The Game of Life TGOL

Chapter 542: Chapter 540 Braised Sea Cucumber in Scallion Sauce

Sir was very satisfied with the Lushan Cloud Mist Tea extorted by Jiang Feng. Not only was Sir satisfied, Mrs. Jiang also nodded repeatedly after tasting a small half-cup, proclaiming it to be a rare good tea.

As for the tea from Lu Sheng, any that was brought out to show off to others was good tea.

By the time Jiang Feng returned, everyone had already begun to eat, and some dishes had been served. Fortunately, the silver fungus and vegetable dish had not yet been served, so Jiang Feng was still able to enjoy it hot. Jiang Jiankang had saved a seat for Jiang Feng to his right, and Jiang Feng sat down next to him.

Just as Jiang Feng sat down, the scallion-braised sea cucumber was passed to him.

In fact, scallion-braised sea cucumber was one of the signature dishes of Yonghe House. During the days when Jiang Feng was furiously practicing sea cucumber dishes, he would often go to Yonghe House to eat their scallion-braised sea cucumber under the pretext of learning and draw inspiration, all the while exclaiming that if a sea cucumber were to die in the hands of the chef at Yonghe House, it would truly die a magnificent and fitting death.

The chefs at Yonghe House were essentially students of Peng Changping and Qin Guisheng, genuine inheritors of Tan Family Cuisine, and their culinary skills were indeed quite impressive.

Jiang Feng looked at the scallion-braised sea cucumber in front of him.

Because sea cucumber has a lot of sand and a fishy taste, cooking it can be quite challenging. The chefs at Yonghe House cooked their scallion-braised sea cucumber with a rich approach, using a thick broth to encapsulate the sea cucumber so that the sauce permeated it, covering its natural fishiness with the strong flavor of the sauce, giving it a distinctive character.

Such scallion-braised sea cucumber not only tasted smooth and rich, but it also looked far better than sea cucumber braised using other methods.

There were only two cooking methods targeting the innate qualities of sea cucumber that Jiang Feng had ever seen: one was the rich approach of Yonghe House, and the other was Jiang Hengzhong’s red-stewed in superior broth. Although the two methods were completely different, they achieved the same great results.

Jiang Feng had seen Jiang Hengzhong’s method countless times already, but he had never had a chance to witness the Yonghe House technique. Sometimes Jiang Feng even thought of comparing the scallion-braised sea cucumber cooked by Peng Changping, Qin Guisheng, and the late Cao Guixiang to Jiang Hengzhong’s Jiang’s Sea Cucumber Soup to see who would come out on top.

Jiang Feng picked up a piece of scallion-braised sea cucumber and took a bite.

The familiar taste, rich broth, smooth sea cucumber, and the umami of scallions filled his mouth.

It seemed even better than before—evidently, the chefs at Yonghe House had further honed their skills.

“Dad, have you noticed that the chefs at Yonghe House have gotten better?” Jiang Feng turned and asked.

Jiang Jiankang nodded in agreement; although he didn’t frequent Yonghe House often, that made his appreciation of their improvement all the deeper.

“Yes, it feels even better than before, especially in terms of fire control. They must have put in a lot of hard work and trained intensively for months,” Jiang Jiankang said, deeply moved. “I’ve heard that the chefs at Yonghe House are not young anymore, but I didn’t expect them to still be so ambitious—it really is admirable.”

Jiang Jiankang, the ‘salted fish’, voiced his envy and then continued to concentrate on eating.

With the chefs of Yonghe House putting in such effort to excel, as diners, the Jiang Family Members could not let their hard work go unappreciated, and they had to eat more as a heartfelt gesture of approval.

After a full meal, Jiang Feng rested a while to digest before dragging the robust Wang Hao to the train station to meet someone.

Wang Hao, feeling his jeans getting a bit tight after mooching such a grand meal, felt like he had eaten from someone else’s hand and thus should not complain. He resolved to perform well during the meeting process to ensure more feasting opportunities in the future. All the way to the station, he kept inquiring Jiang Feng about the details regarding Jiang Xiaoran.

Jiang Feng and Jiang Xiaoran weren’t exactly familiar with each other, having met only once before. After that, their communication on WeChat was sparse, so Jiang Feng could only share what he knew with Wang Hao.

“My cousin, see, he’s not great at talking and tends to let conversations go cold, but he’s not afraid of awkwardness. So I think if it gets quiet, we can just keep talking, and as long as he can join in, it’s a success.”

“Oh, and definitely don’t bring up anything about girlfriends. My cousin’s fiancée just cheated on him not long ago, and I bet he’s still bruised. Let’s not get into that.”

“He has a lot of figurines in his room. I haven’t been keeping up with any new shows lately, but you can chat with him about the new anime, Hao.”

“And also…”

Although Jiang Feng initially intended to stick to what he knew, he found himself rattling on the whole way to the train station, only becoming aware of it after arriving.

He might not have had much contact with Jiang Xiaoran, but he’d interacted with Jiang Yong! Jiang Yong had mentioned Jiang Xiaoran to him many times, and they’d chatted over WeChat, so he was quite familiar with Jiang Xiaoran’s circumstances.

He even knew how many extra hours on average Jiang Xiaoran worked each week.

The experienced Jiang Feng managed to reach Beiping train station ten minutes before Jiang Weiming’s train arrived, a place that was always teeming with people no matter the time. Jiang Feng and Wang Hao stood at the agreed-upon spot, waiting to meet Jiang Weiming and Jiang Xiaoran, and after about ten minutes, they saw Jiang Weiming, with a big bag on his back and another in hand, and Jiang Xiaoran, dragging two large suitcases and with a large pack on both his back and front.

Jiang Feng and Wang Hao quickly went up to help, with Wang Hao taking one of Jiang Xiaoran’s suitcases and Jiang Feng taking Jiang Weiming’s bag and the heavier bag. When he took the latter, he noticed it was quite heavy.

A closer look revealed that the bag contained two large thermoses, which likely had plenty of water inside.

“Granduncle Weiming, why bring two thermoses? Isn’t one enough for water? I recall the trains provide hot water,” said Jiang Feng.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Jiang Xiaoran didn’t seem the type to use such thermoses. Besides, Jiang Feng saw a half-drunk bottle of beverage on the side of the pack on Jiang Xiaoran’s back.

“The thermoses are filled with clear broth. Today is Lantern Festival, and I wanted to make you a special dish,” said Jiang Weiming with a smile, looking refreshed and not at all worn from his morning on the train.

It was clear that Jiang Weiming had had a pleasant time in Magic City lately.

With so much baggage, taking the subway was out of the question, so Jiang Feng called a car and led them out.

“Xiaoran, did Granduncle get a health check?” Jiang Feng asked softly.

“Yes, we just got the report yesterday. I thought I’d bring it since I was coming over today instead of sending a photo,” replied Jiang Xiaoran. “The doctors said it’s nothing serious; just that grandpa is getting old and should avoid overworking. I heard grandpa still spends every day in the kitchen… is he…?”

“Granduncle Weiming generally sits or stands in the kitchen and plays the role of director, so he doesn’t get too tired. Don’t worry, we will take good care of him,” assured Jiang Feng to ease Jiang Xiaoran’s worries.

“Of course, I trust you. Honestly, it’s my dad and I who haven’t lived up to our responsibilities. It should be us taking care of Grandpa. I hear my second cousin is studying medicine; we’ll let him take a look at the health report later,” said Jiang Xiaoran, constantly referring to the health report. “By the way, where are we headed?”

“First we’ll drop off the stuff, then head over to Sir’s place. We’re celebrating Lantern Festival at his house tonight. Oh, there’s the car, let’s hurry over there,” said Jiang Feng, carrying the bags and moving quickly.