Chapter 157 Kyoto Exchange 2
The equipment at the shooting site was ready, Yue Ning and Miyamoto Takuya stood together in front of the tuna.
Miyamoto Takuya asked Yue Ning: "Ms. Yue, please make the first move."
Chinese chefs pay attention to knife skills. A kitchen knife cannot be used for everything. Basically, it can do most things. Japanese chefs pay attention to knife skills. The first lesson for apprentices is to know how to use these knives.
Yue Ning picked up the long octopus knife with one hand and stroked the fish from head to tail with the other hand. Then he returned to the head and stabbed the gill cover with the tip of the knife. The blade slid along the gill arch, cutting off the gills and bleeding. The blade cut into the neck meat, making a sound similar to tearing silk. Snowflake fat patterns suddenly appeared in the dark red texture. This is the so-called frost. The fat distribution density of this fish is comparable to that of top-grade Wagyu beef. Yue Ning couldn't help but praise: "Good fish."
Yue Ning removed the head and tail of the fish and then cut off the fins. The whole process was neat and tidy.
"Mr. Miyamoto, are you here to cut the fish?"
Miyamoto Takuya, who was stunned, came to his senses. He had just taken the initiative to let Yue Ning make the first cut. Firstly, he thought that Yue Ning, a woman, would not have the strength to chop off such a big fish head. Secondly, he believed that Yue Ning could cut fish, but she might not be able to use Japanese knives skillfully and without mistakes.
The reality was beyond his expectations. Not only did Yue Ning not make any mistakes, but his technique was not inferior to his own.
Miyamoto walked slowly around the tuna, looking for the best point to cut. After determining the position, he took a deep breath, exerted force with his arms, and cut the long knife into the fish body accurately. His movements were smooth and decisive, and with a dull but sharp sound, the blade broke through the tough fish skin.
He then followed the fish's skeletal structure and carefully separated the fish meat and bones. His technique was delicate and precise, and each stroke was just right, not wasting a single bit of fish meat while ensuring the integrity of the fish bones.
As the cutting goes deeper, the fat belly meat, the clearly textured middle belly meat and the brightly colored red meat gradually emerge.
There was no need to ask Yue Ning to cut it up, so Miyamoto simply divided the fish into large pieces at once.
Yue Ning clapped his hands: "Good knife skills."
Yue Ning put a piece of fatty belly meat and a piece of crimson red meat on the plate.
Miyamoto Takuya also took the fish he needed and returned to his respective cutting boards.
Yue Ning was not busy cutting sashimi at this time. She took the dough and mixed the dough of different colors. She first picked up a piece of white dough and kneaded it gently, and soon it turned into a round ball.
She picked up a bamboo stick and gently drew the eyes, nose and mouth on the dough. Then she picked out a piece of pink dough and rolled it into an oval shape to serve as the body of the dough figurine.
She rolled a piece of red dough into a thin sheet and carefully wrapped it around her body. She then used her fingers to carefully pinch out the folds of the kimono. Each fold was so dense and sparse that it seemed as if real cloth was hanging naturally.
On the collar and cuffs, Yue Ning used a bamboo stick dipped in yellow pigment to draw delicate patterns.
"Do you want to be a Japanese woman?" asked Mr. Miyamoto.
"Today I saw a woman in a kimono in the hotel. She looked so charming as she walked. She gave me inspiration." Yue Ning did not stop working. She took black dough, rolled it into thin strips, and skillfully coiled them on the top of her head. She then used bamboo sticks to draw patterns, painted a vow with pigments, and even made a small flower the size of a grain of rice and stuck it on her bun.
Finally, she added a pair of tiny hands to the dough figure.
A lifelike clay figurine of a woman in kimono appeared before everyone. She had affectionate eyes, a graceful figure, and was wearing a gorgeous kimono.
The people at the scene couldn't help but marvel.
Yue Ning had already taken the large oval black porcelain bowl used for sashimi and filled it with shaved ice. She had shaped the shaved ice so that it was higher on the top and lower on the bottom.
She took out the vegetables she had just carved and began to piece them together. At the highest point, she actually made a shrine gate with white radish and carrots. She cut the onions, cabbage, red and yellow peppers into flower-shaped pieces, soaked them in water, and then curled them up. She arranged them in layers from the shrine gate down to the bottom, forming colorful trees in the mountains in autumn. The torii gate was carved from carrots, and two bamboos with toothpicks inserted into the smoothie.
The doll of the woman in kimono is placed between the torii and the shrine.
Yue Ning then spread thin white radish slices from top to bottom, replacing perilla leaves to separate the smoothie and sashimi.
She began to cut the sashimi. She picked up a sharp lancet and cut the crimson fish meat into thick slices, which were then laid out to form steps starting from the shrine and moving down.
"Aren't the steps of the shrine made of stone?" asked Masako Nakajima.
"Kaiseki cuisine is based on the season. Now it's autumn, when the maple leaves are turning red, and the road in the mountains has turned red." Yue Ning cut the tuna spine, revealing the crystal clear jelly-like marrow inside, and placed them on both sides of the road, serving as stone lanterns on the mountain path.
Yue Ning then cut the carrot slices into small pieces and scattered them on both sides as falling maple leaves.
She took another sea bream and cut the sea bream meat into slices as thin as a cicada's wing. On the left side of the fish spine, she formed two koi carps, and on the right side, she cut the large belly of the tuna into thick slices and then cut them into fancy shapes.
Served with a small dish of delicious soy sauce and freshly grated wasabi.
Yue Ning finished her sashimi, pure Japanese style sashimi. She looked up at everyone, and the whole audience was now silent.
She looked at Miyamoto Takuya, who had already finished his work. His work was a standard plating for Kaiseki sashimi. He used maple leaves and a chrysanthemum for the four seasons, paired with a few dead branches, and a porcelain cup, and arranged them in an interlaced manner, very much in the style of Ohara-ryu Ikebana.
His plating looks nice, but can it compare with Yue Ning’s, with its hand-carved gate tower, hand-made dough figurines, and hand-made goldfish shapes?
On their own turf, they compete in their skills and culture, and the show is broadcast live simultaneously in Hong Kong and Japan.
Cai Zhiyuan, who was far away in Hong Kong, sat in front of the screen, exhaled a puff of smoke, and said to the people around him: "The Japanese are stupid now, right?"
"Today's live broadcast has a lot of people watching it. If Miss Yue cooks Chinese food next time, even more people will watch it." The man smiled and said, "The restaurant next door saw that our "Chef Contest" was so popular, they also wanted to do it. They didn't think about it. Do they have Miss Yue?"
Cai Zhiyuan smiled proudly: "They have a lot of money and don't feel bad about throwing it away at Victoria Harbour, let them do whatever they want. This time when Ningning comes back, I will celebrate her success properly."
On TV, Yue Ning mentioned the boiled chicken soaked in ice water. This time, she picked up a Chinese kitchen knife, chopped off the chicken's head and butt, and made two cuts from the chicken's back to cut off the chicken's spine, dividing the chicken into two pieces.
She took two slices of skin-on chicken breast from two pieces of chicken, cut them into long strips, and placed them on the plate.
Japanese rice is absolutely amazing. When Yue Ning served the steaming rice, he could already smell the fragrance.
She poured the rice into a wooden basin, added sushi vinegar, and stirred it so that every grain of rice was evenly coated with the aroma of vinegar.
She washed her hands again, dried them, then gently picked up a ball of rice, rubbed and pressed it in her hands, and the rice became a firm ball.
Then she covered the chicken on the rice ball and pressed it with her fingers, and a boiled chicken sushi was formed.
She made two plates of twelve boiled chicken sushi in a row, and finally garnished each sushi with the classic onion and garlic dipping sauce for boiled chicken.
Yue Ning said: "Cantonese-style white-cut chicken sushi."
Masako Nakajima asked a question on behalf of Ishikawa: "Ms. Yue, is this dish of yours Japanese food? Or Chinese food?"
"I think it will become Hong Kong-style Japanese food, just like Japanese Nanban chicken and Okonomiyaki, which have changed from Western food to Japanese-style food. Just like ramen, which started as Chinese ramen and later became Japanese-style ramen, and even divided into several schools." Yue Ning said with a smile, "Let's go and try it together."
"good."
Yue Ning changed out of his chef's uniform, and Ishikawa invited Mr. Miyamoto to join him.
Today they are not just diners, but colleagues who come here to communicate.
The waiter brought the appetizers. Kaiseki cuisine emphasizes eating food in season, so the appetizers included autumn persimmons. There was a quarter of a persimmon on a plate, which was gone in one bite. It was very sweet.
After the appetizers were served, the sashimi made by the two of them came up.
The two pieces of sashimi were placed side by side. Miyamoto had looked at them again and again. Now he looked at them again. His grandson was several years older than Miss Yue, but he was really no match for her.
He was really curious: "Ms. Yue, how did you learn your craft?"
"My father taught me. I went to Northwest China with him when I was five years old..."
At this time, the TV in the room was broadcasting Chinese news, which was about the situation in China's rural areas. Japan and China are currently in the best period of their relationship. Yue Ning guessed and could tell from the news that the TV station was explaining the situation in China's rural areas with good intentions.
"The northwest you're talking about, is it the kind you see on TV?"
"This village should be in the coastal area, and it's even poorer than this." Yue Ning picked up a piece of geoduck sashimi from the plate made by Takuya Miyamoto.
"Even poorer, so how did you learn?"
"I practiced with limited ingredients. When there were no ingredients, my father asked me to memorize the recipe..."
This made Miyamoto even more confused. Yue Ning smiled and said, "Maybe I was blessed by God?"
Mr. Miyamoto had no choice but to accept this statement, and just then Yue Ning's poached chicken sushi was served.
Ishikawa invited Mr. Miyamoto to taste the chicken. The old man picked up a piece of sushi and took a bite. Nagoya chicken is known to be tender and smooth, but he did not expect that this method could make it so smooth and even chewy. The chicken skin seemed to be dancing between the teeth, and the chicken was tender, firm, and juicy.
"Delicious! Really delicious. We also have chicken sushi. We usually grill the chicken or just eat it raw. This method is really novel."
"This is a traditional Cantonese dish. It is indeed very distinctive."
If the sashimi showed that Yue Ning's superior skills were visible to the naked eye, then Miyamoto's praise for the sushi let the audience in front of the TV know that Yue Ning's dish was also very well cooked.
The live broadcast audience saw it, and what made more people know Yue Ning was a piece of news after the live broadcast ended.
"The Talented Girl Praised by the Kaiseki Master - Hong Kong Chef Yue Ning"
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