Life is a Game

Hanging broth is different from stir-frying and chopping vegetables. This is a very long process that requires time and patience.

From the fifteenth day onwards, the servants who had lined up in the small courtyard of Jiang's family and waited for food every day disappeared, and only came to deliver fresh ingredients every morning. Only the three little radish heads of Jiang's family remained the same as before, standing outside the window and watching Jiang Chengde in the kitchen quietly every day, rain or shine.

Jiang Feng, like them, watched quietly in the kitchen every day.

Look at Jiang Chengde's handling of whole chickens, large pieces of pork bones, dried shrimps, scallops, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots and ham.

Watch him hang soup, watch him add firewood.

In this era without gas stoves, it is far less convenient and simple to make a pot of high-quality soup.

It takes time to hang the broth, as short as six hours, as long as ten or twenty hours. Jiang Feng and the others only need to adjust the fire and set an alarm clock to make high soup. When they feel that the time is almost up, they will go to the pot and watch over them. During the long hours in between, they can process the ingredients or simply go outside to rest. Watching by the side of the pot is time-consuming and laborious.

But Jiang Chengde could not.

Because he burns wood.

In the era of firewood, it is particularly difficult to control the fire. An excellent chef should not only be excellent himself, but also have an excellent firewood buddy. dishes.

This is also the reason why in Taifeng Building, Jiang Chengde had to ask his own son to burn firewood when he had to cook.

Jiang Chengde hung up the soup for seven whole days. He used the same ingredients every day and took about the same amount of time. From the morning until it was completely dark, he hung up a pot of soup for more than ten hours.

Then they don't use these soups for cooking, they use them to cook noodles, once a big pot is boiled, Jiang's family can eat noodles with high soup for seven days.

After eating, Jiang Feng felt that the first thing he did when he left him was to make a pot of soup, and then cook noodles.

Delicious food often only needs the simplest cooking method, a bowl of broth and a handful of noodles are enough, and there is no need to add eggs.

Jiang Feng could feel that Jiang Chengde's seven days of drinking soup were different from the previous fourteen days.

In the previous 14 days, Jiang Chengde tried his best to replicate the state from a beginner to a master, step by step, becoming stronger step by step. But this time for seven days, Jiang Chengde seemed to be exploring, trying.

He went all out, hung every pot of soup with his heart, and hung seven pots in seven days, as if he was looking for the limit of his current cooking skills.

In this way, Jiang Feng looked forward to what Jiang Chengde would do on the 22nd day.

On the twenty-second day, Jiang Chengde began to practice flipping spoons.

On the twenty-fifth day, Jiang Chengde began to practice thickening the corn.

On the twenty-eighth day, Jiang Chengde began to practice bombing.

On the thirty-first day, Jiang Chengde began to practice cooking.

On the thirty-fourth day, Jiang Chengde began to practice stewing.

On the thirty-seventh day, Jiang Chengde began to practice steaming.

On the fortieth day, Jiang Chengde began to practice cooking.

...

On the sixty-first day, Jiang Chengde began to practice oil sinking sugar.

On the sixty-fourth day, Jiang Chengde began to practice the big turning spoon.

Before he knew it, Jiang Feng had been in this memory for more than two months.

But he didn't feel that this time was very long, and he even thought it was short. During these two months or so, he was simply an eye-opener.

He watched Jiang Chengde with his own eyes as if he was teaching, and also as if he was showing off his skills. He repeated all the cooking skills he could imagine, know, know, know and don't know in front of him over and over again, just like the past. The tasks are generally displayed in full.

Ordinary, difficult and unique.

Going up one level at a time is getting more difficult every day.

Jiang Feng was a little shocked when he saw it. For the first time, he understood why both the old man and Peng Changping admired Jiang Chengde so much.

He is the encyclopedia of Chinese cuisine. He understands all the techniques and is also familiar with all the techniques. This is the real strength of Jibaijia, and he only needs to master it.

And he's getting the hang of it now.

Jiang Chengde is enlightening, and Jiang Feng is learning.

Now he follows Jiang Chengde every day, staring at him non-stop, watching him cut vegetables, watch him cook, watch him burn firewood, and watch him wash dishes. Jiang Chengde was still the only one who could enter the kitchen, and everyone else could only wait outside, standing quietly and waiting without making any noise.

At this point, even if they don't understand what Jiang Chengde is doing, they all realize that Jiang Chengde is doing something unprecedented and great.

There was a long queue again in the yard, and Jiang Feng felt that there were more servants than at the beginning, from one row to two rows, from early morning to the willows hanging on the moon, waiting for dishes to come out of the kitchen continuously, people People come and go, the stream is endless, but it is extremely quiet.

The big turning spoon is the last technique Jiang Chengde practiced.

The basic skills have a seven-day cycle, and the techniques have a three-day cycle. When the sixty-sixth day was over, Jiang Feng thought that on the sixty-seventh day Jiang Chengde would start to master it, or start to practice something new that he couldn't think of, Jiang Chengde chose to stop.

For more than two months, he has not stopped for a day. He has practiced in the kitchen from morning to night every day, tirelessly around the boiler stove, as if a robot can only keep practicing, cooking, plate by plate. Fragrant and exquisite dishes are born from his hands.

Now he starts to stop cooking.

Just when Jiang Feng felt that he was about to become a great master and start writing his own culinary chapter, Jiang Chengde suddenly stopped.

He still stays in the kitchen every day, but he no longer takes a kitchen knife or a spatula. He just moves a small bench and sits quietly in the kitchen, staring at the stove as if thinking or in a daze.

He sat for three days.

In the past three days, Jiang Chengde hasn't cooked once, not even breakfast, Jiang Huiqin cooks all the Jiang family's meals. When Jiang Huiqin was cooking, Jiang Chengde would sit in the kitchen and watch. Watching Jiang Huiqin cooking, he would just stand by and watch without saying a word, not commenting or making a move, even though sometimes Jiang Huiqin's cooking was really bad.

The servants in the yard disappeared, Jiang Weijin and Jiang Weiming still went to work in Taifeng Building as usual every day. Jiang Chengde obviously didn't cook, but everyone still didn't dare to disturb him.

It's not that no one came to bother him at all. On the afternoon of the third day after Jiang Chengde stopped cooking, Boss Lu came to visit him. He didn't mention Jiang Chengde's need to go back to work. The deputy came to care about Jiang Chengde's physical condition.

Jiang Chengde didn't see him, and he still stayed in the kitchen. It was Jiang Huiqin who came forward to tell Boss Lu that her brother was thinking about something and it was a critical moment, so that Boss Lu should not go in and disturb Jiang Chengde.

Jiang Chengde was just like Wang Yangming sitting in his yard crumbling bamboo, facing the boiler every day, just like the Wang family was watching Wang Yangming back then, no one could understand what he was doing.

Maybe Jiang Chengde himself didn't quite understand it.

But Jiang Feng understood a little bit.

Jiang Chengde is now a master of cooking skills. He has mastered almost all Chinese food techniques, and he has gone through them all from beginning to end in the previous two months. He is now looking for a path that belongs to him, a path that needs to transcend these techniques and truly understand and master these techniques.

Master, you have profound attainments.

Grandmaster, established a sect.

Jiang Chengde is undergoing the transformation from master to master.

This transformation lasted for more than ten days.

Since Jiang Chengde sits in the kitchen in a daze every day, he is not as regular as he used to practice dishes, so he can better remember how many days have passed. Stay for one day or stay for eighteen days.

Jiang Chengde was in a daze, and Jiang Feng was also in a daze.

He was reminiscing, recalling, thinking and experiencing what Jiang Chengde had shown in the past two months.

This was an unreserved culinary demonstration by a master who was about to become a master. After watching it for two months, Jiang Feng felt that he could relish it for two years, or even two years.

On the eighteenth or nineteenth day, Jiang Chengde didn't go into the kitchen and sit in a daze for the first time after he got up in the morning and came out of the room.

"Huiqin." Jiang Chengde hadn't spoken to his family for too long, so long that he suddenly called Jiang Huiqin's name and he would not be able to respond to anything.

"Brother!" Jiang Huiqin looked very happy.

Jiang Chengde handed the general a note: "Go and buy the vegetables I want on the note, don't bother Boss Lu, just one portion."

"Okay!" Jiang Huiqin took the note, bounced like a rabbit and ran away with the basket in hand.

Jiang Huiqin's grocery shopping was very efficient, and in just over half an hour, he bought back the ingredients that Jiang Chengde wanted. Jiang Feng was stunned when he saw the ingredients, he knew them too well.

This is the ingredient of Jiang's ginseng soup.

Jiang Chengde wants to make Jiang's ginseng soup.

In the past two months, Jiang Chengde has cooked a lot of dishes, some are easy, some are difficult, he even cooked Paoyu and Buddha Jumping Wall, but he didn't make Jiang's ginseng soup. Jiang Feng didn't think much about it at all. Even if he thought about it, he would think that the reason why Jiang Chengde didn't do it was that Jiang's ginseng soup took too long and there was no need for it.

But now seeing the ingredients Jiang Huiqin bought, Jiang Feng suddenly understood.

It's not that it's not necessary, it's that Jiang Chengde didn't do it on purpose, he just wanted to save Jiang's ginseng soup until the end.

Jiang Feng followed Jiang Chengde into the kitchen, and watched him start making soup, handling sea cucumbers, and stewing.

The steps are so familiar, but a little strange at the same time.

Jiang Chengde's approach was somewhat different from Jiang Hengzhong's, and it was also somewhat different from what Peng Changping handed over to Jiang Feng.

They are all different, everyone makes Jiangshi ginseng soup differently.

It's not that the techniques are different from the habits, it's that the difference is obvious and can be felt intuitively.

Everyone has their own place in Jiang's ginseng soup.

Jiang Feng quietly watched Jiang Chengde cook.

Same as before, from morning till night.

But it was a little different from before. Jiang Feng was distracted while watching it for the first time.

If there was a camera that could capture Jiang Feng's distracted state and show it to him, Jiang Feng would find that his distracted state was very similar to Jiang Chengde's state of distracted sitting in the kitchen every day for more than ten days.

Coupled with the fact that the two of them are somewhat similar in appearance, it seems even more thoughtful.

The aroma began to permeate the kitchen.

Jiang Feng's thoughts also drifted further and further away with the fragrance.

When the dishes were ready, Jiang Huiqin walked into the kitchen at some point and stood beside Jiang Chengde.

Jiang Huiqin didn't dare to speak or interrupt as before.

"Huiqin, come and taste it." Jiang Huiqin dared not speak, but Jiang Chengde spoke first instead.

Jiang Huiqin stepped forward, hesitated for a moment, and scooped up half a spoonful of ginseng soup with a small spoon.

Blow it and put it in your mouth.

Jiang Huiqin's eyes lit up.

"Is it different from before?" Jiang Chengde asked with a smile. This was the first time Jiang Feng saw Jiang Chengde smile in the past two months.

Jiang Huiqin nodded crazily, with surprise and excitement written all over her face, she swallowed the hot ginseng soup forcefully, and said impatiently: "Really, brother, you are amazing! It's different, different from what you did before."

"It's really different!"

"That's good." Jiang Chengde looked very calm.

"I'll cook tonight, you go to Taifeng Building and tell Boss Lu, I'll go back tomorrow."

Jiang Feng left his memory.