.

Just looking at the kitchen, one knew that the person responsible for cooking in this house must be a professional chef.

Cao Guixiang was patting garlic; seeing Qin Huai come in, she signaled him to close the kitchen door.

"Xiao Qin, I'm making a lot of dishes today, and three pots are a bit too busy for one person; when the time comes, I'll ask you to help me pass things, and you help me pass them." Cao Guixiang wore sleeves, her hair was coiled up, and she wore a red apron, looking like an ordinary housewife at first glance.

If Qin Huai hadn't seen the high soup that was still being kept warm on the cooking table, Cao Guixiang would be even more ordinary.

Qin Huai couldn't take his eyes off it at all; he wished he could rush up now to taste the saltiness.

To say something spineless, he really wanted to borrow two bowls of chicken high soup from Cao Guixiang to take back to cook longevity noodles, to see if he could cook the longevity noodles to A-grade.

Cao Guixiang noticed that Qin Huai had been staring at the high soup and asked: "Xiao Qin, do you know how to hang high soup?"

"Not… count… know a little." Qin Huai didn't know how to describe his soup-hanging technique.

To say he didn't know, Qin Huai actually hung high soup; when Huang Shengli was still giving him online classes through video, Qin Huai hung high soup every day.

But to say he knew, compared to the high soup in the kitchen now… that thing might not be called high soup; that thing was just soup.

Cao Guixiang smiled, indicating she understood.

"The old branch secretary should have told you about me and your Grandpa Zhang, right?" Cao Guixiang uncovered the lid of the second pot, leaned over to smell the taste, covered it again, and then turned off the fire for the third pot.

Qin Huai didn't know what dishes Cao Guixiang was making at all; he only felt that they all seemed very powerful, smelled very fragrant, and his two eyes weren't enough to look at.

"Told, just said that you and Grandpa Zhang were both educated youths from Beiping, and because you didn't return to the city back then, you have stayed on our side for so many years. The old branch secretary also told me that you seemed to have worked in a very famous large restaurant in Beiping before, called Yong… Yong…"

"Yongheju." Cao Guixiang said, picked up a soup spoon from the stew pot containing high soup, and handed the soup spoon to Qin Huai, "Taste it; this is chicken high soup."

Qin Huai took the soup spoon flattered, and carefully tasted a little.

Fresh!

Too fresh!

Old hens of Qin Village, I'm sorry; boiling you into such ordinary chicken soup, you died in vain this year.

"Can you taste what I added to the soup?" Cao Guixiang asked.

Qin Huai licked a small mouthful again; he had hung high soup, and had also seen Huang Shengli and Huang Jia hang high soup; he knew what ingredients should be added to normal chicken high soup.

Since Cao Guixiang asked this, there must be some unusual ingredients in this high soup.

"Dried scallops, ham, mushrooms, pork bones…"

Qin Huai said a few that he could taste as soon as he tasted them, and could guess without tasting, and then drank a small mouthful again, not very sure, and then drank a small mouthful.

Finished drinking.

A total of only half a spoon.

Qin Huai was so nervous that he was sweating a little.

"Seems like there is… is… pigeon?"

"Anything else?" Cao Guixiang asked next.

Seeing that he guessed correctly, Qin Huai had more confidence: "Should also have longan meat, but I don't know what taste longan meat will boil out when boiling soup; this is my guess; I heard Master Huang say before that some chicken high soup needs to add longan meat."

"Why would you guess longan meat?"

"Because I have drunk a lot of chicken high soup hung by Master Huang, and the taste is a bit different from yours; your taste is obviously richer, and more mellow. It must have added some ingredients, so I guessed it might be longan meat."

Cao Guixiang nodded with a smile: "That's right, not much difference; Xiao Qin, although your knife skills and fire skills are not very good, and your basic knowledge is not wide enough, you are very smart."

Qin Huai just took it as Cao Guixiang praising himself; whatever Master Cao said was praising himself.

"My master is a descendant of Tan family cuisine." Cao Guixiang suddenly started to introduce herself, "Tan family cuisine has many large dishes and good dishes that are high soup dishes, so the first thing to practice when learning Tan family cuisine is hanging soup."

"Practicing hanging soup is actually practicing fire skills."

"I want to cook dishes well; just having a pot of good high soup is not enough. Knife skills are also very important. Knife skills are not simply cutting dishes into pieces, cutting them beautifully, mincing them into meat paste, cutting them into shreds, pieces, and slices."

"Knife skills are actually making ingredients more suitable for this dish, letting ingredients play and absorb better, and be fully cooked."

"So knife skills are the basic skills; every chef practices knife skills at the beginning; you must learn to cut vegetables before you can learn to cook."

"Whether it is a white-case chef or a savory-dish chef, they must practice knife skills; the process of practicing knife skills is the process of understanding ingredients. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated; if a chef doesn't even understand ingredients well enough, how can they cook them well?"

Qin Huai nodded with deep feeling; in fact, he hadn't felt that knife skills were particularly important before, especially when placed on white-case.

But last time Cao Guixiang minced some meat filling casually and minced the Four-Joy Tangyuan to A-grade, Qin Huai knew that it wasn't that knife skills weren't important, but that he hadn't seen important knife skills at all.

Cao Guixiang continued, "You have a good tongue. Even without systematic study, without a solid foundation, and without having been guided by famous masters since childhood, you were still able to guess the raw ingredients of the broth just now with remarkable accuracy, relying solely on your tongue, experience, and intuition."

"If you were born forty years earlier, and went to Yongheju to steal food like me back then and were discovered by my master, my master would definitely chase you to your house and take you as a closed-door disciple."

"If I were 30 years younger, I would definitely be thick-skinned and report my family name, brag about the history of our Tan family cuisine, and then take you as an apprentice."

"But you don't need a master now, and I, an old lady who has been retired for many years, don't have the time and energy to take apprentices."

"But I can at least help you in the place I am best at."

"Your knife skills are really too poor, poor like an apprentice who just entered the kitchen to do odd jobs. The knife skills of an apprentice might be a little stronger than yours; back then, many apprentices in our Yongheju also helped cut vegetables at home since childhood."

"Didn't your Master Huang and Master Zheng think about taking you to practice knife skills?"

Qin Huai felt he needed to defend Huang Shengli and Zheng Da: "Maybe because there are really too many things I need to learn, Master Huang and Master Zheng haven't had time to teach me knife skills yet."

"I heard that you are operating a community canteen in Shan City; you must not have much time to stay here to practice basic skills."

"But you are also a mature chef, and you don't need to practice from zero like an apprentice."

"Your Master Huang was taking online classes with you before, right?"

Qin Huai nodded: "Yes, took online classes for a period of time first, and then I went to Suzhou to communicate and learn offline teaching."

"Then I might have to reverse it here; you have to study with me for a few days first before you can take online classes."

"I'll let my old Zhang make 6 cutting boards for you; cut these 6 cutting boards until they are rotten, and your knife skills can be considered graduated."

Qin Huai was stunned.

Master Cao was too proactive, making Xiao Qin not know what to say for a while, and could only open his mouth slightly in a daze, saying a sentence:

"Huh?"

In a place Qin Huai couldn't see, Cao Guixiang turned her back and scolded herself silently for two sentences in annoyance.

'Cao Guixiang, oh Cao Guixiang, didn't you write the words last night? How did you forget everything as soon as you opened your mouth today; what did you just say?'

'Won't Xiao Qin think you are an old lady whose brain is not very normal?'

Cao Guixiang regretted it for two seconds with a grimace, and thought of an excellent remedy.

Cao Guixiang walked to the innermost part, in front of the braised shark fin that had been stewed on low heat since early this morning, without uncovering the lid from beginning to end, and had been stewed for at least 9 hours.

Uncover the lid.

Fragrance wafted everywhere.

Cao Guixiang looked at Qin Huai with a smile, just like when her master wanted to take her as an apprentice and looked at her with a smile back then, and said the exact same words.

"Our Tan family cuisine is very delicious."

"Any interest in learning?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 284 =====