Chapter 86: A Length of Green Jade
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
“If anyone places an order later, just remember them first,” Yuan Zhou instructed Mu Xiaoyun who was standing at the side.
“Don’t worry, boss. I have a good memory.” Mu Xiaoyun knew Yuan Zhou was about to cook busily, hence answered immediately.
Watching Mu Xiaoyun stare at the entrance seriously, Yuan Zhou began to prepare the ingredients for the Jin’ling Grass dish. First it was the main ingredient, the dark green plants growing in water.
Yuan Zhou pushed the button and stepped onto the board, heading up to pick the fresh and tender rhizomes.
A serving of Jin’ling Grass basically weighed 125 grams; therefore, Yuan Zhou directly pulled out an entire row of plants, holding them loosely in his hands.
“Little Boss Yuan, is this plant the artemisia selengensis?” with his sharp eyes, the grandpa identified the plant and asked directly.
“Humm.” Yuan Zhou nodded without saying anything.
“This plant is said to be edible as a whole but only a small length of it is tasty.” the grandpa also knew of that and even ate it before. Now that he saw this was what Yuan Zhou meant by Jin’ling Grass, he was rest assured.
Meanwhile, Yuan Zhou was attentively picking the vegetables. If it was a local from Jin’ling City who wanted to eat the artemisia selengensis, he would pinch off 400 grams of rhizome, leaving only a small length of clean, green, and crisp stem on top of the artemisia selengensis. However, Yuan Zhou pulled out more than that. The original 1.25 kilograms of plants in his hands were now left with only 125 grams.
Only one tenth of the plant could be used as an ingredient. Simply put, 50 grams out of 500 grams.
Since the plant was easy to be damaged and to lose moisture, the system provided raw ingredients that were still nurtured and kept in water, not yet harvested.
Yuan Zhou brought up a piece of artemisia selengensis that looked fresh and cute due to its vivid green color and directly broke off a small length of the stem on the top. Afterward, he removed the leaves rapidly and placed it in a perforated pottery pot at the side.
Gradually, stems of the exact same length piled up the white pottery pot. After the last piece was pulled off, Yuan Zhou took up the pottery pot and went to the water tank.
The stem tops of the artemisia selengensis that had just been pinched off were so fresh and tender that the moisture inside seemed to almost drip out. Yuan Zhou, first, filled a slightly larger, empty pottery pot with water and then placed the pot in his hands into the larger one. Next he took out a ceramic rod with the width of a finger and gently stirred the stems in the pot, cleaning them slowly.
That way, the damage could be minimized.
The grandpa stood at the side and watched how carefully Yuan Zhou treated the pot of artemisia selengensis. He felt both surprised and also as if it was obvious. If not processed this way, how could the dishes cooked by Yuan Zhou be so delicious?
From the way he processed his ingredients, one could judge the quality of his dishes.
A minute later, Yuan Zhou took up the smaller pottery pot and put it into a plate before beginning to filter out the extra water.
Only after preparing everything did Yuan Zhou turn on the stove and changed to another wok before starting to cook.
One of the benefits of the system was that no matter what kind of wok it provided, they wouldn’t have any taste of iron; furthermore, the materials used were rare as well. Despite this being a new one, it was, nevertheless, a wok ready to be used at any time.
The wok was then heated up with a big flame until it started smoking. With a sound of “Zi”, Yuan Zhou poured some oil specially used for the Jin’ling Grass dish into the wok and immediately adjusted it to a medium flame. That way, the oil temperature would instantly rise but wouldn't burn the vegetables once they were poured into the wok.
“Zi la, Zi la,” Yuan Zhou then poured the artemisia selengensis inside and began to stir-fry the dish.
The artemisia selengensis itself was a perennial herbaceous plant, which had a fragrant flavor. The taller it grew, the stronger the flavor became. However, the flavor of the artemisia selengensis for consumption was best not to be too intense; otherwise, it might affect the fresh taste contained.
The system used the seeds of the artemisia selengensis on its third year and planted them in the water through the aquatic cultivation techniques, enabling them to grow naturally.
The water was taken from the moisture contained in the clouds and was then turned into water through a scientific process. During the process, no man-made pollution affected it.
Artemisia selengensis growing under such circumstances had no smell of earth, dust, or artificial breeding taste.
From pouring the ingredients into the wok to scooping them out into the plate, it only took two minutes to finish cooking the dish. Next, Yuan Zhou began preparing the noodles. With superb skills and a smooth speed, Yuan Zhou finished cooking the noodles in three minutes. He was so fast that the artemisia selengensis on the tray still maintained its appearance just like it was scooped out of the wok.
Of course, this was mainly due to the tray provided by the system.
Having taken off the mask, Yuan Zhou set the tray down in front of the grandpa and then said, “Here is your dish.”
“Little Boss Yuan cooked really fast.” The grandpa first gave him high praise before looking at the Jin’ling Grass dish that was just ordered by him.
The round porcelain dish had a white base where a small fish was drawn; its mouth was opened vividly as if it were eating the bright green stem tops of the artemisia selengensis.
“The plate is quite interesting and the picture looks so vivid,” the grandpa couldn’t help exclaiming.
What came next into his sight directly shocked the grandpa.
“Is the dish fake?” the grandpa said in surprise while pointing at pieces of the bright green artemisia selengensis in the plate.
“I also think it seems to be fake,” standing at the side, Mu Xiaoyun couldn’t help chiming in.
Indeed, the things on the plate now seemed to have no difference from a fake one. It looked more like fake green jades stacked on top of one another. Even some water drops that look like beads were hanging on the surface of the artemisia selengensis.
The shiny oil over the surface looked like the brilliance from green jades. It did not seem like a dish.
“Little Boss Yuan sure likes to startle his customer even with a dish of stir-fried vegetables.” The grandpa shook his head and sighed with emotion.
“Just taste it.” Yuan Zhou did not say much and just gestured at the grandpa to taste the dish.
“It looks like to be made of jadeite. Anyway, I have eaten jadeite before,” the grandpa picked up two pieces with his chopsticks and placed it into his mouth to chew up while speaking of that.
The artemisia selengensis looked green and fresh, just like the jadeite. It had no flavoring at all on it. When eaten, it first gave off faint fragrance and then the crisp and fresh taste.
With a simple chew, the rhizome was bitten off into the mouth of the grandpa. Then the fresh and tender liquid wrapped inside flowed out, causing the fragrance of the artemisia selengensis to become stronger.
The grandpa was not a professional gourmet. After several chews, he directly swallowed them. And then from inside his throat rose the faint fragrance of the plant.
“It’s really very fresh and tender,” while saying that, the grandpa picked up the artemisia selengensis with his chopsticks again, placing it into his mouth. His lunch commenced.
“Gu Dong” watching the grandpa enjoying the meal joyfully, Mu Xiaoyun couldn’t help swallowing her drool quietly.
Speaking of the part-time job here, the working hours and the salary were both satisfactory. The only problem was that she could only see but couldn’t eat in the face of delicious dishes. That was really a torture for the girl, Mu Xiaoyun, who had a normal appetite.
There was no other customers in the quiet restaurant; only the sound of the grandpa continuously picking up and eating the dish echoed throughout the main hall.
There wasn’t much of the 125 grams of raw ingredients after stir-frying them well. Just in a little while, the grandpa ate it all up. The Clear Broth Noodle Soup, nevertheless, sat beside him, untouched.
“Little Master Yuan, the quantity of each dish here is way too little. Is there any possibility to increase the quantity?” looking at the empty plate, the grandpa asked tentatively
“Nope.” Yuan Zhou refused without hesitating.
“Ai, the plate yet looks so beautiful.” The grandpa shook his head in disappointment, and then lowered his head checking the plate that did not have any juice left.
“Eh? Master Yuan, why is there not even the slightest juice of the vegetables on the plate?” the grandpa found something weird and asked.
“The juice contained in the artemisia selengensis itself has all been contained inside,” Yuan Zhou’s explanation could only be well understood by the grandpa, who had finished eating the dish.
Generally speaking, vegetables would inevitably lose the moisture during the cooking process. This included the nutrition it contained as well. No matter how fresh and crisp the dish was cooked, it was the same. However, Yuan Zhou managed to master the skill of containing the moisture in the artemisia selengensis.
How miraculous...