I want to finish this series quick, so from today on, you’ll get 1 chapter everyday!
“Our friendship is over! Goodbye!” Yu Antong was exasperated by Han Lele, and hung up the phone!
The second he hung up the phone, Yu Antong thought of something, dialed him again, this time it was a video call.
“Why did you hang up the phone suddenly?” Han Lele asked.
Yu Antong: “I want to show you my future son’s room to prove what I said.”
Yu Antong took his mobile phone and walked to the guest bedroom next door, where the clothes and toys he and Xing Lixuan bought for Xiao Nian were placed.
He reversed the camera and looked at the children’s products. “Did you see it? This is the proof.”
Han Lele stared wide-eyed, looking at the little clothes, duckling toys, and a baby cradle that passed through the camera one by one.
He opened his mouth and didn’t know what to say for a while, his mind was full of “Oh crap!”
The fact that a man can conceive really impacted his 20 years of science-based worldview. All he could say was: “Tongtong…”
“Yeah?” Yu Antong raised his chin, his tone full of petty provocations.
‘Who told you not to believe me! Be stunned!’
Han Lele’s brain ran at high speed for a while, and a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he came up with a reasonable explanation.
He put away the stunned expression just now, and said in a light tone, “I see, are you planning to adopt a child with Xing-zong?”
Yu Antong: “…”
Okay, as expected of Han Lele!
Yu Antong picked up a small onesie and shook it in front of the phone. “You can see this clearly, this is for newborn babies!”
Han Lele thought about it, and came out horrified. “Don’t tell me, you actually got a surrogate?! That’s illegal! Inhumane!!”
Yu Antong: “You’re just mad at me, are you doing this on purpose?!”
Han Lele scratched his head and said seriously, “Tongtong, are you really telling the truth?”
It’s not his fault for guessing randomly, it’s just because any of the above he thought of is more likely than Yu Antong giving birth to a child himself.
Han Lele continued, “Don’t think too much, I don’t mean anything. It’s just too unbelievable, you have to give me a little time to digest.”
Yu Antong knew Han Lele fairly well, and knew that he wouldn’t look at himself strangely, but at most, he was just having a momentary brain error and couldn’t believe it.
He would have found it unbelievable if it hadn’t happened to him.
A few minutes later, Han Lele slowed down. With a novel feeling bubbling in his heart, he cautiously asked, “Tongtong, can you show me your belly?”
Yu Antong lifted the hem of his jacket and showed him. “Believe me this time, ‘kay?”
“I believe you.” Han Lele nodded fiercely. It turned out that he really didn’t gain weight. “How many months old is your baby? A boy or a girl?”
Yu Antong answered, “About six months or so. And it’s a boy.”
Han Lele suddenly became nervous. “Wait, this means I invited you to guest on my variety show during your pregnancy?? And you actually agreed!”
Yu Antong said, “It’s not that I’m seriously ill and can’t move, why can’t I agree?”
Even though Yu Antong said so, Han Lele still felt nervous for him. “If I had known this, I would not have called you.”
The later stages of the show put more difficulty and pressure on the contestants. In contrast, Yu Antong’s body became heavier and heavier, so he would definitely be more tired.
Ever since he found out that Yu Antong was pregnant, Han Lele, the off-screen producer, actually went to follow the shooting for the next two episodes. There, he treated Yu Antong like a porcelain doll. He’s afraid that if he was too tired, Xing Lixuan, his husband, would make Han Lele pay for his crimes.
Fortunately, Yu Antong and Xie Wenchang won this headwin match in this 4-to-3 quarterfinal, and defeated the overall stronger Zhuang Zhouyang and Fu Fengxing in one fell swoop.
Then Zhuang Zhouyang and Fu Fengxing fought, Fu Fengxing narrowly won, and Zhuang Zhouyang left the field, which made Yu Antong lose a strong opponent.
In the subsequent 3-to-2 semifinal, Xie Wenchang was not so lucky. He was crushed by Fu Fengxing and Yu Antong.
Finally, it was the final round of the “Here Comes the God of Chefs!”
“It took 3 months, and after 11 episodes of the show, only the two finalists left to stand. However, one of you will leave today, while the other will attain the honor as the ‘God of Chefs’.” The host then continued, “Are you nervous now? Who do you think will have a better chance of winning the championship?”
Fu Fengxing said indifferently, “Fortunately, I’m not too nervous. As for the champion… Yu Antong is a strong opponent, but I’m not weak either. I’m looking forward to fighting against him. I will let our results speak for itself.”
The host turned to Yu Antong. “Yu Antong, how about you? Are you nervous?”
Yu Antong gave a smile. “I’m not nervous either. I may not have had a firm goal when I first participated in the show, but after so many episodes, I’m only one step away from the championship. Naturally, I want to fight for the championship.”
“It seems that the mentality of both of you is very stable. I hope you can bring us the last delicious feast with such a confident and firm attitude.”
The host then announced, “In this issue, there’s no limit on what ingredients or what dishes you want to make! However, it must consist of 1 hot side-dish, 1 cold side-dish, and 1 main course within 2 hours. Apart from that, there are no other restrictions. Now, the countdown begins!”
After the host finished calling the timer, both parties were not busy taking action, but started to communicate with their teams.
Yu Antong said, “In the finals, it’s time to use all our abilities. We won the first game beautifully, and we will also win the last game beautifully. We will finish what we start.”
“En!” Jiang Yuxiu and Lin Haoning nodded.
Yu Antong quickly ordered three dishes. “As for the hot side-dish, we will make Hongyu Mantang1红玉满堂, house full of red jades; it’s not an actual dish, per se. It’s a dish that Yu Antong created.. As for the cold side-dish, Mala-style duck feet2麻辣鸭掌; aka spicy duck feet. “Mala” is spicy (from chili) and numbing (from peppercorn), you probably are more familiar with Malatang hotpots. 
. And for the main course…”
He thought for a second, clapped his hands and said, “Let’s just make bacon rice3腊肉饭; 
!”
After the three claps, they all started to move. When choosing the ingredients to be used, Yu Antong found that the ingredients supermarket was really complete this time, he even found pickled bean curd. This is a good thing, and Yu Antong took a handful.
The three of them worked together to find the ingredients and quickly returned to the stove.
“Yuxiu, cook the bacon first.”
Bacon that has been marinated and air-dried is very hard and tough. If it is steamed directly with rice, the salty taste inside will not come out, and instead will be like a salty, tough rubber.
It must be boiled in clean water for 10 minutes to force out the salt, and at the same time make the meat of the bacon no longer dry and hard.
“Haoning, go wash and blanch the duck feet.”
After Yu Antong gave the order, he went to clean the taro by himself. He washed and peeled the small taro, and cut it into pieces the same size as braised pork.
Hongyu Mantang is a dish that Yu Antong innovated on the basis of traditional braised pork two days ago. He tried it once at Immortal’s Banquet, and it tasted very good.
The main ingredients of this dish are pork belly and taro. The pork belly is cut into pieces and soaked in clean water with vinegar for a while to remove the fishy smell.
Pour the pork belly into the hot oil and stir-fry. The moisture brought by the pork belly will make a crackling sound when it meets the hot oil. After a while, the smell of the pork belly will come out.
Yu Antong quickly stir-fried a few times, and saw that the amount of oil in the pot increased. This is because the fat of the pork belly itself has been rendered into the pot. This will reduce the greasy feeling of the pork belly itself, much more delicious and palatable.
He poured out part of the oil of the pot, leaving only a little. Then, he took out the pork belly and put it aside, put rock sugar into the same pan, and heated it up.
At this time, it is very important to control the heat. If the rock sugar is overcooked, the taste will become bitter, and if the heat is not enough, it will get clustered into hard crystals. When the rock sugar melts into the oil and turns yellowish brown, it is the best time to add the cooked pork belly back.
Yu Antong stir-fried a few times, so that the oily brown syrup completely wrapped the pork belly, helping it caramelized and giving it a more complex taste. It also made the pork belly looked more attractive.
Immediately after that, he added the sliced green onions and ginger as well as the assorted dried spices into the pot and stir-fried to bring out the flavor. Into the pot, he poured boiling water, then added the seasonings. After that, he simmered it.
During this period of time, Jiang Yuxiu finished cutting up the pickled bean curd into small sections, and also finished cooking the sliced bacon.
Yu Antong brought over the oil that was poured out when stir-frying the pork belly just now. This fragrant oil-lard combination cannot be wasted.
He then heats it up, pour the pickled bean curd and stir-fry a few times, then spreads them and half of the bacon onto the bottom of the rice cooker before adding the washed fragrant rice. On top of that, he carefully put down the remaining bacon. With this arrangement, the taste of the bacon will be spread evenly all over the rice. It will have a better taste and aroma.
He poured an appropriate amount of water before turning the rice cooker on. Yu Antong guessed that the braised pork was almost done. He opened the lid of the pot, and the heat came out instantly. The pot was bubbling, making the juicy pork belly jiggle. Due to the heat, the white, fatty part of the pork belly partially rendered.
Yu Antong poured the cut taro into it and continued to simmer.
Lin Haoning chilled the blanched duck feet in ice water to keep the duck feet crispy, tough and elastic.
Then he poured the duck feet into the marinade mixture with Sichuan peppercorns, chili, star anise, allspice, cinnamon, and many other spices to marinate.
Yu Antong took turns turning the three cooking pots. After working for an hour, he finally had some free time.
He sat down to drink water and rested for a while. After putting down the water glass, Yu Antong rubbed his sore lower back.
His baby is getting bigger, it’s easy for him to get tired by minimum activity.
After about 20 minutes, the Mala-style duck feet came out of the pan first.
The duck feet were fully marinated, it had a brown glaze, clearly soaked in spicy and delicious sauce. Yu Antong fished them out and cut them into small pieces, which is convenient to eat and beautiful to display.
After cutting, he put it on a plate to dry, as it will develop a better texture after it cools down. It’s spicy, it’s numbing, crunchy yet meaty, easy to make people unable to stop eating it.
The kelp, which was added to the marinade a little later than the duck feet, was also marinated until just right.
The green kelp formed into a circle, and the duck feet cut into small pieces are surrounded in the middle. With the green embellishment, the arrangement looks much better at once, forming a dark, cool green-warm brown harmony.
“There are still ten minutes left, please be careful with the timer!”
As the host reminded him, Yu Antong’s bacon rice was finished steaming. When the rice cooker changed into “warm” mode, a very mouthwatering aroma wafted out – it’s a combination of just-cooked rice, bacon, and a tinge of pickled bean curd sourness.
Yu Antong stirred the bacon rice a few times, fully mixed the bean curd, bacon and rice at the bottom, and poured it into a bowl.
The moist and plump rice grains and the firm bacon complement each other perfectly, together with the crispy and sour bean curds, it whets the appetite just by looking at it, and Yu Antong suddenly wants to eat a bowl too.
The last thing out of the pot is Hongyu Mantang.
The braised pork has been completely stewed until soft and melt-in-the-mouth, soaked in the bright red sauce. The sauce was appropriately bright, viscous, covering every bit of the meat and taro, glistening with fat.
When it was served on the plate, the visual impact was enough to make anyone swallow their saliva.
Yu Antong was so hungry for his own cooking!
Yu Antong couldn’t bear it anymore. He picked up the chopsticks, and pretended to check the taste.
The juicy braised pork was covered with fresh and sweet sauce. The sauce’s taste registered first in his tongue, but as he continued to chew the meat, he could fully feel the texture and taste of the harmonious marriage of the sauce and meat. The fatty pork belly yielded under his tongue, and the fat really melted delightfully in his mouth. Nothing was dry, he chewed the meat and enjoyed every bit of it.
It’s not enough yet. A large piece of braised pork has already slid down the stomach, leaving only a lingering fragrance in the mouth, making people eager to eat another piece.
Yu Antong didn’t have the nerve to eat any more meat. He picked up a piece of taro this time. The taro was stewed until soft yet still dense. The sweetness of the inner layer was different from the freshness and sweetness of the sauce on the outside, and the taste was rich and full.
The taro absorbs the fat of the pork belly, and the pork belly simmers the taro to produce a rich aroma. The two influence each other and complement each other.
Such a plate of “red jades” is paired with a bowl of steaming bacon rice. He knows it’s so delicious that people will want to swallow their own tongue!
Yu Antong couldn’t fully enjoy eating this meal. He looked at the time, there were two minutes left.
He took one of the remaining duck feet after setting the plate and ate it.
Duck feet soaked in marinade really flooded his taste buds with spiciness. After he bit the joints, the texture changed into a satisfying crunch. He could hear the crunch as he chewed it down.
After he finished two mouthfuls, he slowly felt the numb feeling in his mouth, which was very refreshing.
After Yu Antong gnawed at the spicy duck feet, the host just announced, “It’s time! Please stop cooking!”
Yu Antong no longer cares about what Fu Fengxing cooks. He believes that the dishes he cooks will surely conquer the taste buds of all the judges.
