Chapter 1089: Chapter 445: Two Pieces of Braised Pork Belly Cure Director Zeng’s Body Anxiety!
Right now, cabbages are in season, and Chen Meijuan has sent over a hundred pounds of freshly made sweet potato noodles from Yinzhou through logistics—it’s time to eat stew.
These noodles aren’t machine processed but handmade in a small village workshop near the scenic area.
From the initial starch preparation to forming the noodles and then drying them, it’s all made by hand.
Don’t be fooled by their ordinary appearance; they’re truly delicious, slippery and resilient, and are far superior to those made from edible glue by several blocks.
"Old Ma, put more noodles in the stew, every time there’s never enough to eat."
Niu Chuan walked over with a bamboo basket and couldn’t help but make a request when he heard they were having stew for lunch.
After speaking, he handed the bamboo basket to Lin Xu:
"Boss, this is the yellow rice jujube cake we’ve steamed ourselves from yellow rice. Try it out to see if it’s suitable to be added to the menu."
You guys made this yourselves?
Impressive, impressive, Lin Ji’s Food pastry department, finally a bit of the Fishing Platform pastry department flavor.
No matter how it tastes, this kind of initiative deserves praise and encouragement.
Make sure to inform Shu Yun later; this month’s bonuses for the pastry department will be raised across the board.
The yellow rice jujube cake in the basket was in a rectangular shape, with the outer skin purely made from yellow rice, seemingly steamed directly after soaking, with visible yellow rice grains on the surface.
He used the Eye of Discrimination to take a look:
"Made from yellow rice, jujube paste, white sugar, and lard, the yellow rice jujube cake is rated: Excellent Level."
Wow!
Straight up to Excellent Level.
Not bad.
Initially, Lin Xu planned to only give verbal encouragement, but since the pastry department has crafted an Excellent Level dish, it must be tasted.
He picked one up and broke it open. The aroma of red dates immediately wafted out, with deep red date paste inside, contrasting starkly against the yellow outer shell of yellow rice.
He handed half to Wei Qian and then took a bite.
The yellow rice on the outer skin was soft and sticky; eating it alone might be somewhat unusual, but combined with the sweet and fragrant date paste, it became just right.
Delicious.
It’s undeniably true that this yellow rice jujube cake is quite suitable to be added to the menu in the store.
He specially tasted the date paste filling.
Eating it alone feels a bit rich because the date paste is too fine, with little texture, and a lot of sugar was added during the filling preparation, probably with some fats as well, making it full of date fragrance but overall too sweet and oily.
Wei Qian took a couple of bites, praised the pastry department’s efforts, and then said:
"It would be better if they were smaller; this way they look delicate and can be sold at a good price while also saving on costs, plus you can design various shapes."
He tasted a bite of the filling and continued:
"There’s too much sugar, it’s overwhelming."
After leading the kitchen for so long and tasting every dish served, Wei Qian easily pinpointed the issues with the yellow rice jujube cake.
It’s not that it’s not tasty; in fact, this Excellent Level jujube cake wouldn’t have trouble attracting business even if they opened a shop.
It’s just that, by the store’s standards for dishes, there’s room for further improvement.
Lin Xu said:
"Don’t use jujube paste for the filling anymore; there’s too much paste, making it too overwhelming and lacking texture. Just use whole red dates. Simmer them in sugar water, remove the pits, and use them as filling. This way, you get both sweetness and chewiness."
Upon hearing this, Niu Chuan forgot about the stew and immediately said:
"Alright, alright, I’ll try it again."
After speaking, he headed to the pastry department, planning to seize the moment and try again.
As for the jujube cake in the bamboo basket, it naturally wouldn’t go to waste. Lin Xu took it outside and placed it in front of Shen Jiayue, who was editing videos:
"Try this, the yellow rice jujube cake Niu Chuan made."
"It looks quite tempting, let me taste it."
Shen Jiayue picked one up and took a bite, finding the flavor quite nice:
"I really didn’t expect this yellow rice to be so good just steamed like this; I thought it could only be ground into flour for making yellow rice dumplings."
Lin Xu chuckled:
"How could that be the case? Don’t eat too much; this filling can cause heartburn if eaten excessively, and there’s stew for lunch. Didn’t you want to eat the noodles that got sent over? We’ll let you enjoy them at lunchtime!"
"Great, great, I really enjoy those noodles... Xu Bao, can these noodles only be made into stew? Can they be used for something else?"
Something else?
Lin Xu thought for a moment and replied:
"You can use them as filling for buns."
"Anything else?"
"You can stir-fry them directly with a bit more oil; stir-fried noodles taste particularly good."
"Not too fond of oily dishes... Anything else?"
Hmm, looks like you really want to enjoy the noodles all at once.
Lin Xu earnestly thought about the ways they eat noodles back home and suddenly remembered something.
He said to Shen Jiayue:
"You can make it into steamed starch, something similar to jelly but with more chewiness, and it’s quite fun to eat when dipped in garlic paste."
"Oh? This sounds good, can you make it for me sometime?"
"Sure, leave it to me."
At noon, Ma Zhiqiang made a huge pot of stew, with pork, noodles, cabbage, fried tofu, and meatballs. Quite a lot of lard was used, making the aroma rich.
Scoop a large bowl, slurp the slippery, translucent sweet potato noodles into the mouth, and take a big bite of the bun—it makes you feel like you’re back home at a big rural feast.
"It’s both fragrant and satisfying, Master Ma’s stew is truly superb."
"Indeed, I could eat two bowls."
"Two bowls? That’s nothing, I could eat three."
"The biggest eater in the kitchen must be Master Niu; last time he ate five of our handmade buns in one sitting."
