The second dish in the cold dish competition is local dishes.
Local cuisine, as the name suggests, is the representative cold dish of each region. The five chefs make different dishes, each with its own merits.
The chefs from the provincial capital make "Colorful Lapi", the chefs from Hohhot make "Cold Oatmeal Noodles", the chefs from Beijing make "Qianlong Cabbage", the chefs from Suzhou make "Malan Head Mixed with Spring Bamboo Shoots", and the chefs from Changsha make
It's "spicy waist slices".
"Colorful Lapi is a representative cold dish in Northeastern cuisine. It is famous for its beautiful appearance, refreshing taste and appetizer. It is the top choice at all kinds of banquets and is deeply loved by the people.
Mung bean flour is the best for facelift. It is smooth, tender, chewy, elastic and relieves heat. The five colors refer to cucumber shreds, pork shreds, carrot shreds, egg skin shreds and fungus shreds, which can be said to be red, yellow, green, black and red.
All of them look festive and imply good luck."
Li Shuang began to explain five distinctive local cold dishes.
"Cold oatmeal noodles are a representative cold dish in Hohhot and have local characteristics.
Oatmeal, also known as oats, was first produced in Wuchuan County, north of Hohhot. It is resistant to high cold and hunger.
Recent studies have shown that oatmeal is a good health food that helps with weight loss and beauty. However, it is not easy to digest. Therefore, beauties who want to be beautiful and lose weight must eat less and not be greedy.
But this cold oatmeal noodles made by our Hohhot chef can be eaten in large quantities, because it contains mashed potatoes, tomatoes, pickled vegetables and shredded cucumbers. The proportion of main and auxiliary ingredients is balanced, so you don’t have to worry about being unable to digest it even if you eat it all in one plate.
Qianlong cabbage, the name has a royal aura. It is said that Emperor Qianlong liked this dish the most. Use Shandong cabbage with rolled core and yellow pistils, remove the old leaves, take the tender heart with leaves, and tear it all by hand without cutting it with a knife, and serve with seasoning
When mixed with good mahjong spices, the taste is refreshing.
Emperor Qianlong naturally loved this dish, so it has been passed down to this day and is a delicacy on the dining tables of the common people in the capital.
This Qianlong cabbage dish made by our Beijing chef adds his own creativity to the traditional cooking method. It has an outstanding taste, is more refreshing and captivates the taste buds.
Malantou mixed with spring bamboo shoots is a local dish in Suzhou. It is light, refreshing and nutritious. Malantou has the effect of lowering blood pressure, so this dish is more suitable for people with high blood pressure.
Making this dish is very simple, the key is the selection of raw materials. The malan head must be tender, and the bamboo shoots are preferably spring bamboo shoots, so it is also a seasonal cold dish.
Fortunately, with the advanced technology nowadays, spring bamboo shoots can be kept fresh all year round, so we can also enjoy them in winter.
Spicy waist slices is a snack in Changsha that can be eaten in the streets and alleys. It is as famous as mixed jelly and hemp liver tip.
The more street snacks you eat, the harder it is to make them, because everyone knows the taste characteristics and how to make them, and they are all experts.
Spicy kidney slices are crispy, tender, salty, fresh and spicy. It is so refreshing and addictive that you will want to take a second bite after eating it. Especially if you drink alcohol, it is a rare dish to go with wine. "
Through Li Shuang's explanation, the judges gained an understanding of the five dishes. This refers to the public judges, not the professionals. They know more about it than Li Shuang.
After some tasting, judging, and scoring, the Suzhou chef finally won. It’s understandable why seven of the professional judges are locals.
Next is the innovative dish competition, which shows the most effort and is also the decisive factor.
It is stipulated that the dishes are compared based on basic skills, which is also an emphasis on Ah Qiao's traditional dishes. After all, it is an internal competition and the tradition cannot be lost.
Relatively speaking, the competition of local dishes is of little significance, and more emphasis is placed on local cold dishes.
Aqiao is a Northeastern dumpling restaurant, and its dishes reflect more Northeastern characteristics. All areas outside the provincial capital are faced with local customers. Local customers do come for dumplings and Northeastern dishes, but they must have local dishes.
And the ratio is too important, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to keep it.
Characteristics are characteristics and cannot be divorced from the foundation of local people. The food culture and eating habits of a region cannot be changed.
Soon, the five chefs' innovative dishes were completed.
The work of the provincial capital chef is "Milk-flavored Pumpkin Little Fish".
This dish is very creative. The pumpkin is in the shape of strips, made with fried fresh milk, and dipped in black and white cooked sesame seeds. It tastes fragrant and crispy on the outside, full of milky flavor, and the pumpkin on the inside is soft and sweet, which is memorable.
Xiaoyuer uses small crystal fish, which is smoked using the ancient method of five-spice fish. The finished product is bright red in color, salty and slightly sweet, the meat is fragrant and the bones are crispy, and it makes you salivate when you eat it.
The presentation is also quite artistic, with pumpkin strips forming a fence shape, small fish swimming in the center, and the head of the plate decorated with capers for fishing, creating an idyllic scene.
The Beijing chef's creation is "Pleurotus eryngii mushrooms mixed with coriander sprouts".
The highlight of this dish is the processing of king oyster mushrooms. It is based on the method of cooking king oyster mushrooms. The king oyster mushrooms are cut into shreds and deep-fried until dry, and coriander sprouts are added for mixing. The food is dry, crispy, and lightly fragrant.
It has a slight hint of green hemp and is very refreshing.
The shape is also very beautiful, like a tall golden round tower with slightly green branches and leaves sticking out, giving it an ancient charm.
The Hohhot master's works are simple, direct and domineering, "roasted lamb back".
In order to make this dish, the chef from Hohhot did not even take a plane, but came by train with an oven. He said that he was not a champion, but just to show the characteristics and generosity of the Mongolian people. If the oven for roasting the whole lamb was not too big, it would be a problem.
Come on, he wants to roast the whole lamb.
The roasted lamb attracts everyone's attention as soon as it comes up. It's hard not to be attracted - the smell is so tempting.
The Changsha chef’s creation is “Chocolate Papaya”.
This is a fruit jelly dish that is quite popular nowadays. For example, milky papaya, tomato and strawberry pudding, QQ azalea, etc. are very popular among ladies, young people, and children.
The technical point of making fruit jelly dishes is the ratio of sugar, honey, gelatin flakes and special flavor desserts. Once this is mastered, and the cooling time is controlled, the product is ready. The rest is the choice of shape and arrangement of the knife.
, the more artistic the better.
The Suzhou master's work is "Two kinds of clear brine".
This dish is refreshing. The hand-peeled bamboo shoots marinated in clear brine are wrapped in a red pepper ring and stand neatly on one end of the plate. It is pleasing to the eye and has a faint fragrance of bamboo shoots.
Another thing that is also clear is the lotus root slices, which are clean and white and piled up on the green lotus leaves, just like the moonlight on the lotus pond.
The hand-peeled bamboo shoots stand like mountains, the lotus leaves and lotus root slices look like water, and the contrast between the mountains and rivers evokes the Jiangnan style.
Five works, five samples, five flavors and five artistic conceptions really made it difficult for the judges to score.
Finally, the president and vice-president of the Catering Association did some research and exchanged opinions with the public judges. In the end, the provincial chef's "Milk-flavored Pumpkin Fish" won.
At this point, the cold dish competition is all over, and the results of the competition are: the chef from the provincial capital takes the first place in the prescribed dishes; the Suzhou chef takes the first place in the local dishes; and the chef from the provincial capital takes the first place in the innovative dishes.
The provincial capital master won the championship with first place overall score.
It was already two o'clock in the afternoon when the competition ended. Zhou Xiaomei asked the judges to enter the private room to prepare for dinner. Li Shuang and the manager of the central kitchen store arranged for the employees to return the tables, chairs and benches in the hall, clean up, and prepare for normal business in the evening.
Zhou Xiaomei asked Lao Tan to go sit with the judges, but Lao Tan didn't go, saying that it would be tomorrow. He would not show up if he could, so as to give Zhou Xiaomei more opportunities.
Lao Tan called all the chefs participating in the competition and led them to Songhe Tower to taste the dishes.
Songhe Tower is a century-old store and a famous store in Suzhou. It was built in the 22nd year of Qianlong's reign. The ancients believed that the pine crane symbolizes longevity, so it was named Songhe Tower.
Songhelou is the representative of Suzhou cuisine. For caterers, a trip to Suzhou is a waste of time if they don’t have a meal at Songhelou.
Compared to old and famous stores with a long history like Songhelou, Aqiao cannot compare with others. Aqiao is just a commoner in front of Songhelou, while Songhelou is a relative of the emperor.
Let's put it this way, sometimes the daily turnover of a VIP private room in Songhe Tower is equivalent to the full-day turnover of Aqiao's store.
Of course Lao Tan and the others didn't dare to spend like this, but it was still a lot for one meal, mainly because they couldn't handle the large number of people. There were more than 20 people, and one person was calculated at 150, which was less than 4,000.