Chapter 28: Chapter 28: 9 Jin of Hand-Rolled Noodles, That Should Be Enough, Right?

A purple box!

The last time he got a purple box for the Golden Soup with Pickled Fish, Su Chen hadn’t even gone to the practice room to make it. He simply followed the recipe based on his own understanding of ingredients and cooking.

Even so, the appeal of the resulting pickled fish was almost on par with the S-Level-rated Big Meat Buns!

In other words, the higher the color-coded level of a synthesized recipe, the higher the taste rating of the dish made from it.

’Looks like there’s still a lot more to explore about this system...’

Su Chen continued to chop the scallions, his expression unchanging.

The moment the recipe was synthesized, he entered the Gourmet Practice Room.

With the experience from the past two days of practice, Su Chen had also discovered a pattern.

Staying in the Gourmet Practice Room for eight hours straight wasn’t very cost-effective. If he was just trying to complete a regular order, then an A-Level-rated dish was more than enough!

S-Level food was just too over-the-top. His employees had eaten the Pork Hock Big Meat Buns for three meals over two days, and they were still craving buns from time to time.

That wasn’t good.

Arriving in the Gourmet Practice Room, he split a scallion down the middle and then cut it into slightly wide "eyebrow" slices. A thought flashed through his mind, and Su Chen duplicated the pile of chopped scallions three times.

He took a head of napa cabbage, tore off the outermost leaves, and revealed the pale yellow core.

Then, he made a horizontal cut where the leafy green part met the thick white stalk, cutting both sections into strips and placing them in a bowl.

’So, it’s just a simple bowl of Scallion-Seared Noodles. Why does the recipe have a purple-level color?’

Su Chen was also a bit curious.

Based on his experience with synthesizing recipes, he had seen three colors appear: white, green, and purple. Without a doubt, purple was the highest level.

Whether there were any levels above that remained unknown for now.

Following the recipe, he added a spoonful of pure oil to the wok. After heating it for just a moment, he dumped the large bowl of scallions into the oil.

Ten minutes later...

[Scallion-Seared Noodles Evaluation: B Level]

Tsk?

’Did I mess up a step?’

Su Chen stood before the stove in the practice room, not rushing to try again.

’I clearly followed the recipe step-by-step, so how did I only get a B Level?’

With his prior experience from the Big Meat Buns, Su Chen knew that when this happened, it was usually because he had overlooked some subtle but critical step in the process.

It was like the small detail of adding a bit of meat broth to the bun filling. Adding it or not didn’t actually change the flavor that much. But when you ate a bun made with the broth, you experienced an indescribable elevation of deliciousness.

In other words, when a recipe for a dish is laid out, anyone who follows it can make something that tastes more or less the same.

But the difference between an ordinary person and a great chef lies in technical mastery. Skill can make a dish’s flavor fuller, an upgrade from ordinary to tasty.

And the difference between a great chef and a master is the control over small details. Only when a dish is infused with the creator’s own deep understanding of the ingredients and seasonings does it truly ascend from tasty to supremely delicious.

’So, where exactly did I go wrong?’

Su Chen began to carefully review his process.

Making Scallion-Seared Noodles wasn’t complicated. The core of it lay in the searing process.

This refers to the process of stir-frying aromatic ingredients like scallions, ginger, and garlic in hot oil to release their fragrance.

’Hah... One more time!’

This time, Su Chen added the pure oil to the wok and, after a much shorter heating time than before, added the "eyebrow" scallions.

The chopped scallions soaked in the hot oil, only beginning to bubble after about three or four seconds.

He immediately added the cabbage stalks, stir-fried them for a few minutes, then added the cabbage leaves. This time, he only tossed them a few times before directly adding warm water and waiting for it to boil.

Five minutes later.

[Scallion-Seared Noodles Evaluation: A Level]

Just as I thought!

Su Chen was a little smug; his guess had been correct.

Since he had already reached A Level—a taste that would make people linger and forget to leave—there wasn’t much point in grinding for an S Level. This was just a 20-yuan order, after all.

Barely half an hour had passed in the practice room. Su Chen saved the remaining seven and a half hours and decisively chose to leave.

"Boss, is this enough dough?"

For Su Chen, half an hour had passed, but for the others, it had been merely an instant.

He Shuting, Liu Shengnan, and Aunt Fang were all kneading dough. At this moment, each of their three basins contained the standard two bowls of flour, which amounted to one kilogram each.

"One kilogram of flour... three basins will yield four and a half kilograms of noodles. That’s enough. Use cold boiled water when you knead the dough, and add a little salt."

Northerners tend to have large appetites, and a quarter-kilogram of noodles per meal would definitely be filling. To account for any big eaters like the guy with the glasses, Su Chen specifically told them to make extra. Even if there were leftovers, his own employees could eat them for lunch.

After chopping several scallions into "eyebrow" slices, Su Chen leaned to one side, waiting for Bai Xiaobo to bring back the napa cabbage.

"Xiaobin, why don’t you go help him? Don’t tell me Xiaobai can’t even carry a few heads of napa cabbage?"

"I was thinking the same thing. He comes to work with dark circles under his eyes every day. Didn’t he uninstall King? Why is he still staying up so late?" He Shuting’s hands were sticky with dough, but that didn’t stop her from taking a jab at Xiaobai.

"Well, he is single, after all. It’s understandable," Liu Shengnan teased. And just then, as luck would have it, Bai Xiaobo returned.

"Who’s talking smack about me behind my back? Liu Shengnan, was that you? HUFF... HUFF..." Bai Xiaobo panted heavily. "See this? Your boy here carried six heads of cabbage at once. This has to be at least twenty-five kilograms. If you don’t believe me, you try it!"

"You should really lose some weight. Look how out of shape you are. Huffing and puffing after such a short walk. Are you even okay?"

He Shuting’s words were even more venomous.

Bai Xiaobo opened his mouth, wanting to retort, but facing their combined assault, he wisely backed down. "A good man doesn’t argue with women! Boss, Boss, guess what just happened?"

"You landed another new client?" Su Chen had no interest in guessing.

"Uh..." Bai Xiaobo’s hopes for praise were utterly dashed. "It’s the same client, but the order went from one person to fifteen."

"Mm, got it." Su Chen picked up the cabbage he’d brought back and skillfully tore off the outermost layer of leaves.

Just as he had in the practice room, he cut the cabbage stalks into slightly wider strips and the leaves into slightly finer pieces.

A dozen or so minutes later.

He Shuting and the other two had also finished kneading the dough. Su Chen covered the basins with a damp cloth to let the dough rest.

Scallion-Seared Noodles could actually be made with any kind of noodle. The characteristic of knife-cut noodles was their simple texture—soft and smooth in the mouth. Machine-pressed noodles had a similar feel.

Hand-pulled noodles, on the other hand, were firm and satisfyingly chewy. To ensure the seared, aromatic flavor fully permeated the noodles, hand-pulled noodles were absolutely the best choice.

"Alright, everyone take a break. We’ll start rolling the noodles at eleven-thirty," Su Chen announced. With the prep work done, he could relax a little.

The next steps were searing the aromatics and boiling the noodles, a process that would take fifteen minutes at most.

...

「Meanwhile, over at the Xinghui Building.」

"Why is time passing so slowly today?" Wang Rui had set a countdown timer on his phone and placed it on his desk.

He had digested the three buns from this morning without doing a single thing.

"Are you sure this is reliable? We can’t have everyone going over there only to not get a bite to eat and lose all their money." The girl from the warehouse leaned in close to Wang Rui, still uneasy about the 22 yuan she had paid in advance.

When Wang Rui brought back the takeout that morning, he had kept three buns for himself and given the rest to colleagues he was on good terms with.

The one person he didn’t give any to was Liu Xia!

Those were buns fresh from the steamer!

The warehouse girl, already fuming, had decided to play a prank on Wang Rui by snatching his phone while he was out. As luck would have it, she happened to see the chat history between Wang Rui and Bai Xiaobo.

And that led to the current scene.

Everyone in the office was eagerly waiting for twelve o’clock to arrive.

Although they didn’t know what the deal was with this strange "Delicious custom order."

But finally, they wouldn’t have to eat the garbage from their own cafeteria!!!