Chapter 4 – Da Pan Ji (Big Plate Chicken)
Translated by Prosperousfood.com
Rehosted by Gumihou at kitchennovel.com
In the morning, Ye Chui purchased the food from the wet market and carried them home.
He first washed the 50 jin of mutton, and started preparing them for his business at night. He was busy with the preparations until about noon.
At this time, he began to prepare the big tasty lunch that he had promised his sister, Wang Shiyu. And the dish he had select is Xinjiang Da Pan Ji (Big Plate Chicken) [1].
Da Pan Ji is a modern dish on Earth. The main ingredients are the chicken meat and the potatoes. Due to the [Vegetarian Movement Virus], this dish did not have the opportunity to come into this world.
There are many variants of this dish. Ye Chui had learned a secret recipe from a Xinjiang master chef. This secret recipe is supposed to be the most authenticate version of Da Pan Ji. But currently, his house did not have some cooking utensils, and some spices. Therefore he could not use the original recipe.
However, with his cooking skills, he could make to do with whatever he had, and still maximize the taste of the dish. When he had just finished cooking, a thick mouth-watering scent diffused out and floated to the surrounding areas.
He looked at the time – school should be over around this time and his sisters should be home soon. He had just placed the plate of Da Pan Ji on the dining table and was about to prepare some noodles to accompany this dish.
Suddenly, a loud ‘bang, bang, bang’ sound rang out. Someone was fantastically knocking on the door of his apartment.
“Did Little Rain and An Jing forgot to bring their keys? But the sound of knocking on the doors does not seem like them….” Ye Chui was curious and made his way to the door.
As soon as he opened the door, a fatty pushed the door aside and rudely made his way into the house, uninvited. The fatty twitched his noses and immediately made a beeline towards the dining table. Looking at the plate of Da Pang Ji, his eyes lit up. He picked up a pair of chopsticks and a piece of the chicken and put it into his mouth. Then he seemed to gag as he opened his mouth and fanned it with his hand. The plate of Da Pang Ji was freshly cooked and very hot. The fatty should have scalded his tongue.
Although he was scalded and gagging, he seemed to enjoy the taste. He was unwilling to spit out the meat, and endured the scalding sauce and swallowed the piece of chicken.
At this time, his face was one of pure ecstasy. Recently he had an urgent task to do, and he could not do it. It was eating into him, and as if he was cast into a cold dark place, fantastically trying to find a way out. But once he saw this plate of Da Pang Ji, it was as if he had found a lifeline. He was extremely excited. With a smile on his face, he turned towards Ye Chui.
“Get out!”
Ye Chui had already armed himself with a broom, and coldly stared at the strange fatty. If a total stranger suddenly rushed into your home uninvited and eat the food that you have just cooked, you would be angry too! Especially if the total stranger is a suspicious-looking fatty. Looking at this fatty, it looks as if he had escaped from a mental hospital.
“Friend, how did you cook this dish of chicken?” The fatty did not turn angry, and questioned Ye Chui with great urgency. “Please, can you teach me the recipe? This taste is simply amazing! I have not imagined that chicken could taste this good…. Oh, my name is Tian Xiaoduo. I am the head chef of the ‘Wan Lai Fu Restaurant’. I can tell you with certainty that this dish is simply amazing. Could you teach me the recipe? With my skills, I will definitely make this dish famous!”
Tian Xiaoduo was too excited and he rumbled a lot, and repeated what he had said many times. After he had finished, he looked proud of himself, as if asking Ye Chui to respect and admire him.
Ye Chui laughed, then he swung the broom on his hands in a threatening manner, “Get out of my home!”
Ye Chui had heard of Wan Lai Fu Restaurant. It is a very famous restaurant in the vicinity. This fatty actually dare to claim that he is the head chef of Wan Lai Fu Restaurant?
Would you believe a thief that rushed into your house uninvited and ate the food you cook without your permission?
Ye Chui was convinced that he had met a mentally retarded patient. He waved the broom again and tried to shove the fatty out of the apartment. “Head chef? Who cares? Get the hell out of my home, or I will call the police!”
“I am really the head chef of Wan Lai Fu restaurant. I am not bluffing you….” Tian Xiaoduo immediately shouted.
But Ye Chui did not listen to a word he said. For Ye Chui, he had also met some chefs that also seemed unreliable like Tian Xiaoduo. But these chefs are small in number and pretty rare. He did not believe that he had just met one of these chefs.
Despite his shouts and screams, Tian Xiaoduo was chased out the house by Ye Chui. Ye Chui slammed the door shut in Tian Xiaoduo’s face.
With a mixture of disbelief and anger, Tian Xiaoduo continued to bang on the door to the apartment in which Ye Chui was staying in. But when Ye Chui appeared at the doorway with a huge chopper in his hands, the fatty scrambled off as fast as a rabbit. In no time at all, he had totally disappeared.
“Crazy idiot!” Ye Chui glanced at the retreating figure of the fatty and slammed the door shut again.
At the bottom of the apartment, Tian Xiaoduo was perspiring heavily as he took a rest under the shade of a large tree. He looked back and make sure that there is no one chasing after him. Suddenly he felt very angry.
As one of the finest chef in the region, he is a considered an expert in culinary arts. Just one praise from him, and many people will be delighted for several days. But today, he had lowered his status and begged for a recipe from an ordinary citizen, and was chased away with a Chinese cleaver.
He had really lost his face! But thinking about the Da Pan Ji that he had just tasted, he could not bring himself to let go the chance to learn this recipe.
After thinking for some time, he decided to think of another method to get close to Ye Chui. If he could learn how to cook this dish, it would resolve the problem that was plaguing him.
Having made his decision, Tian Xiaoduo decided to find out more about Ye Chui first. He is a man who did not give up easily. After examining and going around the area, he entered a grocery store. He purchased several items, paid for them, then he took one cigarette and gave it to the grocery store owner. They engaged in some small talk, and he casually mentioned Ye Chui.
“Oh, that kid arh? I heard that he is an orphan, and he has two sisters. He is a very diligent man. I heard that he had a stall in the night market.” The grocery store owner did not think much about it, and quickly revealed what he knew about Ye Chui to Tian Xiaoduo.
“He had 2 sisters?” The fatty’s eyes twinkled. This could be one way to get closer to Ye Chui.
“En. You look over there, the two ladies have just come back from school.” The grocery store owner suddenly pointed outside the shop.
At this moment, An Jing and Want Shiyu happened to pass by this grocery store on their way home from school. A very attractive teenage girl was holding on the hairs of a very adorable little girl. Both of them were dressed simply, but their clothes were clean and tidy. From the door, the scene looked like a painting of two girls.
The fatty immediately thanked the grocery store owner, and secretly followed them. He saw the two ladies entered the same apartment in which he was chased away from. Standing at the door and smelling the tantalizing aroma, the fatty almost drooled. This only strengthened his resolve to get hold of the recipe, by hook or by crook!
“The bigger one seemed to be cold and not easy to approach. But the smaller one should be much easier to handle……” The fatty thought, and he begins to scheme.
……
Notes:
[1] ‘Da Pang Ji’ is the official name and not ‘Big Plate Chicken’. If you google it you can find it easily. There is even a Wikipedia page for this dish. Xinjiang is a region in China famous for this dish and lamb skewers.
^_^
Translated by Prosperous Food dot Com
Rehosted by Gumihou from kitchennovel dot com.
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