The Game of Life

Chapter 880 - 880 Extra Story 3 The Rise of Jiang Feng (Part 5)

?Chapter 880: Extra Story 3: The Rise of Jiang Feng (Part 5) Chapter 880: Extra Story 3: The Rise of Jiang Feng (Part 5) Jiang Feng prepared eighteen dishes for the New Year’s Eve dinner, including six cold dishes and twelve hot dishes. Among the six cold dishes, besides cucumber salad and five-spice chicken, the other four, including a mixed platter of simmered meats, were all purchased by Jiang Jiankang from the town on the 30th.

Don’t ask why there is cucumber salad among the cold dishes, if asked, it’s all about staying true to the original intention.

Cold dishes have always been light appetizers on the Jiang family’s dining table for chatting and entertaining while waiting for the meal. They are rarely eaten and usually left over for breakfast on the first and second day of the New Year, while the hot dishes are the main event.

This time, the twelve hot dishes Jiang Feng prepared could definitely be called the best New Year’s Eve dinner in the Jiang family’s recent decades. Whether it was the grade of the ingredients, the difficulty of the dishes, or the quality of the dishes themselves, all were far superior to those previously prepared by the old man. If the old man hadn’t voluntarily stepped down this year, some might have suspected that Jiang Feng’s excellent cooking was meant to challenge the old man’s authority and show everyone who the new king of the Jiang family was.

In fact, Jiang Feng cooked so many complex dishes simply because he was nervous.

It was his first time cooking the New Year’s Eve dinner, and he was nervous, scared, and excited. Not knowing which dishes to pick as the main ones, he made every dish a highlight, practicing a philosophy similar to that of a Swallow-wing Feast. Any single hot dish from a Swallow-wing Feast could dominate the table, and together, they were like gods battling. Fortunately, the dishes in a Swallow-wing Feast are served one by one; otherwise, diners might wish they had more mouths, as one simply wouldn’t be enough.

The twelve dishes Jiang Feng prepared for the New Year’s Eve dinner couldn’t match the extravagant ingredients of a Swallow-wing Feast, but in terms of quality and taste of the dishes, they could surpass it.

Who said Jiang Feng’s dishes had a buff.

A good buff might not be decisive, but it could add a final flourish, lifting a dish to the next level.

The twelve dishes Jiang Feng prepared were sweet and sour yam, Jiang’s sea cucumber soup, chopped pepper fish head, braised beef with carrots, phoenix egg, eight-treasure tofu, lobster baked with superior soup, preserved vegetable pork belly, crab roe lion’s head, bi-color prawns, apple roasted pancakes, and the grand finale, jade white cabbage.

Initially, Jiang Feng had planned to cook following the idea of balancing chicken, duck, fish, and meat, but then he thought about how the Jiang family’s dining table never cared about all that; having fish to ensure surplus and auspiciousness for the new year was enough.

Then, Jiang Feng’s thought shifted to cooking what he was good at and choosing either dishes that had a good buff or were favored by the elders at home.

Braised beef with carrots symbolized the best of luck for the year. Although using it for New Year’s felt like not putting good steel to its best use, it was nice to seek some auspicious fortune during the festival.

Eight-treasure tofu made an unexpected entrance simply because Jiang Feng felt it was essential to have some vegetables in the New Year’s Eve dinner for a semblance of healthiness.

As for why there were sweet and sour yam and apple roasted pancakes—two sweet dishes—the reason was even simpler, as Mrs. Jiang liked them—if she could bite into them.

Jiang Feng knew that if he made sweet lotus root with sticky rice, Mrs. Jiang would like it even more, but others might not, and he himself couldn’t stand the sweetness of that dish. Who could handle that?

Only three dishes among the twelve required broth, Jiang’s sea cucumber soup, lobster baked with superior soup, and jade white cabbage, the broth for the latter being prepared that morning by the old man and Jiang Weiming taking turns watching it. It seemed like not many dishes used the broth, but the quantity used was substantial, mainly because Jiang Feng made the Jiang’s sea cucumber soup based on the number of people, doubling the portion size to cater to the family’s taste.

Theoretically, Jiang’s sea cucumber soup should be slow-cooked in a small pot, but that day Jiang Feng used a clay pot.

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