"Try the young master’s skills."
"Four Happiness atballs, please have a taste, elderly folks."
Plate after plate of Four Happiness atballs were brought to the table.
The large atballs were vibrant red in color, perfectly round in shape, with a translucent mist slowly wafting off, and the gentle tremble as the chefs moved made them look irresistibly tempting.
Plate after plate of atballs were set on the table, and the elderly diners’ gazes lingered on them.
The surface of the atballs was coated with a thick sauce, bright and red as if they were dazzling rubies.
Zhuo Qianqian happily recomnded to the elderly at the table, "Grandpas and Grandmas, try these Four Happiness atballs. Each of the four atballs represents Blessings, Prosperity, Longevity, and Happiness. I hope after eating them, you will live long and prosper, have many blessings, and be happy every day."
The elderly were all laughing heartily at her words, except for the oldest one who was a bit worried, "I’ve had this dish before, it was a bit hard, and I am afraid my teeth can’t handle it."
"Yeah, at the last banquet there was a dish like this, and it was so hard we couldn’t bite through."
"Now that you ntion it, I rember, that dish hardly got touched."
"It wasn’t that we didn’t want to eat it, we simply couldn’t. Even chopsticks couldn’t pierce it; we had to cut it small with a knife to eat so."
Zhuo Qianqian already stood up with a new spoon: "Grandpas and Grandmas, don’t worry. My boss makes authentic Four Happiness atballs which are very soft. Just watch."
After speaking, she pressed the spoon on one of the atballs. Wang Fan had made this dish for her before, and she had learned how to eat it.
The spoon in her hand was a disposable, soft plastic spoon, but even with such a soft spoon pressing down, it visibly created a small dent in the atball.
As Zhuo Qianqian applied more force, cracks began to form in the small dent, which then spread out, eventually splitting the whole atball.
Upon seeing the inside of the atball, the grandpas and grandmas couldn’t help but exclaim.
"Wow, this atball looks so soft."
"Oh my, there’s so much juice inside, forming a little stream, it looks so delicious."
"It looks really soft, should be easy for our teeth to handle, right?"
"If the soft spoon works, surely we can handle it too."
Wang Fan made his Four Happiness atballs using traditional thods, primarily seen at birthday banquets. Master chefs of Lu Cuisine had long considered the dental needs of the elderly, so correctly made Four Happiness atballs are inherently soft, creamy, and lt in the mouth.
Those that turn out hard and tough, needing a knife to cut open, are purely due to lack of skill, either kneaded too forcefully or having too much starch added.
When Zhuo Qianqian’s soft spoon pressed the atball, the juice trapped inside was squeezed out.
Wang Fan used at that was thirty percent fat and seventy percent lean, naturally prone to juiciness. After coating it in flour and deep-frying, the atball’s surface ford a shell that sealed the juice inside during cooking.
As the at juice flowed and pooled, the rich, llow aroma beca even more intense, constantly enticing all the elderly around the table.
These elderly folks were unlike certain village elders, who would have already distributed the dish before it was even seen; they each calmly took a portion.
This way, even if they found it unappetizing, there wouldn’t be much waste.
Chunks of the atball trembled in the grip of the chopsticks, seeming ready to fall apart at any mont; the elders hurriedly supported them with a tray.
Bringing the plate up to their noses, the aroma of scallions, ginger, at, and Sichuan pepper filled the air, with the scent of scallions and ginger taking prominence, only second to the at aroma, while the Sichuan pepper was subtle yet unmistakably present.
Before shaping the atballs, Wang Fan added powdered Sichuan pepper, and finally drizzled so Sichuan pepper oil during thickening, making this aroma a knockout for Sichuan natives — it’s their most familiar flavor.
Affection breeds fondness, enhancing the allure of the at aroma with the scent of scallions and ginger.
Chef Xiao Liang and a few others had finished their work and were now seated at the table enjoying their al. Wang Fan wasn’t with them, instead returning to Zhuo Qianqian’s table.
The three professionals were closely examining Wang Fan’s Four Happiness atballs, increasingly finding them fascinating.
"How does he make the Four Happiness atballs seem structured yet easily crumble? You feel it’s firm, but it breaks upon touch; you think it might fall apart any second, but leave it alone and it sits stably; truly amazing."
Chef Xiao Liang sniffed a piece before inspecting it: "No wonder he slices the ingredients instead of chopping them, allowing the freshness and juice to be sealed inside. The scallions and ginger aroma haven’t escaped at all, it’s all absorbed into the at."
"Even the at grains, sliced to the size of soybeans, contract upon heating, only slightly minced, creating a cohesive-yet-loose texture. Plus, the starch provides stickiness, and the bun crumbs add fluffiness, forming this state that’s seemingly loose yet perfectly intact."
Director Geng and other street office staff paid no attention to the three’s murmuring. Director Geng was happily serving the others: "Try the skills of my brilliant apprentice, supposedly a particularly talented chef."
After serving so to the others, he also took a piece for himself.
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