Chapter 221 - Cooking Ginseng

Wang Ming did just as he had planned. He rinsed and washed one ginseng, then crushed it up before boiling it in water. While boiling it, he put a lid on the pot tightly so it wouldn't release too steam, as the steam could also contain nutrients. He only let a bit of steam out whenever he had to, to ensure most nutrients stay in the pot.

After 30 minutes most of the water had evaporated, leaving only a mushy ginseng and murky water. Though looking at the water made Wang Ming realize something, he didn't know if the process had done its job. How could he know if the nutrients in the water are more than what he would get from cooking the ginseng normally? What if the steam had evaporated most of the nutrients?

The only way he could be sure was to do it the normal way as well. Taking another pot out, Wang Ming then cooked the ginseng without crushing it. He followed the same step with cooking down the water until only about 1-2 deciliters were left. While cooking the ginsengs, Wang Ming thought of only one way to test the nutritional content of the waters, and that's to do a test on himself.

If the ginseng is as magical as it's supposed to be with replenishing life energy. If he fuels his body with ginseng while being hurt, then the healing process has to be better, right? Wang Ming couldn't know for sure, but someone had to test this out. He would definitely not let Aunt Fu do such a dangerous test, so he would have to do it instead.

Taking a deep breath, Wang Ming then made a cut on his forearm. The pain coming from the wound made him bite his teeth together. He hated this, but it's for Aunt Fu. He then tracked the time on his phone to see how long it would take to heal the wound. Holding an eye on the wound, Wang Ming felt amazed how his wound slowly closed in the span of 30 minutes. It's not like in movies where the wound just heals instantly. But after the 30 minutes Wang Ming didn't even see a single mark on his forearm.

Wang Ming then did the same thing but this time he drank the ginseng water. The water was from the one that he had not crushed the ginseng. He didn't think that the ginseng would make too much of a difference, but the healing process this time was significantly faster.

He wasn't sure if it's because his body adapted to being hurt or if the ginseng really made his wound heal faster, but the time to heal the wound was roughly 24 minutes. Then with the crushed ginseng water the process was even faster now only at 15 minutes. But the fastest was when he ate a raw ginseng, by eating the raw ginseng the wound healed in only 12 minutes,

Even though he couldn't make exact wounds for each time. The wounds were approximately the same for each time. With his knife skills, even though the cuts weren't exact, they were definitely 90% similar.

From the small test, Wang Ming could conclude with two things, the first is that the ginseng definitely made his body heal his wounds faster. Even with just cooking the ginseng, it still improved the healing time by a few minutes. The second fact is that to cook the crushed ginseng, then cooking down the water, helps the water absorb most of the nutrients. It's not as good as eating raw ginseng, but it's damn close and that's good enough for him. He hoped to find a way to extract all the nutrients, but that sounds impossible.

He would just have to be happy that he extracted most of the nutrients from the ginseng. Wang Ming didn't know how much the ginseng would benefit normal people, but it proved its effect on his body. It would most likely not make a normal person heal as fast as he did, but he believed it would have a positive effect on people who are wounded and for most sicknesses.

Wang Ming then cooked up three more batches with ginseng, which used up all the ginseng Meng Hao had sent him. He wondered if the effect would have been better with wild ginseng. But there's no way for him to find out now. He truly hoped that Hung Ba had nothing to do with the swapping of the ginsengs. Or else he would either land in prison or get hunted down by Wang Ming.

He wanted to bring the man to justice and help Meng Hao to find someone hurting his father's business. It would serve as a way for him to repay Meng Hao.

Cooking three batches of ginseng at once proved to be a nuisance, as all the pots wanted to release steam at once and he only has two hands. It made Wang Ming do some funny-looking acrobatics to release steam from all three pots. He had to use his two hands then with his mouth release the steam from the last pot.

Luckily it didn't affect the cooking process too much and after another half an hour, he was left with the same murky water as last time. Even though the murky water didn't look tasty at all, just one of these bowls with water cost roughly 3-5000 yuan a pop. Carefully Wang Ming heated the sauces again and incorporated the ginseng water into the sauces one by one.

With this combination, he truly didn't know how the taste would end up. He had never incorporated ginseng into any of his foods, ever. Hopefully, the ginseng wouldn't overpower the sauce and make it taste horrible. The bitter taste of the ginseng isn't pleasant at all.

As most people agree, medicine doesn't taste great. There's only one medicine most people find tasteful, and that's cough or cold medicines. Many especially kids have a poor relationship with medicines as they're seen as something you only take when necessary and tastes bad.

But what if you could incorporate medicine or nutritious medicinal herbs into your food and eat it on the daily? It might strengthen your body, make it healthier and less prone to sickness. This idea sounded crazy again, but Wang Ming had proved two times now that it works. You just need to find the proper way to incorporate these ingredients into the food.

Thinking more about it more, Wang Ming realized maybe it doesn't sound too crazy after all. There's a reason healthy people eat healthy foods. The food gives them good nutrition and energy. The Japanese people are the ones who have the longest life expectancy. And that's for a reason: They take food and ingredients to the next level. Hence the reason you find the most expensive beef, fish, fruits ect in Japan.

What if he could do the same for all the people here, to cook not only nutritious but great tasting food as well? To feed someone medicine without them knowing you're feeding them medicine. At that moment Wang Ming knew what the business model to his restaurants would be if he won the competition.

Wang Ming then used the next few days until the competition to refine his cooking skills and improve the sauces he had made that day. He truly believed that the sauces he had made would be the key for him to win the competition.