Genshin Impact: A Guide to the Unofficial History of Teyvat — Chapter 82

Chapter 82: A Bite of Liyue, Part One

[This chapter is an extra bonus because it is purely filler! It absolutely does not count toward the gift goal updates!]

(Note: Since the author is a certified disaster in the kitchen, there might be some glaring issues with these recipes. I am writing this while frantically looking up culinary references, so I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies!)

(This chapter only showcases a small handful of dishes. In reality, the recipes contained within this book are far more extensive, and the people of Teyvat get to see the complete, unabridged version.)

[Book Title]: A Bite of Liyue, Part One

[Author]: The Shut-In Chef

[Preface]:

The culinary secrets recorded within this book encompass both the ultimate, comforting flavors of ordinary households and the extravagant delicacies found at the grandest of banquets. It is my deepest hope that readers can follow these recipes in their very own kitchens, recreating the authentic flavors of Liyue and savoring the true soul of the harbor city.

[Main Text]:

[Chapter One: Returning to Simplicity, the Taste of Freshness]

1. Clear Broth Boiled Cabbage

[Ingredients]: Fowl (sourced from the common birds of Teyvat), duck meat, Raw Meat (wild boar preferred), ham, Matsutake, cabbage hearts.

[Cooking Essence]: This dish serves as the absolute classic example of the philosophy that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Its true essence lies entirely within that single bowl of top-tier clear broth. While it may look as plain and transparent as boiled water, it actually gathers the rich, concentrated essence of various premium meats. It requires the chef to simmer multiple high-quality ingredients over a low, steady flame for an extended period, followed by repeatedly clearing the soup with minced meat to absorb any suspended impurities. This careful process achieves a broth that is both crystal clear and explosively rich in flavor. Finally, one must take the absolute tenderest cabbage hearts and repeatedly drench them with the scalding hot broth until perfectly cooked. This allows the vegetables to fully absorb the savory depth of the soup while flawlessly maintaining their elegant shape and crisp freshness.

[Flavor]: The soup is as clear as crystal, yet the taste is incredibly rich and savory the moment it touches the tongue, boasting complex, unfolding layers and a long-lasting, satisfying aftertaste. The cabbage hearts are soft, tender, and remarkably sweet. Under the careful immersion of the exquisite broth, seemingly ordinary ingredients bloom with astonishing, mouth-watering brilliance. What appears plain on the surface actually contains an entire universe of flavor within. It is a true showstopper dish that demonstrates a chef’s masterful skill at any high-class banquet.

2. Wensi Tofu

[Ingredients]: Extremely tender silken tofu, ham, Mushroom, green vegetable leaves, Fowl broth.

[Cooking Essence]: This dish represents the absolute pinnacle of knife skills. The soft tofu, ham, mushrooms, and other accompanying ingredients must all be carefully sliced into threads as fine as human hair and completely uniform in size. The tofu threads, in particular, must be delicate enough to float distinctly and separately in clear water. This monumental task requires the chef to possess a calm mind, an incredibly steady hand, and an exceptionally sharp blade. After gently rinsing the freshly cut tofu threads in clear water, they are carefully pushed into a pot of boiling Fowl broth, where they instantly fan out to form a captivating, ink-wash painting within the soup.

[Flavor]: The soup is incredibly light and fresh, offering a silky smooth texture that glides down the throat. The impossibly fine tofu threads practically melt in the mouth, creating a subtle, delightful contrast with the slight, savory chewiness of the ham and mushroom threads. The elegant visual enjoyment and the comforting softness of the taste combine in perfect harmony, making it an exquisite culinary masterpiece that severely tests a chef’s patience and technical skill.

[Chapter Two: The Art of Meat]

3. Crab Roe Lion’s Head Meatballs

[Ingredients]: Wild boar belly (beautifully marbled), crab meat, Crab Roe, green vegetable hearts.

[Cooking Essence]: The traditional fine slicing and coarse chopping method of processing the meat is the absolute key to ensuring these massive meatballs are soft without falling apart, maintaining a satisfyingly chewy interior. The pork must never be lazily minced into a paste. Instead, it should be carefully cut into small, uniform cubes and then lightly chopped with a cleaver to retain a distinct, granular texture. After gently mixing in the rich Crab Roe and forming the mixture into large, imposing meatballs, they are not deep-fried. Rather, they are slowly stewed or steamed over a gentle, low heat until thoroughly cooked through. This careful process makes the meat incredibly rich, savory, and deeply mellow.

[Flavor]: The meatballs boast an extremely soft, melt-in-the-mouth texture. The rich, fatty goodness of the pork and the ultimate, oceanic sweetness of the Crab Roe merge together flawlessly. Occasional bursts of crispness cut right through the richness, adding a refreshing fragrance. The accompanying broth is clear and exceptionally delicious, having absorbed the pure essence of the meatballs and Crab Roe, while the vegetable hearts soaked in the broth become wonderfully sweet and tasty.

4. Braised Lion’s Head Meatballs

[Ingredients]: Pork belly, Bird Egg, green onion, ginger, soy sauce, sugar, cooking wine.

[Cooking Essence]: Unlike the delicate, stewed crab roe version, this braised variation focuses entirely on the rich, unapologetic flavor of heavy oil and dark, savory sauce. The meatballs need to be deep-fried first in bubbling oil to set their round shape, forming a delightfully crispy outer shell that perfectly locks in the abundant juices. Following that, soy sauce, sugar, and other aromatic seasonings are added for a long, patient period of slow braising. This allows the intense flavor to fully penetrate every single fiber of the meatball until the sauce reduces, thickens, and becomes beautifully glossy.

[Flavor]: The color is a bright, incredibly inviting caramelized red, offering a perfectly balanced savory-sweet taste and a rich, intoxicating aroma of soy sauce. They are wonderfully crispy on the outside and incredibly tender on the inside, bursting with abundant, savory juices with every bite. It is a highly satisfying, comforting home-style main dish, especially suitable for pairing with a steaming bowl of white rice. Simply mixing the thick, savory sauce with the rice is a genuinely divine experience.

[Chapter Three: Home-Style Flavors, Divine Rice-Pairing Dishes]

5. Ants Climbing a Tree

[Ingredients]: Glass vermicelli, minced Raw Meat, savory sauce, green onion, ginger, garlic, rich broth.

[Cooking Essence]: The quirky name is purely metaphorical, referring to the savory bits of minced meat clinging tightly to the translucent vermicelli, resembling little ants climbing up the branches of a tree. The true key to this dish lies in the proper soaking of the vermicelli and the masterful control of the heat during the stir-frying process. The vermicelli must be soaked in warm water until perfectly soft, but absolutely not mushy. When stir-frying, the chef must use the fragrant oil rendered from the minced meat and the deep flavor of the sauce to quickly toss the ingredients. This ensures every single strand of vermicelli is evenly coated with the rich sauce and minced meat, while simultaneously absorbing the savory flavor of the broth to achieve a dry, intensely fragrant, smooth, and distinct final texture.

[Flavor]: The texture is wonderfully smooth and springy, boasting a rich, complex sauce flavor and a slightly spicy, incredibly appetizing kick. The minced meat is fragrant and slightly crispy, while the vermicelli is perfectly seasoned all the way through. It is a beloved, classic home-style dish that goes exceptionally well with rice, is quick to prepare, and is absolutely packed full of comforting flavor.

6. Fish-Flavored Shredded Pork

[Ingredients]: Pork tenderloin, Matsutake, shredded bamboo shoots, pickled Jueyun Chili, green onion, ginger, garlic, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, cooking wine.

[Cooking Essence]: This famous dish contains absolutely no fish, yet it somehow perfectly possesses its signature fragrance. The culinary essence lies in preparing the classic fish-flavor sauce. The complex, mouth-watering aroma produced by expertly sautéing minced green onion, ginger, garlic, and pickled Jueyun Chili combines flawlessly with sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce. This creates a masterful flavor profile that is salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and deeply savory all at once. The shredded pork must be carefully coated in starch and par-fried to remain incredibly tender, while the accompanying side ingredients should be cut into uniform thickness and stir-fried over roaring high heat to ensure the elusive breath of the wok.

[Flavor]: It possesses a wonderfully rich texture, featuring melt-in-the-mouth tender shredded pork and satisfyingly crunchy side ingredients. The diverse flavors are clearly and beautifully layered, smoothly integrating sour, sweet, spicy, savory, and fragrant elements into a single bite. It is incredibly appetizing and refreshing, standing as a representative dish that severely tests a chef’s ability to balance and control highly complex flavor profiles.

7. Spicy Blood Curd and Offal Stew

[Ingredients]: Duck blood, ox tripe, Raw Meat, eel slices, savory sauce, Jueyun Chili, various aromatic spices.

[Cooking Essence]: The entire focus of this dish rests on four crucial words: Numbing, Spicy, Fresh, and Fragrant. A truly successful spicy blood curd and offal stew requires a generous ladle of carefully fried, intensely aromatic hotpot base as its very soul, creating a bright red, bubbling broth. The handling of the various ingredients is all about precise heat control. The tripe and duck blood must be blanched just right to remain perfectly tender and satisfyingly crunchy. The final, dramatic ladle of scalding hot oil poured over the top is the ultimate finishing touch, instantly activating the fiery aroma of the Jueyun Chili.

[Flavor]: The bubbling broth is a vibrant, intimidating red, and the numbing-spicy flavor is intensely domineering, carrying a wonderfully pungent aroma. The ingredients are incredibly diverse and the texture is remarkably rich. The duck blood is silky and tender, while the tripe is delightfully crunchy, leaving the diner sweating profusely yet completely unable to stop eating. It is a hearty, fiery choice for dispelling the bitter cold in winter and aggressively stimulating a sluggish appetite.

(Note: This dish is incredibly, dangerously spicy.)

8. Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs

[Ingredients]: Pork spare ribs, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, cooking wine, ginger slices.

[Cooking Essence]: Achieving the absolute golden ratio of the sweet and sour sauce is the ultimate key to this dish, creating an effect that is moderately sour, pleasantly sweet, and thick enough to beautifully coat the back of a spoon. The ribs are usually blanched or deep-fried first to lock in their juices, then slowly simmered with the carefully prepared sweet and sour sauce until the liquid reduces. This allows the intense flavor to fully penetrate right down to the bone, while the thick, glossy sauce coats every single piece of rib. Stir-frying the sugar to create a rich caramel color is a traditional, time-honored method that adds a bright, appetizing red hue and a deep caramel aroma to the finished dish.

[Flavor]: The color is wonderfully glossy and reddish, the taste is perfectly balanced between sweet and sour, and the meat is tender enough to effortlessly fall right off the bone. It is a beloved, classic flavor that is incredibly hard for anyone, young or old, from the north or the south, to resist. It can be proudly served at grand banquets or enjoyed as a warm, comforting memory on a humble home dining table.

9. Sour and Spicy Shredded Potatoes

[Ingredients]: Potatoes, dried Jueyun Chili, aromatic spices, garlic, vinegar, salt.

[Cooking Essence]: The most simple ingredients often provide the greatest test of a chef’s basic skills. The potato shreds must be carefully cut thin and perfectly uniform, then rinsed repeatedly with clear water to remove all surface starch, ensuring a wonderfully crunchy texture after stir-frying. The cooking process heavily emphasizes lightning-quick frying over a roaring, high flame. The vinegar should be dramatically drizzled along the scorching edge of the wok to instantly stimulate the breath of the wok and the sharp vinegar aroma. The dish must then be removed from the heat incredibly quickly to maintain the perfect crispness and tenderness of the potato shreds.

[Flavor]: The texture is delightfully crisp and refreshing, while the taste is sharply sour, spicy, and incredibly appetizing. It is an absolutely excellent home-style dish to pair with a bowl of rice. Such simple, humble seasoning can bring about immense culinary satisfaction, perfectly reflecting the everyday wisdom of Liyue’s ordinary households in turning the mundane into the truly delicious.

[Afterword]:

The cuisine of Liyue is as vast and boundless as the sea itself. What is recorded within the pages of this book is but a single drop in the ocean.

The way of cooking is much like the way of life. It requires one to experience it with an open heart and to practice continuously without end.

(To be continued)

Here is a quick repost of the previous gift update notification:

[Important Notice] Dear readers, your follows, comments, and generous gifts are the absolute greatest motivation for my writing! Seeing everyone enjoy this story so much really fills me with boundless energy and immense gratitude! To respond more directly to everyone’s wonderful enthusiasm, I have decided to officially launch Gift Updates.

[For every cumulative 100 in total gift value for this book, I will add one extra chapter! (At least 2000 words!)]

However, to ensure the ongoing quality of the novel and to prevent the author from working themselves into premature baldness (strike that), I will add a strict maximum of two extra chapters per day. Any excess will be safely carried over to the next day. This is simply the best way I could think of to make our daily interaction more interesting and give everyone something fun to look forward to.

Why cumulative, you ask? Because no matter the size of the gift, every single bit of your support gives me the motivation to keep typing!

Finally, please make sure to always stay within your means! Free power stones and heartfelt comments are also something I eagerly look forward to every single day when I boot up my computer. Your continued companionship is, in itself, the most precious gift to me!