Chapter 135: Method of Completing the Mission
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
Mu Xiaoyun was in a pretty good mood as she had successfully obtained a chrysanthemum in the morning that was mistakenly recognized as a real one. She thought she had plucked a flower but only after walking closely and taking a better look did she find out it wasn’t so. Although she felt she almost made a mistake, it nevertheless proved that the flower was a mere sculpture.
When the customers spoke highly of Boss Yuan’s craftsmanship, Mu Xiaoyun also felt honored.
"Boss, why don’t you sculpt some more flowers to put at the entrance?" When she found there was no business in the restaurant at the moment, Mu Xiaoyun said on her own initiative.
"What for?" Yuan Zhou was a little curious. He thought she came up with the same idea as his.
"Because they are beautiful," Mu Xiaoyun said naturally.
"What do you say if every customer can take one away after their meal?" That’s right. Boss Yuan’s good idea was just to gift the customers the sculpted flowers that were alike to real ones, in order to draw attention of some of them.
"To take it away like what I did?" Mu Xiaoyun thought for an instant and asked.
"Yes," Yuan Zhou nodded.
"But why do you want to do so?" Mu Xiaoyun said earnestly.
"Because they are beautiful," Yuan Zhou hesitated for an instant and said with natural expression.
"But I feel we are at a disadvantage if we gift them for free," Mu Xiaoyun tilted her head and took a look at the several remaining flowers.
"Got it." After thinking for a while, Yuan Zhou felt that he was indeed at a disadvantage by doing so much extra work. However, business mattered first.
The current key point was how to gift the benefits without leaving a trace.
After all, Yuan Zhou was quite aloof.
"So do we send it or not?" Mu Xiaoyun looked at Yuan Zhou and asked seriously.
"It depends," Yuan Zhou was still considering and thus answer casually.
The moment Mu Xiaoyun wanted to ask something, they were interrupted by a customer who had just entered the restaurant.
"I heard this 100 Styles of Rice Cuisine can be done in 100 ways as long as the main ingredient is rice. Is it true?" a handsome and cultured man wearing westernized suit and rimless glasses asked mildly.
"Yes, exactly. What do you want to eat, sir?" Mu Xiaoyun went up and greeted him warmly.
"Could I order Soy Sauce Fried Rice?" the man said gently with a nice attitude.
Having looked back at Yuan Zhou and saw him nod, she said with a smile, "No problem. Wait a moment, please."
"Please don’t put green onions inside. Thank you," the man added before sitting down quietly.
"There’s no green onion," Yuan Zhou said while he was wearing the mask.
"Thank you, boss," the man nodded with a mild expression.
He was way too naive. Even an expensive Clear Broth Noodle Soup dish had no green onions inside, let alone a bowl of Soy Sauce Fried Rice.
"Humm," Yuan Zhou answered and then started to prepare.
This time, Yuan Zhou directly used Xiangshui Rice, the one used specifically for Egg Fried Rice, yet with a different cooking method.
He scooped up one bowl of plain white rice and got it loosened to the extent that every rice grain was basically separated. Afterward, he moved the rice onto a bamboo sieve to dry in the air and began to prepare other ingredients.
Yuan Zhou took out from the cabinet a small bowl of lard, which was soft and exquisite and as white as the agar before putting it on the cooking range for standby.
Then, all the ingredients required by the Soy Sauce Fried Rice were readily prepared. Usually, a chef would stir and mix the soy sauce in the rice beforehand to guarantee that the color of the cooked dish would be uniform thus looking good when cooking this dish.
Yuan Zhou, nevertheless, didn’t do it this way.
Neither the rice nor the soy sauce was of the meat category, so he needed to use lard to stir and mix it together. The white lard that he had just taken out was the leaf fat of pigs.
He melted the leaf fat in the wok. Having been well processed beforehand, the leaf fat didn’t have any peculiar odor. Therefore, it was directly poured into the rice after being melted, as the hot wok and cool oil made it easier to cook the rice.
The soy sauce used by Yuan Zhou was extremely different. The sign pasted on the bottle of the soy sauce indicated it was "Qiu You". Yuan Zhou didn’t understand what it was at first and only got to know it after asking the system.
The system displayed, "’Qiu You’ is the best soy sauce."
"Traditional soy sauce is made from the three ingredients, soybean, salt, and yeast. Nevertheless, the best ‘Qiu You’ requires the soybeans to dry in the sun during the hottest days of the summer first before they are boiled and spread for cooling. Then the yeast is blended into the boiled soybeans. After that, the soybeans and the salt are put in the soy sauce jar alternately, one layer above another, until they gradually ripen and ferment.
"A deep hole straight into the bottom of the jar has to be reserved to allow the active breathing of the sauce ingredients which will last for three years until the sauce material become ripe and the pure soy sauce oozes out. It was after the Frost's Descent in fall that the new jar is opened."
"Only the first batch of the soy sauce oozed out could be called ‘Tou Chou’, also known as ‘Qiu You’. It is soft and delicate, full of the fragrance of the soy sauce, with a mellow and lingering taste. When it is used to stir and mix the dishes, both the meat and vegetables taste terrific."
"I’m fully convinced," after reading the introductions, Yuan Zhou only had one word to describe his feeling, that is, convinced.
Merely for the simple soy sauce, it contained too many deep meanings.
Of the five tastes of sour, sweet, bitter, hot and salty, however, every one of them had to be the best for the picky foodies. Furthermore, Yuan Zhou only cooked the best dishes, even if it was a simple Soy Sauce Fried Rice.
Before the ‘Qiu You’ was poured into the wok, Yuan Zhou blended a little white sugar inside and stirred them evenly before pouring the liquid into the wok and starting to stir-fry it.
He stir-fried the rice with big flame and acted quite deftly in tossing the wok in his hand. Before turning off the flame, Yuan Zhou scattered into the wok some beige powder with one hand and scooped the dish up into the plate with the other.
He then put the plate into the tray and carried it to the customer.
When business was not so busy, Yuan Zhou carried the plate to customers by himself. This was also his work and moreover, it was a pleasure to see customers happily eat the dishes cooked by him.
"Please enjoy," Yuan Zhou set down the tray.
"Ok, thanks. It looks very fragrant," the man used an odd adjective.
Yuan Zhou didn’t care about it and the man didn’t explain it either. He immediately started to eat.
The Soy Sauce Fried Rice in his sight had a bright color. The fragrance of the leaf fat mingled with the strong scent of sauce emitted out with steam.
Before taking the meal, the visual sense was the foremost enjoyment and then it was the sense of the smell. The man, nevertheless, ate differently. He immediately stuffed the rice into his mouth and began to chew.
Only then did the man get to feel the fragrance of the Soy Sauce Fried Rice.
The fried rice grains that entered his mouth were soft and tender and the fragrance of the soy sauce gradually infiltrated deeply into the rice grains. The flavor of the soy sauce along with the scent of the rice and the leaf fat presented the best taste to his mouth.
Even after the rice was swallowed, there was still a glimmer of freshness lingering in the mouth, both distinctive in levels and confluent in tastes. It made the man with glasses appear an even milder expression while he ate it quickly but gracefully, one spoonful after another.
A plate of Soy Sauce Fried Rice soon hit the bottom unknowingly.
A mere Soy Sauce Fried Rice could be cooked so delicious. What awesome skill!
"Thank you. It’s really delicious and tasty," the man revealed a smile.
"Perfect. There are flowers at the entrance. You can take one," Yuan Zhou nodded solemnly and pointed at the sculpted radish flowers as alike as real ones.
"Wow, I can even get a flower after the delicious meal. Thank you so much," the man looked to be quite happy, with his eyes behind the glasses narrowing slightly.
"Just choose one by yourself," Yuan Zhou said generously.
Laid out on the shelf were various radish flowers that Yuan Zhou had sculpted in the morning.
There were curvaceous roses, colorful herbaceous peonies, pretty camellias and very beautiful peony flowers. The sculpted flowers carved by Yuan Zhou basically resembled the real ones in body and spirit. It wouldn’t be a problem to pretend they were genuine flowers.
"Thank you, boss. It’s beautiful," while taking a peony flowers in his hand, the man thanked Yuan Zhou again and then left away.
"Boss, didn’t you say just now that we don’t necessarily gift the flowers?" Mu Xiaoyun was a little curious that Yuan Zhou directly allowed the man to take the flower away.
"That’s why I let him choose to take it or not with a euphemistic way," Yuan Zhou appeared rather serious and then said primly.
"In a euphemistic way?" Mu Xiaoyun felt her boss must have used a wrong word. The meaning of the word used by Yuan Zhou was totally different and completely irrelevant to that taught by her teacher.
"Yes, in a euphemistic way. Next time, I should say it a little more directly." Yuan Zhou appeared to be considering earnestly.
"Actually, it’s not bad with the current way. Really." Mu Xiaoyun suddenly felt a sense of superiority, one steaming from the aspects of the Chinese language and mathematics.
The boss was a little abnormal today. No, he was actually quite abnormal…Mu Xiaoyun thought in her heart.