Fix fixed point

It was raining on the road, pattering on the car windows, and the street lights turned into hazy circles of light.It started as light rain, then slammed hard on the windshield, with the road appearing and disappearing between the streams.

When Hong Rui first drove the car out, he regretted it. He only knew the address of Adam's shop.But it was well past midnight and it was raining, so it was unlikely Adam was still in the shop.And the thought of getting wet made me regret even more.He came out too hastily without a coat, he hated the cold, and even more hated being wet and cold, but in vain was No. 1 on the list he hated.

He turned the corner of the street and saw the neon lights still flashing on the signboard of the small shop from a distance, and unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

The wipers wiped the rain off the windshield over and over, allowing him to see better.The surrounding restaurants have already turned off their lights, and only the interior of the fixed point is lit with dim yellow lights, illuminating the surrounding streets.There was a pair of people who looked like a couple, and they were standing under the eaves of a fixed point to put away their umbrellas.Hong Rui couldn't tell whether the sign on the door indicated it was open or closed. One of them reached out to pull the door, tried again, and finally shook his head at his partner.The two opened the umbrella again, cuddled each other and left the shop.

Hong Rui stopped by the street corner, he didn't think Adam would forget to turn off the lights.He sighed, picked up the small box on the co-pilot, gritted his teeth and rushed into the rain.

Hongrui is no stranger to the layout of small restaurants.Instead of trying the gate, he bypassed the trash can and found the side entrance of the restaurant.He turned the doorknob and the door swung open.

The restaurant is quiet.Chefs generally wear shoes that are suitable for standing for a long time, because the soles are soft and will not make too much noise when walking.So Adam didn't hear Hong Rui walking in.

There were no customers in the restaurant, not even the waiter.Adam was standing in the middle of the kitchen with his back to Hong Rui.With his arms propped on the stainless steel counter, he shook his head as if he was thinking about something.

Adam was thinking about Tinno's look.When he was waiting for the verdict of eight into six, his nose was stuffy and blocked, and he was nervous and uneasy.He knew that he had disappointed both Simon and Tinno today—he could see that the moment Simon's gaze paused on him, he felt that he should be the one who lost the election, and he even felt that he was the one who lost the election earlier. It didn't matter if it was him, but at that moment, he regretted it, and sincerely hoped that he wasn't the one who lost the election.

Simon finally called his name and asked him to stand in the row of the selected ones.Fortunately, he passed—Adam breathed a sigh of relief, and his beating heart calmed down.He enjoyed a moment of exhilaration, followed by confusion—he didn't know what was wrong with him.

Hong Rui didn't like this gloomy atmosphere very much, and he didn't turn around after standing there for a while when he saw Adam.Finally, he reached out and knocked a few times on the double-door refrigerator near the exit, as a knock on the door.

Startled by the sudden noise, Adam turned around and saw a tall, thin man standing next to the refrigerator.The man was only wearing a black crew-neck sweater and black trousers, his lenses were foggy and he couldn't see clearly, and he was holding a lock box in his hand.

But Adam would never mistake this person, "God, Dr. Dukas, why are you here?"

Adam quickly pulled out a white dry towel from the side of the sink, walked quickly to Hong Rui, and saw some dark water stains on Hong Rui's shoulders without a coat.He hurriedly said: "Are you cold? Please come in. This is a clean towel, I haven't used it yet."

Hong Rui took a few steps closer, and Adam pulled the exit door sideways to block the cold wind with rain.Hong Rui casually put down the box in his hand, thanked him, and took off his glasses.Adam knew that he was very short-sighted and couldn't see anything without his glasses.He drooped his eyelashes and was carefully wiping the mist off his glasses with a towel.

Adam had never looked at Hong Rui so closely before, and perhaps not many people had such an opportunity.Hong Rui's hair was cut very short, with some rainwater like black ink on it, sticking it to his scalp, showing his full forehead.There are obvious indentations from the glasses frame on the bridge of his nose, there is a fine wrinkle under his eyes, and the fundus of his eyes is red, showing a bit of fatigue.At this moment, without the cover of the lens, those blue eyes were half covered by the eyelids, revealing a glistening blue light.Adam looked very carefully, and he found that Hong Rui's eyes were not pure blue, but blue with a little purple.

Hong Rui deflected the lens to see if there were any missing corners, Adam took a step back and carefully opened the distance between them.

Hong Rui put on the glasses again, and the sharp gaze shot out from behind the lenses, like a mountain, without the fatigue and weakness just now.

Adam smiled all over his face: "Dr. Dukas, do you still want towels?"

Hong Rui shook his head, and returned the towel to Adam after wiping off the rain on his face with the towel.

The steel cooktops and countertops have been scrubbed to shine, and the floor is also clean without any dirt.Even Hong Rui couldn't find anything wrong.Hong Rui walked into the back kitchen and looked at the small kitchen with some curiosity.He was no stranger to the tiny kitchen, it was part of his past.Standing in the kitchen that could only accommodate one or two people again made him feel nostalgic.

Adam stood behind him silently, while Ren Hongrui looked around.

Hong Rui suddenly remembered that he hadn't answered Adam's question just now, so he said, "Tinuo asked me to come." Adam responded with an ooh.Although it was late at night when Hong Rui appeared, he knew that the young man was very happy when he saw him, but suddenly, the young man's mood dropped at this moment.The smile on the young man's face was slightly restrained, but it still maintained a pleasant arc.

"I didn't finish what I said last time, and I'm here to finish it." Efficiency is Hong Rui's consistent style, and Hong Rui turned to look at Adam and directly stated his intentions.The young man was not wearing a white chef uniform at the moment, he was wearing a gray long-sleeve T-shirt, dark blue jeans and black espadrilles.Adam blinked quickly, as if he was recalling what he said, and he quickly remembered what Hong Rui's unfinished words referred to.Adam stopped smiling and bit his lower lip hard, as if biting something would give him strength.Then he lowered his head slightly, obediently waiting for Hong Rui's next evaluation.

Seeing him bowing his head to listen to the training, Hong Rui smiled: "Come here, I'm not here to criticize you, do you have a microwave oven?" Hong Rui put down the music box in his hand on the counter.He opened the lid of the box, and there were two small Italian ravioli in the container on one side, and a packet of soup kept in a sealed bag at the bottom.

Adam looked curiously at Hong Rui as he opened the plastic package.

"Give me a deep soup plate."

"Yes, chef." Adam replied casually.This is not Hong Rui's kitchen, Adam is the chef here.Hong Rui should have corrected him, but hesitated for a moment because of the obedience in this word.For this moment of hesitation, he had already missed the best time to correct Adam.

Adam took out the plate, hesitated to put it down, and Hong Rui pressed the plate on the counter.Then Adam explained in a low voice: "Chef, the plates are only cold."

Hong Rui signaled that it was okay, the soup filled half of the space in the plate, and finally put it in the microwave to heat.While waiting for the microwave oven to finish, neither of them moved, looking at each other.The kitchen was not big, so it was more than enough for one person to stand there. In order to keep a distance, two people had to take a step apart and stand diagonally opposite each other.Such a close distance can almost feel the heat on the opponent's body.

Adam's eyes moved repeatedly on Hong Rui's face, on the lock box behind him, and on the microwave oven.Adam was full of doubts in his heart, but he didn't dare to ask. Adam didn't know why Hong Rui came here tonight. Although he said that Ting Nuo asked him to come, how could Ting Nuo let Hong Rui do what he had no intention of doing? thing.Adam glanced out the window, it was still in such a stormy night.What can't wait until tomorrow?And what's in that box?

Hong Rui saw Adam shrunk his head to avoid his sight, apparently because he was afraid of him because of his meanness last time, or he was worried about his unspoken evaluation - there were too many such small actions in his kitchen.Hong Rui thought of the back view of Adam leaning on the sink, and also remembered what Ting Nuo told him about what happened tonight.He offered to say, "I'm not going to retract my review of your oxtail ravioli, I'm not wrong. The oxtail was a bit oily and the mushroom didn't really help. The overall grasp of the wonton skin is still very good. Your wonton skin is made thicker than the normal skin, which can also disperse the oiliness of the meat, and the vanilla added in the dough is good-looking and relieves the greasiness. These ideas are very successful. "

Adam raised his eyes, eyes full of incredible surprise.His face was full of brilliance, and his eight teeth were exposed in a smile.

"I don't hate your food, Adam." Hong Rui looked straight into his eyes, with a frank attitude: "On the contrary, I appreciate your choice and taste, and I have high expectations of you, so I saw that you served cold dishes. Disappointed at the plate. But that’s easy to fix.” At least that’s a lot easier to fix than a principled error where the ingredients take away from the rest of the table.

"I...that was just a mistake." Adam calmed down and explained, "I'm sorry, it will never happen again, Chef."

Hong Rui took out the plate from the microwave, felt the temperature of the bottom of the plate, and when he was satisfied, he put the wontons together with the lock box into the microwave.The heating time is much shorter this time.

"I'm not a foodie. Foodies care about that. As a chef, taste always comes first. Adam, you have good taste. You have taste buds that ordinary people can't match. This is an enviable talent. I was angry at the time." It’s because I thought you didn’t care about cooking, and I thought you wasted your talent at will. But judging from what Ting Nuo told me today, you can prepare so many ingredients in two hours, which is enough to prove that you are a serious Hardworking man. Adam, I will not apologize for my misjudgment, but I can make amends."

"No, no, Dr. Dukas, I don't need your compensation." Adam waved his hands in a panic, and said, "You're all right, and that was indeed a shameful mistake."

Hong Rui took out the heated wontons from the microwave oven, took a spoon from Adam, moved the wontons into the soup plate, and finally pushed the finished soup plate towards Adam.Hong Rui raised an eyebrow and looked at Adam with a smile: "Are you sure you really don't want it?"

Surprised and delighted, Adam looked down at the ravioli on the plate, unable to believe his good luck, "This is...is this for me?"

Alimentum is Latin, meaning nutrition.It started as a small shop with just a dozen seats in Cambridge.After earning two stars, then-owner and chef Hong Rui decided to move to Notting Hill, London, and start over. After Alimentum opened in London, it regained two stars at a rate of one star a year, and then got the third star in the third year.Get stars faster than ever before.

However, if you go to Alimentum to eat now, you may not be able to eat the dishes made by Hong Rui himself.Hongrui spends most of his time in Alimentum's experimental kitchen.There were others who were cooking the dishes that day.

And at this moment, there was a dish made by Hong Rui himself in front of Adam—and it was specially made for Adam.Of course he couldn't refuse.

"God," Adam ran to get a pair of knives, forks and spoons, and then he quickly took out a folding chair and asked Hong Rui to sit down.The plate has been heated by the soup, and the temperature of the oxtail stuffing is the same as the body temperature, neither too hot nor too cold.When Adam took the first bite, he hardly had time to think. He just felt excited, full of happiness and joy.He sighed in admiration, and soon felt empty and lost because the delicious food was gone.

When the knife and fork picked up the second mouthful of wontons, Adam began to taste carefully and think about Hong Rui's intentions.The ingredients lingered on his tongue repeatedly, and Adam closed his eyes, not letting go of every slight change.This is small oxtail ravioli, using the same ingredients as his day, mushrooms, bacon, and onions, but with a hint of fermented meat flavor.Behind the aroma of beef meat lies a dry smell of smoked red pepper, like the introduction of the climax of the drama, laying a solid foundation for the thick aroma of beef.

"Is this a chorizo?"

"That's right." There was a smile in Hong Rui's voice: "After Peeling the Jolizo sausage, quickly roast it on the fire, then cut it into cubes and stir fry it with onions."

"This reduces the bacon by a third, and the spice from the sausage itself neutralizes the greasiness of the oxtail."

"Yes! Now, drink this soup."

Adam scooped up the soup as he said, and Hong Rui guessed exactly the ingredients in his soup, even the portion and heat were completely reproduced.But Adam knew it was different because of the mild spice added to the soup.The scent was very light, and it was almost undetectable at first, until it was about to be swallowed, and the fragrance of fennel seeds was not noticed. The scent was very weak, but it lit up the soup.

Adam took another sip and said hesitantly, "Is this wild tarragon? It tastes lighter than French tarragon."

Hong Rui lightly tapped the steel counter with his fingers, and shook his head with a smile in his eyes, "It would be easier if you had wild tarragon. But I just soak the tarragon in warm soup, It’s not directly heated. This keeps the overpowering flavor of French tarragon from coming out.”

Adam mixed the soup with the ravioli, and the tarragon and beef worked together to create a completely different flavor.It's amazing that what Hongrui added is only very common ingredients, and without adding extra work, it has pushed the flavor of this dish to another level.

This is the real master, they turn stones into gold, and turn decay into magic.

Adam nodded in amazement, and rolled his eyes with a smile.He no longer thinks about the collocations and principles, and indulges himself to enjoy the rare dishes.

Hong Rui sat on the side, seeing that Adam was very happy to eat, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.They are all chefs, and nothing makes a chef happier than having his work appreciated.He especially appreciates that Adam can eat with a pure heart.No matter how complicated the food is, they are not created to be analyzed and disassembled. Those efforts are for the best sensory enjoyment for those who eat.

Adam reluctantly swallowed the last mouthful of minced meat, and tilted the plate to scoop up the last spoonful of soup.Hong Rui felt that if Adam had bread at hand, he would definitely use it to wipe off the remaining juice on the plate.

Adam put down the spoon, grinning to Hongrui and said, "That's really delicious! Thank you."

Hong Rui got up and put away the lock box, and said, "Now you know how to do it."

"I'll keep working hard, Chef."

Perhaps it was Ting Nuo who asked Hong Rui to come over at the beginning, but Adam understood that these foods could not be prepared temporarily.That vegetable stock needs to be cooked for at least 7-8 hours.Adam is very grateful to Hong Rui for his kindness.

The young man smiled brightly, and the satisfaction in his eyes infected Hong Rui.Hong Rui felt relieved, as happy as having completed a big task.Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Hong Rui nodded and stopped talking, got up and walked towards the back door.Maybe it was a little sudden when he stood up, a black shadow flashed in front of his eyes, and the lock box in his hand just rolled down to the ground.The stomach seemed to be grasped by an invisible palm, twisted fiercely, and there was a burning pain.

"What's wrong with you, Dr. Dukas?" Adam rushed up and held him firmly.

A grumbling grunt from his stomach answered Adam's words.If Hong Rui could blush, he should blush.Hong Rui supported Adam's arm to stabilize his footsteps: "I'm fine."

He endured the pain and still wanted to go outside.Adam pressed the door handle and blocked Hong Rui's way: "Dr. Dukas, you can't just leave like this. Please let me make something for you to eat."

Hong Rui turned around and glanced at the clean kitchen, the meaning in his eyes was very obvious, saying how could you have something to eat here.

"Please sit down first." Adam made a gesture of invitation, and he smiled with a bit of shyness on his face and a bit of anticipation: "If you don't mind it, you can have some soup first."

Hong Rui refused Adam's support, pressed his abdomen, and walked towards the seat with his head held high.Adam watched him sit down before relaxing his brows.Adam lifted the stainless steel pot on the stove and scooped out the soup from it.Adam went to the game in the afternoon, so the store was not open.The soup was so cold that it couldn't smell anything.

Adam put the scooped soup on the fire, took out a clean cutting board, and cut the white radish scooped out of the steel pot into transparent slices.

The smell in the soup is only revived after heating it with fire.It is a Japanese-style dashi stock made from radish, kelp, chicken bones, and bonito.While waiting for the soup to warm up, Adam took a small piece of eel from the refrigerator and washed it in water.The fine steel blade passed between the white fish flesh, and quickly stripped a piece of bone from it.Hong Rui didn't quite know his intentions, but saw that Adam repeatedly cut the eel meat many times later.

"Dr. Dukas, when are you going to rest?" Adam asked without raising his head.

Hong Rui looked at Adam's preparations with great interest. Although he felt that the question was a bit inexplicable, he still answered honestly: "I will go to bed when I get home."

"Then don't eat things that are too difficult to digest." Adam looked up and smiled at him.

The soup has not boiled yet.Adam went to get two more eggs and broke them in a bowl.He seasoned with some cold broth, and Hong Rui noticed that he added some mirin and salt to the egg liquid.Adam didn't try the taste, obviously he was very confident in his seasoning.Adam repeatedly filtered the beaten eggs with a colander, and finally poured them carefully into the container.

He set up another steamer to boil the water again.At this time his soup finally boiled.Adam spread the radishes on the bottom of the white porcelain bowl and put the raw eel in it.He squeezed a small spoon and poured the hot broth on the raw eel spoon by spoon, and finally closed the bowl and stuffed it.

Adam put the eel soup in front of Hong Rui, put down the tableware and went to work on other things.When Hong Rui lifted the lid, a rich aroma rushed into his nostrils, and it smelled extremely delicious.The appearance is also very good, the white eel is cut with a flower knife, stretched in the light yellow soup, like a blooming flower.Hong Rui took the first sip, the soup was salty and fresh, and after swallowing it, the curled up stomach stretched out along with the heat.A mouthful of hot air was transported from the stomach to the limbs and bones, and finally the regurgitation steamed out from the top of the head along the spine.Hong Rui let out a comfortable sigh from his throat, the pain and fatigue in his body were all soothed by this mouthful of soup, and his whole body became light.

Hong Rui drank the soup silently, the eel was cooked just right, the fish was tender and the thorns were cleaned.After he finished the soup and the fish, Adam took out another red ceramic bowl and put it in front of Hong Rui after drying it with a towel.

Adam reminded: "This may still be a little hot, please be careful."

It turned out to be custard.A shrimp is placed on the smooth custard, only red and yellow are simple and clear, and the circles are transparent scallion oil.Hong Rui scooped up the egg custard with a spoon, and the pale yellow custard was trembling with white steam.He blew on it for a while, and felt that it was not so hot before sending it into his mouth.The custard is smooth and has a texture similar to silken tofu, but tofu does not have such a fresh and sweet taste.

Hong Rui felt that the egg custard was not as hot as he thought. He reached out to touch the bowl and found that the temperature outside the custard was lower than the inside.Adam must have cooled the custard in warm water after it was steamed.He smiled at Adam's carelessness.

After Adam put down the custard, he went to pack the cutting board and knives without asking Hong Rui's opinion, as if he didn't care about Hong Rui's feedback.Hong Rui stared at Adam's profile. Adam stood by the sink with his head down, carefully washing the pots and utensils with gentle water flow, only the slight sound of water flow could be heard.The young man's lips were slightly parted, and he was smiling, as if he could hum a song from it at any time.In the past, Hong Rui didn't like someone moving while he was eating.But at this moment, Adam's presence didn't distract Hong Rui at all, instead it made him feel the unique human touch of the kitchen.

It was raining outside the window, and the fallen leaves were rustling. It must be cold outside.The mist from the steamer covered the glass, obscuring the wind and rain outside.The kitchen was warm because of the fire just now.Hong Rui thought of the couple who left without opening the door and holding an umbrella, and guessed whether they had eaten at the moment. What was more annoying than the damp and cold was the hunger and cold.He was thankful that he didn't insist on leaving just now, so he could sit in the middle of the small but warm kitchen, slowly eating the fresh and smooth custard with a spoon.His stomach swelled up little by little with every mouthful of food, and the feeling of fullness and stability swelled all the way to his heart.He thought again, he was always analyzing the flavors and combinations, or he was thinking about other things, how long had it been since he enjoyed a meal just like this?

When food is most needed, it is made into the form that suits you most. Even a simple combination of ingredients has an unforgettable delicacy.No restaurant, not even Hong Rui himself, has been able to replicate this meal.