Chapter 645

Chapter 645: Steamed Rice Served With Japanese Grenadier Anchovies

Translator: Xiong_Guoqi Editor: Cat Who Cooks

Yuan Zhou had barely inserted the sharp knife into the fish flesh when Tengyuan knitted his brows and brought out the words in surprise .

Tengyuan’s voice wasn’t low, thus it attracted many people to surround and watch immediately .

It was originally quite striking that Tengyuan came to Yuan Zhou’s place to eat the dish . Now, it became more striking .

“This little brat does big things every time he shows up,” Zhou Shijie scolded smilingly .

“Chairman Zhou seems to be very confident in him succeeding?” Chairman Masheng was also quite familiar with the knife skills, thus, he asked with puzzlement .

“Let’s watch and see if he can . ” Zhou Shijie didn’t say much .

“Tsk-tsk . If this Chef Yuan really succeeds, he would definitely be the only one . The fish is so small, how could one possibly remove the whole fish bones?” A plump chef behind put out his head and looked forward .

“There should be no problem . ” Li Li was a little uncertain about that .

“I think he’s just putting on a show . I just hope he won’t screw it up . ” Nevertheless, some other chefs weren’t optimistic about Yuan Zhou .

“Me, too . There are so much fish bones in the anchovy and it’s both long and soft . Anyway, I can’t figure out how to remove the fish bones without damaging the fish body . ” A chef not far from Yuan Zhou knitted his brows and revealed a puzzled look .

“You seem to have improved,” Chu Xiao turned his head and took a look at him at the side before saying that affirmatively .

No wonder others chefs had no confidence in Yuan Zhou . It was because they were the cream of the crop in cooking, thus they knew how difficult it was to remove all the fish bones from a fish body about 150g heavy .

It was because they understood, that was why they didn’t think he could succeed .

Among these people, only Chu Xiao and Zhou Shijie had full confidence that Yuan Zhou could succeed . Of course, they each had a different reason for that confidence .

For Zhou Shijie, he had absolute confidence in Yuan Zhou while for Chu Xiao, he just had confidence in himself . Chu Xiao believed that he and Yuan Zhou were birds of a feather, which could be summarized as one that would never admit anything but was determined to save face . Since Yuan Zhou dared to cook in public, he was 100% sure that he could win .

The meeting place became quieter and quieter gradually . All chefs shut their mouth and stopped cooking while Yuan Zhou was removing the fish bones . They would rather watch him first before things continued . The atmosphere was quiet and full of solemnity .

The reporters were also waiting for the results excitedly at the side .

Yuan Zhou just turned a deaf ear to all that . He took the sharp knife firmly and gently turned his wrist over . Then, the knife slid from the front to the back, like a butterfly passing through the flowers or a carp swimming in the water . He could faintly hear a light sound of “Chi La” .

His actions were steady, neat, and swift .

“That’s completely impossible . ” Though Dashi Xiujie said verbally that was impossible, he nevertheless stared at Yuan Zhou’s hands without moving his eyes away from them for even a second .

It wasn’t “impossible”, but was “absolutely impossible” . Tengyuan thought so in the mind . For fear of hurting the feelings of the other party, however, he didn’t shout or yell as Dashi Xiujie did . After all, he was someone at the level of Jiayuan .

In the full glare of publicity, Yuan Zhou made the impossible possible .

The skeptical gazes seemed to have motivated Yuan Zhou to become even more steady .

“Bo”

There came a crisp and melodious sound . Though it wasn’t loud, it sounded quite clear . Yuan Zhou gently pressed the fish body with the back of the knife blade with strength .

He clamped the fish head firmly with two fingers and pulled it outwards gently . Then, a whole fish bone along with the fish head appeared in front of the audiences .

The actions were like the floating clouds and flowing water without any sense of unfamiliarity .

No . More precisely, even the floating clouds and flowing water couldn’t describe the actions . Though Yuan Zhou could do that with ease, all the actions had a strong sense of rhythm in the eyes of the chefs surrounding to watch and reporters .

“He really drew it out . How did he do it?” Tengyuan stared at the intact fish body first and then at the chopping board where a whole fish bone was placed .

He tried very hard to suppress his astonishment . One had to say that Yuan Zhou had truly astonished this Jiayuan .

“Even the anchovy could be deboned, let alone an eel . He doesn’t even need to cut it open to debone the fish . What have I learned it for so long for?” Dashi Xiujie appeared a little absentminded .

One should know, it would take as long as 8 years to learn just to cut the eel open . And Dashi Xiujie also learned it this way .

This guy was slightly skeptical about his life now . He stared in front with his eyes almost touching the chopping board .

For the fish bones on the chopping board, even the ribs were distinct from each other . They were very clean and had no fish flesh left over at all .

It was the perfection and cleanliness that made everyone on site feel astonished or even disbelief, regardless of whether they understood it well or not .

However, they hadn’t recovered from the astonishment when Yuan Zhou took up the other fish and started to draw out the fish bones lightly .

His attitude was so relaxed, just as if he had done something insignificant .

Only after the two intact fish bones were taken out did Yuan Zhou begin to wash the rice, the other main ingredient for this dish .

The organizer of the exchange meeting provided them with Wuchang Rice . Of course, it wasn’t from the 1300-sqm field right in the middle, but from the neighboring field . However, that could also be called Wuchang Rice .

Even so, the taste of the rice was pretty good . The rice grains were spotlessly white, translucent and plump, which looked hard to resist .

“Wash the rice twice . ” While washing the rice, Yuan Zhou checked carefully if there were impurities inside .

The water used for washing rice the second time wasn’t dumped immediately . Instead, Yuan Zhou retained it .

“What’s he doing now? Is he preparing to cook rice?” Dashi Xiujie turned his head and looked at Tengyuan with puzzlement .

“It’s supposed to be Steamed Rice Served With Japanese Grenadier Anchovies . As the story goes, the fisherman usually steamed the rice with the anchovies after they caught any in the past . ” Tengyuan deserved to be called professor . He taught Chinese food culture and thus knew a lot about that .

“Have you ever eaten that?” Dashi Xiujie asked meticulously .

“No . There was no way to remove the fish bones completely,” said Tengyuan concisely .

“I’ve never expected that he possesses such superior craftsmanship . ” Dashi Xiujie was quite resentful inwardly . After all, the exquisite craftsmanship of removing the intact fish bones out was envied by him .

Of course, Dashi Xiujie was still reluctant to admit defeat . Even if Yuan Zhou had shown off his exquisite craftsmanship just now, the quality of the dish essentially depended on the taste .

“Cooking doesn’t require only knife skills,” said Tengyuan inwardly . He wasn’t as innocent as Dashi Xiujie . Now that his knife skills were so faultless, he definitely had wonderful culinary skills .

Such logical relations could be easily connected . Dashi Xiujie was merely infuriated by Yuan Zhou last time and hence wanted to return the favor today, but he never expected Yuan Zhou to have such faultless knife skills . Therefore, he lost his head .

However, Tengyuan didn’t believe that Yuan Zhou was also faultless in taste . He had no way to criticize him if Yuan Zhou cooked a dish that only required knife skills, but the steamed rice also required excellent heat control and water quality . The knife skills were just an accessory .

“As a young and talented Chinese chef, you are to blame . You are too conceited and don’t know how to capitalize on your advantages . ” Tengyuan watched Yuan Zhou show off his wonderful culinary skills gloomily .

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