Chapter 192: Bear Paw
The audience stared at the TV screen and was initially shocked by the strong visual impact.
Japanese high-end cuisine has always focused on artistry and Zen. Whether it tastes good or not is not important for now. Just looking good is already half the battle. As pufferfish is a traditional Japanese ingredient, the audience can imagine its rich and diverse ways of eating it just by looking at the screen.
Not to mention the Hong Kong audience. Some people may not have been to Ningyan, but many people have been to Baohualou. How many people have tasted the sashimi and fish soup of Baohualou? Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "people would risk their lives to eat puffer fish", which is enough to show that the deliciousness of puffer fish is mouth-watering.
As soon as the Qiankun roast goose was served, the Japanese audience had not yet reacted, but the Hong Kong audience had already been salivating. There must be something hidden in the goose's belly, but the Hong Kong audience was too lazy to guess what it was, after all, Yue Ning always liked to add all kinds of creativity to the ingredients. Sure enough, this time Yue Ning stuffed their signature "Kunlun Baofu" in it. The audience thought, no, I must go to Baohualou tomorrow to eat a crispy glutinous rice chicken, or try the eight-treasure pigeon to satisfy my cravings!
The Japanese audience realized that this dish must be super delicious when they saw their chefs talking and enjoying the dish. They were even more shocked when the French chef asked for a second helping. Did the French chef forget that he had spent so much effort to make the chicken with a bladder, but the bladder was not used and only two pieces of chicken breast were served?
On the screen, the waiter served everyone a second serving of Qiankun roast duck. As Lucas ate, he heard the translator tell him that the chickens, ducks, fish, and pigeons in this restaurant could be deboned and made into similar dishes.
He praised: "This is one of the best dishes I have ever eaten. Miss Yue is a top chef."
After this sentence was translated into Japanese, Ishikawa was particularly happy and said, "Mr. Lucas is a Michelin three-star French chef. It is a great honor for Miss Yue that he can give such praise." These two sentences were then translated into Chinese.
The waiter brought a refreshing and delicious dish of spring bamboo shoots stuffed with morels and various flowers to the table as a transitional dish.
Then, a dish with great visual art appeared. In the large porcelain plate, a dragon gate stood tall, with dragons coiled on the pillars and eaves on both sides of the dragon gate, peonies in full bloom below the dragon gate, and a carp about to take off in front of the dragon gate.
The whole carp was covered with bright red sauce, looking more and more like a koi that was about to jump over the dragon gate. Surprisingly, the carp was covered with fine golden noodles. The waiter introduced: "This is Chef Lu Ningyan's carp jumping over the dragon gate. The carp has not been deboned. Please be careful of the fish bones when eating."
After that, the waiter quietly went out and shared the customer's reaction with the waiter on the side, especially the French chef's praise for Yue Ning. After sharing, she returned to the box and continued to serve the guests.
At this moment, the guests were carefully appreciating the dish, and Grandpa Zhou began to introduce its origin: "It is said that this is a dish that has been passed down for a thousand years."
The translator relayed this sentence, which instantly attracted everyone's interest and everyone looked at him.
Grandpa Zhou told the story: "When Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, launched the Chenqiaoyi Mutiny, his brother Zhao Guangyi's wife secretly sewed a dragon robe. After Zhao Kuangyin was crowned with the dragon robe, his sister-in-law cooked this dish again, using the meaning of a carp turning into a dragon to persuade Zhao Kuangyin to ascend the throne. The fine golden noodles fried in rapeseed oil symbolize the dragon robe. The dish of baked carp noodles has been passed down to this day. Their dish combines the methods of Shandong cuisine's sweet and sour Yellow River carp and Henan cuisine's baked carp noodles. The seasoning of the two is similar, both are sweet and sour. Shandong cuisine focuses on the shape of the leaping fish, while Henan cuisine covers this level."
The sweet and sour taste after frying is popular among the public, but river fish has many bones, so everyone feels good about this dish, but it is far from amazing.
This was within Yue Ning's expectations. When she and Lu Peide discussed this dish, they had considered using sea fish, which has a stronger flavor and more tender meat. However, carp has a special symbolic meaning. Once the fish is replaced, the meaning of this dish is reduced by more than half. This dish is more used to showcase the technique and traditional culture. As for the dishes that pay attention to taste, they will be in the next one.
Furthermore, in the kitchen at this moment, the young man serving food just said that the French chef praised Yue Ning, and Ishikawa said that this is an honor for being a chef.
Zhang Hongxing is a lively person, only about 25 or 26 years old. He was more excited to hear this than to be praised himself: "Ningning, do you know what a Michelin three-star chef is? Do you know what his words mean to you?"
Of course Yue Ning knew, but that was in the last life. And even in the last life, there were only a little over a hundred restaurants that could get the Michelin three-star award, and even fewer in this era.
Yue Ning responded: "It's good to be praised by professionals, but we should not be surprised by praise or criticism. Abang is going to cook, don't you want to go and have a look?"
He Yunbang is cooking a signature dish of Baohualou, which uses dried silver carp maw. Baohualou and Ningyan have to make a lot of fish soup every day, and many fish maws are left when the fish are killed. Yue Ning developed this dish based on the traditional recipe.
This dish, like the dry fried beef noodles, is a dish that tests the chef’s cooking skills at Baohualou.
After the dried silver carp maw is put into the oil pan and soaked, it is full of bubbles, just like the pork belly soaked in pork skin. After soaking and cleaning, the fish maw becomes soft and easy to absorb juice, and can be used to make stews and soups. The fish maw soaked in soup is very delicious. But the requirements of this dish are the same as those of dry fried beef noodles, which must be dry and have that wok aroma.
This means that the seasonings must be strictly controlled, especially liquid seasonings such as soy sauce and oyster sauce. If there is less, the fish maw will not be flavorful, and if there is more, it will be wet and lose its dry fragrance. He Yunbang simmered the fish maw with scallion, ginger and light salt water, then drained it, mixed it with soy sauce and oyster sauce, and then stir-fried it in chicken oil.
Zhang Hongxing said, "Stir-fry with chicken fat? I went to Baohualou and ordered this dish twice. I thought you would mix it with soy sauce first, but I didn't expect you to stir-fry it with chicken fat."
Master Qiu took over the conversation: "These subtle differences are the unique skills of a restaurant, and they all rely on the skills of making a living."
He Yunbang poured out the fried fish maw, and then fried bean sprouts and leeks. The second difficulty of this dish is that the bean sprouts and leeks cannot be fried until they are soft and watery. Of course, for a cook like him, this is nothing. The so-called osmanthus does not really mean adding osmanthus, but frying the eggs into fine osmanthus shapes. After frying several ingredients separately, stir-fry them together, and finally add shredded green and red peppers for garnish. "Serve."
At He Yunbang's command, the waiter immediately brought the dish out and handed it to the waiter, who would serve it on the table immediately after it came out of the pot.
The waiter served the dish and said, "Ningyan Chef He Yunbang's fried fish maw with osmanthus. Please enjoy!"
Yanxi, who danced in front of the iron plate every day, was the first to widen his eyes: "What a nice smell, what a nice smell!"
Ishikawa asked him to taste it, and he took a piece with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. At that moment, an indescribable feeling came over him. As a teppanyaki master, he has been pursuing this unique burnt aroma, the softness and flexibility of the fish belly, and the aroma lingering in his mouth.
The French are also pursuing this ultimate aroma when frying steak and foie gras. Lucas is one of the French who is willing to learn about the cuisines of other countries and is not very prejudiced against Chinese food. Even so, his impression of Chinese food remains that it is heavy in salt and oil and dark and greasy, not to mention ordinary French people.
However, in this dish, he felt that his Chinese counterparts used ordinary ingredients to create an intoxicating delicacy. The sweet fragrance of eggs, the tenderness of fish maw, and the freshness of bean sprouts and leek sprouts collided between lips and teeth to create a rich taste.
Yanxi told Ishikawa, "There's no need to arrange my tour of the port city for the next two days. I just want to exchange cooking skills with Chef Yue. Of course, if an appointment is required, I can stay here for two more days."
After Yanxi said this, Miyamoto also said, "I'll come too."
After listening to the translator, Lucas said, "I also want to communicate for two more days."
"I'll arrange it." Ishikawa responded.
Next came the chicken dregs. This dish is hard for most people to accept, and Yue Ning originally did not include it in the menu. It was when Ishikawa watched the match between Zhang Hongxing and He Jiahui last time that he became interested in this dish and specifically requested it. Moreover, this dish happened to be Zhang Hongxing's specialty. Yue Ning thought that there were similar dishes in Japan, so he added it.
Ishikawa had seen the cooking process last time, and he enthusiastically explained to everyone that this was a dish made with chicken roe as the main ingredient. When the Japanese heard this, they understood and happily started eating.
After all, in Japan, there is chicken roe sashimi. The bright-colored chicken roe melts instantly in your mouth, and its moist and delicate taste attracts Japanese diners.
Seeing them all eating, Lucas was about to pick up his chopsticks. Ishikawa hurriedly asked the translator to explain to him, and the translator focused on introducing the ingredients of this dish. Lucas said, "We also eat beef kidneys and offal sausages. Otherwise, why would we use pig bladders to make dishes?"
He picked up a piece of chicken scraps and put it in his mouth, then bit it gently. Under the crispy outer skin was a soft, tender and smooth filling. The fresh taste of the chicken was wonderfully blended into the filling. There was no peculiar smell at all, only pure freshness and mellowness.
“It tastes amazing,” he commented.
Several more dishes were served one after another, and each one tasted good. At this time, everyone’s mouth was still hungry, but their stomachs were almost full.
Just at this moment, another food cart was pushed in, and the aroma wafted out from the gaps in the casserole.
The casserole was served, the waiter opened the lid, a rich meaty aroma rose up, and a "bear paw" suddenly appeared in the pot. Ishikawa was stunned.
When drawing up the menu, Ishikawa also discussed these dishes with Yue Ning. Yue Ning explicitly refused to use bear paws to cook, and said that in order to make a bear paw, one has to kill one or even several bears, which is too cruel. What is going on now?
At this time, the waiter explained: "This is the bear paw made by Chef Yue and Chef Lu Peide. Can I share the food for everyone?"
"I don't want to eat, no need to give it to me." said Mr. Zhou.
Cai Zhiyuan asked him: "Grandpa Zhou, why don't you eat?"
"What's fake won't be real. I'm getting old, and I want to go into the coffin with the memory of the real bear paw."
If the stubborn old man doesn’t want to eat, then forget it.
The waiter used a dinner knife to cut the "bear paw" open, but no one saw the bones that should be there in a bear paw, only the trembling tendons that had been cooked.
"What on earth is this made of?"
Most of the guests on the scene had to catch a flight early in the morning and had no time to watch the morning highlights. However, the audience in front of the TV had seen it, and the housewives said to the TV: "Bull's hoof!"
Except for Mr. Zhou, everyone got a piece of bear paw with skin and tendons. The fragrant collagen melted between teeth as soon as they took a bite. They were already full, but how could they bear to give up this piece of bear paw? They regretted it now. If they had known that roast goose was delicious, they should not have had a second helping. But they still had to eat it.
Everyone around was eating, and Grandpa Zhou's nose was filled with the rich aroma, just like the bear paws of the past... Grandpa Zhou's saliva was almost flowing out, and Cai Zhiyuan asked him again: "Why don't you treat it as a braised cow's hoof and have a piece?"
Yes! This is braised beef trotter. Mr. Zhou said, "Give me a piece of braised beef trotter."
The waiter tried hard to hold back his laughter as he cut a piece for the old man and brought it over. The old man picked it up and put it in his mouth. Wow! It was indeed that kind of indescribable soft, glutinous and fragrant taste. He squinted his eyes and enjoyed it: Well, it can really be said to be like a bear paw.
Everyone was already very full. However, another delicious aroma drifted in, and the waiter said, "This is the knife fish wontons that Chef Lu Peide prepared the soup and Chef Yue seasoned."
Everyone was caught in a struggle between heaven and man again...
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