Speaking of the dishes ordered by Liu Zhang, none of them were complicated except the Thousand Thread Mantou. Only that dish had a rather complicated cooking method.
“He’s really good at eating,” Yuan Zhou received the order and said secretly in his heart.
That’s right. Yuan Zhou easily recognized the intentions of Liu Zhang ordering this dish. Yet, he didn’t have other thoughts, but just began to work on it.
“Let me knead dough first before doing anything else.” He immediately figured out the optimal arrangement and then got started.
Mantou had a very long history. In the history of China, there were quite a lot of records about it. For example, Mantou had stuffing inside at the very beginning while that changed gradually with the development of the society.
People called those kinds of wheaten food products without stuffing inside as Mantou and those with stuffing inside as Steamed Bun.
What Liu Zhang ordered was naturally Mantou without stuffing inside, more specifically, a kind of complicated Mantou that appeared later.
The flour used for Thousand Thread Mantou was rather different from other kinds of flour.
As the Thousand Thread Mantou was slightly yellow rather than pure white, Yuan Zhou directly used the stone-ground flour, which differed from the flour used to make Clear Broth Noodle Soup and the wrappings of the Soup Dumplings.
“Zhi Ya Zhi Ya.” Yuan Zhou pushed the stone mill at a uniform speed with one hand while processing other ingredients with the other hand.
It wasn’t a big thing for Yuan Zhou. After all, there were more and more customers nowadays and Yuan Zhou had to do different things with both of his hands.
Fortunately, Yuan Zhou didn’t need to do anything with his left hand but push the stone mill at a uniform speed, which didn’t require much skill and thus didn’t affect his right hand doing other things.
“It really feels magical to see Boss Yuan work with his both hands doing different things at the same time,” Master Cheng sighed with emotion and said.
Speaking of which, he could also use his two hands at the same time. Sometimes, he also cooked two different dishes at the same time when he was busy. However, one of them had to be quick-frying while the other had to be slow cooking.
As for doing two different things at the same time with two hands like Yuan Zhou, he indicated that he wasn’t capable.
“It’s similar to the heroine who draws a circle with her left hand and draws a square with her right hand on the TV series,” a customer at the side also nodded his head and said.
“It’s actually freshly ground flour. I seem to have the luck to get something nice to eat.” Liu Zhang was quite happy to see Yuan Zhou do so and was looking forward to tasting his craftsmanship.
“Even so, Boss Yuan’s dishes were still so delicious. It seems there’s no difference between using the left hand and using the right hand,” one of the customers suddenly said.
“No difference? Alright. If you can eat up a bowl of Egg Fried Rice with your left hand today, I will treat you to a meal.” Master Cheng turned to look at the person who had talked just now and said casually.
“Whatever I want?” The person who spoke just now was a girl who had pretty and smooth short hair. On hearing Master Cheng’s words, she got a shine in her eyes and said immediately.
“Of course. Whatever you want, as long as you can eat it up.” Master Cheng nodded his head affirmatively.
“Good. Look carefully! Though I’m not left-handed, I can use a spoon when I eat Egg Fried Rice.” The girl smiled slyly and took up the spoon on the table with her left hand.
“You just try.” Master Cheng said with complete confidence.
“Then thank you in advance for your kindness. Boss Yuan has so many dishes that I want to try in the restaurant,” the girl said smilingly.
The plain-looking girl suddenly became mischievous and cute because of the smile.
“You are welcome. Only after you succeed can you get it.” Master Cheng nodded his head.
The girl made a gesture of “Okay” and then, she took up the spoon and began to eat.
Master Cheng wasn’t anxious to watch Yuan Zhou anymore now. Instead, he turned to watch the girl who was using her left hand to eat. Even the customers at the side couldn’t help turning to watch her eat and discussing in a low voice.
“Do you think she can make it?”
“I don’t think so. I tried before, but I couldn’t even pick any dish with my left hand using chopsticks.”
“But she is using the spoon. It should be easier to use a spoon.”
“That’s not for sure. I can write with my left hand, although I write slowly.”
“Then you must have practiced that. Judging from the way the girl takes the spoon, she doesn’t seem to have practiced that.”
“That also makes sense. Let’s wait and see if this Master Cheng will treat her.”
The customers discussed in a low voice, but Master Cheng just appeared unhurried and didn’t worry about that at all.
Of course, he wasn’t worried, because he was also someone who was practicing to use his left hand well. After all, he also needed to do some hard work since he was now learning from Yuan Zhou.
One could hardly feel anything different when one used the left hand and right hand together. But if one used one’s left hand separately, one would know how clumsy one’s left hand was.
If one hadn’t practised this skill especially, a bowl of Egg Fried Rice couldn’t be eaten with a left hand even when using a spoon.
As he had experienced such kind of practice personally, Master Cheng naturally knew how difficult it was. Therefore, he was more impressed by Yuan Zhou, who could genuinely use his left and right hands well at the same time or separately. Just because of that, he dared to make a bet with this girl.
He also wanted other customers to know indirectly how awesome Master Yuan was. And that was Master Cheng’s purpose.
“Hum. It’s so easy,” The girl swallowed a mouthful of the Egg Fried Rice scooped with her left hand and said smilingly.
“Continue.” Master Cheng signaled to her.
“The further you go, the more difficult it is,” Master Cheng said secretly in his heart.
That was true. When the Egg Fried Rice was still in the earlier stage, one didn’t need to control the left hand purposefully. But when the fried rice became lesser at a later stage, one naturally needed to control one’s left hand meticulously in order to get the rice. At that time, the distinction between the left hand and right hand became noticeable.
When Master Cheng made the bet with the girl, Yuan Zhou had milled the wheat into flour. The wheat flour was slightly yellow but the wheat fragrance was very strong.
“Good. The wheat flour provided by the system is indeed supreme.” Yuan Zhou revealed a smile under the face mask.
As the wheat flour had just been milled by the stone mill, it was still a little hot. Only after it became thoroughly cool could Yuan Zhou begin to knead the dough.
During the time gap, Yuan Zhou began to wash his hands.
He washed his hands four times in all. Only after they were disinfected did Yuan Zhou wipe his hands dry and prepare to knead the dough.
Besides some wheat flour and lard, nothing else was required to make Thousand Thread Mantou. Even the amount of water used was very little. Apart from these things, this dish mainly depended on the craftsmanship.
So the several procedures of kneading dough and the fermentation mattered most. Naturally, Yuan Zhou wouldn’t be careless.
“This time, I’ll have to use the old dough.” Yuan Zhou was quite expectant of that.
Last time when he cooked Spring Water Mantou, Yuan Zhou abandoned the special fragrance of old dough as he had to use the fresh and sweet taste of the spring water. However, this time was different. Only by fermenting the old dough could the Thousand Thread Mantou reach its most mature and best state.
“Will the system provide thousand-year-old dough?” Yuan Zhou suddenly thought of the Shuhan Old Dough in the animated cartoon, Cooking Master Boy.
That’s right. Yuan Zhou had already watched this animated cartoon. Because of the animation addict girl, he had specifically looked up this animated cartoon on the Internet.
And Yuan Zhou had prepared to try all dishes in that animated cartoon to see if they were really so delicious.
The system displayed, “The most suitable thing is the best thing.”
“So that means you don’t have the thousand-year-old dough.” Yuan Zhou immediately reacted.
The system displayed, “This is the old dough made from the stone mill flour left by several former hosts.”
“Several former hosts?” Yuan Zhou suddenly felt surprised in his heart and then, he immediately concentrated his attention on the old dough that he had just taken out.
It was a piece of old dough, of which the color was more or less the same as that of the fresh wheat flour. It was slightly yellow and was the size of half a palm.
Yuan Zhou pinched it and felt it was quite soft. When it was brought closer, there was a slight fragrance of the fermented wheat flour as well as a little sour taste, which didn’t seem to have much difference from other old doughs.
“What will the effect be like?” Yuan Zhou put it into the wheat flour expectantly and began to knead the dough.
EMPTY