116 - Absolute Taste?

"No?" Li Yun wasn't sure if he even had the time.

"Yun! It sounds fun, you should do it!" Rouxi thought it would be a blast.

"Think about the potential publicity!" Wu Ling chimed in.

Li Yun sighed. Well, it would be interesting to go on a TV show.

With Li Yun's approval, Pao Lie immediately took out his phone and contacted his friend, Nicholas.

"Nicholas! How have you been?" Pao Lie asked warmly, but the man who picked up the phone didn't look happy to see him.

"What is it Cousin Lie?" Nicholas asked. Pao Lie was his 2nd cousin, but the guy was constantly calling him up and begging to get on a show.

"I have a doctor friend with me, and I think he will be a great guest critic for one of your shows," Pao Lie directly stated his request, knowing his cousin's usually irritated mood.

At that moment, Chef Kaiyi skirted out of the kitchen, loudly announcing the arrival of what he believed was the best dandan noodle he had ever made. Chef Kaiyi immediately noticed Pao Lie's camera, and his face glowed with confidence, an audience!

He rolled the cart over to Li Yun's side and set the plates for all three of them. 

Wu Ling and Rouxi felt the blatant discrimination, why did Li Yun's plate seem to glow and theirs doesn't? Not only that, it was just dandan noodles, one of the classic street foods that vendors often sold because soup based noodles were a pain to make on the street.

Li Yun looked at the dandan noodles and chowed it down.

"So, what do you think?" Pao Lie asked Li Yun.

"Uh, if your friend wants to join a food eating contest, I guess there is a show we are creating called Big Eaters," Nicholas replied, not knowing that the question was meant for Li Yun.

"I mean, Dr. Li, what do you think is in the chili sauce?" asked Pao Lie.

Dandan noodles were typically made from three parts, the noodle base, the minced pork topping, and the chili sauce. The noodles were obviously plain rice noodles and the minced pork had pork and soy sauce. What made every dandan unique was the chili sauce poured into the bottom of the bowl.

The chili sauce could be seen as a very potent classical formula, made from star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, and Sichuan peppercorns. It was good to eat once in a while, but eating too much will result in diarrhea and an upset stomach from too much yang buildup.

"Illicium verum, cinnamomum cassia, laurus nobilis folium, zanthoxylum bungeanum, Lanxangia tsaoko…" Li Yun listed out the components as information flowed into his head. It was easy since he had already tasted the ingredients before.

"Do you have any idea what any of that is?" asked Nicholas.

"No idea?" Pao Lie looked confused as well.

Rouxi looked at Li Yun's notes. "It's just star anise, cinnamon, fresh bay leaves, Sichuan peppercorns, and black cardamom."

Nicholas's interest peaked, "Fresh bay leaves?" 

"Well, you know I hate using dried bay leaves when I can have fresh ones shipped regularly," Chef Kaiyi explained proudly. "I'm so amazed that Dr. Li could pick up the wonderful foral note of the fresh bay leaves."

"Huh, I don't think that's it….," Rouxi and Wu Ling both thought.

They all watched as Li Yun picked up another ingredient and jotted it into his notebook.

"Cookbooks!" Wu Ling quickly thought about more ways to make money in her head. "Cookbooks will sell a lot better than medical and botany books!"

"Fresh Sichuan chili peppers," Rouxi read from the note, to which Chef Kaiyi nodded.

"Extra light olive oil?" Rouxi read the note again, but thought it was an unusual choice of oil used for chili sauce. It wasn't traditional at all, was this Chef Kaiyi's secret ingredient?

Rouxi looked at Chef Kaiyi, who looked mortified when Rouxi said extra light olive oil. It was the only ingredient Li Yun got wrong the last time he was there.

"Rouxi, why is he freaking out?" Wu Ling asked, a bit confused by the reaction.

"Traditionally, chili sauce is made from neutral flavored oil, such as vegetable, canola, and peanut," Rouxi explained. "However, Chef Kaiyi likes to give a modern and updated touch to classical dishes. He has switched out the traditional oil with extra light olive oil, which is more neutral than regular olive oil and gives the dish a better aftertaste. It is very unusual, and probably one of his secret ingredients."

"Uh… But I thought it's bad to use olive oil for cooking," Wu Ling responded, vaguely remembering being sent to the hospital as a child for food poisoning.

Rouxi noded. "Common misconception. Beginner's mistake and often dangerous one is using cheap olive oil for fried dishes. Since many imported olive oil are mixed with other oils and are of low quality, it has a low temperature heat point, the oil quickly breaks down in high heat, causing it to become poisonous."

Li Yun had seen a few people rushed into the ER for food poisoning due to improper usage of olive oil. 

"Chef Kaiyi, how are you able to control the heat?" Rouxi asked. "Although you can use extra light olive oil, it is still very difficult to use it as a chili base."

"Ah, Ms. Song is correct, I can only make these in small batches. It is extremely difficult to mass produce this same recipe."

"Ah! I remember now," Wu Ling slapped her hand on the table. "Cousin Yun tried to be fancy and made spaghetti one time and got all of us sick!"

"Seriously, you're going to bring that up?" Li Yun glared at her. "It was more than ten years ago."

It was the incident that made his family ban him from ever cooking for them again.

Rouxi laughed, but Chef Kaiyi was still in awe and dared not to look down on Li Yun in the least. A gourmet who could discern food was invaluable to chefs who wanted to improve their cooking. Cooking skills were not important.

Chef Kaiyi put his hand together in a traditional martial style fist and saluted Li Yun.

"A true master of food, I admit my defeat!" Chef Kaiyi may be a prideful chef, but he knew when defeat was inevitable.

"Ah, well, you used this oil in another dish previously, and I wasn't able to decipher it until recently," said Li Yun. "Olive oil isn't commonly used here."

It didn't matter what Li Yun said, but Nicholas was rather impressed! Anyone could figure out the ingredients in dandan by looking up the ingredients on the internet, but to figure out the exact type of oil and even whether the ingredient was dried or fresh, was extremely difficult!

"This doctor truly has absolute taste!"