Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 66 is a promising talent, but his path is quite unorthodox. I wonder which family produced this eccentric genius?

"Huhu. Huh."

Even though Nicholas Tse personally enjoys spicy food, he was caught off guard by the hidden attack inside the noodles.

With nowhere to vent his frustration, he could only gulp down the soup in the large bowl in front of him.

Strangely enough, the soup looked like tea, but it smelled earthy. The temperature was just right when I drank it, not too hot, but after a couple of sips, my throat felt a little sticky.

Nicholas Tse's first reaction was that the spiciness was too intense, and his throat was a little sore from the heat. He drank a few more sips of soup, which made the sticky feeling a little better, but he was still a little uncomfortable.

"That's strange, the soup isn't thick at all."

Thinking of this, he picked up the bowl again and took a sip, only to suddenly realize that the soup tasted different.
"It can't be something wrong with my tongue; the soup gets saltier towards the bottom, and it's also a little cooler."

Blinking, Nicholas Tse recalled the taste of the first sip of soup. He found that apart from a slightly earthy taste, it was quite bland, but the flavors became more and more pronounced with each subsequent sip, until this last sip, which already had a distinct salty taste.

"Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty"

He narrowed his eyes and instantly understood what Xia Ming wanted to express.

But he also had a question: why, when the five flavors can be harmonized, is it necessary to emphasize spiciness in the preparation of this dish?

From Xia Ming's perspective, it's because suddenly criticizing the judges would create more entertainment value.

He could already imagine what title he would give to today's short video clips after he finished speaking.

[The entire internet is searching for the original video! Just how amazing is this noodle dish that made the judges cry while giving it a score?]

What kind of noodles could possibly move seven top judges to tears?

[Unbelievable! This bowl of noodles that made the judges cry and required pausing the recording actually used...]

[A stunning moment! Three minutes after this bowl of noodles was served, the judges fell silent and then suddenly their eyes welled up with tears—the reason was completely unexpected!]

【.】

Of course, this is only one of the reasons.
"Waiting Room"

After hearing the program team's notification, Xia Ming also stood up from the side.

"The actors have already played their roles; now it's time for me, the lead actor, to take the stage!"

As he thought about it, he wiped his face a few times with his hands, which were covered in kaolin, and then adjusted his expression in the corridor from the lounge to the judges' room.

The sly look that had been on his face vanished, replaced by eyes full of anticipation for the future.

As Xia Ming pushed open the door and entered the room, all seven judges looked up. Li Shanghu frowned slightly when he saw Xia Ming's appearance, and Tan Zhifeng was also stunned when he saw Xia Ming's disheveled appearance.

Sui Wubai gave a playful smile, then quickly regained his composure, while Zhang Yong lowered his eyes for a moment.

Xia Ming stood in front of the judges and gave an awkward bow.

"Good morning/afternoon, esteemed judges. Are you satisfied with my dish this time?"

Upon hearing his words, Xie Tingfeng on the other end was about to raise the microphone in his hand, but Xia Ming continued speaking without stopping.

"Actually, when I first saw the theme of 'life,' I was a bit confused. I kept thinking, how exactly should I express this theme?"

"Is it sweet? Bitter? Sour? I find that the definition of life is so broad, so broad that it is hard to define." "Just when I was confused, I suddenly thought of the first thing I ate in my life that could be called a dish, a very ordinary bowl of plain noodles."

At this point, Xia Ming's voice choked slightly.

"At that time, I encountered a turning point in my life, just like everyone else, as I moved from one environment to another."

"I felt excited and confused, but life is always full of uncertainties. It was at that moment that this bowl of plain noodles gave me tremendous encouragement."

"I believe that for the seven judges, and even for all the viewers in front of the camera, there is always this lingering feeling deep in everyone's heart."

"Among the myriad beings, life is a mixture of joy and sorrow, a myriad of experiences, each unique."

"At that time, I was thinking, could I use the dishes that left the deepest impression on me to represent everyone's life experiences? And then I found the answer."

Upon hearing Xia Ming's words, Xie Tingfeng put down the microphone. He wanted to hear how this bowl of noodles could contain the masses of humanity.

Zhang Yong, who was standing to the side, pushed up his glasses, seemingly wanting to speak, but then felt it would be too abrupt, and a hint of impatience flashed in his eyes.

Seeing this, Xia Ming glanced at Zhang Yong subtly before continuing to speak.

"My first thought was of our great motherland! As descendants of the Chinese nation, we were nurtured by the land. We stand on the land and eat the food grown there. Nothing represents the essence of this dish better than the local soil and water."

"So, I added a small amount of edible kaolin to the dough, giving the noodles a taste of Mother Earth, hoping to use this taste to represent our origins."

"Similarly, I wanted to express the flavors of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty in one bowl of noodles. After much thought, I decided to use a method similar to the 'baopi mian' of Dajin District to create a stuffed noodle dish with a spicy center."

"Of course, because kaolin is added, this makes the noodles less elastic. Stretching them to the thickness of normal noodles is the limit. If you boil them in water, they will basically lose all their texture."

"So I decided to take from the earth and use it back on the earth. I borrowed the method of making the intangible cultural heritage food 'earthen bread' and used kaolin clay to heat the noodles. This not only makes the noodles crispy on the outside and improves their elasticity, but also further strengthens the connection with the earth."

"And noodles made this way, if the heat is controlled, can be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, retaining the spiciness to a great extent. Then I take the noodles out and soak them in lotus seed juice and royal jelly in turn, and finally spray the surface with honey water using a spray bottle."

"In this way, the four flavors of sour, sweet, bitter and spicy are gathered in one bowl of noodles. Of course, it is also because of these processes that this bowl of noodles is suitable for brewing but cannot be boiled."

Upon hearing that Xia Ming had used a variety of pastry processing techniques to add sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy flavors to the noodles, the judges fell silent for a moment, a rare occurrence. To be honest, most of them believed that they could not accomplish something so creative and risky in such a short time.

After all, any mistake in any step would result in the final texture of the noodles not achieving the effect Xia Ming wanted.

Seeing the judges' expressions, Xia Ming blinked and continued his story.

“But a bowl of noodles can’t just have noodles; it also needs soup. Since the noodles contain sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy flavors, the soup should naturally represent saltiness. However, an overly salty soup will affect the sweet taste of the noodles, so I used spherical sea salt crystals.”

Upon hearing this, Li Shanghu looked at the small ball at the bottom of the bowl. He had discovered the secret of the crystal at the bottom after finishing the soup.

Originally, these artificially controlled round crystals melted more slowly than regular table salt. In addition, Xia Ming added ice water at the end. Although the ice water and the clear soup would eventually blend together, the ice water would sink to the bottom and the soup would remain on top before they were fully blended, which further delayed the release of the salt flavor.

Li Shanghu admitted that it was indeed a clever idea, but he also knew in his heart that Xia Ming was definitely not as honest as he seemed.

"This kid definitely knows that if he wants to taste the saltiness, he has to drink most of the soup. As for how to get the judges to drink most of the soup, the first thing he thinks of is to increase the spiciness of the chili peppers in the noodles."

"But this kid not only added chili to the noodles, he also added soil to the soup. You can't tell, but it makes your throat feel slightly sticky after drinking it, and that stickiness makes you want to drink more. You keep drinking until you reach the water at the bottom."

"This kid is reckless and doesn't know his own strength. His ideas are brilliant, and he's a promising talent, but his methods are quite unorthodox. I wonder which family has produced this eccentric genius?"

(End of this chapter)