Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 420 - 238: Lethal Dose of Winter Melon Candy (Added for the Alliance Leader reward for Han Fengqing!)

Chapter 420: Chapter 238: Lethal Dose of Winter Melon Candy (Added for the Alliance Leader reward for Han Fengqing!)

Xu Nuo’s manner of death was so beyond Qin Huai’s imagination that Qin Huai hadn’t expected it.

After thinking for a few minutes, he went to work and stopped thinking about it.

Focus on making the dessert.

In the evening, when the business started, Huang Shengli announced to everyone in the kitchen that there would be a holiday on the 16th. Naturally, everyone was elated at the thought of a holiday.

Since Yunzhong Restaurant started after the publication of "Taste," business had boomed so much that the originally scheduled four days off per month were temporarily canceled and moved to other months. Of course, leave could still be requested if necessary, but compared to the pressure of service in the hall, the pressure to cook in the kitchen was actually not as intense.

Now, having a united day off basically meant an extra holiday, and nobody disliked an extra day off.

Even Dong Shi temporarily set aside his observation of Wang Jun’s romantic pursuit and began to chatter with others about whether to spend the day on the 16th sleeping at home watching TV or going out to play.

Qin Huai hurried his dessert-making process in the evening, finishing the usual amount twenty minutes earlier to get off work early and head home to prepare Four Happiness glutinous rice.

At home, only Ouyang was there, counting the 40 pounds of winter melon candy bought during the day, while the others hadn’t yet arrived for the tasting.

It was too early, and the uncles and aunts were sensible enough not to come too early, lest they disturb Master Qin’s preparation of the glutinous rice.

Seeing that Qin Huai had returned, Ouyang quickly said, "Qin Huai, come quick and check if the winter melon candy I bought is okay. I always feel that the boss was ripping me off, either in price or in quality. He kept smiling as I paid, and I didn’t even know what he was smiling at."

Raw materials are key to making glutinous rice, so hearing Ouyang’s concerns, Qin Huai stepped forward to check and found no quality issue with the winter melon candy.

Very normal winter melon candy, a qualified product.

"How much did you pay for it?" Qin Huai asked.

Ouyang provided the total price, and Qin Huai didn’t think there was much of an issue. Ouyang’s price for the winter melon candy was higher than Yunzhong Restaurant’s wholesale cost, which was normal, as Yunzhong is a restaurant and gets wholesale pricing.

No matter how inept Huang An Yao may be as the young master, it’s impossible for the restaurant’s purchase price to be as high as a private single purchase.

"What did you tell the boss when you bought the candy?" Qin Huai asked.

"The boss asked why I bought so much winter melon candy, and I said I love to eat it and would consume it at home," Ouyang replied.

Qin Huai: ...

Winter melon candy is essentially candied winter melon, sweet and cloying. Many people think it’s like eating fat in its pure form, and no normal person buys 40 pounds of winter melon candy to eat at home.

Qin Huai guessed that the boss probably found Ouyang’s taste a bit unusual and didn’t know what to make of it, so he just smiled.

Well, in a way, the boss was kind of right.

"No worries, the winter melon candy is fine. I’ll go make syrup now, Ouyang, please take the nuts and dried fruits to the kitchen and sort them out," Qin Huai assured, and started working.

Although Qin Huai had grasped the essence of the mixed fruit filling glutinous rice ball last night, executing it is still quite challenging.

The principle is clear, but it doesn’t mean everyone can do it.

Using winter melon candy as the main ingredient, leveraging its unique flavor compatible with mixed fruit filling to mask the taste of other nuts and dried fruit, forcing these complex ingredients to blend into a unified flavor, is not achieved by just adding an overabundance of winter melon candy.

The specific formula still needed trial.

Reckless mixing of ingredients with just an overload of winter melon candy would likely result in an even worse outcome than the notoriously unpalatable five-nut mooncake.

Qin Huai was prepared for continuous failure and was even somewhat looking forward to it.

Past failures lacked purpose and were meaningless, but this time, each failure brought progress towards victory.

Qin Huai patiently caramelized the sugar while Ouyang had neatly sorted the nuts and dried fruits, using up nearly all the bowls at home.

Fortunately, Qin Huai had previously stocked up on bowls for the uncles and aunts to taste the Four Happiness glutinous rice, otherwise there wouldn’t be enough bowls.

Ouyang was nervously watching from the side.

With all this winter melon candy, how many Four Happiness glutinous rice balls would they make today?

If he had to eat four of those mixed fruit filling rice balls, it would be his doom.

Actually, today, Qin Huai didn’t plan to make other flavors of Four Happiness glutinous rice balls—it was too time-consuming, so he only made the mixed fruit filling ones.

Considering not every uncle and aunt could handle like Ouyang, Qin Huai notified everyone in the tasting group in advance that only mixed fruit filling rice balls were available tonight, no regular flavors, and only those interested should come over to taste.

Yet, the uncles and aunts flocked over for the tasting, each bearing an expression of resignation and determination, seemingly thinking if Master Qin could gain even the slightest insight from today’s tasting, their efforts would be justified.

Gong Liang also came, arriving first with Guo Mingzhu in tow.

Gong Liang patted his chest, claiming that as a sales manager he had endured all sorts of hardships in his youth, and these rice balls were nothing. After all, Master Qin learned to make them because of him, so he had to be the first to taste them.

If he avoided tasting today, would he still be a man?

How could he face going to Yunzhong Restaurant’s kitchen for meals in the future?

Qin Huai glanced around and saw the same number of uncles and aunts as usual packed into the house, with overflow spilling into Gong Liang’s house, and felt deeply moved.

At the taste of something unpleasant, the uncles and aunts of Yunzhong Restaurant truly ate it!

Ouyang was equally moved, nearly moved to tears. When he saw Qin Huai’s message in the group, he was chilled, fearing that he would have to battle an entire pot of mixed fruit filling Four Happiness glutinous rice balls and become a legend himself.

The mixed fruit filling glutinous rice balls were served.

Looking into the pot, Ouyang realized a problem.

Qin Huai hadn’t made as many balls as usual, and with so many people present today, there wasn’t enough to go around.

Each person wouldn’t even get to try four rice balls.

Ouyang raised the issue.

Qin Huai was shocked, "You want to eat four of the mixed fruit filling rice balls?"

That’s too much sacrifice, buddy. It’s just a tasting. No need to go all out. We’ll have plenty of days to eat mixed fruit filling rice balls in the future.

In the end, considering the age of the uncles and aunts, each received one mixed fruit filling rice ball.

Everyone held their bowls, scooped a rice ball, and bit into it.

Yuck!

So disgusting!

It maintained the usual standard of disgust!

The winter melon candy was overly sweet and cloying, with so many nuts and dried fruits failing to impart any fragrance. Only an overwhelming sweetness shooting straight to the head, making one frown with just a bite.

Ouyang ate in the kitchen.

Qin Huai had yet to try it.

"How is it?" Qin Huai asked.

"So sweet," Ouyang replied with a grimace, "so sweet it turns cloying, kind of nauseating."

Qin Huai extracted the crucial information from Ouyang’s largely meaningless adjectives, "All you feel is sweetness? Nothing else? Not like before, no overpowering raisin taste, or an odd mix of different preserved fruits, or tasting like Grandma Ding’s 4-year-old granddaughter threw everything in the kitchen into a pot to cook it into a dark mush?"

Qin Huai’s description was so spot-on that it brought back memories of many unmentionable past flavors for Ouyang.

"No," Ouyang firmly shook his head, "just sweetness, the sweetness of winter melon candy, that cloying sweetness."

Qin Huai understood; he realized the secret to the mixed fruit filling glutinous rice ball likely lay here, that enough winter melon candy could indeed mask the other nuts’ and candied fruits’ flavors.

The principle was clear, but manipulative skill was needed for the mixed fruit filling to become palatable.

Normal mixed fruit filling rice balls operate the same way, with winter melon candy as the main ingredient, necessitating control of its quantity to best highlight the flavors of at most two types of preserved fruits or dried fruits.

Properly made mixed fruit filling rice balls can be very tasty.

This enhanced plus version should operate in the same way, albeit with higher difficulty.

Qin Huai went out to inquire around.

The feedback was roughly the same, all stating it was too sweet, intolerably sweet.

A few elderly who had dulled taste buds and a fondness for sweetness still found it overly concentrated, describing the winter melon candy’s amount as lethal, with the filling only tasting like winter melon candy, all other ingredients going to waste.

After inquiring, Qin Huai returned to the kitchen and picked up his bowl of mixed fruit filling rice balls.

His bowl contained two rice balls.

The two rice balls represented Qin Huai’s stance and determination.

Qin Huai scooped a rice ball and bit into it.

Oh dear, it was disgusting, sickly sweet, cloying to the point of death, so sweet he felt like someone needed to kick the chef who made these in the behind.

Fortunately, he intended to make them secretly without informing Zheng Siyuan first, otherwise Zheng Siyuan would definitely think he had gone mad.

Outside, Gong Liang knocked on the kitchen door.

Qin Huai strained to maintain his composure before opening the door to ask, "Mr. Gong, what’s up?"

Gong Liang first showed him his empty bowl and then asked, "Do you have more?"

"I think eating just one doesn’t allow for proper tasting; you need two to judge."

Qin Huai: ?!

Scammer, with such perseverance and determination, you can succeed at anything.