The Game of Life

Although in most cases Jiang Feng highly regarded his great-aunt’s violent disassembly method of eating crabs, there were a few situations, for instance, when crab meat was needed for cooking, where the traditional crab-eating tools were a good choice.

The traditional crab-eating tools were created by skilled craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty, originally consisting of: hammer, chisel, pliers, shovel, spoon, fork, scraper, and needle. Nowadays, they are referred to as: the round waist hammer, small square table, tweezers, long-handle axe, soup spoon, long-handle fork, scraper, and needle.

Wu Minqi didn’t need to use the complete set of traditional crab-eating tools to teach Ji Xia how to extract crab meat, since their purpose was to use the flesh inside the crab for cooking, and not to leave a good-looking whole corpse. If they did use the complete set of traditional tools, just positioning the crab on the small square table, cutting off the two large claws and eight crab legs one by one with round-headed scissors, tapping around the crab shell with the round waist hammer, and splitting the back shell and belly button with the long-handle axe, would take a long time, whereas using hands just took a few seconds.

Sometimes violence is still the answer when resolving certain things.

Under Wu Minqi’s guidance, Ji Xia meticulously used the tweezers, long-handle fork, scraper, and needle, picking and clamping the meat out of the crab in her hands, occasionally tapping and knocking, slowly extracting the crab meat and crab roe into a small bowl in front of her.

By the time Jiang Feng finished processing three oranges, the small bowl in front of Wu Minqi and Ji Xia was already filled with quite a bit of crab meat and crab roe.

The reason Cao Guixiang’s Crab Stuffed Oranges were C Level was because she forgot about the timing and oversteamed the oranges. However, the proportion of orange flesh, crab meat, crab roe, Xiangxue Wine, and rice vinegar had all been according to Master Peng’s standards before steaming, so as long as Jiang Feng could accurately control the timing during steaming, making B Level Crab Stuffed Oranges shouldn’t be a problem.

Jiang Feng went into the kitchen to process the crab meat. The kitchen door was left open, so Wu Minqi and Ji Xia could see everything he was doing. Wu Minqi noticed that Jiang Feng’s movements were skilled, and even when choosing ingredients, he didn’t hesitate at all, which didn’t seem like it was his first time doing this after watching an online tutorial, which made her feel a bit strange.

“Fengfeng, which tutorial are you following?” Wu asked.

“Just a random one I found online. I thought this dish looked pretty interesting, so I went and asked Mr. Xu,” Jiang Feng replied. He wasn’t lying, as he really did send a message to Xu Cheng.

The fire control mentioned in the tutorial wasn’t right, so he had to ask someone who knew about and enjoyed food for an estimate of the appropriate fire control.

Jiang Feng scooped up a small spoonful of Xiangxue Wine, carefully shaking it into the crab meat twice, feeling that a bit more than half a spoonful was about right, then added white vinegar in the same manner.

This way of adding wine and vinegar was his own habit, once criticized by Mrs. Wang Xiulian for looking as if the spoon was too hot to handle.

As soon as Xu Cheng was mentioned, Wu Minqi’s attention was immediately diverted—who wouldn’t be distracted by the famous culinary world’s pigeon king, Mr. Xu Cheng, who had promised an extra issue of “Taste” magazine that still hadn’t been published? Considering the second half of the year was already half gone, if Xu Cheng delayed for another two months, he could seamlessly let this issue of the magazine slip by.

“Did Mr. Xu Cheng say when ‘Taste’ will be published?” Wu asked.

“He said he plans to combine this issue with the one originally scheduled for December into a special double issue, the thick kind,” Jiang Feng said.

Implicitly saying: Yes, that’s right, I’ve delayed it.

Wu Minqi felt no surprise inside and even thought it was pretty normal.

“However,” Jiang Feng changed the topic, bringing Wu Minqi some good news, “Mr. Han told me that Mr. Xu apparently hasn’t decided yet what to use for the cover of the combined issue. And Mr. Xu has been quite busy lately, probably not having time to bother with these things, so…”

“It might use the original cover?” Wu Minqi sounded incredulous.

After all, the original cover for the issue that got shelved was supposed to feature Taifeng Building.

If the special issue’s cover was Taifeng Building, it would be like a giant pie falling from the sky, hitting everyone except landing squarely on Jiang Feng’s face.

Taste magazine had never used a restaurant for its cover, opting instead for retired famous chefs or even Xu Cheng’s own portrait, which, if photoshopped well, could lead the uninitiated to mistake Taste for a fashion magazine.

If the special December issue really had Taifeng Building on the cover, the restaurant would become an overnight sensation worldwide, and anyone involved in the culinary arts would know of its fame. Mrs. Wang Xiulian could demand whatever price she wanted for the dishes, and food connoisseurs from around the globe would arrive in an endless stream.

“I think it’s impossible,” Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi said in unison.

“But they might give it a special column, maybe even a photo feature,” Jiang Feng analyzed calmly.

“That’s possible,” Wu Minqi agreed.

After Ji Xia finished with the crab legs in front of her, she looked up at Wu Minqi and then turned to Jiang Feng, not understanding a word they had just said. All this talk about Taste, combined issues, covers, and this or that Mr. So-and-So was completely beyond her knowledge.

Suddenly, Ji Xia smelled alcohol.

Because of the crab she had been holding, its dominant scent had covered everything else, and it wasn’t until she looked up that she detected the aroma of Xiangxue Wine.

“Master, what kind of wine did you add?” Ji Xia asked.

“Xiangxue Wine,” Jiang Feng replied, then paused to explain to Ji Xia, “It’s a type of double-fermented wine with a strong aroma and the sweetness of yellow wine, so it’s very suitable for cooking.”

“Your master added wine to the Crab stuffed oranges mainly to remove the fishy smell of the crab, just like adding cooking wine when preparing dishes, which is mostly to remove the fishy taste from fish and meat. The Xiangxue Wine he’s using not only removes the fishy smell but also enhances the aroma and sweetness. Chinese cuisine emphasizes the harmony of color, aroma, and taste. Taste is just one aspect. Attractive presentation and enticing smells are very important. Many dishes exude a fragrant aroma when unveiled because of the wine,” Wu Minqi explained with a smile, “You’re still practicing the basics, so you won’t be handling the wok. But you can learn a lot from the other aspects, like presentation. Your master is famously good at it.”

With Wu Minqi explaining on his behalf, Jiang Feng felt he didn’t need to speak and continued stuffing the remaining Crab stuffed oranges before steaming them.

Jiang Feng figured about 6 minutes would do.

The minutes flew by quickly, and Jiang Feng was practically timing it to the second. As soon as the 6 minutes were up, he turned off the heat and lifted the lid, placing the three oranges on the table.

Ji Xia had never tried such fruit-based dishes before and was very curious. Seeing that Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi made no move, she felt too embarrassed to be the first to open up the oranges and could only look on eagerly.

What Ji Xia didn’t realize was that Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi were both waiting for her to make the first move.

As everyone knows, the first time Jiang Feng creates a new dish, there’s a high chance it won’t turn out right.

Probably Ji Xia was the only one in the entire Taifeng Building who didn’t know this.

Facing the crab-stuffed oranges, Jiang Feng was actually uncertain himself, as it was also his first time making a fruit dish, and he was unfamiliar with the ingredients and unsure how long the oranges should be steamed to achieve the proper fire control.

Of course, the main reason Jiang Feng was unsure was because the several clear, large characters on top of the crab-stuffed oranges reminded him that this time, failure was very likely.

[Crab stuffed oranges, C Level]

Having the skills to make a B-level dish but only succeeding in making a C-level dish was indeed a failure.

“Cough cough, Xiaxia, don’t you want to try it?” Jiang Feng asked.

Since the master had spoken, Ji Xia couldn’t wait to lift the top of the orange and exclaimed, “Wow”.

It wasn’t really that astonishing—the crab meat, crab roe, and orange pulp mixed together, floating on top of the orange juice. Jiang Feng had hollowed out the orange so cleanly that there was no remaining flesh on the skin, and because of the crab roe, the entire inside of the orange looked watery and crystal clear.

However, a dish served in an orange was enough to amaze a 16-year-old girl who hadn’t seen much of the world.

Ji Xia took up the spoon.

Jiang Feng held his breath.

Wu Minqi stared at Ji Xia.

Ji Xia scooped up a full spoonful of the crab-stuffed orange, complete with crab roe, crab meat, orange pulp, and orange juice, accompanied by the aroma of wine and vinegar.

Swallowed it in one gulp.

Without chewing, she swallowed it right down.

“Is it good?” Jiang Feng asked.

“It’s good!” Ji Xia affirmed.

It didn’t seem like she was just putting on an act to comfort Jiang Feng.

“It’s tangy, with a little bit of sweetness, pretty good,” Ji Xia said.

Jiang Feng and Wu Minqi also took up spoons and began to taste the crab-stuffed oranges in front of them.

Upon tasting,

Jiang Feng almost couldn’t control his facial expression.

As expected, six minutes was a bit too long.

He felt like the orange had become a bit overcooked.

How did Ji Xia manage to say it was delicious with a straight face and without breaking a sweat?

Jiang Feng gazed at the crab-stuffed orange in front of him, deep in thought.

Wu Minqi looked at Ji Xia and fell into thought.

Ji Xia was burying her head in eating the crab-stuffed orange, bite after bite, apparently finding it truly delicious.

Jiang Feng began to wonder if he had taken on a disciple with a flawed sense of taste.

Suddenly, Wu Minqi pinpointed the key to the problem.

“Xiaxia, have you eaten oranges before?” Wu Minqi asked.

Ji Xia nodded: “Once, one year during New Year’s, my grandma bought oranges, one for each person.”

“And crab?” Wu Minqi continued to ask.

“I’ve never had it like this; the ones we eat during New Year’s are sea crabs,” Ji Xia said.

Wu Minqi and Jiang Feng immediately understood—Ji Xia hadn’t really eaten oranges much before, so as long as something was an orange, she found it delicious, which really had nothing to do with the crab-stuffed orange.

Wu Minqi silently moved the crab-stuffed orange in front of her to Ji Xia and said with a smile, “Since Xiaxia likes it, eat more. Sister Wu’s portion is for you as well.”

“Aren’t you going to eat, Sister Wu?” Ji Xia asked.

“I don’t like eating crabs,” Wu Minqi said with a smile.

Jiang Feng was surprised, not expecting this turn of events. He immediately pushed the orange towards Ji Xia, showing a smile of a loving master cherishing his disciple.

“If you like it, then have another. After you finish, go upstairs to rest early. The master still has crabs and oranges here. If you want to eat more, the master can make it himself,” Jiang Feng said.

“Thank you, Master!”