Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 26 - 25 Green Bean Cake

Qin Huai was having trouble making buns for the first time.

From childhood to adulthood, Qin Huai had learned to make snacks, whether it was learning to make vegetable buns at the orphanage with Director Qin, or after being adopted, learning from Qin Congwen to make various basic breakfasts. Or even during New Year's, going back to the countryside to make rice rolls with his grandma, and even when faced with Qin Luo's imaginative desires and specific requests for snacks, flipping through the "Snack Encyclopedia" at home or searching for recipes online, he had never faced such a dilemma.

Although what Qin Luo wanted to eat was sometimes abstract, there was at least something concrete. No matter how outlandish, she would point to a snack on the chopsticks of an official in a TV series heading to Yangzhou and exclaim, "Bro, I want to eat this, it looks delicious! Please, bro, make it for me!"

Because what Qin Luo pursued was at least a delicious snack, replicating it accurately was unimportant; the key was that it had to be tasty.

But what Chen Huixi wanted...

Was somewhat excessively abstract.

Isn't the story of rich kids amazed by the bland taste of wild vegetables after being accustomed to gourmet delicacies from a young age one of those cliché stories you'd find in old magazines sold at a flea market for 2 yuan per kilo? At Huihui's age, she should not have read that.

Qin Huai, with furrowed brows, returned to the kitchen with a serious expression.

Qin Luo had already finished pressing a batch of rabbit-shaped buns and was stealthily holding a bowl of still-unfrozen green bean paste from the fridge, intending to secretly press another set with it.

"Today we're making Green Bean Cake," said Qin Huai.

Qin Luo: !

If conditions permitted and there was cling film at hand, Qin Luo would have loved to seal the bowl of filling immediately, claiming to have confused it due to a sudden attack of red-green color blindness.

Qin Luo felt there was still room for redemption: "Bro, I can help you peel the green beans."

There are many types of Green Bean Cake available in the market these days, differentiated by regional flavor. The northern variant is the Beijing style, while in the south, the Suzhou and Yangzhou styles are more notable. When further subdivided, there are even more: traditional, new styles, Yunnan style, and even foreign flavors.

Qin Huai wasn't sure what style of Green Bean Cake he was making, but if looked at from the industry standard regulations for Green Bean Cake, it was most likely the Beijing style. This is because Beijing style Green Bean Cake must contain no less than 50% green beans, and Qin Huai's Green Bean Cake nearly hit 80% green bean content.

This high content necessitated high-quality green beans.

The quality of green beans was one thing, but the most crucial step was peeling them after steaming. Peeling green beans is especially labor-intensive; even after soaking for over 12 hours, they can't be fully peeled by rubbing, so any unpeeled beans had to be picked out one by one and peeled by hand.

Peeling a large bowl of green beans individually by hand can make you see treble images of the beans within half an hour.

Such a challenging task is impossible for the visually impaired Zhao Rong and the back-strained Qin Congwen, as well as Qin Huai, who doesn't have the time to peel beans.

But Qin Luo can.

Since Qin Luo loved doing this when Qin Huai first attempted making Green Bean Cake during her sixth-grade year.

This child has had 5.0 vision since childhood.

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And her hands were nimble.

In a family intrigue novel, she would be unmatched at picking Buddha beads as punishment by the lady of the house.

For Qin Luo, picking green beans allowed her to watch TV while working, and soon after this task, she'd enjoy freshly made, delicious Green Bean Cake, pressed into various molds and tailored to her preferred sweetness.

Moreover, Green Bean Cake doesn't crumble much; they can be eaten on the go, secretly carried in a backpack to school, and most importantly, they can be shared with classmates to show off, saying, "Delicious, right? My brother made it specially for me, isn't it awesome!"

Faced with Qin Luo's eager offer, Qin Huai gladly accepted, pointing to a corner to indicate where Qin Luo could start immediately.

Qin Luo marched triumphantly to the corner, and was dumbfounded.

A whole three large tubs of soaked green beans.

Regarding the size of the tub, it was roughly sufficient to bathe a child.

Of course, Qin Luo wasn't working alone; she had a partner – An Youyou.

Seeing An Youyou's awkward attempts at peeling the green beans, Qin Luo felt confident again. Despite her brother's transformation and achieving success as a boss, she remained the Qin family's best green bean peeler!

The suddenly energetic Qin Luo, with a high-spirited demeanor, caught An Youyou's attention: ...

The boss's craftsmanship was unpredictable, as were the moods in this family, particularly the boss's sister's.

This family of the boss indeed was hard to fathom.

An Youyou thought Qin Huai's family was impossible to figure out, and Qin Huai found Chen Huixi impossible to figure out too.

It's widely known that when people are thinking, they tend to get distracted. When distracted, it often results in a situation where the body is working, but the soul is drifting off.

When distracted, Qin Huai mistakenly packed 8 bags of buns for delivery in the morning, packaging 1.5 yuan fresh meat buns from Qin Congwen's order instead into 25 yuan two-piece Three Meat Buns.

The lucky worker who received this price-blind box was moved to tears when eating the buns, marveling at the windfall luck, feeling like Christmas had come early with Santa replacing his 1.5 yuan meat bun with the 25 yuan Two-Piece Three Meat Buns!

Of course, the colleagues next to him who didn't end up with the surprise box weren't as thrilled, watching their co-worker joyfully devouring buns, then looking at their own bun, considering last month's salary, looking again at their bank balance, gritting their teeth in frustration.

Completely unaware, Christmas giver Qin Huai continued to knead dough while being absent-minded.

"Bro, the beans are ready!" Qin Luo ran over to report the progress, holding a big bowl of green beans and carefully placed it on the kitchen counter, "This bowl is mine."

Qin Huai instantly understood that this was Qin Luo's selection, reserved for the household, with not a single bean skipped. The other three tubs were for customers, with no guarantee of quality.

Qin Huai nodded, not too concerned.

Meticulous handling could indeed elevate the taste and texture of the snack, adding to its appeal. However, a general level of handling wouldn't make the snack taste terrible since most people wouldn't expect breathtaking flavors from Green Bean Cake, and this subtle difference wouldn't be apparent to many customers anyway.

"Let Dad know to steam the beans when he has time; I'll likely start making Green Bean Cake around 10 AM."

Qin Luo ran off to relay the message and soon returned, staring at the ingredients on the table for a while, unable to discern what Qin Huai planned to make, and asked, "Bro, what snacks are we having today?"

Absent-mindedly, Qin Huai replied, "The fried dough sticks sold well yesterday; we'll continue today."

"The glutinous rice was prepared two days ago, so we'll need to make the sticky rice cake today."

"With these hot days, we should have something to cool down. Luckily, as we're making Green Bean Cake today, we can also make some chilled Green Bean Jelly."

"The ingredients on the table are for Crab Shell Cake; we'll make shrimp, pure meat, red bean paste, and white sugar variety. Make more to sell, should last until mid-afternoon."

Qin Luo began to mentally calculate how to maximize snack consumption today.

"Luoluo." Qin Huai put down the dough, "I have something to ask."

Qin Luo perked up.

"Assume, and I mean only assume here."

"Our family has always been particularly wealthy, with parents never limiting your food and drink; whatever you wanted to eat, you could just fly there, having gourmet food as everyday meals from childhood."

"In such a situation, what you truly loved was actually whole grains."

Qin Luo: ?

"But you don't specifically know which whole grain you loved; maybe what you pursued was something close to nature, simple and unpretentious, a rough exterior hiding genuine simplicity, tasting the freedom amidst the blandness."

"Yet you've never found that dream food, so for now, you love eating Buckwheat Buns, which don't taste good; then, what do you think you truly love?"

Qin Luo: ...

Qin Luo thought her brother had probably gone crazy after having to wake up at 4 AM to make snacks every day since his fortune.

Qin Luo was a bit tempted to scratch her head.

Qin Luo contemplated, hesitated, thought again, and grimaced.

"Maybe..." Qin Luo scratched her chin, "it's... wild vegetables?"

"Just love this kind of plain, unadorned, natural stuff?"