The Game of Life-Chapter 747 - 746 Pigeon Swallows Swallow

Chapter 747: Chapter 746: Pigeon Swallows Swallow Chapter 747 -746: Pigeon Swallows Swallow As soon as Jiang Feng arrived at Taifeng Building, he went to look for the bird’s nest to soak.

It was the best quality gold-threaded bird’s nest.

Taifeng Building didn’t use to keep gold-threaded bird’s nest in the kitchen, since Sir, aside from the subpar Clear Soup Willow Leaf Swallow dish he wouldn’t really cook with bird’s nests, Jiang Weiming wasn’t very good with bird’s nest dishes either, and Jiang Feng at most would stew a rock sugar bird’s nest for Mrs. Wang Xiulian.

Such a treasure as gold-threaded bird’s nest was utterly wasted in the kitchen of Taifeng Building.

But now things were different, Taifeng Building had welcomed a new head chef.

A Cantonese cuisine master, a head chef particularly adept at cooking expensive dishes.

If it was expensive, there was nothing Sun Maochai couldn’t do.

Sun Maochai usually arrived in the kitchen late since he had a lot to do in the morning, starting with an early morning jog, followed by a shower at home, and then he would go downstairs to the eatery for a breakfast costing less than 15 yuan. Afterward, he had to stop by the newsstand to buy a copy of the morning paper, which he would read thoroughly before starting work.

As soon as Sun Maochai entered the kitchen, he saw the bowl of soaked bird’s nest next to Jiang Feng.

“What dish are you preparing?” Sun Maochai was curious. He had been working at Taifeng Building for nearly half a month now and had never seen anyone besides himself make a bird’s nest dish.

“Pigeon Swallow’s Nest,” Jiang Feng said.

“Pigeon Swallow’s Nest, huh.” Sun Maochai felt like he had something to say, but before he could speak, he suddenly realized that Jiang Feng was an expert in making the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, so there definitely wouldn’t be any problem with Pigeon Swallow’s Nest.

“Are you planning to make fresh high soup or use the one from yesterday?” Sun Maochai asked.

The cooking method for Pigeon Swallow’s Nest was almost the same as Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon. The three-month-old squab was boned whole, stuffed with bird’s nest and ham inside the belly punctured with pine needles before being steamed. The most challenging steps—for pine needle insertion and whole squab deboning—were not an issue for Jiang Feng, as he could practically do the deboning blindfolded, given his experience with the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon.

Before the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon came out of the blue, Pigeon Swallow’s Nest was once known as the world’s number one soup.

Of course, as everyone knows, there are five in the Four Heavenly Kings, and there is more than one “world’s number one soup.”

What makes Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon difficult is the thickening sauce, while Pigeon Swallow’s Nest’s challenge lies in fire control.

Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon relies on steaming, which doesn’t take long. Pigeon Swallow’s Nest requires slow cooking, where the squab, after setting shape with a scalding blanch, cooks with its bones and a specially prepared high soup for four to five hours. Because of the long cooking time, controlling the heat becomes crucial. A slight mistake, and the delicate squab flesh would tear open, not only causing the pigeon meat to lose its freshness and sweetness but also causing the bird’s nest nestled in its belly to leak out, turning the dish from swallow’s nest to spew’s nest.

Of course, for Jiang Feng now, managing the heat was not a problem.

The problem was the high soup.

If one were to seriously categorize high soup, there could be many types with slight differences in ingredients and preparation methods. However, the basics are the same, generally made from ham, pork, and old hens.

Ordinary dishes that require high soup don’t need to be so particular, just a good pot of soup will suffice. But for top-notch dishes like Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup, Pigeon Swallow’s Nest, and even Taishi Snake Soup, high soup is an essential factor determining the flavor ceiling. Therefore, if one wants to make a truly top-notch dish, the high soup needs to be prepared specially, one soup for one dish.

“Just use yesterday’s,” Jiang Feng said.

If he wanted to make an S-rank Pigeon Swallow’s Nest, of course, he would need to make a new batch of high soup. But to make an A-rank Pigeon Swallow’s Nest with a buff, which would suffice for Wu Minqi to eat and perhaps shake her out of the current lack of inspiration, he didn’t need to go through so much trouble.

Sun Maochai didn’t say much more but left a comment that Jiang Feng could ask him if he encountered any problems, then he went to do his own tasks.

A Pigeon Swallow’s Nest that was never going to reach S-rank could not cause a stir or even discussion in the current kitchen of Taifeng Building. Since the stewing time was somewhat long and worrying he’d get too busy and forget at midday, Jiang Feng specifically instructed Ji Xia to remember the timing, to remind him every hour.

“Right, Xiaxia, how’s your pastry practice coming along lately?” Jiang Feng suddenly remembered the task he had issued the night before—mocked by the game as the task of an irresponsible mentor—deciding to check in on his apprentice’s learning progress, and be a slightly more responsible mentor.

Ji Xia, who hadn’t been concerned by the mentor about the cooking progress or queried for a long time, at that moment recalled the terror of being dominated by stuffed oranges.

“It’s… it’s…” Ji Xia fell back into the poor student mode, unable to answer the teacher’s question, hanging her head and unable to utter a word for quite some time, “It’s… just the same as before.”

Jiang Feng sighed heavily, deeply realizing that he was indeed an irresponsible mentor. He couldn’t take on the responsibility of pastries, so he had to move finding a reliable and skilled Master White Chef for Ji Xia to the top of his agenda.

“Practice more these next few days, don’t slack off. In a few days, your master will check how your pastries are coming along,” Jiang Feng said.

Ji Xia nodded, ready to slip away when she suddenly remembered she actually had good news to share with Jiang Feng, “That’s right, Uncle Jiang said the Mid-Autumn Festival is soon, and he will teach me how to make mooncakes next week.”

Due to the complicated generational relationships in the Jiang Family, Ji Xia, who couldn’t sort out what to call whom, simply called everyone uncle, aunt, grandpa, or grandma.

“Mooncakes?” Jiang Feng thought for a moment. It was only August, and Mid-Autumn was in October, but it made sense to start teaching now.

And he could teach mooncakes.

He had a recipe for meat-filled mooncakes, though not very well made, he knew what the mistakes were, and could teach, possessing a rich experience in making errors.

“What kind of mooncake? Is that a Cantonese-style mooncake or a Suzhou-style mooncake?” Jiang Feng felt that if Jiang Jianguo was the one teaching, it would most likely be a fresh meat mooncake.

“Fresh meat mooncake!” When Ji Xia talked about it, her eyes shone with excitement, obviously last year’s Eight-treasure House fresh meat mooncake had left her with very fond memories.

Speaking of which, the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, and it was that time of the year again when Eight-treasure House made a fortune.

Just the thought of it made him feel a little envious.

“Then, Xiaxia, study hard. If you don’t understand something, just come and ask your master,” Jiang Feng said with a smile, ending this nutrition-less conversation and sending Ji Xia off to do her own thing.

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The Pigeon Swallowing Swallow dish wasn’t finished until 3 p.m., and before that, not many people in the kitchen realized Jiang Feng was working on a new dish. They all thought he was cooking Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, and Zhang Weiyu even found it odd and asked once why it took so long to steam the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon.

Since Pigeon Swallowing Swallow was stewed, and this time he was only seeking the buff and not the quality, with the buff, only three Pigeon Swallowing Swallows could be made in one day. Jiang Feng stewed three in one pot: one for Wu Minqi, one for Ji Gezi, and one for him and Xiaxia.

Ji Xia had to report to Jiang Feng every hour; she was effectively in charge of watching over the Pigeon Swallowing Swallow, but she didn’t know what was inside. When Jiang Feng mentioned Pigeon Swallowing Swallow, she had never even heard of it. As the dish was almost ready to come off the stove, Ji Xia couldn’t bear to leave the pot’s side, eager to see what it really was.

“Xiaxia, go call your sister Wu and Sister Ji Yue over,” Jiang Feng instructed.

So Ji Xia had to go and call people first.

By the time Ji Xia came back with Ji Yue and Wu Minqi, Jiang Feng had already dished the Pigeon Swallowing Swallow into the pots normally used for serving Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon— half a pot of high broth with a squab in it, looking like an ordinary stewed pigeon dish.

“Jiang Feng, didn’t I tell you the other day that you don’t need to make this Pigeon Swallowing Swallow? You would do better to give me a few more spicy dumplings than anything else,” Ji Yue said.

Jiang Feng: …

You haven’t missed out on your spicy dumplings, and I haven’t seen you come up with any inspiration from them.

Jiang Feng smiled, “A promise is a promise, and it wasn’t a difficult task.”

“The boss has principles!” Ji Yue gave Jiang Feng a thumbs up, slapping a fake and perfunctory compliment.

Wu Minqi didn’t have much of a reaction; her face was even expressionless, and she seemed distracted. She silently took a several pairs of chopsticks and spoons and distributed them to everyone.

Without saying anything, Wu Minqi picked up a serving of Pigeon Swallowing Swallow and went to the side to eat quietly.

“By the way, Jiang Feng, I forgot to ask you during lunch today, is your Qiqi troubled by something lately?” Seeing Wu Minqi move aside, Ji Yue asked in a low voice.

“You noticed too,” Jiang Feng said in a hushed tone.

“I’ve noticed it for a while. Your Qiqi has been acting a bit strange for the past two or three days, like she’s anxious. Today she seemed even more off. Did Zhou Shi upset her?” Ji Yue was quite perceptive with people.

“Probably not,” Jiang Feng thought Wu Minqi wasn’t someone easily upset by others. “Minqi is probably looking for inspiration. She mentioned that she once had a dish that seemed like spicy dumplings but didn’t quite seem like it. Hasn’t she been wrapping spicy dumplings recently? We’ve been having spicy dumplings for breakfast for some time now; Minqi is probably just stuck and frustrated because she hasn’t been able to create what she wants.”

Ji Yue blinked rapidly in confusion, clearly not quite grasping the notion of being stuck on spicy dumplings, “Did you ask her why she suddenly wanted to make spicy dumplings?”

Jiang Feng was stunned.

Yeah, he knew that Wu Minqi was fixed on the idea because she couldn’t make what she wanted, but he didn’t understand why she would suddenly want to do it.

He hadn’t asked, and Wu Minqi hadn’t mentioned it; it just seemed to start out of the blue one day. Jiang Feng thought harder and realized that this beginning could be traced back a long time, even to the day when Wu Minqi suddenly suggested she take over breakfast every morning.

Why did Wu Minqi want to make breakfast again?

Thinking it over, due to the passage of time, Jiang Feng’s memory was a bit hazy, but he remembered that Wu Minqi had said something about searching for a balance between spiciness and flavor, wanting to make a dish that was spicy yet acceptable and delicious to humans.

But what did that have to do with spicy dumplings?

It suddenly dawned on Jiang Feng that Ji Yue had raised a critical question.

Everything happens for a reason; no one would just whimsically decide to practice a dish and persist at it without cause. Zhang Guanghang had suddenly started studying Shafu Roast Chicken because it reminded him of a childhood memory, and Jiang Feng himself would occasionally practice so many dishes because he got the recipes.

But what about Wu Minqi? What was her reason?

If she was making breakfast to find that balance, then what was her reason for doing spicy dumplings?

Jiang Feng felt that this reason might be something even Minqi herself couldn’t figure out, which was why she was so distressed.

Whether she would figure it out depended on whether today’s Pigeon Swallowing Swallow was of any help.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Novlove.com