Chapter 448: Soy Sauce Rice
Translator: Xiong_Guoqi Editor: DesTheSloth
"Lunchtime commences now. The first ten customers please come in for your meal." Zhou Jia stood at the door and said with a smile.
"Hoo... Luckily, I'm No. 9." Da Da looked at the number ticket in her hand and then said.
"The queuing machine is good. I can finally have a meal in the first round." A customer in the front said blissfully.
"Exactly. If not, we can never compete against those who always have money and time." Another customer likewise said indignantly.
He was naturally talking about Wu Hai and Ling Hong, etc.
Although they still had the geographic advantage, the situation was truly better than before.
"Is the business of this restaurant so prosperous?" Da Da had intended to say it in the mind, but nevertheless blurted it out carelessly.
"Haha, of course. Look! These people are all here to eat lunch. When there wasn't this queuing machine previously, the whole street was crowded with customers." The customer ahead of him told him while walking forward.
"But I heard the dishes here are very expensive, aren't they?" Da Da was surprised at first when she heard the answer. Then she asked subtly.
"Yes, it's expensive. But it doesn't matter if it is eaten once in a while." The customer said smilingly.
"Yeah. We are here to enjoy the delicacies and Boss Yuan's craftsmanship." After saying that, another customer couldn't wait to enter the restaurant.
"Is it really so miraculous?" Da Da followed them into the restaurant with puzzlement.
As soon as he entered the restaurant, Da Da felt a burst of warmth. However, it wasn't like the warmth from the air-conditioner, but instead, like the lively warmth of vitality in Spring.
"It's fairly warm." Da Da whispered. Then, she looked back at the price list on the wall, which was what she came for today.
As Da Da turned around, the webcam in her brooch also captured the contents of the price list.
At that moment, there passed continuous sound of inhaling and surprised shout.
"Holy shit! What's that? Dongpo Pig Knuckle of 2080 RMB? Elaborate Roast Goose of 5888 RMB?" The man who had a gentle voice was so surprised that even his voice was distorted now.
"A plain dish of Phoenix Tail Prawns is surprisingly sold for 1288 RMB? Unbelievable!" It was a mature and sober female voice.
"Didn't anyone notice that Mantou? It's an unbelievably 64 RMB each." Another audience muttered about the Thousand Layer Mantou ceaselessly.
"Shh. Let's order the cheapest one." Da Da muttered softly.
"Just order that Sesame Seed Cake. Even a damn sesame seed cake can be sold at 58 RMB." This time, the woman with a mature and sober voice also couldn't help saying rudely.
"Okay." Da Da agreed with a low voice and then turned around to sit down.
"Hello. What do you want to eat today?" Zhou Jia went up and asked politely.
"A Sesame Seed Cake." Da Da said with an indifferent manner.
"Sorry. These snacks are never served for lunch and dinner." Zhou Jia said with a smile.
"Why?" Da Da frowned and asked.
"It's all written on the menu. Other dishes in our restaurant are also not bad." Zhou Jia explained carefully.
"Then get the 100 Styles of Rice Cuisine for me. What's this?" Da Da still chose the cheapest one.
After all, she was reluctant to spend much in Yuan Zhou's restaurant.
"It's the food cooked with the rice as the ingredient." Zhou Jia introduced to him some kinds of 100 Styles of Rice Cuisines carefully.
"Then I order the Soy Sauce Rice, the kind different from fried rice." Da Da ordered a comparatively difficult dish.
"All right. It's a total of 98 RMB. Payment is made first in our restaurant." Zhou Jia nodded her head and said that.
"Here you are. One hundred." Da Da took out a brand-new 100-RMB note and handed it to her.
"Here is the change of 2 RMB." Zhou Jia fished out two coins and handed them back to Da Da.
That's right. As he was promoted to a higher grade, Yuan Zhou seldom took part in the work of giving small change now. He usually gave Zhou Jia some change to do the work for him.
The system only calculated the total cash in the cash box in the evening now, so both Zhou Jia and Shen Min helped Yuan Zhou to return the change. However, customers used bank transfer more often than paying cash over here.
"Ok." Da Da nodded.
After receiving the money, Zhou Jia reported the dish to Yuan Zhou.
"A serving of Soy Sauce Rice." Zhou Jia reported the dish.
Yuan Zhou nodded and then started to prepare.
"It's the first time that someone ordered this dish." Yuan Zhou muttered inwardly and then began to prepare.
Soy Sauce Rice and Soy Sauce Fried Rice were indeed two different things.
For Soy Sauce Fried Rice, the chefs normally needed to blend the flavorings and cold, cooked, rice together first before they stir-fried the dish. Yuan Zhou had also cooked the dish that way. However, the Soy Sauce Rice was quite different from that.
It didn't require stir-frying. The chef only needed to cook the rice and pour the soy sauce inside. Then, it was good.
It seemed to be easy, but the chefs needed to have a good command of the cooking temperature and moisture content. The plain cooked rice couldn't be too rigid in case it was hard to chew while there would be no fragrance if it was too soft.
"System, I think Kesha Tribute Rice is the best ingredient to cook this Soy Sauce Rice. Do you think so?" Considering the current rice wasn't suitable to cook Soy Sauce Rice, Yuan Zhou asked directly.
The system displayed, "Kesha Tribute Rice has been prepared for you. Please take it and use it as you please."
"I love such moments." Yuan Zhou revealed a faint smile under the face mask.
He turned around and opened a cabinet lightly which was marked with "Kesha Rice" on the door along with the sound of "Peng". After that, he took a palm-sized porcelain bowl and filled half of the bowl with the rice.
"The rice grains of the Kesha Tribute Rice is said to be big and besides, the color is white with a hint of green like the jade." Yuan Zhou carefully observed the rice grains at hand.
After that, he found that it was truly the Kesha Tribute Rice. Afterwards, he nodded his head with satisfaction and prepared to wash it.
Unlike Zhuozhou Tribute Rice that didn't require washing, the Kesha Tribute Rice needed a slight wash for a while.
The system displayed, "Kesha Tribute Rice came from the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Reigns. Kesha is originally the name of a town of Yongshun County under the Tujia Nationality Autonomous Municipality of Hu'nan Province. There's a part of the land in Guirong Grounds of Gaojian Village in Guirongping Kesha Town which produces a kind of extraordinarily fragrant rice. It's also regarded as the Treasure among Grains; besides that, it was dedicated to the emperor every year in ancient times. Therefore, it was called Kesha Tribute Rice from then on."
"The land with that level ground in Gaojian Village is only 1500 square meters large, but the rice produced there has soft and sticky texture, a smooth and shiny luster, mellow taste, delicate fragrance and intoxicating flavor."
"System, you can't always show off your broad knowledge when others aren't ready." Yuan Zhou was pouring the rice and stirring the water inside. Only after that did he ridicule the system helplessly.
He was right. Yuan Zhou was cooking the dish earnestly when the system unexpectedly introduced the lengthy knowledge of Kesha Tribute Rice to him.
"You are obviously screwing things up." Yuan Zhou said again.
However, the system immediately vanished after it finished the introduction.
Then, Yuan Zhou became helpless. He had only to add something.
"Actually, I know a lot about the Kesha Tribute Rice. But thank you for your kind introduction all the same." After saying that and seeing the system have no reaction, Yuan Zhou felt relieved.
During the gap of waiting for the rice, Yuan Zhou started to prepare other ingredient required by the Soy Sauce Rice, the soy sauce.