"Can we have something flavoury?" Qiu Yue asked as the trio walked down the stairs together.
"That will disturb your sleep if you are too full," Lynn asked and Qiu Yue waved it off.
"With the amount of work that Jin and his other minions put me on, I might have a long night ahead. So please, entertain me with some junk food." Qiu Yue turned back to look at Jin and he too agreed that it would be nice to have something crappy once in a while.
"And I do not mean your food is crappy! I mean junk food!" Jin suddenly realised he might have offended Lynn and she chuckled a little.
"None taken. Then let's get some quick bites. I think there is still some leftover meat from morning's chicken porridge stew. We can make do with that and that will allow me to fully utilise the chicken." Lynn said while she requested the Sub System to start up the kitchen.
Her Sub System acknowledged and booted up the lights, turned the oven up to warm it, prepared the knives and other cooking utensils as well as rearranged the kitchen cabinets to ensure that Lynn had everything she needed. That was one of the reasons why almost everyone has an unspoken rule to not touch the kitchen items unless they wished to cook something to clear their hunger. (However, that was usually not needed as they could just jump to the store's Restaurant Instance and have the penguins to prepare them something fast, nutritious and delicious.)
Also, because the Sub System was in sync with Lynn, whatever Lynn was thinking of, the Sub System would do its best to prepare it beforehand. If the items were available in the Restaurant Instance or their home kitchen, the Sub System would bring them out to the forefront of the cabinets so that Lynn would have easy access to them.
To her, the kitchen was like a surgery table and the Sub System was the assistant where it would hand her the item needed to create the dish. But for today, the Sub System was ready for battle because of the potential mess Jin and Qiu Yue might create since they were amateurs when it comes to cooking. If the Sub System had to rate between the two of them, it would keep an eye on Qiu Yue more than Jin since the Sub System had noticed the User had some basic experience in cooking, probably because of his previous family situation where he would be cooped alone.
But Qiu Yue? She was blessed with a family that was able to not just feed her but have a caring mother who would handle the home affairs. The Sub System had encountered Qiu Yue making a mess without concern especially when she knew that there was a Sub System who would be there to clean up everything. Still, most of the mess she made could be avoided if she was more focused on the cooking than following the cooking videos on the internet.
"I will wash and prep the meat. Qiu Yue, you follow the instructions on the digital console and take out the sauces and dressings for the food. Jin, you could start taking out the dishes and utensils. Make sure the deep fryer is ready and then cook the fries."
"Ayeee! Aw yes, fries." Jin gleed as he went to the freezer to pick up the fries. They were cold washed cut potatoes as if they were prepared just for this occasion.
"Why am I stuck with such a boring task?" Qiu Yue asked and Lynn looked at her with a death stare. She then remembered that Lynn was the commander in this current situation and she nodded her head slowly while taking out the sauces as well as the necessary ingredients like onions, cheese and garlic. She assumed was tasked to cut it since it looked like Lynn was going to make some sandwich.
"Not some sandwich. Cuban Sandwich. With lots of meat." Lynn said as she requested Qiu Yue to open the cabinet below and take the plancha grill out. It was similar to a portable George Foreman grill but because it was more heavy duty.
At the same time, Jin started to test the oil heat by hovering his hand above it for a moment and dropping the cut potato into it. The way it frizzled was something so satisfying even though he had done it a few times. It was not a lie if he would say he wished to work in a fast food restaurant to do the very same thing. However, as Jin was done with his task, he requested the System to look up past Symposium events asking if the Symposium had ever needed to use a secondary location.
But before the System could give a reply, Lynn was already telling Jin to focus and start up the frying pan in order to cook some sausages. "Sizzle them with onions and beer and then throw them on the plancha grill for a while to let the flavour out. Sub System, please liaise them so they know the timing." Lynn said as she was rubbing the meat with a special type of marinade and dipping half of them into some flour and breadcrumbs.
While most Cuban sandwiches do not have a fried meat component, she wanted to test out if it would change the taste if there was something crunchy in the middle too. That was why she was handling the major meat portion while Qiu Yue and Jin covered the rest of the kitchen. With the strict instructions of the Sub System, both of them were able to follow the tasks reasonably within the time limit, allowing Lynn to concentrate on the meat.
Still, there was some banter around and it was not an entirely stressful situation as they thought it would be with the Queen of the Kitchen. (Of course, they all knew that Lynn purposely chose something more fun and interactive and easy to cook so that everyone would have some fun.)
But all in all, it was an off the job activity that the three somehow relished they have more of this.
