Chapter 102

Chapter 102: Nine-Turn Big Intestine

A dish of Oil-exploded Crispy Double, and a dish of Hand-torn Cabbage—Chen Ran only made two dishes, but everyone was extremely satisfied.

Especially Bai Qing, who had last indulged himself during their visit to the haunted house.

The three sets of duck and the clear-braised lion's head were certainly wonderful, but compared to these two dishes, they were of a completely different style.

"When I tasted the clear-braised lion's head before, I thought Chef Chen's strength lay in her meticulous seasoning, but after tasting this Oil-exploded Crispy Double, I realized I was wrong."

"Her real strength lies in her mastery of fire control!"

This Oil-exploded Crispy Double was considered a classic dish of Shandong cuisine. Bai Qing, as a food critic, had certainly tasted it made by others.

However, many chefs had failed when attempting this dish.

Speaking of the "crisp" texture, some made it so tough that you couldn’t bite into it, others made it excessively soft, and some added too much marinade powder in pursuit of crispiness, only to lose the flavor of the original ingredients.

Bai Qing, putting in all his effort, finally managed to grab the last bite of Oil-exploded Crispy Double. He closed his eyes in satisfaction to chew...

A dish with such both texture and flavor must be savored with your eyes closed! Let all your senses focus on it, so as not to waste this deliciousness.

Unfortunately, even though Chen Ran had fried another batch, with so many people fighting for it, it was soon taken away.

Bai Qing looked at the empty plate with some regret.

One important point of this dish is that you see oil, but not the starch, as the starch is firmly wrapped around the ingredients. None of it is left in the plate.

Usually, this is considered a sign of the chef’s skill. But when you're fighting for food and not getting enough, you start to feel regretful—if there was some leftover soup, you could dip your bread in it!

"Come try this!"

Bai Qing looked up, and it was Wang Zhaoshan, with whom he had always had a bit of a conflict.

Both food critics, and both fans of "Ran," the two had overlapping positions in Chen Ran's fan group. There was inevitably some competition between them.

At least, Bai Qing still vividly remembered Wang Zhaoshan’s few reviews on chicken congee he hadn’t been able to taste!

"Are you being so kind?"

Wang Zhaoshan, hearing this, couldn’t help but roll his eyes and took back his plate. "Hey, I really have too much kindness. This was made by Chen Ran!"

Although it was just a plate of hand-torn cabbage, those of them who were food critics knew better. This was the dish that truly tested the chef's skill!

When Chang Nian first went to teach Chen Ran culinary arts, he ordered this hand-torn cabbage, and it wasn’t without reason.

Usually, when Wang Zhaoshan went to explore new restaurants, he liked to order a plate of hand-torn cabbage—of course, sometimes it was called stir-fried lotus cabbage or stir-fried kale, with many variations.

"Give me a bite!"

Bai Qing may not have liked Wang Zhaoshan, but he didn’t have anything against the hand-torn cabbage!

One chopstick, and he picked up a piece of cabbage that had been infused with a refreshing green color. Bai Qing, the food critic, followed his usual habit.

First, smell it.

Stir-fried lotus cabbage, the first thing you notice is the scent of "pickled" flavor.

This "pickled" flavor is very difficult to describe. It's not sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, or salty, but it carries the earthly, smoky fragrance of the world.The more modern the kitchen, the harder it is to bring out this flavor. However, Chen Ran’s traditional earthen stove perfectly recreated this wok fragrance.

The "pickled" flavor first awakens the sense of smell, followed by the sour-spicy taste, and the aftertaste carries a slight numbing sensation from Sichuan peppercorns.

A full mouthful of flavor, Bai Qing eagerly stuffed a piece of cabbage into his mouth.

Unlike the Oil-exploded Crispy Double earlier, this bite of cabbage was pure satisfaction!

The salty, fresh, and crisp Oil-exploded Crispy Double was an appetizer, making you crave a sip of wine with every bite.

But this mouthful of hand-torn cabbage filled you from your stomach to your heart to your belly, making you just want to dig in another big mouthful of rice!

"Give me another bite! One more bite!"

Where could one bite satisfy?

Bai Qing chased after Wang Zhaoshan and grabbed another bite of the dish. Wang Qing'an secretly scooped a bowl of rice and mixed it together.

Mi Chengzhi was scraping the bottom of his plate with a steamed bun to scoop up the soup. Tang Yang was using his chopsticks to sneakily take food from Senior Sister Gao’s plate, only to be almost tossed out by her with a swift move.

Chen Ran moved a chair and sat beside Wu Chaomei, telling her not to eat too much to avoid indigestion while also opening the system.

Her skills in fire control, knife work, and flipping the wok had all been upgraded to 3S level.

Chen Ran’s gaze moved upward and suddenly noticed that the main quest had been updated.

"Complete the final work task to restore your sense of taste."

Having lost her sense of taste for so long, Chen Ran felt like she no longer cared about it.

But when she saw those words in the main quest, for a moment, her heartbeat stopped!

Without taste, eating felt tasteless, and every meal was just mechanically following a set amount, simply to sustain herself.

Before losing her sense of taste, she could never imagine how much joy was lost without it.

Even though she wasn't particularly obsessed with food before, losing her taste finally made her realize that what she once called "not caring" was only because it was always within reach.

When she couldn't taste anything, life felt like it was missing a huge piece.

Moreover, Chen Ran was still a chef.

A chef without taste would always have a lingering sense of incompleteness.

"Does the final work task count now?"

The system slowly gave its answer.

【Does not count】

Wu Chaomei, sensing Chen Ran’s emotional fluctuation, had just finished her last bite and lifted her eyes to glance at Chen Ran.

"With your skills, if you were to participate in the Two Capitals Culinary Competition, you’d barely qualify."

"The culinary competition is still a month away. You should get ready in the next two days and leave. Have you found the person to recommend you? At least someone with a name in the 'Famous Chefs’ Register' is needed."

The Two Capitals Culinary Competition is still a month away?

Chen Ran suddenly understood why the system’s main quest had changed."Do you want me to participate in the Two Capitals Culinary Competition?"

The system gave a formal reply, but there was a hint of emotion behind it.

【Go with your full sense of taste to participate.】

Chen Ran was not unfamiliar with the Two Capitals Culinary Competition.

For domestic culinary competitions, the most authoritative is the National Culinary Skills Competition, held every five years. From the name, one can tell that it carries some official background.

However, held once every five years, this competition couldn’t satisfy the audience.

Thus, the Two Capitals Culinary Competition was born as a supplement to it. This competition has been held for ten consecutive years and became one of the most popular culinary events in the public.

But in recent years, with the diversification of entertainment, this competition had been discontinued for a long time.

Wu Chaomei snorted through her nose: "No one does it better than your great-grandfather, who knows how to go with the flow… He doesn't even participate in the Culinary Skills Competition anymore, only joining this one that can get him on TV."

As a result, these chefs, who were top-ranked, didn’t have much fame in the public, while Chen Yuncong, a chef who ranked lower than them, gained the title of Culinary God through this show and built a considerable fortune.

Chen Ran suddenly understood why the system had specially created conditions for her to participate in this competition.

From her memory, the finals of the Two Capitals Culinary Competition were a challenge format, and Chen Yuncong was the reigning champion, an eight-time consecutive victor!

To increase the competition’s appeal, every challenge had something like a prize or incentive.

When she was young, Chen Ran had seen several restaurant signs that her family had won. Her uncle, Chen Boduan’s restaurant, Zhimei Zhai, was one of those won.

The original owner, feeling humiliated, sold the restaurant at a low price and moved his family abroad.

She whispered in her heart, asking the system: "You want me to help you win that spatula back, right?"

【Yes】

The system only replied with one word, looking quite indifferent, but this was the first time it responded before Chen Ran even finished her sentence.

Defeat Chen Yuncong...

Chen Ran remembered that when she was young, she would stand on a small stool and watch him cook, amazed by his mesmerizing techniques. She secretly made a vow that she would one day become such an outstanding chef.

"I will win."

She said this aloud, not only for the system to hear, but also for Wu Chaomei.

In the past few days, Chen Ran had seen a lot of news.

The Chen family's business was growing larger and larger.

In the past, the Chen family mainly dealt with various seasonings. For example, the popular Yellow Braised Chicken that had swept the mainland overnight—eight out of ten restaurants used the Chen family’s sauce.

But at some point, the Chen family’s business suddenly started to expand into pre-made meals!

The news described it like this: "Chen Yuncong has partnered with the Wu family, a famous Shandong culinary family, to launch a series of pre-made meal brands, aiming to provide stable and controllable flavors and hygiene..."

They had even invested heavily in a few meal service companies, specifically delivering box lunches to schools.

Chen Ran turned to Wu Chaomei: "Grandma Wu, I will definitely beat him."

Wu Chaomei finished the last sip of her drink, stood up, and gently patted Chen Ran on the shoulder as they walked to the other side."Alright, I may not be able to cook anymore, but I’m still better than I am at competing. However, I can't let you young ones always be the ones on the front lines."

"Today, since all the ingredients are ready, I’ll teach you another Shandong dish."

"Shandong cuisine has many techniques, and with time being limited, and my energy limited as well, it’s hard to teach you all the little details."

"But there is one dish that encompasses all the techniques of Shandong cuisine. As long as you master this dish, you’ll have learned most of the techniques."

Chen Ran helped Wu Chaomei walk over, watching her reach out and pick up a bundle of pig intestines.

"This dish is called Nine-turn Intestines."

"Wash, blanch, cook, stir-fry, stew. Sweet, sour, salty, fragrant, bitter, spicy—all these flavors are in this dish. It will teach you seven techniques and six flavors."

"I'm old, but you're still young. Chen Yuncong never faced me directly when he went to the TV station. Instead, he took my son and started making pre-made meals."

"From now on, it’ll be up to you to take this Nine-turn Intestines and represent me!"