The Game of Life

Tomato scrambled eggs is a dish almost every person in China has eaten and every cook has made, a dish well-known in every household.

Tomatoes originated in South America and are considered true exotics. Initially grown as ornamental plants due to their vibrant colors, they were dubbed “the fruit of the fox,” making people wary of them. Thanks to the unnamed brave soul who first dared to eat “the fruit of the fox,” we were spared a dull world in the juice and sauce industry without tomatoes.

From a nutritional science perspective, tomatoes become significantly richer in lycopene and other antioxidants when cooked, reducing the risk of heart disease and combating aging.

From a chef’s perspective, tomatoes are plump and juicy, cool in nature with a pleasantly sour and slightly sweet taste, impeccable in flavor, and visually striking, making them perfect for plating and coloring.

A good cook can make a plate of tomato scrambled eggs that’s exquisite in color, aroma, and taste. An inexperienced cook, as long as they don’t burn it or recklessly add spices, can still make decent tomato scrambled eggs, even without adding salt.

Of course, if you happen to encounter the few who dislike tomatoes or absolutely detest eggs, that’s a different story.

The organizers of Good Taste chose tomato scrambled eggs as the preliminaries theme, which was very considerate and catered to the too common judges. If they had chosen a slightly more difficult dish and happened to attract contestants who can’t really cook but registered just for fun, the judges who won the chance to taste would have had a hard time.

At 9 o’clock sharp, the competition officially started. Not all of the 100 contestants showed up, with more than a dozen no-shows. There was plenty of time for the competition, a full hour, enough even to carve the tomatoes into flowers if one wished to.

There are myriad ways to make tomato scrambled eggs, some add sugar, some skip the salt, some throw in green onions, others add minced ginger and garlic; each has their own method and taste preference.

Jiang Feng, having gotten used to cooking at Healthy Stir-fry Restaurant, normally didn’t add minced scallions, ginger, or garlic in his dishes, and rarely used ingredients like celery or coriander because too many students avoided those.

Wash the tomatoes and chop them up, beat the eggs- the secret to tomato scrambled eggs is tender tomatoes, soft eggs, and plenty of sauce. As for the ratio of ingredients and seasonings, it’s entirely up to the cook’s preference and taste.

Take Jiankang, for instance, he serves customers with two tomatoes for one egg, but when eating alone, he uses one tomato for two eggs. The tomatoes provided by the organizers were large and attractive but lacked scent; frankly, they didn’ t taste much like tomatoes at all.

Jiang Feng chopped both tomatoes, tasted a small piece of each, and found that, in keeping with most market-available, easy-to-store, big and visually appealing tomatoes, their aroma and flavor fell far below the passable standard for tomatoes. Choosing the juicier parts for a dish, he decided to let the eggs compensate for the tomatoes’ lack of quality.

He heated up the pan, poured in cold oil, waited about fifteen seconds for the oil to reach the right temperature, then poured in the beaten eggs, gently pushing them around with a spatula. Once the eggs set, he quickly scooped them out into a bowl.

Then he tossed the tomatoes into the pan over high heat until they released their juices, then turned down the heat, added salt and sugar, and finally stirred the eggs back in. Because the tomatoes themselves were subpar, Jiang Feng compensated by adding more sugar to enhance the flavor. Although it’s okay for the tomatoes to be bland in a mixed vegetarian and meat dish, the eggs had to be flavorful, tender, and evenly coated with sauce.

To evenly coat them with sauce, the chef’s spoon-flipping skills are critical. This winter break, Jiang Feng practiced his cooking day and night, using the flipping technique for almost every dish. Except for the challenging grand flip of the Shandong cuisine, he had mastered the small flip, assisting flip, suspended flip, shaking flip, turning flip, and hand flip-coating eggs with sauce was a piece of cake for him.

When the tomato scrambled eggs were ready to serve, the tomatoes were red, the eggs yellow, and the sauce a light color. Jiang Feng used chopsticks to nudge the egg pieces in the center of the plate before slowly spreading them out. He then arranged the tomatoes neatly around the edge and on top of the eggs, creating an artistic design that looked like a colorful bud ready to bloom from afar.

The pieces of egg in the dish were tender, evenly glazed with a light red sauce. In his heart, Jiang Feng awarded his tomato scrambled eggs with nine points, leaving one point for modesty.

Jiang Feng raised his hand to signal the staff that he had finished.

While most people would casually scramble the eggs with the tomatoes for just three to five minutes, Jiang Feng spent more time cooking them than others, plus an additional five or six minutes for plating. By the time he finished, most of the contestants had already completed their dishes. The dishes were uniformly stored in warming boxes, shuffled randomly, each with a numbered label on the bottom, to be served at random to the common judges later.

The girl behind Jiang Feng hadn’t finished yet. He looked back and saw a clearly burned plate of tomato scrambled eggs on her cooking table. It seemed she was too nervous and had used too little oil with too much heat, resulting in a burnt dish. Fortunately, she had only used one tomato and one egg, giving her a second chance to cook another batch.

If the ingredients were all used up, the organizers would not provide more.

True enough, the girl behind Jiang Feng was the last to finish in the end.

The contestants couldn’t leave the site yet. They had to wait for the staff to randomly group the dishes, for the common judges to taste and vote, after which the staff would announce directly who advanced to the next round.

It didn’t take long, only about five or six minutes, for the too public judges to sample the dishes-ten tastings in total. None of them were professional food critics, so their opinions were straightforward and to the point.

A staff member handed a card to Jiang Feng and said, “Congratulations to contestant number 13, Jiang Feng, on advancing to the next round. You’ve received ten votes. Here’s your entry card for the next competition. If it gets lost, please call to notify the organizers as soon as possible. We will inform you of the specific competition date later.”

Jiang Feng took the card and examined it. He hadn’t expected the competition to be so serious, with such fancy things as entry cards.

The card only had ‘Good Taste Culinary Competition’ printed on it along with a logo and didn’t have a number, resembling a meal card.

Just as Jiang Feng put the card in his pocket, he heard a cheer from a girl behind him.

“Ah, I advanced!” The girl, who seemed quite demure and had delicate features, reacted with surprising vigor, even jumping in excitement.

Realizing that she had drawn attention to herself with her overexcitement, the girl quickly lowered her head, clutched the entry card tightly in her right hand, and hurried away.

Jiang Feng checked the time. It was not even 10 a.m. yet. Going back to UAL University now would be perfect timing for lunch, and he might even beat the crowd if he left before everyone else. Perhaps he could even snag the shared bike he had ridden there.

Luckily, Jiang Feng was quick. He wondered who else would ride shared bikes way out here in the wilderness. There had been a long line of them when he arrived, but only a few remained now. Riding the bike to the bus station, Jiang Feng saw the girl who had been behind him during the competition.

The girl saw Jiang Feng too and offered a polite smile.

The bus arrived, and they got on together, got off together, then boarded the same subsequent bus and took the same subway ride.

On the subway, the two exchanged silent glances.

What a coincidence, fellow student—you also attend UAL University?” Jiang

Feng said, feeling the answer was already apparent.

Yes, it’s such a surprise!” The girl seemed quite happy to have met a fellow student. “Hello senior, I’m a freshman in the Foreign Languages Department. My name is An Ling.”

“I’m Jiang Feng, a junior in the Physics Department,” said Jiang Feng.

“Jiang Feng, did you advance?” An Ling asked.

Jiang Feng nodded.

That s great! If we’re in the same preliminary round, we can go together,” said An Ling, delighted. “Jiang Feng, I know of a restaurant on the university’s food street that’s really good. Shall we go there for lunch later?”

Oh, I heard that restaurant is owned by someone from the Physics Department. Members of the Chess Club even get a 10% discount. I signed up for the Chess Club last semester but got cut,” An Ling continued.

Jiang Feng:…

“Sure, that restaurant is indeed delicious,” Jiang Feng replied, thickening his skin and smiling in response.

*Dmg ding, your reserved cannon fodder at Half-Moon Tower has been delivered. Please sign to accept.

“■Novels, you know-each to their own taste. No need for quarrels over preferences. Besides, my mom is still into those overbearing CEO romances with pregnancy plot twists or themes like ‘abandoned a decade ago, now I’m back for revenge’ in that old-school style of romance novels t_t

Not only is she into them, but she also has me recharge her account on some weird apps to read thenK (~v^—“) _r

*1 feel like my brain’s been stuck since the New Year. I’ve got the following scenes all planned out, but just can’t seem to get a few thousand transition words out for the life of me(‘g)UHg) ‘ )