Chapter 218 - New Idea

After eating for another hour, Wang Ming and Ming Ming finally went home. The meeting went as good as it could have gone. The most important part is that her parents agreed to their relationship. What made him happy is that her parents seem like genuine and nice people.

Wang Ming felt like he bonded well with Uncle Hung. He kept telling him about all his stories when he was young. Ming Ming also got close to Aunt Li and Qiao Mei. He didn't know how he had offended Qiao Mei, but the little girl kept looking at him with hostility. That was until he told her he would take back the car if she still acted like that to her brother-in-law. After that, she was all smiles and giggles.

Since Fu Ya is busy and Aunt Fu is currently in the hospital, Wang Ming was happy to provide Ming Ming another place to have some family time.

He also invited them all to come and watch the pinnacle chef's competition, which they readily agreed to. Though Wu Li felt embarassed as she felt like her family wasn't worthy to come to such a prestigious competition. But with a bit of coaxing from both Wang Ming and Ming Ming, she agreed.

He also transferred Qiao Meng 20 thousand yuan for her to buy clothes and accessories for her and her family. He didn't care that they wear normal clothes, but he's afraid that other people would look down on them, which would hurt Aunt Li.

He knew that Aunt Li would definitely disagree, so he said nothing to her.

On the way home, Wang Ming stocked up on spices again. He still needs to make something that could win the competition.

Ming Ming looked so happy the entire ride home. When he asked her about it, her answer almost made him tear up. "I just love you Daddy! Daddy makes me happy."

When they arrived home, Wang Ming dropped her off at her house, Fu Ya had arrived home just minutes before they came back. She looked exhausted but happy as well.

Seeing her so happy Wang Mig asked."I assume the meeting went well? Please, next time if you leave Ming Ming home alone tell me so I can take care of her." But he also scolded her, as even though he understood her reasoning it's still irresponsible leaving Ming Ming like that.

Fu Ya smiled apologetically and gave both him and Ming Ming a kiss. "Sorry Ming Ming, sorry Hubby. I was just in such a hurry I forgot everything. I promise it won't happen again. How is your prep going?"

Thinking about the prep, Wang Ming could only sigh. Even though he knew what he wanted to do, he still had no clear path. Everything is so much easier, theoretically. "I've not progressed at all. But Ming Ming gave me some good ideas earlier, with that I think I can finally get a breakthrough."

"That's why Ming Ming is the best!" Giving Ming Ming another hug, Wang Ming left Fu Ya's house. He was afraid that if he stayed any longer, he would end up spending the night. Of course he wouldn't be able to touch her, only sleep next to her, which would make things worse.

Sitting down in his kitchen, Wang Ming thought about the sauces he had tried to make the last three days. And analyzed what he had done wrong, what he could improve, or maybe he just needs to make something else.

He thought back to what Ming Ming had told him. He needs to make something that's represents him, something that he would love to eat every day. Wang Ming then thought about Qiao Meng and his girls. He really wanted to win this competition for them all.

He thus understood what he not needed to do but what he wants to do. He would make a sauce dedicated for all his girls, something that they would all enjoy eating.

First, he had to establish what their favorite dishes are. Even though they like to eat everything and none of them have complained ever when he cooks them food. They all have to have different favorite foods, Wang Ming wasn't sure what it was, so he messaged each of them.

Their answers made his head ache. Fu Ya told him she likes lobster the most, while Lang Lin likes steak and then Qiao Meng likes chicken wings. Ming Ming was the easiest as she likes whatever he cooks. To make one sauce that would fit and would elevate the taste to such different dishes would be hard. But he believed with enough dedication and some luck this would go well.

Wang Ming tried to think about what all these foods have in common but nothing came to his head, they're all so different not only in texture but how they're prepared. Lobster is seafood, so it has a very stringy texture, a lot different from steak and chicken wings. Most people eat steak rare or medium rare, while chicken has to be cooked through. His biggest problem is that the meats also taste so different.

For lobster he would either need to have a sauce that has a strong flavor like a Sichuan spicy sauce or a spice or sauce with a light flavor like a lemon sauce. His only choice here would be to go for a strong flavored taste, because that's the only sauce that would fit with the steak and chicken wings. Even though steak tastes good with salt, chicken wings taste bland if they're not spiced up or marinated.

Grabbing lobster, steak and chicken wings from his freezer, Wang Ming thawed them fast with hot water. Then cooked up the lobster and oven, baked the steak and chicken. He needed to get a clear image of the taste of each meat. The lobster tasted sweet and good on its own, while the steak and chicken tasted pretty bland without anything.

With just a pinch of salt, all the meats would taste so much better. Of course that couldn't be just it, but that made Wang Ming think instead of making something complicated he could make a mother sauce. There are a few types of mother sauces like chili oil, sweet soy sauce, stir-fry sauce ect. Mother sauces are sauces that are integral in Chinese cuisine.

Everyone loves the mother sauces, he just needs to make something better. It totally contradicts what he wanted to do at the start. But he believed that this would be a lot better. As many mother sauces are very dynamic, people use them for many dishes. If he could make a variant from the soy based sauce that fits his needs, it would be perfect.

The only problem with making the sauce is to get best taste he needs to let it rest overnight. He could do some initial taste testing, but only after a day would he know if the sauce tastes good or not. Because the sauce needs to absorb all the flavor from the ingredients, it can make a vast difference.

Of course he wouldn't bank on only one sauce he would have to try out multiple modifications to the soy based mother sauce.

Wang Ming then put dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, the Xi Zai Qing into three bowls. He then further divided the soy sauces from the three bowls into another three bowls. So totally he had 9 bowls on the table which meant he got three tries for each soy sauce. He didn't have anymore Xi Zai Qing, which hurt his heart, so he had to work with what he has.

He wanted to know which soy sauce would make the best sauce possible. He then put a few tablespoons of sesame oil, Szechuan pepper flakes, and a tablespoon of oyster sauce in each bowl. This would be the base sauce, the sesame oil and oyster sauce would make the sauce thicker and give it a deeper taste.

Wang Ming wanted to experiment with different sugars, he have always learnt to use brown sugar or rock sugar for sauces as they give the sauce not only a beautiful glaze but also both sugars don't leave behind an aftertaste like white sugar.

Wang Ming also wanted to test out Aunt Li's recipe. She had made a red-cooked sauce together with a chicken dish he ate just earlier. He wondered if the red-cooked sauce would fit well, together with the mother sauce. It sounded so stupid that it might work. He basically wants to cook two different mother sauces together in one recipe.

He couldn't even imagine how it would taste. One pitfall he could see already for the recipe is that it would taste too strong. It would be like to put more salt into an already salty dish, it wouldn't make it taste better, it would make the dish unpalatable.