The cooking color is delicious, general, don't bite me

Chapter 136 Ingenuity
"I'm fine!" The emperor's face froze slightly, he paused, and said loudly: "Today's culinary competition will determine the top three rankings, and the winner will be awarded the 'No. [-] Chef in the World' by my relatives." The golden plaque of..."

Before entering Beijing, Meng Fuling had heard from Han Hualin that the emperor might order the winner to host a celebration banquet for the soldiers. Unexpectedly, he really guessed right.

Meng Fuling didn't think it was an honor, it was definitely a thankless job, if there was a slight mistake, the consequences would be disastrous.

Therefore, although she really wanted the golden plaque of the No. [-] Chef in the World, having that golden plaque would not only increase the reputation of her but also her restaurant.

However, she didn't want to host the celebration banquet. In fact, the rewards for the second and No.3 were quite considerable.

That's all!Anyway, no matter what the result of today's competition is, she is definitely in the top three, which is not bad.

Just because Meng Fuling thinks this way doesn't mean that other people think the same as her. For example, the other two chefs couldn't hide their excitement.

She snickered, seeing that the ministers knelt down and shouted long live as soon as the emperor finished speaking, she naturally followed suit.

Meng Fuling secretly glanced around, thinking that the emperor is really not something that ordinary people can do, and he has to express himself in a timely manner and exaggerate the atmosphere. Seeing that these ministers all put on an appearance of admiring the emperor.

No matter what the ministers' real thoughts were, the emperor was extremely powerful. Thinking of this, Meng Fuling glanced curiously at the throne.

Unexpectedly, before seeing the emperor, Meng Fuling shuddered when he met the empress dowager's cold eyes.

"Don't pay attention to her!" Qi Xuan noticed Meng Fuling's strangeness and said in a low voice.

"Yeah!" Meng Fuling responded, just at this moment, the chief executive of Yuqian started.

She started to get busy, and the other two chefs also started to pack the ingredients.

"Your Majesty, do you see that Chef Yuan cooks cherry meat? Then what does Chef Kuang cook?" Like everyone else, the Empress Dowager was not optimistic about Meng Fuling, and her attention was only on Kuang Ruhai and Yuan Shengwei. on people.

"Chef Yuan really cooks cherry meat, which is said to be his specialty. As for Chef Kuang's—" the emperor stopped at this point, as if he didn't know what kind of dish Kuang Ruhai was cooking.

Immediately, a minister who often went to Jinweilou to eat took the initiative to solve the doubts for the emperor and the queen mother, "I would like to report to the emperor, that is a new dish in Jinweilou, called 'Colorful Sweet and Sour Fruit', which uses cherries, oranges, and lychees. , plums, pineapples, etc., made of sour fruits."

Although Meng Fuling was very serious about cooking the dishes in hand, she still frowned secretly when she heard what the emperor and the others said. That Kuang Ruhai mixed all kinds of sour fruits together for novelty. The original flavor of the fruit.

It was the cherry meat that Yuan Shengwei chose, although simple, it was much safer.

And she can guarantee that no one in the whole court has cooked her sweet and sour dish, and the benefits of time travelers are not in vain.

After hearing this, the emperor didn't say anything, but looked in Meng Fuling's direction, his eyes brightened a lot, but he didn't speak.

The others also looked at Meng Fuling following the emperor's gaze, and they all showed astonished expressions.

Everyone in the room thought that Meng Fuling couldn't be compared with the other two chefs at all, because she was too young, and her beauty was too outstanding. The main reason was that she could enter the final because of Qi Xuan's relationship.

Everyone even subconsciously attributed her ability to open a restaurant and workshop to Qi Xuan, thinking that if it wasn't for Qi Xuan, a little girl like her would not be able to achieve anything.

For her culinary skills, she chose to ignore her cooking skills. The gamble set up in this final was almost one-sided against Yuan Shengwei to win the championship and Kuang Ruhai to be second. If she could get third, she would be considered lucky.

But after looking at it now, I realized something was wrong. Meng Fuling's knife skills did not seem to be inferior to the other two, not to mention such a beautiful cook. Her flamboyant hand was holding an emerald green bitter gourd, and the green color set off her jade-like body. Small hands, more and more beautiful, people can't bear to look away.

Naturally, Meng Fuling was aware of the many eyes that fell on her, but she didn't care. She just pushed out the seeds of the bitter gourd with chopsticks and dug them into a round shape.

After that, she took out the hawthorn cake prepared by the kitchen helper, cut it into long strips with a knife, and then stuffed the hawthorn cake into the dug out bitter gourd balls.

After stuffing it, cut it into thin circles with a knife, cut it, put it on a plate, and put it in a beautiful shape. A plate of brightly colored sweet and sour bitter melon is ready.

Seeing that Meng Fuling was ready, everyone came back to their senses. Eunuch Zhao, the head of the imperial court, personally took Meng Fuling's sweet and sour bitter melon from the little eunuch serving the dishes under the emperor's signal.

Together with the other two dishes, they are placed side by side on the table, all of which are bright in color and look very appetizing.

The cherry meat made by Yuan Shengwei looks like fresh and tender cherries.

And Kuang Ruhai's colorful sweet and sour fruits are buttoned into a round shape, and the presentation is also very beautiful.

"What's the name of Meng's dish? I've never seen it before." The emperor's eyes lit up when he saw the sweet and sour bitter gourd, and he was obviously happy.

"If you go back to the emperor, this is a dish created by women, and it's called 'Bitterness and Sweetness'." Meng Fuling deliberately said that it was created by herself, and changed the name of sweet and sour bitter melon to bitterness and sweetness.

She admits that she is a bit shameless, but after today, she will bring this dish to the table of the restaurant. After all, the emperor has tasted it, so she can use it to make a name for herself.

"Bitter melons are rewarding!" The emperor murmured aloud, he felt strange, he knew that bitter gourds could be eaten, but because of their bitter taste, few people used them for food in this dynasty.

The eunuch serving food understood, took a small silver cup, put a piece of sweet and sour bitter melon in front of the emperor, and then distributed it to the queen mother and all the judges.

The emperor picked up the chopsticks, picked up the sweet and sour bitter melon and brought it to his mouth. After a while, he nodded and said, "That's right! It's ingenious. It's slightly bitter in the mouth. Biting into the middle, although it's sweet and sour, it can be regarded as the sweetness of the bitterness."

Everyone saw that the emperor not only let Eunuch Zhao serve the dishes made by Meng Fuling himself, but also looked very satisfied, so they all secretly speculated about the holy intention.

Shang Qihao, who was sitting on the prince's table, had an indistinct smile on his lips, and a trace of sullen eyes flashed across Qi Xuan's eyes, hum!Since he refuses to use it for him, keeping it will be a disaster.

Qi Xuan seemed to be aware of it, raised his eyes, glared back at Shang Qihao, and ignored it.

And the emperor and the others were already tasting two other dishes. The emperor ate a piece of cherry meat, "This cherry meat is very authentic."

The emperor tasted Kuang Ruhai's colorful sweet and sour fruit again, and when he saw the queen mother ate it, he asked: "What does the queen mother think, whose one is better?
"From Ai's point of view, Chef Kwong's colorful sweet and sour fruit dish is too sour and too sweet. It's too sour. Chef Yuan and Meng's are hard to distinguish between these two dishes."

The queen mother said, looking at Meng Fuling: "Chefs Kuang and Yuan are the same, but how old is the Meng family? It's really rare to have such good cooking skills."

"I think Meng's hard work is more novel. After all, this food competition not only compares cooking skills, but also has innovative dishes. Because of this, I asked them to have nine dishes. In addition to dishes, Except for the order in which the dishes are served, others are free to use. Therefore, the first dish is considered to be Meng's winner, and Chef Yuan's second." The emperor laughed.

Just because of the emperor's words, Meng Fuling's impression of him improved, but he was a little displeased with the Queen Mother's words and deeds.

The other princes and ministers naturally agreed with the emperor's words. A few people, such as Prime Minister Luo and Qi Youming, agreed with the Queen Mother's point of view. If they were not afraid of making it too obvious, they would have directly criticized Meng Fuling's dishes as worthless.

"Ma'am, the Queen Mother is obviously partial to Chef Yuan. You are much better at cooking than him." The younger cook named Nian next to Meng Fuling whispered.

"Chef Yuan's cherry meat, regardless of the color, aroma and shape, has achieved the ultimate." Meng Fuling said.

Only she knew that part of her was taking advantage of the traversers, making dishes that were not available in this dynasty, and echoing the novelty requested by the emperor.

And that Chef Yuan has real skills, and he must not be underestimated. As for Kuang Ruhai, there is nothing to be afraid of.

"Chef Yuan's culinary skills are really good. Ma'am, you have to be careful." Lin Bixing, a cook from the General's Mansion who was one of the help cooks, said worriedly.

Meng Fuling's eyes flickered, and she glanced at Lin Bixing, but said nothing.

She made up her mind and started to cook the second dish. Qi Xuan helped her light the fire all the time without saying much.

The order of the dishes was set by the chief executive long ago, disrupting the order Qi Xuan told Meng Fuling before, starting with the appetizer, she made a dish of sweet and sour bitter melon.

The sweet and sour taste is most suitable for eating at the beginning of the table, and it won't feel too greasy. The second dish is a shrimp dish, so she has to change it.

"This Meng family is really capable." Prince Jing Shang Hongjing, who was sitting next to Qi Youming, praised Meng Fuling seemingly unintentionally.

When Qi Youming heard this, his face became even more ugly, "No matter what your skills are, you are just a village girl."

Shang Hongjing didn't take it seriously, "King Ding'an's words are biased. Since ancient times, heroes don't ask where they came from, and the same is true for women."

"Since Prince Jing thinks so, why bother to ask me again?" Qi Youming said in a displeased tone, and after finishing speaking, he ignored Shang Hongjing.

Shang Hongjing laughed secretly, this Qi Youming really had eyes but no pearls, mistook fish eyes for precious pearls, but made the father-son relationship with Qi Xuan extremely stiff.

It didn't take long for the three of them to prepare their dishes one after another. This time they all reported the names of the dishes first.

Based on the good impression of the previous dish, and more or less because of Qi Xuan's reasons, the emperor tasted Meng Fuling's shredded shrimp emerald roll first, "This emerald shredded shrimp roll uses fresh and tender cucumber with delicious shredded shrimp , the taste is tender and crisp, the color is white and green, it is extremely delicious.”

After finishing speaking, the emperor looked at the other two chefs, feeling a little disappointed.

Kuang Ruhai cooks a famous dish, stir-fried prawns. The dish is good, which shows his skill, but it is also sweet and sour. The last dish has a sweet and sour taste.

The Queen Mother and others took a look at it, and frowned at the fried prawns with similar color and taste.

Look at what Yuan Shengwei made this time is tea-flavored shrimp balls, which is a little more innovative than the previous one.

The queen mother knew Meng Fuling's identity, and she was very displeased with the great general Qi Xuan who condescended to become a fireman for her. She deliberately didn't want her to win the championship, so she rushed ahead of the emperor and said: "The Ai family thinks that this time I will be a fireman. Chef Suan Yuan wins, Meng's dish is a bit lacking in heat."

Now, how can anyone not see that the Queen Mother doesn't like Meng Fuling?The novelty of her dish is better than Yuan Shengwei's, and the taste is not inferior to his, but the Queen Mother made such a statement.

The empress dowager has said so, the emperor can't directly refute her face, he just said: "Aiqings should also try it and talk about your own opinions."

Just now the little eunuch divided the dishes, so it is impossible for everyone to share. This time, the emperor intends to let the little eunuch share more.
"All my lovers, tell me, which of the three chefs' dishes is better?" The emperor said after all the ministers had finished eating.

Prime Minister Luo was one step ahead of the others and stood up: "I think Chef Yuan's tea-flavored shrimp balls are even better."

Qi Youming continued: "This minister also thinks so."

The ministers present couldn't help frowning when they heard what the two of them said. Everyone knew that Prime Minister Luo was dissatisfied because Qi Xuan didn't like his daughter, but instead fell in love with Meng Fuling.

As for Qi Youming, needless to say, in the entire capital, who doesn't know his relationship with Qi Xuan?
The day Qi Xuan just returned to Beijing, he defended Meng Fuling in public. After hearing this, Qi Youming got angry and said in front of many people that his eldest daughter-in-law could never be a low-status village girl.

Thinking about it, but no one wanted to offend these two, so they didn't make a sound.

What was surprising at this moment was that Qi Xuan, who had been silent all this time, said in a cold voice: "What you say doesn't count!"

Qi Youming was furious, and stared at his old eyes, "Nizi, what did you say?"

"General Qi, who doesn't know your relationship with the Meng family? It's nothing more than the previous competition, but now you dare to cover up the Meng family in front of the emperor and queen mother. Could it be that you don't take the emperor and the queen mother seriously?" Prime Minister Luo stood up for Qi Youming chime in.

The emperor smiled coldly, "King Ding'an, there is no distinction between father and son in the court, and it is the competition field right now. The same is true, and it is only a fair conclusion."

After finishing speaking, she looked at Prime Minister Luo again, "Luo Aiqing spoke too seriously."

Only then did Qi Youming and Prime Minister Luo realize that they had lost their composure and had offended the emperor, so they hurriedly confessed.

Shang Hongjing seemed to be interested in selling Qi Xuan, so he said: "Your Majesty, I also think that the words of Prime Minister Luo and King Ding'an are unfair. After all, everyone knows their relationship with General Qi. General Qi is not I don't take you and the queen mother seriously, but just discuss the matter."

"In that case, it's not suitable for them to make more judgments." The emperor nodded, easily excluding Qi Youming and Prime Minister Luo from being judged.

"Father, you can't forget it like this. Prime Minister Luo just said that General Qi is protecting the Meng family. This is putting a shit bowl on General Qi's head. It is obvious that Meng's shrimp shredded emerald rolls are even better. Prime Minister Luo He and King Ding'an are still talking nonsense with their eyes open, could it be that they took advantage of Chef Yuan?"

The one who said this was Shang Qiyan, the fifth prince. Everyone knew that he had no intention of governing the country, was playful by nature, and was unreasonable, so he was favored by the emperor.

"Your Highness, you, don't talk nonsense!" Prime Minister Luo was trembling with anger from Shang Qiyan, and hurriedly said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, Your Highness Fifth has a prejudice against this humble official, how can this humble official take advantage of Chef Yuan?"

Yuan Shengwei also quickly complained, but Meng Fuling was extremely calm, watching all this coldly, as if it had nothing to do with her.

Besides, Kuang Ruhai couldn't even get the best of the two dishes, and now he and Meng Fuling could only hope that Yuan Shengwei would be punished.

He felt that for the first two dishes, Meng Fuling was just a fluke, and Yuan Shengwei was the obstacle for him to win the championship.Moreover, the Second Highness has already made arrangements, and the good show is yet to come, so what should he be afraid of?
"Prime Minister Luo, what you said can be regarded as 300 taels of silver in this place! And that Chef Yuan, you didn't try to bribe him, why are you so nervous? Oh! Your Highness knows that you not only bribed Prime Minister Luo, It also benefited King Ding'an." Shang Qiyan and Qi Youming also dragged him into the water.

Both Prime Minister Luo and Qi Youming blushed with anger, and both pointed at Shang Qiyan, speechless for a long time.

"Why are you arguing? It's just a dish, and it's worth it?" The Empress Dowager said with a serious look.

The emperor said a few words in a mild manner, as if he didn't intend to blame anyone, so he dismissed this matter as a farce.

Meng Fuling couldn't help but look at Shang Qiyan a few more times, feeling that his tone of voice and demeanor were familiar, and his style of dealing with things was very similar to who she remembered.

She thought for a while, and Luo Yunhao's voice unexpectedly appeared in her mind.

Immediately, she quickly denied that Luo Yunhao was the younger brother of Prime Minister Luo, and he didn't care about the world. He had embarked on a wandering journey a year ago, and he didn't know where he was so happy.

When Meng Fuling looked at Shang Qiyan, the smile on his lips grew wider, and he waved at her deliberately, regardless of his image.

Qi Xuan glanced at Shang Qiyan, "He's nothing to look at, he's just an abnormal guy."

Meng Fuling smiled, and began to prepare the third dish, which was made of duck.

This time Yuan Shengwei didn't dare to take it lightly like Kuang Ruhai. After two dishes, he had already looked at Meng Fuling with admiration.

He heard that the queen mother likes to eat crispy and crispy duck, so he made a drunk roasted crispy duck.

Kuang Ruhai knew that the Empress Dowager didn't like Meng Fuling, so he also intentionally catered to the Empress Dowager's taste and made salted crispy duck.

Meng Fuling imitated the eight-treasure bag chicken and made the eight-treasure bag duck, and replaced the stuffing inside the duck with glutinous rice, mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, pork belly, chestnuts, lotus seeds, shrimp, etc.

"The Ai family prefers this Drunken Roasted Crispy Duck. The duck skin is crispy but soft, it melts in the mouth, and there is a faint aroma of wine in the mouth." The queen mother took a bite each, and did everything Yuan Shengwei and Kuang Ruhai cooked. I left out the comments, but Meng Fuling was left out.

However, the emperor pointed at the eight-treasure bag duck with jade chopsticks, and said with a smile: "Meng's dish is the most suitable for my taste. Not only is it novel, but it is full of aroma before you eat it. The stewed duck is crispy and delicious.”

Of these three dishes, Meng Fuling took the lead, Yuan Shengwei was second, and the fourth dish was the same.

When it came to the fifth vegetarian dish, Yuan Shengwei made a grilled cabbage, and Kuang Ruhai made lotus cabbage buns.

And Meng Fuling this time is filling soup with cabbage dumplings. She has figured out this dish based on the principle of filling soup dumplings before, which is really ingenious.

Meng Fuling won several dishes in a row, and all of them were dishes that were not available in this dynasty, so that the people present did not dare to take a peek at her.

Now, not only Yuan Shengwei was anxious, but also Kuang Ruhai. He forgot Shang Qihao's words for a moment, and secretly looked in Shang Qihao's direction.

Before the finals, he was not Shang Qihao's person. It was Shang Qihao who asked him to find him and promised to help him win No.1 in the food competition and help him win the golden plaque of the world's best chef from the imperial court.

The condition is that after the competition, Kuang Ruhai must leave Jinweilou. He doesn't know Shang Qihao's intentions, but in order to win the championship, he can do whatever he wants.

In fact, Shang Qihao was not reconciled to the closure of the Fortune Restaurant in Qishan County, and planned to reopen a new one.

He wanted to support a winner of a gourmet competition, and use his fame to solicit business, so as to squeeze out Meng Fuling's restaurant.

However, Shang Qihao still underestimated Meng Fuling at the beginning, now, he knew that if he didn't make a move, Kuang Ruhai would have no hope of winning the championship.

Coincidentally, Meng Fuling noticed that Kuang Ruhai was looking in Shang Qihao's direction, and her heart tightened, wondering if Shang Qihao was about to make a move?

After all, Shang Qihao had stopped playing since the preliminary round, and her competition was also very smooth.How could a narrow-minded person like him give up so easily?
It seemed that for the next four dishes, she had to be careful in order to avoid any tricks from him.

The remaining four dishes are fish, rice, dim sum and porridge. Except that fish is a big dish, the others are the staple food dim sum.

The seventh course is rice, and Meng Fuling asked the two cooks to prepare it first, while she herself prepared the fish ingredients first.

When Lin Bixing was soaking the rice, he suddenly said, "Why is the rice washing water so clear?"

After hearing this, Meng Fuling's eyebrows twitched, and she couldn't help but frown when she looked over. Usually, rice washing water is milky white and has a clear fragrance of rice, but the rice water from Lin Bixing's washing is too clear.

Her heart skipped a beat, as if she had thought of something, she said, "Change to glutinous rice."

"Madam is making glutinous rice? Will it be considered a violation?" Lin Bixing worried.

"Don't worry, I have my own measure." Meng Fuling smiled, knowing that Lin Bixing had good intentions.

"No one dares to accuse you of violating the rules." Qi Xuan also saw that there was something wrong with that rice, and said with a cold face.

With a flash in Meng Fuling's eyes, she approached Qi Xuan and whispered, "Hulu, can you..."

But she didn't want to, her actions fell into the eyes of Prime Minister Luo, Qi Youming and others, making them extremely angry.

The Empress Dowager also noticed that although she didn't know what they were whispering, she still directly classified Meng Fuling as a woman who behaved badly.

She turned around and whispered to the emperor: "Your Majesty, this woman has misbehavior and is really not worthy of General Qi."

"Mother, don't just look at the surface in everything. Meng's eyes are clear and her conversation is good. I don't think she is a woman with bad conduct." The emperor disagreed, and he didn't believe that Qi Xuan's vision was really that bad. .

The queen mother was a little annoyed that the emperor had repeatedly helped Meng Fuling, and remembered that the emperor had just entered the palace, and had been staring at Meng Fuling, wondering if the emperor had also taken a fancy to Meng Fuling?
How can this work?Not to mention how Meng Fuling is, how can a ruler and a minister compete for his wife?
It has to be said that the queen mother thought too much, how could the emperor have other thoughts about Meng Fuling?
Meng Fuling didn't know that the Queen Mother had regarded her as a disaster, and she was even more displeased. She encountered a new problem in front of her.

Because all the ingredients were pre-distributed, she was preparing the seasoning for the fish just now, and now she just caught the fish that was allocated. Unexpectedly, the fish died as soon as it left the water. Someone must have tampered with it.

Qi Xuan's anger was instantly aroused to the extreme, he was about to report to the emperor, but Meng Fuling stopped him, "Wait!"

(End of this chapter)