The Garden Life of a Little Gardener

"Food? What kind of food? How?"

Zhou Quan, who only knew about cockfighting and cricketfighting, asked subconsciously.

Chef Bao turned back when he heard the words, put the towel on the bed, embraced Zhou Quan and said: "Our master's school has a heritage, and the ancestors who speak well are the first, so Mingyuelou and Shimen's recipes have always been the same. It is not inheritance from father to son, but internal selection. Doucai means that disciples who have the qualifications to inherit compete with each other with vegetables, and the winner at the end will be the next generation in charge of Mingyuelou and Shimen's recipes."

After Chef Bao explained it like this, Zhou Quan understood that Mingyue Tower and Shimen's recipes were not private property, but Shimen's property, which also stipulated the method of succession.

"So at tomorrow's birthday banquet, your brothers and sisters will fight for food right there?"

"No, the birthday banquet is still a birthday banquet. Dou Cai is an internal matter. It will not start until all the guests are sent away, and only the people from the master's school are left."

"How will you fight? What method will you use to fight?"

"I don't know, not only me, but also the rest of my apprentices who are of the same generation as me. Doucai only has one chance in each generation, and each fellow student has only one chance to participate. The last time Doucai was said to be 20 years ago At that time, not to mention me, even the eldest brother hadn't been able to worship under the master, so we all knew nothing about it."

Zhou Quan suddenly felt a little nervous when he heard that Chef Bao wanted to fight for vegetables. He didn't even feel this way when he was in the college entrance examination.

He now understood why his grandpa would wait at home with blisters on his lips when he took the exam, because it was really uncomfortable to feel out of control and just wait for the result.

Seeing Zhouquan's anxious heart, Chef Bao hugged him and comforted him: "Don't worry, I don't have any covetousness on Mingyuelou and Shimen's recipes, and I don't pay much attention to the results of Doucai. Now it's no different than in the past, what the master taught At that time, there was no secret saying that the dishes on the master’s recipe are open to all the brothers who joined the master. As long as the skills are available, you can learn them at any time. However, in order to protect the fragile old recipes, now the The solitary copy has been carefully collected by the master, and all we can read are the later manuscripts of the master."

"I've read both cookbooks, and the contents are the same, except that one is in traditional Chinese and the other is in simplified Chinese. To be honest, I think if you want to learn cooking, it's better to read Master's manuscript, because Not only is it easier to understand, but the manuscript is also marked with the experience of the master, which is much more useful to us apprentices than the ancient book."

"So you're not interested in Doucai?"

"Of course, if you accidentally win, you will have to stay and run Mingyue Building. What about our homestay? Do you want to stay?"

Zhou Quan shook his head again and again when he heard the words, joking who has a home and doesn't come back to run a restaurant here.

"Right, I don't want to stay here either. I originally wanted to deal with Dou Cai, don't lose too badly, and then just watch the excitement from the sidelines, but a piece of news from Senior Brother Zou made me Some hesitation."

"Is it because of that foreigner?"

"Well, you may not know that person, and he is not well-known in China, but that gentleman is well-known abroad, especially in the chef circles of Canada and the United States. He is an excellent graduate of George Brown College's culinary and baking major. .Later, he went to study at Le Cordon Bleu in France. He once worked as a chef in a Michelin three-star hotel and hosted state banquet-level dinners. He is an opponent not to be underestimated."

"To be honest, my aunt's ability is far worse than that of the first one. I don't know what method she used to make George worship her as a teacher, but I know that if he really participated in Doucai, Then there are not many of us brothers who can win against him."

"Didn't it mean that all fellow students of the same generation can participate in Doucai? You are not sure, so can other fellow students?"

Chef Bao looked strangely at Zhou Quan and said, "Brothers already include other fellow students. Don't I call them seniors or juniors? Oh, there is one senior sister and two senior sisters, but the senior sisters are already married. People, the main work at present is husband and son, and they have already put down the work on the desk. One of the junior sisters has just become an apprentice, and the other has not yet become a teacher. It is very difficult to expect them to win George."

Zhou Quan:.......Okay, I slipped the tongue.

"That means you can't put water in?"

"George is the chef of the state banquet. Even if he earns, he may not be able to win. If he releases the water, he will definitely lose. I don't care about winning or losing, but if George wins, with the old man's prejudice against those foreign devils, the master will definitely be angry He vomited blood."

Speaking of which, it can be seen this week that Chef Bao's sister-in-law seems to have brought the foreigner back on purpose, and the purpose is very likely to add trouble to Mr. Zou.

Isn't it master and apprentice?I heard they were still ex-father-in-law and ex-daughter-in-law?

What kind of hatred is this?So many years later, far away from thousands of mountains and rivers, but also persistently come back, just to make the other party uncomfortable.

What a terrible obsession, the knot that two generations can't get rid of, but poor Zou Huhu, caught in the middle.

No wonder every time I saw him, I felt that even though he was smiling, his eyes occasionally flashed with loneliness. He must have felt uncomfortable these years.

While thinking wildly, Zhou Quan continued to ask Chef Bao: "Then what are you going to do, Brother Bao? This time, is Doucai doing his best or is he making other plans."

"Let's take one step at a time. If someone can eliminate George in advance, that would be the best. If not, you can only fight with the bayonet. You can't really just watch like that and let that George kill the Mingyue Tower and Shimen. Take the recipe away. If that's the case, our old man can be bumped to death in front of the ancestral tablet."

In the final analysis, this is an internal matter of Baoda Chef's family. Zhou Quan asked to show his concern, but other than that, he couldn't help at all.

The next day, Chef Bao got up before dawn, and Zhou Quan, who was sleeping next to him, opened his eyes in a daze. Chef Bao kissed his forehead and said, "Today's birthday banquet starts on time at 12 noon. The back kitchen has to go to prepare in advance. You can sleep for a while, wake up and have breakfast in the past."

When Zhou Quan heard the word breakfast, yesterday's morning tea that made his lips and teeth fragrant, and which he still can't forget until now, flashed in his mind.

Chef Bao, who was familiar with all his expressions, laughed a few times when he saw this, and then said: "Sister-in-law and younger siblings will not go there too early with their children. If you still want to have morning tea at Huifeng Tea House, why don't you meet together and have a lively meal?" Some."

"Okay, if they haven't gone out when I wake up, I'll invite them to have morning tea together."

Facing the moon and wearing stars, Chef Bao and his senior brothers went out, Zhou Quan turned over in the room, and fell asleep again in a daze.

When he woke up again, the sky was already bright, Zhou Quan checked the time on his phone, it was almost 08:30.

While he was brushing his teeth and washing his hands, he suddenly received a text message on his mobile phone, which was sent by Chef Bao's wife, asking if he wanted to go out for morning tea with them.

I was thinking about inviting them, but I didn't expect them to invite me first.

They probably didn't know if they were awake, so they chose to send a text message first to test it out. If they didn't wait for him to reply to the message, they would go out by themselves.

He hurriedly replied to the other side, and Zhou Quan dug out a suit of decent clothes from his luggage. They had to go directly to Mingyue Tower after morning tea, but the day to pay respects to the old man had to be decent.

Because they had plenty of time, they could have this morning tea for more than an hour, and when they came to Mingyue Tower again, a sign had already been posted on the gate here.

Zhou Quan looked at the sign that said the owner's family celebrated his birthday and closed for three days, and knew that this was the time reserved for Doucai.

Although it was closed, the entire Mingyue Building was not idle, and the back kitchen was still extremely hot. From around nine o'clock, birthday worshipers came with their families one after another. Mr. Zou sat firmly on the third floor as an old birthday star. , This side of the gate is reserved for sons and grandsons to meet and entertain guests.

The three floors of the Mingyue Building are all used for banquets. The first and second floors are for everyone to sit together, and the third floor is for entertaining close friends, as well as mothers with infants and young children who need a quiet environment. them.

After Zhou Quan and the others came over, they were invited directly to the third floor. The sliding door used as a partition in the middle of the box had been opened. Zhou Quan, who walked in, looked at Mr. Zou next door, and went over to say some auspicious words.

The old man was dressed very festively today, and he looked very energetic. There was an old man who was about his age sitting beside him.

When Zhouquan came to say auspicious words, Mr. Zou smiled very happily. It was only after he was introduced that he realized that the old man sitting next to the old man was his younger brother.

I heard that Mr. Zou had six senior brothers in his generation, but now there are only two old brothers left. The rare friendship is cherished by the two old people very much, so they often get together.

After saying auspicious words to the old man, Zhou Quan consciously sat down to the side to drink tea and eat fruit plate. Today, the old man is the protagonist, so there should be many things to do.

It was past eleven o'clock, and the Mingyue Building was already full of people. The first and second floors were full of guests and friends, and most of the boxes on the third floor were full.

Master Zou walked up and down, looking at one table after another, silently counting in his heart whether there were any important guests missing.

Ten minutes before twelve o'clock, master Zou took the microphone and went up to the third floor. First, he asked his father to say a few words, and he himself stood on the stairs to thank all relatives and friends for their support. Open on time.

This time, Zhou Quan saw the chef's table in Suizhou. The cold dishes served first, such as roast suckling pig, baked mullet roe, lobster sashimi, boiled chicken, any one of them was a hard dish on the table.

Not to mention the main dishes later on, some of which were flying in the sky and swimming in the water, some Zhou Quan had eaten, some he had seen before, and some he had never heard of.

Zhou Quan felt that he was not here to pay homage to his birthday, but to learn and open his eyes. While eating, Zhou Quan soon found the birthday gifts he had brought over in the dishes.

Red mushrooms and yellow mushrooms appear in the stewed and crispy old duck soup, and small white mushrooms appear in the assorted stir-fry. Even the millet is steamed and then deep-fried, then coated with syrup and other grains They made a dessert together and appeared on the table.

Zhou Quan counted silently. After the banquet started, a total of 36 dishes were served. Fortunately, the amount of each dish was well controlled. Otherwise, there would be more than a dozen people at a table, but many dishes would be enough to make people feel uncomfortable. People feel full.

This time the birthday banquet was very successful. After the guests were happy with each other, the host sent the guests away. They still stayed in Zhouquan on the third floor, and saw that the rest of the guests gradually gathered on the third floor.

Holding the tea bowl in his hand, Mr. Zou looked at those people and said, "You are all my disciples and grandchildren. I am 88 this year, and Cheng Ying is almost [-]. It is time to train the next generation of successors for the future of Mingyue Tower. Mr. According to the rules of the ancestors, all my disciples and grandchildren are eligible to participate, you can prepare now, the Doucai Conference starts tonight."