Chapter 64

Wensidoufu (文思豆腐).

Wensidoufu (文思豆腐).

Wensidoufu is a dish from the Huaiyang region, which was presented to the emperor during the Qing dynasty. It was created by a monk named Wensi from Yangzhou, hence the name Wensidoufu.

The ingredients are all finely sliced like hair and then boiled in a broth.

This dish requires exquisite skills, but since it is a clear soup made by boiling water with starch, even if beggars eat a lot, they are likely to only feel their stomachs swell with water. Moreover, as it is a very soft dish, it is obvious that their stomachs will quickly deflate after eating.

Furthermore, watching the process of making Wensidoufu would undoubtedly make anyone close their mouths in admiration of the skill.

A dish that catches two rabbits at once.

He gave a sly smile as he looked at the two beggars.

He immediately caught a chicken and prepared the broth.

The cleaned chicken disappeared into the pot, and before long, the water began to boil over the strong fire of the firewood.

As the aroma of the chicken rose from the pot, the beggars started to salivate, thinking he was preparing a chicken dish.

*Slurp*

"If a tofu dish is enough, but if you also prepare a chicken dish, we will certainly show our gratitude..."

"Chicken... I haven't had it in a long time. Chief of the Hall."

However, the beggars, who had started to exaggerate, began to grumble and pretend to be hungry, scratching their empty begging bowls, not long after he started making the chicken broth, unable to resist the savory aroma.

"Is the chicken still far from being ready?"

"Chicken becomes tasteless if boiled for too long..."

*Gurgle*

Just as the beggars were exaggerating and fell silent at Zhuge Qing's cold gaze, the servant who went to buy tofu returned with a block of soft tofu in a water-filled wooden bucket.

"Vice Chief, will this soft tofu do?"

He touched the edge with his hand, and it crumbled softly.

In this era, tofu is not specifically called soft or silken tofu, but simply tofu. When asked to buy soft tofu, one would get a type of tofu that is between soft and regular tofu, which is perfect for Wensidoufu.

After receiving the tofu from the servant, he began the cooking process.

The ingredients needed for Wensidoufu are mushrooms, bok choy, chicken broth, and starch.

If done properly, the chicken broth should be boiled sufficiently to bring out the flavor, but the purpose of this dish is to show off the cooking.

Since the chicken would be used later, he left the broth boiling and started preparing the other ingredients.

He checked the edge of the knife and first picked up the bok choy.

Most people in the Central Continent prefer the crispness of the bok choy stems, but for Wensidoufu, the tender leaves are needed.

He cut off the thick stems, rolled the leaves flat, and then sliced them with the knife.

*Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop.*

*Chop chop. Chop chop. Chop chop.*

*Chop chop chop. Chop chop chop. Chop chop chop.*

His body moved like an instrument, responding to the memories in his mind, continuing the slicing.

Starting slowly and gradually increasing the speed, he sliced them as thin as silk.

At first, he started slowly, maintaining a rhythm and beat with the slicing.

The cheerful sound of the knife meeting the cutting board spread through the courtyard, and the beggars' shoulders began to move to the rhythm.

In cooking school, when teaching the slicing technique, they start with paper practice.

Paper practice is to get the hand and the act of cutting familiar with the knife.

Once the knife is well accustomed to the hand, they practice with flour dough.

Flour dough is soft, so if the blade is not sharp or the angle is not right, it will be squished rather than cut, making it the best material to learn precise slicing.

After the basic knife skills are somewhat mastered through flour practice, the basic training is complete. Then, the practice moves from firm vegetables to soft vegetables, meat, and fish.

After all this training, the final step is to learn the various slicing techniques used to create decorative elements in Cantonese cuisine, which is the pinnacle of elegance.

Thus, for me, who excelled in all the basic training and showed exceptional talent in carving, slicing the bok choy as thin as silk is relatively easy.

When the cheerful sound ended and he lifted the finely sliced bok choy, the beggars looked at him in surprise.

He smiled at the beggars, rinsed the bok choy in cold water to remove the green juice, and then sliced the mushrooms in the same way.

In his previous life, he would have used carrots for color, but since there were no carrots in this era, he skipped them.

He decided to focus on the tofu, the star of the dish today.

Thinner and finer.

He cut the tofu the servant bought into palm-sized pieces about 2 centimeters thick and placed them on the cutting board.

He then sprinkled water on the tofu with his fingertips.

The reason for moistening the tofu is to prevent the thinly sliced tofu from sticking to the wide surface of the knife, as the water acts as a lubricant.

"Now, watch carefully. This is a dish that is also enjoyed with the eyes."

Before the performance, he focused the two beggars' attention, thinking that even if they couldn't taste it, they could still appreciate the knife skills with their eyes.

It would be troublesome if they later complained about not seeing it.

"Eyes?!"

As the beggars pointed to their eyes in confusion at his words, the cheerful sound of the knife began.

His right hand held the knife, and his left index finger was bent to support the knife, helping to maintain the vertical drop and spacing.

The height of the knife movement was minimized to the height of the tofu.

*Chop chop chop chop chop chop chop chop chop*

Although he had already moistened the tofu sufficiently, it lost some moisture with each slice, so he dripped water onto the wide surface of the knife with one hand while slicing the soft tofu as thinly as possible.

At regular intervals.

"Oh, slicing the tofu so thin!"

"Could it be a sword... *cough*!"

As the two beggars covered their mouths in surprise and exclaimed, his wife's voice also rang out.

"To be able to slice tofu so thinly, it's amazing. Master."

With his wife's praise, his hand movements exploded.

Praise can make even a whale dance, and his knife skills began to dance with Zhuge Qing's praise.

*Chop chop chop chop chop chop chop chop chop*

'This is a world of martial arts, so if I must describe my knife skills, it would be 'heart and sword as one' (心劍合一).'

He and his wife were not one, but he and the knife were one, slicing the soft tofu into thin pieces.

Today, the knife moved smoothly, slicing the tofu thinner than fugu sashimi, and even the attendants gathered around to praise his knife skills.

"Wow... No, Vice Chief's incredible knife skills!"

"Amazing!"

Such cheers for just slicing tofu.

When the regular sound stopped and the slicing process was complete, he pretended to wipe his forehead and looked up at the sky at a 45-degree angle.

The most handsome angle.

'I should give some fan service.'

"Hmm..."

Then, as he exhaled, Zhuge Qing rushed over, wiping his forehead with silk, in case he was sweating.

He smiled at his wife and immediately prepared for the next slicing.

The next step was to slowly drip water onto the tofu slices and carefully flip them in the opposite direction of the slicing.

He gently caressed the tofu with the wide surface of the knife, guiding it in the desired direction.

A delicate process.

If done incorrectly, the tofu could be squished while flipping, so he carefully dripped water and slowly flipped the tofu slices onto the cutting board.

By dripping water and spreading the tofu, the preparation for the next step was complete.

The next step was to slice the tofu into thin strips.

*Chop chop chop chop chop chop*

Unlike the first time, the knife moved slowly and quietly.

He gently pressed the tofu from above with his hand to prevent it from sliding and slowly lowered the knife vertically.

He gradually moved the knife, creating hair-like strips of tofu, but only he could see the result at this stage.

Then, the Chief of the Hall commented.

"It looks like you're cutting, but the tofu remains intact?"

With continuous slicing, the edges might be slightly broken, but it was natural that the thickness of the tofu could not be seen in its current state.

He continued slicing until the end and carefully placed the final slices on the wide surface of the knife, then carried them to a bowl of water.

When he submerged the tofu in the water, it looked like a lump of rice cake.

The next step was to hold chopsticks in both hands and slowly separate the tofu like a conductor.

Even if the tofu looked like a lump of rice cake, if he gently and slowly separated it with chopsticks, it would magically unravel in the water like white threads, swimming in all directions.

The tofu, sliced as thin as threads, spread out in the water like living creatures.

"Oh..."

"This is!"

The beggars, who had eyes, gasped in amazement at the tofu unraveling in the water.

Now all the preparations were complete.

It was time to teach a lesson to the beggars who had ruthlessly criticized his cooking.

Inhumanity mode ON.

He fished out the chicken from the boiling broth, and the beggars licked their lips and asked