Chapter 269 Pierre has an idea

Yue Ning stood at the door of Ningyan to welcome the arrival of several chefs.

Lucas really didn't act like a chef at all. He gave Yue Ning a kiss on the cheek as soon as he got out of the car.

Valere was as enthusiastic as he was at the exchange meeting and gave Yue Ning a bear hug. Pierre was more serious and this time he brought his son Nicolas.

Miyamoto, Iwanishi and Ishikawa, Yue Ning had invited them to try the dishes, and this time they came entirely because of the arrival of the three top French chefs.

Yue Ning also invited the Zhang family father and son from Kunhe Building and his uncle Li Xinrong to join him. In addition, Cai Zhiyuan and the organizers of the expo also came.

When visiting with friends, we can’t just eat, so Yue Ning takes everyone on a tour first.

The carved screen wall at the entrance attracted the attention of several French chefs. Yue Ning introduced: "This is a feature of Chinese architecture. Chinese people believe that if the main door faces the road or river directly, it will cause the 'qi' to rush directly into the room, destroying the balance of yin and yang. The screen wall blocks the 'qi' from rushing directly into the room, achieving the purpose of 'hiding wind and gathering qi'. It can also protect privacy."

Entering the lobby of the main building, Lucas sniffed the scent in the air. It was not the scent of their perfume, but a faint and elegant fragrance.

"What does it smell like?"

Yanxi pointed to the table against the wall, on which was a dark green glass incense burner. "I have introduced the Chinese incense art to you before. The incense art, flower art and tea art are all called the 'elegant art' of Japan. The elegant art of Japan all originated in China. Thousands of years ago, Japanese monks brought these cultures back to Japan from China.

"A thousand years?" Nicholas said in surprise.

"Yes. This is just the Japanese bringing Chinese culture back to Japan. Aromatherapy culture may have appeared in China earlier," said Yan Xi.

After listening to the translator, Yue Ning walked over to the incense burner and said, "This incense burner imitates the style of the Boshan incense burner from the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago."

Pierre patted his son on the shoulder and said, "Do you know how Chinoiserie came about? In the 18th century, French literati and artists were obsessed with Chinese art. When you return to Paris, you can go to Chateau Miette again to see the murals there and feel the popularity of Chinese style in France and even in the whole of Europe at that time. Although, that Chinese style is the Chinese style that everyone imagines."

After hearing this, Yue Ning understood why Pierre was the most prestigious chef among the three. His cultural literacy was indeed deeper than the others.

"But this fragrance..." Ishikawa leaned over and sniffed it gently, "Is it the fragrance of tea?"

Yue Ning smiled and nodded: "You smelled it right. This is the 'Tancha Yiwei' prepared by Chinese incense artists according to our requirements. It uses sandalwood as the base, agarwood as the supplement, and Wuyi rock tea powder is added, blended with refined honey to make the incense cake."

In the hall, the restaurant manager was conducting a pre-opening inspection to see if the tablecloths were laid out evenly, if the tableware was set up to standard, and if there was enough water for the flower arrangements on the tables. After the inspection, she checked the table numbers and placed the corresponding menus on the flower racks.

Pierre asked: "Ikebana?"

"Yes." Yue Ning extended his hand and invited them to go to the kitchen.

The kitchen is a transparent one. Through the glass, you can see a row of chefs cutting and arranging dishes. The prepared cold dishes are covered with transparent glass covers. The apprentices are transferred to the air-conditioned room next door with a lower temperature.

The hot food area next door is clean and tidy, and the chefs are preparing food in an orderly manner.

"Is it to show customers that your kitchen is clean and hygienic?" asked Valere.

Yue Ning looked at Yan Xi and said, "I got the inspiration from Mr. Yan Xi's teppanyaki. The kitchen is the chef's stage and needs an audience."

The next room is the roast meat room, where the roast meat chefs are hanging the first batch of roast ducks into the oven.

After visiting the kitchen, it was almost time, so Yue Ning took them out of the kitchen area and to the private room upstairs.

In the private room, warm yellow light spreads over the brown Chinese-style screen, and the meticulous flowers and birds on the screen seem to be flapping their wings in the light and shadow. Looking up at the ceiling, the dark brown Chinese-style window lattices cut the light into diamond-shaped grids, which fall on the landscape ink painting wallpaper on the off-white wall, and the light and shadow are intertwined with ink.

There was a tea table in the lounge area. Yue Ning asked them to sit down. Pierre understood immediately and asked, "Tea ceremony?"

Yue Ning sat down and boiled water to heat the cups: "This is the Gongfu tea of ​​southern China. It is different from the Japanese tea ceremony."

Yanxi smiled and explained: "Japanese tea ceremony originated from the Tang Dynasty in China. Later, it was developed by Sen no Rikyu and others and acquired Japanese characteristics. Since the emergence of stir-fried tea, Chinese tea ceremony has basically been brewing tea. The two tea ceremonies have gradually drifted apart, and are not as close as incense, flower arrangement and calligraphy."

Yue Ning poured them tea in a fair cup: "Drink tea."

It is difficult for the French to taste the tea, so they just go through the motions as eating is more important.

As soon as the appetizers were served, Lucas asked Valere and Pierre to try Chinese foie gras without Yue Ning's introduction.

Valere used a silver spoon to cut open the trembling Chaoshan braised goose liver, which oozed out a honey-colored marinade with a fragrant aroma, which was completely different from the usual creamy aroma of French foie gras.

He savored the foie gras carefully: "Our foie gras is cooked slowly at low temperature to lock in the richness, and this foie gras is as tender as a steamed egg soaked in broth."

Pierre held the foie gras in his mouth for a long time without swallowing it, letting the marinade bloom on his taste buds layer by layer before chewing it: "French foie gras pursues pure fat fragrance. This piece of foie gras has a sauce aroma as the base, and various spices are layered, yet harmonious. The taste is indeed unique, I like it very much!"

He ate the goose liver, then forked up a piece of what looked like white asparagus, put it in his mouth, bit it with his teeth, it was crisp and tender, Pierre's eyebrows suddenly raised. The sour, spicy and refreshing taste of this thing attacked his tongue, but it also had a sweet taste, and it was just right to eat with the goose liver.

He asked, "What is this?"

"Lotus stems." said Yue Ning.

This was a difficult translation. He knew lotus root, but what part of the lotus root was it? In the end, he could only translate: "It is a vegetable unique to China."

Just as he finished speaking, two waiters slowly came in pushing a dining cart. Under a long plate covered with a glass lid was a maroon roast duck, its skin glossy and oily under the warm light.

Lucas shouted, "Is this Qiankun Roast Duck?"

He was so impressed when he ate Qiankun Roast Goose last time that Yue Ning said Qiankun Roast Goose can also be made with duck, and he wanted to eat it again!

"No, we're having Peking duck today," said Yue Ning.

Lucas was a little disappointed when Yue Ning said this, but Pierre was very happy and said, "I had roast duck when I went to Beijing last time. It was the best Chinese food I have ever had. I still remember how crispy and juicy it was."

"Try it later and see if it's the same as what you eat in Beijing."

After Yue Ning finished speaking, he said to Lucas, "For Qiankun roast duck, the bones are removed, the skin and meat are relatively thin, and after filling, we have to consider whether the skin will break, so we have to consider more when roasting it. For Beijing roast duck, you eat the roasted skin. It's a different experience."

Lucas accepted it reluctantly. He still missed the Qiankun roast goose that made him full last time.

The chef held a duck slicing knife and cut into the duck breast with the tip of the knife. The two plumpest pieces of skin on the duck breast were sliced ​​off, cut into small slices and placed on the plate.

The waiter spreads out the lotus leaf pancakes as thin as rice paper, puts in scallion and cucumber strips, and waits for the chef to slice the roast duck with a little meat, puts duck meat on each lotus leaf pancake, and then pours the secret sweet noodle sauce on it. The waiter wraps the lotus leaf pancakes, then sandwiches a piece of duck breast crispy skin, puts it on the edge of the wrapped roast duck roll, and sprinkles white sugar on the crispy skin.

Pierre watched the process, which reminded him of the blood duck he made. He asked, "Where is the duck frame?"

"Take it down and make soup. We'll have duck blood and vermicelli soup later." Yue Ning said with a smile.

"Duck blood...soup?" Nicholas exclaimed in surprise.

Yue Ning said as if it was a matter of course: "Why, you are the only ones allowed to use duck blood to make sauce, but we are not allowed to use duck blood to make soup?"

This frightened Nicholas so much that his face turned pale.

Yue Ning said to him, "Hurry up and eat the roast duck."

Pierre listened to Yue Ning teasing his son and picked up a piece of duck skin with a smile. The moment the crispy skin broke between his teeth, the fat and burnt aroma exploded in his mouth and he finished it in two bites.

He took a sip of red wine, tasted the roast duck wrapped in lotus leaf pancake, and nodded: "It tastes like Beijing, exactly the same. This is the taste that has always been in my mind."

At this time, the waiter came over and took away the plate of roast duck.

The door opened, and a rich, fresh aroma came in, and everyone looked towards the door.

A black ceramic pot was placed on the table. When the lid of the casserole was opened, a rich aroma instantly filled the entire private room. In the casserole, the snails were plump and round, with a small piece of firm meat stuffing showing at the mouth of the snail, like a treasure hidden in a shell. Each piece of chicken was tightly wrapped in the sauce, and the color was tempting.

Yue Ning scooped up a snail with a spoon and put it on the plate, and said to Lucas: "Didn't you ask me if Chinese people eat snails? This is the snail we eat, a kind of snail that grows in paddy fields."

This dish is a common dish and should not appear in the Ningyan Lu Mansion. It was specially added by Yue Ning.

Lucas reached out and picked up a snail. He imitated Yue Ning and used a fork to pick out the meat stuffed in the snail shell and stuffed it into his mouth. There was no whole snail in it, but a stuffing made of minced snail meat and pork, cooked with a unique Chinese seasoning sauce. It tasted delicious and unique.

Valer ate the chicken, which was already delicious and fragrant, and mixed with the unique flavor of the snails. After he finished eating, he ate another piece and said, "I'll try it with snails when I get home."

At this time, the waiter came in, and Yue Ning said to Nicholas: "The duck blood soup is here."

Nicholas stared at the waiter as he placed the blue-ground enamel porcelain soup bowl in front of him.

The moment the waiter opened the blue and white porcelain soup bowl, mist rose up with a mellow and fresh fragrance.

Nicholas looked down at the soup bowl, but he didn't see any blood. Instead, he saw a milky white soup, which was very fragrant. He looked carefully and saw some reddish brown cubes in the soup. Then he realized, "This is made like German blood sausage, right?"

"Yes! This is blood tofu made from duck blood." Yue Ning said with a smile, "Would you like to try it?"

In the milky white soup, the duck blood is cut into even cubes, the golden fried tofu has absorbed the soup, the vermicelli is crystal clear, and on top is a piece of duck meat and a piece of duck gizzard.

Nicholas' eyes widened, and he leaned closer to the soup bowl and took a deep breath: "It smells like roast duck, as well as other spices."

As he spoke, he scooped up a piece of duck blood, put it in his mouth, ate it and said, "It tastes different from German blood sausage. This duck blood is delicate and tender."

Pierre looked at his son, he taught Nicolas everything he could, Nicolas was considered a famous chef in Paris, but it was not enough to inherit and develop his restaurant.

He looked at Yue Ning, and then at the exquisite and delicious dishes, and he had an idea...