After a discussions by three judges, the top three in the quarterfinals were decided to be Shi Mingxu, Zha Panpan and Qian Yong. These three would also have privileges in the next match.
In the evening, Ruan Tang started the live broadcast as usual. As soon as he entered the live broadcast room, the audience enthusiastically requested to him make hand-smashed beef balls. During the match, Ruan Tang just to make the beef balls, but did not make it into a dish himself. Therefore the audience were very eager to taste the hand-smashed beef balls made by Ruan Tang himself to see how it compares to the ones made by the contestants.
Ruan Tang has always doted on his live broadcast viewers, so he simply changed the menu and decided to make peeing beef balls. During his previous life, there had been a very famous film called “God of Cookery“. There was a part in the film where they made peeing beef balls. Ruan Tang liked this film very much, so he followed their method and learned how to make this dish.
He beat the beef to a puree with a wooden stick. He then shelled the shrimp and deveined it. This was also mashed and then seasoned with salt, pepper, rice wine, and a little sugar to make shrimp paste. The peeing beef ball was actually like a xiaolongbao, with pork skin jelly and shrimp paste in the middle. When the beef ball is cooked through, the pork skin inside will become delicious soup and with a single bite the juice inside will leak out. This was the reason it was called peeing beef ball.
He used a thick beef bone broth as the soup base, and then thoroughly boiled the beef balls. After fishing out the beef balls, he added vermicelli noodles and chopped green onions and this bowl of soup was finished.
A seemingly simple bowl of soup, but it was truly delicious.
The beef broth was made from beef bones that had been boiled until all the bone marrow and oil from the beef bones had been extracted. The surface of the soup was covered with a layer of shiny, glittering oil, but it wasn’t greasy at all. The beef balls were thoroughly cooked, absorbing the delicious taste of the broth. The supple and elastic texture of the hand-smashed beef balls added to the tastiness of this dish. The viewers who were impatient to taste this dish was suddenly sprayed with the scalding hot soup inside the meat balls. Fortunately, the audience only tasted holographic data, otherwise the hot soup would have burned their lips and they would have all gotten blisters.
However, while the audience felt that the beef ball and beef soup were both delicious enough, the shrimp paste stuffing surprised them once again. The shrimp paste enclosed in the beef balls had been cooked through in that enclosed space by the high heat. It had completely absorbed the fresh taste of beef and pork skin jelly. Add to it the naturally bright and clear taste of the shrimp itself, these three things combined to create a truly delicious and refreshing taste. It was so delicious, the viewers almost swallowed this tongue in their haste to eat it!
The vermicelli noodles that had been added after was equally as delicious, it was smooth and full of bite and having absorbed the soup, was very flavorful.
The contestants were originally Ruan Tang’s viewers. Having actually cooked this dish, they were able to compare between the two and as a result they had even greater respect for Ruan Tang.
Just look at this level of cooking! No wonder he’s a judge!
Due to the competition and Ruan Tang’s live broadcast, hand-smashed beef balls quickly became popular on the Star Network and it became part of a new generation of internet celebrity dishes. Many food lovers and food anchors followed suit, hoping to achieve the same level of deliciousness that Ruan Tang’s version had. The shopping site quickly followed suit with a refrigerated version of the hand-smashed beef balls.
Three days passed, and the time for the semi-finals soon arrived.
For the contestants, the semi-final round was the most crucial one. The cruel format of reducing the players from 25 to 5 made them all extremely nervous. Because of Ruan Tang’s words during the previous round, the players now understood the judges’ criteria for evaluation. So during their rest days, they were all constantly studying the compatibility of ingredients and honing their basic skills, to allow them create dishes that would satisfy the judges and the viewers.
Today’s venue was smaller the ones before, but all of them were presented with an open kitchen design. From pots and pans to stoves, ovens, and various cooking utensils, everything they could ask for was available. It was like a small kitchen.
“First of all, congratulations on reaching the top 25. It was not easy for everyone to reach this stage.” President Gu paused and continued, “I believe you are also all aware how much more difficult this round will be. I hope you can all maintain your normal state of mind so that you can present even better displays of your abilities. ”
“Today’s competition will be divided into two parts, the themed match with the mystery box challenge and the test of basic skills.” Ruan Tang introduced the contents of today’s competition to the players. “The audience will vote to decide who will eventually advance to the final. The judges will combine your performances on both matches and together with the votes from the audience will determine who will ultimately advance to the finals.”
Behind Ruan Tang, there was a long table covered by a black cloth. Although nothing could be seen, there was no doubt that the theme of today’s match was on that long table.
“Today’s theme is offal.” Ruan Tang said with a smile, and lifted the black cloth from the long table behind him.
There was an impressive array of glassware on the long table, containing all kinds of pig internal organs, such as pig heart, pig kidneys, large intestine, pork tripe, and pig liver.
All the contestants opened their eyes wide in shock. They’ve always eaten pork, but they rarely ate the internal organs. Their only experience with internal organs was probably the green pepper with pork liver that Ruan Tang previously made during a live broadcast.
[The April Turtledove flicks its feathers: Oh my god, I can smell the stench of those internal organs even from across the screen. Today’s match is really difficult!]
[ID30602195: Well, now it won’t be difficult at all to get rid of 80% of the contestants ... It’s just too bad ...]
[Nuanhua Lian Ye: I can’t help but drool a little. Tang Tang’s pork liver dish that he made during the live broadcast was really delicious. Maybe we’ll be in for a surprise today!]
Seeing these internal organs, the audience were both nervous and looking forward to the performance of the players. But the players themselves were a little flustered.
Internal organs have always been considered as scraps that were left unused. After Ruan Tang used it once, it was then considered edible, but even so, few people were willing to use these internal organs for cooking because of their stench.
Now, the only dish they’ve eaten that was related to internal organs was green pepper with pork liver. There were no other samples they could use for extensive research or reference. If they used pork liver, it would be difficult for them to gain an advantage in the competition. And all these internal organs had a strong stench. It would be extremely difficult to get rid of this smell and make it into gourmet food.
For a time, only bleakness and dismay remained on the field.
“The top three players from the last round are Shi Mingxu, Cha Panpan and Qian Yong. You have a privilege in this match. You can choose any ingredient that you want, not just the contents of the mystery box. Please come with me into the ingredients room.” This time it was Ge Lao who took the players into the ingredients room.
Because the theme for this round was too shocking, the three of them stayed in the ingredients room for quite a while. They didn’t know where to start, and even the calm and composed Zha Panpan was a little flustered.
In the end, Zha Panpan chose bell peppers and tomatoes, Shi Mingxu chose red peppers and tofu skins, and Qian Yong considered again and again and finally chose carrots and cucumbers.
After making their selection, they returned to the venue, at which point the mystery box finally appeared.
The contents of the mystery box have become even more diverse this time. In addition to the bell peppers, tomatoes, red chili peppers, tofu skins, carrot and cucumber that the top contestants chose, there were also soybeans, goji berries, pears, honey, milk, white radish and chicken breast.
“The game starts now! The time limit is one and a half hours!”
Compared to the previous matches, this round was indeed a lot more difficult. Since the theme was offal, which the contestants had little experience with, the judges decided to be more lenient on the cooking time.
This time, the players’ resilience and psychological endurance would be tested. Excellent contestants such as the seeded Zha Panpan and Shi Mingxu quickly adjusted their mentality. They knew that even if their performance for this round wasn’t very good, they could rely on the basic skills match later to gather votes. So they only needed to go all out and do their best.
Zha Panpan thought about it for a long time, and finally chose the pig heart. She was going to use pig heart, bell pepper and tomato to make a stew. The pig heart was a little less fishy than the other ingredients. After getting rid of the stench, it should still taste quite good. However, for safety reasons, she cut a small piece of pig heart, cooked it in boiling water, tasted it herself to determine the taste and texture of the pig heart. She will use what she learned to control the heat and cooking time for the actual dish.
Surprisingly, Shi Mingxu chose the pig’s large intestine, and everyone around him looked at him with disbelieving eyes. After all, the taste of the pig’s large intestine was the most inexplicable out of all the ingredients. They all felt that Shi Mingxu must have gone crazy. However, Shi Mingxu behaved very calmly. He rolled up his sleeves and started to handle the pig’s large intestine.
He first cut the pig’s large intestine into sections. He then opened the inside of the large intestine, brushed it several times with a small brush, rubbed it with salt, and rinsed it repeatedly with water. Finally he scalded it with hot water to ensure that the large intestines had been thoroughly cleaned.
Looking at his methodical and skilled movements, Ruan Tang could not help but be curious. He walked over and asked in a low voice, “How did you come up with the idea to handle large intestines like this?”
Shi Mingxu was a young man with a clean face and a very elegant temperament. If he said that he worked for the Academy of Sciences, no one would doubt him. He looked up at Ruan Tang, and then lowered his voice and replied, “My brother-in-law is from the Academy of Sciences. When sausages were first made available in the shopping site, I was curious about how it was made so I asked my brother-in-law. That’s why I had a bit of understanding regarding the large intestines.”
Ruan Tang understood and nodded. It seemed that Shi Mingxu was someone who knew how to observe, and knew how to learn by inference. Ruan Tang appreciated this aspect of his personality.
“Refuel.”
There were others who choose pork tripe and pork waist, but most still chose the pork liver. After all, this was something Ruan Tang had already cooked with on the live broadcast. They had tasted the holographic data and knew more or less how to cook it so they were more confident about cooking with this ingredient.
As the stove fires rose, all sorts of dishes were prepared.
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