Chapter 27: Mission Completed
Bai Mengmeng finally breathed a sigh of relief, finally arriving in time.
She wanted a lot of things. There were nine different varieties of bamboo shoots alone. Boss Qi was indeed a capable man. He managed to buy them all in such a short time.
Qi Xiuyuan took a breath and said, "Young Boss, you want too many things, and the variety is too diverse. It's impossible to buy them at the market in such a short time. I can only ask someone to go to a private restaurant and buy these ingredients from their warehouse."
Bai Mengmeng nodded: "You are really smart. Some of the precious ingredients here may not be available even in large supermarkets."
These exotic ingredients are mainly used to make the main dish Dinghu Shangsu.
The so-called "Dinghu" is actually a place, and "Shangsu" means very high-quality vegetarian food.
I heard that this dish needs to be cooked with spring water from Dinghu Mountain to achieve the best flavor.
However, it was impossible for Bai Mengmeng to get some spring water in just one day, so he used Evian instead. But don't underestimate Evian, this mineral water is very expensive.
The ingredients of Dinghu Shangsu are also very particular, usually using three kinds of mushrooms, six kinds of ears, nine kinds of bamboo shoots, and one kind of radish.
The so-called three mushrooms refer to button mushrooms, straw mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms.
The six ears refer to golden ear, white ear, wood ear, elm ear, stone ear, and osmanthus ear.
These alone are exaggerated enough, not to mention the nine bamboo shoots.
There are nine kinds of bamboo shoots: bamboo shoots, asparagus, golden bamboo shoots, vegetable bamboo shoots, pen bamboo shoots, white bamboo shoots, hairy tail bamboo shoots, pig belly bamboo shoots, and hanging bamboo shoots.
Together with bamboo shoots, they constitute the raw materials of this dish.
The dishes made from these rare and top-quality ingredients may not necessarily taste top-notch, but they will definitely look high-end, and can definitely satisfy people's vanity and make wealthy people feel proud.
Bai Mengmeng didn’t know whether the dish I made with such complicated ingredients would be delicious or not. After all, she had never eaten such high-end cuisine. However, she was confident in her cooking skills and believed that the taste would definitely be good.
Soak the ingredients thoroughly and then wash them clean. However, there are so many ingredients and they are so complicated that if you want to cut them perfectly, you need stronger knife skills.
The dinner time was getting closer and the guests were almost arriving, so Bai Mengmeng started preparing all the ingredients.
…
The second sister's family arrived last, and the Qi family finally sat together.
Eldest brother Qi Boyuan and Qi Xiuyuan helped the old man down from upstairs, and everyone stood up.
"You're welcome. Just make more. It's just a family dinner."
Although Mr. Qi is not yet seventy years old, his health is not very good. He speaks politely but his face is serious.
Qi Boyuan smiled and said, "Father, today is your birthday, so of course we have to serve snacks. Not to mention one table, even if we set up sixty tables, it would be justified."
Qi Cong was speechless. After all, it was their family's turn to hold a birthday party this year. It was Grandpa who wanted to keep it simple and asked the family to just have a small gathering. His uncle's words seemed to imply that his father was deliberately neglecting Grandpa, which made people unhappy no matter how they heard it.
Qi Boyuan's wife also laughed and said, "Dad, this year it was my brother and sister-in-law who put a lot of thought into preparing a birthday banquet for you. Even Chef Sun, whom you like, looked down on them. I don't know where they invited this chef back from."
Qi Ma naturally heard the sarcasm in these words and could only smile: "Master Sun is not in good health, so we hired a master chef this time to make some simple Chinese vegetarian dishes."
Mr. Qi didn't care: "Just keep it simple."
The younger generation in the family didn't care about the open and secret struggles, and acted as if they didn't hear anything. They just hoped it would end soon.
Who among these young people is used to eating vegetarian food? If it weren't for the old man's birthday today, they wouldn't have wanted to come.
After saying some objective auspicious words and wishing the old man a long life, the kitchen started serving the dishes one after another.
Because it is a separate dining system, the vegetarian dishes are not pre-prepared in advance like in hotels, but are cooked and eaten immediately, so they cannot be served all at once, but one by one, from soup, appetizers, to main dishes and staple foods.
The Qi family’s custom is to start with a bowl of soup to whet the appetite. Generally speaking, most of the soups for vegetarian banquets are made with mushrooms to make the food fresh.
So for the first dish, Bai Mengmeng just made a very simple clear soup for everyone.
After seeing this, Qi Boyuan almost laughed out loud.
"It's actually vegetable and tofu soup..." This dish can no longer be described as stingy, it's simply shabby. I really don't know where they found this amateur chef from, what good dish can he make?
The younger ones at the table also had strange expressions on their faces and couldn't help whispering to each other.
The old man's expression remained unchanged, and he drank a sip of soup very calmly.
The clear soup is moist, sweet and smooth in texture. It contains almost no seasoning and no starch to thicken it. Instead, it retains the original flavor of the ingredients to the greatest extent, making it very delicious.
Mr. Qi took a few sips in succession. The others were a little surprised and followed suit to taste it.
I didn’t expect the soup to taste so good. It seems that being a chef who can prepare a birthday banquet is not that simple. It must be a mess.
However, Qi Boyuan's face suddenly turned ugly. He was just a solitary chef in a farm house, but the food he cooked tasted so good?
Could it be that he is particularly good at making soup? There shouldn’t be any surprises next, right?
Before I finished the soup, the second dish was served, which was a simple vegetable platter.
The presentation of the dish is quite nice, with four squares filled with salad cucumbers, salad tomatoes, pickled Buddha's hand slices and pickled pepper lettuce.
But no matter how good it looks, this dish is still too ordinary.
Cucumbers and tomatoes are not common items. Even if you buy a truckload of them, they won’t cost much. This chef is really good at fooling people!
However, no matter how dissatisfied they were, they did not dare to show it and could only pretend to be interested.
The old man was interested. He liked this kind of dish that looked simple and he could tell the ingredients at a glance, so he couldn't wait to pick up a piece with chopsticks and put it in his mouth.
"Good!" The tomatoes are sour and sweet, and full of flavor.
Even the most expensive tomatoes you spend a lot of money on don’t taste as good as the ones here. Is it because the raw materials are too good, or is it because the chef’s skills are extraordinary?
For a moment, the old man couldn't tell the difference.
After tasting all the dishes on the platter, the old man put down his chopsticks, feeling very satisfied. Whether it was cold dishes or pickled vegetables, they were all full of flavor and extremely delicious.
The younger generation looked down on this kind of dish from the bottom of their hearts. They just wanted to have a go at it, but they loved it so much. Especially the cucumber was refreshing and relieved the greasiness, and the lettuce slices were also very satisfying. Before they knew it, everyone had finished eating.
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