Chapter 350: Practice More

"The dishes are ready, Braised Shark Fin."

As Qin Huai placed the last dish, Braised Shark Fin, on the table, Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing cheered in unison, almost raising their chopsticks and bowls to shout: *Great, dinner is served! *

The Zhang family was all present.

There were two empty seats at the round dining table. One next to Zhang Chu was clearly reserved for Cao Guixiang, and another was between Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing. After Qin Huai put down the dish, he saw the seat the two had left for him, and for a moment, he was speechless, his mind filled only with the phrase: *You sit at the children's table. *

The thoughtful Zhang Zhiyun had even poured a drink for Qin Huai—the famous brand of coconut juice.

This unlucky child, how could one drink juice during such a crucial meal? One look and you could tell they ate good food too often and didn't understand how to eat a grand feast at all.

Seeing Qin Huai didn't sit down, Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing thought the seat they left for Qin Huai was too narrow, so they hurriedly moved to the side.

Qin Huai sat down helplessly, nodding and smiling at Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing, who were as excited as a husky or a golden retriever seeing someone.

At the same time, Cao Guixiang came out of the kitchen after washing her hands, took off her apron, and sat down.

Everyone waited obediently for the chef to take the first bite.

Cao Guixiang didn't pick up her chopsticks, but picked up a spoon and scooped hard into the belly of the Soup-Filled Yellow Croaker that had just come out of the pot. The fish meat, which had been tightened by the oil pouring and then marinated, air-dried, and steamed, was very soft. With one scoop, the fish belly broke, and the 'soup' comparable to Buddha Jumps Over the Wall flowed out, fragrant and overflowing, the soup golden.

It only lacked the special effects of *Cooking Master Boy* and the background music of the Great Wall, and the onlookers would have exclaimed, screamed, and started drooling.

Well, special effects and background music weren't needed at all. Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing were already drooling, and even Qin Huai, who had seen the entire cooking process in the kitchen, subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva at the moment he saw the finished product.

Cao Guixiang scooped the 'soup' for Qin Huai.

Calling it soup, there actually wasn't much soup at all, just full of dried scallops, sea cucumber, abalone, and diced dried shrimp. The golden but not thick soup seemed to only serve the purpose of color, adding a golden background to the full ingredients, making it more high-end, with its own special effects.

"Come, Xiao Qin, taste the Soup-Filled Yellow Croaker first."

"There are no rules for eating this dish; eat whatever you want. You can mix the fish meat with the ingredients inside, you can just drink the soup, or you can not drink the soup. Eat however you want. If you like, you can even mix it with rice," Cao Guixiang said with a smile, then gave Zhang Zhiyun a warning look. "Yunyun, mixing with rice is fine, but you can't scoop all the soup away like last time so no one else has any."

Receiving the warning from his grandmother, Zhang Zhiyun nodded repeatedly, indicating that his recent grades weren't good, so he didn't dare do such a thing and would never do it again. Then he picked up a spoon and excitedly scooped a full spoonful of Braised Shark Fin onto his rice, eating the Braised Shark Fin rice bowl in big mouthfuls.

He still loved eating Braised Shark Fin so much.

Qin Huai started eating the Soup-Filled Yellow Croaker. Cao Guixiang only scooped him one spoonful, but this spoonful was very rich in ingredients, with all of them included.

The fish meat on the belly, the shark fin and ham steamed on top of the fish, the sea cucumber, abalone, dried shrimp, and dried scallops inside the fish belly—Cao Guixiang even scooped a bit of the shrimp paste used to seal the opening.

Since Cao Guixiang said he could eat however he wanted, Qin Huai just ate casually.

He picked up his chopsticks and first picked up an abalone dice.

The abalone dice were diced from fresh abalone. These dices weren't small. Qin Huai dipped the abalone dice in the soup and put it in his mouth, finding that the taste was indeed very fresh—the salty-fresh kind of fresh.

It was different from the Three-Set Duck and Braised Silver Carp Head he had eaten before. Both of those also focused on freshness, but it was the freshness of the fusion of mountain and sea delicacies. Soup-Filled Yellow Croaker was mainly the freshness of seafood. The taste of the sea naturally couldn't be separated from saltiness. The abalone was chewy, and chewing it had a unique flavor.

Qin Huai ate another mouthful of sea cucumber dice.

The taste was similar, but the texture was slightly different. Abalone was chewy, while sea cucumber was soft and glutinous with a hint of chewiness. Since both ingredients had no taste of their own and needed to be seasoned and stewed to increase freshness and flavor, eating them felt like the same style but with a different feeling.

While eating this dish, Qin Huai suddenly understood why the Two-Crab Bao needed sea cucumber to provide texture.

Because it was really important.

When the taste had reached the extreme—at least in some aspect, such as extreme freshness or extreme fragrance—it was very difficult to make a breakthrough in taste. At this time, the texture that had been ignored all along would stand out.

Texture was not necessarily not an extreme enjoyment of taste.

When the ingredients were chewed on the tip of the tongue, the different feelings brought by each chew and the different tastes that burst out were transmitted to the brain along the tip of the tongue. That wonderful experience was irreplaceable. At this time, human senses would be magnified, and you wouldn't just be satisfied with the enjoyment of taste; you would want to pursue some other things, such as appearance, fragrance, and texture.

Perhaps the philosophy of the Two-Crab Bao was the same as Soup-Filled Yellow Croaker. If the taste couldn't give the guests more, then give the guests different experiences and feelings from other aspects.

Qin Huai also instantly understood why Cao Guixiang told him that Soup-Filled Yellow Croaker had no set way of eating; eat however you want.

There was no need for a set way of eating. When this dish entered your mouth and you started to taste it one by one, you would have the best way of eating in your heart.

Qin Huai didn't hesitate, picked up the bowl, picked up the spoon, and scooped a full large spoonful, not caring whether every ingredient was covered in the spoon, and just sent all the ingredients and soup into his mouth.

*Mmm~*

What a delicious taste, what a strong breath of the sea.

The salty-fresh taste from seafood was almost summarized in this small spoonful, and the soup composed of clear soup and shrimp oil neutralized the fishiness and saltiness that a large amount of seafood might bring.

This dish needed so many ingredients—abalone, shark fin, sea cucumber, dried scallops, shrimp meat, dried shrimp, and ham all had to be used. It wasn't just to pile up ingredients and drive up the price, but because these ingredients were all useful.

It just needed so many ingredients, just needed to be so fresh, just needed such rich texture, just needed to be able to eat many layers in one bite. The more you chewed, the more you felt the aftertaste was endless. Even when all the ingredients were mixed in the mouth and spread on the tip of the tongue, the tongue had difficulty distinguishing what was actually there for a while, but this didn't matter.

It was delicious; its rich layers, its texture, and its taste were enough to explain everything.

Of course, perhaps if it reduced some ingredients, it would have a unique flavor, making the individual taste more prominent, making its taste not so mixed but better. But wasn't Qin Huai only eating this version?

Just as Cao Guixiang said, as long as your level is high enough and you have reached the peak, everything you do is reasonable.

Just like the Hundred-Fruit Filling Tangyuan made by Jiang Weijin, the ingredients were ridiculously many, right? It didn't matter; ridiculousness also had its reasons, and there were naturally great scholars to argue the scriptures for him.

Qin Huai was already intoxicated by eating; he didn't even want to eat other dishes, just wanted to savor the Soup-Filled Yellow Croaker again.

But he was a bit embarrassed to scoop another spoonful. Cao Guixiang had just scooped him a very large spoonful. There was only one yellow croaker on the table, but there were so many people, and this dish was clearly the grand finale dish. If he ate too much, would it be a little...

Cao Guixiang saw what Qin Huai was thinking at a glance and didn't give Qin Huai any chance to hesitate, directly getting up, taking Qin Huai's bowl, and scooping him two more spoonfuls.

"Xiao Qin, this wild yellow croaker is hard to buy, eat more," Cao Guixiang said.

Qin Huai smiled sheepishly, took the bowl, and buried his head in eating.

*Hehe, Soup-Filled Yellow Croaker is really delicious. *

*Slurp. *

*Sigh, if I had known it would be so good, I would have brought Did Luo Luo back. It wouldn't have mattered if she missed two days of school. * Qin Luo had been studying quite hard and seriously during this period. Using this kind of dish as a radish hanging in front of her, Qin Luo could use her milk-drinking strength to study.

Sure enough, it was his brother's poor cooking skills over the years that had caused Did Luo Luo's enthusiasm for studying to not be very high all along.

No, it couldn't be blamed on him either. Did Luo Luo had not liked reading since she was small; it was mainly because this child didn't like reading.

"Brother Qin Huai, eat Braised Shark Fin."

Just as Qin Huai was eating and thinking about how to let Qin Luo, a poor student, counterattack and stage a short drama of a cool story slapping faces, Zhang Zhiyun very sycophantically scooped a spoonful of Braised Shark Fin for Qin Huai.

"If you don't eat it, Qingqing will finish it. I told her to leave a spoonful for you, and she almost forgot," Zhang Zhiyun didn't forget to complain.

Chang Qingqing:?! Backstabbing me?

"Obviously you ate the most. Grandma didn't allow you to mix rice with the soup of the Soup-Filled Yellow Croaker, so you couldn't wait to mix rice with Braised Shark Fin," Chang Qingqing was furious, raising her voice to complain. "Grandma, Zhang Zhiyun only scored 108 points in this month's math exam, and I scored 112!"

Qin Huai:...

If he remembered correctly, the full score for junior high school math was 120, right? If this could be considered a bad test, then Qin Luo's previous math...

Qin Huai glanced at Zhang Zhiyun and Chang Qingqing, only feeling that the joys and sorrows of people really couldn't be connected. If Qin Luo could score 108 in math in the third year of junior high, their family could wake up laughing in their dreams at night. Sure enough, those who ate snacks couldn't compare to those who ate grand feasts at home on ordinary days.

Cao Guixiang deliberately put on a straight face and said: "Yunyun is indeed slack. Couldn't you score 115 before? Don't forget the bet you made with Grandma. How many points do you need to score in the high school entrance exam to eat Braised Shark Fin rice bowl for three days in a row? Don't cry on the side when you can't score it and can only watch Qingqing eat Braised Shark Fin and Braised Large Sea Cucumber." Zhang Zhiyun: qaq

Zhang Zhiyun asked Qin Huai in a low voice: "Brother Qin Huai, when are you coming back next time? When you come back next time, can you tell Grandma that you want to eat Braised Shark Fin? You also love eating Braised Shark Fin, right?"

Qin Huai indicated that Zhang Zhiyun had schemes but not many, and with a serious expression, he shook his head with regret: "That's hard to say. You also know that I am usually in the city. When I come back next time, it will probably be the end of the year."

Zhang Zhiyun: qaq!

Zhang Zhiyun sadly ate Braised Shark Fin rice bowl.

After dinner, Zhang Chu led his son and daughter to the neighbor's house to get snacks. The snacks Qin Huai brought back were distributed fairly, divided into three parts: one for Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang, one for Zhang Chiyuan's family, and one for Zhang Siyu's family.

When Zhang Chu was counting the snacks, he found that the neighbor had secretly hidden 2 bags of Four-Joy Tangyuan, 1 bag of Three-Ding Bao, and 1 bag of Jiu-Niang Mantou. The neighbor refused to admit it, saying that he only secretly hid 1 bag of each. Zhang Chu said that he hid 2 bags of Four-Joy Tangyuan, which was simply slander.

Both sides argued about this for 5 minutes. Finally, the neighbor's grandson confessed that he was too gluttonous last night, got up in the middle of the night, secretly cooked a bag of Four-Joy Tangyuan, and ate them all.

The neighbor was furious. *A bag of Four-Joy Tangyuan has 12 pieces, and you kid actually ate them all by yourself, not afraid of bursting yourself. * No wonder he took the breakfast away this morning with the excuse of being afraid of being late for school; it turned out he couldn't eat it at all. The neighbor was so angry that he beat his grandson on the spot.

Zhang Chu even contributed his own bamboo strip.

Zhang Zhiyun was still explaining to Qin Huai on the side, saying that this bamboo strip was usually used by his father to whip him, and it hurt a lot. The quality was also particularly good; it hadn't broken after whipping him for so many years, so Zhang Chu hadn't been willing to throw it away all these years.

Qin Huai:...

Qin Huai could only say that he really didn't understand you Zhang family members. Are there any more bamboo strips? I'm interested; I want one.

By the time everyone else left, it was already 9:00 PM.

Qin Huai felt it was time to start teaching.

It was just that he didn't know whether it was cutting yams or practicing thickening tonight. The radishes had all been cut in the afternoon, and he didn't have any left to cut even if he wanted to.

There were still quite a few yams. Qin Huai had glanced at the storage room before, and it was full of yams.

Cao Guixiang asked Qin Huai with a smile: "Are you ready?"

"Ready, Master! Is it practicing knife work or practicing thickening tonight?"

"Both."

Cao Guixiang asked Zhang Chu to move a box of yams into the kitchen first, pointed to the yams and said: "Cut the yams first. Don't cut too many at once, cut 10 by 10."

"After cutting, stir-fry them yourself, and thicken the sauce at the end. I'll watch from the side. If there are any problems, just like when practicing knife work before, I will point them out to you at any time."

Qin Huai didn't expect it to be this kind of practice method. This was no longer just knife work and thickening going hand in hand; this was knife work, thickening, and heat control going hand in hand.

If it were yesterday, Qin Huai might have been a little embarrassed to tell Cao Guixiang that his knife work wasn't very good, his thickening was very average, and his heat control was even less presentable. The final finished stir-fried yams might be as indescribable as they were during the previous video call.

Looking through the mobile phone was indescribable, and looking at it in reality was even more indescribable, especially compared to Cao Guixiang's level.

But now Qin Huai didn't have any concerns in this regard. He had already called her Master, so what else was there to worry about?

"Okay, Master." Qin Huai was full of confidence, tied his apron, walked into the kitchen, and started cutting yams.

Compared to cutting radishes, cutting yams was slightly more difficult because the texture of yams wasn't as suitable for practice as radishes.

It wasn't a big problem. Qin Huai felt that with his entry-level intermediate knife work, he could deal with most of the problems encountered when cutting yam slices.

Qin Huai quickly finished cutting ten yams and started stir-frying the yams.

Cao Guixiang didn't teach Qin Huai what ratio to use to prepare the starch water, letting Qin Huai prepare it according to his own feeling.

Qin Huai was still stir-frying yams. Zhang Chu curiously moved a small stool and sat at the kitchen door to watch.

Messy stir-frying.

There was heat control, but not much; at least he didn't stir-fry it out of the pot.

Thickening.

Stylish thickening.

Then continued to stir and fry messily.

Out of the pot.

A plate of stir-fried yams that visually would definitely not exceed D-grade. Well, D-grade might be a bit of self-praise, but Qin Huai felt it wouldn't reach E-grade either, so let's just count it as D-minus grade.

Between E+ and D-.

Cao Guixiang tasted a mouthful, didn't say much, and let Qin Huai continue stir-frying.

Qin Huai continued his performance, and soon, the second plate of stir-fried yams was out of the pot.

Cao Guixiang tasted a mouthful as usual, didn't speak, and let Qin Huai continue.

Qin Huai continued.

3rd plate, 4th plate...

Qin Huai stir-fried one plate after another, unable to stop at all.

By the time Qin Huai finished stir-frying all the 10 yams he had cut, Cao Guixiang slowly opened her mouth:

"I have already seen your problems."

"There are problems with everything from knife work to heat control to thickening."

"Among them, the problem with knife work is because you haven't cut many yams and aren't very familiar with them. The problems at the beginning are more obvious, but later you found the rhythm and cut quite well. Practice more and you can overcome it."

"Remember one point: cutting yam slices is to make them better to cook. What kind of slices you want to cut them into depends on how you want to cook them."

"If you feel that there is a problem with this yam slice during the cooking process, then there must be a problem. Find the direction for correction and trust your own feelings."

"The problem with heat control is the least. Master Huang taught you quite well. Although your spatula looked like it was waving messily when you were stir-frying, the timing of stir-frying the vegetables was okay. Unlike when you were cutting vegetables before, where it looked decent on the surface, but in fact, the way you held the knife was wrong. Heat control still needs more practice."

"As for thickening..." Cao Guixiang showed an indescribable expression, "Just like the knife work before, forget all your thickening."

Qin Huai:...

He thought his heat control was the worst; it turned out the worst was thickening.

"You imitated my movements and some of the techniques of thickening, but this is not a formula; you can't apply everything to it. And you have many basic problems. Next, cut another 10 yams, and I will stir-fry them. You watch how I stir-fry and thicken."

"Old Zhang, did you tell the pig farm? From tomorrow on, what we send over will be stir-fried yams."

"I told them. They are very happy, saying that the pigs are more willing to eat stir-fried yams."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 351 =====