Chapter 37: The Magic Of Dessert
The term “dim sum” became a noun well-known to the Xiang Family after Xiang Chuan made the rice flour cake. According to ancient explanations, any food that’s not a main meal can basically be considered dim sum, like the previous yam cake and the later whipped cream cake. According to ancient customs, “dim sum” is eaten around three in the afternoon, but since family members are either at work or at school at that time, it was changed to after dinner.
After eating so much at dinner, can they still eat dim sum?
Yesterday, when Xiang Chuan saw everyone at the dining table finish an entire large bowl of dough drops and flatbread, she thought this in her mind.
But an hour after dinner yesterday at that time, Father and Xiang Qi were also watching films and TV dramas in the entertainment room together, right after episode 11 had just finished. Xiang Chuan had the servant take the fruit cake made that morning out of the refrigerator. Seeing that cake which was about as wide as the coffee table, Xiang Chuan even thought about whether to save half for tomorrow, so Xiang Xue could take it to school as dim sum for the afternoon break between classes.
In the end, that cake which looked to be about twelve inches was left with less than a quarter. Xiang Chuan widened her eyes looking at Mother and Xiang Xue; most of the three-quarters of the cake that was eliminated had been unknowingly eaten by the two of them.
“Sister, you’re eating so slowly. If you don’t eat faster, I’m going to eat it all up oh.”
At that time, when Xiang Xue saw Xiang Chuan holding a fork and staring motionless at her, she thought she was spacing out, so she urged her to eat faster, and couldn’t help looking at the remaining cake.
“I’m saving it to eat tomorrow morning.”
Xiang Chuan unceremoniously had the servant put the remaining cake on a small serving plate and send it to the refrigerator.
Why can Mother and Sister eat so much?!
She had already eaten three pieces and felt her belly was about to burst!
Is this that legend of “women using another stomach to hold desserts”?!
Xiang Chuan, who only treats sweets as an occasional indulgence, felt like she had opened an incredible door for her family.
After the “shock” experience from yesterday, today Xiang Chuan prepared a bit more dim sum than usual. One reason was that there was an extra guest at home. Although she didn’t know if Chou Manman was the type who, like Mother and the others, used another stomach for sweets, it was always better to prepare more. The second reason was that she had walked around the school all afternoon, secretly noting down the decorations and equipment of quite a few club rooms, which was a bit mentally taxing, so she wanted to eat something sweet.
So today while making dinner, she had the kitchen AI prepare ahead of time (visually estimated) a twelve-inch fruit cake and twenty-four cups of pudding, plus two large pots of freshly squeezed apple juice.
She had the servant send half to the men’s group in the living room, and she joined everyone in the entertainment room with the other servant she had split off.
The pudding’s small porcelain bowls were inverted on several large plates. Xiang Xue curiously poked it with a fork, making a sound of metal clashing against porcelain.
“Sister, is this really edible? It looks just like a bowl.”
“You’re not supposed to eat this bowl, you’re supposed to eat the thing in the bowl.”
Xiang Chuan said with an awkward smile.
As she spoke, she gently lifted the small porcelain bowl. Before bringing it to the entertainment room, Xiang Chuan had put the pudding in the refrigerator for a slight chill to cool it down and make the egg mixture more coagulated, so the small porcelain bowl felt a bit cold to the touch.
As the small porcelain bowl was slowly lifted, the golden pudding hidden inside the bowl gradually revealed itself. Everyone, including the viewers on the other side of the screen in the live stream room, held their breath.
Is this… food?
Under the porcelain bowl was a hemispherical sphere, but it seemed like a semi-coagulated liquid, wobbling duangduang. On the top surface of the hemisphere, there was a layer of light brown covering, and some liquid flowed down along the curve of the sphere.
What is this?
Everyone was stunned.
If the various sizes of food Xiang Chuan brought out before could still be called “solid food” or “solid food mixed with liquid,” then this one couldn’t be called solid at all. It could only be liquid, but compared to liquid it had fluidity, and compared to solid it had a stability similar to solid.
Some parent viewers touched their chins: It looks a bit like a gelatinous substance. But when Xiang Chuan gently scooped with a small spoon, she neatly scooped out a perfect curve, safely without the stickiness of a gelatinous substance.
“Servant, lift up all the other bowls too. Everyone, give it a try. This is a new dim sum I made today, called pudding.”
Pudding?
The younger viewers silently repeated it a few times in their minds, feeling it was quite cute.
Only to see Xiang Chuan put that spoonful of pudding into her mouth, gently lifting the spoon, and the pudding slid into her mouth. The freshly made pudding, especially since it was steamed using a double boiler method, was very soft and tender. Before she could chew twice to savor it, the pudding slid down her throat.
Xiang Chuan nodded: Mm, just as she thought, after chilling in the refrigerator for a bit, it had even better texture than right after it came out of the pot.
Little did she know this action shocked everyone: Swallowed directly?! No chewing?!
Xiang Xue couldn’t hold back first. She picked up a small plate of pudding, leaned in to smell it. It seemed there was a bitter fragrance…?
She tilted her head: Do ancient “dim sum” have bitter foods? Ancient people were really strange.
Xiang Xue didn’t like bitter things, but her intuition told her Xiang Chuan wouldn’t make something she didn’t like to eat, so Xiang Xue picked up a spoon, scooped a small spoonful, and put it in her mouth.
The moment the pudding entered her mouth, the water-tender soft texture and the sweet fragrance of egg and milk were instantly captured by her tongue tip. She widened her eyes, instinctively swallowed, and the pudding slid straight down her throat, leaving only bits of sweet lingering fragrance in her mouth.
Ah? She hadn’t even properly tasted it yet!
The angry Xiang Xue scooped another spoonful, this time scooping the part with caramel. From the first bite, she guessed that the bitter taste came from that brown top layer. Although afraid of bitterness, Xiang Xue still chose to trust her intuition.
After the caramel entered with the pudding, it didn’t have the medicine-like bitterness Xiang Xue imagined. The inherent sweetness of the pudding neutralized the bitterness, the bitterness set off the fragrance of the egg milk pudding, and upon careful tasting, the brown layer also had its own unique sweetness.
On the second bite, Xiang Xue held it in her mouth, savored it for less than five seconds, and it slid down. Immediately the third spoonful, fourth spoonful…
After finishing one plate of pudding, Xiang Xue finally came back to her senses.
She immediately threw down the spoon and plate and rushed to Xiang Chuan: “Sister! This! This is too delicious! How can there be, be such dim sum!”
Xiang Xue’s excited and slightly tongue-tied appearance directly blew up the live stream room, especially making the female viewers’ cravings flare up. Some were Xiang Xue’s classmates who had tasted the sugar triangle during the day and were immediately captivated by those sweet buns. When they learned from Xiang Xue’s mouth that the Xiang Family’s dim sum was even more fragrant and sweet than those sweet buns, everyone wished they could go to Xiang Xue’s home to mooch a meal.
Now there was even a pudding that made Xiang Xue, who could exert super self-control facing a cream cake, unable to hold back and become ecstatic. How could the viewers hold back!
[Xiao Xue, bring a few to school tomorrow, I’d just like to try one.]
[Above, you’re so greedy. I just want one bite, one bite!]
[Xiao Xue, let me try one bite and I’ll do your notes for the whole day tomorrow!]
[Son, if you can bring some back tomorrow, I’ll buy you the latest terminal auxiliary machine.]
Amid the pile of pleas for Xiang Xue to bring pudding to school, one could also spot some different comments.
[Xiao Xue sister, have your sister bring a few portions to school tomorrow!]
[Xiang Chuan, can you see this? Bring some tomorrow for everyone to try!]
Chou Manman bit her spoon and glanced at the comment section in Xiang Xue’s live stream room. Seeing the names displayed on the live stream end (audience windows all show nicknames), she smiled awkwardly: Aren’t these that who and that who from our class? How are they also in the live stream room.
But thinking about it, it made sense. After all, they were all from Demeter University Affiliated School, and the circle was just this big.
