Chapter 281 I'm Not Cinderella
If one does not return to his hometown when he is rich and powerful, it is like walking in the night wearing embroidered clothes. Who would know about it?
The Qiao family is not stingy in daily life, but they are also not wasteful. However, the eldest son's wedding is a time to show strength. As one of the richest people in Hong Kong, the ceremony is naturally luxurious.
Baohualou took on the most important banquet, the banquet on the wedding night, and Yue Ning personally finalized the list of chefs.
Led by Chen Jinying, the team includes not only her and Wu Zhihai, but also the old staff of Baohualou, chefs from Yuecheng, chefs of Beijing, Shandong cuisine and Huaiyang cuisine sent by several restaurants in Beijing for further training, and chefs of local cuisine and Zhejiang cuisine who came from Shanghai.
The chefs who had just come to Beijing and Shanghai a month ago all came from state-level hotels. Who had not entertained foreign heads of state? They all said that it was an eye-opener when they came to Hong Kong.
Chen Jinying and the chefs in Hong Kong were very surprised and didn't understand why the ingredients for the state banquet were as "ordinary" as those for a folk banquet.
Master Li from Shanghai picked up a huge Australian lobster and said, "In 1972, the US President visited China. That banquet was considered top-notch, right? We hosted him in Shanghai. The menu included cold dishes: crystal shrimp jelly, roast duck with mushrooms, white-cut chicken, cherry radish, cucumber and tomato; hot dishes: jasmine winter bamboo shoot soup, Buddha jumps over the wall, sweet and sour mandarin fish, steamed crab and braised turtle. Which of these dishes do you think is as precious as the ingredients here?"
Chef Zhong from Beijing began to count on his fingers: "He ate lotus and bamboo fungus soup, shark's fin with three shreds, steamed chicken with coconut, almond cheese, and mushroom shepherd's purse in Beijing. The leader specially ordered a dish of braised croaker. It is said that the croaker is the most powerful part of the fish, symbolizing that the easing of Sino-US relations will strongly promote world development. The state banquet requires that the ingredients must be either Chinese hairy crabs and yellow croakers, or traditional Chinese ingredients such as shark's fin and abalone, with a Chinese characteristic. For example, crocodile palm, I haven't seen it for several years. However, I have been in Hong Kong for a month. How many times have I made it with Chef Chen? It has almost become my specialty."
Chen Jinying smiled and said, "It's three o'clock. All chefs, please report the current preparation status to ensure that today's wedding banquet is foolproof."
She first inspected the cold dishes counter, and the first station was where Takuya Miyamoto was. On the smoothie counter, the sashimi platter had been decorated, but in order to keep it fresh, the sashimi had not yet been plated.
On the other side, the chef asked Chen Jinying to check the prepared cold dishes. He said: "I have only opened the crab roe jelly by hand and have not yet removed it from the mold. If I remove it too early, it will easily deform."
"OK."
In front of the kiln for roasting suckling pig, the chef is using a long-handled hook to turn the suckling pig on the iron rack.
Chef Zhong opened the lid of the pot, revealing crocodile paws that were being stewed. "Serve in two hours, just in time."
Chen Jinying inspected the whole process, and Aunt Fang, the housekeeper of the Qiao family, came in and handed out red envelopes to each chef: "Thank you for your hard work, chef!"
The chefs took the red envelopes and replied with auspicious words: "Good luck and a long-lasting marriage."
In order to keep it fresh, Takuya Miyamoto and his assistants did not start cutting the sashimi until this moment.
At the cold dish counter, the chef wrapped the outer circle of the mold with a warm towel and tapped it gently, and the crystal clear jelly slid into the porcelain plate. This was the hand-assembled crab roe jelly, which would be garnished with caviar later.
The waiter's apprentice loads the cold dishes onto the dining cart.
When the time came, the waiters pushed the food carts out in a line: the sashimi platter with tuna and geoduck as the main ingredients was called "Jade Belt Red Robe", the "Persimmon Ruyi" dish looked like a lantern persimmon covered with white frost, and the stuffing wrapped in glutinous rice skin was named "Gathering of Heroes" because "radishes are having a meeting today"...
The eight cold dishes were completely up to Ning Yan's standard.
After the appetizers were served, Qiao Junshen walked in arm in arm with Cui Huiyi. Qiao Junshen wore a tuxedo and Cui Huiyi wore a wedding dress custom-made in Europe.
On the stage, Qiao's parents and Ye Yingyi stood. Ye Yingyi tried hard to suck in her stomach, somewhat regretting that when she went to Europe with her daughter-in-law, she saw that the dress was beautiful and ordered a waist-hugging style without thinking. Last night, she told her husband to remind her to eat less at noon. Never mind, she didn't blame him, he did remind her.
Cui Huiwen and his wife went on stage. Cui Jiachang wanted to force himself to go on stage, but his daughter just told him that if her mother was here and she was reluctant to go on stage, she would feel sad; if he went on stage like this, she couldn't hold back a tear for a long time, and everyone was embarrassed.
After both parties on the stage blessed the newlyweds, Qiao Junshen and Cui Huiyi cut the cake, and the audience raised their glasses to celebrate the newlyweds.
The waiters pushed the food carts in one after another. Through the glass cover, you can see the main dish of the day, roast suckling pig. The waiter said, "Good luck."
The aroma from the side where the cover was opened first had already come in, and the guests had already smelled that aroma. When the cover was lifted here, the aroma suddenly became strong, and it was so overbearing that some people were already complaining that the waiter was too slow.
The waiter held a knife in his hand, and the moment the blade cut into the suckling pig, the hot gravy splashed out with fragrance. The blade separated the suckling pig, revealing the crab roe and glutinous rice inside.
Roast suckling pig is a must-have dish at wedding banquets in Hong Kong. Since everyone eats a lot of it, even the slightest differences can distinguish the good from the bad.
Looking at the piece of roast suckling pig on the plate with golden caramel color and fine bubble cracks, the guests can't help but wonder what the difference is between this roast suckling pig and that in other places.
The guest picked up the roast suckling pig first, leaving the glutinous rice on the plate. The skin was as crispy as the glass-skinned roast duck at Baohualou, but the fat and fragrance of the pork was even better than the roast duck. What was even more peculiar was that the pork was very fragrant, not the fragrance of spices, but the pure fragrance of meat.
“Why is this pork so fragrant?”
Among the guests were people from all over the world. Moreover, “the emperor also has relatives wearing straw sandals”, and only a few people could afford Ningyan.
Someone who knows the business introduced: "Baohualou's roast suckling pig uses Guangxi Luchuan pigs, which are already delicious. Ningyan's roast suckling pig uses Guangxi Huanjiang fragrant pigs, which are even better. There is a saying that 'one family cooks meat and the neighbors are fragrant, and the taste can be smelled seven miles away'."
"It smells really good!"
"The aroma of the meat is mixed into the glutinous rice, and the glutinous rice is also added with crab powder. Even with just this little bit, I still can't get enough of it."
"This is just the first course, there are more to come! You're already full after one course, do you want to eat the rest?"
As he was talking, the waiter brought a pot of stew to the guests. The lid of the stew pot was opened, and inside was a pigeon lying in a thick golden soup. This was the Lu family's braised shark's fin, and the aroma of this soup was its signature dish.
The chopsticks gently split the pigeon's back, revealing the curled golden hook wings. The shark's fins are full of the sweetness of the pigeon, and the pigeon meat is soaked in the richness of the braised soup. After taking a bite, you will understand why the dignitaries in Beijing have been intoxicated by this soup for hundreds of years.
After this hard dish, there was another dish called "A Happy Marriage" with fresh lily and Australian lobster. It was different from the usual Western flavors of butter and cheese, and was cooked in a purely Chinese way, with only the aroma of soy sauce, garlic and shallots, and the crisp sweetness of fresh lily. This dish tasted surprisingly good.
After the hard dishes, there are even harder dishes, such as Jipin abalone with crocodile palm, named "Pearl in the Palm"...
*
This lavish wedding is over, but the discussion in Hong Kong’s newspapers, magazines, television stations and radio stations has not yet ended.
Some people discussed that all the flowers used to decorate the wedding venue were airlifted from the Netherlands, some talked about the dresses Cui Huiyi wore, and some talked about the three banquets, which can be said to be unrivaled in the Chinese world. Some even retorted: "Even if it were the whole world, it would be difficult to gather so many famous chefs to prepare this banquet, right?"
Even if there is a grand banquet in Hong Kong, it will be difficult for Yue Ning to send so many chefs. The only wedding that can surpass this one is probably Yue Ning's own wedding.
These articles describing the feasts of the rich are all the same, but HTV's rivals always try to be different. During Qiao Junshen's wedding, they came out to list the girlfriends he had dated over the years. All of his former girlfriends were celebrities in the entertainment industry, but in the end, he still married the daughter of the Cui family, who was a good match for him.
They concluded that it was not easy for Cinderella to marry Prince Charming. This was nothing, but they were afraid that it would not be popular, so they asked: "Is Yue Ning considered Cinderella?"
This annoyed Yue Ning's fans. In the eyes of fans, how could Yue Ning be considered Cinderella? Ning Ning and Xianzi were a perfect match, a match made in heaven, a princess and a prince.
The media also said: "Don't forget, Yue Ning was a shepherdess in the northwest more than a year ago. Her family background is just that her grandfather has a Baohua Building which is not too big. How can you say she is not a Cinderella?"
While the fans were still arguing with each other, the entertainment reporters went to the school to wait for Yue Ning. Yue Ning burst out laughing: "Of course I'm not Cinderella. Do you think Cinderella is a commoner? Cinderella's father is a nobleman, and she has a fairy godmother. I am the daughter of the working people. My father is a cook, and my grandfather is also a cook. I don't have a fairy godmother, I only have yeast for making steamed buns."
There were quite a few people around during the interview, and everyone who heard it laughed.
"Then you admit that you are not even as good as Cinderella?" someone asked.
Yue Ning frowned: "That's not right! How come I'm not as good as Cinderella? Cinderella relied on her godmother to attend the prince's ball, but I rely on myself..."
Yue Ning seemed to realize something and said quickly: "No, no, try again!"
Yue Ning stood up straight immediately and said seriously: "Cinderella has a godmother, and I have a godfather. In fact, Uncle Mo has helped me a lot. However, the help my uncle gave me was never to make me marry into a wealthy family. He hoped that I would become more outstanding. Sister Huiyi is the same. She is not Cinderella, nor is she a princess waiting to be awakened by the prince's kiss. She is the king of her own life. If she has a like-minded partner, then they can be together; if not, she will still live a wonderful life. It is enough for us to be better than we were yesterday."
Yue Ning accepted the interview and walked into the school. She found a classroom and waited for the classmates who had translated the materials with her before.
Zhou Mingxuan and Zhao Jiaying arrived first. Zhao Jiaying asked, "Ningning, is there any new information?"
"No, wait till they come, and I'll tell them together!"
People came one after another, all of them were students who signed up for the document translation last time.
Yue Ning stood in front of the podium and said, "Thank you all for coming. I came to you this time because my friends in the mainland wanted me to help. They wanted me to continue to go to the Guangdong Import and Export Commodities Fair to introduce and sell products to foreign businessmen. But I want to make this opportunity a project. Didn't I say in my speech to freshmen that 'under the linkage between China's reform and opening up and the port city economy, we today will define the future of the port city'? I have discussed with the teachers and would like to invite interested students to go to the autumn trade fair with me to help mainland companies with translation, and at the same time understand what the mainland lacks and what we can do."
Last time, Yue Ning asked everyone to translate materials. Not only did he pay them, he also treated everyone to a meal at Ningyan in Repulse Bay.
How could a child from an ordinary middle-class family dare to think about eating at Ningyan? Everyone knew that Yue Ning was generous and said, "You can talk to the teacher, as long as you can arrange a time for us."
The school naturally supports this kind of practical activity. Last time Yue Ning came alone, but this time she brought a team of people, which made several import and export companies very happy.
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