"The flour is here—"
Shanben Xiaoshu efficiently carried the ingredients back.
This mohawked youth, and Xia Yu, were in the sa batch of interns at Chiyoda Shrine, but as ti went by, Shanben Xiaoshu had not truly advanced to the special class, while Xia Yu had already challenged the older generation at Mount Tai.
He wasn’t wearing monk robes at the temple, dressed like a young urbanite in casual attire. Shanben Xiaoshu put down a half bag of flour and grinned as he revealed a sealed food container.
"Xia Yu, I knew you were interested in the ’Stargazing’ dish, so I even prepared salted fish for you. Let’s explore the true path of dark cuisine together—"
Shanben Xiaoshu looked eager.
"Huh?"
Xia Yu’s train of thought was interrupted, and he blinked, "Salted fish? Stargazing?"
He couldn’t help but twitch at the corner of his eyes.
Such a famously abhorrent dish, rely hearing its na makes one feel intense discomfort. Could we stop ntioning it? Ah!
"Hey! You might be misunderstanding sothing!"
"Ah, really?"
Instead, Shanben Xiaoshu was shocked, "You asked for flour, isn’t it to discuss dark cuisine with ?"
"..."
Shanben Liu’s ’Stargazing’, he knew, Xia Yu had experienced it back at Chiyoda Shrine.
Flour and salted fish are the main ingredients.
When combined, they create a new style of ’Stargazing’, cough!
Xia Yu finally understood why this guy had never managed to advance to the special class.
Damn, what serious chef talks about ’dark cuisine’ all the ti?
Yet the enthusiasm in Shanben Xiaoshu’s eyes didn’t seem fake.
My goodness, Xia Yu silently mourned for the position of "senior brother" in this generation of Shi Lin Temple. Master Yizhen and Aoki Motota must also be quite troubled by such an oddball in their midst.
"I want the flour to make handmade ran!" Xia Yu explained with amusent, "This is my personal culinary practice, and it has nothing to do with dark cuisine! I promise!"
"Ah!"
Shanben Xiaoshu imdiately slumped his shoulders, sighing with regret.
The pain of losing a kindred spirit was sothing Xia Yu didn’t understand, nor did he want to. He waved his hand, "Alright, you can go if you have things to do, but if you want to watch, then behave yourself!"
Shanben Xiaoshu opened his mouth as if to preach, just like on Xia Yu’s first night at Shi Lin Temple when he found Xia Yu and boasted about his own dark dishes. On hearing this, however, he imdiately swallowed his words.
He wasn’t dumb, his intelligence was intact.
Even if it’s not his own ’dark path’, observing a master up close while they cook live is no small blessing.
Right.
Shanben Xiaoshu maintained a calm mindset, not feeling inexplicably jealous or hostile just because Xia Yu, who was younger, had completely outclassed him in culinary skills.
By keeping a humble stance, the aura of the young master before him couldn’t be ignored no matter what.
Xia Yu began pouring flour, manually preparing it.
He wasn’t in a hurry, staring at the delicate, high-quality flour in the mixing bowl, his face reflecting deep thought.
Since it’s ’Wabi-Sabi Ran’, I need to infuse my understanding of Wabi-Sabi into the dish.
Actually, this is culinary philosophy.
Or rather, it’s the creation of "aning".
This "aning" lies within ’color, aroma, taste, form, spirit, and nurture’.
"The first level of Wabi-Sabi, ’coarse on the outside, refined on the inside’, suggests that I should intentionally make the dish look unappealing, but taste astonishingly good? Wow, that’s too real, it doesn’t align with my philosophy."
"The second level of Wabi-Sabi, ’passage of ti’, is also too superficial."
"Since it was explicitly stated to eat ’Wabi-Sabi’ with a sense of modern freshness, then the poetic understanding of ’new trees growing before the sick tree’ is correct!"
Xia Yu’s brain worked quickly.
He knew the third level of ’Wabi-Sabi’, but how to apply it in actual cooking?
In other words, what culinary techniques could he use to realize the poetic essence of ’new trees growing before the sick tree’?
A bowl of ran can generally be divided into: noodles, soup, and toppings.
Then, there’s the flavor aspect: seasoning and taste enhancent.
In fact, over a hundred years ago, when ran was introduced to the island country from Yokohama Chinese Street and transford into the world-renowned Japanese noodle dish through a series of adaptations to suit Neon’s taste, the ’noodle’ part, compared to the soup, toppings, and flavors, arguably changed the least.
In China Town, ran is made by chefs after kneading the dough and then hand-pulling it through a complex process.
In Neon, ran is cut with knives, or simply pressed with a noodle machine for convenience and speed.
Both are "ran," but due to the use of alkaline water, they differ significantly in texture and chewiness.
But to truly speak, ran hasn’t changed much.
The root is right there!
"So, think of ran as a ’sick tree,’ and if I want to make the old tree bloom and rejuvenate, it’s not about mindlessly changing ran, but about seeing the whole bowl of ran!"
"The freshness of the tis, the vitality of the tis...is in the soup, the toppings, or the seasoning and flavoring parts!"
The construction plan in Xia Yu’s mind gradually beca clear.
His lips quickly curled into a refreshing smile.
Got it!
"Perhaps this way, when chewing, the mouth easily breeds a Wabi-Sabi emotion. But this is just a change in the ’toppings’ part; should I make further adjustnts to the soup and seasoning?" Xia Yu eyed the culinary skills list.
After Bursting Fla, the spice inequality also crossed the boundary, reaching the source.
Is it ti to demonstrate it?
Xia Yu’s eyes appeared quite cautious.
...
When Aoki Motota and Master Yizhen arrived in the kitchen, Xia Yu had already made the noodles, and the pot for boiling the soup base was set on modern stoves.
At this ti, the stove fire was strong, with a slight twist of mist above the pot of broth.
What truly stopped the two in their tracks, revealing looks of surprise, was the "toppings" Xia Yu was preparing for the ran.
The familiar toppings for Japanese ran are nothing more than a few.
Tender bamboo shoots, red ginger, seaweed.
A soft-boiled egg.
And... Japanese char siu!
For things like tender bamboo shoots and green onions, Xia Yu certainly couldn’t make major changes.
While for soft-boiled eggs, the room for manipulation is too narrow.
The only thing left is char siu!
Now Xia Yu was creating his unique char siu in a way that others couldn’t understand.
Actually, after watching many ani, seeing the round, round Japanese char siu on screen, often accompanying ran as a CP pairing, Xia Yu himself used to be very curious about how ’Japanese char siu’ is made.
It doesn’t seem to be simply frying.
It’s tender and juicy.
But when eating Japanese cuisine, eating ran, the sparse two or three pieces of at are too stingy, not satisfying at all.
So later, Xia Yu specifically consulted the old man, one of his few culinary inquiries before awakening the system and officially getting started.
Japanese char siu is particularly ticulous about knife skills.
First, take a whole piece of pork belly or pork shoulder, open it and cut it into large slices, the thickness should maintain finger thickness, it must be even.
Thickness, cross-section, is the detail center of the knife skills.
Then, tenderize it with a wooden mallet, but not to mince it, it’s like vibrating beef steak muscle at.
Next is wrapping it like a "zongzi"!
The at is rolled up, tied tightly with cotton string, looking very much like a zongzi.
Next, it’s just a matter of frying the ’at zongzi’, going through frying, stewing, and boiling, at least one to two hours, to really make a portion of Japanese char siu.
And now, Xia Yu’s thod, when seen by Shanben Xiaoshu, Aoki Motota, and Monk Yizhen, appeared very "crude"!
He cut the pork into slices first, although the slices of pork are also Japanese char siu, familiar round slices, but the steps...
Shanben Xiaoshu exclaid, "Isn’t it supposed to be ’at roll’ first, fried and stewed, then chilled in the fridge for a while before slicing?"
"In a conventional sense, ’Japanese char siu’ must be done this way."
Aoki Motota pondered and said, "Because, after frying and stewing, at least an hour of cooking, let alone at slices, even ’at rolls’ bound tightly with cotton string will beco very fragile. When sliced, the breakage rate is very high, even if the chef has superior knife skills."
Refrigerating, for ’Japanese char siu’, is equivalent to fixing its form.
However, Xia Yu’s handling steps were completely disorganized, first slicing, so the ’at roll’ didn’t exist, which makes it not hard to predict the at slices would crumble into pieces after intense frying and stewing.
Xia Yu, slicing the at, didn’t forget to look up at the three of them, finding their expressions of wanting to speak but hesitating, which was quite amusing.
Who said I want to make ’Japanese char siu’?
Since I want to change, why not just change it into ’Xia’s Char Siu’!
Hey, and it also contains ’Wabi-Sabi’!
The breakthrough is here!
The noodles are the "sick tree."
As for freshness, the vitality of the tis, let’s create it with char siu.
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