I'm the Culinary God

If you start stirring as soon as it goes into the pot, these dough pieces will fall apart easily.

In no time, the little plump crescents were fried, looking exactly like the Honey Horns in their memories, sharp at both ends with a curve in the middle.

Lin Xu scooped them out with a slotted spoon, let the oil drain a bit, then put them into the pot of syrup beside him.

Qi Siming took a small spoon and stirred in the syrup, letting it coat these puffed-up crescents completely.

The syrup was still very hot, and soon, under pressure, it was drawn into the dough.

Use the slotted spoon to fish them out, drain off the excess syrup on the surface, then lay them on the cooled glutinous rice flour and coat them evenly—one Honey Horn after another was done.

White glutinous rice flour on the outside, golden pastry skin inside, and pale yellow syrup within the golden skin—each color represents a different flavor and texture, and just one look makes childhood scenes of eating Honey Horns come rushing back.

"When I was little, Grandma always kept the good stuff in the wardrobe. All you had to do was pull open a drawer and you’d find it—there were all kinds of Snacks: Glutinous Rice Strips, mini twists, Honey Three Cuts, Honey Horns, sugar crisps, Honey Dates, sesame dates..."

As a child, Shen Jiayue lived with Old Madam Shen, so all these treats are burnt into her memory.

Chen Yan said with a laugh:

"Your grandma actually didn’t want to keep the food in the wardrobe, because she had to bend over every time. But she was afraid you’d be scatterbrained and couldn’t find it anywhere else, so she just kept putting it in the wardrobe."

"Tch, you’re the scatterbrained one."

Once Lin Xu finished everything and was about to start the tasting phase, Chen Yan dished up a plate, carried it off to the side, and went to enjoy it with Shen Jiayue.

The Honey Horns were still warm. As soon as they went into the mouth, the first thing you tasted was the fragrance of the glutinous rice flour, then one bite—crack, crisp and flaky—and the warm syrup inside immediately flowed across your tongue.

The aroma and sweetness, plus the crunchy, fragrant fried dough texture, all come together in the mouth—it’s pure bliss.

Everyone cares about what they eat and knows this little thing, despite its size, is a bona fide calorie bomb. But after the first one, you still can’t help reaching for a second, a third...

When you get to eat the flavors of childhood again, you automatically add a layer of memory filter, which is why so many people think the food from the past tastes better.

But even without the memory filter, Honey Horns themselves are a very distinctive treat.

The fragrance of glutinous rice flour, wheat flour, fried pastry, and malt syrup—so many aromas gathering together, all to balance out the sweetness of the syrup.

Add to that the sticky yet smooth feel once the syrup cools, and you can’t help but fall for this texture and flavor.

In front of the camera, Geng Lishan also recalled how he used to eat Honey Horns when he was young:

"Lele’s dad loved sweets as a kid. I used the money I made writing Spring Festival couplets to buy ten or so jin of Honey Three Cuts, Honey Horns, that kind of dessert. The kid’s blood sugar went off the charts, and I had to ask someone to send him to Xiehe’s endocrinology department to get him stabilized. From then on, I started studying food, scared he’d eat himself into serious trouble again."

Who would’ve thought that Geng Lishan, who prides himself on being a gourmet, actually started learning about food for his child’s sake—parents really are something else.

After filming this segment, Lin Xu moved on to making Honey Three Cuts.

Honey Three Cuts are a bit more complex than Honey Horns. You need to mix water and oil into a water-oil dough, then use malt syrup and oil to mix flour into a flaky pastry dough.

When you make it, the amount of sugar dough has to be four times that of the water-oil dough. Roll them out to the same size, brush on water to stick them together, then use a rolling pin to roll them thin, sprinkle sesame seeds, and roll into sheets about four or five millimeters thick.

First cut them into long strips, then score patterns with the knife on top, then cut them apart and drop them into the oil to fry.

During frying, the flaky pastry will puff up, forming gaps between it and the water-oil dough. Those gaps are where the Honey Three Cuts will draw in the syrup.

Besides Honey Three Cuts, Qi Siming and Qiu Zhenhua also made traditional Snacks like Glutinous Rice Strips and Peach Cake, basically getting all the New Year pastries done in one go.

At noon, Lin Xu went back to the restaurant to check on things. All departments were running smoothly, and the Roasted Goose was top-notch quality.

He could go out and deliver invitations with no worries—except he couldn’t go today yet, because his mom called, asking him to go over to Ginkgo Garden to check the construction progress.

The New Year was approaching, so the schedule here had to be pushed along too.

After the Spring Festival, they’d have to bring in animals like alpacas and ponies so they could get used to the environment beforehand, that way they’d be less stressed once tourists started coming.

Lin Xu was shoveling Roasted Goose over rice into his mouth as he looked at Shen Jiayue and asked:

"I’m heading over to Ginkgo Garden later. You coming?"

"Nope. Yan Bao and I are planning to take Dundun fishing. Uncle Shang found someone new to take over the fish pond, and he won’t be going back after the New Year. We have to get in a couple more trips while there are still fish in the pond."

Quite a few cadres from that village got arrested, since it involved an underground casino and the gambling funds topped ten million.

Even though there was no one threatening Shang Weixing for the time being, he still felt that village was too dangerous and that it was better to keep his distance.

And the job he’d landed was also pretty tempting—food and lodging included, plus more than ten thousand in hand. A good deal like this doesn’t come twice; better to take a stable job with guaranteed pay, rain or shine.

Running a fish pond can make money too, but it’s all earned by fawning over people. If you run into drunk, unreasonable customers now and then, you have to swallow it when they curse you out, or even slap you a few times.

When it comes to changes in the village, Old Sun is pretty well-informed.