Chapter 150: Treating Everyone Evenly

Bai Renzong picked up a piece of steamed pork with rice flour and showed it to the camera. "Look at this pork, everyone. It has a perfect balance of fat and lean meat, and it's soft, tender, and savory. It falls apart with just a gentle nudge of the chopsticks. You might think it would be greasy, but it's actually not at all. That's because the potatoes underneath absorb all the excess oil..."

As he spoke, Bai Renzong flipped over the potatoes beneath the meat. "The potatoes are soft and waxy, not dry in the slightest. This is actually very difficult to master. The amount of oil used has to be precisely right. If there's too little oil, both the meat and the potatoes turn out dry; if there's too much, it becomes overly greasy. Plus, pork belly naturally releases its own oil during cooking, which can easily throw off a chef's judgment. It all comes down to pure experience."

Bai Renzong took a bite of a potato and sighed in admiration. "To achieve this level of quality, it must be the work of a master chef with decades of craftsmanship."

Han Jiayi took a bite as well, her eyebrows instantly arching in surprise. "Oh? This... is really delicious. The base under my portion is taro. Its texture is even more delicate than potatoes, and it pairs so well with this steamed fish..."

"The glutinous rice meatballs are amazing too..." Wang Bei said, covering her mouth in delight. "The meat is finely minced yet springy, and the subtle fragrance of the outer glutinous rice matches the savory flavor of the meat so well... Even though it's just a ball of meat, the flavor is remarkably refreshing."

"Does everyone know about glutinous rice meatballs?" Bai Renzong said, holding up a meatball in front of the camera. "Traditional meatballs are coated in a layer of glutinous rice and placed in a steamer to cook. You have to time it so that the meat is thoroughly cooked while the glutinous rice reaches that absolute perfection of texture."

After explaining, Bai Renzong took a bite and nodded in satisfaction. "The heat control is spot on; the glutinous rice isn't over-steamed into mush. Honestly speaking, steamed dishes are a battle against time. One minute less and it's undercooked; one minute more and it dries out, which completely ruins the texture."

Next, Bai Renzong tasted the steamed fish. "The fish isn't overly salty, and there's not a hint of fishiness. Overall, Mianyang's Three Steamed Dishes are wonderful on their own and don't need to be eaten with rice, especially since the potatoes and sweet potatoes underneath already count as staples."

Just then, the rest of the dishes were served: lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice and sprinkled with osmanthus, steamed white-fleshed bream, and steamed edamame.

"This one is actually sweet," Bai Renzong explained, picking up a slice of the osmanthus glutinous rice lotus root. "Glutinous rice is stuffed inside the lotus root, which is then coated in osmanthus syrup and steamed. It sounds simple, but it actually demands exceptionally high heat control. The lotus root must maintain just the right crispness, and the sweetness has to be perfectly balanced. Let's taste it."

With that, Bai Renzong took a bite, savored it carefully, and said, "Ah, the lotus root is just right—it retains a certain crisp freshness without being crunchy like a raw vegetable, and the softness of the glutinous rice is spot on."

"I suppose it comes down to choosing the right lotus root," Han Jiayi added from the side. "The chef must have a wealth of experience to know what kind of lotus root to pick and how long to steam it. That's truly impressive, because experience is something that can only be accumulated through time. Even though I've been wandering through vegetable markets since I was sixteen or seventeen, I'd still find it hard to hit the mark with one hundred percent accuracy..."

Bai Renzong furrowed his brow, feeling a slight sense of irritation: Damn it, is there really no flaw to be picked?

Only the steamed edamame and the white-fleshed bream remained. Bai Renzong turned his attention to the steamed edamame first.

This steamed edamame wasn't actually plain-steamed; it was prepared with fermented black beans and dried chili peppers, making the flavor quite bold and heavy. It paired wonderfully with rice, and Bai Renzong finished an entire bowl of rice after just a few bites.

"Could you ever imagine steamed vegetables being this spicy?" Bai Renzong wiped away a sweat droplet and frowned. "It steams all that spicy heat right into the beans, yet the edamame still retains its natural bean aroma, and it's delightfully crisp and chewy... Oh lord, it's so spicy."

Saying this, Bai Renzong took a large gulp of water. Han Jiayi immediately refilled his cup, then used the opportunity of him drinking to gently wipe the sweat beading on his forehead, her eyes filled with profound affection as she looked at him.

Finally, only the steamed white-fleshed bream was left.

"White-fleshed bream is a freshwater fish unique to our region. Because Beichang City borders the Yangtze River, we have an abundance of aquatic products. Now, there's a little piece of trivia here..." At this, Bai Renzong smiled mysteriously. "This fish looks very similar to the white bream. So how do you tell them apart? The white bream has thirteen fish bones, while the white-fleshed bream has thirteen and a half bones."

Han Jiayi shot him a flirtatious wink. "Let's count them after we eat!"

Bai Renzong tasted a piece of the steamed white-fleshed bream and shrugged. "It's standard and competent—just the usual preparation with steamed fish soy sauce, scallions, ginger, and cooking wine, then placed in the steamer. The heat control is quite good, but there are no particular highlights."

Bai Renzong realized that this restaurant was somewhat similar to LIE; there were no flashy gimmicks or bizarre creative twists, relying purely on strong and solid culinary fundamentals.

At this point, Bai Renzong turned to Wang Bei and nodded. "Alright, shall we dig in?"

"You got it," Wang Bei cheerfully replied, adjusting the camera angle to capture both Bai Renzong and Han Jiayi.

"Mumu, would you like the fish belly?" Bai Renzong asked with a soft smile, placing a piece of the fish belly onto Han Jiayi's plate.

"You're calling me Mumu in front of everyone again..." Han Jiayi hummed in playful protest.

Bai Renzong gently patted her head. "It's fine, my voice is very quiet, they can't hear clearly. Here..."

"I can eat by myself, you should eat more too? You still have to livestream until midnight tonight..." Han Jiayi said, placing a piece of steamed pork with rice flour on his plate. "The rice flour coating on this meat tastes really good. It feels like it's homemade."

Wang Bei, sitting beside them, was already long accustomed to their public displays of affection. Maintaining her usual expression, she heartily dug into her meal.

After finishing the meal, Bai Renzong carefully counted the bones of the white-fleshed bream.

"Twelve, thirteen... and this last bone here, see?" Bai Renzong said, pointing the camera toward the fish's main spine. "The final main bone—there's a branch extending toward the belly side, but nothing toward the back side, which is why it's called thirteen and a half bones. When you come to Beichang City to eat this, you can count the bones yourself afterward. If this half-bone is missing, you can file a complaint against the restaurant."

As he spoke these words, Bai Renzong actually felt a genuine sense of admiration for the culinary skill of the chef in this establishment.

He possessed the supernatural ability of "discerning character through culinary appreciation." In these dishes, he could sense the absolute sincerity of the chef who made them—decades of day-in, day-out repetition and accumulation, solely dedicated to pushing this art of "steaming" to its ultimate pinnacle.

Even though it was a restaurant under the Phantom World Group, Bai Renzong couldn't help but want to express his respect to the chef.

However, certain things still needed to be made clear to the audience, so he added a concluding remark: "Anyway, that's how it was for our meal. I can't guarantee it will be the exact same for you when you come, because after all, this is a business collaboration, and they knew in advance that we were coming."

Having finished dining, Bai Renzong paid the bill. The total for the three of them came to a little over four hundred, and the steamed white-fleshed bream alone cost more than two hundred. Considering the level of craftsmanship, Bai Renzong felt it was well worth the price.

At that moment, the restaurant's head chef emerged from the kitchen. It was an elderly man supported by someone else, appearing to be in his late sixties or seventies. He walked with a shaky, unsteady gait, hardly looking like someone capable of personally stepping into the kitchen to cook.

Seeing this scene, Bai Renzong looked perplexed and immediately stepped forward to greet him.

"Hello, are you the head chef here?" Bai Renzong asked tentatively.

A middle-aged man in his forties standing nearby smiled and introduced him. "This is Chen Duofu, our head chef. He's advanced in years, so he doesn't usually cook himself, but today he made an exception just for you."

The old man rasped in a hoarse voice, "Well... are you satisfied with the cooking of an old man like me?"

"Um... yes." Bai Renzong nodded reluctantly. "The essence of steamed cuisine sounds simple—heat control and seasoning—but the simpler something is, the harder it is to execute perfectly. So... it really is extraordinary. It must be the result of several decades of practice, right?"

Elder Chen Duofu nodded. "I started learning from my father when I was sixteen, and took over from him when I was forty. This year, I am sixty-six..."

"That adds up to nearly fifty years of accumulation..." Bai Renzong thought with secret astonishment, then asked with a touch of reluctance, "With such exceptional culinary skills, why would you choose to collaborate with the Phantom World Group?"

"As you can see," the old man sighed. "I'm sixty-six years old, and I haven't even cultivated a successor of my own. Back in the day, running a restaurant didn't make money; we could only afford to keep a tiny, rundown shop going. My son didn't want to follow in my footsteps and went off to study finance, and the apprentices I took in couldn't endure decades of grinding and ended up leaving to start their own businesses halfway through their training. Only by making money can an art like this be successfully passed down..."

The old man's words left Bai Renzong temporarily speechless. Upon careful reflection, it actually made a lot of sense.

"I heard that you are here representing the television station and the tourism bureau to review restaurants, so this old man has a presumptuous request..." Elder Chen Duofu suddenly grasped Bai Renzong's hand. "Please, help our restaurant get featured in the local tourism booklet. Let everyone know about our steamed dishes, so this craft can be smoothly passed down..."

At this point, Bai Renzong finally understood the other party's true objective.

This restaurant had invited him for a business collaboration precisely because they wanted to secure a spot in Beichang City's tourism booklet. Of course, in all fairness, the restaurant certainly possessed the capability to back it up. First, these steamed dishes were genuine local specialties of Beichang City, and second, they were executed to an exceptionally high standard that fully met the tourism bureau's criteria.

While completing the task assigned by the tourism bureau could be considered a good thing for Bai Renzong, he couldn't shake the feeling of being emotionally manipulated by the old man through a play on morality, which left him slightly annoyed.

"I will speak the truth," Bai Renzong replied, before shifting his tone. "However, you mentioned earlier that the old gentleman made a special exception to personally cook these dishes for me today, right? In that case, I have a presumptuous request of my own."

With that, Bai Renzong sat back down, propped his chin on his hand, and smiled. "Bring me a portion of Mianyang's Three Steamed Dishes prepared the way you normally make them for everyday customers. I trust you understand what I mean?"

The manager hesitated for a moment before replying, "We can do that, but you'll have to turn off the livestream first."