The rich aroma of soybeans and stir-fried soy sauce quickly wafted everywhere, the unique and rich fragrance instantly made those who slled it swallow greedily.
Oh no!
A few of them who were extrely hungry almost wanted to grab so tree leaves to chew on.
Fang Bin nudged Jiang Ping, who was gritting his teeth beside him, and handed him four small bags saying, "Classmate Jiang, I have so compressed biscuits here, do you want to have a bit to tide you over? You look like you’re about to start gnawing on tree bark."
Jiang Ping looked suspiciously at Fang Bin: "You thick-eyed swindler, you’re not trying to get to eat these compressed biscuits so you can have more at later, are you?"
Compressed biscuits are very filling, and the few pieces Fang Bin handed over would be enough to leave him with no appetite for anything the whole night, so he really doubted this swindler’s motive.
Fang Bin shouted in injustice: "How can you see your beloved comrade like this? I’m really just worried you’ll be too hungry!"
Jiang Ping carefully observed Fang Bin’s expression, his thick eyebrows and big eyes always made him seem trustworthy.
Could it be that he wronged him?
Jiang Ping felt a bit embarrassed: "Sorry, maybe I misunderstood you." Then he reached out to take the compressed biscuits.
"Smack..."
"How many tis are you going to fall for this swindler’s trap before you learn your lesson?"
Just as Jiang Ping’s hand was about to grab the biscuits, a palm swiftly and decisively slapped his hand away.
"I say, Jiang Ping, can’t you use your brain a bit more? This guy has tricked you so many tis, why won’t you learn from it? He clearly wants you to fill up so there’s one less person fighting for food."
Liu Wenwu said with disappointnt towards Jiang Ping and then looked unhappily at Fang Bin: "You swindler, can’t you stop tricking honest people?"
Fang Bin had an innocent look: "Injustice, Squad Leader, I’m really just worried he might be too hungry, aren’t you hungry? Have so compressed biscuit."
Liu Wenwu sneered: "You eat one first and let see."
Fang Bin shook his head, looking sincere: "I’m not hungry, Squad Leader, can’t waste food."
"You little rascal, even trying to trick your own Squad Leader, when we get back I’ll make sure you train hard!"
Liu Wenwu muttered a bit and ignored him, continuing to wash his celery.
At this ti, Wang Fan had already dumped a basin of at into the first pot, adding other ingredients and boiling water to cover the at before imdiately putting the lid on.
Then the second pot, the third pot... until he put at, spices, and water in every pot, he turned back and switched the first pot to low heat.
Captain Wu observed Wang Fan’s actions from afar, smiling as he spoke to the Deputy Captain next to him: "If we could recruit this Little Brother Wang here, the cooking team’s speed and efficiency would greatly improve."
The Deputy Captain laughed heartily: "I think just him alone could manage als for the whole camp, hahaha."
Chen Baoguo smiled and shook his head: "Captain Wu, if you really bring him to your camp, you better think about putting your n on a diet, haha."
The three n were not part of the sa system, so there weren’t too many formalities, and this wasn’t a formal occasion, so it was all quite casual.
Captain Wu pointed at him with a smile: "You’ve got quite the hard mouth, I really must try and see if it’s that good, could it really turn all my soldiers into chubby ones?"
While the few chatted, Wang Fan had already uncovered the first pot’s lid, placing the "Tiger Skin Eggs" into the pot.
Generally, these Tiger Skin Eggs taste best when soaked after the heat is turned off to maintain a tender texture, but Wang Fan thought these soldiers might prefer the slightly firr taste of marinated eggs, and there really wasn’t ti for him to soak them as soaking for flavor would take at least two to three hours, these guys might have fallen asleep long before then.
In each big pot, the soup bubbles were bubbling away, the reddish broth repeatedly surged with scorching steam rising, nudging the blocked five-spice pork aside, making the slices of pork jiggle back and forth.
The rich aroma of at perated everywhere, and people who had been talking quietly were now silent, closing their eyes to savor the rich at aroma. Several who couldn’t resist any longer even slept with glistening saliva at the corners of their mouths...
While the at was braising, Wang Fan didn’t need to watch it, using the ti to mix a celery-peanut salad with the carrots, celery, and peanuts Cheng Dong and others prepared, Cheng Dong and the rest were quite impressed with Wang Fan’s ticulous steps, each of them feeling gratified for having sneaked a new trick.
After mixing the celery-peanut salad, Wang Fan noticed the change in the at’s aroma, he uncovered the pot and put in fried green peppers, closed the lid, and directly turned off the heat.
After finishing all the pots, Wang Fan said to Cheng Dong: "Dinner starts in three minutes."
Cheng Dong nodded and quickly went to call everyone to inform them about dinner.
Shen Teng and these volunteers, as part of the flood relief team, were still there, and at this mont they were opening stears to start serving the rice.
After a few days of practice, Shen Teng had beco quite adept at serving rice, two scoops of rice placed into a bowl, a quick swivel of the wrist turned the rice into a rounded little mound, making it very convenient and presentable for plating other dishes around it.
Three big scoops of at, eggs, and green peppers placed into a sea bowl, a dish of celery-peanut salad with a bowl of white rice, although simple, it had both at and vegetables, and everything was freshly cooked, nobody thought the al was humble.
Plus, the rich at aroma kept drifting into noses, with drool almost about to flow down a thousand feet, who had the mind to think about anything else?
Fang Bin was already close to being moved to tears holding his al, whether in looks or rich at aroma, both were much stronger than the braised at in his mory.
And it wasn’t like the abstract plating aesthetics of Western cuisines, it was the genuine beauty that could make one hungry and crave.
Palm-sized, finger-thick chunks of at, really suited Great Lu Dong’s hearty personality, sauce-red with a hint of tiger skin wrinkles, the boiled juice with pork belly’s collagen could adhere well to the braised at even without thickening, true braised at didn’t use starch either, the clear yet rich broth imdiately lifted the braised at’s appearance several notches.
Fang Bin couldn’t wait to wolf down at, but none of them, including himself, picked up their chopsticks, everyone was waiting for the leader’s directive.
Captain Wu and the others stood up and said to Wang Fan: "Brother Wang is not from our system, though he wasn’t on the front line for the flood relief, he’s equally contributed greatly in logistics support, this gathering is troubleso yet gracious, I represent our brother units to sincerely express our gratitude by raising water instead of wine."
After saying the words, the leaders from several systems lifted their big cups and drank them all.
Wang Fan also picked up his water cup and drank it upside down.
"From now on, Brother Wang is one of our comrades, guys, don’t be polite with him, hahaha, alright, start eating!"
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