Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Go! Arrest Chen Ran!

Looking at the paper Shu Jianmin took out, whether they were freeloaders at the banquet or not, everyone fell silent.

They really didn’t expect that one day, even attending a banquet would require answering questions first!

Seeing the atmosphere quiet down, Shu Jianmin didn’t forcibly slam the answer sheet forward, but first explained patiently.

“As the head organizer of our banquet, I can understand. Everyone coming here is not just eating and drinking for free, they also give gifts of money. It’s all about showing support. Whether you come for the pork knuckle or the roast chicken, it’s about showing face.”

But they really had booked a first-year-old birthday banquet!

“But the Li family has such a big grandson now. Regardless if it’s a few days early or late, the most important thing is to host their own relatives. Too many freeloaders here; if the real relatives show up, there won’t be enough seats.”

“Come, come, we’re all really here to celebrate the first birthday gift. Fill out the answer sheet, pay the gift money, and enter to eat.”

“Uncle, don’t be so ruthless. It’s not like we don’t want to give money. More people make it livelier!”

Shu Jianmin pointed to the Li family’s courtyard: “Look, all twenty-four tables are full. If the relatives have no place to sit, where’s their face?”

Besides, he didn’t completely block the opportunity.

If you really want to freeload, at least find out the names of the son and daughter-in-law first. If people can recognize you, even if Old Madam Li were standing here, she wouldn’t chase you away, right?

Shu Jianmin happily stopped two freeloaders he didn’t even recognize, looked at the banquet situation, and went to the kitchen to see Chen Ran.

The pork knuckle was already out of the pot; two assistant cooks were helping to cut it open from the middle.

Shu Jianmin was a bit stunned. Previously, this clear-braised pork knuckle was sliced and served with garlic paste. Why was it cut into such large chunks this time?

“Ranny, what’s going on with this pork knuckle?”

Chen Ran was slicing meat for stir-frying with garlic shoots, and without looking up she answered, “Just now the daughter-in-law came over and asked me not to cut the pork knuckle too much, and to break the small crucian carp into smaller pieces. She said the roast chicken was gone as soon as it was served; it looked a bit too bad.”

Before entering the kitchen, Shu Jianmin had come from the banquet area, recalling…

On one table, there were seven or eight clean empty plates.

People sitting around the table were holding one or two chicken bones, gnawing on the small bits of meat left…

Those who understood the situation knew the food was so delicious, each dish was immediately snatched up once served.

But newcomers who didn’t know might think the host was too stingy—how could anyone come to a banquet and still be hungry? Normally people take food and even pack leftovers, right?

A whole table of people gnawing chicken bones was quite a striking scene!

“Indeed… let it be this way, then let them share by themselves, and eat slower.”

Shu Jianmin had been in this business for many years and knew well the situation of rural banquets. Whether the food was good or not, there were always some elderly who used their seniority to grab dishes first as soon as they arrived.

However, in these two big banquets where Chen Ran was the head cook, this phenomenon basically did not happen.

The speed those old folks gathered dishes was far slower than everyone else’s speed of grabbing food.

Plastic bags were just taken out but hadn’t even been opened before the dishes were almost all taken!

“Alright, alright, let’s go, pork knuckle is coming out!”

When the big pork knuckle was brought out, Xiao Zheng had already adjusted the equipment, ready to start filming himself.This time, he didn’t dare to adjust the camera lens on the spot, fearing that in those few minutes spent adjusting, the dishes would be all snatched up.

Occasionally filming the empty plates after the dishes are gone might be somewhat interesting, but doing it too often would be a problem.

Filming a rural banquet without showing the dishes—what would the audience see?

He couldn’t help but privately complain about the chef.

This young lady really doesn’t know how popular her dishes are. She thoughtfully tears the chicken into perfectly bite-sized pieces, and he really can’t get any at all!

“Pork knuckle! The pork knuckle is coming!”

“Stop looking at your phone! If you keep looking at your phone, you won’t get any again. I’m telling you, this time I won’t share with you!”

“Hurry! The pork knuckle is here!”

However, when the pork knuckle finally came out, everyone was stunned!

Only Xiao Zheng couldn’t help but chuckle inside.

He had already smelled this extraordinary aroma while the pork knuckle was still simmering in the kitchen.

Clear-braised pork knuckle, huh!

Whether dining at a restaurant or at a rural banquet, in fact, clear-braised pork knuckle is a very rare dish, one you generally don’t see.

Xiao Zheng’s friend once asked him why, nowadays, the market is full of spicy and heavily flavored dishes, yet these simple steamed or braised dishes are becoming rarer.

It’s simple: they are difficult.

For these mild dishes, not only is seasoning difficult, but making them delicious is tough. Another point is that you can truly taste the quality of the ingredients with just one bite.

Many heavily spiced or sweet braised dishes may use ingredients that aren’t very fresh, but diners can’t tell. Plus, with the heavy use of artificial coloring, the appearance won’t reveal any problems.

But when this clear-braised pork knuckle is placed on the table, seeing the pale white fat under the skin, you know the pig it came from was a good pig before becoming this knuckle!

Only, this time the pork knuckle wasn’t sliced.

As a double S-level recipe, clear-braised pork knuckle is not simply about braising.

This moderately salty and savory clear-braised pork knuckle also has several different processing directions afterward.

Slicing it and dipping in garlic paste is the most basic way, and of course, eating it plain works too. But there is another way Chen Ran hadn’t done before, and this time she just happened to make it.

She cut the whole pork knuckle from one side, spreading it out like a peacock’s tail, then pan-fried the pork skin side down briefly…

“Oh my god, this pork knuckle looks so tempting!”

The skin of the braised knuckle is soft and sticky; just pan-frying it simply keeps the skin tender, but adds a slight smoky grilled flavor.

Meanwhile, the sliced lean meat side that’s laid flat gets lightly browned, adding a bit of chewiness.

Besides that, the originally salty-savory knuckle had extra pepper added during the frying process.

After high-heat frying, all the greasiness normally associated with the knuckle was completely wiped away.

Only fragrance remained!

This aroma is layered: the rich and elegant pork fragrance typical of clear-braised knuckle, a hint of smoky grilled scent from the light frying with less oil, and a slight stimulating aroma of Sichuan peppercorns, making the overall flavor lively and vibrant.“How do you pick this up?”

The whole pork knuckle, spread out and pan-fried, looked so impressive it made people hesitate to start eating.

Xiao Zheng boldly picked up a piece and found that the knuckle had been scored in the middle; with a strong pull, he managed to lift a slice.

Unlike the bright red, oil-fried pieces at the ends, the middle revealed the pale original color of the clear-braised knuckle...

Taking a bite was the ultimate enjoyment!

“Delicious!”

“This is great, easy to pick up, and you won’t accidentally grab several pieces with one chopstick!”

The young girl who said this couldn’t help but glare at the old man beside her—when the roast chicken came out earlier, the old man nearly grabbed half the plate with one chopstick!

Xiao Zheng picked up another piece of knuckle and proudly showed it to the camera: “Everyone, did you see? This one chopstick of knuckle actually has two ways to eat it.”

The outer pork skin, pan-fried, was softer and stickier, with a bit of smoky grilled aroma, making it feel like eating freshly grilled pig trotters.

The tender meat inside carried the true flavor of the clear braise—one bite, and the aftertaste was endless.

However, during the demonstration, Xiao Zheng was a little shocked to realize that the scoring on the knuckle seemed to have been done before braising!

The scored lean meat showed a very obvious shrinking shape. To get that shape, the cuts must have been made while the meat was still raw!

“Wow... that knife work is divine!”

Xiao Zheng used to insist on a selling point in his videos—“natural and authentic.” That is, his videos rarely had post-recorded voiceovers; he ate while filming.

But now he couldn’t afford to stick to that.

If he insisted on recording live like that, he wouldn’t get to eat many pieces!

Although the chef had carefully considered the difficulty of taking food and deliberately made the pieces so that only one slice could be picked up per chopstick, some people didn’t even chew properly—some would pick up another piece the moment one went into their mouth.

Forget about authenticity—eat more first! The commentary can be dubbed later.

In the end, the new-style knuckle was welcomed by everyone, and even the greediest diners couldn’t eat that much more.

But... there was still a problem.

Who would gnaw on the last bone?

“Oh, you young ladies love to look nice. I’ll gnaw it; I’m not afraid of ruining my image.”

The lively young man started a moral appeal, but just as he reached out, a seemingly aloof and beautiful young woman at the same table stopped him.

She pulled out a small knife!

The aloof young woman smiled, still seeming very aloof; paired with the sharp blade, the lively young man completely dared not reach out.

“No need to gnaw, that wastes teeth,” the aloof young woman held the plate before her, “I’ll just pick the bone with the knife.”

Her knife skills were very practiced. While picking the bone, her eyes glanced at the lively young man who had just seemed to rile up a few of the women at the table by saying something inappropriate.

“Don’t worry, I’m not only ethnically Mongolian, I’ve also taken anatomy classes. Picking clean this little pig leg bone is easy.”

As she spoke, her eyes wandered up and down the young man’s exposed arm, as if to say that if he misbehaved, she wouldn’t mind picking a human bone clean just as easily.The lively young man couldn’t help but feel a bit chilly and pulled his hand back.

Xiao Zheng laughed uncontrollably, quickly zoomed the camera in, then happily received a piece of tender meat picked off the bone by the young woman.

This piece still had a bit of crunchy cartilage attached, and the taste in the mouth was simply perfect.

“This is just too delicious…”

It wasn’t only Xiao Zheng expressing satisfied amazement; every table was making similar praises.

“Really tasty. This knuckle shows real effort. Braised first, then fried—how can it be so good? I’ll try this at home.”

“The scoring is also well done, and maybe it’s just me, but after frying it seems this knuckle isn’t greasy at all?”

“Definitely not greasy…”

Xiao Zheng savored the knuckle again. As a qualified food blogger, he could roughly tell that only a few simple spices were used, with the rest of the flavor coming from just salt and pepper.

Truly fragrant!

This kind of subtle seasoning technique should appear at a state banquet, on a chef’s special menu at a fine restaurant in the capital, or at a major culinary competition in the two capitals.

But unexpectedly, it was tasted here at such a rural banquet.

“As expected, masters are among the people! I thought in this highly connected era, there’d be no ‘sweeping monk’ figures left. Looks like I’m still too inexperienced.”

An auntie nearby nodded: “Our countryside has good food too! Not just this big knuckle, that roast chicken just now smelled amazing!”

Speaking of roast chicken, Xiao Zheng looked resentfully at the auntie next to him.

He knew the chicken smelled good, but he only got a tiny piece of the chicken neck!

After that, completely giving up on live audio recording, Xiao Zheng put all his energy into grabbing dishes. It has to be said, bloggers specializing in rural banquets really know their craft.

He managed to grab half a lion’s head meatball and even scooped half a bowl of soup over rice!

He got five and a half fried meatballs—why half? Because he and a Mongolian young woman both reached for the same meatball; she didn’t give way and cut that poor meatball in half with one knife.

At least, the last plate of staple food was counted by headcount. Xiao Zheng happily finished a whole small oily pancake.

“This pancake is amazing too…”

The auntie beside him nodded: “Such skill! I’ve been making pancakes all my life but can’t match this.”

In between, Xiao Zheng secretly peeked toward the back kitchen a few times.

The rural banquet kitchen was usually just a small shed set up in the yard, cooking on big clay stoves, otherwise they couldn’t prepare so many tables.

He confirmed several times that the oily pancake was also made by that female head chef.

She was surprisingly skilled in both savory and sweet dishes?

Moreover, besides these few main dishes on the table, several stir-fried side dishes were also noteworthy.

The heat control was excellent, as those who cook with big woks generally have great skill. Even the seasoning followed the same philosophy as that clear-braised knuckle.

This chef’s seasoning was almost all about honestly doing subtraction—using the fewest seasonings possible to make each dish’s flavor reach perfection.

After eating such a meal, the whole person felt so comfortable inside.One last oily pancake!

Some rolled it with stir-fried garlic sprouts and meat, others rolled it with refreshing red chili pork belly strips.

Xiao Zheng tore off pieces with his hands, tasting the original pure fragrance of the flour.

“That’s it?”

“I’m still a bit hungry…”

“Come on, I just heard you burp—definitely didn’t eat enough!”

Honestly, the amount of food on this big table was more than enough for ten people. Not to mention the final plate of oily pancakes—there was no way anyone could be hungry after that.

But… being truly full was impossible!

Xiao Zheng felt he could eat another whole table just like this!

He picked up his phone and retook some shots of the clean plates on the table and the diners’ smiling faces.

Only the Mongolian young woman covered her face with her hand: “You do social media? Remember to blur me out—I don’t want to appear on camera.”

Xiao Zheng gave an OK sign.

He really admired this cool and handsome young woman, especially since when the lively young man had tried to grab the bone, everyone at the table had loved how she pulled out her knife!

However, such a handsome and aloof young woman, from Xiao Zheng’s experience, would probably reject a direct approach to exchange contacts.

He hesitated for a moment, then pulled out his secret weapon!

The food was all finished, some people gradually started to leave. Xiao Zheng moved closer, pulled the chair a little away, then sat down next to the Mongolian young woman.

“So?”

She glanced at him, noticing that before he sat down, he had pulled the chair out instead of sitting right next to her rudely.

Thinking back to how they had grabbed the same meatball earlier and he had made no further move but waited for her to handle it, she decided to give him a chance and listen to what he had to say.

“I already asked the head of this banquet, the person in charge today,” Xiao Zheng opened his phone and showed her the photos he’d taken, offering it to her, “Look, tomorrow there’s another graduation banquet in this village…”

Her eyes lit up!

Moreover, the man was openly handing her his phone to look at, not holding it in his hand for her to lean in. That seemed quite gentlemanly.

She straightened up, a slightly proud smile curling at the corner of her mouth, her gaze glancing sideways at Xiao Zheng.

“What’s your name?”

Xiao Zheng was overjoyed inside!

“My name’s Xiao Zheng! I do food social media. Recently, I’ve been filming rural big banquets. I’m 31 now, unmarried, no kids, single for a year and a half…”

“My surname is Qi, Qi like Qilian Mountain, Qi Yan.”

Since they’d exchanged names, they later added each other’s contact info and agreed that if they met again the next day, they’d sit at the same table.

Xiao Zheng was ecstatic!Back at the inn in the evening, he didn’t feel sleepy at all. He stayed up all night editing the video.

But the post-production voiceover was really tough.

He had to watch his own expressions of savoring the food, try hard to recall the feelings at the time, and add a voice full of satisfaction to the lines...

In reality, the only companions for this whole process were two dry pieces of bread!

On top of that, this place was in the countryside, and so late at night, there was no way to order delivery.

Finally finishing the voiceover, Xiao Zheng decided he didn’t want to be a human anymore!

At 3 a.m., this rural banquet video was published, fresh and lively.

And the review process was surprisingly fast. When Zhu Nan saw the video, it was only 3:30 a.m.

To improve his own account, Zhu Nan often actively browsed other creators’ videos. Xiao Xiao 140 Jin was a new sharp creator he recently followed.

This creator’s rural banquet content had gained quite a loyal audience. Though not yet a big hit, every video had many steady likes and comments.

But previously, this creator always posted in the evening—why publish at dawn this time?

With curiosity, Zhu Nan clicked on the comments and immediately saw the pinned one:

“Staying up late editing videos, tossing and turning, only dry bread by my side, my stomach’s starving, recalling the big pork knuckle at the banquet makes my mouth water nonstop, can only post the video so everyone can starve together!”

Under this comment, everyone was united in teasing the creator:

“Posting such a tempting video so late at night, creator, are you toxic?”

“Creator, tell us where you are, so besides hunger in the stomach, we can add a big bump on your head!”

“Upstairs, you didn’t rhyme, rewrite that!”

“Am I the only one craving that crispy fried small crucian carp, then opening delivery to find no fried fish at all?”

“I’m really curious how good that roast chicken is. The creator has filmed so many episodes and is good at grabbing food, right? How come he only got a chicken neck from the auntie?”

Zhu Nan was laughing and liking comments, when suddenly the keywords caught his eye:

“Crispy fried small crucian carp?”

Recalling the big pork knuckle, Zhu Nan didn’t bother with the comments anymore and quickly opened the video to study carefully.

Gotta say, this banquet video was not only appetizing but also funny.

Throughout the whole video, the most shown was not the various dishes, but the bottoms of different plates.

The live commentators were also dutifully counting:

“Clean plate x1.”

“Missed out x2.”

“Killed by the auntie solo.”

“Auntie triple kill!”

“Auntie’s food-grabbing skills are godlike!”However, seeing such a funny video, Zhu Nan felt pain in his heart.

He simply couldn’t laugh at all!

Any fan from Chen Ran’s fan group, when they saw this video, would probably react the same way.

This was Chen Ran’s banquet! A real banquet!

Think about those suffering food lovers in Chen Ran’s fan group: some could only eat half a lion’s head because they had to take their child to kindergarten; some could only eat a few pieces of pork knuckle because they had to get up early to climb the mountain; some worked hard standing in line but only got a portion of fried small fish...

And this one banquet table included all the dishes at once!

Fried small fish! Lion’s head! Guo Bao Rou! Big pork knuckle!

There was even roast chicken!

Not fried chicken drumsticks, but roast chicken!

Zhu Nan almost fainted. At that moment, he wanted to share the video in the fan group.

But suddenly, like some force, he recalled that the last time he met Teacher Deng at the Swan KTV during the day, wasn’t it the same situation?

Teacher Deng hadn’t intended to share, but upon seeing him and fearing he would get there first, she reluctantly revealed Chen Ran’s whereabouts.

Zhu Nan’s finger was already on the share button. He didn’t dare to breathe, holding his finger on the screen, then slowly moved his thumb away.

Good, the share didn’t go through.

Zhu Nan sighed in relief. In his heart, he comforted himself: he just wanted to enjoy the banquet alone first, then make a video to share with everyone!

After all, who wouldn’t want to have a chance to enjoy Chen Ran’s banquet alone like this?

Affirming his thought inside, Zhu Nan quickly exited the sharing interface, switched to an account without the creator identity, and sent a private message to Xiao Xiao 140 Jin.

“Creator, could you share where this banquet is? Sigh, after leaving the village for so many years, I really miss the rural banquets back then... By the way, it seems you haven’t signed with a company yet? Want to try ours?”

His account had a director certification badge. Even if Xiao Xiao didn’t want to sign with a company, he should at least reply casually out of professional courtesy.

Soon, Xiao Zheng fell for it. Zhu Nan looked at the address sent over, waking up the photographer who was snoring nearby.

“Get up! Time to work!”

The photographer, confused, looked at the dark sky outside the window and asked, “Where are we going?”

“Where else? Of course, to catch Chen Ran!”