Chapter 173 Master Dong’s Appreciation
Song Ziqiang stood by the table, his eyes moving back and forth between the tabletop filled with exquisite cold dishes and the serious-looking master chef beside him. He asked the master chef, "Master Dong, take a look at these dishes. How are they?"
Upon hearing this, Master Dong slowly turned his eyes to the cold dishes on the table. The flying butterflies were sashimi that was as thin as a cicada's wing and had clear textures. Each piece was cut just right, like a nimble butterfly wing; the intertwined mandarin ducks were a cold dish of meat and vegetables, with harmonious colors and lifelike shapes; and the lotus with two stems, which was cleverly carved from onions into lotus petals and a crystal jellyfish gently placed in the middle, was a bright sight.
Master Dong's face, which was usually as rigid as old tree bark, forced a smile, but it was perfunctory. He said with a fake smile, "Cooking is about the real taste, not these fancy things."
Chef Dong is the head chef of another restaurant in Yuecheng - Dongfanglou.
The predecessor of the Oriental Building was the old teahouse and Shengju, which were famous before liberation.
In the past, restaurants mainly served full meals with a rich variety of dishes and focused on banquets and hospitality, while teahouses were known for their snacks and were a great place for people to relax and chat. The two were like two parallel tracks, each with its own business direction and without interfering with each other.
Before liberation, Heshengju's main feature, in addition to its delicious snacks, was its group of young and beautiful waitresses.
In those days, Heshenglou even held a beauty pageant for waitresses, which was very popular for a while. But after liberation, the government made drastic changes to it. In order to completely change the old impression of Heshenglou in people's minds, it was renamed Dongfanglou. From then on, it was transformed into a hotel that served the people wholeheartedly.
Similarly, Fuyunlou has also experienced the process of transformation from a high-end and luxurious restaurant before liberation to a restaurant serving the people. These two old restaurants with completely different backgrounds have gradually moved towards a similar development path under the tide of the times.
Looking back to the past, when Master Luo was alive, Dongfanglou was nothing compared to Fuyunlou. But later, Master Luo passed away, and Fuyunlou has been going from bad to worse under Luo Shichang's turmoil.
Master Dong was originally a chef at Heshengju. In the teahouse business model, chefs are not the main force. But after Heshengju was transformed into Dongfanglou, Master Dong's opportunity came. He is a person who is willing to study and really believes in making good dishes for the working people. Over the years, with his efforts, Dongfanglou has gradually become a restaurant with good quality and low prices in the minds of the working people.
A few months ago, Yue Ning began to carry out comprehensive cooperation with the Second Commercial Bureau, planning to select chefs from all units under the Second Commercial Bureau and send them to the port city for training.
As soon as the news spread, other restaurants regarded this as a rare opportunity and responded enthusiastically.
Only Master Dong disagreed. He said in a very sober and somewhat disdainful tone: "I have no objection to sending people out to make money. But don't make it sound so high-sounding. To put it bluntly, it's just that the bosses in Hong Kong are smart. They saw that our chefs from the mainland have good skills and are cheap, so they recruited them to work as laborers. Let's wait and see first."
Since the master chef had expressed his opinion, naturally no one from Dongfang Building signed up for the training.
When Song Ziqiang was taking stock of the restaurants under his jurisdiction, he both loved and was troubled by the stubborn old man, Master Dong. He loved his dedication to cooking and his belief in serving the people, but was troubled by his stubbornness, which made it difficult for him to change his mind once he made up his mind. And Master Dong did have his own set of principles.
"Don't cooking require color, fragrance, taste and shape?" Ever since Song Ziqiang met Zhou Xuanxiong and Yue Ning, he has gained a deeper understanding of Cantonese cuisine and has learned the ropes.
"This is like a child learning to walk. He wants to run before he even learns how to walk? Fuyunlou should first pick up Master Luo's skills from the past, and then talk about other things. In addition, we must always remember that we cook for the working people. Only when the working people say it is good after eating it, then it is really good." Master Dong's voice was sonorous and powerful, and his words were righteous and unquestionable.
After hearing this, Song Ziqiang shook his head and felt secretly ashamed. His awareness in this regard was indeed far behind that of this stubborn old man.
"Dear leaders, dear chefs, please take a seat." Yue Ning's voice was clear and pleasant, breaking the brief silence. She knew in her heart that it was meaningless to argue at this moment. When it came to cooking skills, an expert would know whether the food was good or not once it was cooked. Everything would be decided after tasting it.
"Please sit down!" Song Ziqiang also greeted everyone enthusiastically.
Yue Ning took the teapot from the waiter and poured tea for everyone. With a sincere smile on his face, he said, "You are all seniors in the catering industry in Yuecheng. I feel honored to be able to come to Fuyunlou today to taste the cooking skills of my uncle Abang and Luo Guoqiang."
When she walked up to Master Dong, she said, "Master Dong is right. When it comes to delicious food, taste is the core. Today, I would like to invite all the chefs to taste it and see if the skills of these two have improved."
Master Dong looked up at Yue Ning. As a craftsman who had been immersed in cooking for many years, he always admired those children who were down-to-earth and devoted themselves to studying cooking. What he hated most were those who were smooth-talking and all talk but no action.
At this moment, in his eyes, the little girl in front of him did not seem like a craftsman who focused on cooking, but more like those businessmen before liberation who were only good at talking and making promises but not delivering on their promises.
"Okay! I'm not good at speaking and I won't hide anything. Just say whatever you want to say. Is that okay?" Master Dong stared at Yue Ning. Although there was a question in his tone, there was also an attitude that did not brook refusal.
Yue Ning responded repeatedly: "Of course, of course."
Yue Ning picked up the teapot with both hands and poured tea for each of the master chefs present.
Then, she picked up the chopsticks and carefully mixed the fish slices, mixing the thin slices of fish with lemon leaves, ginger, peanuts and other ingredients. After mixing, she bowed slightly, smiled, and extended her hand to make a gesture of invitation, respectfully inviting all the chefs to taste it.
Master Dong stretched out his chopsticks, picked up a piece of the mixed sashimi, and put it into his mouth. The sashimi was crispy, tender and delicious, the lemon leaves were fresh, the ginger was slightly spicy, the peanuts were crispy, and the various ingredients complemented the fresh sashimi, giving it a rich taste.
Master Dong couldn't help but pick up another piece with chopsticks. This time, he placed the sashimi in front of him, looked at it carefully, then put it into his mouth and savored it carefully.
After a long while, he uttered two words calmly: "Not bad."
Yue Ning raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and continued to introduce: "This glass crispy roast duck, I combined the characteristics of Beijing roast duck and our Cantonese roast duck, and improved the recipe. Now it is the signature dish of Gangcheng Baohualou, and it is also Luo Guoqiang's specialty. Chefs, why don't you try it?"
Master Dong looked up and saw that the roast duck was ruddy and translucent, with a tight skin and a glazed sheen. He picked up a piece and put it in his mouth. With a "crack", the crispy skin cracked open, and the rich fat burst between his teeth instantly. It was fragrant but not greasy, and the duck meat was tender, firm and juicy.
"The shortcoming of this roast duck is that it is easy to get greasy..." Yue Ning took the initiative to discuss the characteristics of this roast duck with the chefs.
After the sashimi and roast duck, a dish of duck feet stuffed with various flowers was served, followed by a plate of sweet and sour pork. As it was winter, the sweet and sour pork was not cooked in a traditional sweet and sour style.
Sweet and sour pork with pineapple is Chef Dong’s specialty and has been praised by countless diners in the past.
When he makes this dish, he always chooses pork with plum head, because its fat and lean texture makes the sweet and sour pork tender and juicy with excellent taste.
However, the sweet and sour pork in front of him was round and plump, juicy, and had a rich texture when you took a bite. The taste was even richer than what he had made. Master Dong couldn't help but wonder: Was this made with pork belly? But it didn't look like it.
At this time, someone had already asked the question on behalf of Master Dong. Yue Ning answered: "Before liberation, Fuyunlou's sweet and sour pork was made by wrapping thinly sliced pork belly into balls."
Yue Ning elaborated on the uniqueness of this traditional dish. After hearing that she also used orange juice for seasoning, Master Dong picked up another piece of sweet and sour pork and put it in his mouth to taste it carefully.
At this time, Yue Ning turned his head and looked at Master Dong: "Master Dong, is this dish okay?"
Master Dong nodded slightly: "Very good."
When the waiter heard the comment from Old Man Dong from Dongfang Building, he smiled secretly and ran quickly to the kitchen.
As soon as she entered the kitchen, she imitated Chef Dong's serious expression, and vividly imitated the way he said "not bad" to "very good".
He Yunbang listened to the waiter's description while cooking in an orderly manner. He picked up the squid with slightly dried skin and gently put it into the pot. In an instant, a "sizzling" sound was heard, and the squid rolled and changed color in the oil pan. A golden shell gradually formed, and a rich aroma spread. After frying until the surface was golden and crispy, He Yunbang took out the squid, drained the oil, put it on the chopping board, cut it into even-sized pieces, and then arranged it in the shape of squid on the plate. Finally, he picked up a spoon, poured the sauce prepared in advance, and said loudly: "Serve."
The waiter hurriedly took the dish from the waiter and carefully brought it to the table.
Yue Ning immediately introduced: "This is an old Chaoshan dish, fried squid."
Master Dong has always focused on cooking, but in that era of material scarcity and inconvenient transportation, if he had not been like Yue Zhirong, who learned from others and collected classics from everywhere, the dishes he learned and studied would have been only about a hundred.
As a chef who had never cooked for those cunning landlords since the founding of New China, he had no chance and no idea to cook this kind of unpopular old dish.
After tasting the fried squid, which was a combination of steaming, stir-frying, deep-frying and stuffing techniques, Chef Dong remained silent.
"Abang's cooking skills were impeccable before, and his other skills were just average. He has really improved a lot in the past six months," Manager Zhang said at the right time.
"Uncle Abang's basic skills are solid. With more opportunities, it will be easier for him to master them. The main thing is that his enthusiasm has been thoroughly mobilized." Yue Ning explained with a smile.
At this time, two waiters came over with two plates of stewed pots and presented each person with a serving of pigeon wings.
"This is the pigeon wings made by Luo Guoqiang." Yue Ning introduced.
Master Dong has been growing up by exploring on his own, and for many years he has always regarded Fuyunlou as his goal to surpass. Later, Dongfanglou did surpass Fuyunlou, but this surpassing did not make him very happy, because that was the result of Fuyunlou's decline after Master Luo's death.
He has always looked down on Luo Shichang. He has also seen Luo Guoqiang, the son taught by Luo Shichang. Luo Shichang is too selfish and always wants Luo Guoqiang to take shortcuts. He once lamented that the Luo family is probably getting worse with each generation.
Master Dong picked up the chopsticks and gently poked the pigeon's skin, only to see that the pigeon's belly was filled with shark fins. Could Luo Guoqiang really have mastered the skill of deboning a whole pigeon?
"How long has Luo Guoqiang been in Gangcheng?" Master Dong couldn't help but ask.
"He was one of the first to go, almost five months ago."
"Only five months?" he murmured again.
"Among so many people who went, Luo Guoqiang worked the hardest." Yue Ning said, "God rewards hard work, and his efforts paid off."
"Yes!" Master Dong nodded.
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