Chapter 197: The Great Popularity Of White Congee
When the Class Eight Grade One classmates were drinking their second bowl of white congee, the early-shift staff on the Production Escort Ship had also arrived at the canteen one after another.
The adults were surprised that this group of students had come to the canteen to eat so early, but when they noticed that the bowls in these children’s hands seemed to contain an unseen milky white liquid, they immediately rushed to the serving window.
Fortunately, this pot was much larger than the first pot of white congee that Xiang Chuan had just made, and after the Class Eight Grade One classmates had filled their second bowls of congee, there was still one-third left.
Even so, quite a few staff members still couldn’t get any congee, so they had no choice but to go eat white rice from the adjacent window.
However, some sharp-eyed staff noticed that the pots in the kitchen were all placed on heating plates, all the robotic arms of the kitchen AI were continuously stirring something, and the light screen at the serving window displayed a countdown, which was clearly the remaining time until that milky white liquid came out of the pot.
They rubbed their bellies: Hmm, waiting a bit longer isn’t impossible.
Not long ago, after Manager Wu had downed one bowl of congee and hadn’t even had time to express his praise for the congee water, he saw that a large pot of congee had already been taken more than half by Class Eight Grade One, so he couldn’t be bothered to chat with the students nearby and hurriedly logged into the kitchen operation backend, instructing the kitchen AI to switch 90% of today’s breakfast to white congee.
The reason it wasn’t fully switched was that when Xiang Chuan finished the first pot of congee, the first pot of rice was also ready, but at the time everyone in the kitchen had their attention on the white congee, and no one noticed.
The Agriculture Bureau staff on the Escort Ship who failed to grab white congee gnashed their teeth at the lucky ones beside them, expressing their envy and jealousy, then carried their serving plates and hypnotized themselves: It’s fine, maybe this new food isn’t as tasty as white rice, maybe this new food isn’t as fragrant and sweet as white rice…
If Xiang Chuan could hear their thoughts, she would probably exclaim in surprise: Are there already people saying the grapes are sour because they can’t eat them so soon? The revival of social psychology research is promising!
However, at this moment she was furiously snapping photos of her second bowl of white congee with the camera on her light screen, completely ignoring the diners at the other tables.
After taking the photos she planned to send to Xiang Xue later to show off, Xiang Chuan finally started leisurely drinking her second bowl of congee.
When drinking congee, naturally one shouldn’t drink it too hot. Looking at the classmates around her, after getting their second bowl of congee, they eagerly started showing off, and unsurprisingly got scalded by the piping hot congee water, making their mouths hurt.
Drinking scalding hot congee water is certainly nice when it’s cold, but the Escort Ship was still in autumn at this time, and although the morning was cool, it wasn’t to the extent of needing freshly boiled congee water to warm the body.
The congee water temperature Xiang Chuan liked was around fifty or sixty degrees, suitable for the mouth, just like the plain water she usually drank.
The congee water in front of her was too hot, so naturally she wouldn’t rush to drink it. Xiang Chuan picked up a spoon, stirring the congee water up and down while casually chatting with Ouyang Yating and Chou Manman beside her.
Properly stirring the congee water allows the scalding hot congee water from the middle and lower layers to contact the air and rapidly dissipate heat, which helps with quick cooling.
Of course, scooping up a spoonful and blowing on it twice is the most convenient folk method, but… Xiang Chuan glanced at this second bowl of congee.
When the Class Eight Grade One classmates had just swarmed to get their second bowl of congee, the lazy-to-queue-again Xiang Chuan directly had Ainuo help get the congee for her—club members naturally need to be properly bossed around, especially a club member who was usually a bit disrespectful to their club leader, so she had to ruthlessly work them like oxen and horses when she could.
But precisely because of this, Xiang Chuan, who was sitting by the dining table scrolling through news at the time, didn’t notice what kind of huge bowl the Class Eight Grade One students, transformed into gluttons after tasting white congee for the first time, had gotten from the kitchen AI.
When a “bowl” about the same diameter as the mandarin duck hotpot she occasionally ate when she was a corporate slave was handed over by Ainuo, Xiang Chuan’s expression was full of speechlessness.
Although, considering the morning’s itinerary and Xiang Chuan’s glutton-level appetite that had increasingly synced with the classmates over the past two months, she could finish it, but such a large bowl naturally couldn’t be cooled by just blowing on it twice.
If she really did that, by the time she finished the congee, Xiang Chuan would have to go find a doctor to treat her aching cheeks!
But there were plenty of brave souls attempting the ruthless iron mouth challenge.
When Manager Wu squeezed to the dining table where the A Bite of China Club’s friends and family group was, with his mouth swollen like a sausage, Xiang Chuan couldn’t help but ask if Manager Wu needed burn ointment.
How could just drinking congee mess up the mouth like this?! Xiang Chuan’s small face was full of doubt.
“Oh, I just wanted to come over and ask some things, right?” Manager Wu took the cold compress patch sent by the kitchen AI and somewhat embarrassedly dabbed it lightly on his mouth.
After all, today’s Nongda Affiliated High School students were about to be handed over to the Vegetable Crops Department.
Ever since the scene of Xiang Chuan directing Class Eight Grade One to cook vegetables during the first year high school field training was live-streamed, the Vegetable Crops Departments on various Production Escort Ships had nearly broken down the doors of the Agriculture Bureau headquarters.
If I don’t hurry over, those guys might rush to snatch people as soon as breakfast time ends! Manager Wu had bitterness he couldn’t voice in his heart.
Fine, he hadn’t expected the congee to be so hot either.
But it was truly delicious.
“Classmate Xiang Chuan, could you explain again the difference between this white congee and the rice we ate yesterday? Why didn’t you directly use the stir-frying dishes prepared in our kitchen when making white congee today?”
Manager Wu screened through his mind and finally asked the question he was most interested in.
The reason for this doubt was that while drinking congee and eating side dishes just now, he discovered that compared to the side dishes for white rice, the side dishes for white congee indeed had obvious differences in taste.
Yesterday’s stir-frying dishes and soup for white rice had richer flavors, while the side dishes for white congee seemed saltier, sourer, and spicier.
Was there some connection between this difference in side dish flavors and the two cooking methods for rice?
“Because white congee is more suitable for heavy-flavored side dishes than rice.”
Xiang Chuan put down the spoon in her hand and summarized in one sentence.
Last night after deciding to make white congee, she had agonized over the side dishes for a while.
Recently asked more by the Class Eight Grade One classmates and her parents at home, when Xiang Chuan looked up recipes, she would also search Wiki or Baidu along the way.
The reason dishes to go with rice and small side dishes for drinking congee differ in taste is because white congee and white rice have different textures and flavor bases.
White rice has a solid texture and direct rice fragrance, so it is more suitable for pairing with relatively mild-tasting dishes to go with rice that can highlight the rice itself.
While white congee’s texture is soft and smooth, with a rich and thick rice fragrance, it needs heavier-flavored small side dishes to balance it. For example, the small zha cai that Xiang Chuan often used to save the day at the end of the month when she was broke.
The sour, spicy, salty flavors in small side dishes for congee stimulate the taste buds, making the rice fragrance of white congee more prominent while also increasing appetite. Just like the sour and spicy crispy cucumber and spicy pickled shredded radish still left on the Class Eight Grade One classmates’ serving plates; their sour and spicy notes echo with the rice fragrance of the white congee, and taking one small bite makes one can’t help but drink a big mouthful of congee.
They could practically be called congee water thieves.
Theoretical explanations were not Xiang Chuan’s strong suit; she simply relayed these principles.
The surrounding Class Eight Grade One listeners and Manager Wu had half-understanding expressions as they slowly digested this new knowledge.
It wasn’t that their brains couldn’t keep up; modern people’s brains were more flexible and intelligent than those of the 21st century. This group of usually hyperactive foodies from Class Eight Grade One could even recite advanced calculus problems in math class, which sounded like heavenly script to Xiang Chuan.
This was really because the development of rice’s consumption domain had only just started yesterday, and all fleets’ Agriculture Bureaus’ impressions of rice were still only at the final powdered form, so under this premise, how could they know the differences between rice and congee?
Xiang Chuan watched the modern youths around her gradually digesting these everyday dietary common senses that were commonplace to 21st century people, and a slight smile appeared on her face as she continued drinking her congee.
Yesterday she had looked up the history of congee on Geegle.
In ancient times, the birth of congee was actually quite accidental. At that time, people lived by gathering and hunting, with unstable food sources.
One time, when cooking food, some grains accidentally fell into the water, and after prolonged heating, the grains turned into a paste—that was the earliest congee.
Later, with the development of agriculture, grains gradually became the main food source, and congee was widely accepted by people due to its easy digestibility and ability to quickly provide energy.
By the 21st century, white congee continued to shine in Asian modern food culture as a simple, delicious, and easily absorbed staple food.
Of course, Xiang Chuan didn’t plan to talk about these things now; anyway, after going back, the uncles and aunts from the Agriculture Bureau would come to the house for “free meals” with various excuses, and by then she would definitely drag the A Bite of China Club’s strong laborers to organize some archive information on rice to hand over.
With the A Bite of China Club knowing these three things, it meant the entire Class Eight Grade One knew—how efficient.
