Chapter 436

The five judges could forget about Xu Qing, but Yan Xian didn't dare to relax at all.

He was clearly two dishes ahead of Xu Qing, but at this moment he was under increasing pressure.

The further ahead he got, the more nervous he became.

The closer we are to victory, the less we dare to relax.

I am afraid that if I am careless for a moment, I will lose everything.

It was like there was a tiger chasing him from behind. If he slowed down a little, the tiger would pounce on him and bite him. He would not even have the chance to struggle.

Some people will perform poorly under tremendous pressure and find it difficult to perform at their usual level.

Some people are the opposite. The greater the pressure they are under, the more focused they are and the more flexible their minds are. The obstacles and bottlenecks that they could not figure out in the past are all solved at this moment.

Yan Xian is the latter kind of person. At this moment, he is facing unprecedented pressure and facing an unprecedented powerful enemy. This makes him highly concentrated and even makes his already sharp super hearing become more sensitive at this moment. The subtle sounds constantly coming from his ears bring him closer to the ingredients, allowing him to understand more clearly the limits of the ingredients and how to use these limits to make the ultimate delicious food.

At this moment, he heard countless sounds in his ears, but when he concentrated, these countless sounds seemed to be filtered out by themselves, and only the sounds made by the ingredients remained in his ears.

He heard the different sounds made by the ingredients every time the knife fell, some were clear, some were dull, as if the ingredients were telling him where was the most suitable part and which part to cut to bring out the most perfect taste.

For Yan Xian, this was simply a brand new world, as if the world had unveiled its veil layer by layer, revealing its true nature.

Even though he had super hearing, he had never experienced it so clearly and thoroughly before.

Unfortunately, even if these voices revealed their true nature to him, he found it difficult to do what they said.

Even if he understood how to do it and how to bring out the ultimate deliciousness of the ingredients, his skills had not yet reached that level.

His mind knew what to do, but his hands couldn't keep up.

He gained power beyond his own capabilities in a short period of time, so naturally he couldn't really adapt to it.

Now, he could only watch this power being wasted, which was a great pity.

After this cooking showdown, he will be able to calm himself, further improve his skills, and completely control the power he has gained at this moment, turning it into his own strength. By then, he will become several times stronger than he is now.

But what's the use?
He was afraid that he would never encounter such a wonderful cooking showdown or such a powerful opponent again.

What's the use of having extraordinary skills?

Yan Xian sighed in his heart, collected his thoughts, stopped thinking about other things, and concentrated on doing the job at hand.

Even though most of the power was wasted, a small part of it was still grasped by him and became his own.

Now, every step he takes in cooking, every dish he makes, far surpasses his past self, and is heading towards a future that he himself has never imagined.

After the two dishes of "Faith" and "Diligence", the next dish in order is "Festival".

Moderation has many meanings, but when it is used as a virtue, it means restriction, reduction, or moderation.

As an emperor who owns the world, if he does not restrain himself and abuses money and power, it will naturally lead to the people's suffering.

Most of the incompetent emperors in history have a common hobby, which is luxury and extravagance.

Even if he is an emperor, the things he has are limited, but human greed is unlimited. How can it be satisfied with limited things to satisfy unlimited greed? Therefore, self-control is necessary, and the higher the position, the more self-control is required.

Ordinary people have a low status and are exposed to fewer things. Even if they indulge themselves, at most they will harm themselves and those close to them, and the harm to others will be limited.

However, people in high positions control many things and are involved in a wide range of issues. If they do not exercise self-restraint, the number of people they harm will be countless.

The emperor, as the person with the highest status, if he does not exercise self-control, then he will endanger everyone in the world, and no one will be able to escape.

Therefore, "chastity" is also an extremely important virtue for the emperor.

There are many ingredients related to moderation and frugality. It can be said that any cheap ingredient can basically be included. Even a wild vegetable picked from the roadside qualifies. The range of choices is very wide.

But that's generally speaking.

For the five-level seal test in front of them, they can do whatever they want with other dishes, but when it comes to the virtue of "festival", their choices are very limited.

Because the four dishes and one soup that are tested by the five seals are derived from the idea of ​​frugality.

Zhu Yuanzhang first created this dish of four dishes and one soup, which includes stir-fried radish, stir-fried leeks, two stir-fried green vegetables, and a tofu soup. Four kinds of green vegetables and a white soup symbolize a clean and innocent life.

Therefore, the ingredients for the dish "Jie" can only be chosen from among the "clean and white" ones.

Yan first chose tofu.

Tofu is pure white in color and plain in texture, so it has the connotation of purity and simplicity.

However, what he made was not tofu soup, but steamed tofu.

The method of steaming tofu can retain the delicate taste and original flavor of tofu to the greatest extent, and better highlight the simple texture of tofu.

Moreover, in terms of preparation method, steaming tofu takes less time than tofu soup, and is simpler and faster to make.

Although it is not much shorter, even one minute or one second faster is precious to Yan Xian.

Steamed tofu is very simple to make. Cut the tofu into slices of appropriate thickness and steam it in a steamer. Then make a sauce with soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and other seasonings and pour it on the steamed tofu. The dish is ready.

It is simple and efficient, but if you look into it in detail, you will find that it also contains a lot of advanced techniques.

The first is the steaming time, and the second is the thickness of the tofu.

How to bring out the delicious taste of tofu in the shortest time possible and what thickness should be used to bring out the best taste are things that require deep thinking.

Yan Xian had the help of super hearing. After putting the tofu into the steamer, he could hear the sound of the tofu slowly cooking under the action of heat. He could also hear the slight sound coming from every gap in the tofu, as if telling him infinite mysteries.

This allowed him to grasp the best state of the tofu and prepare the third dish as quickly as possible.

At the judging panel, the five judges had just finished tasting the previous dish. Their expectant gazes rested on Yan Xian for a moment when they saw him walking over with a new dish.

"You finished a dish so quickly?"

“What an amazing strength.”

　Will make up for it tomorrow

　　
　
(End of this chapter)