Dou Wenjing couldn’t help but laugh.
The boss had guessed correctly; Zeng Xiaoqi really did want to eat fried noodles herself, so she’d had the crew call and ask under the pretext of official business.
"I’ll tell Zeng Xiaoqi about this later," Dou Wenjing thought with amusent. Heh, that Zeng Xiaoqi—Miss ’34B’—her little sche has been ruthlessly uncovered by my brilliant and valiant boss! She wanted to eat fried noodles but was worried that coming to the shop herself would break their group’s diet pact. So, she used the excuse of filming a video to get the boss to make fried noodles, planning to feast on them at the TV station. All that talk about filming a video was just to satisfy her own cravings. HUMPH. What a crafty vixen! No wonder her chest is small; all the developnt went to her brain!
Lin Xu said, "By the way, tell Sister Xiaoqi that I’ll arrange for Wei Qian, Zhu Yong, and Zhuang Yizhou to shoot so episodes later, so have the TV station get ready for filming."
"Okay!"
After Dou Wenjing left with her crew, just as Lin Xu was about to return to the kitchen, Shu Yun tiptoed upstairs and whispered, "Boss, can we please not have fried noodles for lunch today? Several of the waitstaff said they’re getting sick of it. Let’s change it up for lunch, shall we?"
After the training tasks were assigned, Wei Qian needed to make one hundred servings of fried noodles. This effectively turned the staff into guinea pigs for the head chef. They had fried noodles for lunch, fried noodles for dinner, and even yesterday morning, they had so fried noodles to go with their millet porridge—it was sheer madness. However, it was precisely because of this intensive practice that he completed the training task ahead of schedule.
Now, hearing Shu Yun’s plea, Lin Xu smiled and said, "For lunch today, we’ll eat rice. If the stones ordered online arrive early, we’ll have Stone Cooked Chrysanthemum. If they co late, we’ll make sothing else. In any case, we’re having rice for lunch today, not fried noodles."
A look of delighted surprise imdiately spread across Shu Yun’s face. "Thanks, Boss! I’ll go and tell them right away."
Oh, thank goodness! Finally, no more fried noodles!
Actually, everyone at the restaurant genuinely liked fried noodles. But no matter how much they liked them, eating them for several days in a row was too much. They had reached the point where even their burps tasted like fried noodles. Today, they were finally going to have rice, which was a very welco change.
Xie Baomin had made Stone Cooked Chrysanthemum twice before and had wanted to keep the stones, but Lin Xu had refused. Those stones were only enough for one serving, far too few to be useful. And since he was too lazy to go out and collect stones himself, he had ordered a batch of volcanic stones online. These were smoother, black pebbles, reportedly more resistant to high temperatures. They were also uniform in size and more attractive than ordinary collected pebbles. To prevent any shortage, Lin Xu ordered enough for about ten servings. That way, the restaurant wouldn’t have to worry about running out of stones when serving Stone Cooked Chrysanthemum.
Once back in the kitchen, Lin Xu said to Qin Wei, "Master Qin, why don’t you make so sweet potato noodles with minced at for lunch? Everyone’s gotten a bit tired of fried noodles and would like so rice for a change of taste."
Apart from the sweet potato noodles with minced at, the other dishes depended on when the delivery arrived. If it arrived early, they would make Stone Cooked Chrysanthemum. If not, they’d opt for hand-torn cabbage. Regardless, lunch today would be sweet potato noodles with minced at, accompanied by a vegetable side dish to go with the rice. This combination of at and vegetables would ensure a balanced al. The autumn season was quite dry, so it was important to eat more greens to replenish vitamins; otherwise, one’s skin could slowly beco chapped.
Upon hearing he was to make sweet potato noodles with minced at, Qin Wei wordlessly went to the storeroom and fetched an entire bag of dried sweet potato noodles. He began soaking the noodles in fresh water. Since it was still a while before noon, Qin Wei opted for cold water. If one were in a hurry, the noodles could be soaked in warm water to speed up the softening process.
Around ten in the morning, Qin Wei took out a piece of pork belly and ticulously chopped it into mince the size of pogranate seeds. After chopping, he set it aside for later use. He then crushed so garlic and chopped it finely. For the sweet potato noodles with minced at to be flavorful and delicious, a generous amount of minced garlic was essential. There had to be enough so that a little could be sprinkled on top when the dish was served, ensuring a sufficiently rich garlic aroma.
Next, he chopped so green onions and bird’s eye chilies, and spooned two dollops of Doubanjiang onto the cutting board, chopping it finely. Similar to preparing Mapo Tofu, the Doubanjiang for sweet potato noodles with minced at also needed to be finely chopped. This thod not only helped to release the fragrance and Red Oil more quickly and effectively but also prevented diners from biting into chili skins or whole broad beans from the paste. Lastly, he cut a few slices of ginger. These slices needed to be as large as possible, making them easy to pick out of the dish later, which contributed to a more enjoyable eating experience.
With all the preparations complete, he removed the softened noodles from the basin, placed them on the cutting board, and cut them into sections about twenty centiters long, making them easier to pick up with chopsticks.
While he was doing all this, Lin Xu, who had finished his own tasks, ca over, intending to seriously learn how to make this dish.
"Is minced at with sweet potato noodles hard to make, Master Qin?"
"N-not... not hard. J-just... be careful... when adding water... th-that’s... all..." Qin Wei stamred, sounding as if he’d used up his quota of words for the day.
Lin Xu actually wanted to encourage him to speak more. The less one talks, the less nimble their tongue becos. Think about those people who are always on voice chat while gaming—they’re so fluent when they curse people out! It’s all from practice, isn’t it?
With everything set, Qin Wei started the cooking process.
He heated the wok, then oiled it twice to ensure the bottom wouldn’t stick. Once the oil was hot, he added the chopped minced at. He tossed the wok a few tis to spread the at evenly and quickly separate the pieces using the high heat of the oil. The minced at needed to be thoroughly separated, not clumped together like little atballs. Clumping would affect not only the appearance and texture but also could lead to it being undercooked.
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