Last night, before returning to his dorm with a lot of things, Olivia casually asked Mu Gen if he would consider living with him:
There’s no rent (￣▽￣). It had a yard where he can grow vegetables (satisfies Mu Gen’s little hobby), a washing machine and a kitchen (it doesn’t matter if he didn’t know how to wash clothes), only 25 minutes of walking from Canteen No. 3 (at a running speed all the way), and Big Horn misses him very much (Big Horn: Moo~)…
These few advantages casually mentioned are directly in line with Mu Gen’s preferences. Mu Gen thought for a long time but finally shook his head and rejected this very tempting offer:
As an intern who needs to be on call, he should live in a designated place. When he got off work, the senior specially asked him to set an alarm in advance so that he could get up and ready to go out at five o’clock!
Moreover, the staff dorms in Canteen 3 didn’t require money, and the garden outside the canteen is now under his care. By living behind the canteen, he can arrive at his workplace as soon as possible. He’ll just take time to visit Oli’s dorm to meet Big Horn.
Olivia could only express understanding and then left early so that Mu Gen could go to bed earlier.
Sure enough, at five o’clock the next morning, Mu Gen’s door was pounded. Fortunately, he got up early and after a brief tidying up, Mu Gen went out with a few seniors.
There are going to “get food”.
The ingredients for the meals of the teachers and students of the whole Academy for the whole day are uniformly delivered to the side door in the southwest by the designated supplier of the Academy every day. That door is only opened once a day. Since delivery came in the morning, the chefs had to get up early every morning before the students got up to get the meals done.
Talin is responsible for leading the team this time, and he’s the fourth-highest chef under the head chef. Today was his turn to be on duty so the task of purchasing was handed over to him. The menu was predetermined by the Head Chef before leaving work yesterday, taking full consideration to balanced nutrition of the students and to which meals the Head Chefs of each canteen are good at.
“Today’s menu is: Kobe Beast Meat in Stewed Green Vegetables, Grilled Kara fish with Fragrant Fruits, Braised Pigeon Meat with Dudu Fruit, green rice…” Talin read the menu and did not forget to ask after reading: “Remember?”
“Remember!” Immediately behind him, there was an answer from the other chefs on duty, and then Talin didn’t say another word.
Getting closer and closer to the side door in the southwest corner, there are more and more cars from the other canteens. This was the first time Mu Gen saw the chefs from the other canteens. While in the car, he looked around curiously.
The chefs in the other canteens are all so tall——this is Mu Gen’s most intuitive feeling.
“Intern, you wait in the car, and the rest of us will buy the goods.” Several large bags were taken out from the storage box under the seat, and the seniors went out looking ready for death.
Not understanding why, Mu Gen nodded, indicating that he would take care of the car.
He quickly understood what was going on:
Mu Gen was stunned to witness a battle scene where food and meat flew together!
Yes, a battle scene.
Surrounded by the entire spacecraft’s ingredients, the chefs from nine canteens carried their bags into a brutal battle! The chefs of each cafeteria have formulated the menu for the day in advance but these are the only ingredients. Good quality ingredients are even more limited and they’re not evenly distributed. Everyone wanted to buy the best ingredients since only delicious food can attract more teachers and students to eat in their canteens, right?
So to compete for the rare Kara fish, the cooks in Canteen 1 and Canteen 4 fought!
To get the best batch of green vegetables, Canteen 9 and Canteen 5 are butting heads!
Similar fights happened and everyone is obviously very used to this kind of scene. While the two sides were fighting, they still didn’t forget to put the ingredients in their sacks. Mu Gen was dumbfounded.
He now understood why the cooks who came to buy food were so tall and mighty: This is for fighting (buying food)!
However, looking at the figures of the other cooks and looking at his seniors, Mu Gen suddenly became a little worried.
Sure enough, not long after the cooks in other canteens came back carrying the food they got, his seniors also returned.
“Today’s menu is: Stewed green vegetables (Huh? Where’s the Kobe meat?), Roasted Fragrant Fruit (where’s the Kara Fish?), Braised pigeon meat (Wait——isn’t it with Dudu fruit?), green rice…” Senior Talin, with a swollen nose, weakly reiterated today’s menu. This time, the menu has been slightly changed.
Mu Gen was silent: So you didn’t grab any key ingredients?
No wonder the business in Canteen 3 has been bad, it’s difficult for clever women to cook without rice. The lack of good ingredients in the morning fundamentally determines the lack of competitiveness of the dishes in Canteen 3!
In this case, the cooks in Canteen 3 are already very good. Since only the worst ingredients are always used, “with not enough materials, creativity brings it together”. In using cheap materials, the cooks in Canteen 3 each have their own tricks:
Can’t grab a whole green vegetable (←Note: This is a vegetable that needs to be cooked as a whole plant)? It doesn’t matter! Their dexterous hands can collect the green leaves they picked up and put together a perfect green vegetable dish;
What to do if I can’t grab any meat? Don’t panic~ The cooks in Canteen 3 have long invented various seasonings and sauces. Using these, they can even make vegetarian dishes that have a variety of meat flavors!
For example, green vegetable is a very vegetarian ingredient which is delicious when stewed with the very fatty Kobe meat. A certain predecessor who always couldn’t get Kobe meat invented a pouring sauce, which was boiled using the fat of a pig beast. The material is obviously the least valuable pig, but after careful research, these fats gave birth to the taste of expensive Kobe meat. Mu Gen has tasted this dish himself and the taste was perfectly copied;
Without Kara fish, a senior found a way to use the leftovers of other fish to carefully make a new type of sauce. If you use this sauce to roast the fragrant fruit, the fragrant fruit will have the taste of roasted Kara fish. If you put this fragrant fruit on the window for sale, uh…it will give people the impression: No more Kara fish, only the fragrant fruit is left.
“It’s not that Canteen 3 can’t grab Kara fish, it’s just that the students are late and the Kara fish had been sold out.” ——this is the original intention of this sauce.
At the Imperial Comprehensive Academy, Mu Gen received the most traditional cooking education. Using the best ingredients to make the best taste is the goal that the professors are committed to achieving. Here, Mu Gen has seen the ultimate counterfeiting skills of using cheap materials to make fake ingredients.
After working honestly every day and never complaining or tired, his seniors in the canteen had gone from being indifferent at the beginning to now being willing to say a few words to him, which is a remarkable improvement:
“When I was a soldier, I was trapped on a barren star for three years. There’s only one kind of tuber plant on that planet. The soldiers became desperate after eating vegetarian food every day, then I thought: It would be great if it could taste like meat. After studying and researching every day, I succeeded in the end.” Since he’s not married, Chef Talin usually lives in the dormitory behind the canteen. After living together every day, he gradually became Mu Gen’s most familiar colleague:
“Don’t underestimate the power of food. The first time the soldiers ate it, they all thought we found a living prey! The morale was greatly boosted, and with that momentum, we repaired the spacecraft and flew back home!”
When it comes to his experience in the army, Chef Talin has deep nostalgia on his face.
The author has something to say:
I got a stomachache and a little fever yesterday, so I went to bed early.
Summer without turning on the air conditioner and even covering myself with a quilt, this is how I worked…
orz Just a little bit this time, I’ll add more later
Canteen 3 is so resourceful. I can’t help but remember the smoked watermelon dish that’s meant to taste like steak when they talk about foods tasting like meat that was trending a few years ago