Riding the wind of rebirth

Faced with a barrage of compliments, Zhang Yuanfu simply smiled faintly, then asked Mingyi, "Xiaoming, what do you think?"

"I think it had its highlights and its shortcomings, so it's about even," Mingyi said sincerely.

"Oh?" Zhang Yuanfu immediately became interested: "Tell me about it?"

"How about... Teacher, we talk about this privately?" Mingyi looked around at the people around him, and hesitated for a moment.

"No need. I said I'm here to solicit opinions, so why can't we say it face to face? If you're right, we'll continue to make changes; if you're wrong, that's still a lesson learned. Go ahead and say it."

“I think there are a few dishes, such as…” Mingyi pointed to braised abalone, fish lips tofu, lobster chicken soup, and potsticker shrimp: “These dishes seem to be opportunistic.”

Zhou Zhi glanced at Zhang Yuanfu, then at Ming Yi, thinking to himself that Ming Yi was a bit of a rebel. These dishes were all main courses and were very well made, but he received a "opportunistic" evaluation from Ming Yi.

He wanted to know exactly how they had used such a clever trick.

"The braised abalone was cooked well and tasted alright, but the sauce used for Cantonese abalone was replaced with the braising liquid from a Sichuan-style braised platter. The intention was obviously to turn Cantonese cuisine into Sichuan cuisine, but the solution was too simplistic. At best, it only scored the same as Cantonese cuisine, and even slightly fell short. Whether in terms of appearance or preparation, it was pure imitation. Simple adjustments did not lead to much improvement and it lacked the soul of Sichuan cuisine."

"Rather than calling it a Sichuan dish, it's more accurate to describe it as an alternative Cantonese dish, because its preparation method still follows the Cantonese culinary approach."

“That makes sense.” Zhang Yuanfu nodded. “Overall, it does seem to be a Cantonese dish. So, how do you think it should be improved?”

"I think this dish can be prepared according to the Sichuan-style braised three delicacies. The abalone can still be prepared in the same way, but the abalone can be scored, and the sauce can be changed to braised mixed vegetables. If it is prepared in a more refined way, wouldn't that be better?"

Although Zhou Zhi had just finished eating, he couldn't help but lick his lips. The Sichuan-style braised assorted vegetables with abalone was definitely something to look forward to...

“The same problem applies to fish lips and tofu. Fish lips are rich in collagen, so the best way to cook them is braised or stewed. If you really have to pair them with tofu, you shouldn’t cook them like Mapo Tofu, as it only increases the cost of the dish without significantly improving its quality,” Mingyi said. “If it were me, I would pair them with pork hock. If you absolutely must pair them with tofu, then I would pair them with crab roe tofu.”

Fish lips are one of the eight delicacies of the sea. They are made by drying the lips and/or the skin of the nose, eyes and gills of sturgeon, beluga, large yellow croaker, or shark and shovel ray.

“Crab roe tofu should be considered a Huaiyang dish,” Zhang Yuanfu said.

“If we use the lips of the sturgeon from the Huangshui River, then it can be considered a Beijing dish. The tradition of Sichuan imperial cuisine also comes from the Manchu Han Imperial Feast, so fish lips and crab roe tofu are not without tradition in Sichuan cuisine.” Mingyi said, “If we want to have the characteristics of Sichuan, then we can replace the tofu with douhua (tofu pudding), which is also a specialty of the hometown of braised pork knuckle.”

“Okay.” Zhou Zhi nodded. He had thought the tofu dish was a bit strange before, and Mingyi’s words really hit the nail on the head.

"Hmm, in that case, we'll have to remove the lobster chicken soup." Zhang Yuanfu pondered. If the fish lip dish were changed to salted egg yolk tofu fish lip, the shape, container, and taste of this dish would be somewhat similar to the lobster chicken soup, so it would have to be removed.

"Well, actually, making lobster and chicken together into chicken soup is a bit... uh, wasteful. It's understandable that chicken soup is about 'eating chicken without seeing chicken,' but eating lobster without seeing lobster seems like you're not really treating lobster as a dish?"

Zhou Zhi was amused. Lobsters are quite expensive in places like Chengdu these days, and treating them like chicken does indeed lower their value.

"So even if lobster is to be paired with chicken broth, I would suggest keeping the lobster meat intact and shaping it. If it were me, I would marinate the lobster raw, make it into petals, and pile it up into a rose."

"That's too far removed from Sichuan cuisine."

“Yes, after all, this type of meat, like lobster, has never been found in traditional Sichuan cuisine before. Therefore, it is necessary to learn from the methods of other cuisines.” Mingyi nodded.

"Yes, indeed. The biggest characteristic of Sichuan cuisine is its inclusiveness, with a hundred dishes and a hundred flavors. Its greatest feature is its lack of rigidity."

"No matter what, it's still better than making pan-fried shrimp, right?"

"I think the pan-fried shrimp dumplings are delicious." Mai Xiaomiao had a very good impression of the dish.

“I think it’s still a bit lacking. Compared to the lobster and chicken soup, this dish goes to another extreme, wrapping the prawn in a potsticker,” Mingyi said. “If I were to make it, I would replace the prawn with small diced meat, along with pork, water chestnuts, scallions, mushrooms, and other ingredients, and wrap it in the shape of a dumpling.”

"However, to highlight the shrimp's characteristics, I will leave the shrimp tail and attach it to the end of the potsticker. In this way, the potsticker becomes the shape of a shrimp, which saves the shape of the shrimp and makes it more beautiful. It is at least better looking than wrapping a whole shrimp in a potsticker, and it is also more creative."

"Great!" Zhang Yuanfu, an experienced cook, immediately pictured large, bright red potstickers resembling prawns when Mingyi described them—far more appealing than the dish before him. This creative idea greatly enhanced the presentation.

"If these are all minor issues, then the real problem lies in the underlying philosophy behind this meal." After reviewing several dishes that received negative reviews for being opportunistic, Mingyi's criticisms didn't stop there.

"Hmm? What do you mean by that?"

“Judging from these dishes, today’s banquet has made the mistake of blindly imitating other cuisines and abandoning the essence of Sichuan cuisine,” Mingyi said. “Adding lobster paste to chicken soup and fish lips to Mapo tofu is an attempt to enhance the value of Sichuan cuisine, but such enhancements, apart from raising the price of the dishes, have not resulted in an improvement in the quality of the dishes in the same way as the price.”

"This shows a lack of confidence," Mingyi said. "However, these dishes—Plum-scented Braised Duck, Liver Oil Yam, Soy Sauce Fried Rice, and this Braised Mushroom and Sausage Melon—are not only innovative but also possess the essence of Sichuan cuisine. If we want to develop Sichuan cuisine, I think we should move in this direction. We need to explore high-end ingredients with local characteristics. Even if we use precious ingredients from elsewhere, the ingredients themselves must serve the dish, not be simply copied. Otherwise, it's better to honestly follow the methods of other cuisines than to risk copying them. After all, other famous dishes have been refined through countless trials." (End of Chapter)