Subtraction Is the Third Realm of a Master

Subtraction was a term that came up often on cooking shows, but the vast majority of them never openly explained what it actually meant.

Or perhaps most shows that mentioned subtraction had never reached the point where it was necessary, so their explanations were little more than vague approximations.

It wasn't about leaving things blank, reducing portions to whet the appetite, or making food light and mild.

Subtraction wasn't the result. It was the process of getting there.

In practice, it was like Drilling Force in martial arts. In kung fu movies and Wuxia Novels, people would dress it up with all kinds of flashy nonsense. But anyone who truly understood it would tell you that it simply meant "tucking your elbow to your waist, turning your palm upward, rotating your arm, and throwing a punch." True teachings were often very simple.

And in everyday cooking, there was a classic example of subtraction—

In dishes, Dim Sum, and desserts where sweetness was meant to stand out, you were often told to add salt. Even in the Eastern Kingdom, people sprinkled salt on watermelon.

The salt seemed to weaken the sweetness, but it actually made the sweetness more noticeable and fuller. That was subtraction.

Tang Sanzang's steamed buns had already reached perfection, but the reason staple foods never grew tiresome was precisely because their flavor was mild.

When grilling, however, the buns lost moisture and their original soft texture turned hard. That undeniably ruined their natural flavor. At the same time, the various seasonings added for grilling weren't enough to make up for the loss, which meant the tastier the bun was to begin with, the more likely it was to become Dark Cooking after grilling.

But now, Chen Shanzang was deliberately making his buns less perfect. Whether he meant to