Chapter 249: The Impact Of Dumplings
Because he was blocked by two students with polite words, Li Wei was in a dilemma right now. Seeing the atmosphere at the dining table gradually becoming awkward, Kenny smiled bitterly in his heart: This kid is still too young.
Kenny patted Li Wei’s shoulder, signaling this young man to relax a bit, and he said to Xiang Chuan and the others with a wry smile:
“Sorry, our team’s young man always wants to get to the bottom of new things, after all, he’s our team’s detection team leader, so he has strong curiosity… Anyway, let’s not talk about that. We actually came over to ask about the texture and taste of these new foods. People here say you know more about them.”
These words were half true and half false. Kenny had actually learned about A Bite of China Club and Class Eight Grade One of Agricultural University Affiliated High School from the quiet discussions of students from other classes while watching outside the kitchen, and he also understood that this Class Eight Grade One often got to taste new foods that hadn’t been officially released yet because they had all the members of A Bite of China Club (Li Wei: These foods processed with new technology have already been officially released?! It’s only been this short time!), so he wanted to learn the details of these foods by directly asking Class Eight Grade One… or, directly asking the members of A Bite of China Club would be the most appropriate.
Just outside the kitchen earlier, Kenny and Li Wei had already confirmed that there must be an information turbulence contactee in this new club called A Bite of China Club. However, because the required ingredients, kitchenware, and seasoning were all prepared by the canteen person in charge at Xiang Chuan’s prior request to the instructor, and the dishes to be made this time were all ones that Xiang Chuan had actually operated before, Xiang Chuan didn’t open Geegle while directing in the kitchen.
While Kenny and Li Wei were observing the situation in the kitchen, although they strongly suspected that Xiang Chuan was the information turbulence contactee, since Xiang Chuan took no unusual actions throughout except for guiding the operations, the two remained only in a state of suspicion.
Mainly, it wasn’t easy for them to ask the surrounding students: Is that girl wandering around in the kitchen an information turbulence contactee?
If they really asked directly, Captain Noah’s subordinates who were watching them closely would definitely take them away immediately.
Xiang Chuan asked doubtfully, “Don’t you know about ancient food? Hasn’t anyone discussed these on the space-time network?”
From what she knew from her parents’ chats before and after meals, quite a few people from other fleets had come and gone through the large port of the Third Fleet in these months, like Lin Ming’s father Lin Yu who had returned to the First Fleet a few months ago. By then, Yue Xiang Restaurant was already booming in the Third Fleet, so it shouldn’t be that people from other fleets hadn’t heard of ancient food.
“Probably the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture Bureau told them not to spread it outside, after all, it involves the escort ship roster and new legislation.”
Ouyang Yating answered casually. She had learned about this a few days ago when she went with her mother to her mother’s best friend’s house for dinner, from the young lady working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in that family.
Escort ship roster and new legislation… The two from the exploration force noted these keywords in their minds.
Kenny said with a playful smile, “After all, our exploration force only returns to the fleet once every at least one or two years, so it’s normal not to know about these things.”
This made the exploration force sound just like a troop without a fixed garrison location. Xiang Chuan felt sorry for the exploration forces of each fleet in her heart, so she decided to let these members who were out of touch with information have a taste.
“Do you have any food restrictions? Uh…”
Xiang Chuan subconsciously asked, but after saying it, she realized something was off—they might have still been gnawing on solid food and drinking liquid food this morning, and hadn’t tasted 21st century gourmet food, so how would they know their preferences for ingredients.
She added, “Do you two have any allergens? That is, ingredients that cause physical discomfort after eating.”
Seeing the two shake their heads in unison, Xiang Chuan directly took out the small dish under the meal box, then took out a pair of unused chopsticks, picked up a few dumplings and two pieces of cut meat patty, and handed them over.
“Thanks for asking so much, but no matter how we answer, it probably won’t satisfy your curiosity, so please taste these foods yourselves first, and then we can chat.”
With that, Xiang Chuan stuffed a mouthful of stir-fried chicken into her mouth, clearly not wanting to continue talking but wanting to focus on scooping rice.
——
Li Wei took the small dish handed over by Ainuo and Chou Manman, somewhat at a loss.
He knew how to use chopsticks, but he didn’t know how to eat this thing.
Looking around, Li Wei found that the students’ ways of eating dumplings were all sorts: some poured the dumplings into beef soup and ate them together with the soup; some used a bright red small dish or a small dish with transparent liquid, dipped the dumpling in it twice, then put it in their mouths; others alternated bites of dumpling and dish with meat…
This… Can’t it be like solid food with a unified way of eating, just pick it up with chopsticks and stuff it in the mouth? How are they supposed to eat it? Li Wei fell into confusion.
But Kenny wasn’t too entangled: If it can be eaten directly, just put it directly in the mouth, right?
He borrowed a pair of clean chopsticks from Liang Gong who was silently eating rice next to him, picked up a dumpling, and bit off most of it directly.
Because radish soup was prepared for lunch soup, Xiang Chuan chose Chinese cabbage and celery to pair with the beef for the meat filling. The tender and juicy Chinese cabbage and the fresh, crisp, aromatic celery enriched the layers of texture, making the fresh aroma of the beef even more prominent.
With this one bite, Kenny almost felt the vegetables and meat explode in his mouth. The juices from the meat and vegetables strongly stimulated the taste buds that had just finished the bland-tasting solid food and liquid food, even making him feel the aroma of the dumpling filling more than other students who ate the dumplings directly.
His initial chewing speed was fast, then it gradually slowed down, and finally he showed an incredulous expression, looking at the half dumpling still held on the chopsticks in his hand.
This… What kind of processing technology was used to create this taste?
The Li Wei next to him wasn’t much better. After seeing his captain pick one up and put it in his mouth, he followed suit by picking up another dumpling and putting it in his mouth, and now the whole person was in a “cosmic cat.jpg” state.
Kenny came back to his senses first. He swallowed the somewhat over-chewed dumpling in his mouth and asked excitedly:
“Classmates, what is this food? What material is it made of? Why is the texture of the skin and the inside completely different? What processing method was used inside…”
“Stop, stop, officer, don’t get too excited.” Ainuo had just finished eating the noodles and quickly stopped Kenny’s machine-gun-like questions. “I just said, we don’t know the principles behind it, and we don’t know if we can disclose this directly to you two, so asking us is pointless. The only thing we can do is let you two taste these dum… cough, let you two taste these new foods. For other details, please consult the Agriculture Bureau or Ministry of Foreign Affairs directly.”
Hearing this, Kenny scratched his head; it seemed to make sense. At this moment, he recalled Captain Noah’s meaningful smile and riddle-like remarks when they left the meeting room earlier.
The thing Captain Noah wanted them to see was probably these foods laid out on the table now, and the “she” that Captain Noah mentioned…
Kenny looked at Xiang Chuan who was burying her head in slurping noodles, and his suspicion in his heart turned into certainty.
Just as he wanted to continue asking, both of their personal terminals suddenly received a message at the same time.
[Know when to stop. Details in the afternoon, talk in person.]
The sender used a private channel and had stealth protection set, so the sender’s name couldn’t be seen, but Kenny and Li Wei both knew who this sender was.
The two handed the remaining uneaten dumplings and patties in the small dish to the kitchen AI to pack into a meal box for takeout food, said goodbye to Xiang Chuan and the others, and walked out of the canteen. At this time, a strange sedan suddenly stopped outside the canteen. The window opened—it was one of Captain Noah’s two deputy officers.
“Captain Kenny, Team Leader Li Wei, please go to the hotel to rest now. The captain can only meet you two in the afternoon.”
The other party said respectfully, while not forgetting to open the rear door.
Kenny and Li Wei exchanged a glance and got into the car together.
Since Captain Noah had arranged it, they would go along with it for now. After all, there were still many things to ask this bold captain in the afternoon. Kenny thought to himself.
