Chapter 281: Sandwich
“Shouldn’t this thing be mixed into the flour beforehand?”
Ainuo pointed at the pan-fried steak and other ingredients and complained.
“I didn’t expect you to actually have some common sense. These past few months of learning weren’t in vain.”
Xiang Chuan blinked her eyes while looking at him, her face full of the gratified expression of a parent seeing their child grow up for the first time, which gave Ainuo goosebumps all over.
Is this praising me or insulting me? Ainuo’s mouth twitched.
“Are these for baking other bread later?”
Ouyang Yating quickly changed the topic before Ainuo could react.
“Bake more? If we bake more, we’ll be stuffed by evening. Tonight I’ll ask Father and the others to bring back some pork. If you don’t want to eat pork, I don’t mind baking a few more.”
Pork!
The Class Eight Grade One group was deeply tempted, almost forgetting the bread right in front of them.
No way around it, this was pork! Currently, only the Xiang Family kitchen and a few research institutes under the Agriculture Bureau had food processing technology for pork, making it something you couldn’t buy even if you had money.
The two Class Cadres who had been helping bake bread had already started discussing how to cook the pork in the evening, after all, as pig dissection assistants and designated A Bite of China Club helpers, they had a lot of say in this matter.
Fortunately, there were still some people in the class who could hold things together.
“Then what are these things?”
Class President Lu Daiqing’s doubt immediately pulled the topic back.
“These are for eating with these bread.”
Huh?
Everyone was puzzled.
After all, before this, their impression of pastries had almost only come from buns and steamed buns. They’d never seen a way of eating where you take baked pastries, stuff them with cooked food, and eat them like this… Oh, wait, Xiang Chuan sometimes ate things stuffed into steamed buns.
Could this bread be eaten in a similar way? Everyone looked at Xiang Chuan curiously.
Xiang Chuan didn’t answer the question directly. Instead, she picked up lettuce from the serving plate, placed it on a slice of toast, then put a slice of steak on the lettuce, spread some mayonnaise on top of the steak, added another piece of lettuce, and finally stacked another slice of toast on top.
In the 21st Century, without greaseproof paper or plastic wrap or something to wrap the sandwich, if you wanted to cut it by hand for a photogenic shape, you had to be prepared for it to be cut crooked or for a messy cutting board.
But in the modern era with invincible laser cutters, for Xiang Chuan to neatly cut open a sandwich was just a matter of lifting a hand.
It could only be said that although future society fell far short of the 21st Century in terms of ingredient abundance, it was indeed much more worry-free in terms of kitchenware and other equipment.
——
After finishing one sandwich, Xiang Chuan used the same method to sandwich fried eggs and chicken chunks between another four slices of toast, cut them, and piled them on empty serving plates.
The sandwiches cut in half from the middle had very enticing cross-sections, clearly showing the vegetables, meat, and sauce slowly dripping down sandwiched in the toast, making even the Class Eight Grade One students who were used to eating steak, fried eggs, chicken, and other dishes couldn’t help but swallow their saliva.
So how was the key taste?
After making three kinds of sandwiches, Xiang Chuan immediately set down the knife and spreading tools in her hands, simply wiped her hands, then picked up the steak sandwich nearby and took a big bite.
The toast wrapped with lettuce, mayonnaise, and pan-fried steak, bringing in starch, vitamins, and protein all at once, instantly gave Xiang Chuan a huge sense of satisfaction.
The crisp sound of the lettuce when biting into the sandwich was very noticeable. Earlier when making the salad, everyone had already learned that lettuce could be eaten raw, but that taste… without mayonnaise and meat to go with it, it was really hard to compliment.
But this toast bread had roasted meat and mayonnaise inside, so at least there was no worry of the previous situation happening.
What about the taste? How was the taste exactly? Everyone looked at Xiang Chuan with burning eyes.
Xiang Chuan chewed expressionlessly a few times, swallowed, turned to look at everyone, and decisively gave a thumbs up.
This thing works!
Receiving Xiang Chuan’s signal, the Class Eight Grade One crowd didn’t even have time to cheer. For this one bite, everyone unhesitatingly got to work.
The three A Bite of China Club members each handled one major category of ingredients. Meanwhile, Class President Lu Daiqing quickly organized part of the members into three groups, following Ouyang Yating and others to imitate Xiang Chuan’s previous operations and make these simple sandwiches.
Why only part?
Because Xiang Chuan was still keeping an eye on the progress of organizing the information this time.
Plus, two slices of toast made one sandwich. After cutting the six baked toast breads, there were just over sixty slices total. Dividing them among the thirty-plus people in the class to make, they’d be done in no time.
By then, everyone’s minds would be full of the new food and new bread right in front of them—how could they have the mind to organize information related to last night’s documentary? —
Following the old rules, the three A Bite of China Club members each took charge of one group, assigning the making of the three kinds of sandwiches.
Xiang Chuan sat to the side, tasting other flavors of sandwiches, nodding while eating, and inviting Li Wei, who was standing by watching, to eat one together.
Actually, the ingredients and combinations of these sandwiches were very simple. Compared to the ones she ate in the 21st Century at Saem or those large chain convenience stores, they could even be called overly plain.
But thanks to the development of modern agriculture ensuring ingredient quality, plus the pairing with freshly baked toast bread, it gave her an eating experience not inferior to the tea restaurant freshly made sandwiches or Saem luxurious sandwiches she had in the 21st Century.
——
If buns were simple in the flour stage and complex in the filling stage, then sandwiches were the opposite. As long as you solved the complex toast bread, the rest was just putting various ingredients inside to assemble a complete bread dish full of color, aroma, and taste.
Class Eight Grade One had rich helping experience, so this simple assembly was no problem. After fifteen minutes, the three types of sandwiches were assembled and cut in half, placed on six serving plates.
Finally, at Class President’s command, everyone immediately used both hands, picking up their assigned meal boxes and tongs borrowed from the kitchen, to clamp each kind of sandwich inside.
The Class 8 Members who had taken the three kinds of sandwiches very consciously sat back in their original seats, eating sandwiches while discussing the differences between this thing and buns, and incidentally organizing data in a bit.
Xiang Chuan: Traitors!
The A Bite of China Club side had also started packing up, but without needing the three club members or Xiang Chuan to do it themselves, Da Xing directed the little stars to clean up the baking pans and empty serving plates together.
Meanwhile, the four of them sat by the roaster discussing the sandwiches made from this freshly baked bread. Li Wei stood by, listening with great interest while curiously tasting this freshly made bread dish.
One kind of flour could make so many flavors of food! The 21st Century is truly amazing!
