Chapter 802: Chapter 801: Food War of Dragons (Part 2)

“That golden light is…”

Xia Yu’s expression changed slightly, blinking several times as he refocused on Huang He’s hands.

At this moment, Huang He was washing rice grains in a transparent glass bowl.

Just ordinary rice.

Perhaps in terms of quality and price, it’s much higher than the common supermarket variety, but compared to the likes of “Jile Rice” or the forbidden “Star Rice” among the Fantasy Ingredients, it falls far short.

So, it was not the rice grains emitting light.

Xia Yu fixedly watched Huang He’s hands, with a hint of shock in his eyes.

Such strange hands.

Clearly someone of the same generation as the old master, having worked hard for decades, logically these hands should be full of calluses even if well-maintained. But contrary to that, once these hands touched water, they became as tender and smooth as a young girl’s delicate hands.

It was these very hands, gently and meticulously massaging the rice grains as if treating them as living things, providing them with a gentle massage. Such extravagant care for an ingredient was increasingly bizarre to behold.

Even more bizarre was the faintly golden stream of light flowing between Huang He’s fingers.

Xia Yu blinked, the light vanished, blinked again, the light reappeared, and so it cycled.

It’s worth mentioning that the “Soaring Dragon Hall” of the Loulin Ship, despite resembling an ancient imperial palace hall, had a giant broadcast screen installed just above the Dragon Wall behind the judges’ panel.

Comparing the broadcast images, those captured by modern equipment.

Xia Yu was even more shocked: “Only the eyes can see?”

His heart pounded.

He noticed the deathly silence around, including Zhu Qing beside him, all focused on the performance of the two Dragon Chefs.

Zhu Qing showed no surprised reaction.

One must know, with Zhu Qing’s quirky nature, if she had seen something mysterious and profound, she would be the first to pull Xia Yu’s sleeve and whisper to share with him. But now, her quietness indicated that she hadn’t noticed the light flashing between Huang He’s fingers.

“What’s going on…”

Realizing his view differed completely from modern equipment and others, Xia Yu couldn’t help feeling anxious, a drop of sweat forming on his forehead.

The cooking competition continued as usual amidst the silent atmosphere.

The master Xia Qing and the Dragon Venerable Huang He of the White Jade Tower demonstrated a fascinating overlap in washing and rinsing the rice.

The audience was silent, while a faint sound came from the judges’ area.

“It seems both plan to present a ‘rice’ dish.” An elder from the Lan Family, who had specially come from the headquarters of the New Year Hunt tonight, concluded like this.

“Indeed, they both chose rice, rather than glutinous rice or other special types of rice.”

The elder from the Li Family nodded.

Yan Qi chimed in: “‘Rice’ encompasses a lot, including rice, millet, brown rice, and japonica rice, even sorghum rice, buckwheat rice, and Job’s tears. Millet is best for nourishing the stomach, easily absorbed, with effects of strengthening the spleen, benefiting kidney energy, and clearing heat according to the five elements. Glutinous rice is best for detoxification, nourishing the kidney, invigorating and strengthening the spleen and stomach, but harder to digest, cautious for those with weak spleen and stomach…”

“Black rice nourishes energy and activates blood circulation, promotes liver health and improves vision, and long-term consumption by those with weak bodies can aid in health and fitness.”

“The difference between brown rice and japonica rice lies in the processing depth. Brown rice only has the outer husk removed, giving it a yellowish color…”

Yan Qi was interrupted by a series of chopping noises from the stage.

Bang!

Bang!

The five judges all turned to look, “Bamboo?”

The master Xia Qing was near his cooking station, using a sharp blade to chop several green bamboos in rapid succession, leaving only a shadow of his blade, and in just a few seconds, a basket full of bamboo nodes of uniform size and extraordinary length appeared.

These bamboo nodes were not hollow all the way through; the master’s knife was fast and precise, each cut made just above the bamboo node, so the cut bamboo nodes were closed at both ends.

Then, switching to a small knife, the master casually picked up a bamboo node, and the small knife, like a carving tool, outlined a square frame on the surface of the bamboo node. Without seeming to exert much force, the knife marks connected at the beginning and end, and he lightly shook the upside-down bamboo node.

Plop.

A cut bamboo piece fell into the master’s hand.

Thus, the first bamboo tube container for holding rice was crafted through meticulous knife skills. The equipment captured the faint smile that appeared between master Xia Qing’s brows.

Just like the bamboo in his hand, calm and detached, naturally giving off a composed atmosphere.

“Bamboo tube rice!”

Hearing Zhu Qing’s murmur, Xia Yu finally managed to pull his attention back from Huang He and focused on his own master.

Seeing the full table of bamboo tubes and the bamboo shavings.

No doubt.

The master’s recipe was already apparent.

“Bamboo tube rice!” Xia Yu muttered to himself, “In the Chinese Realm, records of cooking with bamboo tubes date back to the Northern Wei period’s ‘Qimin Yaoshu.’ The book describes ‘tube grilling,’ covering the surface of the bamboo tube with meat stuffing and roasting over an open flame. From the perspective of the five elements and energy, bamboo facilitates dampness elimination, liver protection, and vision improvement, while a chef’s perspective sees bamboo as beneficial for energy, suitable for prolonged consumption, promoting digestion…”

Just joking.

With past study of the master’s notes on medicinal cuisine and the five elements, Xia Yu could confidently claim himself as qualified to teach a course on the medicinal culinary theories of Far Moon.

After speaking, Xia Yu frowned: “Bamboo tube rice is a broad field with different methods in each region. The main thing is whether the master uses glutinous rice or japonica rice as the main ingredient?”

The bamboo tube isn’t important; at most, it’s just a special container. The key is how the rice grains and ingredients inside are matched.

Hmm!

Suddenly, Zhu Qing exclaimed softly.

Xia Yu instinctively turned back to Huang He’s cooking station.

The plucked, smooth Crane’s body lay flat on the table. Huang He had somehow finished kneading and massaging the rice grains, mixed with some unclear auxiliary ingredients, and then stuffed them into the belly of the Crane’s body.

“Uh, is this Crane’s body also a container?” Xia Yu watched in amazement, “There are chicken stuffed rice dishes, but I’ve never heard of Crane stuffed rice!”

“Ah, look—” Zhu Qing covered her mouth.

Xia Yu’s eyes widened.

Huang He stuffed the whole bowl of rice grains in and still wasn’t satisfied. He turned to grab another glass vessel.

A bowl full of bright red!

Crane blood!

He deliberately avoided adding salt to prevent the Crane blood from coagulating, so about half a bowl of liquid crimson blood was poured in by Huang He, it truly was poured in, glug glug…

The Crane’s belly needed to be sewn up, so Huang He took catgut, and with a shimmering gold needle, adopted the demeanor of a serious surgical chief surgeon, meticulously sewing the Crane belly closed, stitch by stitch.

Xia Yu blinked and saw another flash of light between Huang He’s fingers, certain it wasn’t the glint from the gold needle.

“There it is again…” he muttered.

At this point, Xia Yu also roughly guessed why his vision was so different from normal people.

It’s like having spiritual sight.

Now, the “super vision” undoubtedly greatly enhanced this aspect of his abilities.

In other words, the eyes determined the view.

On the other side.

The master Xia Qing took clear water, calmly filling each bamboo node with water, then replaced the bamboo lids and secured them tightly with plant fiber threads.

At this point, the two Dragon Chefs were left with the final step of fire control for cooking.

Almost simultaneously, the master placed the bamboo tubes on a grill, lined up side by side on a cooking grid.

Note, this was astonishingly similar to the “roasting” recorded in ‘Qimin Yaoshu,’ tube grilling, not steaming!

Similarly, Huang He hooked the neck of the Crane, suspended it in a fireplace where the charcoal burned brightly.

“Hoo, hoo…”

Billowing waves of heat continuously swept towards the audience area.

About an hour later.

“Clang!”

The bell rang, announcing the simultaneous end of the two Dragon Chefs’ cooking session.

Hearing the bell, Xia Yu straightened his posture, starting to worry about his own master, “This Huang He, truly understated and hidden, such a low-key person… Can the master win?”