Daddy! Come Home for Dinner!-Chapter 629: Stirring Things Up

Zeng Jieyun nodded, still a bit nervous as she explained, "I’m trying to replicate the texture you get when eating crab. For instance, crab roe has a fine granulated texture that is served with minced ginger and crab vinegar."

"So I ground the ginger into fine particles to mimic the texture of crab roe," Zeng Jieyun explained. "The coarser ginger was to replicate the sensation of combining ginger and vinegar when eating crab."

Ye Huasong nodded and said, "I can see that you’ve tried to incorporate thoughtfulness into this dish."

"For this dish, if we were to follow the usual method, we could add some fish or broth to enhance the flavor. It’s a pity that the theme today restricted this dish’s potential," Luo Jialin said regretfully. "Otherwise, it could have performed very well."

The theme for today’s dish is vegetarian.

Whether eggs count as vegetarian has always been a controversial topic.

There are divisions among vegetarians on this matter.

However, a significant portion of vegetarians do accept eggs as a part of a vegetarian diet.

Otherwise, Zeng Jieyun’s entire dish would be in jeopardy.

Yet even so, Zeng Jieyun’s dish wasn’t considered successful; you could discern this from the judges’ comments.

Zeng Jieyun’s expression darkened accordingly.

Although she was mentally prepared to be eliminated from the competition, she felt that even with a higher likelihood of being eliminated, she at least wanted to perform well in this contest and to lose with dignity.

Never did she expect to perform so poorly.

She wasn’t upset about being eliminated.

She was upset about not being eliminated gracefully.

The five judges gave their evaluations one by one, reaching Tian Pengpo’s cooking station.

There, on Tian Pengpo’s cooking station, a plate of braised pork belly was presented, its color alluring, a rich caramel red.

The surface of the braised pork belly was glistening with oil, shining brightly.

Its aroma could be smelled without even getting too close.

Guo Wenbo’s face lit up with surprise.

Naturally, Tian Pengpo wouldn’t foolishly use actual meat.

This was certainly made by simulating with vegetarian ingredients.

And that’s what makes it even more surprising.

It’s truly almost indistinguishable from real meat!

Gu Changfeng cut a small piece of the braised pork belly, examining its cross-section.

"Tian Pengpo, not bad," Gu Changfeng said with a smile. "Not only does it look like the real thing, but even the inside is similar."

"The lean part has distinct meat fiber textures, while the fatty part is translucent," Ye Huasong praised. "And the tactile sensation when cutting is very similar, too.

Lowell tasted a piece and exclaimed in surprise, "It’s almost perfectly close to the texture of braised pork belly."

"The lean part underneath, did you use vegetarian chicken?" Luo Jialin asked.

Tian Pengpo nodded, "But the texture of vegetarian chicken is slightly more delicate than meat. So I rapidly froze and then thawed it to create more pores, making it chewier. It also locks in the sauce better, so when you bite into it, there will be a burst of juice."

"What about the fatty part on top?" Lowell cut off another piece of the fatty part to examine it closely.

"It’s made from pears," Tian Pengpo explained, "Cooked until soft and melts in your mouth."

"Braised pork belly is heavy on sauce to mask the lack of meat flavor. The scent is nearly identical, though there’s still a gap in taste," said Tian Pengpo, somewhat regretfully.

"Why, are you regretting it?" Guo Wenbo chuckled, "After all, it’s not real meat; you can’t create authentic meat flavor out of thin air."

"You can only try to get as close as possible. If it were that easy to achieve, patrons would have long been served with it."

Especially for those on a diet, being able to eat less or no meat while still feeling satisfied like eating meat.

It would make dietary restraint less challenging.

"So far, you are the best in my opinion tonight," Ye Huasong said.

Following Tian Pengpo was only Ye Fei.

It’s fair to say that Ye Huasong’s comment was already a high compliment.

If Ye Fei didn’t surpass Tian Pengpo, then at least to Ye Huasong, Tian Pengpo was the best of the evening.

"Hahaha!" Lowell, who always had a high opinion of Ye Fei, laughed.

He was probably the judge who had the highest expectations for Ye Fei.

"Well, it’s Ye Fei’s turn now," Lowell chuckled.

Gu Changfeng jeered, "Lao Luo, you’re causing trouble."

"How is that causing trouble?" Lowell laughed, "I’m just curious."

"Fine, then you can try the first bite," Guo Wenbo said.

So, the five of them moved over to Ye Fei’s cooking station.

"Huh?" Luo Jialin exclaimed in surprise when she saw Ye Fei’s dish.

Ye Fei had prepared sashimi.

"You’re the only one who made sashimi today," Luo Jialin said in surprise.

Other contestants had made cooked imitation meat dishes.

Only Ye Fei had truly taken a different path.

Sashimi is mostly composed of seafood.

Does seafood count as meat?

Of course it does.

It’s not only land animals that are considered meat.

Everyone knows this, but when people think of meat, they tend to default to land animals.

Zeng Jieyun did make mock crab, but that’s a traditional dish with a long history.

Unlike Ye Fei and Tian Pengpo, who were developing their own creations.

"Yes," Ye Fei gestured towards the plate, introducing one by one, "This is octopus tentacle sashimi, this is salmon sashimi, and this is sea urchin sashimi."

Just by appearance, they really looked very similar.

Authentic enough to be convincing. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

These wouldn’t escape the eyes of professional chefs.

But if it were just ordinary guests, they’d hardly suspect a thing if these dishes were served.

Because they were crafted so realistically.

Luo Jialin stared for a moment and said, "Did you use the king oyster mushroom from before to make this octopus tentacle?"

Ye Fei nodded and explained, "I carved the king oyster mushroom to resemble octopus tentacles. After cooking, I dyed them with red wine, sliced them up, and refrigerated to make the texture closer to that of octopus tentacles."

"For the salmon, I mixed carrot juice to create the red part. I used soy milk, tofu, and gelatin sheets, along with konjac, to achieve a texture close to salmon. For the sea urchin, I used egg yolk, orange zest, and light cream," Ye Fei introduced.

Next to the three plates of sashimi was a small dish of soy sauce.

Beside the soy sauce dish, there was an additional small dish containing freshly ground wasabi from Ye Fei.

The judges first tasted a portion without any sauce.

Lowell frowned slightly, saying, "Eating it plain, you can still taste the original flavor of the ingredients, it’s not close to raw fish."

After which, Lowell picked up another piece of "salmon."

He first picked up a tiny bit of wasabi with the tip of his chopstick and placed it on the salmon, then dipped the side without wasabi into the soy sauce.

Unlike the sharpness of store-bought tube wasabi, Ye Fei’s freshly ground wasabi had a more distinct fragrance.