Chapter 855: Chapter 854: Defeat (Part 2)
Kitchen.
"Are you overly proud of your knife skills?"
The old man asked sternly, pointing to the steaming pot on the table.
Inside the pot was a deep blue clear broth, mainly made from "Garlic Chicken" and "Blue Star Algae." The color of the soup was strange, but it highlighted the unusual nature of the ingredients.
What do you mean?
Xia Yu frowned.
He had spent nearly an hour just making the ramen broth, turned around planning to knead the buckwheat noodles, only to be forcibly stopped by the old man, leading to an argument.
"If your research on the ’Demon King Ramen’ recipe is only at this level, then I’m very disappointed!" The old man crossed his arms and criticized mercilessly, "I don’t even need to taste the finished product to judge your work as—unqualified!"
Xia Yu’s temples throbbed.
"You haven’t even tasted it and dare to call it unqualified?!" Xia Yu was very displeased.
"And you say I’m overly proud of my knife skills, can I take it as you mocking my knife skills, old man?"
The old and the young locked eyes, neither backing down.
"Are you not convinced?"
"Absolutely, I detest big talkers the most!"
"You want a detailed critique, is that it? Then I..."
Here, Xia Yu waved his hand, stared directly at the old man’s somber face, his eyes sharp, "No verbal critiques! I heard from the General that the ’Demon King Ramen’ recipe was co-created by you and him, so old man, show me the actual work to convince me!"
"Oh—"
Xia Qing’s face moved slightly, "Is this considered a challenge?"
Xia Yu nodded, "Of course!"
His eyes showed eagerness, his expression of anger swiftly erased, "Old man, you must show me the gap between me and the Dragon Realm now?"
Upon hearing this, Xia Qing also displayed a faint smile, "I understand."
The tense atmosphere of argument in the kitchen suddenly dissipated, as if it had never happened, the old and the young exchanged playful glances, each with their small calculations in mind.
Lan Fengxian stood at the door, watching in amazement.
Was it a spat?
It was more thunderous than rainy, this way of interaction between grandfather and grandson was hard to understand.
"Brother Xia!"
The call at the door made Xia Qing and Xia Yu turn their heads, they had already sensed someone at the door.
"Lan Fengxian?"
Xia Qing frowned slightly, calling his name directly, evidently not too fond of him.
"Brother Xia, it’s been a while!"
Lan Fengxian was tactful, addressing Xia Qing directly by name, without showing any sign of oddity, laughing: "I’m here simply because I had time, to pay respects for the New Year, Brother Xia hope you won’t mind me being presumptuous."
A sincere self-reference of ’brother’ indeed.
In terms of age, Lan Fengxian was much older, haven’t you heard that Lan Chuhai, who was Zhu Qing’s contemporary, called him grandfather, a veritable old oddball.
"Take a seat—"
However, Xia Qing’s invitation was cold, pointing to the stool he had just been sitting on, he then donned an apron, stepping to the kitchen counter.
From the knife rack, he took out a Square-Headed Sang Dao, turned his head and said to his grandson meaningfully, "Watch carefully, learn well."
Xia Yu pouted.
Plop!
An already thawed and intact "Garlic Chicken" was tossed onto the cutting board by the old man.
The thin and sharp blade hovered over the chicken’s spine, suddenly Xia Qing spoke deeply, "Confucius once said—align precisely, or do not eat!"
"The so-called slice and cut, the decomposition of the ingredients, every part reflects knife skills."
Suddenly changing the topic, Xia Qing asked, "Cutting the chicken is simple, right?"
Xia Yu nodded.
Heh!
Seeing his grandson respond like this, the old man’s mouth held a touch of sneer, raising the knife, the chicken’s head was removed, next the whole chicken was split from the midline into symmetrical halves, then cutting the chicken wings, along with the flesh a round bone was cut down, and the whole wing separated.
With wings and legs cut, the chicken body laid flat on the cutting board, yet the old man stopped.
"And then?" He turned to look at Xia Yu.
Xia Yu frowned, puzzled, "Old man, you’re using ordinary chicken cutting skills, just like I did, is there a problem?"
The old man’s face fell, "Do you think only cutting sashimi easily demonstrates knife skills?"
He turned back, hands moving the kitchen blade up and down.
Bang bang bang!
In moments, the chicken’s body was shrinking, turning into evenly sized chicken pieces.
The sharpness of the knife and the old man’s knife skills was undeniable, Xia Yu watched with twitching eyebrows, in his sight, the meat pieces scattered on the board were exquisite, arranged, they looked aesthetically pleasing, carrying an indescribable aura.
What exactly was different?
Xia Yu bit his finger, troubled, his gaze shifting between the cutting board and the steaming pot.
The size? His gaze moved to the still steaming pot, the chicken pieces in the broth were identical to those the old man cut.
Clearly, in the control over the size of the pieces, Xia Yu and the old man were indistinguishable.
"Knife work" from another perspective, is the decomposition of ingredients, making ingredients smaller, and size is undeniably key!
According to ergonomics, the most suitable size of food is "one bite"!
Therefore, if someone were to measure the size of chicken pieces cut by the old man and Xia Yu, incredible numerical patterns would be found—
One inch, 3.5 centimeters.
"Brother Xia, your knife skills make me ashamed!"
Lan Fengxian spoke up.
He saw the kitchen had sunk into silence, seized the moment to speak up to assert his presence, then he said to Xia Yu: "Knife skills, simply put, are about cutting through the ingredient’s tissue, so to maximize the preservation of the ingredient’s freshness, one should avoid damaging the food’s structure when cutting."
"Damage, completeness."
"Apart from the influence of knives, the differences in skilled knife work are demonstrated in cutting and slicing techniques."
Lan Fengxian said this.
The old man’s complexion was calm, placing the cut chicken evenly in the steaming pot.
The ingredients were chicken, blue algae, and other complementing materials.
An hour later, another pot of steamed chicken broth was served on the table, Xia Qing pointed to the two pots of chicken soup, "Taste them!"
Xia Yu was troubled for a whole hour.
Was there really any mystery in cutting chicken?
He had just opened his super vision, still didn’t feel where the technical content was, "Damn it, I refuse to believe that, why am I inferior to the old man when we’re both cutting chicken using identical ingredients for the broth?"
With this unwillingness in spirit, Xia Yu took two spoons, first tasting his own, then the old man’s chicken soup.
Hmm?
What happened!
The soup entered without talking about other flavors, Xia Yu focused tightly on the freshness of the chicken on his tongue.
"Boom!"
Like a storm breaking through the fortress on the coastline of his tongue.
"Just in terms of this chicken soup, it’s a notch better than mine, why is the gap so evident?" Xia Yu took a deep breath, barely maintaining a shred of calmness, changed to chopsticks to pick up the chicken in the old man’s steaming pot.
Biting down, the meat fibers snapped one by one, akin to the sound of strings vibrating, his ears hearing beautiful music.
The elasticity of the meat, the texture of the meat, made one’s scalp tingle.
My goodness... is this still chicken?
Xia Yu seemed to see a knife-wielding monk, this monk had a benevolent face, chanting Buddhist chants, wielding a knife over the bare chicken on the cutting board.
Bang bang bang!
No trace of blood hidden, instead Buddhist light radiated.
Vaguely, the form of the chicken appeared on the cutting board, the sound of crowing emerged, high-pitched and joyous, without a hint of pain.
Xia Yu’s spirit was stirred.
This, this was an indescribable benevolent knife technique!