The Game of Life

After carving the last fox Freddie, Jiang Feng put down the radish and knife. Every character from Peppa Pig was neatly arranged on the cutting board, not one missing. An hour and a half had passed in the competition, and steaming; chicken takes much longer than a pigeon. Jiang Feng leaned close to the steaming pot and inhaled, feeling it was about ready.

He lit the flame to make a sauce with the chicken broth.

Three minutes later, the Eight Treasures Chicken was out of the pot, thickening the sauce.

Its color was plain and light; the skin of the Eight Treasures Chicken was slightly yellow, its belly round and plump, with a tightly sealed aroma that was unassuming in appearance.

Jiang Feng placed the first carved radish flowers he made on the rim of the basin for decoration. There wasn’t room for the full set of Peppa Pig animal radish carvings, so he placed them on another plate and signaled the staff. “Could you please bring this plate up as well?” Jiang Feng pointed to the plate of radish carvings, “Do you have a knife at the judges’ table? This dish requires cutting open the chicken’s belly before eating.”

“Yes,” the staff responded with a nonchalant smile, “the competition rules state that each contestant can only make one dish.”

“These are extra decorations that couldn’t fit.” Jiang Feng said, “Consider it a little gift for the judges.”

Staff: ???

The staff still brought Jiang Feng’s radish carvings up, reasoning that the quite wealthy panel of five judges didn’t seem like the type to rig the competition over a few pigs.

As soon as the dish was served, Han Guishan exclaimed with delight, “I know how to eat this kind of dish, just cut open the chicken belly and eat the stuffing inside!”

Then Han Guishan looked at the other four judges.

Experts in Huaiyang cuisine, renowned chefs, owners of famous restaurants.

He chose to keep quiet.

Tong Deyan cut open the Eight Treasures Chicken’s belly.

The stuffing rolled out like pearls, with chestnuts, dried scallops, ham, and shiitake mushroom pieces coming out first, scattering over the chicken and the sauce. The fat of the tender young chicken was not too thick but perfectly coated the vegetarian stuffing, carrying the unique fragrance of chicken mixed with the fresh scent of the various vegetarian stuffings. It was a strong visual and gustatory impact that immediately added a lot of appeal to the dish. “Vegetarian stuffing,” Han Guishan was very satisfied, as he had just had enough of eating so much chicken meat and needed something vegetarian to cut through the richness.

“The flavors are locked in tightly!” Tong Deyan marveled.

“Yes, the basic skills are quite solid,” Zhu Chang commented while poking the chicken with her chopsticks, “The technique for boning the whole chicken is quite mature and skilled, the body of the chicken is very intact.” “These radish carvings are quite interesting, what is this pig?” Pei Shenghua picked up Peppa Pig.

“Peppa Pig,” said Han Guishan, “My son loves this, watches it every day, he really enjoys it.”

“Hey, I should be able to take this with me, right? I’ll bring it home for my son to eat, he hasn’t had vegetables in a while, it’s about time he had some radish to cleanse the stomach.”

Pei Shenghua: ???

Once the belly of the chicken is cut open, it must be eaten while hot, everyone takes a spoonful. Han Guishan was the last to start, only realizing after seeing the actions of others that the sauce on the outside wasn’t just for decoration but to be dipped. Hidden beneath the vegetarian stuffing were pigeon eggs, ’ which, tucked away at the bottom, absorbed the flavors of various ingredients and, along with their inherent savoriness, were especially delicious. Unfortunately, Han Guishan wasn’t a connoisseur and mistook the pigeon eggs for quail eggs, taking no interest. He only scooped up the chestnuts, dried scallops, lilies, and shiitake mushrooms. He had a piece of ham initially, but it slipped into the sauce with a skew of his spoon.

Upon tasting, the fluffy fragrance of chestnuts, the freshness of dried scallops, the tenderness of shiitake mushrooms, the lightness of lilies, the mild sweetness of the chicken, and the flavorful sauce all intermingled. Though it couldn’t be said that all five flavors were present, it definitely deserved acclaim for its taste.

Jiang Feng’s dish proved reliable without any mishaps.

“Not bad, this flavor reminds me a bit of Master Sun’s Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon!” Han Guishan sighed before scooping another spoonful.

“Mr. Han has also tasted Master Sun’s Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon?” Pei Shenghua asked, intrigued.

‘ Yes, back… ten years ago, I had the fortune to eat it at Jubao Building,” Han Guishan revealed without mentioning that Sun Guanyun had made Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon at Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant before. With a flourish, Han Guishan wrote down a score of ten and continued to enjoy the Eight Treasures Chicken made by Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng’s final score, 8.6 points, tied for second place with Wu Minqi. Zhang Guanghang’s red wine-braised chicken had grown somewhat cold, and the texture was nowhere near as good as before. Han Guishan, who is always looking for the new and gets tired of the old quickly, discarded it without hesitation, and concentrated on eating the Eight Treasures Chicken. When he got to the pigeon eggs hidden at the bottom, he couldn’t help but exclaim, “Wow, these pigeon eggs are delicious!”

No one paid attention to him, as everyone’s eyes were on Ji Xue’s movements. The clay pot Huadiao chicken she was making was about to be done.

Crouching down, Ji Xue’s nose was level with the lid of the clay pot, as she closed her eyes and sniffed closely beside the pot. Once the Huadiao wine was added to the clay pot Huadiao chicken, the lid could no longer be opened, so she had to rely on close smelling to judge the fire control, which would be indiscernible to anyone lacking the skill.

With her eyes closed, Ji Xue didn’t move an inch; time seemed to stand still Her screen looked no different from a still image, leaving the uninformed audience to wonder if the screen had frozen.

At this critical moment, a contestant who was not important enough to be named and whose braised chicken was nothing special inappropriately raised his hand, forcefully drawing the camera’s attention to himself.

The four judges, adhering to the principle of fair scoring, took a few dozen seconds to taste his dish and, after unanimously giving it a low score, continued to watch the screen showing Ji Xue.

Ji Xue opened her eyes.

She turned off the heat, waited a moment, and then signaled with her hand.

All judges except Han Guishan, who was engrossed in eating the Eight Treasures Chicken, were excited. They had all tasted the authentic clay pot Huadiao chicken before. Sir Tan, who was over seventy, still made this dish himself in the restaurant. One reason was that his children and grandchildren were not competent, and the other was that this was his signature dish just like Sun Guanyun’s Eight Treasures Chestnut Fragrant Pigeon, it could only be done justice by him.

A year ago, as Sir Tan passed away, the clay pot Huadiao chicken, a dish that had astonished the various Chinese cuisine circles for half a century also fell into oblivion. The many gourmands no longer had the chance to taste this dish. Tan Family Small Restaurant, once renowned in Guangdong Province, plunged into decline overnight. The past bustle and fame were no more, and the glory of having reservations scheduled a year in advance faded away. The regular customers stopped visiting the restaurant with regrets. Without Sir Tan, Tan Family Small Restaurant was no different from any ordinary street-side eatery. It had been said before that the clay pot Huadiao chicken pioneered the technique of using wine to enhance the fragrance and flavor of chicken in whole chicken cooking, giving the chicken a unique taste and aroma.

Huadiao wine has a special property: it isn’t fragrant when cool, but becomes especially aromatic upon heating. When chicken is braised with Huadiao wine ethanol in the wine reacts with the fatty acids in the chicken fat to produce aromatic esters-a distinctive fragrance. The difficulty of replicating clay pot Huadiao chicken comes from the fact that the moment the lid is lifted, diners immediately know whether it is the real deal or not.

A staff member wanted to lift the lid, but was stopped by Tong Deyan.

“Let me do it,” Tong Deyan rose to his feet. If this really was the clay pot Huadiao chicken, this would be a day recorded in the annals of Chinese culinary history, and they would be its witnesses.

The difficulty of perpetuating a signature dish and masterful technique is only truly understood by chefs, who know the bitterness at heart.

Upon lifting the lid, the aroma filled the air.

“This is the scent, exactly the scent!” Pei Shenghua exclaimed with excitement, “This is exactly the fragrance when Sir Tan used to lift the lid off his clay pot Huadiao chicken, not a bit different, unmistakable. The poem goes, ‘With golden winds and dewdrops’ gift, this soul of scent is set adrift, its texture as snow, unparalleled in taste. Inspired by the chefs of Shunde, the Huadiao feast —a tribute to Xuanyuan.’

Han Guishan looked up in surprise, smelling the delicious aroma. However, he couldn’t fathom why Pei Shenghua became so stirred up that he even started reciting poetry.

The chicken was coated with honey, its golden, glazing exterior enticing – the meat was tender and sweetly aromatic.

After tasting the clay pot Huadiao chicken, Han Guishan instantly abandoned Jiang Feng’s Eight Treasures Chicken, relegating it to the cold palace alongside Zhang Guanghang’s red wine-braised chicken.

Han Guishan, who lacked culture, could only use his limited vocabulary to describe Ji Xue’s clay pot Huadiao chicken: “Delicious, this dish is delicious!” All thoughts of having eaten too much chicken and needing something bland to counter the richness-such foolish talk-were tossed aside by him. Getting tired of chicken? He scoffed at the notion; how could anyone get tired of something as delicious as chicken!

With his appetite now fully opened, Han Guishan declared he could eat ten!

The score came swiftly: 9.5 points, an unprecedentedly high score.

A wave of astonishment swept across the venue.

The clueless and ill-informed spectators could only open their mouths wide and exaggeratedly “wow~” to express their amazement.

“Dad, what did that girl cook?” Jiang Jiankang, who had not seen much of the world, asked, poking his head forward.

“Clay pot Huadiao chicken,” replied Jiang Weiguo, who had spent some time in Guangdong Province. Having lived in the countryside for a long time, he was not very concerned with the major events in the culinary world and was out of touch with much of the information, unaware of Sir Tan’s passing and the loss of the clay pot Huadiao chicken, “I tasted that dish forty years ago, it’s delicious, sure, and it’s Master Tan’s signature dish, but it doesn’t seem to warrant such a high score.”

“Master Tan passed away last year, and that dish has been lost,” said Sun Guanyun, who was sitting next to Jiang Weiming but had always refused to join the group chat. Since Sun Jikai’s blunder, Sun Guanyun’s mood had been off, switching from busy to offline, refusing to receive any messages from anyone with the surname Jiang.

“I never heard that Master Tan had taken on a disciple. His son was blinded and heartless due to money, guarding against everyone like against a thief, fearing that someone would steal Master Tan’s secret technique, foolish and lazy and short-sighted to boot,” Sun Guanyun said through clenched teeth, not so much speaking of Master Tan’s son but rather as if he was scolding his own son.

“Just wait. If he sees this girl can make clay pot Huadiao chicken, that mad dog will have plenty to bark about..”