The Heavenly Wandering Sword

Chapter 56

Mei Min could not wait to pick up her chopsticks but Li Jian was too much of a veteran gourmand to just pick up his chopsticks. “Please summon the chef.” The chef was brought in, standing nervously there beside the table while Li Jian examined the table. “Chef, please provide me recommendations on the best order to sample your cooking.”

The chef looked at him, a bit surprised at this. “Master, I would suggest the soup first while you sample the sesame noodles. Then, the pork stir fry and eggplants. After that, the lamb and beef ribs. The stir fried shaved noodles should be saved for last.” Li Jian nodded and poured himself a bowl of soup. Mei Min had no idea what the chef meant but followed along. The soup was nice and tart, with a smooth undercurrent of chicken flavor. The tomato slices were nice and generously cut, while the egg drop was smooth. The noodles had a rough texture as expected of buckwheat noodles, while the sesame oil was rich and fragrant with the occasional bite of sesame included.

Li Jian nodded with approval before moving onto the stir fry and eggplants. The pork was cooked with nice rich chunks of pork, the meat moist while the sour cabbage leaves provided a nice counter balance to the richness of the pork. The eggplants was steamed nicely with a nice soft texture and the added saltiness of the black bean sauce was a nice touch. The beef ribs were nicely peppered, and the meat was delicious. The cumin lamb was stir fried with onions, leaving a nice rich taste of spice and lamb on his tongue. He finally moved onto a small plate of the shaved noodles. The noodles were chewy and delicious, while the chicken itself was juicy with the fresh taste of herbs behind each bite.

Beside him, Mei Min was hungrily sampling each dish, often going back for multiple samples of each. To her, these dishes were beyond delicious. She found herself lost in a journey of flavour. The tartness of the soup opened up her appetite for the savouriness of the stir fry and the soft umami of the eggplant. The beef ribs soaked her appetite with the richness of beef and the cumin lamb fed spices to the richness. The shaved noodles were a nice finish, filling up her stomach while keeping the noodles light with the taste of herbs and the savouriness of the chicken. “Master, this is delicious.”

For Li Jian, he found each of the dishes well thought out but he frowned slightly. “Young master, chef, your dishes are indeed delicious. But that is all. I found nothing in these dishes that made me feel as if each were irreplaceable. Any one of these dishes could have been changed out for something similar, and the meal would still have been balanced.” Jin Nansu placed his head on the table and sighed, while the chef could only bow in apology. “You truly must be a great master. You have ate a small sample of each dish, and came to a conclusion about the entire presentation.”

The chef found himself at a loss for words. Each dish he had cooked, he knew that their taste was beyond reproach. However to stake their reputation on the incoming competition, none of these dishes would be capable of winning. “Great master, please. Show me how I can do better.” Mei Min was still stuffing her face but stopped when she heard the question. Li Jian was a heavenly deity, could it be that he was a heavenly deity of cuisine? Why would a deity of cuisine have such immense power?

Li Jian thought about the question carefully and stood up. “Show me to your kitchen Chef. Today I will show you a journey.”

The kitchen as befitting of a high level eatery was well stocked. Fresh produce was found plenty, with freshly butchered animals ready to be turned into dishes to tantalize any diner who found themselves at the dinner table. “Please great master. Tell me what you need, if we do not have it in this kitchen, we will run out to find it.” Li Jian nodded and wandered around the kitchen, collecting various ingredients carefully. “I will also need dried dried shrimp, pickled radishes, and duck.” Wang Lusong bowed and sent out servants to hurriedly purchase them. In the meantime, Li Jian started cooking.

In a large soup pot, he poured in water, rice wine and placed in chicken bones to simmer. However, he was also a master martial artist. He would crush the chicken bones into a fine powder to let all the flavour steep into the broth itself. Next, he ordered a large wok to be lit. With knife skills that had not seen by the kitchen staff even in decades of experience in the kitchen, he sliced up tomatoes into paper thin slices and tossed them into the wok. The flame underneath the wok was very hot but not enough hot. Sending his spiritual force into the wok itself, he heated it almost to the point of being too hot for the stove itself and sautéed the tomato slices expertly, caramelizing the sugars inside of the acidic fruits.

Setting aside the seared tomato slices, he took out three large blocks of tofu. Pouring sesame oil on it, he seared the bottoms in the hot fragrant oil that would smoke quickly before adding on toasted sesame seeds with finely chopped chives. On top, he splashed a few dribbles of a sweet rice wine and soy sauce. He placed it aside, letting the soft tofu steep in the mixture of soy sauce and rice wine. The staff watched him work, wondering what he was concocting.

Taking chives, he cut them up into fine but long pieces before drizzling them with malted rice vinegar and a touch of chilli peppers. Letting them sit, he quickly began searing cubed pieces of pork belly in honey, soy sauce and oyster mushrooms. When the pan had started to smoke, he removed the pork and covered it with the marinated chives.

Now, he tossed in a small handful of dried shrimp into the chicken broth along with the tomatoes. The servant had come back with the requisite ingredients he had asked for. He deboned the duck expertly, before hanging it over a fire directly without any herbs or seasonings added. Keeping an eye on the broth, he quickly sliced up the pickled radishes into long thin slices and placed them aside. Wang Lusong stared at the quick movements of his knife, while Jin Nansu could only watch with admiration. This man was a great master indeed. How fortunate for the Jin family to have met such a great master today.

Taking a pre-mixed ball of flour, he began to stretch them in his hands expertly. With a knife, he shaved off very long but thin strips of noodles, placing them aside to dry for a bit before starting a pot of water with salt, sesame oil and a handful of cloves added in to make a fragrant boil. He turned and raised a hand towards the duck, manipulating the cooking fires with his spiritual essence and sent the flames searing along the fat skin of the duck. The high flames caused the skin to rapidly dry and become crisply while the fat was rendered quite thoroughly, to soak the quickly cooking meat. With a handful of herbs that he would keep bundled together, he stuffed it directly into the duck as it was cooking.

The fat of the duck mixed with the herbs braised the rich duck meat with a pleasant herby scent that filled the kitchen itself. Even those outside of the restaurant would stop and sniff the air. There was something different in the air today.

Taking two oranges, he worked quickly and sliced them up before taking each orange slice and thoroughly squeezing the orange juice over the cooking duck. When the juices were gone, he rubbed the orange peel onto the duck skin itself, imparting the citrus oils of the peel onto the crisping duck skin. Judging the duck to be about done with the help of his fire manipulation, he moved it aside to rest.

The broth had been simmering for quite a while now, but Li Jian checked it and quickly added in a small handful of coriander to simmer with it. The duck was then quickly sliced up. The wings and neck were deboned, the meat from those places sliced into thin tiny strands with the skin still intact and tossed into the cooking soup. The breasts were quickly cup up and set aside while pickled cabbages were sliced up in matching pieces.

With a smile, he began putting his dishes together. The noodles were quickly boiled before thrown into hot oil with the duck and pickled cabbage slices. Razor thin slices of garlic were thrown into the sautee as he flipped the pan expertly, browning the duck and the noodles further with a few splashes of soy sauce and a much stronger and less sweet rice wine. When the noodles had been set aside, the chopped up pickled radishes were thrown into the soup, and the soup finally moved off the fire. The last dish required a delicate touch. Rice wine was poured in with some chicken stock to boil quickly while a white fish was deboned and cut into even pieces and then quickly tossed in. Bitter melon was then chopped up in long thin slices and added into the mixture, with sugar added as well. The dishes were set aside quickly and Li Jian smiled.

“Chef, young master. Please try the dishes in this order. Tofu first, then the soup. After that, the pork belly and the noodles. Finally, please save the fish dish for last.”

Wang Lusong began to sample the dish. The tofu was soft and mild but the sweetness of the rice wine and the savoury saltiness of the soy sauce added a dimension to the mild texture. Yet underneath the mild texture, there was the smokey browned bottom of the tofu with sesame coming through. The richness of the sesame oil was cut by the chives on top but the taste of sesame remained.

The tomato egg drop soup was much different from his. Underneath the taste of chicken and tomato, there was also sweetness from the searing earlier. The sweetness of the tomato was accentuated by the slight hint of cloves in the broth itself. There was a richness from the slices of duck that was pushed further by the umami of the dried shrimp. In one soup there was more than five sources of umami flavour. After the mysterious almost of the tofu, this was like a punch of flavour on his tongue.

The pork belly was rich and sweet, but fulfilling. The tartness and spice of the chopped up chives reduced the rich initial taste of the pork belly, letting the dinner have more without feeling too fulfilled. The noodles were very rich, but the bits of pickled cabbage added a crunch to the chewiness of the noodles, with the duck added on a layer of flavour that seemed to envelop the textures themselves.

The fish dish was bitter sweet, the rice wine sauce and the sweet white fish tasting heavenly but the bitter melons prevented the dish from becoming overwhelming. There was a sort of bitter sweet finality to the dish, as if the taste of it was the expected end to such a meal. The fish was light and sweet, the hint of rice wine as if a memory of the rice wine used in the previous dishes while the bitter melons crunch signalled a difference, an end.

Wang Lusong placed down his chopstick and put a hand to his eyes. At some point in the meal, his eyes had began to tear up. He thought of his parents, in the village he had been born in. He remembered growing up as a child how his parents used to make him sweet red bean cakes.

Beside him, Jin Nansu found himself unable to finish the fish and bittermelon dish, as if he did not want it to end. He thought of his young age and how he should find a wife, perhaps start a family and not just live on his family’s reputation. That he must have a fulfilling life of his own.