Chapter 24: Yue Xiang Restaurant Plan
“How about taking them to school and sharing with your new classmates?”
During dinner, Xiang Weiguo listened to Xiang Qi talking about the current dilemma Xiang Chuan was facing while eating, and without thinking, he made this suggestion.
Xiang Chuan came back to her senses: right, school starts the day after tomorrow.
She was going to start high school again 30,000 years later.
This reality made her, who had PTSD from high school life in the 21st century, subconsciously shiver.
But it had to be said that this was a good idea. These buns and steamed buns on the dining table could barely be finished by half in one meal with the three parents at home plus Lisa, Xiao Ye, and three youths. Xiang Chuan initially thought of having Father and Mother take them to the office to share with colleagues and subordinates, but these noodles made at home would be too few to share out, making it seem neither here nor there. It would be better to take them to the new classmates as a meeting gift.
Lin Yu, who was nearby, heard that these buns and steamed buns could be stored for a month even in ancient times, and thought that in modern times they could probably last two or three months. So he pondered how to bring some souvenirs to his son, who had almost permanently blocked his father due to being bombarded with various gourmet food photos these past few days.
“Is this really the grayish mushy stuff Xiao Chuan made?”
Although he had already been shocked once while watching his youngest daughter’s live stream in the afternoon, when Xiang Weiguo actually held the white steamed buns and buns in his hands, he still found it unbelievable. He bit into a milk steamed bun; the texture softer than rice flour cake was too magical. Thinking of this, he had a flash of inspiration: “What if we add that grayish mush to the rice flour cake?”
Xiang Chuan widened her eyes looking at her father, not expecting him to have such a flexible idea. Thinking about it, it made sense; after all, he was the chairman who led Yue Xiang to become the largest food processing group in the Third Fleet at just 42 years old, so his thinking must be broad.
“It’s not called black mush, it’s called yeast… more precisely, natural yeast.” Xiang Chuan swallowed the last bite of chicken bun, drank some apple milk to moisten her throat. “Yeast can of course be used in rice flour cake. Not only that, with it, we can directly make cake with flour.”
Oh?
Xiang Weiguo’s eyes lit up.
Even flour can be used? This way, production costs could be kept at a certain low price.
“On the contrary, using flour to make cake is the most suitable… I’ll go actually make some after dinner.”
After mentally reviewing a round of no-oven cake recipes, Xiang Chuan could only think of that “pseudo-old-fashioned cake” she and her roommates had fiddled with by searching recipes online during university.
When taking the successfully made steamed cake out of the steamer, Xiang Chuan was actually still not very satisfied. She preferred oven-baked cakes with slightly bitter skin on the outside and soft inside, but under conditions where only a steamer could be used, even with sealed measures to isolate steam, the steamed cake, though fragrant and sweet, still lacked some of “that flavor” when eaten.
But this steamed cake had completely conquered everyone; even Xiang Qi, who didn’t love sweets much, ate more than half a piece. The texture lighter than steamed buns had a greater impact on everyone’s worldview than all the gourmet foods these past few days.
“Sister, add some of that.”
Xiang Xue endured and put down the cake in her hand, handing over her serving plate, wanting Xiang Chuan to add some cream.
“You, you’re just greedy.” Xiang Chuan couldn’t help laughing, ruffled her head, messing up her little sister’s hairstyle. “Finish what’s on your plate first; I’ll make another portion.”
Saying that, she slipped into the kitchen, directing the kitchen AI to make whipped cream. She looked at the two cakes in the steamer, and suddenly an idea flashed in her mind.
“Little Chef, get oranges and the peaches that arrived today from the warehouse, cut them into pieces and peel them. Oh, and grab some apples too.”
Xiang Chuan rolled up her sleeves, looking at the people in the dining hall not far away enjoying the steamed cake.
It was time to give modern people a little shock from 21st century chain store bakeries.
Is this artwork?
Looking at the serving plate brought up, Lin Minzhi couldn’t help thinking.
On the serving plate was something similar to the cream rice flour cake eaten last night, a steamed cake wrapped in whipped cream, but more than twice as thick as the cream rice flour cake. Even more eye-catching were the peach flesh and orange flesh placed on top. The cake surface had a circle drawn with whipped cream near the edge, filled with pink and orange fruit flesh inside the circle, forming a stark contrast with the white cream, looking like exquisite decorations rather than food.
“Little Chef, help cut it.”
Xiang Chuan instructed. She leaned directly on the chair; making this barely standard fruit cake without dedicated cake tools had almost taken her life.
The advantage of having AI cut the cake was that it wouldn’t have the previous issues of the cake being unevenly cut or pieces of unequal size. All nine people got a decent-sized piece, and upon closer look, it turned out to be a double-layer cake with cream in between holding it together.
Xiang Xue and Lin Yu, the two sweets lovers, couldn’t hold back first. They cut a small piece and put it in their mouths; the softness far surpassing rice flour cake, the light cream, and the fresh tangy sweetness of the fruit formed a harmonious trio, even making Xiang Xue unable to resist eating it so quickly.
“Huh. There’s something in the middle cream?” Lin Yu savored it carefully. “This is… apple?”
“Yes, Uncle Lin, your tongue is really sensitive.” Xiang Chuan speared a piece of peach and put it in her mouth. It had to be said that although modern food culture was comparable to primitives, the various ingredients and fruits (except pork) were no worse than in the 21st century—if not better. This peach was so sweet and juicy that she wanted to swallow her tongue. The steak pan-fried a few days ago also had excellent marbling; even she, who in her previous life didn’t eat much medium-rare, volunteered that day to finish a plate of medium-rare steak. The reason was simple: tender enough. Plus the sterile healthy preservation environment and mysterious shelf-life technology allowed her to pull out various fresh ingredients and fruits from her home warehouse anytime, anywhere.
If there could also be soy sauce, oyster sauce, soybeans, oven, edible mushrooms, scallion ginger… and other seasonings and ingredients, this era would absolutely be the perfect environment for her to lie flat and retire. Now she could only commit to daily challenges like “how to eat meat without ginger” and “how to stir-fry without soy sauce and oyster sauce.” If there wasn’t a Geegle in the terminal, she would definitely be driven to kill a bunch of brain cells.
She speared a small piece of cake and put it in her mouth; the familiar sweet fragrance improved her mood quite a bit. The hustle of these past few days could be considered to have some harvest, right?
Just as the whole table was immersed in the relaxed atmosphere brought by the sweet fruit cake, Xiang Weiguo fell into deep thought.
After dinner, the group rarely gathered together in the entertainment room to watch the latest two episodes of Empresses in the Palace. The reason two more episodes were added tonight was because Xiang Chuan thought that after school started, Xiang Xue wouldn’t be able to live stream in the afternoon, so she suggested changing the live stream time to evening. Lin Minzhi and Lin Yu, who had been catching up on the drama during rest time these two days, also wanted to continue watching the later plot. Thus, the two parents, two youngsters, and over two thousand viewers in the live stream room who were caught off guard and urgently came online began nighttime binge-watching.
At this time, Xiang Chuan was called to the study room by Xiang Weiguo and didn’t come out until half an hour later.
Two days later, while Xiang Chuan and Xiang Xue were busy changing into school uniforms and taking the family car to Demeter University Affiliated High School and Demeter University Affiliated Junior High respectively, and Xiang Qi had already reported to Demeter University and started helping teachers prepare for new student welcoming work, on the desk in the chairman’s office of Yue Xiang Group, there was an additional new project for the spring—
“Yue Xiang Restaurant Plan”.
Saying not to get entangled in the setting, yet unable to control this hand (with adults.jpg)
