Chapter 167: Roasted Meat Moment
Continuous slurping sounds of eating noodles came from the A Bite of China Club’s kitchen. The first to lose patience were the gluttons from Class Eight Grade One. They stood up from their seats in perfect unison, then under the gaze of surrounding people or fellow club members, re-entered the small kitchen.
Xiang Chuan had anticipated this. She quickly finished her last bite of chicken thigh meat. Although half a bowl remained, she had already polished off all the side dishes. But Ouyang Yating and the other two were still immersed in the intense flavor impact brought by the soy sauce, savoring each bite slowly. The noodles and side dishes in their bowls hadn’t diminished much, and suddenly they were targeted by the green-eyed gluttons from Class Eight Grade One.
“Ainuo! I want a bowl too!”
“Ouyang classmate, give me a piece of meat, just a small one!”
“Liang Gong, you have so much green vegetables left. Let me help you finish them?”
“By the way, is there any more chili oil and pepper?”
……
Seeing their classmates crowding around, Ouyang Yating and the other two realized they couldn’t keep their noodles today. Watching their club president who had already set down her bowl and run off to drink juice on the side, the three had no choice but to make a decision—they handed over their noodle bowls.
Thus, the first bowl of soy sauce beef bone noodle soup after the Dark Virus Crisis erupted in the Tianyuan Era was snatched clean of its last drop of soup by over a dozen students who ran to the A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant for afternoon tea, like a swarm of locusts.
Just as the crowd from Class Eight Grade One was still savoring the rich taste brought by the soy sauce and meat broth, the dismissal broadcast rang out. Only then did they react: the afternoon had passed just like that?
As for Xiang Chuan, she had already packed two bottles of soy sauce and was heading to the school gate. At the end, she didn’t forget to send a message to her three club members: [I took three pieces of the marinated steaks from the kitchen. You three divide the remaining three. Handle them the same way as usual pan-fried steak.]
Ouyang Yating and the other two looked at their club president’s message, then at the three pieces of steak that had been noticed by several classmates, suddenly feeling like they were facing a formidable enemy.
Of course, this was something Xiang Chuan, who was already in the car heading home, didn’t know.
“You exhausted us terribly yesterday.”
The next morning, Class 8 Classroom.
As soon as Xiang Chuan sat down at her seat, Ouyang Yating, who had been waiting beside her for a while, directly voiced the complaints she had held in all night. Yesterday afternoon after school, a fierce battle unfolded around the three steaks: three A Bite of China Club members VS the gluttons from Class Eight Grade One. In the end, it was Ainuo who used the forbidden ultimate technique “call the teacher (and the teacher hadn’t left yet)” that allowed them to successfully defend their steaks.
Even though those steaks were as delicious as the three and the class gluttons had expected.
Receiving the rare resentful gaze from Ouyang Yating, Xiang Chuan laughed it off and didn’t dare continue the conversation. After all, she was the one who slipped away first yesterday.
Seeing her like this, Ouyang Yating sighed, thinking to herself that she should find a way to make their club president compensate them properly in other ways later. She obediently changed the topic: “Speaking of which, how’s the soy sauce situation at your home?”
“This morning, my father took the two bottles of soy sauce I brought home directly when he left, saying he’d use them right away at the meeting to convince the shareholders.” He also incidentally took her beef bone noodle soup recipe to prepare a live demonstration, Xiang Chuan thought to herself.
Last night, after Xiang Chuan used three marinated steaks and made another plate of shiitake mushroom stir-fried chicken with soy sauce version, Xiang Weiguo was completely conquered by the rich aroma of the soy sauce. So he stayed up all night with Secretary Xiao Ye to compile the soy sauce information along with the previous tofu and soy milk information into a booklet. He set off early this morning to the company, all to crown this new product that would change Yue Xiang Group with the Yue Xiang name as soon as possible.
After all, according to his information channels, the scene yesterday where Xiang Chuan used soy sauce in the beef bone noodle soup was seen almost directly by most of the students present. This gave him a sudden burst of crisis awareness.
Xiang Weiguo: We understand the principle of striking first!
“But to mass produce it, we still need to wait for the beans to be fully ‘legitimized.'” Xiang Chuan yawned, seeing the expectant looks from the others in the class directed at her, knowing her father had this meeting locked in 1000%.
If even one bowl of beef bone noodle soup couldn’t do it, then I’d have to unleash the ultimate killer move—Lanzhou Beef Noodles! Xiang Chuan rubbed her hands in anticipation inwardly.
But for now, the first thing to solve was—
Afternoon, the open space next to the A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant.
Xiang Chuan looked at the retro-styled brick stove in front of her. Except for the bricks’ tactile sensation, which had nothing to do with the rough or sandblasted feel of the clay bricks she touched as a child in her previous life, it almost made her think she was now in a 19th or 20th century European small farmstead, preparing to bake fragrant bread and vegetable stew.
“How do you cook with this thing? Just throw stuff directly into the stove?” Ainuo examined it up and down.
“Since it’s related to an internally heated oven, it should be placed inside for heating, right?” Liang Gong curiously looked at the protruding pillar-shaped object above the brick stove. “What is this for?”
“That’s for venting smoke. Ancient people couldn’t fully extract the combustion energy from wood and charcoal, so unburned particulate matter rose with the heat to form smoke. If sealed inside the brick stove, it would affect the food’s texture, so they used this chimney to exhaust it.” Ouyang Yating flipped through the information Xiang Chuan had given them on the terminal earlier. At the end, she looked up at Xiang Chuan and asked, “Is my explanation correct?”
“……Probably.” Xiang Chuan thought to herself, how would I know? She had just skimmed through those materials quickly and sent them to the club members.
“So what now? Start making the bread you mentioned right away?” Ainuo asked.
“No rush, first test this brick stove’s operational capability.” Xiang Chuan picked up the baking pan beside her as she spoke. “Let’s roast some meat first.”
“……”
Modern pure fuel was placed into the channel opening below the brick stove. The balance of the bricks’ insulation and internal heating gradually raised the temperature inside the brick stove. The four standing by the furnace mouth already felt the waves of heat. Xiang Chuan picked up the long-handled tool mimicking the medieval bread master’s for inserting bread or meals into the oven, sent the steak and the chicken and eggs wrapped in insulating paper on the baking pan into the oven, then closed the brick stove oven door. She turned to the temperature display screen by the brick stove, confirmed the temperature stayed under 250 degrees, and ran off to the side to drink fruit milk.
Ouyang Yating and the other two crowded around the roaster, watching nonstop. To prevent burns, the exterior of the brick stove used advanced heat-insulating bricks that could withstand 2000 degrees Celsius high temperature. So even touching it felt only the smooth, cool tactile sensation of the bricks. If not for the white smoke from the chimney and the accompanying roasted meat aroma, at first glance, this brick stove seemed completely still.
After about ten minutes, Xiang Chuan, who had finished browsing the campus forum nearby, left her seat and picked up the long-handled tool again, telling the three to stay away from the furnace mouth. She put on heat-resistant gloves and opened the oven door. The oncoming heat wave startled even Ouyang Yating and the others, who were mentally prepared, causing them to retreat repeatedly. Xiang Chuan wielded the long-handled tool to scoop in and retrieve—the sizzling, oily oven baking pan was thus taken out. The chicken and eggs wrapped in insulating paper hid their interiors, but the chicken juices seeping from the bottom gaps already wafted an aroma enough to stir the three’s gluttony. The steak goes without saying—Xiang Chuan had specially chosen fattier cuts for roasting. When retrieved, the fat parts were still sizzling, and the beef marinated in soy sauce and pepper became even more aromatically enticing after roasting.
“You three handle these meats first. I’ll go prepare more.” Xiang Chuan picked up another baking pan and sent it in the same way. The brick stove interior was thoughtfully divided into two layers. Seeing the just-retrieved roasted meat had good color, Xiang Chuan sent both baking pans in at once.
After closing the oven door, Xiang Chuan casually took two roasted eggs from the first baking pan. With heat-resistant gloves, she peeled off the outer insulating paper and rolled them on the table. After removing the gloves, she cracked open the eggshells. The charred aroma hit her nose. She speared an egg with a fork, dipped it in salt and pepper nearby, and took a big bite. The firm egg white and dry-aromatic yolk brought a wonderful taste unlike boiled eggs, making her unable to stop.
At this time, waves of chicken aroma came from beside her. She turned to see Ainuo skillfully sectioning the whole chicken with a compressed laser cutter. The body was already cut into pieces, and now he was preparing to tackle the chicken legs and large chicken wings.
“Spare the legs—!” Xiang Chuan rushed over and snatched the chicken leg from Ainuo’s hand. “This isn’t for stir-frying. When roasting meat, don’t target the limbs!”
She picked up the prepared greaseproof paper nearby, swiftly wrapped the roots of the two large chicken thighs and wing drumettes, placed them by the serving plate, then took Ainuo’s compressed laser cutter to separate the chicken wings and wing middles, arranging them neatly beside.
“Why not process the chicken thighs?” Liang Gong voiced the doubt in the minds of Ouyang Yating, who was watching Xiang Chuan cut vegetables nearby, and the sullen-faced Ainuo.
“First, because chicken thigh bones are hard to cut—speaking of ancient people, that is. Forcing it with ancient kitchenware easily mixes bone fragments in, so better to eat it whole holding it. Second, the texture of the chicken thigh meat itself. Chicken texture requires tenderness with resilience. The thigh best matches this standard across the body—firm yet not dry, easy to flavor when marinated, and the stick shape is easy to hold. Compared to other parts, it has more visual impact. A chicken has only two thighs and two drumettes. In large families, it’s a case of more monks than porridge. So from ancient times to modern era, chicken thigh meat was a rare everyday delicacy for meat-loving diners.”
“They sound pretty pitiful.” Ainuo commented.
“Not too bad. Later, with improved economy and agriculture, short-cycle broiler chickens were bred, and market chicken thigh meat prices dropped accordingly. But compared to native livestock chickens, the meat quality still falls short.” Xiang Chuan eyed the large platter of roasted chicken before her, swallowing hard. “Thanks to our modern agriculture technology reaching its peak. A chicken of nearly ancient native quality costs just over ten Star Yuan. Otherwise, even if we could make this chicken meat, the cost would rise quite a bit.”
Discovering the high chicken meat quality happened during field training. Xiang Chuan’s eyes lit up seeing the chickens classmates brought back from patrol. After processing feathers and internal organs and simmering with scallion ginger, the aroma on serving was just like the native chicken taste her family only brought out during New Year. Later she learned it was the standardized breed from the Third Fleet. The chicken meat ordered by A Bite of China Club was the same kind, very cheap—retail over ten Star Yuan each, and Yue Xiang Group’s internal wholesale price could even squeeze to single digits.
If someone in her previous life told her a dozen bucks could get a native chicken, her parents would probably think she stole and drank the homemade rice wine and was talking nonsense.
