Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 30 - 29 Ashen Face

In the evening, when the four of them in the Qin family were gathered around the small table by the window on the first floor, eating fried dishes with buckwheat buns, Zhao Rong couldn't help herself and cursed Qin Congwen's words from the afternoon again.

This time Qin Huai heard everything, and it was a version with added embellishments.

As Qin Congwen's dutiful eldest son, Qin Huai felt the need to defend his father's cooking skills: "Mom, actually, Dad's cooking isn't that bad. The buns back then were bad probably because..."

"Dad was too cheap and bought a batch of really bad flour."

Hearing Qin Huai speak on his behalf, Qin Congwen was moved to tears. After so many years, someone was finally standing up for him.

Qin Congwen nodded earnestly, agreeing like crazy: "Yes, yes, that pockmarked guy who sold me the flour should've been locked up for ten years. He said his family needed money urgently due to illness, so he sold me a large batch of flour cheaply, assuring me it was all top-quality white flour with no issues. I took pity and agreed."

"But it wasn't top-quality white flour at all, it was pure gray flour. It was more authentic than the gray flour I ate as a child. How black-hearted must he be? He couldn't have sold me that stuff if he had even sifted the flour a bit."

Zhao Rong said angrily, "And you had the nerve to complain? Didn't even check the goods. The top was white flour, but the bottom was all gray flour. At that time, you'd been running the shop for years, yet you got tricked by such a petty trick."

"Getting cheated was one thing, but you insisted on making those damned buckwheat buns with that batch of flour, driving away the neighbors, and nearly getting the shop closed down because of you!"

"Mom, what is gray flour?" Qin Luo asked curiously, "Bro, do you know?"

Qin Huai shook his head.

"It's roughly milled flour, including the bran, unsifted. It's what your dad and I ate as kids," Zhao Rong explained.

Seeing Zhao Rong's explanation wasn't thorough enough, Qin Congwen added, "The flour you eat now is refined. Back in our day, we ground everything we could eat together. Even cornmeal was ground with the cob."

"Everything ground with the bran comes out gray, so it's called gray flour. A bit rougher and mixed with buckwheat flour, turning black, makes it black flour. The buns made from that were much rougher than the buckwheat buns now. They were so coarse that if your throat wasn't tough, you'd have to add water to swallow them."

"The gray flour your mom mentioned was considered fine food. Back then, the gray flour sold was often mixed with buckwheat flour, making it even grayer than properly milled flour."

"Do you remember Grandma Zhang, who lived diagonally across from your grandpa's place? You should call her Seventh Grandma by generational rank. She came from Jin Province, and the noodles she made were delicious."

"Every New Year, she'd make noodles from gray flour and crack an egg over them. Her son would sit by their door eating noodles, tempting scores of kids to tears."

Qin Luo stared at his father, asking earnestly, "Dad, were you tempted?"

Qin Congwen said he couldn't remember if he was tempted, but now he wanted to hit a kid.

Used to his father's indifference, Qin Luo turned her head to ask Qin Huai, "Bro, I think Dad said the gray flour was tasty, could you make gray flour noodles for me tomorrow?"

Qin Huai: ?

Zhao Rong tapped Qin Luo's hand with her chopsticks: "Don't listen to your dad. Back then, we didn't have much to eat. Anything with a bit of white flour was good. Besides, where would we buy gray flour now? Make your dad find that old swindler to sell him another batch?"

Qin Congwen said if you're going to scold the daughter, go ahead, but don't drag down the dad.

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Qin Congwen stubbornly retorted, "Well, not necessarily. Gray flour can taste good if made right. Going back further, even our parents couldn't afford white flour in their childhood. Didn't my dad say? That landlord in our village, who ate his family into ruin and poverty, did so because he loved white flour buns, eating them every meal until his family's fortune was gone."

"Luoluo, Dad will find a way to make your grandpa get you some gray flour from the countryside to make you gray flour noodles!"

Qin Luo: ...

Dad, I want Bro to make them.

As a considerate daughter, Qin Luo swallowed her inner thoughts along with the bun.

In the following days, Qin Huai continued making buckwheat buns.

That evening's discussion about gray flour reminded Qin Huai that buckwheat buns don't have to be white flour and buckwheat flour only. Other flours could also be mixed in.

Qin Huai mixed in a bit of this and that, including dough made with boiled elm bark water, turning the making of buckwheat buns into a bun innovation contest, but still couldn't create the bun of Chen Huixi's dreams.

Just as Qin Huai was contemplating whether to try retro, nostalgic gray flour with bran or pure cornmeal ground with cobs to give Chen Huixi a little wholesome grain shock, Mr. Qin's gray flour arrived.

Qin Congwen actually called home to have Mr. Qin get some gray flour to make Qin Luo a sentimental meal of gray flour noodles.

Hearing that Qin Congwen had managed to get such a retro item, even Chen Huihong came over to have a strong look. She grabbed a handful of the gray flour, rubbing it carefully, exclaiming that she hadn't seen the stuff since childhood.

To celebrate Qin Luo's pending life experience, Qin Huai decided to pause the buckwheat bun tasting for a day so that Chen Huixi could also taste Qin Congwen's skill and realize how good his buckwheat buns really were.

Qin Congwen knew how to make handmade noodles.

His skills were decent, reportedly learned from Grandma Zhang. When he apprenticed, he paid a tuition fee of a jar of oil, 30 eggs, and an old hen. Considering the pricey tuition, Grandma Zhang taught him everything without holding back.

The Qin Family Breakfast Shop owes its start mainly to Qin Congwen's noodles being decent. However, later on, when egg noodles became common, Qin Congwen's normal noodles didn't seem very cost-efficient against the cheaper egg noodles, so the breakfast shop switched to selling only buns.

Today, Qin Congwen felt it was time to show his skills.

In the kitchen kneading dough, Qin Congwen was full of energy.

Outside the kitchen, eagerly waiting to taste the legendary gray flour noodles, everyone was excited.

Now financially free and able to calmly forget the hardships of youth, Chen Huihong was delighted to have a chance to reminisce.

Zhao Rong, who almost forgot her husband had this handmade noodle skill, was happily contemplating that if Qin Congwen's gray flour noodles turned out well, she might ask him to make more handmade noodles in the mornings to earn a bit more.

Qin Luo, who had never tried them, was eager and couldn't wait to eat, loving them even before trying.

Similarly, never having tasted them, Qin Huai was looking forward to seeing if gray flour's texture could directly substitute for making buckwheat buns.

Having eaten many buns consecutively and in need of a change, Chen Huixi was very pleased.

Joining in on the fun, Ouyang showed up, intending to eat a bowl since it was free.

Under everyone's expectant gaze, Qin Congwen charmingly put the noodles into the pot, brimming with confidence.

The feeling of everyone waiting for him to cook a meal was something he hadn't experienced in years.

Truly, he was still as skillful as ever, hahaha!