Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 29 - 28 Childhood Shadows

In the following days, Chen Huixi diligently took on the role of the taste tester.

The cost was, the child's face was almost turning the same color as a wheat bun from eating so many buckwheat buns. It was better during the final exams, coming after school to test, but after exams during the holidays, it was terrible. They hadn't even digested lunch before eating more.

Fortunately, the child truly loved eating buns.

"Delicious." Chen Huixi nodded affirmatively.

After these days of taste testing, Qin Huai had already mastered the size of the bun pieces and the quantity to be tasted. He kept the daily tasting amount under control to a point where after reaching 70% full, Chen Huixi could eat a piece of snack to enjoy something sweet, preventing her from overeating and hurting her stomach just for the sake of tasting.

"Which one tastes better compared to Number 52?" Qin Huai asked.

Chen Huixi thought seriously for a moment: "This one."

"This one... is fragrant."

Limited by being in third grade, Chen Huixi had a very limited vocabulary for describing food, mostly using simple terms like delicious, fragrant, sweet, hard, soft, and chewy.

Qin Huai did not expect Chen Huixi to articulate: "The steamed buns split with the chill of buckwheat leaven, new sesame oil and chill utensils are fragrant."

After all, "The Poem of Expectation" was not in the curriculum, not a mandatory memorization.

"Then let's eat the next one..."

...

Another day of buckwheat bun testing ended, with Chen Huixi holding an Osmanthus Cake in her hand, happily received the half-eaten Number 54 bun she deemed the best today from Qin Luo, and skipped towards the neighborhood committee with a big bag of sachima hanging on her arm.

Qin Huai found an empty table to sit down, and began analyzing today's taste test results with a notebook, while Huang Xi and An Youyou quickly tidied up the tableware on the testing table.

Qin Luo was gnawing on a Number 52 bun while chatting incoherently between bites of the bun and sachima to Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong, who had just woken up to see how today's taste testing had gone.

In summary, today's progress was: 0.

After all, the task was not completed.

Although Chen Huixi repeatedly said that this one was also delicious, and that one was delicious, in her heart, she was honest; none of these buns were her dream buns.

Of course, Qin Huai couldn't directly say the buckwheat buns failed because the side quest wasn't completed; he could only vaguely say it was still lacking.

Exactly lacking in what?

Don't ask, because it's a breakfast shop chef's pursuit of the perfect bun.

To this, Qin Luo, Qin Congwen, and Zhao Rong all expressed their lack of understanding and took another bite of the buns.

"There's nothing wrong with these buns." Zhao Rong, who loved healthy living in middle age and always cooked mixed grain rice with buckwheat, oats, millet, purple rice, barley, and sweet potatoes, accepted the buckwheat buns well. She munched through two small buns missing a piece, still feeling unsatisfied, and asked Qin Luo to grab a darker one from the kitchen.

"They're chewy, with a good bite, and the fluffiness is acceptable. There's buckwheat flour, but it doesn't taste bitter, much better than the ones your dad used to make."

Qin Luo, a bit choked from eating too many buns, took a sneaky sip of coconut juice, and asked, "Dad made buckwheat buns before? How come I never ate them."

"You hadn't been born yet back then." Zhao Rong began reminiscing, "There were two years when the economy was bad, and we couldn't earn much money. Buckwheat buns and cornmeal steamed buns sold cheaper than white flour buns, so they sold well. Your dad jumped on the bandwagon and started selling buckwheat buns."

"The buckwheat buns your dad made, every time he kneaded the dough, couldn't control the water level right, and he was stingy during bun-making and wouldn't add sugar, so the buns came out hard, both hard and bitter, couldn't be sold at all."

Qin Congwen lowered his head to eat a bun, not daring to speak.

Zhao Rong continued to get more and more worked up: "And then, he couldn't sell the buns but was too reluctant to throw them away. He had someone send them to the countryside for your grandparents to feed the chickens at home. The amount of buns we made was huge, yet your grandparents only raised a few chickens a year who could eat them all? In the end, it was us eating them! Your grandparents, aunt and uncle, and I gnawed on those damned buns every day, lost weight from hunger."

"I told your dad not to make those lousy buckwheat buns, he didn't have the skill, but he wouldn't believe me, kept selling them, almost drove our breakfast shop to closing down over those two months."

"Director Qin was also pitiful; later our family couldn't finish all the buns, even with us and the chickens, so they all were packed off to the opposite orphanage. Back then, compared to now, life wasn't as good; ordinary families could eat meat once or twice a week as considered decent conditions, it was enough for kids at the orphanage to eat their fill."

"Originally, the kids at the orphanage could at least drink some mixed-grain porridge. But your dad sent over these, they were gnawing on buckwheat buns every day, made your brother's face turn sallow." As Zhao Rong spoke, her expression suddenly sharpened as she looked at Qin Congwen.

"Could it be... your lousy buckwheat buns gave Huaihuai a psychological shadow?"

Qin Congwen: ???

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Innocent!

He just had poor skills at the time, a bit too stingy when there was no money, used inferior raw materials, added too little sugar, resulting in buns being hard and bad-tasting, but not enough to give a child a psychological shadow...

Qin Congwen opened and closed his mouth, daring not to speak.

Oh no, could it really have caused a psychological shadow for the child?

Qin Congwen seriously began recalling the orphanage's breakfast, lunch, and dinner as he remembered them.

Breakfast, mixed-grain porridge with sweet potatoes.

Lunch, two seasonal vegetables with white rice.

Dinner, vegetables with mixed-grain porridge, occasionally a meat dish to start.

Oh no, the son could have been eating white rice, and his sending led to nonstop buckwheat meals.

Once again, Qin Congwen lowered his head guiltily.

Qin Luo, who had been engrossed in the gossip, hadn't thought deeply, asked: "So then? Did dad's skills improve?"

"Improved my backside! After using up that batch of cheap flour and buckwheat flour your dad bought, he never made buns again, didn't you notice our family hasn't much sold buns over the years? Let me tell you, he wasn't planning to sell buns at all, he bought a batch of cheap flour because it was cheap, found out white flour buns didn't taste good, afraid customers would find out, then bought another batch of buckwheat flour to mix and make buckwheat buns, trying to pass off subpar goods and get by."

Zhao Rong uttered three idioms in a row for emphasis, obviously the two months of buckwheat buns really did give her a psychological shadow too.

Qin Huai didn't hear Zhao Rong's complaint at all, even if he had, he'd only say, "Mom, you're overthinking it."

Back then, the buckwheat buns were tasteless, but they were filling and plentiful. The orphanage had limited funding, most of the kids were disabled, and Director Qin was always scrimping and scraping, tying up loose ends everywhere, bragging poverty and borrowing left and right, the kids in the orphanage eating well was victory.

Back then, Qin Congwen couldn't sell his buckwheat buns, all sent to the orphanage, the kids there were eating until they burped, joy akin to immortals.

Even some unlucky kids were hoping Uncle Qin's buns would never sell, that way, they could eat buns every day, but when Director Qin found out, they got a good beating.

Qin Huai was analyzing Chen Huixi's taste preferences.

After a few days of taste testing, Chen Huixi's preferences were evident.

With sugar, a buckwheat content of 30%~50%, in general, the better the bun's quality, the higher Chen Huixi's appraisal.

She wasn't just fond of whole grains, once Qin Huai didn't control the water well kneading the dough and added slightly less, resulting in slightly dry buns and sharply lower evaluations from Huixi.

It's clear that when there were choices, Huixi was particular.

Because Chen Huihong said that during the New Year, Huixi went home clutching a bun to gnaw from morning to night...

Possibly because this child was more filial.

Qin Huai circled the place marked with 39% buckwheat flour content.

His intuition was telling him that he had actually figured out the ratio of buckwheat flour and wheat flour that Huixi liked.

But his buckwheat buns were still missing something, which led Huixi to keep nodding approvingly, yet the task remained incomplete.

But what was it missing?

A buckwheat bun is simply a bun, nothing more can be added to it.

"Thirsty, Huaihuai? Drink some water." Qin Congwen brought over a cup of warm boiled water considerately, tentatively asking, "Encountered some problem making the buns? Need dad to help think it through?"

Since Qin Congwen phrased it this way, Qin Huai didn't hold back, put down his pen, and asked, "Dad, now my buns are controlled at a 39~43% buckwheat flour ratio, kneaded with boiled water, sugar portioned, yet the buns come out unsatisfactory. Do you see room for improvement?"

Qin Congwen: ?

What the heck? Does making buns require such thought?

Qin Congwen scratched his head: "...Um..."

"How about trying something other than buns?"

Qin Huai: ?