Chapter 302: Chapter 301: Battle of the Century (Part 1)
This was the first time that Jiang Feng heard no sound amidst the mist.
He had grown accustomed to voices that reached him before their owners in his memories, so the sudden silence made him rather uncomfortable.
As the mist cleared, Jiang Feng realized he seemed to be at the scene of a culinary competition.
The competition area was outdoors, surrounded by buildings that looked like they were part of a factory area – it was quite simple, without even a shed erected, and the onlooking crowd stood behind a white line drawn with lime, without a single chair to sit on; everyone was standing to watch the excitement.
If Jiang Feng hadn’t guessed that this memory was from the culinary final between Sun Guanyun and Sun Maochai themed around “Swallowing Doves Whole,” he might have thought he was witnessing a village F4 clash between Wang Er and Zhang San.
Jiang Feng stood beside the middle-aged Sun Guanyun, who was in front of a makeshift culinary station, quite rudimentary. Not far behind him was another culinary station, also makeshift, with a young man of about 20 standing behind it.
This young man was Sun Maochai, Sun Guanyun’s junior brother, and the future master of Cantonese cuisine.
The young Sun Maochai was somewhat handsome, with a sturdy build, thick eyebrows, and large eyes; he was a bit dark-skinned, looking like a very healthy athletic type of man.
Sun Guanyun wasn’t quite the same, the middle-aged man had put on some weight, and Jiang Feng could just make out his belly.
Between the two of them, there was a space that appeared to be a vacuum, no people, no animals, no sound – not even the wind.
There were quite a few people present, men and women, young and old, all dressed in a hodgepodge of styles and colors. Some wore Lenin suits, others wore the latest fashions from Hong Kong City, some had crew cuts, some sported trendy permed hair, some were dressed very scholarly, some wore large sunglasses, looking like they were just a couple of gold chains short of going out to collect protection money.
They gathered together, circled around, silent and undisturbed, engrossed in watching, because they knew they were about to witness a culinary showdown.
Jiang Feng knew too, but he knew far more than the spectating crowd on site.
He knew that at this time, Sun Guanyun was 46, and Sun Maochai was 26.
Not long ago, Sun Guanyun’s father had passed away, and before his death, he had bought back the Jubao Building, dubbed the number one restaurant in FJ.
He also knew that the competition was for “Swallowing Doves Whole,” and in the end, Sun Maochai won the competition, while Sun Guanyun got the restaurant. Sun Maochai took advantage of the tide of economic reform and opening up to leave for Hong Kong City, absorbing the strengths of various nations’ cuisines to push Cantonese cuisine to new heights, rightfully becoming a grand Cantonese cuisine master. However, this competition became Sun Guanyun’s eternal demon – he gained the restaurant but lost his confidence.
Jiang Feng remembered that the article he had read earlier was written with all the techniques of a true Hong Kong City journalist, and it referred to this competition as —
The Battle of the Century.
And now, he was about to witness this Battle of the Century with his own eyes.
At this moment, Sun Guanyun was very nervous. It was natural for him to be, given he wasn’t someone who had travelled from the future and didn’t know that Sun Maochai would eventually give up the Jubao Building so easily. For him, this was an ultimate battle concerning his family legacy.
Sun Guanyun was so nervous that his hands shook as he processed the squab, but fortunately, he was too tense to show any expression on his face. With a deadpan look and the audience far away, no one could tell he was nervous; they might even think it was a display of his calm composure.
The Sun Maochai behind him looked much more natural, systematically handling the pigeon in his hands. The boning technique for the whole bird was very smooth and fluid, considering his age, and the onlookers looked at him with admiration.
“Swallowing Doves Whole” belongs to the Chaozhou cuisine within Cantonese cuisine, a luxury dish comparable to chicken stuffed with shark’s fin in terms of nourishment. As for chicken stuffed with shark’s fin, Jiang Feng had also searched it up online – a nourishing dish made with chicken and shark’s fin as the main ingredients; just like “Swallowing Doves Whole,” it exudes an air of affluence as soon as it’s brought to the table.
The Pigeon Swallowing the Swallow dish emphasizes a delicate, fresh, and sweet flavor, which requires extremely high standards for the preparation of ingredients.
To properly expand the bird’s nest, the soaking and baking method is used, and it must be fully expanded. Picking out the down and impurities must be done carefully and cautiously, with absolutely no room for any mistakes.
Sun Maochai finished processing the squab a step ahead of Sun Guanyun, and he also began picking the down and impurities from the bird’s nest a step ahead.
This meticulous task requires absolute concentration and stillness, without any disruption from others or any external interference, which is why the onlookers all maintained their silence without uttering a word.
Sun Guanyun couldn’t see Sun Maochai’s movements, nor did he know that Sun Maochai had already finished deboning the squab one step ahead of him. Holding his scissors, he maneuvered them carefully, weaving through the inside of the squab.
The Pigeon Swallowing the Swallow also sets high standards for the squab. The whole pigeon must be intact, meaning it cannot have any punctures, and the cuts must not extend past the neck. Of course, this standard is high only relative to other dishes of this era. The requirements for the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon are even stricter, so their method of processing the squab didn’t seem like much to Jiang Feng.
Several more minutes passed, and Sun Guanyun finally finished the entire deboning of the squab and began processing the bird’s nest.
This type of fine work easily calms the mind. Jiang Feng stood right beside Sun Guanyun and could clearly feel Sun Guanyun’s tension subsiding as time went on. He began to settle down, ignoring the tedious trifles that he would have to deal with after the competition and immersing himself fully in the dish.
After the bird’s nest has been soaked and expanded, it then needs to be simmered.
Once again, Sun Maochai took the lead. He placed the fully expanded bird’s nest into boiling water for about two minutes, scooped it out with a strainer, drained off the water, added stock, cooking wine, and a small amount of salt, and continued to simmer it to enhance the fragrance and remove any off-flavors.
Simmering takes time, but the outcome could already be discerned from the steps mentioned above.
Sun Maochai was clearly a notch above, not that Sun Guanyun was inadequate—his knife skills, his technique in processing the bird’s nest, and his control of the heat during simmering were all commendable. Unfortunately, Sun Maochai’s technique could be described as perfect.
For Sun Maochai, at the age of 26, to possess such knife skills and heat control, he truly is a prodigy.
The simmered bird’s nest needs to have its moisture absorbed with a clean towel. The following steps are somewhat similar to those of the Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon. Mix the bird’s nest with finely chopped ham, stuff it into the cavity of the squab, secure the opening and tie it closed, place it into boiling water, apply pine needles, then rinse with clean water, and finally place it into a large stewing pot. Add rough chunks of ham, Shaoxing wine, and ingredients like ginger and spring onions for seasoning, and steam it in a bamboo steamer.
With that, the Pigeon Swallowing the Swallow is essentially complete.
All that’s left is to wait 90 minutes, skim off any fat from the surface of the soup, adjust the seasoning, cover, and continue to stew for another half hour to allow the squab to be submerged halfway in the soup. Then, the Pigeon Swallowing the Swallow will be ready to come out of the pot.
As Sun Guanyun placed the Pigeon Swallowing the Swallow into the bamboo steamer, the crowd began to whisper among themselves.
Finally, Jiang Feng heard the voices of people again.
From the moment he entered this memory until just now, the silence could really be described by the phrase “not even the dropping of a pin could be heard”—one could hear even the dropping of a grain of rice, let alone a pin.
Jiang Feng even felt as if he was watching a pantomime.
There was nothing much left to see at Sun Guanyun and Sun Maochai’s station. All they could do now was wait; the Pigeon Swallowing the Swallow had already been put into the steamer, and it was too late for any remedy.
Jiang Feng walked towards the crowd, wanting to hear if there were any freshly made traditional snacks available for tasting.