Chapter Thirty-Four: Guarding One's Mouth Like a Bottle, Master Hong

  "You didn't mishear and I didn't say it wrong." Zhou Yi smiled, "Doesn't Master Hong want to try stir-frying cucumber with just oil and salt?"

  "Xiao Zhou, you... are trying to test my cooking skills?"

  Master Hong, after all, was a graduate of a proper culinary school and understood Zhou Yi's meaning after some thought. His straightforward personality didn't make him unhappy about it: "Alright, I'll show off my skills, let Little Zhou taste my craftsmanship!"

  Soon, a plate of stir-fried cucumber with only oil and salt was placed in front of Zhou Yi. Master Hong smiled and said, "Try it, little Zhou. If it doesn't taste good, don't blame me. It's the way you wanted it to be cooked."

  "Hehe, it's really not very delicious..."

  Zhou Yi picked up a piece of cucumber with chopsticks, put it in his mouth and spat it out after chewing for a moment: "This cucumber is actually very fresh, the oil and salt are fine, but Master Hong, your control over the fire and knife skills are not good enough, so it's not stir-fried well!"

  "What's wrong with my stir-frying and knife skills? How can I improve? Why don't you show me how it's done?"

  Even if Master Hong had a good temper, he started to feel somewhat dissatisfied after hearing this. After all, Zhou Yi was just a young man who was relatively good at eating in his eyes, and not a top-notch chef, so what right did he have to criticize his culinary skills?

  He considered himself the number one in Yunshui Village, and Zhou Yi's words had hurt his pride.

  "Alright, then I'll stir-fry a dish of cucumber, Master Hong, please have a taste."

  Zhou Yi smiled slightly, took over the spoon, washed and put oil in it, and quickly chopped a cucumber into thin slices like cicada wings. He glanced at the oil temperature, then casually picked up the cucumber slices and threw them into the pot. To his surprise, each slice separated from the others, without any of them sticking together or to the pot.

  "The knife work and the technique of controlling oil temperature..."

  Master Hong was stunned. Such thin and transparent cucumber slices, he couldn't cut them out even if he used all his strength to cut a few pieces, let alone finish cutting a whole cucumber in an instant like Zhou Yi did, with each slice having the same thickness and size.

  Such knife work is what every chef dreams of but can't get, it's the legendary knife work, it's god-level knife work!

  As for the precise control of oil temperature, Master Hong had only heard of it but never saw it with his own eyes, so he didn't have the ability to judge. But when Zhouyi's cucumber slices hit the pot, a burst of indescribable fragrance suddenly rose, which is exactly the effect that a chef can achieve after mastering the precise control of oil temperature; if the oil temperature is slightly lower, it cannot bring out the original aroma of the cucumber, and if the oil temperature is higher, the cucumber will be burnt. This subtle grasp relies not only on experience but also on innate talent!

  "Master Hong, how does it taste?"

  Zhou Yi smiled and handed a stir-fried cucumber dish in front of Master Hong.

  "Uh, let me try..."

  Master Hong was stunned for a moment, then picked up his chopsticks and picked up a slice of cucumber and put it in his mouth.

  "This is also too delicious..."

  He just chewed for a moment, and Master Hong felt a "buzz" in his brain, and suddenly he was stunned.

  Cucumber is the most common and ordinary vegetable, but it can be compared to fruit! Some children and even adults like to wash a cucumber and eat it raw in their hands.

  This is because cucumbers have a natural sweet fragrance, even some expensive fruits don't have. Apples, bananas, lychees, and honey oranges are all good, but they can't replace the raw cucumber of childhood...

  The stir-fried cucumber dish made by Zhou Yi has fully amplified the original flavor of the cucumber tenfold, a hundredfold, and when eaten, it's incredibly refreshing with a mouthful of fragrance.

  Master Hong has been a chef for over a decade, and he has stir-fried at least 8,000 cucumbers, but he can swear that this is the most delicious cucumber dish he has ever had in his life! Is...is this something that humans can create?

  After finishing the first piece, Master Hong couldn't stop his chopsticks anymore, as if a hungry tiger pounced on food, and instantly swept a plate of stir-fried yellow cucumber clean. After eating, he still savored the aftertaste with relish, with an expression of endless aftertaste.

  "Xiao Zhou, you must be a top-notch chef!"

  Master Hong stared blankly at Zhou Yi for a moment, then suddenly grabbed his arm: "You... how did you do it? Why is the stir-fried cucumber you made so delicious, Little Zhou..."

  "Hong Shifu, don't get excited for now."

  "Nature has created all things with unique flavors, cucumbers are this way, tomatoes are that way, even a single scallion or clove of garlic is the same. A chef's job isn't to discard these natural flavors, but to bring them out... Take this cucumber for example, if you add chicken bouillon and MSG, is it still a cucumber? We might as well just eat the bouillon and MSG directly, perhaps the flavor would be even better?"

  "What I did was just control the fire and bring out the original flavor of the cucumber at the right time, that's my secret."

  Zhou Yi smiled and looked at Master Hong. "True transmission in one sentence, false transmission in ten thousand volumes of books." The point that should be pointed out has already been pointed out by himself, how much can be understood depends on his talent and luck.

  "Natural flavor, can't be discarded... but should be fully utilized..."

  Master Hong muttered to himself as if he was possessed, frowning and scratching his head from time to time, as if he had grasped something but couldn't quite catch the most important thing: "But this fire is too hard to control! And your knife work..."

  "Hey Xiao Zhou, your culinary skills are so high, you can represent our village in the Long Table Banquet!"

  Master Hong's eyes suddenly lit up: "Xiao Zhou, if you agree, I'd rather be your assistant and do odd jobs for you!"

  "Hmm, I'm also considered half a person from Yunshui Village, of course I won't just stand by and watch..."

  "However, I have a condition, Master Hong. You must agree to it before I'll take action."

  "Really?"

  Master Hong's eyes lit up: "Little Zhou, you say what conditions I will agree to, even if it means going through boiling water and walking on fire, I won't refuse." These words were all things he had heard from listening to storytelling in his daily life, and now he brought them out to show his determination.

  "Hehe, it's not that serious." Zhou Yi said: "I just need Master Hong to keep a secret for me..."

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Master Hong was momentarily perplexed.

  "I'm a doctor at Yunshui Nursing Home, not a chef, so I don't want to draw too much attention and cause unnecessary trouble." Zhou Yi smiled and said: "So when the time comes, it's still Master Hong who will represent Yunshui Village in the competition. When it comes to the crucial moment of cooking, I'll naturally go help you out..."

  "Help me with the work, how dare I...". Master Hong was taken aback at first, then suddenly realized: "Little Zhou, you mean you'll do the cooking, but put my name on it? This...this won't do, or would I be taking too much advantage?"

  With Zhou Yi's culinary skills, as long as he is willing to take action, the leader of this grand banquet will undoubtedly be Yunshui Village. He will naturally become famous and his value will increase exponentially. However, Master Hong is after all a kind-hearted person, feeling that this is unfair to Zhou Yi, and it's really not good to take credit for heaven's work.

  "I just wanted to help the village a bit, I didn't want to become famous and bring unnecessary trouble, so it's not about who took advantage of whom." Zhou Yi said: "However, Master Hong, you must keep your mouth shut, whoever comes to ask you, you are not allowed to say that the dish was made by me, got it?"

  "Is that so..."

  Master Hong thought for half a day and finally gritted his teeth: "Alright! Little Zhou, rest assured, even if I'm beaten to death, I won't say the dish was cooked by you!"

  "Is it settled with just one word?"

  "It's settled in one word!"

  P.S: Thank you for everyone's support, I'm very touched.

  Currently ranked fourth among newbies on the entire site, rushing to first place is unlikely this week, but it's still possible to rise one more spot, so I'll continue to ask for recommendations and collections: )

  Thank you everyone :)