Chapter 158: Food with a Hundred Ways of Eating
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
Le Yi didn’t actually like eating greasy dishes. All girls liked to be beautiful. Stuff like Braised Pork with Soy Sauce was indeed delicious, however, between putting on weight and beauty she would rather select the latter. This was the common failing of women.
Therefore, she couldn’t be considered to be a qualified foodie. This dish nevertheless let her disregard everything else and she straightforwardly started to fight with Jiang Changxi for eating more.
"Le Yi, you don’t like eating meat, right? Look, how greasy it is! You better eat your noodles. Hey, the noodles are here now," while protecting the plate with one hand, Jiang Changxi pointed to the noodles carried up by Yuan Zhou with the other.
"Let’s talk about that later. Besides, this is not meat. It’s rice," Le Yi corrected her.
"The taste is just the Braised Pork with Soy Sauce. Be good. Eat your noodles," Jiang Changxi didn’t compromise any bit.
Was she kidding? Only in this short moment, there were only two pieces of the braised pork left on the plate. Out of 6 pieces in all, she had only eaten 2 of them.
"Changxi, only after eating it can I carefully compare if it’s the dish that was passed down from my ancestor," Le Yi said earnestly.
"But you have already tasted 2 pieces," looking at the plate, Jiang Changxi wavered a little but soon said firmly.
"But Changxi, remember, it’s you who invite me here and treat me to the dish," Le Yi suddenly uttered.
"Le Yi, let’s do this. You order a bowl of plain white rice now. I’ll give the concentrated gravy to you," after thinking for an instant, Jiang Changxi supplemented.
"Gravy Rice is super delicious."
"Well, alright," Le Yi agreed to the proposal.
"Boss Yuan, serve me another bowl of plain white rice of 100 Styles of Rice Cuisine. She ordered that." Jiang Changxi was very happy to have successfully protected the two pieces of Braised Pork with Soy Sauce. She then said to Yuan Zhou while pointing at Le Yi.
"One moment," Yuan Zhou nodded.
The plain white rice was also cooked with Jing Shan Qiao Rice. Stacked into a cute round shape in the small jade-color bowl, the rice grains were all crystal clear and translucent, emitting the natural fragrance of rice.
"It’s really not much, but enough for me," Le Yi twitched her nose mischievously.
"Here’s the gravy," during the short period of Yuan Zhou carrying the rice to them, Jiang Changxi ate up a piece of the braised pork. With the other piece still being chewed in her mouth, she said while covering her mouth with one hand.
Without saying anything, Le Yi took up the small bowl and poured the rice into the small plate barely to its brim. That way, the gravy wouldn’t be wasted any bit.
She carefully stirred the rice. During the process, the rice and the gravy were slowly mixed. It emitted an even more attractive fragrance, which increased one’s appetite.
"It's so fragrant," Jiang Changxi swallowed up her braised pork and looked at Le Yi's rice.
"Indeed," looking at the red rice grains, Le Yi said contentedly.
Using the spoon for the noodle broth, she scooped up a mouthful of rice and quickly stuffed it into her mouth. Instantly, Le Yi was conquered by the dish. The sweetness of the Braised Pork with Soy Sauce matched the fragrance of the rice well and the two different tastes merged together subtly.
With a mere bite, she felt soft and elastic rice grains; the gravy rushed around in her mouth and came back into the rice grains again, bringing about the fragrance once more. As a result, Le Yi directly carried up the plate and started to eat in an ungraceful manner.
"I am feeling a little regret," when Jiang Changxi saw Le Yi eating so blissfully, she grumbled. Then, she quickly picked up some noodles from the Clear Broth Noodle Soup with her chopsticks and stuffed into her mouth, smiling contentedly.
Just in a little while, Le Yi ate up the Gravy Rice in the small plate. One could hardly tell that the plate had been filled with any dish previously as it was extraordinarily clean.
"Boss, can I ask you a question?" Le Yi stopped Yuan Zhou and asked.
Yuan Zhou turned his head but did not agree. Le Yi said again, "Boss Yuan, why does the Braised Pork with Soy Sauce you made from rice tofu taste so good and has no difference from the genuine one?"
"Because I’m Yuan Zhou," Yuan Zhou said primly.
"Pardon?" Although Le Yi was a gentlewoman, she had never expected Yuan Zhou to say such words.
Even a reply of "It’s not convenient to answer you" would be better than the current answer.
"What does that mean?" Le Yi put away her astonishment and asked again.
"It’s what it literally means," Yuan Zhou frowned. His answer was obviously quite clear.
"So, if boss you are not called Yuan Zhou, you would be unable to cook a dish so delicious, right?" Le Yi said in a ridiculing manner.
"Yes," Yuan Zhou agreed with a nod and indicated seriously that Le Yi was right.
"Ho Ho…" Le Yi couldn’t help laughing ironically.
At the side, the people who heard their conversation nevertheless felt that Yuan Zhou’s answer was quite normal, as this question had been repeatedly asked by Wu Hai for at least several times and Yuan Zhou’s answer had been identical every time.
Now Wu Hai was not here. But apart from him, there were many other people who heard that.
"Again, somebody asks this question," a customer said.
"I really love to see how Boss Yuan bullies others," another customer said.
"Nonsense. It’s apparently a serious issue of ‘Although you don’t like me, you still wouldn’t dare beat me up.’ Look at the speechless manner of the two beautiful ladies."
These customers were all not surprised now. Instead, it was a lot of fun to watch others get surprised.
"Boss Yuan truly has a pair of skillful hands. Look at the several layers of the rice tofu. They really resemble meat very much," Jiang Changxi said while looking at Yuan Zhou’s slender fingers.
"Humm," Yuan Zhou nodded in order to prove Jiang Changxi was fairly right.
He then couldn’t help recalling of the difficulty in cooking this dish of 100 Styles of Rice Cuisine.
In order to make the characteristic of lean and fat meat being evenly distributed of the streaky pork stand out, Yuan Zhou added a little more alkaline water in the bottom layer of the rice tofu, which was then made darker. He then put a heavy object above it to make it smooth. When the rice tofu solidified, Yuan Zhou put another layer of rice tofu, which was, on the contrary, tender this time.
Similarly, Yuan Zhou put six layers of rice tofu all one above another. The outermost layers were made the darkest and the layers of the lean meat were made darker than those of the fat meat. After being cut, it was basically the texture of the genuine Braised Pork with Soy Sauce.
Furthermore, Yuan Zhou ground the rice into the fine powder. Then, he prepared a bowl of dry rice flour and thick rice soup. The pieces of rice tofu were soaked first in the rice soup and then wrapped in the dry rice flour before they were fried in the pan one after another. When the outermost layers resembled the skin of the genuine Braised Pork with Soy Sauce, the crisp and soft pork skin was then ready.
It was easy to use words to say but Yuan Zhou had practiced for a whole night just to adjust the taste, in order to make it more similar to meat and use the culinary skills provided by the system deftly and precisely.
"Le Yi, how do you like it?" With a proud expression, Jiang Changxi revealed a cunning look on her pretty face.
"Thank you, Changxi. This dish finally testifies that my ancestor deserved his well-known reputation," on Le Yi’s face revealed a gentle smile.
"You are welcome. You can bring your father here to taste the dish next time. He might be able to also cook the dish to such extent, I can frequently go over to your home to scrounge for food," Jiang Changxi spoke in a low voice for the latter part, thinking that nobody else could hear that.
Although Yuan Zhou heard her, he nevertheless said nothing. Unless her father had amazingly top-notch talents, he couldn’t imitate this dish with merely a taste. Even if he had that, he must also have the master-grade culinary skills and top-grade ingredients. If not so, he could hardly copy the dish cooked by Yuan Zhou.
The opening hours in the evening finally ended. Yuan Zhou had been expecting something ever since Jiang Changxi and her friend ate and left. Only just now did the system have some reactions.
The system displayed, "Since host has supplemented a new dish to the 100 Styles of Rice Cuisine, the system hereby releases a delicacy as the reward."
The seemingly non-scamming introduction made Yuan Zhou much more delighted, "What kind of delicacy is it?"
The system displayed, "This delicacy currently has more than 2 ways of eating. Host, you need to continue endeavoring to level up. By then, the ways of eating could reach up to 100."
"What delicacy it is? Duck-related delicacy? But there were only 3 ways of eating it. Or is it the ways of eating the fish?" Yuan Zhou started to guess freely in various ways.
What was it that had more than two ways of eating and could even reach as many as 100? The imagination of Yuan Zhou instant overflowed, "Is it a banquet menu?"
The system displayed, "The reward has been released and is available to be received now."
It didn’t answer Yuan Zhou’s question, only displaying this sentence. Nevertheless, Yuan Zhou was fairly expectant. Although it had two ways of eating for now, it could increase to 100 ways in the future. Only the banquet had that many dishes, right?
What’s more, it should be the level of the Man-Han Banquet, otherwise, how was it possible that it had so many varieties.
Yuan Zhou flipped to the reward and prepared to receive the eating method that could be upgraded to 100 ways. Did it seem to really be the Man-Han Banquet?
[Special Reward] Cooking Method of Palatable Food (available to be received)
...….