Chapter 125 Bitterness and Sweetness
"Bitter Chicken?"

The three examiners asked in surprise.

The name sounds weird, sweet and bitter, how can it be delicious?
However, the dish in front of me exudes a wonderful aroma, a complex and rich aroma that goes straight into my nose. This indescribable fragrance makes the taste of the chicken itself look extremely mysterious. Just a slight sniff of it makes people's mouths water and their stomachs start to move.

From the appearance, the chicken in front of you is cut into squares of equal size and neatly placed on the plate, which makes people feel very pleasing visually.

The shiny chicken skin is oily, while the chicken meat is delicate and white. The two are clearly layered and then cut into squares of equal thickness and size with exquisite knife skills, as neat as a chessboard.

Both the sight and the smell aroused the interest of the four people.

The three examiners and Hongze picked up their chopsticks, picked up a piece of chicken and put it into their mouths.

The chicken skin has a slightly elastic texture when you put it in your mouth. The heat makes the skin crispy like it is roasted. When you bite it gently, you can feel the pleasure of the skin breaking at the tip of your teeth, accompanied by a slight sound made by your teeth penetrating the skin.

In a high-temperature environment, the chicken skin and the fat under the skin are quickly roasted, and the two are integrated into one. The thin chicken skin fully absorbs the rich aroma of the fat, and with the help of the fat, it becomes more crispy and tender. When you take a bite, the fat wrapped in the chicken skin instantly blooms between your lips and teeth, filling your mouth with this rich aroma.

The tips of the teeth penetrate the crispy chicken skin and reach the tender chicken meat.

After a long period of salt baking, the salt fully locks the moisture of the whole chicken. Now when you take a bite, the juice hidden deep in the chicken fiber bursts out instantly, and the delicious juice makes the chicken more tender and full.

During the long salt-baking process, the moisture in the chicken fully absorbs the aroma of the chicken itself, as if the chicken is a clay pot with a pot of broth boiled inside.

And this delicious soup is filled in every piece of chicken. After you bite it, the delicious soup and the tenderness of the meat bloom in your mouth at the same time, bringing you an indescribable pleasure.

After being salt-baked, the penetration of salt allows the chicken to fully absorb the essence of the salt without being overly salty, which just brings out the deliciousness of the chicken itself.

At the same time, the spicy flavors of various Chinese medicinal materials and onions, ginger and garlic, under the high temperature and exquisite craftsmanship, permeate the chicken with their unique aroma.

The chicken has a light medicinal flavor, and the saltiness of the chicken fully releases these flavors, adding a complex aroma to the chicken, making the chicken taste sweeter, but with a little bitterness in the sweetness. However, this bitterness is not bitter, but adds a bit of heaviness to the original light aroma of the chicken.

When you chew a piece of chicken, countless flavors burst out instantly. With the contrast of salty, bitter, sweet, spicy and other flavors, the deliciousness of the chicken itself becomes more rich and mellow. The existence of all these flavors is to make the fragrance of the chicken more distinct.

Moreover, these different flavors blend and collide with each other during the continuous chewing of the teeth, evolving into hundreds of flavors. And no matter how those flavors change, they will eventually return to the fragrance of chicken, just like hundreds of rivers returning to the sea.

After swallowing the last bite of food, the taste in the mouth gradually subsided, and the hundreds of flavors gradually slipped away from the mouth and tongue, leaving only the lingering pure fragrance of the chicken, leisurely wandering on the mouth and tongue.

In a trance, they seemed to see an old man who had seen a lot of things, experienced prosperity and also suffered poverty. The sweetness, bitterness and pain in life eventually passed away with time, and what remained in his heart was only the calmness and peace.

While the three examiners were still immersed in the delicious food, Hongze came back to his senses first.

If it wasn't a surprise attack, Hong Ze would have really thought that this dish was made by Xu Qing specially to please him.

The open-mindedness and indifference in this dish, the state of mind that seemed to have been refined through the prosperity and suffering of the world, was really to his liking.

Every time you take a bite, you can feel countless flavors blooming in your mouth and tongue, just like reliving your past life.

The environment a person lives in and the things he experiences throughout his life are always changing without stopping.

But there are always some things that will never change. Maybe it is the persistence in people's hearts, maybe it is the persistence in their ideals, or maybe it is their noble character. They are like a rock, stubbornly rooted in this ever-flowing river in the changing times and events.

No matter how things around you change, it alone remains unchanged.

Some people say this is stubbornness, some people say this is stupidity, and some people say this is ignorance.

But for this rock, all it wants is peace of mind.

My peaceful place is my hometown.

The sentiment that this dish wants to express flows so clearly into the heart through the delicious taste on the tip of the tongue.

Hongze sighed in his heart, Wu Cheng and Wei Jie’s losses were not unfair.

It’s also because Xu Qing’s age is so deceptive. Who could have imagined that this young boy has such terrifying strength and talent hidden in his body.

Even he looked down upon the young man.

However, after this top chef assessment, I'm afraid no one will look down on him because of his age anymore.

Hongze looked at Xu Qing and asked, "Anything else? I want a plate. No, I can even eat a whole chicken."

Xu Qing said helplessly: "It's gone. I only made one chicken. If I want to make the second one, I have to wait another day."

Xu Qing thought that since the examiners were tasting the dishes, even if they only took one bite of each dish, they would be full after the test. So he made less to avoid waste.

Who would have thought that a dragon chef would suddenly appear?

Hong Ze was so angry that he blew his beard and glared: "As a chef, you can't even satisfy the diners' appetite. How can you be a chef? Don't make the same mistake again in the next competition!"

After that, he walked away.

Although Hongze's tone was stern, everyone present could hear that this meant announcing that Xu Qing had passed the assessment.

The three examiners naturally understood what Chef Long meant, but the process still had to be followed.

The older examiner said with admiration: "After eating this dish, I finally understood why you made it fresh. The salt and iron sand fried at high temperature replaced the role of flames. With the operation of exquisite skills, it is like wrapping the chicken and the ingredients in a blazing flame. With sufficient heat, the flavors of various ingredients are stimulated in an instant, and they are quickly integrated into one, so that the taste of this chicken can reach its peak."

Another examiner asked: "The technique and taste of this dish are extremely exquisite, so what is the connection between this dish and the sub-topic?"

Xu Qing said: "Mr. Liu Yuxi did not fight for power, fame or wealth. He lived in a humble room but was content. The prosperity and wealth of the world were no different from this humble room to him. The sweetness or bitterness in life could not change his ambitions, nor could it shake his noble character. Just like this dish, whether sweet, bitter or spicy, it will only add to the fragrance of the chicken, but will not completely change it. In the end, when the taste imposed by the outside world dissipates, only the unchanged authenticity remains."

The older examiner nodded and sighed, "Things change but the essence remains unchanged. Being content and happy is what a gentleman seeks."

Another examiner announced loudly: "Xu Qing from Yangquan Restaurant, passed!"

(End of this chapter)