Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 539 - 538: Traditional Cooking Utensils

Chapter 539: Chapter 538: Traditional Cooking Utensils

Xia Yu was washing a very large wooden barrel.

This wooden barrel, also known as a rice steamer, is a traditional cooking utensil of the Han people, popular in the southern regions, made from tightly bound fir wood slats. Today, the one Xia Yu was cleaning was as tall as a person and could barely be encircled by outstretched arms.

He meticulously cleaned it inside and out with a brush. Curiously enough, nearby Chiyoda Aichi sensed a faint fragrance of honey; the water used for cleaning the barrel was apparently not just plain water.

Xia Yu had concocted this himself.

What, you ask if this is carpentry work?

In fact, Xia Yu had nearly mastered his carpentry skills months ago while pondering the wooden molds used in the recipe for "Great Magic Panda Tofu." It was true that practice makes perfect.

The live camera focused in, and Tiqie Ji also watched the youth cleaning around the barrel, then saw him reach inside and, with a snap, pull out layer upon layer of bamboo splints.

These so-called splints were made of bamboo skin. Through the camera’s lens, layers of bamboo splint, each with holes like a honeycomb, baffled the audience as they wondered about the use of these bamboo layers in the wooden barrel until Xia Yu demonstrated by his actions—

He scooped up the glistening "Star Rice" with a small bowl.

"Wow—"

The grains of rice poured into the bamboo basket, creating a pleasant sound. Then, Xia Yu, with a smile, smoothed them out with his palm, and a mesmerizing scene unfolded.

The grains of rice neatly slipped into the tiny holes between the bamboo skins!

With another pass of his hand, more grains securely lodged into the holes. At a glance, each grain was separated, none falling out, densely distributed across the bamboo splint. The excess rice was meticulously picked out by Xia Yu and placed on the next layer of bamboo splint.

The process repeated, his face full of concentration, his serious demeanor undistracted.

Below, Zhu Qing was stunned, muttering, "No wonder he was acting all mysterious yesterday at the villa’s warehouse. So he was making these strange things!"

Her gaze moved from the bamboo splints to the traditional cooking utensil—the rice steamer.

Zhu Qing couldn’t help but clap her pale palms together, her eyes expressing astonishment and admiration as she chuckled softly, "My nephew sure has a lot of clever ideas in his head!"

Who could disagree?

Even Dojima Yin and Saito Chiyokuro, unfamiliar with what a ’rice steamer’ was, exchanged glances and gasped when they saw Xia Yu embedding the rice grains into the bamboo net.

The challenging task of separately washing and cooking the "Star Rice" had been ingeniously solved by this simple tool.

"Holy crap, that’s brilliant!"

At the guest seat, Jintan Shun unselfconsciously applauded by slapping his thigh.

Tulip’s eyes fiercely sparkled, her voice slightly excited, "This is indeed a clever tool to handle ’Star Rice.’ If it’s made of bamboo, there’s no flavor, no contamination, and even if the ’Star Rice’ is fragile and brittle, it won’t be tarnished during cooking."

Indeed,

Bamboo is a miraculous material, directly usable for making bamboo tube rice. Of course, when Xia Yu later obtains the "Tofu Trilogy" recipes, he would also need a special bamboo knife to cut the tofu, ensuring the tofu isn’t tainted with a metallic taste.

"This young man..."

"Who thought that the problem would be solved just like that!"

"That kind of cooking utensil has an ancient aura about it."

At the judging panel, IGO and Gourmet Society judges spoke.

Centered among them, Chief Judge Kogawa Shinyiro also showed unspeakable appreciation.

Listening to the neighboring judges’ praises, Tiqie Helinai on the sixth chair subtly clenched her fists, her cheeks flushing with what seemed like excitement and thrill.

The start went smoothly!

"Hmph!"

Tiqie Ji finally took his eyes off with a glum expression.

"Just basic control for now, wait till the cooking phase and see how you manage the heat control—" sweeping past Xia Yu’s cooking station by the stone stove and then glancing at the traditional bellows placed beside it, Tiqie Ji’s expression was indescribably odd, seemingly mocking and disdainful.

Merely retro? Pursuing these commoners’ cooking tools, attempting to prepare modern art-like elegant dishes with such tools? Don’t joke with me, enough is enough!

Tiqie Ji’s face faintly twisted into a fierce grin.

"This is not modern culinary art!"

"Let me tell you what essence in cooking is, what the art of cooking truly means!"

Click.

Thinking to himself, as veins bulged on Tiqie Ji’s forehead, he twisted the stove’s valve. A faint blue flame shot up, scorching the frying pan again.

"Sss sss..."

The Wine God Onion heated up, streams of alcohol evaporated in the cooking, forming smoke.

Boom!

Suddenly, the entire pot of sauce burst into flames. Amidst the towering pillar of alcohol fire, golden-brown sauce in the frying pan bubbled up like boiling golden magma.

Turn off the heat.

Closing the lid, Tiqie Ji no longer paid attention to that pot of sauce but moved to the cutting board and touched the snake meat. The previously nitrogen-sprayed frozen meat had slightly thawed over time, softening to the right texture; thus, Tiqie Ji took a sharp western knife and gently sliced off, separating out a pinkish piece of snake meat about the width of two fingers and the length of one.

It took him about fifteen minutes to slice the two pieces of snake meat into sections, then he reached for the mixing bowl, only sprinkling in white wine to marinate, no need for excessive seasoning to overpower the taste. As his fingers gently kneaded the tender snake meat, Tiqie Ji did not forget to observe his opponent’s situation.

During this time, Xia Yu also calmly proceeded with his cooking steps.

At least a dozen layers of bamboo mats, layered with "Star Rice."

One layer after another, bamboo mats were fitted into the rice barrel, just in time for the camera to give a close-up inside the barrel, immediately drawing exclamations.

The inner wall of the wooden barrel had wooden slots protruding out every half-a-finger’s width, which also perfectly explained why there was a row of wooden nails riveted from top to bottom on the outside of the barrel.

The female host, Dubian Yuuki stepped forward, stretched the microphone towards him, "Chef Xia, could you introduce the cooking tools you are using?"

"Cooking tools? No problem."

Xia Yu had just finished arranging the bamboo mats and was about to close the wooden lid when he heard the question. He patted the side of the barrel and said with a composed expression, "This thing has been used since ancient times in China, and it is still widely used in many regions such as Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. It looks like a wooden barrel on the outside but internally it primarily uses bamboo mats..."

Saying so, he stepped forward, effortlessly picked up the heavy barrel as tall as a man, and motioned for the camera to follow.

Thus, the situation at the bottom of the barrel was displayed on the screen.

A layer of hollow bamboo mats serves as the bottom panel.

"Of course, I’ve personally modified this device, a special cooking tool designed for ’Star Rice,’ with many differences from the traditional steam rice cooker, and everyone just needs to know what it does, no need to fuss over it."

With a shrug, he moved the lid-closed barrel to the stone stove.

The stove already had a big iron pot set up, and the wooden barrel was placed inside it, as one would position a steamer.

Then, add water!

"Since it’s steaming rice, the water level must not touch the bottom layer of bamboo mats..." Xia Yu explained while pouring water from the bucket into the iron pot.

"But won’t the rising steam push the rice grains out of the holes in the bamboo mats?"

Dubian Yuuki pursed her lips, astutely posing a question.

"That’s a good question!"

Seeing that the water level was about right, Xia Yu put down the bucket, turned back to face the camera and said, "That’s precisely the variable I need to control!"

"Tools are, after all, just tools."

"A chef must never dream of solving everything with tools, or letting tools substitute for culinary skills in cooking dishes."