"Phew..."
Eight hours—no more, no less. The mont Su Chen saw the rating, he was back in the company’s cafeteria kitchen.
The alarm clock on the table had only advanced by a single second.
’Just as I thought.’
At the last mont, a thought had suddenly occurred to Su Chen.
Normally, the pork knuckle could be eaten right after being braised. But if it was stir-fried over low heat afterward, the moisture would evaporate, making the lean at a bit dry and tough. That’s why, for his final attempt at the filling, Su Chen had chosen to add so of the leftover braising liquid back in.
He let the at soak for a mont, waiting for the pieces to absorb the broth before he started making the buns.
’An A-Level dish of braised eggplant and potatoes was already intoxicatingly fragrant. What would these S-Level pork buns taste like...’
Listening to the GURGLE GURGLE of the boiling water, Su Chen found himself growing excited.
Twenty minutes later, the alarm rang.
Su Chen turned off the heat under the braising pork knuckle—another little trick he’d picked up.
When braising at, you should simr it for a while, then turn off the heat and let it soak, allowing the flavors of the spices to be fully absorbed.
While the at was soaking, the dough resting on the other side had nearly doubled in size!
Stretching it slightly revealed a network of airy pockets inside.
’The dough proofed well.’
To achieve this on his first try, Su Chen was quite pleased with himself.
After kneading the dough repeatedly to press out all the air bubbles, Su Chen cut it into small portions, arranged them on the cutting board, and covered them with plastic wrap. This not only prevented them from drying out but also allowed the dough to go through a second proofing.
Through a cycle of waiting and working, the ti reached six-thirty.
After nearly two hours of slow simring and repeated soaking, the five large pork knuckles in the pot were stained an alluring soy-sauce color, and the entire kitchen was filled with a rich, aty aroma.
It was finally ti to start making the buns!
Su Chen fought back the urge to tear into one of the large knuckles and carefully lifted all five of them out of the pot.
Just as his hand touched a bone, a familiar voice ca from the doorway.
"Huh? Boss Su, why are you braising at? It’s just past six."
Su Chen turned his head and saw it was Aunt Fang.
"You’re here so early?"
It had to be said, out of the nine people in the entire company, including Su Chen himself, Aunt Fang did the most work and was also the most indispensable.
She was responsible for cleaning the entire office area.
"Oh, didn’t I ask you yesterday? My son’s on sumr vacation, so I was thinking of bringing him over for als. He can also study here at our company. That’s why I brought him in early for his morning reading..."
"Kids these days have it so tough with their studies." Su Chen looked sympathetically at the young man behind Aunt Fang. "Back when I was in school, I always waited until the day before school started to do my howork."
’Can’t even sleep in during sumr vacation? And has to get up for morning reading?’
’What’s the point of a vacation like that!’
"He needs to work hard. This kid’s grades slipped on the final exams—he only got second place in the whole school. If he doesn’t put in the effort during sumr vacation, he’ll fall even further behind when school starts!"
Su Chen: ???
’My mistake. Sorry to have asked.’
"Co on, Xiaobin, this is Boss Su. He started his own company at such a young age. You should ask him for advice more often, you hear?"
Su Chen was a little baffled. ’Aunt Fang, are you praising or insulting ?’
"Good morning, Brother Chen! My mom often praises you to and tells to learn from your example."
Su Chen nodded, a bit embarrassed. "I’m just ssing around. Anyway, you two do what you need to do. I have to get back to making breakfast for everyone."
Xiaobin gave a hum of acknowledgnt and went out with his backpack to study, while Aunt Fang walked over to the cutting board to look at the five large, glistening pork knuckles.
"Boss, eating sothing so greasy first thing in the morning... won’t that be a bit much?"
’What kind of company serves its employees whole pork knuckles in the morning? Even if it doesn’t go bankrupt from other reasons, it’ll go bankrupt from the food costs, right?’
"It’s fine, we’re not eating the knuckles whole. I’m planning to use the at to make so stead buns." Su Chen had already started deboning the pork.
After being braised for nearly two hours, it only took a gentle tug for the large bone to separate cleanly from the at.
Aunt Fang might have said that, but as she watched Su Chen, her throat couldn’t help but bob a few tis.
’It’s braised so tender... a big mouthful dipped in vinegar would be so satisfying, wouldn’t it?’
’But it’s the morning!!!’
"Alright then." Aunt Fang saw that Su Chen had already cut the bun dough on the other side of the board. "I’m just standing around anyway. Let help you wrap them."
With that, she went straight to the board and started rolling out the dough wrappers.
Su Chen didn’t refuse Aunt Fang’s kind offer. Rolling the wrappers and assembling the buns weren’t the critical steps.
In other words, whether a bun was pleated with thirty-six folds or eighteen didn’t really have a major impact on its actual taste.
Thanks to the eight hours in the practice room, Su Chen now made the bun filling with practiced ease. In less than ten minutes, he had mixed the at from all five pork knuckles with the other ingredients.
Seeing Aunt Fang was eager to start, Su Chen said with a smile, "Aunt Fang, let wrap one first to show you."
He scooped a generous spoonful of at onto a round wrapper. Cupping it in one hand, he pleated the edges while deftly rotating the bun with his other. In just ten seconds or so, a beautiful bun was resting in his palm.
"Whoa!" Aunt Fang’s eyes lit up. "Boss Su, you’ve done this before, haven’t you?"
With her twenty-plus years of kitchen experience, she knew it was impossible to wrap a bun that skillfully without having been taught!
"Nope." Su Chen denied it. "I just learned from watching a video yesterday."
"Huh?" Aunt Fang was slightly taken aback by his words.
Before she could ask any more questions, Su Chen placed the bun in the stear basket. "Aunt Fang, when you’re wrapping the buns, pay attention to this part."
Su Chen pointed to the center of the pleats. "Don’t seal this opening completely. You need to leave a small hole."
"Leave a hole?"
"Mhm," Su Chen nodded, not explaining further.
It was just sothing that had occurred to him a mont ago.
The instant he left the practice room, Su Chen had noticed that the surface of the final, S-Level-rated bun wasn’t pure white. So spots had been soaked through by the aty juices of the filling, turning them a soy-sauce color.
So, he figured leaving a small opening at the top of the bun might be a good idea.
After explaining this final detail, Su Chen saw that Aunt Fang’s buns looked great and were no different from his own. He decided to leave the task to her and went back to his room to catch up on so sleep.
When his alarm rang again, it was exactly seven-thirty—not a minute sooner or later.
"Ti to steam the buns!"
Back in the kitchen, Aunt Fang had already placed all the buns into a three-tiered stear!
The cafeteria’s stear was huge; each tier held a full 24 buns!
"The filling is already cooked, so they only need to steam for about ten minutes."
"Okay!" Aunt Fang replied, turning on the stove. "Boss, these buns are going to be delicious. The sll was making my mouth water the whole ti I was wrapping them."
Su Chen smiled.
It wasn’t just Aunt Fang. He himself was also looking at these potentially S-Level pork buns with great anticipation!
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