Jade belt hydrangea – it’s a dish that is embellished with fresh lettuce slices as its “jade belt”, while its main attraction is a dumpling in the shape of “hydrangea”.
Zhao Juan was very familiar with her creation. Her excellent knife skills cut the stuffings into one millimeter cube at record speed. However, she noticed that Yu Antong had already cut the ingredients and put them in the basin, then added cooking wine, white egg, starch, and other seasonings before mixing it up.
This was impossible! She didn’t believe that Yu Antong’s knife skills were so much better than her own.
Zhao Juan’s eldest apprentice couldn’t help but step forward, then smiled as he talked to Yu Antong, “Little brother, I don’t think you need to continue comparing with my master. Your stuffing mushroom and meat size is… a bit too big. How about you go back to the basics first and practice your knife skills for a few more years?”
And indeed, the cubed ingredients were twice as big as Zhao Juan’s, it’s no wonder he finished it so quickly.
Yu Antong smiled, and said in neither humble nor overbearing voice,” Well, you can evaluate it after tasting it.”
Zhao Juan completely ignored Yu Antong now, she marinated the freshly cut ingredient and set it aside. Then in a separate bowl, she added glutinous rice flour, yellow pea paste, and a splash of water before kneading it into a dough. This was to be made into the wrap.
Yu Antong, who finished cutting the ingredients early, was still mixing vigorously, and after a while, he asked a little apprentice standing next to him, “Can you help me get two bags of milk? I’m a little thirsty.”
“Two bags? That’s a lot.” The little apprentice grumbled, reluctantly going to fetch milk for him.
“Here.”
“Thank you!” Yu Antong took the milk with a smile, and put the basin into the little apprentice’s arms, “Help me continue mixing it in a clockwise-direction.”
The little apprentice was dazzled by Yu Antong’s bright smile, and subconsciously did what he was asked. When he realized something was wrong, he looked up at the other apprentices – they all stared at him with contempt.
Senior Apprentices: ‘You traitor!! Helping the enemy!’
Little Apprentice: ‘I’m not, I’m not!’
Yu Antong drank a bag of milk to quench his thirst, and then poured the remaining bag into glutinous rice flour and yellow pea paste instead of water for kneading the wrap.
Zhao Juan shaped the dough into a thin wrap. She then added the marinated fillings, wrapped them up, rolled them into a yellow ball, and steamed them in a pan.
After a while, Yu Antong, who was lagging behind, also shaped the last smaller-sized dumpling – this was the “hydrangea” part – then put it in the steamer, and turned on the fire.
The little apprentice who brought him the milk looked at him, and said quickly, “You can’t use a big fire.”
As soon as he subconsciously spoke out, he received the death glares from other apprentices. The little apprentice hurriedly covered his mouth.
Zhao Juan shook her head silently, ‘Young people are too impatient, the most important thing for this dish is to grasp the heat and cook it with low heat.’
Zhao Juan’s apprentices had a similar train of thought.
At first, the young man stirred the stuffing leisurely, and he looked very confident. But then, he looked as if he panicked. A few minutes later, Yu Antong turned the fire from high to low.
Some of the apprentices whispered, “Damn, why did you lower the heat just now? Tsk tsk tsk… it’s too late now.”
Yu Antong pulled up a chair and sat down, and calmly took out his mobile phone to harass Xing Lixuan.
<Yu Antong>: [poke poke] →
<Yu Antong>: Is my husband here~
<Yu Antong>: [CatRubbingFace.jpg]
<Yu Antong>: Miss your little baby?
After Xing Lixuan signed the last document, he picked up the phone that was buzzing non-stop.
He knew who it was without even looking – anyone else would call him directly if they needed something. Only Yu Antong would send a series of meaningless messages to harass him.
Opening it, it really was a string of nonsense from Yu Antong. He threw the phone aside and didn’t reply, but he didn’t mute it either.
Yu Antong didn’t wait for Xing Lixuan’s reply. He checked the time, the jade belt hydrangea should be finished soon. He quickly sent another message, put away his phone and went to wash his hands.
Yu Antong: [If you don’t reply to your baby within ten minutes, you can handle today’s dinner by yourself.]
The finished jade belt hydrangea was placed in a white porcelain plate. After the glutinous rice flour with yellow pea paste dough was steamed at high temperature, the outer layer shows uneven cracks. Looking at it, it did look like a tender yellow hydrangea in full bloom.
Because of the sticky nature of glutinous rice flour, the innermost layer was still completely connected together, tightly wrapping the filling inside, without any leakage.
There was no visual difference between the two jade belt hydrangeas, so Yu Antong flipped his hands over and signaled Zhao Juan to taste it.
Zhao Juan picked up the portion made by Yu Antong, held it with chopsticks, and took a bite.
The small squinted eyes on her chubby face suddenly widened.
Seeing the change in his master’s expression, the eldest disciple asked, “Master, how is it?”
Zhao Juan didn’t speak, and took another bite despite burning her mouth.
Before his master could reply, the impatient disciple directly took one out of the steamer and tasted it.
The wrappings were slightly sweet and springy, its muted taste didn’t clash with the flavorful fillings, but instead enhanced it. Thanks to the added milk, it had a slight milky fragrance, making it have a better aroma. The stuffing was steamed until soft, and it can be melted with a sip of the lips and tongue. The textural difference between the stuffings and wrapping was also superb, making him not bored of the taste.
The eldest apprentice’s eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh, “It’s amazing!”
Zhao Juan finally began to comment, “Because of the stuffing’s bigger cube size, there’s some unevenness that actually made the taste more heterogeneous, it’s simply more full-bodied. And because of the drastic heat change from high to low, the wrapping is a bit drier, in sharp contrast to the softer stuffings. It makes the overall dish have a more progressive taste. I’d say this change is ingenious.”
“I lost.”
When their master admitted defeat, the apprentices were shocked, “Master!”
Zhao Juan was a graceful loser, there’s no shame in admitting defeat when you were inferior to others. She smiled again, and said to her apprentices, “Go and try it too.”
The apprentices surrounded the steamer suspiciously, but began to taste it. Looking at their excited chatter, they also found it to be the better dish.
Zhao Juan said to Yu Antong, “In the future, I will invite this Boss to give me some advice.”
The chef had been convinced by his real cooking skill. Seeing that Yu Antong was also still young, she knew that he could only be better from here. She was looking forward to the dish developed by him in the future.
Yu Antong proudly smiled. “Miss Zhao, you are welcome. In the future, we will work together to make the restaurant an even more prosperous business.”
Zhao Juan’s apprentices were lucky enough to taste the hydrangea made by Yu Antong, and they all nodded their heads with stuffed cheeks.
Those who were crowded slowly but didn’t manage to taste anything, their eyes were seething in jealousy.
Needless to say, everyone has already approved the new boss from the bottom of their hearts.
Yu Antong gave them a short debriefing for now, “Tomorrow the store will be closed for redecoration. Everyone will go home and rest for a while, and wages will be paid during the closing period…”
This led to excited cheers from the staff.
‘Great, mission successful!’ Yu Antong thought as he continued his debriefing.
After his job finished, Yu Antong took out his mobile phone, and the threat was indeed useful.
<Xing Lixuan>: How did the talk go? Can I pick you up from work?
Before Yu Antong could reply, he received a call from Han Lele.
“My friend opened a new bar,” Han Lele said cheerfully in lieu of properly greeting him, “Let’s go play together.”
This immediately attracted his attention. He has always wanted to see how a bar actually looked like. After all, how can an adult never go once?
He immediately replied, “Okay, I’m on Fenghuang Street, come and pick me up.”
It’s inconvenient not to have a car, Yu Antong decided to get his driver’s license in the future.
It was only after hanging up the phone that Yu Antong realized that he had forgotten about Xing Lixuan.
As a married person, there seemed to be a faint sense of guilt when he went to a bar without telling his husband.
‘Isn’t it just going to the bar to see what it’s like? It’s not cheating. Besides, Xing Lixuan and I only have a contract marriage. No need to feel guilty.’
Yu Antong convinced himself, and then called Xing Lixuan.
Xing Lixuan answered not long after, “Where are you? I’ll pick you up.”
Hearing Xing Lixuan’s voice, Yu Antong felt guilty again. He felt like Xing Lixuan – the man who didn’t unbutton his top-most button on his shirt – was a stuffy person. He was definitely the type who wouldn’t agree on letting him go to a bar.
Yu Antong spoke quickly, “Husband, I suddenly remembered that my roommate celebrated his birthday today, and the people in our dormitory promised to celebrate his birthday with him. You can eat dinner by yourself, and I will go home later.”
Yu Antong hung up the phone after that.
Sure enough, he sucks at lying.
Xing Lixuan was pissy when he got hung up that fast. With a frown on his face, he called Qi Jingyao, “Send me the location of your bar.”
“Wait, didn’t you say you won’t visit?” Qi Jingyao said, “What changed your mind?”
Xing Lixuan: “Well, I’m just showing my face.”
“Thank you very much,” Qi Jingyao thought of something, and smiled, “If I release the news that you went to my bar, my turnover will double today.”
At the beginning, Xing Lixuan came out to his family because he was annoyed by their constant nagging him to get married. Especially when they kept sending young ladies from so-and-so families. But they still managed to get him married anyways. At least the gender was correct.
But after this news got out, the number of girls who chased him drastically decreased – although there’s still a couple of them who were either delusional enough or didn’t know of his sexuality – while a huge number of young men got interested in him.
The gay scene in Jiangcheng was… unbalanced. There’s too many little 0s around. So when all of the sudden, a rich and handsome, high-quality 1 like him entered the scene… to say that he attracted their attention was seriously underselling it.
It was more like he’s a piece of juicy meat thrown into a cage full of hungry wolves.
Whenever a friend invites him to a bar, there would be a group of men (mostly 0s and 0.5s) who want to strike up a conversation with him, marriage status notwithstanding. Of course, this annoyed Xing Lixuan to no end.
To think even getting married wouldn’t stop people from wanting him… his three views have been refreshed.
If it wasn’t for the opening of Qi Jingyao’s new bar this time, or that several of his close friends would also go; he definitely wouldn’t go here.
The author has something to say:
Yu Antong at the bar: Woohoo~ Brothers, here I come!!
Xing Lixuan: Oh 🙂
If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I’ll release an additional chapter ^^
