CHAPTER 737: CHAPTER 736: THE FEMALE GENERAL’S STEAMED TEA BOWL (PART 1)

Glances locked in silent confrontation, after all, were just glances.

Xia Yu and Lei Zhe, with their peculiar expressions, caught the eye of some interested onlookers nearby, naturally stirring up a burst of murmurs.

Were these two, one tall and one short, thoroughly squaring off against each other?

But no matter what, the meeting was attended by most of the giants of the Japanese Food Industry, and the main characters were not Xia Yu and Lei Zhe, but the female main general who was still kneeling quietly at the bar.

"Let’s begin."

Seeing Xia Yu had arrived, Liangzi Lina said in a low voice to the first of the four titans, then turned her head to instruct a few young women in kimonos to bring up the ingredients she had prepared beforehand.

The little house grew quiet; for a moment, only the sound of the young women’s socked feet thumping on the wooden floor echoed.

Liangzi Lina’s kitchen tools and ingredients were very simple.

There were no frying pans, no large stoves.

The open kitchen was a bit steamy, and at a glance, one could spot a row of small and exquisite charcoal stoves aligned along the bar in a circular arrangement. On seeing this, Xia Yu had an epiphany; no wonder the temperature inside had suddenly increased so much in the dead of winter—it was the heat from these charcoal stoves.

And the main utensils should be the many small tea bowls that the kimono ladies brought on trays.

These tea bowls were quite rustic, lacquerware, with lids, and without any superfluous patterns or carvings. To describe them, "tea bowl" wasn’t quite right; calling them stewing cups would be more accurate, yes, like those used for making small pots of soup.

Seeing the setup, the whispers around finally broke the silence, one after another.

Everyone was discussing in low voices.

You see, this was a Lin Chef promotion ceremony, and the four titans of the Japanese Food Industry were the examiners, with Liangzi Lina naturally being the candidate bathed in glory.

What creation would she use to prove that, once again in her career as a chef, she had successfully scaled another peak?

Xia Yu’s eyebrows furrowed and then relaxed; he had his speculations, but it was difficult to determine for sure.

"Tea bowls?" At the side, Yuchuan Meisha and her sister Yuchuan Ayaka whispered, "Sister, aren’t such utensils generally used for stewing soups? Is Main General Liangzi going to present a soup dish?"

Soup!

Yuchuan Ayaka observed the stockpot on the bar.

The rich aroma was already wafting over. She easily identified the fragrance it carried—a very classic Japanese stock, primarily simmered with kelp and bonito flakes. Beyond that, Yuchuan Ayaka didn’t detect any other noteworthy, precious ingredients.

"It’s too ordinary!" Her gaze carried a hint of disbelief.

Nearby, similar thoughts were shared.

Shinohara Shigetaro and Aoki Motota remained silent.

Dojima Yin and Saito Chiyokuro were also silently fixated on observing the female main general.

Lei Zhe was destined to be a troublemaker tonight, and he spoke with a nonchalant tone, "Such an ordinary work, presented at a Qilin level promotion examination, is too careless and casual!"

He didn’t disguise the volume of his voice.

"The materials, the ingredients, from salt, fats to these eggs and seasoning, are all too commonplace, too mainstream!" He raised his hand, pointing towards the neatly arranged ingredients on the bar.

An uneasy silence fell around them.

Indeed, as Lei Zhe stated, the boxed eggs and a bunch of condiments could be found in any ordinary household’s kitchen.

They were too mundane, lacking any special preparation worth mentioning.

Lei Zhe continued with a hint of disdain, "I certainly don’t believe that such ordinary, mainstream, civilian materials can be used to create an elegant and exquisite Qilin level cuisine!"

Here it came again.

This argument of Lei Zhe had been heard before at Far Moon; his words were blunt—

If the ingredients were lowly, the resulting dish surely wouldn’t amount to much.

Catherine and Andrea exchanged glances but didn’t stop Lei Zhe from disrupting the scene like this.

In a sense, they were still a clique.

In the promotion ceremony that gathered the power of a great part of the Japanese Food Industry, it wasn’t only Lei Zhe who felt an obscure hostility, but also two female tycoons.

Who knew that Liangzi Lina outright ignored Lei Zhe, slightly bowed her head, her pretty face conveying tranquility and peace. She peeled open supermarket boxed eggs, cracked each one, and poured them into a mixing bowl, using chopsticks to whisk them without needing any egg beater.

It was quiet nearby, and the tycoons who were of higher status than Lei Zhe refrained from scolding due to their position.

And those whose status and culinary skill were inferior to Lei Zhe had to measure their words carefully.

Yet the delicate balance in the room was quickly disrupted by a voice with a hint of laughter:

"Hey, can you shut up?"

The voice came from the position beside the four tycoons, and as everyone heard it, their expressions varied as they looked over at the young chef who sat still.

Xia Yu met Lei Zhe’s ferocious gaze but calmly said, "Saying some things too early might just get you a slap in the face, you know. Mr. Lei Zhe, you must remember my tofu set meal from a few days ago, right? The ingredients for my tofu set meal were also pretty ordinary, so how about you re-evaluate it now? Was it delicious?"

Delicious?

This last question left Lei Zhe choked, his lips moving but unable to produce a word for a long while.

The strange thing was, when his taste memory was stimulated, the words "not delicious" couldn’t come out of his mouth no matter what, almost causing him internal injury from the effort.

Seeing this, Xia Yu laughed out loud, not bothering to hide his amusement.

Such a scene was very telling to the onlookers.

Lei Zhe backing down?

Only Catherine and Andrea saw clearly Lei Zhe’s knuckles turning white as he tightly gripped his fists on his lap.

While the two were in a confrontation, Liangzi Lina was still methodically cooking her "exam" dish.

For the broth, which must have been simmering for a long time, the main general added the mixed liquid of egg whites and yolks into it as soon as she whisked them together, directly uncovering the lid and ladling the cooled broth to mix with the egg mixture in the bowl.

As the egg mixture and broth slowly blended, she also added soy sauce, mirin, and white sugar, mixing them evenly.

Seeing this, Xia Yu nodded to himself: "That’s it!"

Just as the main general was about to pour the mixed liquid into the teacups placed on the counter, she delicately found a dense strainer, with very small holes akin to those used for filtering tea.

Using this strainer, she meticulously filtered the liquid back and forth between bowls, finally pouring it into individual lacquered teacups.

Yuchuan Ayaka and Yuchuan Meisha observed this with thoughtful expressions.

Xia Yu whispered to them with a smile, "Sifting the egg mixture through a sieve is quite essential! No matter how careful you are when cracking eggs, some tiny shell fragments invariably end up in the mixture, not to mention the annoying froth that forms after whisking it..."

Though he lowered his voice, it could be heard at the next table.

Tiqie Xianzuowen’s ear twitched, glancing over, while Master Yizhen of Shi Lin Temple spoke with approval, "Exactly! This step is all about ’finessing’ the texture!"

Finessing?

Everyone present, with their not insignificant culinary skills, had also figured out the trick and nodded to themselves.

And that wasn’t all.

Before sealing the lid of the teacups, the main general took kitchen paper one piece at a time, with incredibly subtle movements pressed each against the surface of the egg mixture, soon showing wet marks. After about ten seconds, she lifted off each piece of kitchen paper, leaving the liquid inside the teacups completely free of froth!

Xia Yu’s eyes lit up, "Liangzi has added another improvement to the process?"

He couldn’t help but feel more anticipation for the main general’s Qilin Level debut dish.

A familiar recipe that he also knew by heart, once elevated to Qilin Level, what would it look like?

What followed was, of course, steaming!

Each lacquered teacup with its lid securely fastened was placed in a metal flat-bottomed container full of hot water, underneath which was a charcoal stove. At first glance, it looked somewhat like warming sake, but in reality, it was steaming custards!

Yes, steaming custards!

Up to this point, all present were certain about the main general’s dish:

Japanese chawanmushi!