"The weekend is just too boring! A day without Boss Wang’s food from the second canteen is incomplete!"
"Exactly, my mouth feels so bland that nothing tastes good."
"Besides breakfast, which I can barely manage with the pancakes downstairs, lunch and dinner are just tasteless."
"My stomach is already shaped like Boss Wang’s dishes, I need to pursue my own happiness!"
"You should have so self-respect, I think Boss Wang wouldn’t be interested in a rough guy like you."
"I wonder what delicious food Boss Wang has prepared for this week?"
"Who can guess? But finally, tomorrow is Monday, good days are coming soon!"
The student dorm was filled with discussions about the second canteen’s boss.
The truth is, these students found that nothing tasted good during the weekend.
These days, it’s true that people can be driven crazy in comparisons; after the holiday, even if you specifically go out to find a place to eat, you can’t find any place that can match Boss Wang’s cuisine, not even close!
Yang Wei sighed, "Went out for a plate of stir-fried beef rice noodles for lunch, 10 yuan per serving. Cheap, yes, but the taste was indescribable. Can’t see any beef, and the noodles were so soft they crumbled at a bite, and the amount of oil felt like it was sticking to my mouth."
"Tell about it! I even went to a Cantonese restaurant for a try. My gosh, the only non-Tianjin thing was the nu; the rest was just a Tianjin dish substitute, completely drowning in seasoning, with no way to taste the original freshness of the ingredients!"
"Luckily, tomorrow’s Monday!"
This was the phrase that appeared most often in everyone’s minds.
With the expectation of enjoying the second canteen’s delicacies on Monday, all the students fell into a deep slumber, with drool occasionally making a playful slide from the corners of their mouths.
...
This week, Wang Fan had already decided what to make.
He planned to challenge his weakness—noodles!
Noodles and rice are staple foods on the dining tables of Northerners, including dumplings, pancakes, stead buns, and noodles, which are all favorites. This week, nothing else, just noodles for an entire week.
Monday’s delicacy—Old Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles.
Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles used to be quite famous, but later got ruined by so internet celebrities with their "authentic taste (hand-gesture) like mom’s cooking."
Still, when outsiders co to Beijing, they would inquire about where to find the most authentic old Beijing fried sauce noodles from locals.
If a Beijinger tells you to have it at their ho, it ans you’re close.
If their answers co with various restaurants and small eateries, it ans your relationship is limited.
Having lived in Beijing for more than a decade, Wang Fan knew these things inside out.
Ask Beijing youngsters what’s good in Beijing, and no matter what they tell you, ninety percent of them think of "Golden Arches" first.
Ask them where the authentic fried sauce noodles are, and no matter what they tell you, fifty percent are thinking of their mom’s homade taste, and the other fifty, their grandma’s.
Once these noodles hit the restaurants, they lose that unique flavor.
Old Beijing fried sauce noodles are all about nostalgia and boldness, eating big mouthfuls of noodles and big chunks of at from the sauce is how it’s done.
When moms and grandmas cook, they are generous with the ingredients and the at, but in a restaurant, you get so little at at such high prices, it spoils the mood, and the food loses its appeal.
Wang Fan patted his face, instantly giving himself a ntal suggestion.
"They’re all like kids eagerly waiting to be fed!"
With this ntal hint, wasn’t mom’s taste about to appear?
Cut the at, it must be cut generously like mom would!
Typically, fried sauce noodles use finely chopped at or even minced at, which inherently lacks mom’s flavor, it’s strange to even taste authentic.
Wang Fan cut the pork belly into chunks the size of large dice.
He pointed at the at chunks and said to Zhao Liang and Chen Qing, "See this? Cut just like this."
With the two brothers taking over the at cutting, Wang Fan began preparing the sauce.
Soybean paste, yellow bean paste, dry yellow sauce all combined together, as to why use so many, Wang Fan had no clue, except it’s definitely not because there was a little left of each at ho so they had to be mixed together, no, that couldn’t be the reason.
Once the sauces were mixed, he poured in a bucket of yellow wine and started stirring in the sauce pot with a ter-long rolling pin.
When making fried sauce, don’t worry if it’s too watery, you can always reduce it by simring longer to thicken the sauce, once it’s dry, it’s truly dry.
With the sauce ready, he set it aside and began preparing the oil.
Cilantro with roots and leaves, onions, green onions, ginger slices, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cardamom, angelica, bay leaves, dried mandarin peels...
Under slow frying, the rich aroma of the spices began to spread.
Eating noodles is about satisfaction, enjoying the smooth big mouthfuls, these spices shouldn’t remain in the sauce as they affect the texture.
Details determine height, and Wang Fan’s demand for details has always been at a perverse level.
Chen Liang watched Wang Fan’s ticulousness with great awe.
Don’t be deceived by the boss’s youth, once he starts cooking, he’s even more focused than the previous five-star hotel chef, and there’s also a clear difference between the two.
That chef would beco oblivious to everyone when working, like a pressure cooker, if you did sothing wrong, you’d be t with a storm of scolding.
But this young boss, you never see him impatient, he enjoys every step of his creation!
Even if there’s a mistake during a process, he doesn’t get angry or flustered, instead, he studies how the mistake affects the dish, he manages to extract positive qualities from the mistake.
Chen Qing liked books written by soone called the Later Years Troubleso Red-haired Monster, upon watching Wang Fan busying around, he couldn’t help but mutter softly, "If there really are different constitutions in this world, then this young Boss Wang must be the Innate Chef Saint Body... no, with such extraordinary comprehension, it’s heavenly."
"Is the at ready?"
Wang Fan didn’t notice the two of them, his eyes were just glued to the pot in front of him.
Upon hearing Wang Fan, Zhao Liang and Chen Qing quickly responded, "Yes, yes, now should we put it in the pot?"
Wang Fan nodded, "Just pour it into the pot."
The tender, clean pork belly pieces dropped into the pot, accompanied by a sizzling sound, a rich aroma of at filled the air.
Zhao Liang and Chen Qing couldn’t help but take a deep breath, feeling as though at that mont, all their pores had been opened wide by the intense fragrance.
Wang Fan focused on the pork belly in the pot, using a brand new big spatula to turn it over and over, as for why it was new, it was mainly because the kitchen had been looted.
Before he left, Xue Feng cheekily took his previous one, so he had to buy a new one.
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