Chapter Sixteen: The Ninefold Aurora of the Golden Dragon, Step by Step Ascending

  This seemingly ordinary white vegetable dish, as soon as it enters the mouth, immediately has a unique sweetness that belongs to the white vegetable spreading out, crisp and unparalleled, without any hint of bitterness. The divine stir-frying skills are indeed not exaggerated, in Zhou Yi's hands, both ensuring the white vegetable is cooked through and not losing its texture.

  When the willow catkins and leaves had just enjoyed the crispness of their teeth, a fresh and beautiful soup suddenly emanated from the Chinese cabbage, violently striking the taste buds of the two people. At the same time, the whole piece of Chinese cabbage was like a superior pastry, melting in the mouth instantly, filling the mouth with fragrance, rushing straight to the heart, making one's spirit shake, and then opening up their appetite!

  This fragrance is the same rich and thick flavor that Liu Xian and others smelled before, which makes people feel refreshed and comfortable. After eating this piece of Chinese cabbage, there is a feeling of "falling into place", as if it can calm one's mind and drive away distractions.

  If I could eat this dish of Chinese cabbage before the college entrance examination, I would definitely be admitted to a key university!

  "It seems like mushroom sauce, how did he get it into the bok choy? And how can the bok choy be so tender and crispy, without any vegetable fibers..."

  Willow was astonished to look at Zhou Yi, unable to understand. The vegetable bundle of Chinese cabbage indeed has vegetable fibers, even if it is stewed with meat until it is rotten, the vegetable fibers will not disappear, and may even become more prominent; but the Chinese cabbage she ate was crispy and crunchy, and couldn't taste any vegetable fibers in it at all?

  The leaves didn't understand all that reasoning, they just thought it was delicious. For a time, the chopsticks flew down, and in the blink of an eye, she stuffed over a dozen pieces of white vegetables into her mouth. A plate of the world's number one white vegetables was eaten away by her to a quarter.

  In the face of this ultimate delicacy, Liu Xue couldn't maintain her composure either, and abandoned her self-awareness as an aunt, actually competing with Yezi, the little longevity star. In a short while, you came and went, using less than ten minutes, the two girls ate Zhou Yi's number one white cabbage in the world clean.

  "Wow, it's so delicious! Uncle Zhou, your stir-fried cabbage is even better than butter cake and fried liangpi noodles. Yezi loves it..."

  Ye Zi clapped her small hands together, lavishing praise on Zhou Yi, but her big eyes were fixed firmly on the remaining three covered bowls, her little tongue licking her lips like a hungry little cat.

  Willow swallowed her saliva, took a sneak peek at the three covered bowls, and struggled to maintain her elegant image: "Brother Zhou, how did you...how did you do it? Is there mushroom juice in the cabbage?"

  "Willow catkins, you've actually eaten your way out?"

  "Good, the bok choy has been infused with mushroom broth, after all, bok choy itself doesn't have much flavor and needs to rely on external ingredients. Since Ye Zi can't eat meat, I used mushroom broth to add flavor... In vegetarian dishes, mushrooms and tofu are both great for bringing out umami flavors..."

  What he said was simple, but to make the world's number one stir-fried cabbage, you first need to use the "震" (shock) technique in knife work to break up the fibers in the cabbage, and then use extremely fine carving skills to hollow out a space within the cabbage to store mushroom juice.

  But the thickness of the Chinese cabbage is very limited, far less than that of winter melon and pumpkin commonly used in food carving, so to dig out a space for storing soup in a bamboo leaf-sized Chinese cabbage requires extremely fine craftsmanship, which can carve out a winding "soup path".

  The technique used by Zhou Yi is the legendary top-notch carving in today's culinary world - 'Nine Turns of the Yellow River'. If you look closely with a magnifying glass, you can see that each piece of white vegetable has a winding path of soup, just like a miniature version of the Yellow River!

  This is just the first step, after pouring high soup into the cabbage, you need to quickly wrap it with egg whites and put it in the pot for stir-frying. When stir-frying, you can't use a spatula or scoop, relying solely on the skill of flipping the pot with your hands.

  So this dish of the world's number one stir-fried cabbage looks simple, but it tests a chef's skills in high broth, knife work, carving, stir-frying, and fire control. If any part of the process goes wrong, the flavor will be greatly lost, even if it's Zhou Yi, you have to go all out.

  "Uncle Zhou, Yezi still wants to eat..."

  Willow originally wanted to ask how the soup was poured into the bok choy, but Xiao Ye couldn't wait any longer and urged Zhou Yi to hurry up.

  "Good, then please savor my second dish, Nine-Braised Golden Dragon."

  The Zhou Yi lifted another lid, and under it was a fish plate with a golden roasted fish lying on its belly.

  This fish doesn't even have scales, lying on the plate, its head slightly raised and whiskers curled up, it really looks like a divine dragon ready to fly into the sky at any moment.

  Moreover, Zhou Yi's roasted fish technique is obviously unique, not only can the fish whiskers be completely preserved, but there are also no common burnt black spots on the fish body, the whole fish is shining with golden light, very good-looking.

  "Two beauties, please..."

  Suddenly, a small knife with a blade as wide as a little finger and two or three inches long appeared in Zhou Yi's hand. With a light stroke on the fish, its scales were immediately stripped off to one side, and a hot and savory aroma of fish wafted up, making both Liu Xue and Ye Zi involuntarily lick their tongues.

  "It's still so delicious..."

  The roasted fish meat was a delightful sensation in both of their mouths, with its fragrance and crispiness exploding simultaneously. Liu Xue and Ye Zi's eyes widened at the same time, and they didn't even bother to greet Zhou Yi. They took turns picking up pieces of fish with their chopsticks, as if they were afraid that if they slowed down for a moment, the fish would be snatched away by others.

  In less than five minutes, the roasted fish was swept clean again. It wasn't until they finished eating that Liu Xue and Ye Zi were shocked to discover that this fish didn't even have any fish bones or thorns, it had actually been removed by Zhou Yi in advance.

  Recalling the previous fish scales, willow catkins couldn't figure out how Zhou Yi managed to keep the fish body intact while removing the fish bones and thorns.

  But she didn't have time to think much more, because Zhou Yi had already lifted the lid of the third bowl.

  This dish is called "Step by Step Promotion". It uses fresh bamboo shoots, carved into small bamboo shoots, arranged in a staggered manner on the plate. The plate is accompanied by a few pieces of fragrant grass, looking very refreshing and pleasant. The familiar fragrance that had been smelled before once again hit their noses, making Liu Xue and Ye Zi quickly pick up one with their chopsticks and put it into their mouths.

  This time, there was no explosive flavor impact. After the bamboo shoots entered the mouth, a faint fragrance overflowed from the mouth and quickly entered the stomach along the esophagus, instantly dissipating the greasy feeling of the roasted fish. Liu Xue and Ye Zi lightly exhaled a breath, as if they both carried the fragrance of the bamboo leaves...

  For the first time, they savored this top-notch delicacy of willow catkins and leaves, but there was no time to figure out how this dish was made. The two people's eyes were like hungry wolves, staring at the last covered bowl.

  Underneath the last covered bowl is a soup.

  Carp white soup. Made with raw water, only salt is used to bring out the flavor, under the control of fire in the Book of Changes, this soup is neither thick nor thin, but only fresh and fragrant, without a hint of fishy smell that makes people unbearable.

  Some people say that "xian" is just "fresh", but this is a big mistake. The so-called "raw xian, cooked fresh" refers to the fact that xian is the result of uncontrolled heat, but in Zhou Yi's hands, it can be transformed from xian to fresh, making even those who never eat fish want to dig in when faced with this bowl of grass carp white soup.

  And on top of the white soup, there were also floating green bamboo shoots and Chinese cabbage. The various flavors were independent, yet they were organically combined by Zhou Yi's skilled hands, allowing Liu Xue and Ye Zi to recall all three dishes they had previously eaten while drinking this soup.

  This soup is a perfect finale, and it can't be done by anyone but a top-notch chef!

  "Wow... I'm so full..."

  Willow's hands touched her already bulging belly, lying on the sofa without any demeanor, secretly regretting in her heart, having eaten such a dish, what to do in the future...

  "Hey - Little Auntie, Yezi doesn't want to leave, Yezi wants to stay here and eat Uncle Zhou's cooking every day."

  Xiao Yezi looked at the untouched birthday cake: "Uncle Zhou's dishes are too delicious, even more fragrant than the birthday cake..."