Chapter 391: Vegetables Stir-fried With Mushrooms
Translator: Xiong_Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
“Xiao Li, I’m waiting for you at Yuan Zhou’s restaurant along Taoxi Road.” A young man dressed in a thin sweater said gently on the phone by the door.
“Got it. We meet there every time, but never eat there.” A delicate grumble of a girl passed from the other end of the phone.
“Just wait until the end of the year. After I get my annual bonus, I will take you there to eat the Egg Fried Rice.” The young man held his phone and said decisively.
“No need. I don’t really feel like eating it anyway, just saying casually. Wait for me. I’ll be there right away.” The girl refused flatly and then said happily.
“No hurry. Just take your time. I’m waiting for you.” The young man nodded his head and instructed her carefully.
Such matters often happened at the door of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant and the customers that lined up there didn’t feel strange at all at sight of that. After all, Yuan Zhou’s restaurant was the most famous place around there.
Three hours were too short. The man in a suit had barely swallowed up his last mouthful of mineral water that came with the set.
“Everybody, today’s opening hours have ended. Please come earlier tomorrow.” Yuan Zhou stood in the kitchen and said earnestly.
“Zhou Jia, you can go back now. No need to clear these things away.” Yuan Zhou turned his head and said to Zhou Jia who was prepared to tidy up at the side.
“Huh?” Zhou Jia looked at him with puzzlement.
“Go back now.” Yuan Zhou waved his hand and moved the bowls and plates onto the transmission belt by himself.
“Boss, let me do it.” Seeing Yuan Zhou doing the work by himself, Shen Min that had just arrived went up said that immediately.
“No need. You can go to the backyard to prepare now.” Yuan Zhou gestured at the door of the sergestes wall.
“But…” Shen Min also became puzzled.
“Just go.” Yuan Zhou stressed again in the end.
“What’s wrong with our boss?” Shen Min asked Zhou Jia beside her with a low voice.
“I don’t know. I was not allowed to move them just now.” Zhou Jia was also very puzzled.
“Who knows? As long as he isn’t angry.” Wu Hai chose a seat and sat down randomly.
Generally speaking, when it was the time for the afternoon shift, Shen Min would always come earlier and help Zhou Jia to tidy things up. Only after that did she start to prepare for the opening of the pub. However, Yuan Zhou didn’t let them tidy things up today, which was very rare.
Other customers that stayed behind also felt it to be strange.
After dinner, some customers wouldn’t leave immediately, but would instead stay behind for a rest. And some stayed behind in preparation for drinking liquor. An example would be the novelist and Wu Hai that often came here for meals recently.
As well as the man in a suit that purely sat there and stared blankly.
Zhou Jia turned around and left when she saw Yuan Zhou almost finishing up the work. Shen Min, nevertheless, went into the pub and wiped all the tables first before she came back and stood quietly by the door of the sergestes wall.
“Hua La Hua La”, Yuan Zhou turned on the tap and started to wash his hands very earnestly.
“Boss Yuan, are you still going to cook?” Su Mu asked that when he saw the strange demeanor of Yuan Zhou.
“Yes. Everyone, you all can go to the pub to wait.” Yuan Zhou said lightly.
“Ok. But I prefer to watch you cook the dish here.” Su Mu said smilingly.
“As you please.” Yuan Zhou nodded his head indifferently.
Having washed his hands, Yuan Zhou took out a new handkerchief to wipe his hands dry and then put on a thin glove earnestly.
“It feels like a new dish as I have never seen Yuan Zhou cook it. Do we have any opportunity to eat it?” Wu Hai looked at Yuan Zhou earnestly at the side.
“But it’s the very first time that I see Boss Yuan cooking at this time of the day.” It was on this point that Su Mu felt strange.
“He might be busy recently and has time now.” Wu Hai only cared about what Yuan Zhou would cook.
“It’s also possible.” Su Mu nodded his head.
The man in a suit only watched them at the side.
“Hoo.” Yuan Zhou let out a solid breath and then pulled open the cabinet, where there were bright shiny and green vegetables.
Of course, the green vegetables were still planted in the soil. They looked luxuriantly green and incomparably fresh. One could even faintly seen some drops of dew.
“Is that a green vegetable?” As a meat-eater, Wu Hai was a little disappointed.
“It really looks fresh and tender.” The viewpoint of Su Mu was nevertheless different.
“Of course. The supply channel of Boss Yuan is quite mysterious.” Wu Hai shrugged and said that.
“But is he wearing gloves because he is afraid of dirt?” Seeing Yuan Zhou draw out the vegetables in a very weird way, Su Mu asked with puzzlement.
“This guy definitely doesn’t want to touch the vegetable with his hands in order to make it maintain the best taste.” Wu Hai had already witnessed what Yuan Zhou’s obsession was like.
Yuan Zhou took about a plate’s amount of vegetables and then stopped his movements. Afterward, he washed his hands quickly, changed another pair of gloves and opened another cabinet. Inside it was a length of wood with mushrooms growing on it.
“What the f*ck. The mushrooms are all so fresh that they are still on wood.” Even a benign person such as Su Mu couldn’t help swearing.
“People that have seen little regard many things as strange.” Wu Hai didn’t care about that at all.
What a joke! Who was Yuan Zhou? He was a person that could get the meat of an extinct cattle. Therefore, this little thing did not matter to him.
However, how would other chefs survive if Yuan Zhou cooked so perfectly? He had caused all the customers’ sense of taste to become excessively sharp.
“It’s said that the mushrooms have a nickname of ‘meat among the vegetables’. It must be one of the home-made dishes, the Vegetable Stir-fried With Mushrooms.” Su Mu revealed an expression of “I have already known it.”
“We know that even if you don’t say it.” Wu Hai stroked his small mustaches and just waited for Yuan Zhou to get the dishes ready so that he could have a small portion.
“I can say anything I want.” Su Mu humphed.
Nevertheless, Yuan Zhou wasn’t affected by that at all. He took the bamboo knife and started to cut the mushrooms off.
The mushrooms on the wood all looked more or less the same. This ‘same’ meant only the size, not the shape.
Having cut six mushrooms off, Yuan Zhou stopped and then put the piece of wood back into the cabinet.
“Hua Hua Hua”, the vegetables were washed very clean beneath the flowing water. After washing them, Yuan Zhou specifically placed the vegetables into water for a rinse and poured a thin layer of salt inside.
The washing method of mushrooms was a little more complicated.
Yuan Zhou put all the mushrooms into a big porcelain bowl and filled it up with water. Then, he stirred the water repeatedly with the chopsticks like how people stirred eggs. However, he couldn’t damage the mushrooms at the same time. After that, the sand in the wrinkles of mushrooms began to sink to the bottom of the bowl slowly.
The brown sand sank to the snowy bottom of the bowl. Yuan Zhou picked the mushrooms out with the chopsticks and changed another bowl of clear water. With the same method, he changed the water four times and stirred the mushrooms for about a thousand times.
Only then did he bring out the mushrooms, ready to be used.
The green vegetables were naturally washed clean. He didn’t use any ironware during the process, but just broke the leaves off with his hands.
“Duo Duo Duo”, it was the sound of the bamboo knife striking the chopping board. Along the board, the mushrooms were cut into uniform slices by Yuan Zhou.
After all the ingredients were prepared, Yuan Zhou started to create a fire and cook.
“I feel that it will look better to use the entire mushroom.” Su Mu turned his head and looked at Wu Hai, saying that.
“Whole mushrooms are indeed used more often in restaurants for better plate presentation and decoration.” As a person who ate in most restaurants, Wu Hai said positively.
“That way, the appearance will indeed be worse.” The man in a suit chimed in and said that.
“But Boss Yuan definitely has his own intentions for doing that.” The unreasonable phenomena of other people naturally became reasonable at Yuan Zhou’s end.
“Zi La Zi La”, there passed a pretty sound of the hot oil touching the green vegetables and mushrooms.
It had originally been a quick-frying dish. Not long after, Yuan Zhou started to scoop it into the plate and put it aside.
“Deng Deng Deng”, Yuan Zhou dragged out a folding table from one side of the stairway and laid it down quickly.
The table looked a little old but it was very clean. Having been soaked in grease for so long, it emitted the characteristic radiance of wood. The dish Vegetable Stir-fried With Mushrooms was placed by Yuan Zhou at the very middle of the table.
“Pub time has almost arrived. Shen Min, get ready.” Yuan Zhou pulled off the face mask and said to Shen Min beside him.
“Ok, boss.” Shen Min nodded her head.
…
