Chapter 14: Craftsmanship I
"Uncle Liu, Aunt Qi, don't stand still, sit down, and the meal will start in a while" Bian Rui saw the old couple standing at the door with a stunned look, and couldn't help but smile and greet people.
Uncle Liu raised his feet and walked to the table, and said to Bian Rui as he walked: "Xiaobian, let's not engage in such a big battle, just eat a little at will."
Today's Bian Rui's dress brought great regret to the two old men, even if the two old men went out to find a decent restaurant to eat, they would not be like this today.
At this time, Bian Rui was wearing a black bowler gauze hat on his head, and he was wearing a gray cloth coat, which was not usually worn, like ancient clothes, the clothes were clean and tidy, and they looked much more formal and clean than the clothes that the old couple were wearing now, so the old couple felt a little weird.
Bian Rui wears a kind of Hanfu, which is a bit similar to the style of the middle coat, but it is not a middle coat, it belongs to the clothes worn by ordinary people, in order to facilitate work, there is no kind of wide sleeves, light gray clothes on the right, and a slightly darker palm-wide belt is tied around the waist, the belt is very fine, embroidered with a less obvious white bird pattern, and a small white square scarf is tucked around the waist.
The kitchen is open, with a 60-centimeter countertop separating the kitchen from the guest dining area. The counter is a bit like the bar counter of a modern bar, but there are no people sitting next to it, only four tables are close to the table, and there is a difference of about ten centimeters between the countertop and the countertop where the guests are dining.
"It's okay, you two will give some advice after you taste it," Bian Rui smiled and stretched out his hand to signal the two old men to sit down.
Waiting for the two of them to sit down, Bian Rui turned around and took out a small crockpot from behind him, opened the lid of the crockpot, reached out and took out a pair of long chopsticks to take out the contents of the crockpot.
The two old men didn't squeak, but they felt as if Bian Rui had taken something precious out of the jar, but when they saw the things taken out, they couldn't help but forget a little.
Because what Bian Rui took out with chopsticks were a few small yellow mushrooms, and the small mushrooms were the length of an adult's fingers, not even the thickness of a little thumb.
Bian Rui seemed to be holding a treasure, took out the small mushrooms and put them in a ten-inch white porcelain small deep-mouth plate on the operating table, put the mushrooms in a circle, and then scooped a spoonful of soup and poured it on the mushrooms, and then took a square plate, in which a few small green greens were loaded.
I saw Bian Rui sandwich a few small green vegetables on the plate and put them in a circle, so that the plate now has two layers, one is yellow mushrooms, and the top layer is small green vegetables.
Just when the two old men thought that Bian Rui was going to add some kind of meat, Bian Rui just added a blanched broccoli on top and put the whole plate on the table, and then scooped a spoonful of white soup and poured it on the greens and broccoli.
"Please taste the gathering of the three immortals"
Bian Rui said very solemnly, as if this plate was filled with some delicacies from the mountains and seas, if you look at Bian Rui's shelf, maybe this plate is worth hundreds of yuan, but in the eyes of the two old men, the cost of this plate is estimated to be no more than ten yuan at most.
When people invited guests, the two old men would not say anything in front of Bian Rui, and when they heard Bian Rui let the two of them taste it, the two picked up the chopsticks and began to taste them.
Uncle Liu took a chopstick of green vegetables, put them in his mouth and chewed them, then frowned slightly, and said in his heart: Isn't this the taste of green vegetables, although this dish tastes good, the thick green vegetables have an indescribable sweetness in the mouth, but the green vegetables are still green vegetables!
Aunt Qi put the broccoli on the top, and when she put it in her mouth, she felt exactly the same as her wife, which was the taste of broccoli, at best, it was delicious broccoli. Aunt Qi, who is a little heavy, even thinks that this broccoli lacks salt.
The two of them looked at each other, and then they began to eat the other dishes in their bowls.
After Bian Rui served the food, he didn't look at the old couple, but focused on the next dish, the next dish is tofu, not a roasted tofu block, but a piece of tofu shreds, a piece of small tender tofu that weighs two or two, to be cut into shreds, and finally opened and not broken, when put on the plate, it must be shredded one by one, like an ice flower, this is considered a knife to the home.
The two old men felt that the taste was bad when they ate, so they ate casually while watching Bian Rui's cooking.
After a while, the old couple felt that watching Bian Rui cook was much more interesting than eating.
The knife used by Bian Rui was not their usual square kitchen knife, but a short knife about 30 centimeters long and five or six centimeters wide, and this knife was not like a Western-style kitchen knife, but like a Yanling short knife without a gauntlet.
The short knife was very beautiful, and the whole blade shone with a faint blue chill, and when the slender blade slashed across the tofu, the two old men felt that the shadow of the knife flashed, as if the knife had not been cut at all. In the whole process, Bian Rui is like playing magic, the knife is empty, the knife is fast, the knife shadow is like a flying butterfly, the fancy is good-looking, but there is no change in the tofu on the cutting board.
After a while, Bian Rui put down the knife in his hand, took off the small square scarf on his left waist and tried the blade lightly, and then shook the knife, the beautiful knife seemed to know the way, and after a slight ding, 'self' hung on the knife holder one meter away.
At this time, Bian Rui picked up a wide-mouthed white porcelain bowl, used the bowl to edge the bottom of a card of tofu, and then gently flicked it, and the tofu honestly stood in the center of the small wide-mouth bowl.
When the wide-mouth bowl was put on the table by Bian Rui, a spoonful of slightly yellowish soup was poured on the tofu, and as the soup was poured, the originally boxy tofu was immediately poured into the square, and a trace of it stood in the middle of the wide-mouth bowl like a small white jade hairball.
"Please try the white jade hydrangea"
Bian Rui put the wide-mouth bowl on the table of the old couple, and then gently pushed it, and the wide-mouth bowl stopped next to the first plate like a curling game in a sports meeting.
The old couple has never seen much of the world, but they have never seen the world again and know what the level of the chef who can cut a piece of tender tofu into shredded tofu like a hair is, not to mention the small shop on the street, I am afraid that those who can have this level are the chefs and masters of Huaiyang cuisine. Where is the big Buddha under the small temple on the street.
After seeing Bian Rui's hand, the old couple became upright, and there was no contempt in their hearts, such a good knife skill, you said that you couldn't cook well, and others didn't believe it.
If the pressure is too high for people to doubt, then usually everyone will doubt themselves.
Now the old couple thinks that the food is good and the standard is high, but our old couple is a layman and can't eat the good things made by others. Of course, this is the brain supplement of the old couple, and they didn't say it. It's hard to say anything now, because Bian Rui is starting to make the next dish again.
Bian Rui's focus is on his side, almost his hands don't stop, and he has never seen Bian Rui's knife like an ordinary chef with all the dishes on the cutting board, Bian Rui's side is quiet whether it is cutting or chopping, and the silence is a little weird, as if the knife flying in his hand can't touch the dishes on the cutting board at all.
This solemn tasting of the dishes, the old couple gradually felt that they seemed to taste a little taste, as thin as a hair of tofu is still tofu, there is a tofu flavor, but there is no tofu smell at all, not only no beany smell, but also a faint lotus leaf fragrance.
When the third plate came up, it was another plate of vegetarian, mixed out with five kinds of silk, and it was also drizzled with soup.
When the old couple took the first chopsticks, they felt that the taste was very mixed, but after eating two or three chopsticks, the taste was actually divided into layers.
There are very few dishes on a plate, and after four vegetarian dishes, the belly of the old couple has not been a little full, and of course Bian Rui's dishes are still on a plate.
All the dishes, the old couple have never eaten, not only have they eaten or even heard of it, but they feel that each dish has a unique taste, and after eating the previous dish, the taste is almost no transition, and it is soft to the next dish.
After more than a dozen dishes, the old couple felt that there was something in their stomachs.
Finally, the old couple smelled the aroma of meat, and after eating more than a dozen vegetarian dishes, the sudden smell of meat suddenly seemed to open the taste of the old couple.
At this time, the knife in Bian Rui's hand was replaced by a round-headed knife, the same very strange knife, like a dagger without a tip. Now the knife is flying up and down on the body of a fat chicken, as the knife shadow passes, the bones on the chicken's body are completely picked out one by one, and the chicken bones are a little white jade, but there is not a single shredded meat on it.
Except for the head and neck, the rest of the bones of the whole chicken were removed by Bian Rui within a minute, and they were neatly placed on the table next to them.
Bian Rui put down the knife, also lightly tried the blade, and after throwing the knife back into place, he fished out a ginseng from the jar, this pearl ginseng has complete roots, and when it is unfolded on the plate, the roots are like countless lightning lines, cracking on the white plate.
Half of the ginseng and half of the chicken were placed on the plate, this time Bian Rui did not add any soup brine on it, but just placed two small vinegar dishes on the edge of the plate, and poured one or two drops of soy sauce into each of the two small vinegar dishes, and used a spoonful of pure water to melt the soy sauce.
"Tan ginseng old chicken, please use"
Bian Rui pushed the plate in front of the two old men like a curling stone.
After eating so many vegetarian foods, a plate of meat came, and the two old men felt that their taste came up all of a sudden, and they were originally thinking about whether such a large piece of bone-deboned chicken was going to be torn off, but who knew that with a flick of chopsticks, a piece of chicken with golden skin was separated from the chicken.
At Bian Rui's suggestion, Uncle Liu dipped the chicken in a very light soy sauce sauce, and after putting it in his mouth, he suddenly felt a strong aroma of grass chicken exploding in his mouth.
As soon as Uncle Liu looked up, he saw that his wife was now with wide eyes, and he knew that his wife and himself felt the same way.
All the flavors I had eaten before seemed to have been forgotten, and only the indescribable scent of grass chicken echoed in my mind.
Just as the two of them were eating the chicken with chopsticks, another aroma entered their noses.