Chapter 123: White Rice Wine
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
Yuan Zhou, who had fallen asleep at three before dawn, got up at seven in the morning.
"Fortunately, I’m young," While touching his face in the mirror, Yuan Zhou didn’t find any dark circles under his eyes and nodded contentedly.
With such an old face, Yuan Zhou could still boast like that. One could imagine how shameless Yuan Zhou was which could even scare those dark circles away.
Yuan Zhou still felt a little drowsy, hence went to clean himself straightaway. When the cold water was splashed on his face, he instantly became more clear-headed.
When he checked the thermostat-like fermentation device and found there was still half an hour left, Yuan Zhou began to prepare the ingredients for breakfast first. Since he was in a good mood, he was actually preparing to make Soup Dumplings.
When he finished preparing all the ingredients, the time for the rice wine to be fermented was almost up.
He immediately took out the ceramic pot that was not sealed tightly and gently set it down on the azure stone countertop with a "Peng" sound.
"Hua La"
He uncovered the pot and a blast of sweet and fragrant flavor of wine drifted out from the inside slowly. The rice inside the pot had coagulated into a beautiful circle and the wine was seeping out from the middle of it.
The liquid was clear and transparent. After the pot was opened, as time passed, the fragrance of the wine also became stronger but not to the extent it will make people drunk. The wine at this stage was just perfect for girls to drink.
Yuan Zhou, nevertheless, made more than just one serving of the wine. Apart from that, he prepared another two servings for his own use. After taking out about one serving, he left the remaining wine where it was to continue the fermentation, allowing the flavor of the wine to become mellower.
At this time, Mu Xiaoyun was supposed to have arrived; therefore, Yuan Zhou went up and opened the door.
"Boss Yuan, you finally opened the door. What were you busy with just now? The smell was so delicious," a well-built man who did not come frequently said in excitement.
"Rice wine," Yuan Zhou straightforwardly gave the answer that the big man had already expected.
This well-built and muscular man was a martial arts instructor working for a security company nearby, Chen Wei. He had rather impressive strength and gave the impression of a fierce tiger. Before today, he had been brought here by others twice for the meals.
He had once commented, "The portions here are so small that they can only fill a cat. I become hungrier after eating them." Therefore, he didn’t come frequently. However, he liked the dish, Melt-In-The-Mouth Chicken Feet, very much and came over more frequently in recent days.
"I knew it. Boss Yuan, you should have made wine earlier. The chicken feet and the wine are a perfect match." With a smile on his face, Chen Wei strode into the restaurant.
"You have to order it first if you want to drink it," Yuan Zhou immediately said.
"No problem. It’s just that I’m afraid the wine isn’t strong enough. Could you make the wine stronger?" Chen Wei had already known the rules of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant and strictly complied with them. He was a person who adhered to his principles.
"Yes, with a longer fermentation time," Yuan Zhou nodded. He knew this guy liked to drink hard liquor. Actually, even without distillation, the rice wine could also be very strong if given enough time.
"Boss Yuan, is the wine freshly prepared?" Chen Wei reacted immediately.
"Yes, freshly prepared," Yuan Zhou answered with an earnest expression.
"But freshly prepared wine can’t match those that had been preserved for a long time. I don’t really suspect your skills but it’s known to all that good wine needs some time. New wine always has some underlying bad taste," Chen Wei frowned and said frankly.
"No, it won’t happen to my wine. Don’t worry," Yuan Zhou was quite confident. After all, the raw ingredients could totally solve these problems and besides, he had a powerful cheating equipment, the system.
"Perfect. Then prepare for me one serving of the rice wine. I will come over to drink it three days later," Chen Wei intended to pay without hesitation.
"I’m sorry but I don’t sell alcohol in the morning. It can only be ordered after noontime," Yuan Zhou said earnestly.
"Didn’t I say I would drink three days later?" not being able to figure it out, Chen Wei said in puzzlement.
"The boss meant to say that you can only order the wine this afternoon and drink it at noon three days later," seeing that Yuan Zhou didn’t intend to explain anything, Mu Xiaoyun obediently went up and explained to him.
"But it doesn’t make any difference if I order it now and come over here to drink it three days later," Chen Wei still couldn’t really understand.
"The wine can’t be ordered in the morning, thus my boss will not accept your order now. It must be at noon or in the evening," with an earnest look on her face, Mu Xiaoyun said that.
"Boss Yuan’s rules really don’t change any bit. Fine, I will come again at noon to order the wine," Chen Wei had never intended to have breakfast here.
One should know that Chen Wei could eat at least ten Soup Dumplings in one go to be full. If he ate in that way, however, it would be much too expensive, thus Chen Wei directly walked out of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant, preparing to eat something else not so expensive.
...
Soon, the agreed time with Man Man at noon arrived. Yuan Zhou took out that serving of the rice wine and carefully dealt with it before filling it in a cup. Then, Yuan Zhou directly carried it out.
"Boss Yuan, how is my rice wine? Is it ready?" Man Man asked with apparent pride.
"Sure. Sit down, please," Yuan Zhou pointed at a vacant seat and answered calmly.
"Did he really make it?" when Man Man saw there was nothing special on Yuan Zhou’s face, she couldn’t help but slightly doubt.
Wine-making was not a skill that could be mastered in a short period. If not, how could wine-making masters be so few? Based on the style of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant, he would definitely bring out the best rice wine.
Yuan Zhou took out a tray and put the cup of rice wine onto it and then carried it to Man Man straightaway.
The porcelain cup, with a wide mouth and thin body, didn’t look nice, but coarse instead, at the first glimpse. When Man Man took it in her hands, she had thought the cup would be rough on her hand but it actually wasn’t. Instead, the texture of the cup was as fine and smooth as purple sand. When observed closely, on the outside of the cup, the upper part was drawn with beautiful light green decorative patterns.
This upper part of the porcelain cup was light brown and a creamy white for the lower part, giving it an extraordinarily fantastic appearance.
"How fragrant it is." While Man Man was observing the cup, she was constantly attracted by the sweet fragrance of the rice wine.
She raised her eyes and found the white rice wine in it. With a slight shake, the fragrance of the wine became much stronger and some little rice grains could be seen floating in the wine.
"Boss Yuan, didn’t you filter the wine?" Man Man asked curiously.
"This wine is just perfect for you. Do you need me to heat it up?" Yuan Zhou was a fairly qualified chef, who knew that warm rice wine had a pretty nice taste.
"No need. It’s just fine to me. If heated, the rice wine will have a sour taste," Man Man, as a matter of fact, enjoyed rice wine very much with the precondition that eggs and sugar were added into it.
Otherwise, she would always feel that there was the sour taste. In her mind, the sour taste would definitely become stronger after being heated.
Yuan Zhou nodded, not intending to correct Man Man on this aspect.
Man Man took up the cup and drank a mouthful of the wine. Although carefully trying to evade it, she still drank a rice grain by accident.
Just as the wine entered her mouth, a blast of wine taste instantly invaded her nose. She felt immediately her nose became much more sensitive and then sort of sweet flavor began to emit from within her mouth, more specifically, a fragrant and sweet taste carrying the special aroma of rice wine, which made others unable to help but swallow it directly.
Normally, fermented rice grains were supposed to have nothing left and have only empty shells which tasted like cotton unchewable. However, the rice grain that Man Man swallowed just now was, nevertheless, like boiled white rice. It was soft in texture and mellow in taste, and moreover, did not have a heavy taste at all.
After swallowing up the mouthful of the rice wine, Man Man couldn't help but only want to shout "great", just like those that frequently drunk alcoholics.
Nonetheless, it was the reservedness in her heart and soul that firmly stopped her from doing that.
After that, Man Man cared about nothing more and just held the cup in her hands, starting to ceaselessly sip the wine. While drinking, she revealed an expression full of enjoyment as if she were a cat eating fish, looking extraordinarily lovable.
Although Yuan Zhou was also curious about the taste of the wine made from such unusual rice grains, the business at lunch time had started to get busy...