Chapter 163: The Ultimate Definition of Fair-Weather Friends

After playing wildly until late at night, he returned home, took a hot bath, and checked another wish off his bucket list.

Suddenly, he received a phone call from Chua Lam, inviting him to lunch the next day, mentioning that a friend had come from afar and asking if he’d like to join them. Opening his moments on WeChat, he saw that Chen Xiaokong's status indicated he was still working. So, who could it be?

In truth, he had always longed to pay his respects to Mr. Louis Cha, but alas...

He woke up early to jog along the mountain trails, splashed around for a few laps in the new swimming pool, and arrived at the designated teahouse ahead of time. Soon enough, Chua Lam appeared.

"Come, let me introduce you." Chua Lam pointed at a man in his early fifties with a slight potbelly and a trimmed mustache, and laughed, "Shen Hongfei, known as Master Shen. Heard of him?"

Zhuang Chen experienced a sudden epiphany and quickly stood up to greet him. Could it really be this legendary master?

He was one of the chief culinary consultants for *A Bite of China* and *Flavorful Origins*. His writings did not concern affairs of state, but rather romance and gastronomy, with a particular mastery of the culinary arts and the pleasures of the flesh.

He published roughly two books a year—four collections of miscellaneous essays, three books on the culinary arts, and two on the philosophy of love, adding up to what could be called the Four Books and Five Classics, earning him the title of the mainland version of Chua Lam.

Shen Hongfei pulled Zhuang Chen over and greeted him warmly, "I've heard Chen Xiaokong mention recently that he's met a wealthy connoisseur who truly understands food. Nice to meet you, nice to meet you!"

The three of them sat down, drinking tea and chatting. Master Shen had a famous motto: There is nothing in the world that cannot be resolved by a good meal.

And if there is?

Then two meals!

As the local host, Chua Lam finished ordering the dishes, patted Shen Hongfei's prominent belly, and joked, "He's a bit like me. They say that if he recommends a restaurant on the mainland, it's as good as hanging up a plaque of golden prestige?"

Shen Hongfei quickly waved his hands, poured tea for Chua Lam, and said with a helpless smile, "That's why nowadays I end up having to recommend restaurants to friends every single day. I'm a 24-hour volunteer—such a hard life!"

"You can probably guess just by looking at my figure: I'm a carnivore enthusiast, the kind who can't live without meat. I've been fat since I was a child, once getting so heavy that it worried my parents and made me feel like an unfilial son."

"In my view, drinking and eating buddies are second only to life-and-death confidants. It's the purest and highest realm of friendship. You summon them, they eat; you finish, they disperse, with the absolute lowest degree of utilitarianism. It doesn't hurt feelings, there's no borrowing money from each other, and no petty jealousy. How refreshing..."

Zhuang Chen looked at Shen Hongfei, who possessed a benevolent expression and smiled like Maitreya Buddha, gave him a thumbs-up: brilliant!

"So, to sum up this matter of dining, from the perspective of a gluttonous master like myself, you must know the person who cooks the food, and that person must know you as well. It's best if it's not just a nodding acquaintance. Mutual understanding—human interaction—is the most luxurious part of dining."

Eating and chatting as they went, Zhuang Chen loved banquets like this: kindred spirits, culinary soulmates, immensely comfortable.

Once they grew more familiar, Shen Hongfei looked Zhuang Chen up and down and smiled, "You could easily be a food critic: wealthy, slim, handsome, and most rare of all, you know how to cook yourself!"

Seeing Zhuang Chen look slightly embarrassed, the two seniors burst into roaring laughter. Shen Hongfei helped fill Chua Lam's cup and reminisced, "I still remember when Mr. Chua came to Shanghai the year before last, and I had the honor of acting as his guide and local companion. You loved pork lard, soy sauce, and Pu'er tea, but also cheese, foie gras, and sashimi."

Chua Lam smiled, "The two places that left the deepest impression on me were Ah Shan Restaurant, and the other was Sister Wang's Private Kitchen, which you took me to."

Zhuang Chen smiled and nodded. After *A Bite of China Season 2* was broadcast, Sister Wang's Private Kitchen became an overnight sensation. Just how popular was it? Rumor had it that the queue of people waiting outside stretched all the way from Xujiahui to the Huangpu River.

The legendary Heavenly King Andy Lau had once made reservations twice, only to fail to get a table either time?

They only served regular customers, had no menu, and accepted no orders, relying entirely on what fresh catches were acquired at the fish market that very morning. They never revealed their address or phone number to outsiders, making them even more mysterious than UV light.

Recalling the past, Shen Hongfei sighed, "Do you have any idea how much pressure I was under back then?"

He looked at Zhuang Chen and explained, "Mr. Chua detests so-called private kitchens. Before I introduced him to Sister Wang's place, I asked him straight to his face: If we sit down and the food isn't delicious, can I walk right out immediately?"

"I gritted my teeth and forced the dishes to be served, and fortunately, I didn't fail expectations. Not only did you finish everything, old sir, but you even ordered several extra dishes, and upon returning, you actually wrote a two-part consecutive column in a certain weekly magazine..."

Chua Lam glared, laughing and scolding, "You're still holding a grudge? If it's good, you eat; if it's bad, you leave. Isn't it exhausting to worry about all that?"

Shen Hongfei shrank his neck and secretly gave Zhuang Chen a knowing look. There was no helping it; Chua Lam was his senior, so he quickly changed the subject. "Chen Xiaokong is much easier to appease. Every time I take him to Fook Kee, the proprietress's surname is Zhu."

"Whenever she talks about her food, she just goes on and on without stopping—how the claypot rice soy sauce is custom-blended by herself, how the milk tea leaves are bought from Sri Lanka, how the peanut butter uses Fujian's specialty sweet and fragrant small peanuts, and how the soup base for the beef brisket thin noodles is made by simmering pork and fish bones roasted with meat until there isn't a single grain of MSG..."

"It's a very shabby storefront, yet it's always packed to the brim. I'm a regular, so I get special treatment. Next time I'll take you there to eat in the small room right next to the kitchen."

Zhuang Chen could hardly ask for anything more. This Master Shen was a top-tier foodie. Years ago, to welcome Wang Shuo to Shanghai, he had even personally planned a banquet named after Wang Shuo's masterpiece *Animals Ferocious*, inviting good friends to indulge to their hearts' content.

Word had it that the main course was an entire ham flown in fresh from Spain, carved and plated on the spot by a beauty. He had personally cooked a private dish—yellow-bud cabbage braised with East China Sea swimming crabs.

The year before last, he hosted a Eileen Chang banquet at the Fu 1088 restaurant, with every single dish sourced from Eileen Chang's writings—a grand gathering of twenty full dishes.

Eileen Chang loved things that were sweet, mushy, and soft. To recreate the flavors of the Republic of China era, he had specifically instructed the head chef to use plenty of pork lard and vegetable oil.

Once fully wined and dined, he patted his chest and promised, "Next year I'll brainstorm a Louis Cha banquet. When the grandmaster's birthday arrives, I'll invite everyone to come and taste it."

Chua Lam let out a long sigh and reminisced, "With the grandmaster gone, it fills one with grief and regret. During Mr. Cha's lifetime, his favorite place to eat was Yung Kee. To commemorate the grandmaster, they also concocted a banquet, naming it the Legend of the Condor Heroes Banquet."

"They invited me to study it: ten dishes, including Heroes Resounding in the Wind, Lithe Like a Flying Dragon Casting Golden Needles, Who Listens to the Falling Plum Blossom by the Jade Flute, Beggar's Chicken with Fragrant Lotus Leaves, Five-Snake Broth of the Western Venom from Mount Tuo, Twenty-Four Bridges Bringing the Moonlight Night, Northern Beggar's Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms, Three Friends of Winter Gathered Together, Unrivaled Toad Stance, and Hundreds of Flowers Blooming on Peach Blossom Island."

"My favorite is Twenty-Four Bridges Bringing the Moonlight Night. They scoop twenty-four holes into a whole ham and insert twenty-four pieces of tofu into them. It appeals to both refined and popular tastes. The ham flavor is rich, the tofu flavor is light; one is meat, one is vegetable; one is rich, one is mild. The two extremes merge together in coordination of Yin and Yang, reflecting traditional Confucian and Taoist philosophies."

"In the novel, the heroine Huang Rong, in order to ingratiate herself with Hong Qigong, specifically used her family's Orchid Finger-Flick technique to hollow out the tofu, then embedded them into an intact Jinhua ham before steaming it. The ham was merely a vessel; it wasn't actually eaten. With every bite upon entering the mouth, each piece of tofu was infused with the savory fragrance of the ham—exquisitely thoughtful."

Zhuang Chen's eyes lit up; he simply had to go try it when he had the time. Seeing that Chua Lam's spirits were low, he changed the subject, and the atmosphere relaxed once again.

Although known as the Four Talents, Mr. Louis Cha was actually more than a decade older than the other three, making him an elder generation figure. Even Chua Lam and Ni匡 did not dare to act presumptuously in his presence. Now that the grandmaster was gone and Chua Lam was already in his eighties, it was better not to dwell on such topics.