Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle

Chapter 1229 590: Red Silk Cake

Qin Huai was worried that Wang Gen Sheng would be too excited, so he directly helped him to sit down and considerately handed him the tea.

Wang Gen Sheng took the hot tea, gulping down half a cup. After calming himself a bit, he tried to speak in a relatively calm tone: "I don't know if you've heard of this snack, Master Qin, it's called Red Silk Cake."

Red Silk Cake?

Qin Huai searched his brain for this name, and confirmed that he hadn't heard of it. But this was quite normal. As a pastry master who learned on the streets, although Qin Huai's skills were better than Zhao Cheng'an and Tan Wei'an, his knowledge was not as extensive as these professionally trained masters.

Not having heard of it was no problem, Qin Huai could look it up online.

Qin Huai immediately pulled out his phone and started searching, discovering that Red Silk Cake was a high-grade pastry from the imperial palace during the Tang Dynasty, with thin pancake wrapping a filling, tied with red silk, hence the name Red Silk Cake. It was often used by the Emperor to reward new scholars. However, it had been lost for a long time.

It's quite normal that Qin Huai hadn't heard of it, as such lost snacks usually aren't well-known, and nowadays, very few pastry masters study these lost snacks, especially not those of the Tang Dynasty.

Tan Wei'an's grandfather was considered the master in Zhiwei Restaurant who most liked to study lost snacks, but even Master Tan likely didn't research lost snacks from the Tang Dynasty during his lifetime.

The time period is distant and difficult to study.

Sometimes it's not only a matter of ingredients and recipes. Many times, the biggest problem is that there are no recipes, only a name, leaving only a name for snack masters to try to recreate.

Qin Huai recited the information he found online and asked Wang Gen Sheng if this was the Red Silk Cake.

Wang Gen Sheng wasn't very sure and continued slowly, "I don't know if what my friend made is a lost snack. The cake he gave me was not wrapped in red silk. At that time, red silk was too expensive, common families couldn't afford it, and wouldn't use it to wrap snacks."

"But my friend indeed made delicious snacks." Wang Gen Sheng showed a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.

Qin Huai naturally knew who Wang Gen Sheng's friend was, but he couldn't theoretically know. So, he continued listening to Wang Gen Sheng as if he knew nothing.

"That cake, very crispy."

"My friend told me it tasted best when eaten the day it was made, but I couldn't bear to eat it, planned to save it for the New Year. A few days later, I couldn't resist and secretly broke a small piece to taste, the filling was sweet."

"There seemed to be flower petals in the filling."

"Yes, sweet."

"Sweet and satisfying."

Wang Gen Sheng finished speaking.

Qin Huai: ...

Uncle Wang, I'm begging you, please say a few more words at this crucial moment! With this amount of information, it's really hard to make the pastry, especially when there's no recipe, no clues, just knowing that this snack is supposed to be wrapped in red silk.

The most crucial thing is that the version Wang Gen Sheng ate was frustratingly one without red silk involved.

The cake's crust is crispy, the filling is sweet, and supposedly contains flower petals. Besides thinking of flower cakes, Qin Huai can't think of any other cakes.

This scope is too broad.

Gusu is in the Jiangnan area, where if one is willing to collect, one can gather types of flower petals year-round widely, and can use many types of flowers for snack fillings.

Take flower cakes for example; flower cakes have three famous flavors: rose petal filling, osmanthus petal filling, and jasmine petal filling.

Moreover, too many flowers can be used to make snacks, lotus, chrysanthemum, lily, peony, plum, Lanhua, rose, camellia, hibiscus... even wisteria can be used to make wisteria cakes. These plants, placed in the pastry fillings, just add enough sugar, or add a bit of jujube paste, such a flavor-enhancer, sometimes don't even need to serve a beautifying effect; they just serve as a gimmick.

Because the flavor of these flowers could not be important.

Among all the points of information given by Wang Gen Sheng, he provided the least important one, not even clarifying what kind of petals.

Of course, Qin Huai believed Wang Gen Sheng didn't say so intentionally, as he probably didn't know them. After all, with petals chopped and made into filling, baked in a pastry, if Wang Gen Sheng, such an outsider, could identify the flower types, that would be astonishing.

Not all snacks involving flowers satisfy the floral setting; often flowers merely serve as gimmicks, especially in imperial snacks.

Qin Huai felt a bit like scratching his head.

Wang Gen Sheng noticed Qin Huai wanting to scratch his head, and felt even more embarrassed: "Master Qin, I'm not intentionally withholding information. It's partly because I'm trying to think of better ways, and partly because... I find it hard to clear state."

"I've been thinking these past few days, but couldn't come up with more suitable snacks than Red Silk Cake. Even in my mind, all I could think of was Red Silk Cake."

"That cake was really delicious; the crust crumbled easily, dropping a lot of crumbs, which I also ate, very tasty."

Qin Huai thought the crust crumbling easily might be because Wang Gen Sheng kept it for a few days.

"That was my first time eating a cake with flower petals in it; I remember the taste very clearly, sweet and satisfying."

"Very sweet."

"Just a small bite felt very fulfilling."

"And not the sweetness like winter melon candy, but a fragrant sweetness."

Qin Huai knew that Wang Gen Sheng was trying hard to describe, yet also understood how Wang Gen Sheng's descriptions couldn't capture anything substantial.

Qin Huai tried to find some clues by asking questions: "Uncle Wang, do you remember what color the filling was?"