Chapter 470: Vegetarian Pilaf
Translator: Xiong_Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
"You startled me." The customers were first startled before they had time to get angry with Chu Xiao's ridiculing face.
"Tsk. How timid!" Chu Xiao looked at the two people with a look of contempt.
"It's terrifying when you appear suddenly." The customers felt rather speechless and said that.
"The ingredients of this dish are really superb. There's no floury smell of the vermicelli made from bean starch at all. And when it's soaked in the water and becomes soft, the water will definitely be clear and bright without any floury substances at all." Having answered none of them, Chu Xiao started the analysis straightforwardly while staring at the two plates of Sautéed Vermicelli with Spicy Minced Pork.
"Needless to say, the minced meat is definitely chopped by hand and furthermore, chopped with the cutting blade rather than the back of a knife blade at a time. Yes. It's chopped at a time. Otherwise, it would not be so chewy." Chu Xiao analyzed the dish bit by bit.
"Huh... Why do I feel like he knows things better than we do even if he doesn't eat it?" A customer appeared quite astonished and felt that Chu Xiao's words made great sense.
"Exactly." Another customer also nodded continuously.
"He has excellent control over the flame and definitely adjusted the cooking temperature constantly while stir-frying. If not, this dish wouldn't be so perfect and well-distributed." Chu Xiao knitted his brows and said again after he took a look at Yuan Zhou.
Stared by Chu Xiao again and again, Yuan Zhou was doing his own work attentively.
"Inexplicable culinary skills!" After saying that, Chu Xiao turned around and left without the slightest hesitation as if he hadn't been here at all.
That's right. In Chu Xiao's opinion, Yuan Zhou's culinary skills were indeed inexplicable. He neither learned it in any institution nor from any famous teacher. However, he was just so great!
"That totally does not make sense." It was what Chu Xiao wanted to say.
"Hey, hey. Why did he suddenly leave?" The customers looked at the back of Chu Xiao and became a little puzzled.
"That's the most inexplicable matter." Another customer also felt speechless about that and thus said.
"Is that guy here to amuse us?" Ling Hong couldn't help saying that, too.
"He probably came to steal Boss Yuan's craftsmanship." Wu Hai stroked his small mustaches and guessed randomly.
"Haw-haw, maybe." Other customers believed in that to some extent.
When Ma Zhida entered the restaurant with his two companions, they had just missed this fun.
"Manager Silika, here it is." Ma Zhida pointed at the three vacant seats and smiled.
"I hope the dishes here can be truly delicious. I have lined up outside for one hour." Silika shrugged.
"Don't worry. They definitely deserve the price." Ma Zhida said with full of confidence.
"I hope so." Silika was quite discontented with the one-hour wait.
"Hey, take it easy. Let's wait for Little Ma's arrangement." The director of the Public Relations Department comforted him with her soft voice.
"Yeah, watch me." Ma Zhida nodded and answered affirmatively.
"What do you want to eat?" Seeing the three people finished talking, Zhou Jia came up and inquired.
"A serving of Vegetarian Pilaf of 100 Styles of Rice Cuisine. I want it to have the UAE taste." Ma Zhida directly started to order dishes.
"Okay." Zhou Jia nodded and answered.
"I want a serving of Egg Fried Rice." The director glanced at the prices and ordered conservatively.
"I want a set meal of Egg Fried Rice." Ma Zhida ordered a same dish. As for Silika, he just listened to them silently.
"Okay. Wait a moment, please." Zhou Jia waited for the payment after she said that.
Ma Zhida was a regular customer and he naturally knew Yuan Zhou's rule of dishes being served after payment. Therefore, he made the payment via bank transfer.
Of course, the company would reimburse him the expenses for the meal.
After the payment, they started to wait for the dishes. Ma Zhida was quite delighted right now. Having been absent from here for quite a few days, he missed the dishes here very much. By means of this opportunity, he could seek personal gains to eat here. Nonetheless, he brought them here because he believed that Yuan Zhou could satisfy the requirements of Silika.
When Yuan Zhou received the order sheet and glanced at it. After recalling for a moment the cooking method of the Vegetarian Pilaf, he verified that it was really one of the 100 Styles of Rice Cuisine. Then, he started to prepare the dish.
As for the requirements on the order sheet, Yuan Zhou naturally saw them clearly. He specially took out a complete set of new kitchenware and even the sieve for placing the rice in was new.
Most Emiratis are Muslim and believe in Islam. And their diets are in accordance with the rules of the Koran.
They don't eat pig, horse, mule, donkey, dog, snake, turkey, meat of natural death, fishes that live on the surface of the water and the blood of all animals as well as the ferocious birds and animals such as tiger, wolf, lion, leopard, bear, elephant, monkey, eagle and harrier, etc. Besides that, they are forbidden to smoke opium and drink wine and so on.
Therefore, Yuan Zhou changed a completely new set of new kitchenware.
The rice grains used for the pilaf are usually long. Naturally, Yuan Zhou wouldn't make an exception.
After a sound of "Peng", he opened the newly appeared rice cabinet, inside of which was the Zengcheng Simiao Rice required by Yuan Zhou.
He scooped up the rice with the new porcelain bowl. The rice grains appeared beautiful and artistic in the white bowl. They were in long grain shape, spotless white and translucent; the rice grains glowed and gave people a vitreous feeling. Even before it was boiled, the faint fragrance passed into his nose.
"If things continue this way, I think I can collect all the tribute rice. I'm just not sure if I can summon a dragon with all of them." Looking at the row of rice cabinets, Yuan Zhou couldn't help ridiculing in the heart.
The system displayed, "No."
"I don't expect the dragon to appear. What about the reward?" On seeing the system's answer, Yuan Zhou asked unconsciously.
The system displayed, "Please work harder to get more rewards."
"As expected." Yuan Zhou was speechless.
After he grumbled at the system as usual, Yuan Zhou focused on the pilaf.
Zengcheng Simiao Rice had always been known as the King of Chinese Rice and enjoyed equal popularity with Zengcheng Lvgua Lychee. Due to the spotless white and translucent rice grains and rich oiliness as well as the strong fragrance, soft texture and calm taste after cooking, the rice was quite famous around the area to the south of the Five Ridges and was even well-known abroad.
Of course, there was also a legend concerning the rice. According to the legend, there were two celestial being wandering in the air above Baishuizhai when they suddenly encountered a purple cloud rising. Seeing the beautiful hills and waters, they felt it must be a treasured land below the purple cloud. Therefore, they stopped at the Baishuizhai and built a monastery there, planting some rice grains on the bench terrace. That was the origin of the Zengcheng Simiao Rice.
While Yuan Zhou was playing symphonic music with the kitchenware, the discontented look on the face of the detailed person, Silika, diminished a lot.
"It's fairly good here." Silika complimented.
"Of course. You'll feel the dishes are better than good after you eat it." Ma Zhida said confidently.
"No, no, no. I mean this chef is very good." Silika pointed at Yuan Zhou and said.
"Of course Boss Yuan is good." Ma Zhida squared his shoulders proudly as if Silika were praising him rather than Yuan Zhou.
"I think Manager Silika must have noticed this chef changed new kitchenware while cooking the dishes for him. Am I right?" The beautiful director said as if she had known about that.
"You are right. Although I'm not Islam, I don't like those messy tastes." Silika nodded and said smilingly.
"Don't worry. When you eat the dish, you'll like him more." On hearing that, Ma Zhida didn't really feel anything special, but just said confidently.
In Ma Zhida's opinion, Yuan Zhou was able to take all these details into consideration, even if no one specifically reminded him.
Currently, all customers in Yuan Zhou's restaurant had that kind of confidence in him. The taste of the food and the details were both perfect. That was just the impression that Yuan Zhou left on his customers.
"Haha. I will taste it carefully." Silika said that.
Although he appreciated Yuan Zhou's earnest and seriousness, he really doubted if he could cook the pilaf into that particular UAE taste.
Only in local places could people eat foods of local taste, just like one can only eat authentic Chinese dishes in China. Even if you went to the Chinatown in foreign countries, the foods weren't that authentic.
Therefore, Silika wasn't hopeful about that.