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Back at the front desk.
Xia Yu looked around, "Huh, where's that old man?"
Only two empty bowls were on the table, the ramen and soup had been completely finished. The third bowl of ramen was still behind the counter, which Xia Yu had purposely left for himself for extra nutrition.
"He left."
The old man pulled back the curtain and walked into the store.
Xia Yu didn't dwell on it. He carried over the third bowl of ramen he had made himself, sat down casually, and wolfed it down.
"Ah..."
In a few minutes, he devoured the bowl of noodles, finally feeling full. Xia Yu stretched lazily, intending to get up, take a bath, and go to sleep, when a voice unexpectedly sounded from beside him, "What do you think of your beef ramen?"
The old man stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the store door, his face hidden in the darkness so no expression could be seen.
"..."
Xia Yu pointed to the other two empty bowls and smiled, "I say, old man, you ate one of those ramen bowls, right? Asking me how it tastes—well, you already know the answer."
To him, a true foodie, it seemed the old man's ramen had lost.
In the miraculous cooking state of the 'Copy Crystal,' the dish he created was much tastier than the original.
Not only did it surpass in the noodle's texture and feel, but the flavor of the broth, the fusion of ingredients, all steadily overshadowed the old man's cooking. Of course, Xia Yu knew the old man hadn't exerted his full strength; he couldn't estimate how much strength the old man had shown. Anyway, winning a small round himself, he finally found an outlet for his long-term repressed frustration.
Heh, old man, you lost!
It was just that simple.
Actually, Xia Yu only dared to say the above sentence in his heart...
"When did you secretly learn the Xia Family's soup base recipe for ramen?"
After a moment of silence, the old man slowly asked, his expression serious.
"Secretly learn?" Xia Yu's face dropped, "Old man, can't you use more polite words? It's all from the Xia Family, so how does it count as secretly learning? I figured it out from eating your ramen—this should be called insight! Do you understand insight, huh?"
"You were able to taste the soup base's recipe?" The old man looked incredulous.
Xia Yu didn't waste any words, cleared his throat, and began reciting, "One fresh buffalo bone, one piece of fresh beef, 50 grams of Szechuan peppercorns, 50 grams of dried ginger skin, 20 grams each of cumin, tsaoko and cinnamon, 15 grams of pepper, 10 grams each of sand ginger and nutmeg, 5 grams each of galangal and lemongrass, 3 grams of Pipar, and also dried tangerine peel, star anise, amomum..."
"This is the ingredient list for one pot of soup base, encompassing about 30 kinds of materials in total."
"If it's for the large pot used by the restaurant, the ingredient proportions are 20% dried ginger slices, 18% Szechuan peppercorns, 12% cumin..."
Before Xia Yu finished speaking, the old man waved his hand to stop him.
"Enough!"
The old man turned and went into the kitchen, "Come over here!"
Xia Yu, not understanding why, followed him inside. The old man, with his back to him, put on an apron, "From today on, I will teach you cooking. First, you must master all the signature dishes of the Chinese Restaurant."
"No problem!"
In the past, Xia Yu would have brushed it off, made an excuse to sneak back to his room to sleep. But now, with the assistance of the God of Cooking System, if the old man taught him everything, wouldn't he be able to grasp many recipes?
Just the thought made him too excited to bear—it's the springtime for a foodie!
"You're pretty good at making dough, so let's start with dough dishes."
The old man took out the flour, explaining while he busied himself. Xia Yu listened attentively, much more serious than his usual careless demeanor at school.
The next day.
Having studied until after midnight, Xia Yu nonetheless woke up promptly at eight in the morning, unable to fall back asleep with his eyes closed. This was the first day of spring vacation.
Neon has three vacations—spring vacation, summer vacation, and winter vacation.
Spring vacation marks the end of a school year, typically from March to early April.
And on April first, it's the beginning of the new academic year for both middle and high schools in Neon.
Xia Yu sighed and reluctantly got up to wash.
There was activity in the narrow courtyard. After washing, standing in the hallway, Xia Yu found the old man was already up. Like an old donkey, he was rotating the millstone before an antique stone mill in the courtyard. A fragrant aroma was spreading as the white soybean milk continually flowed from the millstone, collecting into a wooden bucket.
Watching for a while, Xia Yu intended to go up and help. Unexpectedly, the old man suddenly let go, picked up the bucket of soybean milk, and walked back, "Fetch some clean water and wash the millstone."
As he passed by, the old man gave the order in his usual tone.
Was this going to be tofu?
His mind was full of questions.
The old man rarely made tofu himself. Most of the tofu used in dishes came from the commercial street outside, and Xia Yu often played the errand role. It was full of bitterness, not to be mentioned much.
Uh...
Thinking about the soybeans for making tofu, Xia Yu's face changed. He rushed into the kitchen. Before going to bed last night, he specifically soaked a bucket of soybeans, about 5 kilograms. After grinding and shelling, soaking them for a few hours, they could be placed on the millstone to make soybean milk.
Needless to say, the soybean milk was definitely for making water tofu. After all, he had just mastered a new recipe, "Magical Mapo Tofu," in the God of Cooking System last night, and he was eager to cook and practice.
But the bucket of soybeans was gone!
"Old man..." He gritted his teeth, staring at the busy figure in the kitchen, yet the anger in his eyes strangely retracted and disappeared.
The old man was also making tofu. He had taken a bag made of tofu cloth, poured the soybean milk from the bucket into the bag, and forcefully squeezed it, filtering the soybean milk juice into another clean wooden bucket.
About every kilogram of soybeans was mixed with 6 kilograms of water. Hence, a bucket of 5 kilograms of soybeans could eventually make 30 pounds of soybean milk, ample to fill a large wooden bucket. By the time Xia Yu returned to the kitchen after washing the millstone, he saw the old man had already boiled a large pot of soybean milk.
On the kitchen counter laid some gypsum powder.
Xia Yu was still clear about the method of making tofu. Even if he didn't know in his previous life, he'd learned most of it over time in this life, watching the old man grind beans and cook soybean milk.
Gypsum powder is crucial for making tofu. Without this material, the soybean milk wouldn't be able to solidify.
"Water tofu or dried tofu?"
The old man used a bowl of water to mix gypsum slurry, poured the slurry into the boiling pot, stirred it, and asked, turning his head.
"Water tofu!" Xia Yu answered without hesitation.
The old man pointed to the prepared wooden trays beside him. There were many such trays stacked layer upon layer, like steaming baskets. Xia Yu knew what the old man meant and hurried to stand by with the wooden trays.
Then it became a teamwork effort. The old man scooped the soybean milk, and Xia Yu held the trays. These trays were all lined with tofu cloth. Once filled with soybean milk, they were covered with cloth and moved to the next tray.
In total, they filled more than ten trays before the pot of soybean milk was nearly empty.
Wiping the sweat, Xia Yu looked at the stacked wooden trays and grinned.
About half an hour later, as the temperature cooled, the tofu would form.
With so many trays of tofu, it was enough for him to practice "Magical Mapo Tofu." He didn't believe he couldn't create a luminous dish; there were plenty of ingredients to splurge on.
While waiting, Xia Yu couldn't just stand around; he left the kitchen and habitually wiped down the tables and chairs in the store.
Xia Yu had a bit of a cleanliness obsession, so over the years, the small shop under his cleaning had become spotless. Once, when cockroaches appeared in the kitchen, Xia Yu made a big fuss, buying several insecticides from the commercial street and battling for half a month to finally restore peace in the kitchen with no unidentified biological corpses.
Don't think there are no cockroaches in Japan.
This place's climate is hot and humid, especially suitable for insect growth. Frankly speaking, Japanese cockroaches are bigger than those in the mainland. Xia Yu heard from his school friends about palm-sized cockroaches appearing, which scared him pale. That must be Fukushima nuclear radiation pollution, right?
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