Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle

Unable to match his son's skills, Qin Congwen's dumpling-making technique remained unchanged for decades.

This year is different; this year he truly gained new skills.

Initially, he secretly learned from Chen An, whose dumplings were slightly better than Qin Congwen's, being a professional breakfast chef.

People are like this: if someone is much better than you, you can't see where exactly they excel because you simply don't understand. But if they are only slightly better, you can observe a thing or two.

Qin Congwen gradually improved by learning these one or two things.

After Pei Xing and Li Hua came to Yunzhong Restaurant, his progress accelerated. Both are professional pastry chefs trained at Zhiwei Restaurant, the regular army, formally educated. Unlike Chen An, the breakfast chef, they had theoretical knowledge, understood the pastry system, and most critically, their teachings were substantial, teaching Qin Congwen without a hitch.

As the boss's father, Qin Congwen humbly asked for guidance, and they taught him willingly.

Pei Xing and Li Hua were also hoping Qin Huai would return from exchange so they could learn from him too.

Under Pei Xing and Li Hua's guidance, Qin Congwen's pastry skills improved by leaps and bounds, reaching the potential to become a professional breakfast chef.

With his skill level improved, Qin Congwen could also recognize more things.

Qin Congwen didn't know if it was because he hadn't seen his son knead dough in a long time or if his progress allowed him to understand, but he felt that Qin Huai's dough-kneading skills had improved a lot.

This phrase "the past cannot compare to the present" surprisingly wasn't used on him first.

Qin Congwen rubbed his eyes and quietly asked Zhao Rong, "Wife, don't you feel that Huaihuai is different from before?"

"Of course, look how fast Huaihuai works now, how skillfully he assigns tasks. Just how much work has he done at Huang Ji? It's a good thing he wasn't sent to Zhiwei Restaurant back then, or he would have been worked to death." Zhao Rong said.

Qin Congwen: ...

I wanted to discuss some professional knowledge with you, and you give me emotional output?

"Indeed." Qin Congwen instantly felt distressed, "Our Huaihuai surely experienced a lot of hardship at Huang Ji!"

At Huang Ji, Qin Huai, who had endured much hardship, thought while kneading dough that He Cheng's tea-making was too unprofessional. Such an important task was given to him, yet he hasn't brought the tea over in such a long time.

For Master Qin to work in such a large kitchen for so long without having a sip of tea, is that right?

Master Qin uneasily continued to knead the dough.

Meanwhile, in the yard, since winter in Qiu County wasn't too cold, wearing a cotton-padded jacket and sitting in the yard to sunbathe for too long could even make one feel warm. Mr. Qin didn't have the habit of insisting on chatting inside the house.

Mr. Qin was seriously completing his task by chatting with the villagers who came by to visit, check the kitchen's progress, and those who brought things in advance for the New Year.

For chatting, naturally, tea should be served.

Mr. Qin was pleasantly surprised to see his grandson making tea and immediately instructed him to boil some water for tea for the guests.

There was no need to go to the large kitchen to boil water; there was a regular small kitchen used for cooking at home, so boiling water there would be fine. Under instructions from his cousin and maternal grandfather, He Cheng could only transform into an unfeeling water-boiling machine, furiously boiling water to make tea.

However, lacking experience, the first few batches of tea had way too many tea leaves, almost filling half a paper cup, resulting in tea so strong that every visiting guest grimaced.

He Cheng himself also grimaced when he took a sip.

Of course, he was scalded.

How could He Cheng dare bring such tea over to his dear brother, he quickly took out his phone in the small kitchen to search online how to brew tea, then discovered there's even a custom of discarding the first brew, different teas have their own methods, and water temperature is also crucial.

The depth of it was overwhelming, overwhelming He Cheng until his vision turned dark. Fortunately, there were plenty of guests, and for some reason, everyone seemed to love drinking tea, providing sufficient test subjects for him to experiment on.

As for the guests...nobody really had an opinion on He Cheng's tea.

The tea wasn't important.

The flaky pastry that Old Qin brought out was unbelievably delicious!

Even though nobody knew why the flaky pastries were crumbled, and everyone was picking up the crumbs to eat, those crumbs were just too tasty.

So delicious that people didn't even want to go home.

They just wanted to awkwardly hang around in the yard and chat, making it look like they weren't just there for the flaky pastry, occasionally having to sip a bit of tea, and even wanting to invite their family over to awkwardly chat too.

For a moment, the Qin family's yard was bustling, with only He Cheng running in and out frantically serving tea.

In the kitchen, Qin Huai was truly thirsty.

Qin Huai hadn't eaten breakfast or drunk much water since arriving in the countryside, and went straight to work in the kitchen without stopping.

Without breakfast, he needed to make some dumplings or buns to fill his stomach quickly.

So far, the steamed buns were in the steamer, and he'd kneaded several batches of dough for dumpling skins. Qin Huai was about to mix the filling in the large basin to hand it to Qin Luo when the tea still hadn't arrived.

"Luoluo, can you pour me a cup of hot water? If there's no hot water, warm beverages like orange juice, Coke, Sprite will do. If none, you can also juice some fruits." Qin Huai said.

Qin Luo, upon hearing this from Qin Huai, knew her brother was really thirsty, and immediately ran out of the kitchen to find He Cheng.

He Cheng was truly unreasonable, as a sister without a blood relationship was bustling around in the kitchen, while He Cheng, as her cousin without a blood relationship, was idling outside.

In the small kitchen, He Cheng was brewing tea nearly to the point of creating sparks.

Seeing Qin Luo coming, He Cheng quickly said, "Luoluo, come take a look for me, which of these cups of tea seems more normal? I've been researching online for a long time and still haven't learned how to brew a good cup of tea, they all taste awful to me."

Qin Luo: ?

Qin Luo tasted each cup: "They all taste the same."

"Do you just not like tea?"

He Cheng: ?

Thirty seconds later, Qin Luo returned to the large kitchen with a cup of warm tea, and Qin Huai drank it all at once and then said, "Luoluo, get me a bottle of Coke."

At that moment, Qin Huai realized he didn't like tea, it was the tea brewed by the people at Zhiwei Restaurant that suited his taste.

Next time, he'd have to ask Tan Wei'an what tea the people at Zhiwei Restaurant brewed for him.

Ten minutes later, the Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns came out of the pot.

Almost as soon as the buns came out of the pot, the aroma of fermented rice filled the air.

The villagers of Qin Family Village had never seen such a spectacle. The villagers who had gathered in the yard for chatting and nibbling on flaky pastry crumbs stopped eating the crumbs and inhaled deeply, then blankly asked:

"What is that smell?"

"It smells like rice wine."

"No no, it seems like steamed buns, the smell of wine and steamed buns."

In the kitchen, the Third Aunt and Sixth Aunt, who were responsible for stoking the fire, were also stunned.

Of course, others weren't not surprised, it's mainly because these two had the most leisure time and could afford to be stunned.

Qin Luo deftly took out the buns, and as she did so, she asked, "Brother, should we eat these buns now?"

"Yes, if you think the temperature is fine, pass me two; I'm starving this morning."

Qin Luo handed over two directly.

Qin Huai: ...Luoluo, your brother's tongue isn't as hot-resistant as yours.

Then Qin Luo gave everyone in the kitchen two each, the first batch of buns was steamed in large quantities, rural stoves could steam several stoves at once, producing enough to sell at a breakfast shop for a while.

After consulting Qin Huai, Qin Luo went around distributing buns, and the villagers in the yard were overjoyed. They never expected to not only eat flaky pastry crumbs today but also freshly steamed buns.

Life is truly getting better; on New Year's Eve, they could eat freshly steamed buns made by Qin Huai!

Qin Luo went out to distribute a round, and whatever was left was saved. They needed to distribute the buns later; on the He Family's side, a bunch of relatives were counting on Qin Xiuli and others to bring back a haul before dinner.

Qin Huai was eating Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns.

Everyone in the kitchen was eating Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns.

People outside the kitchen were also eating Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns.

At that moment, the unique sweetness of Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns overwhelmed everyone's taste buds.

Everyone trying Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns for the first time thought: can we just eat this for the New Year's Eve dinner tonight?

Family, this is what the taste of the New Year is!

Staying put in this yard without leaving, even when full of tea and needing to use the bathroom, turned out to be the wise decision after all!