Wine

Finally, it was time to make his own recipe, Wang Ming couldn't help but feel excited. This is what he loved to do ever since he was young. The only thing Wang Ming was thankful that his father had taught him. Since young, his father had used a lot of money to teach let Wang Ming learn how to become a skilled chef.

Thinking about this, Wang Ming couldn't help but sigh. He had to pay his father back for that someday. Wang Ming felt confident that his restaurant would do well. He had learned so much about food ever since he was young, he'd worked with food for over 15 years.

Looking at the meat Louzheng brought, Wang Ming got excited. This was where Wang Ming would create a masterpiece he just felt it. He had some recipes in his head he wanted to try out, but also realized that some of them would take up to a day or two. Since they had to absorb the marinade.

Wang Ming went with the trial-and-error method to grind out as many recipes in the least amount of time possible. Starting with the classic Braised Pork, which has both a sweet and savory taste from the soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine. The texture of the pork though was a lot more chewy than what he desired. Since pork belly has a layer of fat on top and tough meat underneath, cooking it this way wouldn't give it enough time to become tender.

Most of the recipes out there didn't put too much emphasis on changing the texture on the pork is. Instead, the emphasis was on finding the right ingredients and letting the pork absorb the flavor, Wang Ming thought it could be a stand out point for the pork in his recipe to be tender, even as tender as wagyu beef. It would also give his dish an image of being a higher quality also, since tender meat is more expensive.

He could beat the meat to make it more tender, but he didn't want the meat to be flat, but in a square shape like how braised pork usually looks. He would also destroy and tear the fat if he flattened the meat. As long as he could make the pork tender then he would have the perfect recipe braised pork with the most tender pork someone has ever eaten.

Fixated on making the meat tender, Wang Ming kept trying different methods to make the meat tender but didn't succeed. He tried using different acidic condiments like vinegar and lime juice. But the problem with that is the acid makes the meat tender, but it also gives the meat a weird taste. Though he had to find a good balance. Since if you use too much of it, the effect will be reversed and make it toughen up.

Feeling frustrated, Wang Ming couldn't help but slam his hand on the kitchen counter and shouted in frustration.

"Please, someone help me."

As soon as he said those words, he felt a hand touching his shoulder. Jolting in shock, he looked behind him. And saw that it was Louzheng that had come back with all of his things. Looking at all the things that Louzheng brought, it shocked him to see that the pamphlet was among the items. He remembered it disappeared after last time. Why was it back now?

Taking it in his hands, he looked questioningly at Louzheng and asked.

"Where did you find this?"

Having a puzzled look at his face, Louzheng answered.

"I just grabbed everything from your house. If you don't know, then I definitely don't know."

Seeing that Louzheng didn't know, Wang Ming stopped asking. The voice and the pamphlet is a big mystery for him, they just comes and goes as they want. But at least so far they have done nothing to harm him.

Telling Louzheng to place all of his things in the locker room, he sent him home. Since Wang Ming was only experimenting now, he didn't need Louzheng here distracting him, especially since Louzheng have zero cooking experience.

"Thank you Louzheng, go home now. Come back in three days and be ready to work! I will give you the three-day payment right now."

Handing him the money, Wang Ming opened the book to read it.

Louzheng didn't want to take the money, since he did nothing to earn it. But seeing Wang Ming so absorbed in the book, he left and would give it back another day.

Opening the pamphlet, Wang Ming felt shocked to see that there was almost no content in the pamphlet. All the pages were empty except from one page, which said.

Wine

Reading the word, Wang Ming felt that there were a lot of secrets behind the word. But couldn't understand what it was. Wang Ming kept staring at the word for 4 hours. Ignoring everything, even his body's needs, his mind was 100% focused on the word.

Looking at the word, it could mean so many things. Brewing Wine? Drinking Wine? Fermenting Wine? Cooking with Wine?

It had to be cooking with wine, but Wang Ming didn't understand what the book wanted with it. There were a lot of different ways to cook with wine, like how he used rice wine to braise the pork belly.

Time flied as he used the next two days to cook the meat with wine. He had tried multiple ways, multiple wines, but could never get the result he desired. Even after two days he had come nowhere.

The last two days Wang Ming kept coming out of the restaurant and went to a wine shop to buy a lot of different wine. When the owner saw that Wang Ming kept buying wine, he looked at Wang Ming with sympathy and sorrow. The owner of the shop thought that Wang Ming was drinking away his sorrows since he was in a wheelchair.

Since Wang Ming had a tight budget, he couldn't buy expensive wines. But bought the ones between 20 to 50 yuan. So he got roughly 30 bottles total for 1000 yuan. Leaving his budget at 5500 yuan.

Wang Ming had tried out different ways to cook with wine. He had bought a lot of different wines from grape, white, red, white, sweet, sparkling and even marsala wine. Many of the wines were not suitable in a food recipe, especially to cook with meat. But since this was a new territory for Wang Ming, he tried out all wines in his budget.

Wang Ming thought coming up with his own killer recipe would be easy. But he found out that he still had a long way to go. He was cocky and too confident in his cooking skills. He had been trying for two days now and nothing seemed to work. At the start he thought he could just cook the meat with wine, making it tender, then braise it, but realized that this altered the taste of the dish. So he needed to find the right spices to make it taste like a good authentic Chinese dish.

Then he needed to find the perfect combination of wines to cook the meat in. Even after so many setbacks, he didn't feel discouraged. Since he knew he was slowly making progress, and if he just got through this, then it would be his first step to fame.

Surely there were no restaurants, not at least in Liaoling city, that made braised pork this way. Cooking with wines, especially western wines, weren't popular at all in China. So if he could do it and still make it taste like authentic Chinese food, he would have an immense advantage.

Working with his last batch of meat, Wang Ming felt nervous. If he didn't succeed now, then it's over. Since yesterday he had ordered another big batch of meat from multiple shops, because of Weng Ping's shop not having enough in store. Leaving his previous 5500 yuan budget to roughly 3000 yuan. 3000 yuan is a lot of money still, but if he wasted more money now. He wouldn't have enough money to order more meat for when the restaurant opened and pay Louzheng's salary.

Today he had worked for 16 hours already, and his body was sweating from his head down. Though he still remembered to be hygienic by washing his body and face with towels. The last two days he slept 4 hours, then woke up and kept working on the recipe. Since many of the recipes he tried out took many hours to finish, he napped a couple of minutes when he had nothing to do. Though they were few because he would always think about what he could do better or new ideas.

This last time he tried to be extra careful with every ingredient he put in it. He knew that even one gram of salt could make a vast difference.

Starting off, he blanched the pork belly to remove any blood and impurities from the meat. Cutting up some ginger he also put it int he cold water together with the pork. Then he turned on the heat, to blanch the meat he needed to pull the meat out just as the water boils. If he pulls it out any later than that, the meat will cook, which would ruin the meat.

Then cutting the pork belly to equal squared chunks. He put them inside a clay pot that was big enough to room all the meat, but not too big that it didn't heat equally. After making sure that the meat wouldn't stick to each other and had enough room to cook.

Wang Ming put roughly a half liter of his white wine in, and then also put a third liter of the dry marsala wine. He found out after trying so many times that this was the best combination. The marsala wine is a heavier type of wine, which goes well with the lighter white wine. The marsala wine gives the pork and sauce a rich flavor, while the white wine will work together with the marsala wine to brighten up the taste and not make it too overpowering. The most important thing also was that these two wines would also tenderise the meat.

Wang Ming put in some rice wine, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and different type spices like: Cinnamon stick, star anise, bay leaves, dried chili peppers for seasoning.

Finally, cranking up the heat, the waiting game began. Since there wasn't anything else Wang Ming had to do now, he could only wait. Usually he would revise and work on different recipes, but since he had no more meat, he had to wait.

Waiting for this last piece of meat was torture for Wang Ming. He wanted to know the result as soon as possible, but also knew that it wouldn't do him any good to be hasty. Especially in cooking, everything takes time to ensure the best quality you have to give it the time it needs.

The time slowly passed by, and for every minute that went on Wang Ming's heart beat faster and faster. Finally reaching the one hour mark, it was like Wang Ming was running a marathon. It was the time to lower the heat, this step would decide how tender the meat was going to be.

Usually he would cook the meat now for 4 to 6 more hours. But this time he decided for 8 hours, it was a colossal risk to cook it 8 hours as the meat could be too tender, almost like mush and not being able to hold its form. But if everything went perfectly, then he would have the most tender pork belly anybody had ever eaten.

Turning the heat down, Wang Ming wanted to open the lid and look at the pork. But fought against the urge since if he opened the lid, then all the steam would fly out, destroying the dish.

Patiently waiting, the clock once again started ticking. From 10 minutes to 1 hour, 2 hours. For every minute that went on, Wang Ming grew more nervous. He could even feel his heart beat in his head. Though he knew he couldn't be in a mind state like this, even if his dish failed, then he could still have more chances.

Even if he failed and had to give back the restaurant, his life didn't end there. Trying to regain his confidence, he thought about positive things. He had met so many beautiful people he had met after the incident. Peng Tong, Meng Hao, Fu Chunhua, Aunt Fu, Ming Ming, Lang Lin, and even Qiao Meng.

Thinking about all the different interactions he has had with them, he felt sweet, though there also were some bitter memories. But he didn't want to think about that and pull his mood down. Relishing in those wonderful memories, he felt much better and also the time flying.

Already 7 and a half hours had gone by, leaving only half an hour left. It was now almost 9pm. Only half an hour more and he could finally check on the dish. He could smell the food with every time he inhaled now, the aroma was leaking out of the pot. It smelled amazing, making him hungry. He hadn't eating anything since morning.

Staring at the clay pot, looking at how it was vibrating and the steam that slowly seeped out of it, Wang Ming prayed for the time to go faster, Wang Ming then finally heard the alarm he had set. Hurriedly he opened the lid and put in 40 grams of rock sugar, cranked up the heat and started stirring.

This would thicken and cook off any excess sauce and let the pork absorb even more of the sauce. Stirring like his life depended on it, though not too hard, since the meat was tender and he was afraid of breaking it.

Finally, the sugar dissolved, and most of the sauce had dried up. Though there was just enough sauce left to use it as a sauce for the rice. Taking out the pork, he left it in a bowl to let it rest, while having the sauce cook on a very low heat so it didn't dry up.

Waiting another 10 minutes, he could cut into the meat. Taking his knife, he lightly put it over the pork. His arm was trembling, so he took a deep breath to calm himself. But as he was about to cut the pork, he heard the door of his restaurant slam open and a loud shout startled him, almost making him drop his knife.

"Why didn't you call me!"