Chapter 255 - Quarters Begin!

"Hello everyone, It's been a long day of competition, but now it's finally ending, with this next exciting round the quarter-finals! I'm sure everyone is excited about it, so I'm going to be fast with the rules. You will once again be cooking, but this time you will all be cooking the same dish, using the same ingredients except for spices. To prove that you are better than the others, you need to be creative with how you use your spices and how you cook the dish. Cooking the dish perfectly is not enough, innovation and the WOW factor will win this round, something you all should know by now."

"I've said too much already. Everyone please get ready to your stations, Angela will announce the dish and additional rules for you."

"Ahhh." Angela said. To gather everyone's attention. It sounded like a seductive m.o.a.n, which made the faces of the virile men redden. "It's time for you all to make a simple dish that everyone of you has eaten many times throughout your lives, it's fried rice. There's only one minor change I want to present to you and that's the small booths. You will all be cooking inside the booth it's equipped with a faucet, a gas oven and an electric oven. Top 8 advances so good luck everyone!"

The time started ticking after Angela finished her announcement. Wang Ming entered the booth in a hurry, but not before he grabbed the sauce he had brought along, before he entered the booth he asked Angela and the judges if he could use the sauce, Natasha was the first one to disagree, but after Xie Xiu's persuasion she gave up the notion and let him be.

Entering the booth, he placed the sauce jar on the table and looked at the ingredients they had placed on the table already and covered it with a damp cloth. Even though he hadn't seen the ingredients, he could easily deduce what they are. '

Removing the cloth, Wang Ming saw the ingredients that he had expected like, a lot of eggs, fresh greens, rice and proteins. 

One detail he noticed right away is the rice is still hot. Which made him confused. The best rice to use for fried rice is cold rice even better if it's been in the fridge over the night. The rice is the most important ingredient, so he had to tackle this problem first. Of course, this round of competition couldn't be without some tricks, he thought. 

The ideal way would be to just leave it for the night, but he didn't have that luxury. A fast and simple way to chill down the rice would be to use an ice bath or a bath of cold water, to do this he needs a bag or some sort of container to contain the rice, as if the rice gets wet then it totally ruins the dish. All the ingredients came in thick metal containers which would take way too long.

With a sigh, Wang Ming looked at the rice again. He deliberated to just cook the rice, but the end product would most likely not be satisfactory at all. As trying to fry warm rice will most likely break up the rice and can even make it soggy. It's probably this part Uncle Meng meant they have to be creative and innovate. 

After 15 minutes had passed, Wang Ming still hadn't found a solution to this riddle. The temptation of just giving up or cheating was huge at this moment. That's probably why they put them in booths. This way no one could copy other competitor's methods. Digging deep into his mind and using his profound knowledge, Wang Ming tried his best to come up with an answer to this, but he just couldn't find an answer. 

The ones watching from home felt perplexed, seeing that Wang Ming still hadn't started cooking. On their home screens, they could watch all the other competitors had started their prep already, some even cooking. His die-hard fans sat on the edge of their seats to see what he would do next, which comprised the younger generation, who all hopes that he wins.

Wang Ming soon answered their hopes, as he had cracked the code. The answer had been in front of his face all the time. He felt so stupid for not figuring it out. Though his actions made the people more confused than anything. "Hmm, what's he doing?" Angela whispered to Meng Zhong, as their job is to narrate everything she needs to understand what he's doing.

Meng Zhong had the same puzzled look as Angela, he's not a chef so he couldn't answer it. So he could only seek help from Xie Xiu, who helped them explain what Wang Ming's doing. "I'll keep this short. What Wang Ming is doing is to cool down the rice. The staff all gave them warm rice, which isn't ideal for making fried rice with, as it's a lot stickier than 'old' cold rice. You've seen earlier the other chefs have used their own ways to chill the rice, but most of them had to sacrifice making their rice wet. Only Wang Ming has come up with such a creative way to chill the rice."

Wang Ming had kept thinking about using water to directly cool down the rice. The only indirect way he could think of was to chill down the metal container by submerging the sides in cold water. It was then it finally struck him he could easily chill the bottom of the metal container, coincidentally where it's the thinnest.

He then chilled the bottom of the containers by putting them bottom down in the basin and let the water run. The water ran through all of them, cooling the containers simultaneously. He then put a thin layer of rice on top of one container and used another container and gently put it on top. With this method, he cooled down all the rice. He didn't need it all, but it's better to be safe than sorry. 

With this out of the way, the rest were a piece of cake, shouldn't the quarter finals be harder than this? Wang Ming thought. Fried rice is something he had cooked many times, so it didn't pose him any challenge at all. Beating up 5 eggs, Wang Ming heated the wok in front of him and and put an ample amount of peanut oil in the wok. Peanut oil is one of the best oils to use for fried rice as it's very aromatic.

Cracking 5 eggs into a bowl, Wang Ming whisked them up and placed them to the side as he's not using them yet. Then Wang Ming cut up some chicken t.h.i.g.hs and fried them in the oil. He didn't care too much about the protein, as any option would taste great.

After frying it for a few minutes enough for it to be golden brown on the outside but still moist on the outside. 

The TV was now showing Wang Ming, as he did something which is uncommon: he mixed the rice with the beaten egg before he fried the rice. Usually you put the egg in first to let it set for a second before frying the rice. "Ehm, Judges what is he doing? Should you cook fried rice like this?" Angela tried to phrase it nicely as she had almost asked why does Wang Ming's mixed rice look so nasty.

"That's an excellent question, Angela. Let me enlighten you." Said Jiang Zhu.

"I'm going to be blunt. His mixed rice looks nasty, but this is an excellent way for him to ensure that he coats every single rice grain with eggs. Though what I'm more curious about is what's inside the jar Wang Ming brought with him. There's only him that has brought additional ingredients for this round."

"Thank you, Mr Jiang, for the great explanation!" Angela smiled and said with a slight blush on her face. 

Frying his rice on the hot wok, Wang Ming added the meat he had cooked earlier, together with some spices like sugar, MSG and salt. He also diced some carrot and added a handful of green peas. The dish looked prettier after he had added the ingredients. Just smelling the rice and egg made him salivate, but now came the most vital ingredient, his jar of sauce. 

With trembling hands, Wang Ming gently opened the cap of the sauce jar. He held the sauce jar gently in his hands like he was holding Ming Ming in his hands. After a large pop, the aroma coming from the jar filled the whole booth. The aroma gave Wang Ming mixed feelings. It tasted heavy and very aromatic. He just knew that it would create amazing results after cooking it, but it had a foul smell, it didn't directly smell bad, but it didn't smell too pleasant.

After taking a few more breaths, Wang Ming used a ladle and poured a full ladle of the sauce on top of the rice and mixed it with the fried rice. The ones watching from the TV, the MC's and the judges could only imagine what the sauce tastes like. Seeing the delicious sauce blend and melt into the rice made them all salivate. Luckily for the judges, they would taste Wang Ming's dish later.

His dish is the most unique from everyone's as he not only had an interesting way of cooling down the rice, mixing the rice with the egg but also he had a mysterious sauce. Though this could be a double-edged sword, if his dish isn't good, then they would grade him harder.

Wang Ming was still oblivious to all the judges' reactions to how he had cooked his dish. Though he would soon get to hear it as the time had run out, just as he got the rice out and garnished it with some green onions.