AGN -Chapter 207 Bai Guo Filling (Mixed Nut Filling)

Qin Huai didn’t expect that bai guo filling could actually be used in tangyuan. Judging from Gong Liang’s expression and tone, Qin Huai was absolutely convinced that the bai guo tangyuan made by Jiang Weijin must be delicious.

But if it was bai guo filling, things would get troublesome.

This type of filling was something Qin Huai didn’t know how to make. He had only heard of it—bai guo filling is usually used in mooncakes. Qin Huai had never made mooncakes before.

After all, running a breakfast shop selling san ding bao and si xi jiao was already the limit. If they also started selling mooncakes, the Qin family breakfast shop might as well be renamed the Qin Family “Sells Everything” Shop.

The main reason, of course, was that Qin Luo didn’t really like eating mooncakes.

There used to be a small shop in Qiu County that made very delicious five-nut mooncakes. They used authentic ingredients, carefully selected premium dried fruits, and the sweetness was rich but not cloying. Unlike most five-nut mooncakes on the market, which were overly sweet and greasy—one bite and it was unbearable, another bite and you’d practically ascend on the spot.

Later, when the owner of that shop retired, Qiu County lost its good five-nut mooncakes. The Qin family switched back to double-yolk lotus paste mooncakes during Mid-Autumn Festival. As prices for those kept rising year after year and online shopping became popular, Qin Luo discovered Yunnan-style ham mooncakes on the internet, so Qin Huai switched to eating those instead.

As of last Mid-Autumn Festival, Qin Congwen insisted on sticking to tradition and forced himself to eat five-nut mooncakes.

Zhao Rong scoffed at the cheap and unpalatable five-nut mooncakes Qin Congwen somehow bought, while complaining about the rising price of double-yolk lotus paste mooncakes and still buying the most expensive ones.

Qin Luo happily devoured Yunnan ham mooncakes, eating them from a month before the festival to a month after. To those who didn’t know, it might have looked like she was snacking rather than eating mooncakes.

As for Qin Huai…

He tried a bit of everything.

Qin Huai never understood why his parents and Luo Luo were so obsessed with buying mooncakes every Mid-Autumn Festival. Aside from Qin Luo’s personal preference for eating as many Yunnan ham mooncakes as she liked, there was really no need to buy any at all.

Gifts from relatives and friends were already more than enough—far more than they could ever finish.

Before Qin Huai inherited the legacy and opened Yunzhong Canteen in Shangshi, every holiday season was a time when relatives of the Qin family competed with one another to outdo each other.

Mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival, zongzi for Dragon Boat Festival, candies for Halloween, random gifts for Christmas, New Year greetings for New Year’s Day—mixing local and Western holidays freely. If circumstances allowed, Qin Huai felt they would probably send gifts for Arbor Day and April Fools’ Day too.

During holidays, they sent plenty of gifts so that when the New Year came, they could visit, eat heartily, and take food home as well.

Every year, the Qin family ended up with so many mooncakes and zongzi that they couldn’t finish them, and eventually had to donate them to welfare homes. The children there would have to devote themselves fully to eating mooncakes and zongzi during Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival.

During those times, Qin Huai would go from being “Brother Bao Bao” to the limited-time “Brother Mooncake” and “Brother Zongzi.”

Qin Huai snapped out of his memories of mooncakes.

He had originally thought si xi tangtuan would be an easy task, but it turned out to be an extra-credit question.

Teacher, this topic wasn’t covered in class.

Bai guo filling truly fell into his blind spot.

He really didn’t know how to make it.

Qin Huai didn’t even know what ingredients were required. All he knew was that there was no fixed formula—bai guo filling mainly consisted of nuts, candied fruits, and sugar. The exact combination depended on the chef’s own recipe.

While Qin Huai was still thinking, Gong Baozhu had already finished her second tangyuan with vegetable filling and was about to go back to the first bowl to scoop a sesame-filled one, when the bowl was picked up by Guo Mingzhu.

“Baozhu, these tangyuan are made from glutinous rice flour. Eating too much at night isn’t easy to digest. Eat less—the rest, Mom will handle.”

Guo Mingzhu skillfully “appropriated” the bowl in front of her daughter.

Gong Baozhu realized something was wrong and tried to salvage the situation by lowering her head to grab the other bowl—only to find that it was already gone. Gong Liang had already started eating from it.

Gong Baozhu: !

Her mother’s move wasn’t “stealing by a trick”—it was a diversion tactic!

She helped her parents eat the vegetable tangyuan they didn’t like, and in return, they cut her off from the remaining three tangyuan!

Tears of regret welled up in Gong Baozhu’s heart.

If she had known, she would have eaten the sesame ones first—she could have had one more.

While Gong Baozhu was silently crying inside, Qin Huai had finished thinking.

He couldn’t figure it out at all.

There was no useful information in his mind about making bai guo filling. Since he couldn’t think it through, he decided to ask directly.

“Mr. Gong, about the bai guo filling you mentioned—do you know the exact method to make it?” Qin Huai asked seriously.

This question thoroughly stumped Gong Liang. Holding a spoon with a large, beautiful sesame tangyuan, he hesitated for dozens of seconds before shaking his head.

“I don’t know. I only know it requires candied winter melon.”

“When Master Jing made bai guo tangyuan back then, we didn’t have enough candied winter melon at home—he borrowed all of ours.”

Qin Huai was familiar with candied winter melon—a very sweet type of preserved fruit. He had eaten it at the welfare home when he was young. It might not be great on its own, but it should work well in bai guo filling.

“Do you know where you can buy bai guo tangyuan now?” Qin Huai asked further.

This question stumped Gong Liang again.

“They’re basically not available anymore. Bai guo tangyuan, like five-nut mooncakes, fell out of favor because people found them too heavy and sweet,” Gong Baozhu answered. “When I was in kindergarten, there was a small shop near the school that still sold them. The bai guo ones were even more expensive than meat-filled ones.”

“I used to think they were really sweet and delicious, but as I grew older, I realized they were too sweet—cloying, even. Since they were already expensive and not tasty enough, over time no one sold them anymore. It’s better to buy vegetable or radish filling instead—cheaper and tastier.”

“That’s because candied fruits and dried nuts have become more expensive,” Guo Mingzhu said from the kitchen doorway. “To make bai guo filling, you need high-quality candied fruits and nuts, and you have to cook it with lard. If you cut corners and use inferior ingredients, cheap lard mixed with cheap candied fruit and boiled together will end up overly sweet and greasy—like eating sugary fat. How could that taste good?”

“The bai guo tangyuan you loved as a child from that shop were actually just average. They were extremely sweet. You just couldn’t tell because you liked sweets when you were young—you insisted on eating them after school and always wanted two.”

“You couldn’t finish them, and you’d give the rest to me and your dad. Back then, when we saw those overly sweet tangyuan, our faces would turn green. Every day we had to draw lots to decide who would pick you up, and who would pick up your brother.”

Gong Baozhu: …

Being exposed like this in front of an outsider by her own mother made her want to dig a hole in the floor and hide.

“However, Master Jing’s version was truly different!” Guo Mingzhu continued enthusiastically. “When Mr. Gong celebrated his birthday that year, the tangyuan Master Jing made—I had a bowl too. That taste is unforgettable.”

“After the candied fruits and nuts were chopped and wrapped into the tangyuan, when eaten hot, it was sweet but not cloying at all.”

“I remember he made a big pot that time. All four flavors of tangyuan looked the same since they didn’t have different shapes. We all wanted the bai guo ones and ate like crazy. When we couldn’t eat anymore, he even brought out another plate of beautifully made buns. I hadn’t married Gong Liang yet—I almost fainted from overeating at his house,” Guo Mingzhu said with a laugh.

“Oh? That happened?” Gong Liang teased.

Guo Mingzhu shot him a glance: “You weren’t any better—you nearly passed out yourself, barely able to walk.”

After speaking, she sighed. “But that was the only time. Not long after Master Jing retired, he had an accident. Since then, he hasn’t been able to cook delicate pastries anymore.”

“If he were still around, maybe Baozhu would have had the chance to eat truly delicious si xi tangyuan. She wouldn’t have been so desperate to eat those bad ones as a kid and made our lives so difficult.”

“Mom!” Gong Baozhu protested.

Stop talking—your daughter still has dignity!

In the end, when Qin Huai left, he was handed two bottles of freshly squeezed juice by Guo Mingzhu. Gong Liang couldn’t find the “Mountain Cloud Mist” tea he had been thinking about giving, so he planned to look for it in the other houses the next day.

On his way home with the juice, Qin Huai saw the tea Gong Liyun had given him at the entrance.

Mountain Cloud Mist.

Qin Huai: …

What did Gong Liyun say when he gave him tea at noon again? That it was a good tea he had recently acquired.

Well, “acquired from his father” still counts as acquired.

Qin Huai could only say that their father and son had very consistent gifting logic.

He glanced at the dining table. The bowl of tangyuan for Ou Yang had already been finished, while his own bowl had been thoughtfully placed into the warmer by Ou Yang.

As for Ou Yang himself, he was lying on the sofa like an overfed seal, watching videos on his phone.

Qin Huai quietly placed the two bottles of juice on the coffee table.

“Eat less at night from now on during this period. I’ll be practicing si xi tangyuan every evening.”

“No problem… not just si… hic… xi tang… I can handle it!” The seal patted his belly and declared confidently.

The next morning, Qin Huai arrived early at Huang Ji, around the same time as Zheng Siyuan.

Zheng Siyuan had just finished measuring flour and was surprised to see Qin Huai arrive so early—but quickly composed himself.

Because today, he wasn’t the earliest one.

Gu Li was.

By the time Zheng Siyuan arrived, Gu Li’s ruyi rolls were almost finished. Although ruyi rolls don’t take particularly long, they still require proper preparation time.

If Gu Li could nearly finish his first batch before 8 a.m., that meant he had arrived at least by 7 a.m.

Considering his speed, he likely arrived even earlier—around 6-something.

And the previous night, Gu Li had finished work at 9 p.m. and still stayed an extra hour to make another batch of ruyi rolls.

That kind of extreme dedication left Zheng Siyuan stunned.

Compared to Gu Li, the other chefs who arrived around 7:30 to start preparations seemed rather ordinary in comparison.

Qin Huai hadn’t expected that coming in early to discuss bai guo filling would turn the kitchen into such a lively scene.

As soon as he arrived, the chefs of Zhiywei Pavilion immediately sprang into action—some helping, some brewing tea. Qin Huai glanced at the workstation and saw that everything had already been prepared for him.

If these chefs stayed at Huang Ji a few more months, they might put the existing assistants out of a job.

When Gu Li respectfully handed him a cup of tea and said, “Master Qin, please have some tea,” Qin Huai felt like the world had become somewhat surreal.

He didn’t drink the tea, nor did he immediately start making longevity noodles.

He hadn’t come this early to start working overtime.

Walking over to Zheng Siyuan, he asked casually, “How’s your practice with the big tossing wok technique going lately?”

“Not great,” Zheng Siyuan replied calmly.

As a standard pastry chef, it was unrealistic to expect significant progress in such a short time.

“Do you know anything about bai guo filling?”

Zheng Siyuan responded candidly: “Some, but not much.”

“You’re planning to make mooncakes?”

“No. I’m planning to make si xi tangyuan with bai guo filling.”

“Si xi tangyuan?” Zheng Siyuan paused. “Luo Luo wants to eat it?”

Qin Huai replied, “She can want to eat it, but the main reason is Mr. Gong.”

Zheng Siyuan understood and admitted he couldn’t help much.

“I don’t know how to make tangyuan,” Zheng Siyuan said simply. “As for my father, I’m not sure either, but in my impression he hasn’t made it much. You probably know his style—he doesn’t like simple, home-style dishes like si xi tangyuan.”

“As for bai guo filling, I don’t know that either.”

“Recipes for bai guo filling vary widely. You can mix nuts and candied fruits however you like. And I don’t think mooncake fillings can be directly applied to tangyuan. Tangyuan are boiled, so even if you have an old recipe, it may not be suitable now.”

“In the past, such desserts were made very sweet because people didn’t eat much sugar. In a sense, the sweeter, the better.”

“Modern customers usually can’t accept overly sweet desserts, so you may need to adjust the formula.”

Zheng Siyuan offered his sincere advice.

Qin Huai also gave his honest reply.

“I don’t have a recipe.”

Zheng Siyuan paused.

“And I don’t know how to make bai guo filling either.”

Another pause.

“To be frank, I hadn’t even made tangyuan before yesterday. Last night I tried making them for the first time at home.”

Zheng Siyuan froze completely, a question mark practically appearing above his head.

“?”

“But I want to give it a try. Mr. Gong said that many years ago, on his birthday, he ate bai guo tangyuan made by your grandmaster, and he has never forgotten the taste.”

“Last night when I visited his home, his wife agreed as well. She said even though she only ate it once, the flavor stayed with her all these years.”

“I think something that can be remembered for so long by two people must have its merits. It must be very delicious, very worth studying, and very worth making.”

“Zheng Siyuan, are you interested in researching this with me?”

Zheng Siyuan didn’t speak.

He really wanted to tell Qin Huai that this wasn’t how you studied desserts.

No recipe, no direction, not even a description of the taste—how could anything be developed like this?

He also wanted to advise Qin Huai to focus on mastering one dessert at a time. This kind of scattered practice—trying one thing today and another tomorrow—was a bit too wild, even for an unconventional path.

But Zheng Siyuan knew he didn’t say it immediately because… he was tempted.

He had originally had no interest in bai guo filling at all. He just wanted to perfect zhaosha wontons and bubble wontons, then practice the big tossing wok technique for a while. If there was still no progress after a year, he would give up and move on.

But now…

This kind of tangyuan sounded strangely impressive.

“How do we research it?” Zheng Siyuan asked. “Where do we start?”

“Before going to sleep last night, I searched online for methods and recipes of bai guo filling.”

Zheng Siyuan: “…I advise you not to believe them.”

“So after searching, I gave up and decided to ask you today. If you don’t know, I’ll ask your father when he arrives.”

“And if my father doesn’t know either?” Zheng Siyuan pressed.

Qin Huai glanced at Tan Weian, who was working diligently, and said quietly, “Then we’ll ask him.”

“And if he doesn’t know either?”

Qin Huai sighed. “Then there’s no other way—we’ll have to ask Tan Weian to reach out to others, or we exchange knowledge with Zhiywei Pavilion.”

“There are many chefs there. Some master-level chefs must know.”

Zheng Siyuan: “…”

Impressive.

“They only arrived recently, and you’ve already assigned them roles so clearly.”

“I think it’ll work,” Zheng Siyuan nodded. “I’ve heard from my father that Chef Zhou from Zhiywei Pavilion makes excellent five-nut mooncakes.”

“He should be familiar with bai guo filling.”