"Yes chef!" Alrand walked over to our table from his workstation that's cluttered with bowls and jars with different colour liquids in them.
When he came closer to our table, he had a sweet fruity aroma around him which told me his a dessert chef... that or his just a chef with a very fruity scent.
"Take Mr Huang to your station. He will show us some of his dishes and we'll recreate them for the king. If you have anything you want as a reward, please ask away, we may take recognition for your creation by the king doesn't mean we won't reward you for your help and efforts."
"Oh don't worry too much about it but if I think of something, I'll ask for. How does that sound?" I couldn't ask for much as the methods are basically 'home' level, 'pedestrian' level. If the king finds my food creative, I'll be surprised.
"That and you may come to our kitchens anytime you want. The guards are on our side so it'll be hard for the king to find out. Anyways, Alrand he's all yours."
Alrand walked over to his workstation and I followed him.
"You can make anything you want, I'll be assisting and learning, please teach me chef Huang." He spoke once he arrived at his station and started to wipe the whole area down.
He was methodical and systematic. He wiped down all the utensils and washed all the raw ingredients like vegetables and fruits. He has also a separate sink with a bowl full of different cuts of meat.
"These are fruit and vegetables from the local markets this morning and these are pork cuts from the butcher that had arrived just an hour ago. I hope these ingredients are to your satisfaction."
He pointed to the ingredients as he continued to prepare the mise en place. Sugar, flour, vinegar... well a bottle of cloudy white liquid that I think is white vinegar. He pulled out each staple of ingredients and organised them into their food groups. Soon his whole station was filled with ingredients that someone like me, who only used barely 10% of, is now regretting agreeing to this...
My mum taught me how to cook in hopes that when I find someone I love I could cook for her, but the king? What would I serve up that's fit for royalty? Maybe my knowledge in media could help? I mean I could draw out some inspirations from Jang Geum in 'A Jewel in the Palace', or Seo from 'Wok of Love'... two good dramas with a lot of cooking scenes that I may or may not going to take from...
Either way I knew that I needed to be creative, if I'm going to impress these guys and maybe the king too... man this feeling brings me back to my hospitality course in my senior year of high school.
Whilst FTV was indeed my number one choice of subjects, hospitality was my second choice mainly because my love of eating food and with the advantage of my mum teaching me how to cook but who knew everyone in my class was great at cooking... I ended up with a solid B even though I thought I could bring in an easy A.
"What would you like to cook first? Do you have a particular dish in mind after looking at all these beautiful ingredients?" He got closer to me and waited for my answer even though for the past few minutes I've been reminiscing about my senior high school days or the fact that I'm going to take ideas from Korean dramas.
As I looked at all the ingredients this kinda reminds me of the invention test from Master Chef Australia, a show that I've only remembered just now but watched annually.
There were so many ingredients in front of me I was slowly becoming overwhelmed but then as I stared at the pork, a memory of my mum and me filling and wrapping an endless mound of wontons popped into my mind. My childhood of me and my mum making wontons... I miss her.
The image of wonton and noodle soup, the smells and taste of the perfect dish was all that I could think of now.
"Wonton and noodle soup!" I smiled and nodded my head.
"A soup? Isn't that a bit simplistic to make for the king? Maybe think more substantial, a bit more oomph, the king likes more oomph in his meals."
"Oomph? Hmm..." I looked at the pork and knew most of the meat and fat would be used to make minced meat, I didn't want my soup to be anything overwhelming, a good wonton and noodle soup should be clear, clean and eggy taste.
I went over and inspected the pork just in case nothing was hiding from my sight and lo and behold, bones. Bones and bone marrow were buried underneath all the meat chunks.
I could use the bones and bone marrow to make a soup base. My mum taught me how to make it and I'm sure it couldn't be that hard to make, even though most of the ingredients that goes into the broth are eastern. It could provide the 'oomph' I needed, maybe I could even roast some of the bones to bring out a deeper flavour.
The gelatine from the marrow could thicken the soup and make the flavours bold and rich.
I voiced this to Alrand and he an eyebrow raised.
"I like your idea, please show me how to make this soup. Also what is a wonton? And what are noddles?"
"Oh eh... hmm... well why don't I show you, but first let me roast some bones."
I grabbed some bones and bone marrow and dumped them into a pot of boiling water to blanch them. Once all the impurities were out, I dried the bones and placed them on a tray and shove the tray into the stone oven.
Alrand was watching everything I was doing with an intrigued look in his eyes.
I then, grabbed the flour, salt and eggs. I also grabbed a bowl and a cup of water. I moved the ingredients and utensils to a cleared table.
I poured a measured amount of flour and salt into the bowl and mixed the two together, I then made a well in the middle and cracked two eggs and poured the water in as well. I mixed the eggs and water together in the well and then started to mix in the flour and salt mixture until it's a nice sticky dough.
On the tabletop I dust some flour onto the surface and took the sticky dough onto the floured surface and started to knead the dough until elastic. I then cut the dough into four pieces and started to roll them until it's thin as possible. I then cut them into squares and dusted them to with flour.
Once the wonton wrappers were made, I took the cuts of pork and pork fat from the bowl in the sink and started to minced them the old fashion way.
My mum showed me how to do it since we didn't have a mixture and pork mince was expensive at the time. She just chopped chucks of pork with two meat cleavers and incorporated pork fat into the chopped meat as she went on a wooden chopping board.
I emulated her method and grabbed to knives that they provided and started to create minced meat. I took a glance over to Alrand as I chopped and his eyes were bulging out of their sockets, watching my method of chaotic chopping. Over a period of time his mouth hung so low, his mouth could've hit the floor as the meat and fat on the board turned from solid mass to a broken up and incorporated blob.
Once I was done, I placed the minced meat into a bowl and washed to board. I then grabbed some veggies and chopped them and placed them into the bowl and then grabbed some spices and mixed them in as well. By the end I had a bowl of minced pork mixture and started to scoop some with a spoof and placed them into a wrapper and folded them into a simple shape. I wasn't very creative like my mum when folding but since I was making them for the king, I at least made them a little more intricate.
"These are wontons," I explained as I folded my fifth one and Alrand was hovering over my shoulder like a kid who wanted to help. I asked him to help me and he picked up the wrapper and started to do the process like if he had done it before. I was amazed at his skill and precision in folding the wrappers. Is this one of his skills or are all chefs like this? I wondered.
Once all the wrappers were filled and folded, I placed them on a tray and covered them until it's time to cook them.
It was time to make the egg noodles. But first, I took out the bones from the oven and placed them into a pot of water. I then deglazed the tray with the roasting juices from the bones and add it to the water. I also added aromatics and chopped up veggies into the pot and covered the top with a lid and sealed, so it could act like a pressure cooker. It would normally take a long time to incorporate the porky flavour into the broth in a short amount of time without a pressure cooker.
Interesting enough, Alrand knew a sealing spell to seal the top so it wouldn't erupt and blow the kitchen up.
I went onto to grab the ingredients to make the noodles. The process was fairly similar to the wonton wrappers but with a lot of kneading and rolling and folding and rolling... and folding. I then cut them into thin long strands.
The hardest parts were done and it was time to make it but I still wanted to do the clear soup version, so I decided to make two versions. The second soup base I would place pork cuts into boiling water to take out the impurities and then place drain them and place them into another pot of water to make the soup.
It didn't take very long for the second soup base to make since I only needed the pork to flavour the water along with some spices. In the original recipe the secret ingredient to make the soup pop was the MSG but so far I haven't found such of an ingredient in this kitchen yet...
After a while of boiling and adding in some veggies and slices of pork, the soup base was done. I cooked the wontons and noodles and place them in a eating bowl first and then placed the veggies and slices of meat on top. I then poured on top the soup base. I was amazed of how it looked and when I made the second version with the roasted bones, the broth was glistening from the fat and gelatine in the bones and bone marrow.
Two different type of soup bases, one clear and clean porky tasting and the other bold with a deep roast porky flavour. I may not made it exactly like mums or like what a restaurant would make but right now the two bowls in front of me looked fucking appetising and I was salivating in my mouth. My mum is not here to see this but I hope she's proud of me.
{"Could we have some master?"}
Taki's voice rang in my head.
Sure go for it.
{"Thank you Master!"}
I could see my shadows all moved towards the bowls for their share. I glanced towards Alrand to see if he could see them but I couldn't tell. Alrand was unmoving as if he was rooted in place. His eyes widened and mouth agape, saliva flowing down to his chin.
"Well, these two bowls are my versions of wonton noddle soups. What do you think? Would you like a bowl? I have enough of both versions for everyone."
"Yes! Thank you chef Huang! Head chef! He's finished!" Alrand shouted trying to regain his composure but couldn't.
Unbeknownst to Alrand, the head chef was right behind him as he stared at my two bowls, probably dazed and in his own world.