Chapter 257: Smoked Fish Silver Thread Noodles
Translator: Xiong Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
Yuan Zhou was originally a person who smiled very little. Ever since he opened the restaurant, he had practiced a lot on how to appear aloof in the mirror in order to match with his own title of master chef.
After all, he had bought and read such books as How to Become a Popular Man or Self-Cultivation of A Popular Man, etc. Such book were all put in the wardrobes. Every time Yuan Zhou remembered them, he would take them out and read some pages.
As a result, Yuan Zhou had studied quite a lot on how to keep facial paralysis while smiling.
Of course, he read such books as Oral Skills and How to Become a Good Mixer this morning, naturally in order to finish the side mission.
Each had his strong point and meanwhile the shortcoming. Yuan Zhou was clear that he wasn’t good at communicating with others. It could help to get his speaking to become more attractive to read more of such books. With an earnest look, Yuan Zhou nodded the head in self-affirmation.
Hearing Yuan Zhou’s words right in front, the customer felt their balls aching, "Boss Yuan, if you don’t open the branch restaurant, then why are you mentioning that?" said the young man with a speechless manner.
"Humm. I just want to tell you the infeasibility of opening branch restaurants and then I can refuse you explicitly," said Yuan Zhou while looking at the young man earnestly with his bright eyes.
"Ho Ho. I’m convinced now." The young man covered his stomach, appearing to be aching due to the hunger.
Whether the young man felt aching or not, Yuan Zhou nevertheless believed so, therefore he asked quite considerately, "Please order your dishes, first."
"Yes. I need food to comfort my wounded heart." Immediately, the young man echoed and then began to order the dishes, "Egg Fried Rice Set, Jinling Grass and Translucent Beef Slices."
While feeling a heartache, the young man ordered the dishes. Of course, there was a good reason for him to do so. He had originally intended to travel here to have a good time, but he didn’t manage to have too much fun since he spent most of the time on waiting in line for meals in Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. Now that he would go back home soon, the remaining travelling expenses were naturally all spent on the delicacies to comfort his heart.
"Sir, we have a new dish. Do you want to taste it?" Ever since the dish of royal jelly tremella was served last time, Zhou Jia paid special attention to the price list in the restaurant. Now the new dish was then served.
Of course, she also suggested Yuan Zhou that they should at least publicize the new dish or gave it a bold contrast to other dishes. After all, it was an event of great significance to get a new dish served in such a popular restaurant as Yuan Zhou's.
With Yuan Zhou's temperament, however, he believed it was fun to look for delicious dishes, thus Zhou Jia could only remind the customers.
"A new dish? What is it?" The young man said curiously.
"The Smoked Fish Silver Thread Noodles is available at this period of the day. Do you want it?" asked Zhou Jia earnestly.
"How much is it?" The young man asked warily.
"It's 368 RMB for each bowl of the noodles. Quite appetizing," said Zhou Jia smilingly.
"This price is anyhow acceptable to me." Having considered the thickness of his wallet, the young man let out a sigh of relief and agreed with a nod. He was awfully satisfied in the heart with the fact that he had the luck to eat a new dish even before he left.
"Alright. Wait a moment. It's a total of 1164 RMB. You can either make a bank transfer or pay cash. The bank account for bank transfer is right in front of you." Zhou Jia reminded carefully.
"Ok." The young man transferred the money to the account with readiness. When he saw the remaining 500 RMB in his account, however, he became slightly depressed.
Fortunately, he became excited again on thinking of the delicacies to be served in no time. "Anyhow, I am now also a rich guy who can afford a meal of 1000 RMB. I'm so proud." The young man smiled with a quite satisfied expression.
Just in a little while, the Smoked Fish Silver Thread Noodles was first served. The delicate flavor of the noodles emphasized on the factors of noodle, broth, and heat, of which the heat had particular functions.
The noodles could only reach the best of the taste under the condition that the bowl, noodles, broth and toppings were all hot. Therefore, Yuan Zhou quickly cut the scalding smoked fish into several parts during the short period of boiling the noodles. Within the dozens of seconds, the extremely thin and bright silver thread noodles happened to float. He scooped up all the noodles at a time into a bowl that was being steamed by the broth and then poured the hot broth into the bowl. In the end, the dish was finally ready.
"Such a nice flavor! Is this the smoked fish?" The young man couldn’t wait to go up and smell it. Immediately, he said with an intoxicated tone.
"Yes. The noodles are especially tasty when it’s hot. You just try," Zhou Jia said that when she walked only a step away from him.
"Ok. I’m going to savor the smoked fish now." The young man was from the region of Zhejiang or Jiangsu and he had definitely eaten plenty of smoked fish before.
Normally, there would be a smoky taste as soon as the ordinary smoked fish entered the mouth. What’s weird was that he always found the taste unacceptable and felt it to be an odd flavor. Provided that the wood wasn’t used, he would find it acceptable to remove the feather with the gas cooker.
Luckily, many dishes of smoked fish in the modern society only had the name rather than genuinely being smoked with wood.
Of course, the young man was quite careful while eating it. He only put it in his mouth after he smelled carefully the brownish red and glossy smoked fish between his chopsticks and found there wasn’t any taste of the wood.
The taste of the smoked fish was quite familiar to the young man, but the piece in his mouth was nevertheless totally unacquainted. Theoretically, the smoked fish would have no moisture after being fumigated and inevitably taste dry and astringent. Besides, it wasn’t so fine and smooth as those processed in other ways. In spite of that, what attracted people was its chewiness, so people who had a preference for it still liked eating it.
The moment the fish entered the mouth, it was then broke into small pieces with a slight touch. The exquisite texture and plenty of soup made the young man incomparably astonished instantly.
Rolled in his mouth was the fragrant, sweet, crisp and tender texture with a slightly numbing taste stimulating his taste buds. Besides, the thick sauce flavor and bland freshness that blended together brought about an incredibly wonderful taste.
Even when there were only the fish bones left, he was reluctant to drop it and thus continued chewing it for a little while. It seemed that he prepared to chew some more taste out of it.
To his surprise, the fish bones made a sound of "Ka Cha Ka Cha" in his mouth like the gristle while he was chewing.
Moreover, the fish bones were extremely crisp and fragrant, totally unlike usual bones. It was just like the chicken feet braised with thick oil and red soy sauce, which combined both the delicious texture and freshness of the fish.
The young man’s appetite was greatly stimulated by that. He ate up all the three pieces of smoked fish without break and left only the silver white and bright noodles.
"If only I can eat such smoked fish every day. It’s absolutely delicious." The young man looked at the inside of the bowl where the smoked fish had been placed, being reluctant to look away.
Lucky that he soon remembered the noodles had to be eaten hot, therefore he took the chopsticks and began to eat it with a sound of "Slurp Slurp".
"Dear me! Is there anything that Boss Yuan couldn’t cook? Surprisingly, he can cook such extremely thin noodles to be so appetizing and chewy, as well," with a full mouth of noodles, the young man said with a lisp.
If the flavorings, including oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar, were added to the broth, only the broth would be flavored and not the noodles. It was not eating noodles, but actually drinking the broth.
However, the Silver Thread Noodles cooked by Yuan Zhou made it happen. While the noodles had five tastes, the broth was nevertheless clear and bright.
Along with the sound of "Slurp Slurp", more than half of the smooth and chewy noodles were eaten by the young man unreservedly.
The reason why the dish was called Silver Thread Noodles was because of the soft and smooth texture and the visual effect of being white as silver and thin as threads.
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