He couldn't help but twitch his nose, leaning in to smell the aroma of this Gong Bao Chicken, and instantly felt a slightly pungent taste rush over him.
Whether it was the chicken or the carrot shreds.
The aromas of these ingredients were invisibly intertwined.
This made Kuga Terunori, at this very moment, truly have an urge to pick up his chopsticks and furiously eat a few bites!
… …
Crunch!
First, he put a peanut into his mouth and chewed it a few times.
Instantly, the crispness of the peanut immediately emerged, followed by a rich aroma that burst forth in Kuga Terunori's mouth.
Fragrant.
Crispy.
Rich.
Fresh.
A little salt and Sichuan peppercorns clung to the peanut kernels, highlighting the savory, spicy, and numbing flavor.
At the same time, after being fried in oil, it quickly cooled down, giving the peanuts that satisfying crunch, which made Kuga feel very fragrant and delicious, even without any words to describe it.
Finally, Kuga slowly closed his eyes.
He began to calm down and carefully appreciate these wonderful sensations.
And after continuously tasting a few peanuts, he directly opened his eyes and, even more impatiently, picked up the chicken cubes to continue feasting.
"What?"
"This… this taste."
Upon entering the mouth, the first sensation was a slightly stimulating burnt-spicy aroma.
Then, with a gentle bite, the chicken cubes were smooth and springy, yet also carried a rich aroma and a hint of sweet lychee fragrance.
Various flavors combined, salty, spicy, fragrant, sour, sweet, etc., constantly intermingled, and the taste buds in his mouth were instantly ignited.
… …
"Amazing!"
"The Gong Bao Chicken I remember has always been primarily spicy and numbing."
"But this one, which tastes so much like lychee, I seem to have rarely tasted it, and in fact, the flavor of this Gong Bao Chicken is even superior!"
"Is this… is this still the Gong Bao Chicken I remember?"
At this moment, Kuga Terunori truly wanted to swear that he had never tasted such delicious Gong Bao Chicken in his life.
Even though he himself was a chef skilled in Chinese cuisine, and even though his accomplishments in this area had always been high, he was still particularly shocked at this moment.
For someone of his status, almost every meal was basically some grand and extravagant dish.
And for a national banquet dish like Gong Bao Chicken, he must have eaten quite a lot in his life.
However.
Even so.
In his memory, this Gong Bao Chicken should… never have tasted so good, right?
Clearly, compared to all the Gong Bao Chicken dishes he had eaten and made before, the dish made by Sosuke was definitely 10 times, 100 times, or even 1000 times more delicious!
… …
Gradually, after eating a few chicken cubes.
Kuga Terunori no longer maintained his slow chewing motion, but instead quickly shoveled with his chopsticks.
Finally, he even asked Sosuke for a bowl of rice to pair with the delicious Gong Bao Chicken. Unexpectedly, the moment the rice entered his mouth, Kuga Terunori was completely conquered!
"Hiss!"
"What kind of divine rice is this again?"
"How… how can it be so delicious?"
The simple rice had a refreshing aroma.
As he chewed continuously, this aroma filled his mouth and nasal cavity, fresh and pleasant, making him feel instantly refreshed.
The rice grains were distinct.
Unlike rice cooked in a rice cooker, which is often sticky and lacks texture!
Especially the sauce from the Gong Bao Chicken; adding a little more onto the rice, that sweet, sour, fragrant, and spicy juice was an absolute godsend for eating with rice, making it impossible to stop once you started.
Just like that, in a flurry of gobbling, a bowl of rice was quickly devoured by him.
Next to him, the plate of Gong Bao Chicken was also empty; finally, even the few remaining green onion sections on the plate were transferred into Kuga Terunori's bowl, and the sauce was mixed into the rice as well.
Hmm!
It was evident.
Not a single customer who came to the Izakaya wasted any food.
… …
"Burnt-spicy lychee flavor?"
"Indeed, this is another flavor of Gong Bao Chicken."
"That taste that is like lychee's sweet and sour upon first bite, then slowly transforms into a rich savory flavor, and finally a subtle numbing spiciness emerges in the aftertaste…"
"This kind of flavor change is what truly makes a Gong Bao Chicken!"
"Chef, the preparation of the Gong Bao sauce."
"But this dish's essence, and what truly tests a chef's seasoning ability."
"Especially this burnt-spicy lychee flavored Gong Bao sauce, it requires the chef to meticulously prepare it gram by gram and taste it bit by bit with a scientific rigor."
"This might involve dozens of ingredients and hundreds of trials; even a slight difference can be fatal to the taste."
"I've made Gong Bao Chicken countless times in my life."
"But I have to admit that in the preparation of the Gong Bao sauce, I am far inferior to you!"
After speaking, a hint of complexity involuntarily appeared in Kuga Terunori's eyes.
This plate of Gong Bao Chicken was undoubtedly a harsh slap to his face, proving to him in a way that Chinese cuisine can be very successful even without deliberately emphasizing spiciness.
… …
"The soul of this Gong Bao sauce preparation is a vinegar-to-sugar ratio of 1:1."
"Only with this ratio will you get the taste experience of sourness preceding sweetness. In short, the seasoning part, unlike heat control and knife skills, actually has a very strong subjectivity!"
"There's no fixed combination, nor a definite technique, but truly skilled Chinese cuisine chefs excel here."
Sosuke just smiled and said lightly.
"That seems to make some sense."
Kuga pondered for a moment, then seemed to realize something.
He had always believed that Sichuan cuisine dishes like Gong Bao Chicken simply involved constantly stir-frying with Sichuan peppercorns and chilies, using spiciness to stimulate the dish's exciting flavor.
But in Sosuke's view, this approach was clearly too simple and crude.
Without the blood and tears of kitchen experiments, how could one create a Gong Bao Chicken with a rich, ever-changing flavor, like the ups and downs of life? (End of Chapter)
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