Chapter Two, A Bowl of Clear Soup Noodles

"Boss, then I'll make a fool of myself." Shi Ke said.

"Wait a minute..." The boss raised his right hand.

"???"

"After I finish entertaining the guests, I will examine you after closing today."

"..., oh. Then I'll be your assistant. Leave it to me to wash and chop vegetables and dishes." Shi Ke also had no objection.

"Yeah. That's it. Xinghei, get to work."

"Dad, why did you agree so vaguely?" Xingping said softly when he returned to the kitchen while Shi Ke went to pick up steel rods.

"Hehe... It's not easy to meet someone who looks like me, you have to figure it out, right?"

"Like you?" Xingping stared with dead fish eyes.

"If I'm not mistaken, this guy is a wandering cook."

"What does that have to do with you?"

"A chef who stays in one place and immerses himself in making his own dishes will never be successful. A wandering chef is a chef who has shown his skills all over the world. Do you understand? This is the difference in vision. Do you understand?"

"He's only fifteen years old. How many places can he go to?" Xingping curled his lips in disdain.

"You lost to me five hundred times, didn't you?"

"It's 489 times!!! It's not five hundred!" Xin Ping was very persistent.

"I'm afraid he has more than you. Victory is what a chef should be. However, the strength that failure can bring to a chef is truly powerful. Every time a chef survives a failure, the chef's cooking skills will have quality Your current strength is absolutely inseparable from your failures...., oops. Why am I telling you this? Work, don't be lazy!"

"..." After listening to Xingping, he didn't speak, and didn't know what he was thinking.

"Knock!" Shi Ke, who walked into the kitchen, leaned the steel rod against the corner, pointed to the ingredients that had been washed and put aside, "Boss, what do you want me to do? It seems that you have already processed the ingredients. Washing and cutting vegetables seems to be dead."

"Well, you can help with the order. The two of us are busy."

"oh."

"Put that stick of yours in the back warehouse. It's not suitable for the kitchen, only kitchen utensils can be placed here." The boss pointed to the steel stick leaning against the corner.

"Uh... Boss, I'm... a rolling pin." Shi Ke was so embarrassed that he exploded.

"..." The boss and Xingping looked at the steel rod, and then at the rolling pin in his shop, inexplicably feeling like a grandson seeing a grandfather.

"Then you put it far away, it will be troublesome if you knock it over and hit something."

"oh."

"Let me let it go. You go and order." Xin Ping said.

"I think it's better for me to come."

"Don't worry, it won't be broken."

"I'm not afraid of it being bad, I'm afraid of you being bad."

"What are you talking about?..." Xin Ping grabbed the steel rod and raised it, his face turning green.

"I'm afraid you'll be flabbergasted." The corner of Shi Ke's mouth twitched.

"This... weighs?"

"Forty-three kilograms. Made of special steel, you probably can't lift it with bare hands."

"Come on. I can't bear it, the gas tank is not so heavy!!"

"Well. You take me to let it go."

"Dad, I'll go." Xingping said to the boss.

"Go and come back. I'm a little busy."

Shike followed Xingping to the back warehouse.

"Just put it here. Don't worry, no one will steal it. To be honest, I have never seen such a big rolling pin in my life. Is this... is it really a rolling pin? To be honest."

"That's right." Shi Ke played a stick flower with a steel stick, and the whistling wind suddenly blew up.

"Okay, stop playing. Everything will be blown over by the wind." Xing Ping Chuangzhen looked at the floating vegetable leaves and said, really calm.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Shike wrapped the steel rod in a cloth and put it under the table in the corner.

"You let it go, are you okay?"

"That's better than hitting someone."

"Well, safety first. Hey..., I suddenly found that you are really easy to talk to."

"Oh... I'm Chinese, I'm easy to talk, except for certain times of course."

"...Hey. Are you strong?"

"Well. I'm very strong. In terms of fighting, it's no problem to pick twenty or thirty."

"I'll go... who wants to fight with you?!"

"Then what do you want to compare? I have nothing but fighting."

"What about cooking? Aren't you a chef?"

"This one. It's just entry-level."

"...Damn it! Are you here to smash my brand name?"

"No. Don't worry, if you are not satisfied, you can fire me."

"You said you were entry-level."

"Well. Entry level, I think so. Besides, there is no place to test my level."

"..., can I think you're pretending?"

"Whatever you think, my current cooking skills are far from the delicacy I'm after."

"You...forget it, you'll know if you taste your cooking tonight."

"Well. Please look forward to it. Let's go back. After talking for a long time, your father won't beat you up, will he?"

"..., huh? I forgot. Go quickly. Do you want to put down your knife too, because such a big man will touch someone."

"..., no. If I lose this, all my tricks will be useless."

"That's true. Don't carry the big knife on your back later, just put it aside."

"Understood, I found a place to hang the whole set. People will watch, so I can't lose it."

"Chuangzhen!! Do you have to wait so long to put something? No one orders." The boss called from the kitchen.

"Oh. Here we come." The two returned to the restaurant together and started their formal work.

Time flies, and the day passes.

"Please go slowly. Thank you for your patronage." The boss was sending the last customer away.

"Thank you for the hospitality~!" The guest sincerely returned the gift.

"It's almost time to turn off the charcoal stove..., Soma?" The boss looked at Xinghei Soma who was in a daze while putting away the dishes, and shook his head helplessly.

"Today's fried rice should be overturned three times. I will graduate from junior high school in a few months, and then I can devote more energy to cooking practice... I want to surpass my father as soon as possible... , become the backbone of this restaurant!" Xingping's expression became brighter the more he thought about it.

"Boss, I'll pack everything up later. Is it time for the exam?" Shi Ke washed his hands and left the kitchen.

"Uh! Okay." Xingping was awakened, and seeing the eager expression on his face, he must have been thinking about it for a day.

"Hehe... You can use the ingredients in the kitchen as you like, and the theme is home cooking. You can start now." The boss said.

"Home cooking. Okay, no problem." Shi Ke rolled up his sleeves and picked up a bag of leftover flour from today's use.

"Pasta? Be brave." The boss smiled.

"Are you making cakes?" Xingping suddenly appeared next to Shi Ke who was adding water to the flour in the basin.

"Hand-pulled noodles. Do you want to learn? I'll teach you." Shi Ke twisted his hand, and a small vortex appeared in the puddle in the middle of the flour pile.

"Handmade ramen. I haven't seen it before. Japanese ramen is basically made directly. Is it different in China?"

"Of course." Shi Ke raised his hand, and a medium-sized dough appeared in his hand. Looking at the basin again, the pile of flour just now disappeared. The whole pot is as clean as new.

"..., finished kneading? So fast?!"

"Nothing. It's just a ball. Why don't you go out and wait? Kneading dough is boring."

"Yeah. I'm out."

Shi Ke put the dough back into the basin and kneaded vigorously. The entire dough was deformed dazzlingly under his palm, from round to flat, and from flat to round. This process, which should have been boring to the point of explosion, unexpectedly had an inexplicable beauty.

"Knock!" Shi Ke put a large bowl on the dough that was still circling in the basin.

"The business in the store is so good that there is not much food left." Shi Ke looked at the place where the vegetables were placed, only the onion, ginger, garlic and half a small pumpkin were left.

"It doesn't matter. It's better to be lighter." After thinking about it, Shi Ke chopped the remaining onion, ginger, and garlic into fine pieces, added a little more oil, and stir-fried them in the pan in order, added some seasoning, and added water , Cover the pot and simmer for a while.

After a while, as soon as the lid was opened, the slightly burnt residue was removed and the hot oil was reserved for later use.

Sitting in the dining room, the Xinghei father and son moved their noses and their eyes lit up together.

"fragrant!"

Shi Ke brought out the noodle cooking pot in the store, filled it with two-thirds of water, and boiled the water on high heat.

While waiting for the water to boil, Shi Ke took out the dough that had been waking up for a while, "Well, the time is a bit short, it's about the same."

He kneaded the dough into long, even strips on a floured table, and then cut it into three equal portions. Pick up one of the sections and start ramen directly. The movements are extremely skillful, exactly like the master ramen masters who have been doing for decades.

One clasp, two clasps, three clasps, under Shi Ke's movements of dividing and closing his hands, the ramen was pulled eight clasps (the dough is not big, if you pull it again, it will become Jackie Chan's beard noodles), the noodles are as thin as freshman Size like sewing thread.

Shi Ke took the stretched dough and sprinkled it with dry flour, and started to process the other two doughs.

"Gulu Gulu..." The water in the pot boiled, and Shi Ke had just finished pulling the third serving of noodles.

Xingping appeared next to him again, attracted by the technique of hand-pulled noodles, and he was still gesticulating.

Without hesitation, cook the noodles in the pot, skim the floating powder, add water and cook again, cook until the water is slightly boiled, take out the water, put it in the soup bowl prepared earlier, sprinkle with chopped green onion, and pour the special onion, ginger and garlic. sesame oil, serve.

"Please taste, a bowl of homemade clear soup noodles."

"It looks very ordinary, such a clear soup, very light. Isn't Chinese cuisine very particular about the shock of taste?" Xingping looked at the bowl of plain noodles and said.

"Why are home-cooked dishes so fancy? Try it."

"Why don't you use a steel stick? I'm still wondering how to use your rolling pin?"

"Home cooking, just plain."

"I said..."

"Don't talk about it, eat your noodles, you will know after eating. If you talk nonsense, the noodles will be soaked." The boss interrupted Xingping's question.

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"...,oh."

Chi Liu... Chi Liu..., the two father and son started eating.

Shi Ke was not idle either, he also made a bowl and ate it.

For a foodie, just looking at other people eating delicious food will make you want to die.

The three of them finished their noodles in a short time, looked at each other for a long time, and didn't speak for a long time.

"Have I passed the test? Say something? Boss, Xingping?"

"Your noodles are... very good. I have to admit, it's really good. I've never eaten noodles with such a texture that they spring gently to the teeth when I bite them off. The seasoning in the noodle soup is very delicious. Not much, but the ratio is very strange. It is said to be light and delicious, but it is said to be rich but it does not have the strong taste of ordinary Chinese cuisine. The topping is oil fried with onion, ginger and garlic, but it does not have the greasy feeling that Chinese cuisine often has. How is this? Did you do it?" Xing Ping said.

"You haven't eaten Chinese food, have you?"

"I have eaten it. I have eaten mapo tofu, stir-fried green river vegetables, twice-cooked pork, General Tso's chicken, etc., and I have even cooked them."

"Have you ever eaten authentic Chinese food? In a sense, General Tso's Chicken has long been changed by some chefs according to the taste of foreigners, so that it has nothing to do with Chinese food. Try to make it taste heavy. Now even The sweet and spicy flavors are coming out, my God."

"...Dad, you come to evaluate. My evaluation always feels a bit ignorant." Xingping pushed the boss.

"You add pepper to your noodle soup to enhance the taste, but the real key to your noodle dish is not the soup, but the noodles themselves. Right?"

"Yeah." Shi Ke nodded.

"Noodles themselves? Isn't it just adding some sugar?" Xinghei said.

"You guessed wrong, I didn't add sugar." Shi Ke said.

"What's with the faint sweetness in the noodles? No sugar, what is it?"

"It's pumpkin. You kneaded pumpkin into the noodles. Chuangzhen, you haven't tasted it yet?" After the boss finished speaking, he looked at Xingping gloatingly.

Kohei blushed like a boiled crab.

"Boss is amazing!! I ate all of this!"

"Impossible, I kneaded his dough under my watch, and no pumpkin was used in the whole process." Xingping said.

"I kneaded it before ramen. You didn't see it when you waited outside. This can make the flavor of pumpkin appear intermittently in the noodles. People can't help but wonder the source of the sweetness and taste the noodles carefully many times. .Eat and taste with heart, it will be more fragrant."

"In addition, you added pepper to the noodle soup, and the contrast between the two will make the noodle soup that is not too thick have a refreshing feeling. It's a pretty good design, and you've passed the standard." said the boss.

"It's not a design either. It's just a reasonable use of seasonings. If you eat something bland and then eat something thick, the taste will be even stronger. It's a common sense of life since ancient times." Shi Ke scratched the back of his head.

"However, how many chefs can make use of this in cooking? Very few. So, you are excellent. You can't be more modest. Xingping, take him to your room to lay a floor. He can officially go to work tomorrow gone."

"Why do you live in my room?"

"I think it's crowded. You're small, so the space is relatively empty."

"..."

"Wow!!" The store door that had just been closed was pulled open.