Chapter 715. Aoi

"What the hell?" Master Wang's eyes widened, anger rising, "I ruined something?"

The two old men are going to fight again.

Master Lin quickly stood in the middle to separate the two of them.

He smiled and explained, "A few days ago, Zhongshan famous chef Huang Yaosheng celebrated his 70th birthday. I, Mr. Xu and more than ten other people gathered at Mr. Huang's place. During the gathering, Mr. Xu said that Brother Luo's food is the best in the world, which made us eager to hear it. After the party, I shamelessly followed Mr. Xu to come and see the world."

Mr. Lin speaks in a very literary way, using several idioms in every sentence.

Luo Yihang quickly said politely, "I don't deserve it, I don't deserve it, I just said it casually."

Master Lin waved his hand and smiled even more. "We just arrived at Tianhan today. As soon as we dropped off our luggage at the hotel, Mr. Xu saw a WeChat Moments post from Mr. Wang and drove me here. Now I'm still confused."

After listening to this, Master Wang nodded and said, "Yes, I did."

Then he pointed at Master Xu and said, "I'm here to make some dishes, why are you interfering?"

Master Xu also pointed at Master Wang and said with a smile: "Let me keep an eye on you. Don't mess around and ruin the good stuff."

Master Wang's eyes widened again, and his voice rose an octave, "I'm ruining things!"

These two old guys are just bored and have nothing to do but bicker for fun.

Master Wang’s skill in cooking fine dishes is indeed not as good as Master Xu’s, but Master Wang cooks in large quantities.

Chef Xu strives to use 100-point ingredients to create 120-point taste.

Chef Wang strives to use 60 points of ingredients to make a 90 points taste, and he has to do it quickly and in large quantities. No one can match his skills in making big pot dishes.

The two people have different ideas.

Luo Yihang saw that the two were about to quarrel again.

He pulled them towards the vegetable field with one hand each, "Don't worry, don't worry, there are plenty this year, enough for you to use. Come on, Master Xu, take a look at this year's vegetables."

This is called interruption.

The few acres of land in front of Luo Yihang's house are close to the canteen, so he mainly grows food for himself. He doesn't care about quantity, but seeks a wide variety.

The beginning of June is the time of most production.

Cucumber, bitter gourd, tomato, cowpea, pepper, eggplant, pumpkin, zucchini, water spinach, cabbage, amaranth, winter amaranth, loofah, wood ear vegetable, milk cabbage...

What you want is what you want.

These dishes are constantly nourished by spiritual energy.

When ordinary people see it, they just think it is really bright and looks good, and that’s it.

But the better the chef is, the better he can tell what is good.

When a cook sees delicious food, it’s like a pervert seeing a beautiful woman, and he forgets everything else.

In their eyes, all of them are Miss World.

Just imagine how shocking it would be if the Miss World contestants stood next to each other for several acres.

When Master Lin entered the vegetable field, his eyes turned green.

When I see bitter melon and pumpkin, I want to make soup.

When I see eggplant, I want to make eggplant stew.

When I see water spinach, I want to stir-fry it.

He moved his fingers around, as if he couldn't bear it any longer and wanted to make a table on the spot.

It was the same when Master Xu first came.

An occupational disease of celebrity chefs.

Come a few times and you'll get used to it.

When he turned to a field of Amaranth, Master Lin's symptoms became more serious and he almost fell to the ground.

"Aoi! How come Aoi is still here at this time? And she looks so beautiful!"

Luo Yihang replied: "The weather is relatively cool this year, and the temperature on our mountain is also lower. The ones planted in early March are still growing, so we didn't dig them up. But now should be the last one."

Master Wang laughed when he heard this, "This is winter amaranth. Xiaolin, how come you don't even know the vegetable?" Before Master Lin could say anything, Master Xu smiled contemptuously, "You are unlearned and unskilled. Sunflower is the ancient name for winter amaranth. What's the name of the poem? At the age of fifteen, you join the army?"

"I joined the army at fifteen," Master Lin said, and then recited softly, "I joined the army at fifteen, and returned home at eighty. I met a fellow villager on the road and asked him: Who is at home? From afar, it is your home, with numerous pine and cypress tombs. Rabbits fly in through the dog holes, and pheasants fly from the beams. There are millets in the courtyard, and sunflowers on the well. I pound the millets to make rice, and pick the sunflowers to make soup. The rice and soup are ready, but I don't know who to give them to! I went out and looked east, and my tears wet my clothes."

"This is..." Luo Yihang thought it sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember it for a moment.

"The poem 'Fifteen years old joins the army' is from the Han Dynasty Yuefu," said Master Lin with a smile. "It may seem plain, but every word is tragic and every sentence is sorrowful. The sunflower in 'Picking sunflowers to make soup' refers to the winter amaranth."

Speaking of this vegetable, Master Lin has a lot to say, "Sunflower has appeared in the Book of Songs. In the "Qimin Yaoshu" of the Later Wei Dynasty, it was listed as the first vegetable. In the "Book of Agriculture" of the Yuan Dynasty, it was even called the king of all vegetables."

"But in the Ming Dynasty, in the Compendium of Materia Medica, sunflower became a medicinal herb and was no longer a vegetable. It disappeared from the records."

"In fact, the ancients also wondered what sunflower was and why it disappeared today. It was not until the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty that Wu Qijun, after several investigations, determined that sunflower was Amaranthus trichocarpa. It turns out that the king of vegetables in ancient times is not extinct."

Master Lin has a wide range of knowledge and can quote many allusions at any time.

Master Wang was also fascinated by what he heard, and asked, "This winter amaranth was so famous in ancient times, why is it no longer a vegetable? Why is it not recognized after the name was changed?"

Master Lin shook his head. "Because a new dish came out and replaced the king of vegetables. Now the speculation is that sunflower disappeared for a while, and then reappeared. When it reappeared, people no longer recognized it, so they changed its name."

"What could replace it?"

"As for Chinese cabbage, it happened to grow to its current size during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It has a high yield and is durable in storage. The new king takes the throne and the old king retires."

"Oh, it's Chinese cabbage. I'm familiar with it!"

Master Wang slapped his thigh and understood when he heard it was cabbage.

Luo Yihang clapped his hands and said respectfully, "Master Lin, you are really knowledgeable."

Master Lin waved his hands and shook his head, very modestly, "I didn't research it, I'm just borrowing flowers to offer a tribute to Buddha, this is what Mr. Wang Zengqi described in "The Taste of Life"."

At this point, Master Xu interjected, "To put it in today's terms, Xiao Lin is a die-hard fan of Wang Zengqi. He once recreated all the dishes written in Wang Zengqi's books."

Wang Zengqi?
You know, Luo Yihang is a great prose writer who is best at writing about food. He has longed to describe salted duck eggs for a long time.

"Then you have to show off your skills and make some salted duck eggs for us to try."

Master Lin smiled and replied, "The salted duck eggs in Wang Zengqi's book must be made with Gaoyou duck eggs, which are not available at the moment. But today you can try to make a soup with the last batch of winter amaranth."

"Okay, okay." Luo Yihang was happy just by eating.

Master Wang rubbed his chin and murmured, "This thing has a story behind it. I need to get more to teach the kids."

Master Xu heard what he was saying to himself, and he shook his head and pouted, "Old man Wang, do you understand what you are doing? Don't waste good things."

Master Wang was about to get angry again, and his expression showed it, but then he let it go.

He changed to a smug look, "The food I cooked helped the entire senior class get into college last year. This year, the estimated scores after the college entrance examination are not bad, and 99% of them are college students. Old Xu, do you dare to say that I am wasting food?"

Hey, it’s valuable and the moral high ground is occupied. Master Xu knows what’s going on. This is really thanks to Master Wang, who was speechless.

Master Wang won the argument.

Just happy.

Luo Yihang interrupted.

"Oh, I missed the college entrance examination. If it were still in July, I could still deliver mulberries outside the examination room. I planted 20,000 mulberry trees, which will not mature until July."

The three chefs here are very familiar with the seasons of fruits and vegetables.

It was Master Wang who teased, "Other people's mulberries are harvested in May and June, but yours is harvested in July, a month late for no reason."

"Because I grow sweet golden mulberries, which bear fruit in June and mature in July. They are white-gold in color and are this long." Luo Yihang stretched out his hand to show off, "You haven't seen it before."

The three chefs shook their heads in unison, saying they had never seen such a thing before.

When they were planting mulberry trees, they used live streaming. At most, they would post on WeChat Moments or watch a short video, but they had not yet mastered the live streaming skill.

"You can check the dishes at any time. Go and take a look at your platinum mulberries." Although Master Wang is old, he is very curious.

"Okay." Luo Yihang agreed immediately and drove the car.

A group of four went up to the fruit forest on the mountain.

The three chefs didn't even look at the mulberry tree. They immediately focused on the geese running around under the tree...

(End of this chapter)