Chapter 252: Little Tricks To Improve Efficiency
In the afternoon, while visiting the spare spaceship of the exploration force under the Third Fleet at the port, Xiang Chuan complained to Class President Lu Daiqing that cooking lunch that way was too inefficient.
“Leaving aside other things, at least tasks like kneading dough, rolling it out, and cutting vegetables could be handed over to the kitchen AI, right? If we directly stir-fry and make pancakes, wouldn’t the efficiency increase several times over?”
Xiang Chuan complained.
Lu Daiqing and the class cadres around him touched their chins: It makes sense.
Actually, after finishing lunch, when Class Eight Grade One returned to the dormitory, they summarized this first collective participation in the A Bite of China Club’s ancient food cooking group activity in the class group chat (Xiang Chuan: This name sounds so proper), some were ecstatic about making a few puddings themselves, some were distressed about nearly burning the pancakes, and overall everyone was very excited.
During this time, Chou Manman muttered: “But with more than thirty of us, finishing one full grade’s worth is indeed the limit. If we could make more, sell it to the uncles and aunts here, or sell it at a high price to those at Caida Affiliated High School, we could earn quite a bit.”
As soon as this was said, the discussion trend in the entire class group chat instantly shifted from cooking summary to a discussion on improving cooking efficiency.
The result was that after Xiang Chuan happily took a nap, she found everyone in Class Eight yawning when they gathered.
During the movement to the visit site, Xiang Chuan glanced at the class group and realized why everyone looked so deflated in the afternoon. She thought to herself: Couldn’t this be discussed in the afternoon? Young people need more sleep to grow taller. It’ll be too late to catch up on sleep by third year high school.
Muttering aside, while Xiang Chuan was idly looking at some seemingly impressive spaceship equipment, she also helped think about this issue. Originally, she thought the busy work at lunch had satisfied Class Eight’s young people’s weird feeding desires, but instead their enthusiasm increased.
As the source of all evil, Xiang Chuan didn’t know how to stop them now, so she went along with their drive and helped think of some solutions first.
Absolutely not because if they could sell to the officers of the Third Military Escort Ship or the students at Caida Affiliated High School, she could earn an extra licensing fee. Absolutely not for that reason.
Her first thought was various semi-finished food products from her previous life. Although Yue Xiang Group was now considering developing semi-finished versions of some dishes based on Xiang Chuan’s suggestion, and she had already delivered the commercial license, Class Eight had obtained authorization issued in Xiang Chuan’s personal name this time, so it didn’t conflict with Yue Xiang Group.
After Xiang Chuan proposed the suggestion to Class President Lu Daiqing and briefly explained the concept of semi-finished products, Lu Daiqing excitedly opened the light screen to negotiate with the homeroom teacher and the canteen person in charge.
What they called semi-finished products were actually pre-prepared noodle cakes, noodles, dumpling wrappers, and cut vegetables and meat. The actual operation data and images were stored in the canteen AI. They selected a few Class 8 Members who performed relatively well as representative examples, recreated their edible processing operations, prepared the ingredients in advance, and when Class Eight Grade One arrived at the canteen before dinner time, they could directly start stir-frying.
Only the dumplings might take some time.
——
Third Military Escort Ship, First Canteen interior.
Class Eight Grade One changed clothes and entered the canteen. Seeing the neatly placed processed ingredients on the cabinets behind, they got excited one by one, carried the ingredients to the heating platform, lit the fire, put the pot on to heat oil, and the sound of stir-frying instantly filled the kitchen.
Xiang Chuan didn’t make too many adjustments to the dinner recipe, continuing to use the lunch content, so she wasn’t in a hurry to inspect but came to help the pitiful dumpling group wrap dumplings.
Because there was plenty of time, the dumpling group chatted relaxedly, taking turns asking Xiang Chuan to apply for tomorrow’s breakfast list, with buns and steamed buns all coming up.
“Without yeast, I can’t make buns or steamed buns. It also takes one night to make yeast. Don’t believe me, ask Yating and Liang Gong—how long did it take me to make the starter culture for our club’s yeast.” Xiang Chuan sneered, mercilessly shattering their wish to eat hot buns.
Sigh——
Hearing that there would be no buns tomorrow, Class Eight Grade One couldn’t help but let out disappointed voices.
Thanks to the school cafeteria, students from Nongda Affiliated High School and most surrounding schools had developed the habit of stuffing one or two cafeteria buns into their pockets in the morning when entering the classroom, so they felt unaccustomed without buns at home on weekends.
“If there’s no yeast, does that mean we can’t make buns?” Chou Manman asked in a pitiful voice.
“It’s not impossible… In ancient times… that is, eras older than the 21st Century, people steamed steamed buns and buns with unfermented flour, but…” Xiang Chuan pointed to the pancake on the nearby table, “That texture would probably be dozens of times thicker than this pancake.”
“Is it hard to eat?” Ouyang Yating, who was frying pancakes nearby, asked casually.
“Not really hard to eat… but you all would definitely dislike it.”
Xiang Chuan answered with a mask of pain.
It wasn’t that Xiang Chuan was scaring them; when she first transmigrated, she really made steamed buns without yeast at home when bored. Even with the best modern flour, the steamed buns came out grayish, and biting into them reminded Xiang Chuan of the children’s teething sticks she stole as a kid. Though the aroma was still enticing, it couldn’t satisfy the picky 21st Century foodie’s tongue.
If Class Eight’s young people hadn’t tasted yeast-fermented steamed buns and buns, trying this kind might amaze them, but the problem was that picky Xiang Chuan had trained the diners of the Third Fleet Main Ship to have discerning tastes. If they really served such steamed buns… they might really only be suitable to donate to the nature reserve.
Seeing Xiang Chuan’s indescribable expression, the surrounding Class 8 Members instantly gave up the idea of making her produce buns and steamed buns on the spot.
——
In the midst of conversation, the officers and employees of the Third Military Escort Ship arrived successively at the First Canteen.
After Class President Lu Daiqing submitted the canteen AI assistance application in the afternoon, the news that “some ancient foods made by Class Eight Grade One will be sold as takeaway to the First Canteen” spread like wildfire, instantly making the officers and employees who were worried about the Eleventh Fleet Pioneer Unit’s spaceship collectively boil over.
The canteen person in charge also shamelessly logged in to check the quantity of ingredients pre-prepared by the kitchen AI for the day after tomorrow, used the personal terminal to assist in calculating the approximate quantity for external sale, and quietly told colleagues and superiors he was close with.
Suddenly, everyone in the military escort ship military district, from Captain Huaken down to the logistics soldiers in charge of miscellaneous tasks, knew the news that the First Canteen would have ancient gourmet food.
Thus, before dinner, the discussion topic in the Third Military Escort Ship military district instantly shifted from “how to accommodate the Eleventh Fleet Pioneer Unit” to “can I go to the First Canteen to taste fresh ancient gourmet food,” to the point that Kenny, strolling in the plaza, felt the stares on him suddenly decrease a lot.
Actually, all in all, with the kitchen AI’s assistance, Class Eight Grade One’s serving efficiency nearly doubled, so selling an extra three hundred plus portions was no problem. The issue was that at mealtime, besides the Nongda Affiliated High School students at the First Canteen, there were nearly five hundred officers and employees lining up.
The Third Military Escort Ship officers who arrived first at the canteen immediately saw Li Wei. He was standing at the serving window, his serving plate fully loaded with beef noodles, chive pancake, two stir-fried dishes, and one radish chicken soup.
Third Military Escort Ship people: ??? Why is someone from the Eleventh Fleet robbing our food with us? Don’t you reject ancient technology?
Li Wei holding the serving plate: You might not believe it… I was unwittingly led here.
These two days were for self-adjustment, and it was slightly delayed by one day. Tomorrow back to normal frequency~
