dognovel Chapter 471 - 383: Looks Good, But Really Not Filling!
Chapter 471 - 383: Looks Good, But Really Not Filling!
The sticky texture, instead, made everyone feel more appetized, almost like a green pepper egg salad made with black mayonnaise.
Putting aside the strange color, just judging by the aroma, it seemed pretty good.
At least for sure, this thing is much tastier than eating a century egg raw.
After quickly mashing it a dozen times and tasting it, Lin Chen casually pushed the bowl towards this direction.
The metal bowl slid across the smooth tabletop like a kettle bell, tracing a graceful arc, and landed steadily in Chef Marchello’s hands.
He glanced at Lucas, who was ready to take a photo with a camera beside him, thought for a moment, and still took a clean appetizer plate from the side.
He inserted chopsticks into the mashed green pepper and century egg, stirred them, letting the soft green peppers wrap around the chopsticks, and carefully piled it into the shallow plate.
After plating several times back and forth, what originally looked unappetizing mashed green pepper and century egg surprisingly turned into a scene reminiscent of a high-end appetizer salad, piled in the center of the shiny white porcelain plate into a three-dimensional small mound.
The semi-transparent dark egg whites, mashed and mixed between the threads of green peppers, were tightly held by the sticky mayonnaise liquid.
The surface of the mashed green pepper still retained some traces of roasted pepper, the peeled pepper was soft and juicy, paired with the constantly emanating aroma of sesame oil and a hint of vinegar, giving people a craving.
"My goodness!"
Old Chen’s eyes bulged, his face full of disbelief.
Clearly, the plate was just casually whipped up in front of him, how did it turn a non-descript dish into a fancy restaurant starter?
Is this the value behind the title "Head Chef"?
In his view, such plating would only appear in high-end hotels, where something costing just a few bucks sells for dozens.
And there were plenty of mashed green pepper and century eggs left in the bowl; the plated portion only used about a tenth, maybe even less.
Just a small amount was plated simply, yet it greatly increased the dish’s value by dozens of times.
Chen Dongliang was tongue-tied, secretly thinking that this overseas trip was worthwhile.
If he could learn such skills, combined with the work experience in this high-end restaurant, even if he returned and sought work, he could still mix into a hotel, right?
He no longer needed to worry about not finding a high-paying job!
Thinking about this, he quickly took a closer look at the plate of mashed green pepper and century egg, trying to see exactly how it was plated.
At the same time, he cautiously warned himself, no matter which chef handles things later, he must watch carefully because learning is earning!
Handing the plated mashed green pepper and century egg to Lucas for photographing, Marchello picked up the nearby bowl, wrapped a chopstick full of mashed century egg and pepper, spinning it around like eating pasta, letting the pepper wrap around the chopsticks before eating it whole, and then passed the bowl to Raphael beside him.
"Hmm?!"
Before withdrawing his hand, his eyebrow raised.
Roasted green pepper was juicy, the raw pepper taste had completely disappeared, replaced by the inherent freshness and sweetness of the green pepper, paired with the unique alkaline taste of century egg, seasoned with simple soy sauce and sesame oil, perfectly enhancing the flavor of all ingredients.
Those few drops of sesame oil were the highlight, covering the excessive alkaline taste of century eggs while elevating the flavor of the egg yolk without affecting the original taste of the century egg and green pepper.
It was like a perfect fusion agent, allowing the two ingredients to intertwine, creating a marvelous balance.
Simple seasoning combined with these two ingredients brought him an incredibly appetizing feeling, instinctively wanting to pull his hand back and taste another chopstick’s worth.
However, Raphael’s movements were quicker.
Seeing Marchello’s expression change slightly, he realized something and quickly snatched the metal bowl, picking up a full chopstick to stuff into his mouth.
"Oh?!"
"This taste, interesting, it turns out century egg is so versatile."
After experiencing the difficulty of swallowing the original taste of century egg, eating this century egg dish unexpectedly created a particularly delicious feeling.
Even that special alkaline taste in the mouth seemed to emit a slight sweetness.
While they passed around the mashed green pepper and century egg on their side, the water in the large pot in front of Chen Dongliang gradually bubbled up, pale-colored meatballs mixed with gray-green century egg particles floated, bobbing up and down with the boiling bubbles.
Over on Lin Chen’s side, he didn’t stop for a moment, continuing to take packaged duck eggs out of the box.
However, this time he didn’t peel them, instead soaking them in cold water directly before boiling.
"These are those salted duck eggs, right? Are they raw?"
Marchello merely glanced briefly, immediately distinguishing the subtle difference in shell color between the two types of duck eggs.
The century egg shells tended towards gray-green, while the duck eggs Lin Chen was boiling had normal shell colors, leaning towards white, with barely a hint of green.
"Century eggs are also raw, just fermented through chemical reaction causing the protein to denature and mature."
"Century eggs are raw???"
After tasting the delightful mashed green pepper and century egg, everyone grew extremely curious about century egg dishes.
Upon hearing from Lin Chen that this thing was actually raw, one by one their faces showed expressions of surprise.
"No wonder for eating it just like that tasted so strong; they’re raw eggs, which makes sense."
The three chefs nodded, their eyes showing understanding.
Soon, Old Chen picked up the slotted spoon and fished the meatballs out of the pot one by one, placing them in a bowl, his eyes fixed on Chef Marchello, curious to see how he would plate them this time.
The preserved egg with ground pepper had a variety of shapes and sauces.
But these preserved egg pork meatballs were just plain balls. There’s no way to present them in an upscale manner, right?
Anyway, he couldn’t think of any creative way to plate the meatballs.
Under his watchful gaze, Chef Marchello pulled the bowl in front of him for a look, glanced over at the stack of plates nearby, and unhesitatingly picked up a flat plate.
"Please help me cut some scallions, as finely as you can."
"Huh?"
Chen Dongliang blinked, instinctively turning to look at Lin Chen.
"He wants you to cut some scallions, finely."
"Oh, oh."
After about ten seconds, a small pile of finely chopped scallions was on the cutting board.
Chef Marchello nodded. Although it didn’t match the shape he envisioned, since this was Chinese cuisine, the expectations for ingredient aesthetics were different from Western cuisine. Precision wasn’t necessary, and this presentation might even work better.
He took a bottle of soy sauce and dripped a few drops in the center of the white plate, then struck it firmly with the bottom of a spoon.
"Smack—"
The soy sauce scattered around wildly under the impact.
He scooped up four meatballs, stacking them in a mini pyramid on one-third of the plate, leaving most of the space as open white space, visible only by the splattered soy sauce stains.
Next, he took the jar of pickled pepper sauce, drizzled a little over the meatballs, and finally grabbed some chopped scallions to place on top of the uppermost meatball, scattering the rest casually onto the empty space of the plate.
In just about thirty seconds, a simple yet elegant plate of handmade meatballs appeared before everyone.
To be honest, except for Dais and a few others, the rest hadn’t really seen the Head Chef’s plating up close.
Seeing him casually move around, transforming otherwise plain ingredients into restaurant-worthy dishes, left everyone quite amazed.
Old Chen was dumbfounded, unable to connect the plate of meatballs in front of him with the ones in the bowl.
It was merely some soy sauce and pepper sauce plus a sprinkle of scallions, so how did it suddenly look so upscale?
Is this the art of Western restaurant plating?
Earlier, he had wondered to himself how he would plate the dish.
No matter how long he thought, he could only come up with a simple soup of meatballs by adding some seaweed, shrimp skin, and scallions, making a simple homemade soup.
In others’ hands, it’s like magic—a few quick moves, and a delicate dish appears.
No wonder dining in Western restaurants is so expensive; the service indeed is comprehensive.
But the problem is... there are only four meatballs on the plate, how can anyone be full?
"Boss! The puff pastry is set, and the other dough is fermenting. There’s nothing much to do for now; need any help?"
Zhao Shun walked out from the back kitchen, with slight flour smudges on his apron, eagerly joining them, glancing at the two exquisite dishes on Lucas’s table.
"Wow, preserved egg meatballs and ground pepper preserved egg? How are such homestyle dishes made to look like they come from a high-end hotel? Impressive!"
"Isn’t this place a high-end hotel after all?" Old Chen retorted in a muffled tone, turned off the stove, drained the water from the pot, wiped it dry, and then grabbed a bucket of fresh salad oil, pouring it in to start heating.
"If you’ve got nothing to do, bring me the batter and vegetables I prepared earlier; I’m about to start frying some meat."
"Alright~ at your service~"
In a few short days, the two had become entirely familiar with each other, the age gap seemingly disappeared at that moment.
Zhao Shun laughed, patting Old Chen’s shoulder, then turned back to the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Chen Dongliang grabbed the freshly delivered pork loin from John, simply rinsed it, patted it dry with kitchen paper, and threw it onto the cutting board.
He felt the grain with his fingers, adjusted its direction, and began slicing.
His movements were incredibly smooth, with no hesitation, barely needing a glance.
Each slice produced thin slices of meat, coin-thick, piling up like a stack of Dominoes.
Once he’d sliced the whole pork loin, he roughly counted over forty pieces—not bothering to be exact—as long each person could have two pieces.
Just then, Zhao Shun returned with the prepared ingredients, and Old Chen immediately threw some meat slices into a bowl and handed it to him.
"Take it, pound them together; I’m too slow doing it myself."
"You need to pound the meat?"
Seeing Old Chen lay several slices of pork loin flat on the cutting board and horizontally pat them with his cleaver, flattening them with a few quick hits, Raphael immediately extended his hand.
"Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, let me join in too—so many people waiting to eat, let’s work together for speed."
When he reached out, Marchello and Nagishiro Sho didn’t want to just stand there watching, so they got gloves and started helping with the ingredients as well.