Riding on their high enthusiasm, everyone quickly finished dinner and gathered in Xiaoman's room for a discussion.
The next morning, after buying ingredients at the local vegetable market with Sister Gao, a new teammate who joined at the Xijing station, they returned to the studio and immediately began preparing the feast.
"Today, we are bringing you a Tang Dynasty imperial banquet."
At the start of the show, since Xu Yanxia was busy briefing the newly joined Sister Gao on the precautions for the upcoming dishes, Little Pepper Suisui took her place to introduce the menu to the host. "It consists of three main dishes, one dessert, and one staple food. This is a menu that our team leader, Director Xiaxia, developed by referencing many important historical documents and tweaking it to suit modern tastes."
"It's actually an imperial banquet from the prosperous Tang Dynasty over a thousand years ago. This is absolutely highly anticipated!!!"
The host immediately let out an enthusiastic "Wow," providing plenty of hype, and then interviewed them further. "But speaking of which, this seems to be the first time Director Xu's team has presented imperial dishes in our competition. I wonder how this idea came about?"
"Of course, it was the profound historical and cultural heritage of Xijing that inspired us."
Xu Yanxia, who had just finished briefing her team on the precautions, immediately came over to the host and explained. "Coupled with the positive feedback we received yesterday for the golden thread date paste rolls, it gave us confidence. My teammates and I wanted to use our efforts to give everyone a glimpse of the prosperous Tang Dynasty's elegance."
"Well said!"
The host took the lead in applauding her, and looking at the camera with a face full of expectation, said, "Let's patiently wait for the dishes from Director Xu and her teammates! I hope they make a bit more so our director and cameramen can have a taste later, because I can already see them drooling!"
As soon as the words fell, laughter erupted both inside and outside the venue.
...
Simmering the rich broth, slow-cooking the beef tendons;
Braising and then roasting premium beef short ribs;
Blanching fresh spinach to extract juice for kneading the dough;
Freezing the whipped honey cream in the refrigerator...
From the high noon sun to the slanting rays of the evening sunset, as time ticked by, the highly anticipated grand dishes of the prosperous Tang imperial banquet by Xu Yanxia's team were finally completed one by one and placed on the display table.
Because their team took a relatively long time, the dishes of the other teams had already been displayed and explained, so right now, everyone's attention was focused entirely on their creations.
As the team leader, Xu Yanxia personally began to explain them from the side.
"Our first dish is the Camel Hoof Soup, known as the 'First of the Eight Delicacies of Tang'."
"As the name suggests, this is a soup dish. According to historical records, the original ingredient for this dish is actually camel hoof, but considering the practical difficulty of obtaining the ingredient, we replaced the camel hoof with beef hoof."
Following her voice, everyone cast their gazes along with the camera's close-up shot. They saw the soup in the celadon lotus bowl displaying a milky white, gentle luster. Its texture was as thick as congealed fat, yet without a hint of cloudiness.
The faintly visible tendons inside had been stewed until they were as translucent as amber. Even without tasting it, one could imagine how tender and melt-in-the-mouth they were. A few golden toasted rice grains floated on the surface of the soup, garnished with a few red wolfberries, making it extremely pleasing to the eye.
"Our second dish is called Milk-Brewed Fish, which is also a famous dish from the Tang Dynasty's Shaowei Banquet. It uses cow's milk as an ingredient to cook the fish, making it arguably the pioneer of Chinese-Western fusion cuisine."
Xu Yanxia continued her explanation. "The main ingredient is sea bass, because compared to the carp used back then, sea bass has fewer bones, its meat is more tender, and it lacks an earthy taste. Besides milk, we also added mashed yam into the broth to increase its thickness."
As she explained, the crowd once again cast their eyes over. They saw that the steamed fish still maintained a perfect shape, its surface drizzled with a layer of rich, milky white broth that gleamed with a jade-like luster. The edge of the plate was garnished with shredded cilantro and orange segments. The entire dish contrasted beautifully in green, white, and orange.
What was particularly worth mentioning was that the dish emitted a rich milky aroma, which blended with the umami of the fish in a surprisingly harmonious way, instantly whetting the appetites of everyone present.
Even Wen Jiajun, who had just eaten a lavish business lunch at noon, couldn't help but sigh, "How exactly do people sign up to be judges for this show? If I had known, I would have signed up too. This smells absolutely incredible!!!"
After half a day of negotiations yesterday and most of today, they had already finalized a preliminary cooperation plan with the people from Meyer. Now, they only needed to further refine the plan and officially sign it.
Working overtime on this grand weekend, and having finally made a trip to Xijing, although the other colleagues had already rushed back to Rong City right after the meeting, he insisted on staying, determined to mooch a big meal off Lu Jingming before leaving.
And so, just a moment ago, the two of them had entered the studio together to act as Xu Yanxia's friends and family cheering squad.
However, it would have been better if they hadn't come. Right now, delicious grand dishes were laid out in the center, and the large screen was displaying various close-ups in a 360-degree panoramic view. They could even clearly smell the aromas, yet they absolutely couldn't eat it. Heaven knew how torturous this was!!!
"Now you know how we feel!"
Ye Shu, standing to the side, smacked her lips pitifully. "We've been tortured by this cruel punishment for several episodes now!!!"
"Yeah, I hope Xiaoxia will add all these grand dishes made in the competition to the restaurant's menu later, so we'll have a chance to taste them too!"
Xiaozhen also said from the side, trying hard to hold back her drool.
Wen Jiajun hurriedly looked at Lu Jingming on the other side and said, "Did you hear that, CEO? This is the voice of the masses. Hurry up and suggest that Director Xu develops these new dishes!"
"Don't worry, our Director Xu definitely has her own plans."
Lu Jingming said with a smile, then turned his gaze back to Xu Yanxia in the venue.
His cute and beautiful little silly baby was introducing their team's third dish to the camera. She looked capable and confident, radiating a charming glow.
Well, he couldn't blame those flashy men for overestimating their own abilities.
It was simply because his girlfriend was too outstanding.
"The prototype for our third dish today is 'Roasted Camel Hump' from the Tang Dynasty imperial banquet. As the name implies, it's roasted camel hump. Again, considering the scarcity of the ingredient, we replaced it with high-quality local yellow cattle short ribs and gave it a new name: 'Silk Road Ancient-Style Roasted Steak'."
"The fourth dish is a staple, taking inspiration from the famous poem 'Locust Leaf Cold Noodles' by the Sage of Poetry, Du Fu: 'Green, green are the high locust leaves, plucked and sent to the central kitchen.' Of course, there are no fresh locust leaves in this season, and it's not quite suitable for eating cold noodles, so we used spinach juice to knead the dough, simulating the green color of the locust leaf noodles, and made it into a sour soup flavor."
"The fifth dish is a dessert called 'Sushan', which is similar to modern ice cream. It was also a very popular dessert in the Tang Dynasty imperial court at that time."
...
Following Xu Yanxia's introduction, Lu Jingming directed his gaze toward the camera's close-up on the large screen. The Silk Road Traditional Roasted Steak featured thick chunks of beef short ribs that had been braised and then roasted to perfection. Arranged on a brass platter, the meat glistened with a caramelized, golden-brown hue that was incredibly tempting.
Meanwhile, the sour soup noodle squares, made from dough infused with spinach juice, were a translucent, vibrant green. They were bathed in a light, soy-tinted broth and garnished with chopped scallions and cilantro, giving off a mouthwatering, tangy aroma of vinegar.
As for the Tang Dynasty-style ice cream, known as Su Shan, it was simply beyond words. The smooth, milky-white ice cream was piled into the shape of a miniature mountain on a white porcelain plate, elegantly swirled with pale green matcha powder and pink strawberry jam. Just one look was enough to tell how delicious it tasted.
...
Lu Jingming was genuinely starting to feel hungry.
He realized that Wen Jiajun's earlier suggestion made perfect sense.
If these dishes were added to their restaurant's menu, they would undoubtedly become massive hits!
