Four Happiness Dumplings, with four little compartments, each topped with different colored ingredients. Diced mushrooms, diced ham, spinach stems, and egg skin are all steamed beautifully, their colors bright and vibrant, just like veggie hearts fished out of lard-added clear water.
Below the ingredients is the meat filling, a traditional dumpling filling that suits the general palate.
Of course, it’s not all that traditional.
Before, when making Four Happiness Dumplings, Qin Huai always used a meat filling mixed with pork, mushrooms, and diced carrots. But recently, Guo’er has been making too much of the pork and diced bamboo shoots mixed with carrot paste filling, so every day, Qin Huai came to feel that carrot paste was better than diced carrots.
The taste of carrot paste isn’t as strong as carrots; mixed in the meat filling, it’s more suitable, and after steaming, the meat filling can retain more juice, improving the texture.
Thus, Qin Huai made a routine recipe modification, changing the Four Happiness Dumpling’s meat filling to pork and mushrooms mixed with carrot paste.
The result was excellent.
It received unanimous approval from all diners except Ouyang.
As for why it didn’t get Ouyang’s approval—this guy eats like a cow chewing peonies, and the first time he ate it, he didn’t even realize Qin Huai had changed the filling, which pissed Qin Huai off enough to revoke his tasting privileges.
Of course, it made no difference because Qin Huai came to Gusu on the third day after the formula was finalized, and the participants in the tasting only ate two days more than Ouyang.
You could say if Qin Huai’s previous Four Happiness Dumplings were the basic version, then the current Four Happiness Dumplings are definitely the upgraded plus version.
Previously, Qin Luo could only eat 18 of the Four Happiness Dumplings in one go, but now she can eat 25.
As for why Qin Huai knew Qin Luo could eat 25...
On the last day of tasting, this big glutton ate 25, only to find herself too full to sleep all night, and the next day she didn’t hold up and took leave to go to the hospital.
The folks coming into work at Huang Ji Restaurant today got lucky and directly tasted the modified plus version of Four Happiness Dumplings.
Qin Huai used the kitchen’s largest steamer for the Four Happiness Dumplings, filling it with a full layer which, when uncovered, was quite a sight and made people feel like they had traveled into the world of Master of Chinese Cuisine.
Huang An Yao clearly was someone who had watched Master of Chinese Cuisine.
After Qin Huai and Zheng Siyuan pointed out where the dumplings and wontons were respectively, Huang An Yao, without hesitation, chose the Four Happiness Dumplings and uncovered the steamer himself to eat directly.
A large steamer packed with colorful, beautifully shaped, and fragrant Four Happiness Dumplings shocked Huang An Yao.
"Gold... Golden Ratio Shaomai!"
Huang An Yao had already forgotten what Qin Huai had told him there was to eat and carefully used tongs to pick up two without covering the steamer back up, since he figured others would come to take Four Happiness Dumplings too, holding the plate and blowing vigorously at the dumplings.
Not everyone has Qin Luo’s iron stomach.
Huang Jia was already counting the wontons.
"Who wants wontons?" Huang Jia loudly asked.
Though theoretically, it was already work time, Huang Jia thought the rare early breakfast at the restaurant warranted a little self-reward first.
Zheng Siyuan’s personally made Zhou Sha Wonton and Paopao Dumpling were too good to miss out on.
"Me, me, me!" Huang An Yao energetically raised his hand, holding the plate and making way for others to pick up Four Happiness Dumplings.
Seeing everyone eagerly eating wontons and dumplings, Qin Huai found it a bit odd and whispered to Zheng Siyuan: "Didn’t everyone have breakfast this morning?"
It shouldn’t be ; Huang Ji Restaurant doesn’t usually provide breakfast, starts work at 9, does heavy work right away, and has lunch at 1. Surely people eat more in the morning to fill up.
Zheng Siyuan glanced at Qin Huai with an "aren’t you a full person who doesn’t know the hunger of the hungry" look and asked, "If you just had dinner, but my uncle told you he was going to cook two specialties himself and asked if you had eaten, did you eat?"
"Of course not." Qin Huai answered without hesitation, "But I can’t compare to Master Huang."
"Almost the same reasoning." Zheng Siyuan looked at Qin Huai, "Will you make the sticky rice cake, or shall I?"
"You make it, yours tastes better. It’s for tomorrow’s sale anyway. If there’s time in the afternoon, I’ll make another batch."
Zheng Siyuan then asked: "So are you doing the Crab Shell Cake, too?"
"Yes, I’ll make the Crab Shell Cake and the Baked Bun together, start baking at 11:30. But the minced meat might need you to stir-fry, I’m still ... " As Qin Huai was speaking, he stopped, realizing he was worrying unnecessarily.
At Huang Ji Restaurant, no need to worry about no one frying the meat filling.
Among those here eating dumplings and cooking wontons, except for Huang An Yao, whose meat filling turns out inferior to him?
"All right, I’ll make part of the jujube and yam cake too. What were you thinking last night? Giving Huang Jia such a long list, even with someone assisting you, you can’t finish it. Huang Ji Restaurant’s sales volume is more crazy than you imagine; each time Uncle calls me to help, I work from early till late."
"I just thought the ones I do better, I’d write more, something surely has to be popular." Qin Huai explained, "What was on your list?"
"Fresh meat mooncake and Dingsheng Cake." Zheng Siyuan said.
"That’s it." Zheng Siyuan replied blankly, "By noon, you’ll see why."
Qin Huai still didn’t know the reason, but many in the kitchen already did, as the Four Happiness Dumplings had already cooled down and everyone was eating them.
Let’s just say, the moment the dumplings entered Huang An Yao’s mouth, he had only one thought in his mind.
If he started crying and begging Qin Huai to remain a regular at Huang Ji Restaurant, offering him a sky-high salary and one-fourth of the shares, would that be enough to keep Qin Huai here?