It’s not even eleven o’clock, and the kitchen of the Seventh Dining Hall is already filled with enticing aromas.
Both Ma Guoqiang and He Chunxiao have pretty good knife skills, but they’re still a bit inexperienced with preparing side dishes, probably due to their usual eating habits.
The eating habits of different places vary, and so do side dishes, but there’s generally a guiding principle: they should satisfy color, aroma, taste, presentation, and nutritional needs.
Therefore, although the two are slightly inexperienced with sides, they rarely make mistakes—it’s just that so ingredients end up a bit too little or too much, which doesn’t significantly affect cafeteria dishes.
With their help, Jiang Yu and Lu Shuwu found things much easier, no longer needing to handle washing, chopping, preparing, and frying all on their own, unable to catch a break.
"Boss, how many dishes are you cooking today?"
Lu Shuwu had just finished stir-frying a big pot of farmhouse-style pork, filling the kitchen with the spicy aroma of chilies and the rich scent of stir-fried pork belly.
He turned his head and saw Jiang Yu spreading chunks of taro on a stainless steel tray, and couldn’t help but ask.
"Judging by the number of students who ca for lunch this morning, our original nu was indeed a bit short. I’ll make a few more dishes today; you stick to the nu we discussed before, and if there’s extra ti, you can add one or two more dishes."
Jiang Yu replied without turning his head. He was busy making taro and fernted black bean stead ribs and truly didn’t have ti to chat.
Fernted black bean stead ribs is a famous dish from Guangdong Province.
The people from Guangdong cook simply and lightly, are famous nationwide for their love of sweet foods and soup, but this dish is also rich with the aroma of fernted black beans, tender and juicy, and very delicious.
Adding taro to this dish is a modified way of eating it. Once it’s ready, not only does the aroma of the black beans remain, but the taro also absorbs the grease and broth, making the ribs less greasy. The taro itself becos soft, flavorful, and fragrant.
After laying out all the small taro pieces, Jiang Yu placed the pre-marinated ribs on top, sprinkled so black fernted beans, added a few slices of ginger, garlic, and a handful of chopped spicy chili peppers.
He imdiately placed the tray into the stear, set the ti and started steaming.
"Oh, alright, then I’ll add a stir-fried chili with eggs later!"
Lu Shuwu acknowledged and turned back to his tasks.
According to the nu, he only needed to prepare four dishes. He’d already completed farmhouse-style stir-fried pork, stir-fried sauerkraut with vermicelli, and lettuce stir-fried with at, and it was just barely eleven now, so he still had ti to make two more dishes.
Thinking of this, he reached to ignite the stove, intending to prepare a stir-fried dry tofu.
This is his specialty dish!
When it’s brought out to sell, it might just sell out instantly like the boss’s dishes...
...
Everyone in the cafeteria was bustling around, and Yan Tongtong and the others weren’t idle either.
Seeing that it was almost midday, the ti for service, the clean and sanitized utensils needed to be set out, and the glass windows of the serving counter needed another wipe.
If there was even a smudge of grease, it would turn anyone’s stomach.
They were busily preparing in the dining hall, while impatient students had started gathering in small groups from dorms or classrooms, braving the scorching sun to trek over here.
As soon as they stepped through the door, the powerful air-conditioning hit them, causing them to sigh in relief, feeling comfortable!
The journey over, hot and sweaty, nearly cost them half their lives.
But thinking of the delicious mouth-watering chicken and other dishes by Senior Brother Jiang awaiting them, they felt all the effort was worth it.
As the saying goes, "You can’t see the rainbow without experiencing a storm."
You can’t enjoy Senior Brother Jiang’s dishes without enduring so sun and heat.
Seizing this mont when no one was yet queuing, they caught their breath and quickly took their place at the window. If soone ca and got ahead, wouldn’t their early arrival be for nothing?
Sure enough, before long, a new wave of people arrived, among them soone carrying what looked like a stainless steel basin almost as large as a face basin...
Everyone was dumbfounded—was this a bowl for eating? More like a trough for feeding pigs!
Glancing at the guy holding the bowl, he seed utterly ordinary in appearance, not particularly tall or big, leaving everyone puzzled as to how he could eat so much!
Does he have a cow’s stomach or sothing?
The guy with the bowl didn’t care a bit about the others’ strange looks. He snorted internally, thinking:
"I can eat as much as I want, so what? It’s not like I’m eating a grain of rice from your family!"
As ti ticked by, more and more students joined the line, stretching out the door.
At this mont, Hu Zhihai led a few part-ti workers, bringing tray after tray of dishes to the heating counter in front of the serving window.
Taro with fernted black bean stead ribs, chopped pepper fish, farmhouse-style stir-fried pork, fried chili with eggs, fish-flavored pork, stir-fried dry tofu, lettuce stir-fried with at...
Students at the front of the line, seeing these steaming, fragrant dishes, stared wide-eyed, swallowing hard.
"All these delicious dishes, are they all made by Senior Brother Jiang?!"
"You want to exhaust Senior Brother Jiang? Still, at least half are his!"
"That’s plenty! My gosh, I feel surrounded by happiness!"
"I want one of each dish, and no one can stop !"
"..."
The students who were quietly lining up suddenly beca restless. Everyone’s face was full of excitent. There were so many delicious dishes!
However, their appetite is limited, and they simply can’t eat that much... What to do?!
It’s really troubling!
It really would be like what that student said before, getting one of each dish would be fine, but if you can’t finish and end up wasting them, the consequences would be serious.
Because the notice on the wall was written very clearly:
Save food, avoid waste! If verified, you will be blacklisted by the Seventh Dining Hall and refused service!
Other dining halls might not have such a strong stance, as they are worried students might not want to consu there, but the Seventh Dining Hall has the confidence and doesn’t worry at all about a lack of custors.
Now, the Seventh Dining Hall’s worry is that there are too many students coming; they simply can’t accommodate them!
So, if you do dare to deliberately waste food against the advice, they really will dare not to serve you.
Of course, most students won’t deliberately waste food. When they realize they can’t try all the dishes, they imdiately think of other ways.
For instance, if a few familiar classmates co together, it’s much easier; each person orders a few different dishes. The cafeteria has only a dozen or so dishes in total, four or five people can try all the dishes, and then gather to eat.
This way, everyone can taste different dishes.
As for those who co alone, there’s really no choice but to order a few of their favorite dishes first, and as for the rest, save them for dinner.
After all, you can’t just gather a few strangers to eat together; this isn’t a carpool...
Just as everyone was whispering and discussing, Yan Tongtong, Shen Deqing, and Chen Fugui, the part-ti student workers, ca out, and lunch officially started.
"Three taels of rice, and a serving of ribs, shredded pork with garlic sauce, and stead lettuce with oil!"
"I want ribs, fish chunks, a fried egg, and cabbage noodles, half a catty of rice!"
"I want fish chunks, mouth-watering chicken, and whatever that pickled vegetable stir-fry is, one serving, four taels of rice!"
"..."
As soon as serving began, the calls for dishes kept coming one after another.
Shen Deqing was in charge of serving rice, while Yan Tongtong and Chen Fugui were responsible for serving the dishes.
As for the soup, it was already poured into small bowls, and students could take it themselves if they wanted so.
It was Yan Tongtong’s first ti serving dishes, and she was a bit flustered at first. On one hand, she wasn’t used to it; on the other hand, she was worried about controlling the portion size with the big ladle. If she served too much and the boss lost money, that wouldn’t be good.
Thinking this, she scooped a ladle of ribs, feeling it was too much. In a mont of carelessness, her little hand shook, and two pieces of ribs fell out...
Unfortunately, standing right opposite her was her acquaintance, Senior Sister Liu from the student council.
Senior Sister Liu looked at her speechlessly and said with a sigh, "Tongtong, you’ve changed in just a few days!"
"No, Senior Sister, I just accidentally shook. I’m not Parkinson’s!"
Yan Tongtong’s face blushed red in an instant. She quickly picked the fallen ribs back up and placed them onto Senior Sister Liu’s plate, feeling extrely embarrassed inside:
Oh no, this is so embarrassing, 55555!
This was just a small episode, unnoticed in the noisy, bustling cafeteria.
In contrast, the occasional exclamations coming from the dining area attracted more attention:
"Wow! This stead pork ribs with taro and black bean sauce is really delicious; it must be made by Senior Brother Jiang! The taro is fragrant and soft, the ribs tender and juicy, even the bones fall apart easily, it’s so good!"
"This chopped pepper fish is a dish from our Xiao Xiang! Haha, I didn’t expect Senior Brother Jiang’s Xiang Cuisine to be this amazing. The chopped peppers are fragrant and spicy, the fish is tender and flavorful, it reminds of the taste made by my grandma!"
"Senior Brother Jiang’s shredded pork with garlic sauce and mouth-watering chicken are so tasty, it’s the essence of our Sichuan cuisine, perfect with rice!"
"..."
While everyone else was cheering and rejoicing, two students sitting in a corner of the dining area frowned.
One of the students took another bite and finally couldn’t help but say:
"Um, did we order the wrong dishes, or is there sothing wrong with my taste buds? I feel like the taste of this stir-fried egg with peppers and stir-fried smoked dried tofu isn’t that impressive. It’s only slightly better than the dishes from Dining Hall One and Two!"
The other student sitting across from him nodded vigorously and said:
"There’s nothing wrong with your taste. These two dishes weren’t made by Senior Brother Jiang for sure!"
That’s right, if it doesn’t taste good, it definitely wasn’t made by Senior Brother Jiang, just like that!
...
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