After all, the dishes on this table in the "Juju" private room are not the same as those ordinary people eat.
In terms of taste, Jiang Yu tries to make the dishes on this table lighter, as greasy and spicy food is not suitable for athletes and may impact their ability to recover from fatigue. To put it simply, it hinders recovery and also burdens athletes’ stomachs.
However, since it’s not before a competition now, it’s still permissible to taste some slightly spicy food.
At this moment, Jiang Yu is making a world-renowned traditional specialty dish, Gongbao Chicken. This dish is included in Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, and Guizhou cuisine, with differences in ingredients and preparation methods.
The origin of this dish is actually related to the soy sauce fried chicken in Shandong cuisine and spicy chicken in Guizhou cuisine. It was later improved and popularized by Ding Baozhen, the governor of Sichuan in the Qing Dynasty, resulting in a new dish, Gongbao Chicken.
After Gongbao Chicken spread, it was not only classified as a Beijing court dish but also spread abroad, although the cooking methods and flavors have since differed greatly.
Each version of Gongbao Chicken indeed has its own variations.
For example, the Sichuan version of Gongbao Chicken uses chicken breast. Since chicken breast is not easy to penetrate with flavors, the stir-fried chicken might not be tender. Therefore, before marinating, the chicken meat needs to be pounded with the back of a knife or mixed with an egg white to make it more tender.
The Shandong version of Gongbao Chicken, on the other hand, often uses chicken thigh meat, and to enhance the texture of the dish, it often adds diced bamboo shoots or diced water chestnuts, focusing more on high-heat quick stir-frying to retain the chicken’s tenderness.
As for the Guizhou version of Gongbao Chicken, it uses a unique local mashed chili paste, offering a flavor profile that differs from the Sichuan and Shandong versions: salty, spicy, with a hint of sweetness and sourness.
The Beijing court version of Gongbao Chicken is somewhat similar to the Shandong version, except it uses diced cucumbers or carrots instead of water chestnuts, with a taste leaning towards sweet and spicy—spicy with sweetness and sweet with spiciness.
However, the Gongbao Chicken made by Jiang Yu is different from all the major cuisine styles. In terms of ingredients, it resembles the court version, not only having diced chicken and peanuts but also including diced cucumber and carrot.
After eliminating over forty common kitchen seasonings that athletes are forbidden to eat, such as Sichuan peppercorns and bay leaves, it actually becomes challenging to choose seasonings when cooking. If any other chef were to make this table of dishes, they’d likely scratch their heads in frustration:
With so many seasonings unavailable, how can the dishes still taste good?
This kind of restriction that stumps other chefs is no obstacle for Jiang Yu.
If you can’t use them, then don’t. Even without Sichuan peppercorns or bay leaves, his dishes still manage to be irresistible!
Just like this Gongbao Chicken, Jiang Yu incorporated methods from various cuisines and used a sauce produced by the system, creating a brand-new version of Gongbao Chicken.
This Gongbao Chicken features tender and juicy chicken, crispy and savory peanuts, and slightly sweet, refreshing diced carrots, with fragrant and delicious cucumbers.
Compared to traditional Gongbao Chicken, it lacks the sour and numbing flavors but emphasizes freshness and aroma, sweet with a hint of spice, spicy with a hint of sweetness.
This sweetness doesn’t come from sugar or rock sugar, but from the natural sweetness of the carrots, adding a touch of freshness to the dish.
Just as Jiang Yu was serving the freshly made Jiang Family version of Gongbao Chicken, a waiter walked in and said to Jiang Yu:
"Senior brother, the guests in the ’Juju’ private room have arrived."
"Oh, have they?"
Jiang Yu turned to look at her, then nodded and instructed,
"Then serve the dishes, and bring two of our restaurant’s homemade drinks over."
Jiang Yu changes the homemade drinks at Room Seven from time to time. Since it’s early summer now and the temperature is starting to rise, he’s prepared kiwi cucumber juice and freshly squeezed papaya milk juice.
Both drinks are served at room temperature and have a refreshing taste. They are not only nutritious but also cooling and help with digestion.
"Okay."
The waiter nodded and quickly turned to busy herself.
...
In the "Juju" private room, Chen Lei and others sat around the dining table, drinking tea and chatting.
In fact, these people rarely have the chance to relax and chat together like today, since they’re usually either competing or training. Therefore, everyone is happy, and the atmosphere is light and harmonious.
"Xiaolin, since your right Achilles tendon injury last year, your performance in various competitions over this past year hasn’t been very good."
Although Chen Lei has retired, she is still engaged in sports-related work and pays attention to track and field events both domestically and internationally. Moreover, people like Lin Yahu are her junior fellows.
She took a sip from her teacup, turned her head to look at Lin Yahu, and asked with concern,
"What’s going on? Is it because you haven’t fully recovered, or because your training intensity hasn’t increased yet?"
"I’ve recovered, and my training intensity has increased, but I don’t know why my performance still hasn’t improved."
Clearly, this matter has become a knot in Lin Yahu’s heart. When he heard Chen Lei bring it up, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly and shook his head, saying,