Chapter 224: Hulu Chicken
Chapter 224: Chapter 224: Hulu Chicken
What would Teacher Nan talk about?
Would it still be about the solar terms and food?
Would there be anything new?
No one expected that Nan Zhi would end up making fried chicken!
[A little disappointed. Isn’t fried chicken a foreign thing? I thought she’d talk about something related to our traditional culture.]
[Yeah, it would’ve been so much better to continue last class’s topic on solar terms and food. I was all set to screen record it for my little nephew, to get him to learn how to cook from a young age!]
[Didn’t you guys hear Teacher Zhang? This was apparently her suggestion. She wanted the kids to eat something they can’t get in the mountains. The farthest these kids can probably travel is the nearby town or county, right? So they probably don’t get many chances to eat things like fried chicken. It’s understandable.]
[Exactly! Nan Zhi isn’t holding this class for you guys, she’s doing it for the students. Of course she’s going to teach whatever the students want to see! Can’t you see how excited the kids are?]
[Wow! Even Fu Chao and Xie Yu are here! And Qing Xi Baby and An’an Baby too! An’an Baby hadn’t seen Auntie Zhizhi in so long and immediately ran up for a hug, hahaha!]
[What are you laughing at? Can’t you see my boy is glaring daggers! Daily mission to compete for affection (1/1): Complete! √]
[Aren’t Fu Chao and the others super busy? They actually had time to come over. They must have squeezed it in. Aww, I’m so touched! My Nan Family’s Small Restaurant foursome is reunited!]
[Looks like they didn’t invite the ’big miss’.]
[Tsk, the ’big miss’s’ fans are going to complain about the injustice again. Can we have less of the ’rich person filter’ these days?]
[It’s true! Nan Zhi invited everyone else but deliberately left out Chang Mu. She must be ostracizing her on purpose!]
[Dude, has it ever occurred to you that Nan Zhi asked Fu Chao and Xie Yu to come help out? She doesn’t know Chang Mu that well. Why would she ask her to come and be her assistant?]
[From what I see, Chang Mu seems pretty happy filming her little countryside vacation vlogs every day. Let’s just not bother her.]
[Pfft, "countryside vacation vlog," you’re ruthless! But I love it!]
...
The viewers watching the live stream were initially a bit disappointed with the content of today’s cooking class.
However, with the arrival of Fu Chao and Xie Yu, surprise replaced disappointment. Everyone was much happier to see the reunion of the Nan Family’s Small Restaurant crew!
You have to understand, Fu Chao and Xie Yu had been unbelievably busy these past few days.
The two of them—one a top-tier movie star, the other a genius director—were spending their days dealing with all sorts of trivial matters around the village. When necessary, they even had to roll up their pant legs and work in the fields.
It had to be said, this really satisfied a certain desire in some viewers. They found it incredibly entertaining, repeatedly praising the show’s director for being ruthless enough to film it!
Compared to their genuine hard work, Chang Mu’s live stream was far too relaxed.
Her daily task was to wander around the village, give out some items in the name of her foundation, and visit the lonely elderly...
However, most of her time was spent wandering through the beautiful landscapes of Guisheng Province, taking pictures of her pretty back.
It was pretty, to be sure, but it was also incredibly dull.
Aside from a bunch of sycophants who fawned over her because of her status, most viewers found Chang Mu’s stream boring and uneventful.
This directly resulted in Chang Mu’s live stream having the lowest viewership numbers of all the participants.
In first place was Nan Zhi.
No wonder some viewers in the comments were subtly mocking Chang Mu’s stream, calling it a "countryside vacation vlog"...
Nan Zhi soon began her opening remarks.
Compared to the other day when she was quoting classics, her entire vibe today was much more relaxed.
She even joked that the purpose of today’s cooking class was simply for everyone to eat and drink.
...This sentence immediately drew a huge round of cheers!
Just when everyone thought Nan Zhi would get straight to the point and start cooking, she suddenly started talking about the origin of fried chicken—
Many people assume fried chicken is an imported dish.
In fact, fried chicken already existed as early as the Tang Dynasty.
However, back then it wasn’t called fried chicken. It was called "gourd chicken" and was created by Wei Zhi, the Minister of Rites during the Xuanzong Period. He came from a noble family, loved fine clothes and exquisite food, and was extremely particular about his meals.
In his quest to create this gourd chicken, he executed two of his personal chefs one after another. It wasn’t until the third chef that the dish was successfully made. The method was extremely complicated, and in an era of limited productivity, it could only be described as the height of extravagance and decadence.
As Nan Zhi told the story, she also casually demonstrated the method for making gourd chicken.
It basically involved tying the chicken’s body with fine string, then boiling it, steaming it, and finally deep-frying it. The chicken prepared this way was both crispy and tender. Its body resembled the shape of a gourd, hence the name.
When Nan Zhi finished the story, it provoked a strong reaction from the students:
"That official was so mean! Why did he have to kill people?"
"That’s why our teacher says feudal dynasties were doomed to fall!"
"Aww, the poor chefs who died!"
"I don’t want to eat gourd chicken anymore..."
"..."
Nan Zhi cleared her throat and quickly said:
"Wei Zhi was definitely in the wrong, but the gourd chicken itself did nothing wrong. We have to look at both sides of an issue and understand that things can be complicated."
The students nodded, only half-understanding.
[Oh my god, how did we suddenly jump from history class to political science?]
[Nan Zhi makes a lot of sense, though. And this is the first time I’m hearing that fried chicken existed back in the Tang Dynasty!]
[Based on the description, how is that the same as fried chicken? That’s completely twisting the concept!]
[Who says it has to be coated in breadcrumbs to be called fried chicken? There are tons of ways to make it! Chinese-style fried chicken is really popular lately! There’s a place near my house, and it’s delicious!]
[Shocked! I always thought fried chicken was just something from Western fast-food places. I had no idea we had our own version! I learned something new today!]
[Getting schooled on new facts while watching a live stream every day, hahaha!]
[As expected, I knew Nan Zhi wouldn’t let me down!]
...
At the same time, the hashtag #ChineseFriedChickenVsWesternFriedChicken# was already trending and climbing rapidly.
Many people were passionately discussing it, updating their own store of general knowledge in the process.
If it weren’t for the story Nan Zhi told today, everyone would have thought fried chicken came from the West!
Of course, more and more people started chiming in to share their knowledge about fried chicken, adding fuel to the fire of the trending topic.
Meanwhile, back in the live stream, after her brief opening remarks, Nan Zhi got down to business—
Preparing the fried chicken.
Because the temperature of the deep-fryer was too high, it was too dangerous for the children.
So, Nan Zhi only prepared one deep-fryer and let the children handle the steps before the frying process.
To put it simply, it was to give the children a hands-on experience, while the main cooking was still done by Nan Zhi herself.
After all, when it came to fried chicken, the deep-frying stage was the most crucial part; it would directly determine its success or failure.
With the help of Fu Chao and Xie Yu, everything proceeded in an orderly manner.
The children prepped the chicken themselves, soaking it in brine and then coating it in a layer of frying batter mix.
The prepared chicken was piled up into a small mountain.