Chapter 166: The Flavor Of Soy Sauce
Because she had a draft plan in mind, Xiang Chuan became much more efficient in her actions after getting the soy sauce.
“Yating, help me make a bowl of noodles… forget it, make several bowls instead. Ainuo, have Little Chef get some beef bones from the warehouse. There should be some left from when I ordered a whole cow before. Wash them clean after taking them out, then boil a pot of soup with the beef bones, and cut some Chinese cabbage to put in. Liang Gong, help me process the beef and chicken that Little Chef will take out later.”
As soon as Xiang Chuan gave the order, the three immediately sprang into action with practiced ease. This was a habit they had developed while gathering ingredients and making soy sauce in the nature reserve—normally they could fiddle with their club president however they wanted, but during club (cooking) activities (preparation), they had to put the club president first.
After all, the things they were making were food they had to eat. If they didn’t obediently listen, who knew what shocking, heaven-defying, ghost-weeping unidentified items would come out later.
Most importantly, if they really messed it up, they wouldn’t have the standing to rein in their club president’s reckless behavior in the future.
The several Class Eight first-year high school students who habitually came to slack off in the A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant were unfazed by this, since almost the entire class had been used as laborers by her during field training. But for the students from other classes who were used to seeing Xiang Chuan being “exploited” by her own club members, this scene was a first.
The students in the Literature Club besides Class President Lu Daiqing were also quite curious, while Lu Daiqing himself had just finished reading the trial part in The Count of Monte Cristo where the Greek girl Haydee accused Fernand of his crimes, and was now elegantly sipping iced juice while savoring the aftertaste of the novel.
“Lu Daiqing, what is your classmate doing?” other Literature Club members asked curiously. Normally in the club, Lu Daiqing rarely mentioned the two classmates from his class who had founded unprecedented clubs. Only when Xiang Chuan occasionally wandered around the small restaurant during exam review breaks because she was tired of writing problems would she happen to pass near them and chat a few words with Lu Daiqing. The topics were basically around The Count of Monte Cristo, Don Quixote, and Dream of the Red Chamber, and not much about her club activities.
If it weren’t for the fact that the A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant occasionally put on the menu some food not seen even in the school cafeteria or the popular “Yue Xiang” eatery outside, and during the entire school anniversary Xiang Chuan herself ran around guiding Class Eight first-year high school this group in simple dish steps like making buns and rolling dough—including the other Literature Club members—all students outside Class Eight first-year high school would mistakenly think that Xiang Chuan, despite being a titular club president, was actually doing market research for new products for “Yue Xiang”.
So seeing Xiang Chuan now truly acting like a club president, issuing orders with a serious face, was really beyond the expectations of the diners in the A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant.
“Hmm… it has to do with their previous outdoor study, right?” Lu Daiqing adjusted the non-prescription glasses on his face. “I can’t say more, and I don’t know the details either. Their study project involves some rather sensitive things. If Xiang Chuan lets everyone eat it later, we can go snag a bite without issue, but what shouldn’t be asked, try not to ask.”
The other Literature Club members scratched their heads. Lu Daiqing’s words were like saying nothing at all, and it was really something that he could ramble on so much.
However… there was food to eat. The crowd’s gazes toward the kitchen gradually heated up.
“Ainuo, skim the foam off the top of the beef bone soup… not with a big ladle, there’s only this much soup, you think it’s not little enough?”
“Ah, rinsing the Chinese cabbage first before adding seems better… whatever, if it’s a bit bitter, so be it.”
“Divide the noodles into four portions, each can have a bit more, since anyway there will be people coming to snag some.”
“Just chop the scallion ginger and put it on the plate with the steak, I’ll handle the rest myself… ah, help with the chicken too. Not the chicken belly or chicken breast, just the chicken leg part. Cut the chicken leg open in the middle, shave off the tendons and bones, then same operation as the steak.”
Because there wasn’t much soy sauce that had undergone high temperature treatment, in order to control the amount, Xiang Chuan had to guide the three hands-on. This also let the three once again experience how solid Xiang Chuan’s theoretical and practical knowledge was in ancient food.
It’s only at times like this that Xiang Chuan seems like a reliable club president. The three thought simultaneously.
The first to come out of the pot was naturally the noodles that could go in after boiling water. Ouyang Yating had practiced cooking noodles for over half a month during the school anniversary to set an example for the others in the class. Now her series of actions—scooping up the noodles, immersing in drinkable cool water, shaking off excess surface water, and serving into bowls—was seamless, drawing soft exclamations from students at seats near the kitchen who were secretly watching the kitchen’s activities.
“I’ll handle the subsequent seasoning. Yating, go make some side dishes, fried eggs and such. Also get some green vegetables, blanch them in water, no need for seasonings, just cook until edible.”
Hearing “fried eggs,” Ouyang Yating’s face twitched involuntarily, but she still obediently had the kitchen AI start helping with ingredients.
When Ouyang Yating had the kitchen AI send over the side dishes, Xiang Chuan’s seasoning was about done—actually just appropriately reducing the proportion of salt and adding a certain proportion of soy sauce on the original basis, with the amount adjusted by her based on previous noodle-cooking experience.
At this time, Ainuo’s beef bone soup was just ready, and Liang Gong had also followed Xiang Chuan’s instructions to hand over the chicken thigh meat—marinated for a bit with soy sauce and scallion ginger—to the kitchen AI for frying and cutting.
The most critical soup base for the noodle soup was already boiled, so the rest was just assembly.
Xiang Chuan mixed salt and a little oil into a large bowl, then poured in a cup of soy sauce, followed by the beef bone soup into the bowl. The rich aroma of soy sauce and beef bone soup, mixing with the soup and seasonings, brought a brand-new olfactory impact, making the three who had previously kept their distance from the soy sauce flavor brighten up.
Immediately after, Xiang Chuan put the noodles into the bowl and arranged the fried eggs, green vegetables, and chicken leg chunks prepared by Ouyang Yating and Liang Gong on top.
Beef bone broth base, freshly made soy sauce, chicken thigh meat whose aroma became even richer after marinating in soy sauce and then frying, plus runny fried eggs (Ouyang Yating: who knows what I went through to make runny fried eggs) and tender-looking green vegetables.
Smelling the long-missed soy sauce meat soup flavor, Xiang Chuan could only express her excitement by swallowing hard. If even Xiang Chuan herself reacted like this, let alone the three beside her—Ouyang Yating and the others. When frying the chicken legs earlier, the different aroma from usual fried chicken or beef had already made them struggle to control their saliva, and plus the physical exertion from the hustle, looking at this beef bone noodle soup with chicken, eggs, and side dishes now made them even hungrier.
Xiang Chuan resisted the urge to taste a bite first—because that would definitely make the three even more unable to hold back, and the scene would become uncontrollable—so she quickly finished preparing the remaining three bowls.
When the unprecedented rich aroma from the four bowls of noodle soup filled the entire A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant, regardless of whether they had just eaten afternoon tea snacks, everyone’s appetite was hooked, and the gazes toward the kitchen in the small restaurant grew even hotter.
The aroma is coming from there!
Is it some new food!
What new delicious thing is the A Bite of China Club fiddling with!
Why isn’t this new food on the menu yet!
For a moment, Little Star One and Little Star Two were called over by the crowd in the small restaurant to ask when the new recipe would be available.
But at this moment, the four in the A Bite of China Club didn’t notice the situation. They were gathered around the table in the kitchen usually used to stack pots, pans, utensils, and ingredients, staring at the noodle soup in front of them and swallowing hard.
“Alright, eat up quick, or the noodles will get soggy.” Xiang Chuan waved her hand to have the kitchen AI bring pepper, minced garlic, chopped scallions, and chili oil (actually just a makeshift version of modern powdered chili seasoning + hot oil), “Eating it plain might be a bit bland, you can add some extra seasonings yourselves.”
As Xiang Chuan spoke, she skillfully scooped a small spoonful of pepper and half a small dish of minced garlic into the noodles, then a spoonful of soup. Since starting work, she hadn’t had the habit of drinking noodle soup, but in the modern era, this rich meat soup with the unique flavor of soy sauce greatly satisfied her two-month craving for soy sauce taste. Slurping a couple mouthfuls of noodles, eating a piece of meat or a small bite of green vegetables—this flavor…
Although Ouyang Yating and the other two weren’t strangers to chicken noodle soup, the rich aroma from the fusion of soy sauce and beef bones gave them a worldview-shattering impact, especially Ainuo. When the beef bone soup was just ready, he scooped a small dish to taste like Xiang Chuan; the beef aroma with the sweetness of Chinese cabbage was very fresh, but the impact wasn’t as strong as the chicken noodle soup. It was just adding soy sauce to the soup bowl, yet the flavor made it somewhat unrecognizable to him.
