Chairman Cai, Chairman Zhuo and the two scholars of the Dream of the Red Chamber were all quite surprised by the meal they had at Fujing Building today.
The four people had to admit from the bottom of their hearts that this dinner at Fujinglou made them experience what refinement meant.
This is a kind of delicacy that belongs to Chinese cuisine.
It is not as polite as Western cuisine, but rather a delicate and exquisite cuisine achieved by precisely controlling the quantity of dishes.
The quantity of all the dishes is not controlled deliberately. Instead, according to the size of each plate, each dish is just enough to fill the plate but not overflow. Each plate also has white space, making each dish look rich but not too much.
This kind of precise control of the dish was something the four professional diners had never seen in many years.
Another exquisite point lies in the order in which the dishes are served.
Many people feel that Chinese food is a large table full of flavors, without the combination of strong and light flavors like Western food, so it lacks in sophistication.
But in fact, Chinese cuisine also pays attention to the combination of ingredients, especially in banquet dishes.
The order in which each dish is served and the connection and combination between the appetizers and the side dishes are very particular.
It’s just that modern people live at a fast pace, and at some banquets people’s attention is not on the dishes themselves, so naturally no one will delve into this issue.
But today, in the lakeside private room of Fujing Building, four professional diners once again saw Chinese cuisine being served together.
The order in which each dish is served is very particular. What is the previous dish, which dish should be served first, and which dish should be served later.
It really allows diners to clearly feel the change in taste when tasting it.
For example, strong-flavored dishes should be served later in the day.
And between two strong-tasting dishes, a lighter dish should be served first.
There are also time requirements for stir-frying and stewing dishes.
We must try our best to ensure that each dish has enough time to allow every diner at the table to taste it.
The four professional diners felt that the dishes on the table at Fujinglou today gave them a taste of the sophistication of Western cuisine.
The dishes came one by one, and each one was so exquisite and beautiful.
Among them is the rouge goose breast that was highly praised by two scholars studying the Dream of the Red Chamber.
The two scholars had to admit that this was indeed the first time they had eaten such delicious rouge goose breast. The presentation was very beautiful and the taste had a unique flavor.
Feng Ruoruo couldn't help but praise her father: "My father can also cook this dish."
Su Ruoxi quickly said, "I know, I know your father can cook it too. This dish here was also taught by your father. We all know it."
Feng Ruoruo looked at her mother in surprise: "Ah, how do you know? I haven't told you yet."
Hearing the little girl's words, everyone present couldn't help but laugh.
Su Ruoxi smiled and said to her daughter, "Of course we know, because only Ruoruo's father can make it. So if Ruoruo's father doesn't teach us, how can the people in my uncle's restaurant make it?"
When Feng Ruoruo heard her mother say this, she immediately laughed: "Hehehe, mom is right."
The interaction between mother and daughter became a small episode at the banquet.
Soon, the "Chestnut Roast Chicken" that Su Jinrong specially ordered was served.
In fact, this dish in the book "Dream of Red Mansions" is roasted pheasant. However, hunting pheasants is prohibited nowadays, so Fujinglou naturally cannot use pheasants to make it.
When this dish came up, Su Liancheng came in specifically to introduce it.
"Because there are no pheasants, we chose the most tender chicken for this dish to ensure that there is not too much fat, so as to achieve the effect of restoration."
After listening to this, Su Jinrong smiled and asked, "Oh? Did your chef use the recipe from the Red Mansion?"
Su Liancheng said seriously: "Because we haven't mastered it yet, this dish is still basically made using the traditional method, but the chef has made some improvements to try to keep it as close to the method used in the Red Mansion Banquet."
Su Jinrong nodded and asked Zhuang Daozhong and others to taste it together.
Everyone picked up a piece to taste.
Feng Yifan specially picked up a piece for each of his daughter and several children.
When giving it to Han Wenwen, the girl couldn't help but whispered, "Uncle Yifan, I want to eat chestnuts."
Su Ruoxi heard it and smiled as she used a public spoon to scoop a few chestnuts for Han Wenwen, and also scooped a few for the other children.
Feng Ruoruo saw this and naturally shouted, "Mom, there's also Ruoruo."
Su Ruoxi scooped one for her daughter and said, "They are guests, so we should give them first."
At this time, Zhuang Daozhong and his friends had already tasted the chicken.
President Cai spoke first: "Mm, fresh and juicy, the chicken is indeed very tender, even the meat from my breast doesn't taste dry at all, good."
President Zhuo went on to say: "The taste is also very unique. It is not the kind of heavy salt or spicy taste, but a salty and fresh taste. It has a unique flavor and is really delicious."
The two scholars were also a little surprised after tasting it.
The young scholar said: "I thought it would be the same salty and spicy dish with a strong flavor like the chestnut roasted chicken I usually eat outside, but I didn't expect this to taste completely different."
The middle-aged scholar also said: "It is indeed different. The taste is not as strong as usual, but the salty and fresh taste is really delicious. The chicken pieces are fried very soft, and the chestnuts have absorbed the soup, especially the slight sweetness, which is really unique."
President Cai used his serving chopsticks to gently stir the food on the plate, but he didn't seem to find what he was looking for.
"There are some things added during the cooking process in this dish. They should have been taken out before the dish was cooked, right?"
Feng Yifan smiled and replied, "Yes, according to the orthodox method, before cooking the chicken nuggets, you need to add some fat meat to extract the oil. In this way, the peanut oil mixed with lard will make the whole dish more fragrant. However, before pouring it into the chicken soup to stew, the fat meat slices need to be removed."
After hearing what Feng Yifan said, President Zhuo nodded and said, "Well, no wonder the fragrance is so unique."
Su Jinrong spoke again: "Actually, this dish needs some mushrooms to add some freshness and flavor. Today's dish is still missing mushrooms."
Feng Yifan smiled and said, "Dad, maybe Uncle Master doesn't really understand the cooking methods in the Red Mansion menu."
Su Jinrong nodded and said, "Well, he made some adjustments to the taste of this dish. He didn't use the previous method of Fujinglou, which would have been sweeter. His current improvement is also very good. I can give him a passing score, what do you think, uncle?"
Zhuang Daozhong smiled and said, "Not bad, it's passable. The taste has improved, but it's not amazing."
The four diners were a little surprised when they heard Zhuang Daozhong and Su Jinrong's comments.
I didn’t expect that such a dish could only get a passing score.
President Cai asked: "Speaking of which, do you also know Mr. Zhuang and Jinrong, the current chefs of Fujinglou?"
Zhuang Daozhong smiled and replied, "I know him. He is Jinrong's senior brother."
At this point, the four diners present understood.
President Zhuo smiled and said, "Hahaha, now that you mention it, I understand why Master Zhuang and Jinrong only gave a passing score. This is because he has not reached the level of Mr. Quan Sheng's apprentice."
Su Jinrong also laughed: "If my father were alive, I'm afraid he would make this dish again."
Zhuang Daozhong burst into laughter and said, "Hahaha, that's true. Senior Brother Su is a very strict person. This dish may not pass Senior Brother Su's review. I think Sun Mingxing will have to redo it."
While everyone was chatting and eating in the private room, Sun Mingxing was preparing the dish "Five Flower and Crispy Pork" in the kitchen.
After choosing the pork belly, you need to trim the meat into a square shape.
Then use a sharp knife to remove some of the lean meat from the bottom.
This is a process that tests one's knife skills very much. If one accidentally destroys the integrity, it will affect the appearance of the final dish, so one must be patient in this process.
Sun Mingxing slowly made cuts one by one, relying on his experience to judge how deep the knife should go in.
It can't be too deep, as it will be reserved for stuffing the crispy meat later and for cutting the top.
After making cuts one by one, use the knife to go deeper into the meat and pick out the meat piece by piece.
Sun Mingxing was cautious and fortunately he passed in the end, taking out a complete square depression.
To complete this step, the first thing to do is to marinate the meat slices.
At the same time, the hollowed-out meat also needs to be processed.
Both sides are carried out at the same time. The meat slices are marinated, and the pork belly is put into warm water. Onion, ginger and cooking wine are added. After boiling, skim off the floating foam.
It does not need to be fully cooked, but should be cooked until it turns white, then it can be taken out and washed with clean water.
At this point, the meat slices are almost marinated. The next step is the process that many people use to make crispy meat, which is to coat the meat with batter and then fry it.
In order to ensure that the crispy meat shell is crispy, fry it in the pan at about 60% oil temperature for the first time, and then take it out after it is set.
Then raise the oil temperature to 80% and put it back into the oil pan for frying again.
Some people may think that frying on both sides will absorb a lot of oil.
But in fact, it will not. When it is re-fried at high temperature for the second time, not only will it not absorb a large amount of oil, but because the temperature of the oil for re-frying is very high, it will spit out the oil absorbed by the previous frying.
At this point, it seems that there is nothing special about this dish, but what comes next is the uniqueness of this dish.
Drain the fried crispy meat and then trim it until it can be placed side by side in the hollowed-out square piece of pork belly.
This is another process that tests your patience.
If it were usually done in the kitchen, Sun Mingxing might let his apprentices do this process.
But for today's dish, Sun Mingxing did not let any of his apprentices interfere, he made it all by himself bit by bit.
Use a knife to trim the crispy meat and place it neatly among the square pieces of pork belly.
Next, comes the key point of this dish, which is to put the pork belly stuffed with crispy pork into the braising soup and cook it. After cooking, put it into a bowl and steam it.
Before that, you need to make some changes on the surface.
This way, the dish looks more like a complete cherry meat or fire square.
After the final steaming, thicken the previously prepared broth and pour it over the meat. Place the trimmed green vegetable hearts around it, and the dish is now ready.
It doesn't seem very difficult to say, but each step and process is very complicated.
After finishing this dish, Sun Mingxing was sweating all over and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After finishing the plating, the apprentice Quan Jie wanted to help his master serve the dishes, but was stopped by Sun Mingxing.
Sun Mingxing straightened his clothes and said seriously: "I have to deliver this dish myself. You are not qualified to serve this dish."
Quan Jie was a little surprised. Seeing his master's serious look, he couldn't help but ask, "Master, you're serving the dishes yourself? Who is the other party?"
Sun Mingxing replied calmly, "It's your great-uncle and your uncle, who were the chefs of the previous generation at the restaurant where Master learned cooking. There are also chefs of the new generation, so you are not qualified to serve the dishes yet. Okay, just keep busy."
After saying that, Sun Mingxing picked up the dishes and walked towards the restaurant in front alone.
Seeing the master's serious look, the chefs who came with Sun Mingxing were a little surprised.
Quan Jie quietly approached his eldest senior brother and said, "Brother, have you seen the uncle that Master mentioned? And the one who is now the chef at the restaurant where Master learned cooking?"
Sun Mingxing's eldest disciple Cui Tao shook his head and said, "I haven't seen him, but I have seen my uncle, who is the current national banquet master Zhuang Daozhong. That uncle should be the chef of Su Ji. As for the chef of this generation, it should be the more famous Feng Yifan recently."
When Quan Jie heard the name "Feng Yifan", he couldn't help but whispered, "Big Brother, I heard that the owner of Fujinglou is Feng Yifan. That guy is quite high-profile now."
Cui Tao thought for a moment and said, "It's indeed a bit high-profile, but I don't know if there is much real talent or knowledge."
Quan Jie nodded in agreement: "Yes, I've seen his videos online, and the dishes he makes are just so-so. I don't think they're anything special. Those dishes are pretty basic."
Cui Tao shook his head: "Not entirely, at least the two yellow eel dishes were really well cooked."
Quan Jie thought about it and could only say, "Okay, I admit that his stir-fried soft-shelled pork and stewed raw clams are indeed good, and his skill in slicing the eel meat is already impressive, but with just those two dishes, we can't say he's great, right? Besides, if he was so great, why would we come to Fujinglou?"
It happened that Zhang Fenglin passed by the two men at this time and heard the conversation between the two brothers. Naturally, he couldn't help but speak.
"I asked Master to bring you to take over Fujinglou because Feng Yifan has to support Su Ji, so he doesn't have time to take over Fujinglou. Feng Yifan also hopes that Master can lead you to make Fujinglou a representative restaurant in Huaicheng."
Hearing Zhang Fenglin's words, Quan Jie asked, "What about Feng Yifan's Su Ji?"
Zhang Fenglin said seriously: "Su Ji will become a unique private kitchen restaurant."
Both brothers Cui Tao and Quan Jie were a little surprised.
Quan Jie asked: "Unique?"
Zhang Fenglin nodded and said, "Yes, you will see it soon."
After saying this, Zhang Fenglin turned around and went back to work, leaving the two brothers staring at each other in bewilderment. For a moment, they were a little confused. What kind of strength did Feng Yifan have