SailorStar9: Well, I've uploaded Chapter 1, and here's Chapter 2. So, read and review.
Disclaimers: Me no own, you no sue.
Chapter 2: Fantastic Mapo Tofu
"I've had that mystery Mapo Tofu only once." Admiral Lee recalled. "It was ten long years ago. I was delivering a message to Szuchuan all the way from the capital. After I completed that tough duty, I collapsed at a restaurant. I had reached the limits of my strength, when they served me Mapo Tofu. It was too heavy a dish. I didn't think I could eat it in my weakened state. However... it was such a strange Mapo Tofu. It was gently absorbed into my exhausted stomach. Because of the wonderful taste, my hand sped to scoop it up. I finished three plates in one sitting. After ten years, I still can't figure out that taste. It was, in other words, an exquisite contest of taste between tofu and meat. Neither the dish nor the restaurant that served it exists any longer. I want you to let me taste that mystery Mapo Tofu once again. Listen, both of you. Mapo Tofu represents Szuchuan cooking. I believe it shows the true value of a Szuchuanese chef. The cooking competition will be noon tomorrow. Be prepared. Think well." he advised. "The answer may well lie within yourselves."
"We've got all the ingredients." Karin told her younger brother in the kitchen later that night. "Why don't we just try it, Mao?"
"It's done!" Mao beamed, serving up his prepared dish. "Onee-chan, let's eat. Ouch, that hurts." he whined when a ladle was smacked on his head. "Why do you do that?"
"What do you mean by 'completed'?" Karin deathpanned.
"Aren't we missing one last factor, Mao-sama?" Ya Xue asked.
"Let me see, spiciness, aroma, color, heat, numbness..." Mao started counting. "You're right. I've got only five factors. You don't have to hit me twice!" he complained when the ladle hit his head a second time.
"You don't have time to laugh." Karin chided. "If you lose, Shouan will become the new head chef of Kikkaro. Not only will we be kicked out of the restaurant, but we don't know what kind of punishment will await us."
"All right." Mao nodded. "Let's start over. Please taste the dish for me."
"You can count on us." Karin nodded.
"Damn it!" Mao cursed as dawn broke, the trio having tasted the same dish over and over through the entire night. "What is the last factor?"
"I just remembered..." Karin recalled. "When we were small, there was a time when all Mom fed us was Mapo. But it was so strange. Though we ate it every day, I didn't get sick of that Mapo Tofu."
"Right," Mao nodded. "I remember that, too. That Mapo Tofu was easy to eat because the meat was so light. There was no tendons in any piece of meat. They were crunchy and I could easily bite them off."
"Good of you to remember such a small detail." Karin sighed.
"Now that Mao-sama mentions it, that meat was somewhat different from the usual kind." Ya Xue mused.
"I can't recall it." Karin sighed. "It was so long ago."
"I see!" Mao beamed, recalling what Admiral Lee had said. "I've got it! The only thing within me is the memory of Mom's tastes. So that was..." he pulled the particular memory out of his head. "All right!"
"What are you checking?" Karin asked as Mao pored over the restaurant's recordings over the years.
"I was right!" Mao found the page he was looking for. "That year was... now I remember everything."
"Let me begin judging the Kikkaro cooking competition." Admiral Lee declared after the gong sounded, signaling the end of the time limit. "Shouan, Mao, are you ready? The Szuchuanese Mapo Tofu has numbness, spiciness, aroma, color and heat." he added as the two chefs presented their dishes. "Now, let me ask you two. What is the sixth factor of the mystery Mapo Tofu?"
"That is..." Shouan and Mao chorused. "Texture."
"Good." Admiral Lee nodded. "Both of you have noticed it. The crunchy texture: the sixth factor is exactly that, "Texture'. Let me taste the Mapo Tofu that you cooked. Let me try Shouan's dish first. Excellent resilience of tofu," he stacked the bean-curd cubes on his plate. "And its texture... truly a high-level contest of taste between tofu and meat. This Mapo Tofu is impressive. Now, let me try Mao's dish. I've tasted both Mapo Tofu dishes." he stated, having finished Mao's Tofu dish. "I asked for texture to be the sixth factor. Shouan pursued the texture of the tofu, while Mao did something else. The mystery Mapo Tofu that healed my body gently and powerfully ten years ago; the truth is that texture isn't in the tofu, but the ground meat. The Mapo Tofu that Mao cooked is the one and only mystery Mapo Tofu. the texture of the meat is the sixth factor."
"However, Admiral." Shouan protested. "I used the best meat in my dish. Both on taste and resiliency, it couldn't be inferior to Mao's."
"You should check the textural differences of the ground meat." Admiral Lee pushed two small plates in front of Shouan. "First, this is your ground meat." the porcelain spoon left a dent on the meat. "Next is Mao's ground meat." the spoon snapped the meat into two. "No matter how delicately it was ground, tendons should remain. But Mao's meat is cooked evenly and has no tendons left. Consequently, it has quite a smooth texture. Mao, what kind of meat is this?"
"Admiral, it's not meat." Mao confessed. "The secret is... this." he revealed the soy bean in his hand. Everyone, please come to the kitchen."
"My ground meat is..." Mao continued in the kitchen. "This." he lifted the cover off the wok on the stove.
"So your ground meat is..." Admiral Lee was shocked. "Soy beans."
"People say soy beans are the meat of the fields." Mao explained,
"How did you cook this soy bean to make it taste like ground meat?" Admiral Lee inquired.
"If I may, Admiral," Ya Xue stepped forward. "First of all, Mao-sama soaked the soy beans in water and cooked them with soup. He then crushed them into a mush, before seasoning them with sauce. The moisture and flavor of the sauce created a meat-like taste."
"Wait a minute!" Shouan cut in. "Such a taste is once once it's cooking in the wok. No meat-like texture should remain at all."
"You can't simply substitute soy beans for meat just by mashing and seasoning it." Admiral Lee pointed out.
"Absolutely not." Mao agreed. "Therefore..."
"Mao-sama deep-fried it in oil to lock in the taste of the sauce and to add proper firmness to make its texture close to that of meat." Ya Xue continued.
"It looks like ground meat at a glance." Mao remarked, presenting his finished product.
"I remember this taste!" Shouan gaped, biting into one of the soy beans.
"You seemed to have noticed, Shouan." Admiral Lee stated. "The chef who cooked the mystery Mapo Tofu was the Fairy of Szuchuan, and Kikkaro's head chef, Pai. She was your mentor and also Mao's mother. That's why I chose this subject for the two of you."
"I was right." Mao beamed.
"However, you're good to have noticed it, Mao." Admiral Lee looked at the child.
"I thought the mystery Mapo Tofu was my mom's dish, based on the subject." Mao admitted. "I checked the Industrial Almanac of the time the Admiral came." Ya Xue presented the relevant page to Admiral Lee. "Exactly ten years ago, a bovine disease broke out in this area. In that year, we couldn't cook Mapo Tofu because meat was unavailable."
"I see." Admiral Lee noted. "That was the year when I came."
"Mapo Tofu was a dish that everybody looked forward to." Mao added."Mom struggled to cook it with totally different ingredients. My sister, me and Ya Xue used to eat the dishes that Mom cooked as a test. So I traced my memory back to the taste during that time, which confirmed to me that the ingredient used was soy beans."
"So Mao, do you mean to say you figured out this ingredient all by yourself based on the taste that you tried during your childhood?" Admiral Lee asked.
"Yes," Mao nodded. "I remember all the tastes my Mom made, once I try it."
"I see." Admiral Lee was impressed. "Shouan," he turned to the older chef. "You were satisfied learning in only the techniques from your mentor, Pai. But you've ignored the basics of cooking which Pai valued most and perhaps wanted to give you. Pai wished to feed those who loved Mapo Tofu with a beef substitute. She created the soy bean Mapo Tofu which is no less great than beef. She wished for people's happiness more than anything. Her sincerity as a chef made it possible. If you don't understand the basics, then you aren't qualified to be the head chef of Kikkaro. Mao, thank you for reproducing Pai's taste. Well done."
"Mao." Admiral Lee voiced, cutting short the siblings' prayers to Pai's gravestone. "There's one more condition before I recognize you as the head chef of Kikkaro. You must go to Canton, the City of Food for culinary training. And just like your mother Pai was: be certified as a 'Super Chef'."
SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.