From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Chapter 635: Take the initiative to show your skills

Follow Ma Guoli to his elder brother Ma Guoqiang's house.

As soon as Ma Guoli entered the door, he began to introduce Feng Zhengming and others to his elder brother.

Ma Guoqiang glanced at Feng Zhengming and the others.

Listening to his brother's introduction, there was a hint of doubt in his eyes.

Feng Zhengming smiled and took the initiative to greet Ma Guoqiang.

"Hello, big brother. We are indeed the cooks from Quancheng. We are just passing by your place."

Ma Guoqiang looked at Feng Zhengming and asked, "Which restaurant are you in Quancheng?"

Hou Dong couldn't wait to reveal his identity.

In the end, Feng Zhengming stopped him with his eyes.

Then Feng Zhengming smiled and responded: "We are in a small restaurant in Quancheng. We are so young, how can we stay in a big restaurant?"

As a result, Ma Guoqiang and Ma Guoli didn't say anything, but they heard someone shouting loudly inside.

"That's not right. Do you know Feng Zhengming? He's also very young, but he's already the top winner of the National Cooking Competition. I heard he's the youngest top winner."

Hearing the voice, Feng Zhengming and others turned their heads to look over.

I saw a young man who looked somewhat similar to the brothers Ma Guoqiang and Ma Guoli.

Feng Zhengming took a look at the young man and guessed that he should be Ma Guoqiang's son.

This should be the nephew that Ma Guoli mentioned was getting married and having a wedding banquet.

In fact, Feng Zhengming won the national cooking championship and was reported continuously on television and in newspapers.

Therefore, in many cities in Qi and Lu, everyone knows Feng Zhengming, the top scholar.

Many young people in particular regard Feng Zhengming as an idol.

After all, Feng Zhengming won the first place in the national cooking competition with Shandong cuisine.

Who in the province of Qi and Lu would not feel proud?

But this time, Feng Zhengming and his team came on foot.

We were exposed to wind and sun along the way.

Feng Zhengming and the others had already turned dark-skinned.

And because it is impossible to wash every day, people look tired and exhausted.

So it is naturally difficult to compare him with when he was on TV.

No one would recognize him as the top scorer on TV.

Feng Zhengming looked at the other person and smiled and responded: "Feng Zhuangyuan? We all know him in Quancheng. He is the pride of Shandong cuisine. We all take him as our role model.

However, he is still a bit exaggerated. His skills are just so-so. Shandong cuisine only has those techniques. It is not worth exaggerating so much. "

Everyone felt that the first half of the sentence was very fitting.

Ding Yuan, Gao Yongfu and Hou Dong almost couldn't help laughing when they heard Feng Zhengming praising himself.

The second half of the sentence takes a big turn, saying that Feng Zhengming's reputation is exaggerated.

Not only the villagers present, but also Ding Yuan, Gao Yongfu and Hou Dong were stunned.

Is there anyone who says that his fame is just exaggerated?
Then, Ma Qixian suddenly became unhappy with the young people who were about to get married.

"Why do you say that? He won the first prize in the national cooking competition. If you think you are better than him, why don't you win a national first prize?"

After questioning these words, Ma Qixian still felt dissatisfied.

"I see you haven't even learned to cook for a few days. You'd better leave as soon as possible and stop embarrassing yourself here."

Ma Qixian's words almost made Ding Yuan, Gao Yongfu and Hou Dong laugh again.

But in this situation, the three people knew not to laugh.

Holding it in like this, the three of them couldn't help but feel that Feng Zhengming was really a bit bad.

They felt that Feng Zhengming did it on purpose.

In fact, Feng Zhengming didn't mean to play a trick on others.

He just doesn't want to be praised too much.

When Ma Guoqiang saw his son trying to chase them away, he quickly stopped him.

"Okay, you're getting married, what's wrong with you? No matter if they have any skills or not, they are guests from far away. Your uncle invited them here, can you chase them away?"

After teaching his son a lesson, Ma Guoqiang also apologized to Feng Zhengming and others.

"I'm sorry, my son didn't say the right thing just now, please don't mind it. Now that you're here, you can have a drink of water and take a break. We'll try the food later, and if it's suitable, you can stay."

Feng Zhengming asked first: "How many tables will you set up for your wedding banquet?"

Ma Guoqiang began to think about it.

Ma Guoli said immediately, "My nephew is getting married, so we must invite everyone in the village. Every household in the village must come to share in the joy. We must set up at least 50 or 60 tables."

When they heard that there would be fifty or sixty tables, Ding Yuan, Gao Yongfu and Hou Dong were immediately shocked.

"What? Fifty or sixty tables?"

“So many tables?”

"How are we going to do this with just four of us?"

Ma Guoqiang immediately explained: "Oh, if you need help, our family will also help."

Ma Guoli nodded and said, "Yes, all the women in the family can help you."

Even though the two brothers said so, Ding Yuan, Gao Yongfu and Hou Dong still looked embarrassed.

Feng Zhengming saw that they looked embarrassed, so he asked with a smile, "Why? When you were in the army, didn't you also have to cook for many people at a time? How many people are there in your kitchen team?"

Then Feng Zhengming explained it to the Ma brothers.

"If you really want us to do it, you must give us time to prepare, at least one or two days. Also, we are just passing by and don't have any tools with us, so we may need your village to provide tools."

Hearing this, the Ma brothers immediately laughed.

Ma Guoli explained: "You don't have to worry about this. The village has a big stove and a big pot, which is used for the collective feast during the New Year every year."

Ma Guoqiang nodded and said, "There's enough time to prepare. The wedding banquet will be in three days."

Feng Zhengming asked again: "What about all the raw materials?"

Ma Guoli took on the responsibility: "Don't worry about those things, our family has already prepared them. In fact, this time my brother asked me to go to the city to find a chef, and we have already made two preparations.

If we can’t find a suitable chef, our men and women will cook it ourselves, and every family in the village has done the same.”

After listening to the introduction of the Ma brothers, Feng Zhengming finally understood everything.

The reason why Ma Guoli went to the city to find a chef was not because the villagers could not cook their own food.

It’s because my nephew is getting married and I want to make the wedding banquet dishes better.

What if I can’t find a chef in the city?

Then it is certain that all the members of the Ma family will come out and set up a banquet in the village to entertain everyone in the village to share in the joy.

What’s more, in fact, nowadays, most of the wedding banquets in villages are hosted by family members themselves.

Feng Zhengming nodded and agreed: "Okay, we just need someone to help us. Then let's try the dishes now? I'll make two dishes for you to try."

Ma Guoqiang asked: "Don't you need to take a break?"

Feng Zhengming smiled and responded: "It doesn't matter. If you don't think the food is suitable, we will leave and continue on our journey."

Ma Guoqiang was stunned by what he said. He didn't understand what Feng Zhengming meant by hurrying on the road.
Ma Guoli explained to his elder brother.

After listening to his brother's explanation, Ma Guoqiang finally understood.

"Oh? So you want to walk all over our Qilu land? That's really amazing."

Feng Zhengming smiled and said, "It's nothing special. I just want to do something a little crazy while I'm still young."

This time, Ma Qixian also looked at Feng Zhengming and others with a different eye.

"Wow, you guys are backpackers on this hike? You guys are so cool."

Judging from Ma Qixian's words and deeds, he must have been exposed to very fashionable things, and he may have watched a lot of TV at home.

This can be seen from the various home appliances in the Ma family's house. Feng Zhengming couldn't help but feel that the village where the Ma family lived seemed to be quite wealthy.

Then, I thought of what Ma Guoli mentioned on the way into the village.

Although the winter jujubes here are not as good as the golden thread jujubes in Wudi.

But they started planting date trees on a large scale relatively early.

Moreover, a date-related processing factory was opened very early.

Therefore, many of the golden thread dates harvested in Wudi are sent to Zhanhua for processing.

This could explain why their village is more modern.

Ma Guoqiang took Feng Zhengming to the kitchen of his house.

"You can use everything in the kitchen. It's not time for dinner yet. Just look at what you have and make a dish for us to taste."

Feng Zhengming nodded and led the people into the kitchen.

Ma Guoqiang's kitchen is quite spacious.

There was even a refrigerator in the kitchen.

Feng Zhengming walked to the refrigerator and glanced at Ma Guoqiang at the door before opening the door.

The latter quickly said that it was okay and that he could just open the refrigerator and take things out.

"It's okay, you can use whatever you want in the refrigerator."

Feng Zhengming opened the refrigerator and took out a piece of lean meat.

The meat must have been in the refrigerator not long ago and has not been completely frozen.

Feng Zhengming thought this was just right as it saved the time for thawing.

Then Feng Zhengming picked another bamboo shoot from the refrigerator.

I also picked up a piece of coriander.

That's about it.

He then prepared the seasonings, cooking wine, onions, ginger and peppercorns in advance.

After everything was ready, Feng Zhengming started to get busy in the kitchen.

At this time, Ding, Gao and Hou knew that they could not help, so they could only stand aside and watch.

Feng Zhengming was not in a hurry to cut the meat. He first picked up the kitchen knife and tried to do it.

Make sure the blade is sharp enough.

Then he felt that the knife was not very effective, so Feng Zhengming could only raise the knife and look helplessly at the Ma brothers at the door.

"The knife doesn't work, do you have a whetstone?"

Ma Guoli immediately found a whetstone.

Feng Zhengming then began to sharpen the knife at the kitchen sink in front of everyone.

From the moment he started sharpening the knife, Ma Guoqiang whispered something to his brother.

"This is a master."

Ma Guoli looked at his elder brother with some surprise.

Ma Guoqiang explained in a low voice: "I have seen in other places that those really good chefs are definitely good at sharpening knives. They maintain their knives, pots, shovels and spoons themselves and will not let others handle them casually."

After hearing what his elder brother said, Ma Guoli looked at Feng Zhengming.

I couldn’t help but think: Could it be that I really came across a treasure on the roadside?
Feng Zhengming was very skillful at sharpening the knife. In just a few strokes, he almost removed the chip on the blade and made the blade sharp enough.

Watching Feng Zhengming sharpen the knife, the Ma brothers and Ding, Gao, and Hou could all tell that the kitchen knife was completely different.

After sharpening the knife, Feng Zhengming used the front end of the knife to scrape the ginger skin off the chopping board.

Then rinse the onions.

Then soak the peeled skin and whiskers of the onion and the scraped ginger skin in clean water.

Also use your hands to grab it hard to let the ginger juice and onion juice come out and blend into the clean water.

Putting the bowl of sauce aside, Feng Zhengming began to cut the meat.

The lean meat had been in the refrigerator for a short time and was not frozen at all.

After Feng Zhengming took time to sharpen the knife, the meat has almost thawed and become soft.

But in the instant he held down the meat and cut it.

Ma Guoqiang already knew that the man his brother had just found on the roadside was actually a master.

Feng Zhengming cuts quickly and steadily, using a fairly standard push-pull knife.

Quickly cut the lean meat into slices of even thickness.

Then place the meat slices neatly on the chopping board, one by one.

Then continue to cut the meat slices into shreds.

Still fast and stable.

The shredded meat is evenly thick and thin.

Just look at this step, after the meat is cut into shreds.

Ma Guoli also realized that the young man he met on the roadside was truly a skilled master.

After cutting the meat into shreds, Feng Zhengming first washed it.

After washing, drain the water off the surface of the shredded meat.

Then add cooking wine to the shredded pork, and then add some ginger water soaked with ginger skin, onion skin and onion roots.

Reach both hands under the shredded meat and gently pat it to work the water into it.

After the water was absorbed by the shredded meat, Feng Zhengming took an egg from the basket next to the stove.

Crack the eggs into a bowl, gently scoop up a little egg white and add it to the shredded meat.

Gently beat the egg white and shredded meat until evenly combined.

Finally, add a little dry starch that you found in advance.

Apply a thin layer of batter on the surface of the shredded meat, and then seal it with a layer of oil.

After the shredded meat is done, put it aside. Feng Zhengming then chops the green onion and ginger, cuts the bamboo shoots into shreds, removes the leaves of the cilantro, and cuts the remaining stalks into small pieces.

So all preparations are complete.

The whole process went smoothly, leaving the onlookers stunned.

The next step is to boil water and blanch the bamboo shoots first.

Take out the bamboo shoots, clean the pot, add clean water to the pot, and then add a little cooking wine and salt.

After the water boiled, Feng Zhengming put the shredded meat into the pot and loosened it with water.

After the shredded meat turns completely white, take it out.

Pour out the water from the pot again and wipe the pot dry.

Then add oil into the pot, sauté the chopped scallion and ginger, first pour the shredded bamboo shoots into the pot, then pour the shredded pork into the pot, and then quickly add the sauce that was prepared in advance.

Use a spatula to stir fry quickly in a large iron pan.

When the juice is evenly coated on the surface of the shredded meat and bamboo shoots.

Feng Zhengming sprinkled coriander stems on the dish, stir-fried it and served it on a plate.

After serving, garnish with a few coriander leaves.

Feng Zhengming handed the plate to the Ma brothers.

"Okay, let's make a dish of stir-fried pork tenderloin with bamboo shoots. Brothers, please try it."

The Ma brothers stared at the dish, why would they need to taste it?
Just by looking at the dish, the two brothers were convinced.

The only thought in the two brothers' minds was.

I really met a top-notch master.

(End of this chapter)