Chapter 376 - 196: Yay! I Get to Hug It to Sleep Every Day

Chapter 376: Chapter 196: Yay! I Get to Hug It to Sleep Every Day

Snowflake Chicken Porridge!

Zhou Yan stared at the task reward that popped up, completely stunned.

’Isn’t this the Luo family’s lost recipe for Snowflake Chicken Porridge from Kong Qingfeng’s memory fragment!’

This was a classic dish in Sichuan Cuisine, one that typically only appeared at high-end banquets.

The dish wasn’t exclusive to the Luo family. But back then, among the many chefs at Le Ming Restaurant, the elder Luo’s inherited skill for making Snowflake Chicken Porridge had secured him a permanent spot. It was one of the signature dishes on the restaurant’s menu.

Ever since the elder Luo died in an accident while drunk, his son failed to carry on the tradition of making Snowflake Chicken Porridge. From that day forward, Le Ming Restaurant’s menu has been missing a signature dish, and it has never been replaced.

’Unbelievable!’

’To think I’d be the one to get it.’

Zhou Yan mulled it over. ’It must be related to Kong Qingfeng’s memory fragment. Maybe there was a part I didn’t access, so the system chose a reward from it for me instead.’

Zhou Yan had never eaten authentic Snowflake Chicken Porridge.

Back when he was a food blogger, this dish was already on the verge of being lost forever.

The non-spicy dishes of Sichuan Cuisine were generally the ones that looked prohibitively expensive.

Dishes like Boiled Cabbage, Snowflake Chicken Porridge, Chicken Tofu Pudding, Pottery Pork, Immortal Duck...

The common theme was that you couldn’t find them in an ordinary Sichuan restaurant, and you couldn’t afford the places that did serve them.

And for that very reason, most Sichuan chefs neither knew how to make these dishes nor had the opportunity to. In other cases, like with the elder Luo, an accidental death would break the chain of inheritance, and the recipe would slowly fade away, becoming a famous dish found only in historical texts.

This dish would definitely never make it onto the menu at Zhou Yan Restaurant.

It was even more out of place than the Linjiang Shanshi.

The workers wanted hearty, filling dishes that went well with rice. The price could be a bit higher than the cafeteria’s, but not ridiculously so.

Snowflake Chicken Porridge was famous for being a dish where you "eat chicken without seeing chicken" and "eat meat without seeing meat." It used meat to mimic a vegetarian dish’s appearance and could be considered the molecular gastronomy of Sichuan Cuisine.

Zhou Yan had once tried Snowflake Chicken Porridge at a private kitchen. A pile of the fluffy, snow-like mixture was heaped on a large white plate and sprinkled with a bit of chopped ham. It was a visually stunning dish.

He’d thought it tasted decent at the time, but it was a bit pricey, and the texture was slightly grainy, lacking the proper delicate, silky smoothness.

Afterward, he looked it up in some old culinary texts and realized that wasn’t how it was supposed to be at all.

The private kitchen’s version of Snowflake Chicken Porridge was inauthentic. At the very least, its taste didn’t match the descriptions in the books, which probably meant the chef’s skills weren’t up to par.

But even if it were made perfectly...

The dish was only suitable for banquets. If it were on the menu of a small restaurant, it would probably be ordered less than twice a year. So was it even worth keeping the ingredients on hand?

It was a dish fit for a grand hall, but it lacked the smoky, bustling charm of the common streets.

But Zhou Yan could barely suppress his grin.

It didn’t matter that he couldn’t put it on the restaurant menu. He had just added two new hearty dishes, and the novelty hadn’t worn off for his customers yet. He was in no rush.

’Learning Snowflake Chicken Porridge means I have another ace up my sleeve.’

In the future, whether for chef certification exams or on occasions where he needed to show off his skills, this would be an incredibly impressive dish to pull out.

It was the very definition of high-end, grand, and classy.

’Quests are great! I’ll have to keep accepting them.’

And whenever he craved chicken, he could even show off his skills for his family. ’I just wonder if they’ll be able to appreciate it, though.’

As Qian Siyuan and Kong Qingfeng began to discuss the family meeting for the next day, Zhou Yan stood up, refilled their tea, and then excused himself to head back.

The rest was a family matter; it wasn’t his place as an outsider to get involved.

"Senior Kong, I’ll head back with Zhou Yan then," Xiao Lei said, rising. "The driver can take us both in one trip to save him the drive back and forth."

"Alright," Kong Qingfeng nodded. He stood up and patted Xiao Lei’s shoulder, saying with relief, "Thank you both, master and disciple, for your hard work. If your master knew you’d found his nephew, he would be absolutely thrilled."

"It was my duty. He is my master’s own nephew, after all." Xiao Lei smiled and nodded. He was in a great mood today as well.

Qian Siyuan stood up as well and looked at Xiao Lei. "Master Xiao, when we go back to our hometown for the wedding reception, I’ll have to trouble you and your disciple to help manage the banquet."

"I can’t quite commit to that just yet," Xiao Lei said with a smile. "I have another wedding banquet and a birthday banquet to cater this month. If the dates conflict, I can’t just cancel on clients who’ve already booked—those are major life events, too. But our Kong Sect is full of talent. With Senior Kong and all my sect brothers here, you don’t have to worry about a banquet. It’ll be no problem at all."

"Now you’re wrong about that," Kong Qingfeng said, shaking his head with a smile. "We’d still need you to run the banquet. If you dragged me out to the countryside to cater a rural feast, I’d be completely lost. I wouldn’t even know where to find you a steamer. You have the experience, so we’ll just schedule it around your availability. The wedding reception doesn’t need to be on an auspicious day anyway, so there shouldn’t be a problem."

"Alright," Xiao Lei nodded.

"Master Zhou, thank you so much for your help," Qian Siyuan said, taking Zhou Yan’s hand again in gratitude. "Once everything is settled, I will pay you a formal visit to express my thanks."

If it hadn’t been for Zhou Yan’s tireless questioning, his identification of the Linjiang Shanshi, his effort to find Xiao Lei to cook the dish, and his help in taking him to Linjiang to find his family, this whole journey would have likely ended in failure.

He was incredibly grateful to both Master Xiao and his disciple, Zhou Yan.

"Mr. Qian, you’re too kind," Zhou Yan said quickly. "After all, you’re my Grandmaster’s nephew, which makes you my elder. It was only right for me to help."

’My master was so wise,’ he thought. If they had accepted that stack of Great Unity bills yesterday, things would have been incredibly awkward today.

’Taking a hundred yuan would mean I couldn’t hold my head high in the Kong Sect ever again.’

Things were perfect as they were. President Qian had found his family, Zhou Yan had received a system reward, and he had also earned a favor from President Qian.

Calling him an elder felt a bit like forcing the connection, especially since Zhou Yan had never even met his Grandmaster’s own son and daughter.