The Game of Life - Chapter 56

Chapter 56: Sweet Potato Congee

As the president of the chess club, Jiang Feng felt that he should do something.

The congee in the big pots would easily fill the stomachs of around 200 people, but it was already very sad that the lonely old people had come here specially to be helped by everyone. It was a little unfair for them to recall past misery and cherish present happiness by letting them drink the congee.

“Professor Chen, are there no noodles in the warehouse?” Jiang Feng asked. It would be better to cook some noodles.

“Well, our school doesn’t provide breakfast, so…” Professor Chen smiled awkwardly. “We also received the notice about this volunteer activity at the last minute. We don’t have much experience and were not prepared for it.”

Jiang Feng could tell as well, out of the four teachers in the back kitchen, only Professor Chen seemed like he usually cooked, the remaining three pumpkins had been cut so horrifyingly. After Wu Minqi picked up the chopping duties, the other three teachers went to take care of the students, leaving Professor Chen to wash the sweet potatoes and peel them.

Professor Chen’s peeling technique was not as good as Liu Qian’s. The sweet potatoes that passed through her hands had slimmed down drastically.

“But there are still vegetables and meat. There are enough eggs as well. We can serve each of them a boiled egg.” Professor Chen added.

Jiang Feng glanced at the clock, 6:05.

“Professor Chen, what time are we starting breakfast?” Asked Jiang Feng.

“Seven, seven-thirty at the latest.” Professor Chen said.

“There’s still time, Liu Qian. Take the eggs and make some Steamed Egg Custard. Ask the student union about the specific number of people eating. Make more if you can. Professor Chen, is there any flour in the warehouse? ” Asked Jiang Feng.

“You want to make noodles?” Wu Minqi darted a glance at Jiang Feng and looked at his weak looking body. “You can’t make more than 20 kilograms of noodles in time.”

“The elderly and young children don’t have a big appetite. It’s enough to fill their stomachs with over 10kg of noodles.”

“President, I can’t make 231 bowls of Steamed Egg Custard as well!” Liu Qian saw the number of students and exclaimed, “It’d be considered good if I could make 40 bowls.”

“Sister, sister, I can stir the eggs!” A little carrot head with two ponytails shouted, raising her head and her hand.

“I can, too!” Cried the little girl next to her.

“I can too, I can too. I stir the eggs every day at home!” A little boy shouted defiantly.

The rest of the dozen little carrot heads also refused to be outdone. They were small in size but their voices were loud, the dozen cries almost knocked over the adults in the back kitchen.

“Quiet, no more shouting!” Professor Zhou pretended to be cross and calmed the boisterous little carrot heads. One by one, they grew as quiet as a chicken. Only then did Professor Zhou smile contentedly and say with a kind expression: “Let’s play a game, we’ll see who can stir faster and who can stir better. The first prize is a lollipop!”

He vaguely remembered that when he was in primary school, the teacher had also fooled him with lollipops.

A familiar recipe, a familiar taste.

Now that the little carrot heads were helping with the Steamed Eggs, Liu Qian just needed to spend her effort on the control of the heat. Jiang Feng went to the warehouse and took a big bag of flour to make the noodles. Wu Minqi split the pumpkin and sweet potato into three parts after cutting them and poured them into the pot.

It would take time for the dough to rise. Jiang Feng began to fry some onions with lard first.

“Are you making Yang Chun Soup Noodles?” Wu Minqi guessed that Jiang Feng was making Yang Chun Soup Noodles just from seeing him stir fry onions.

“Yes.” Jiang Feng nodded, and accidentally scooped half a spoonful of lard.

“I’ll do it.” Wu Minqi grabbed the spatula from Jiang Feng’s hand, and Jiang Feng retreated to one side.

He could tell that Wu Minqi’s knife work was as good as his. Her control of heat and seasoning was probably better than him as well. His knife work had improved a lot in this period of time. If it were in the past, they would not be of the same standard at all.

In the field of cooking, women were born in a weaker position, because their strength was generally weaker than that of men, so they had suffered more while practicing, without seeing much improvement. Jiang Feng was already considered quite strong among other people with his build. In the eyes of the old master though, he was basically the same as a weakling. Wu Minqi’s figure looked just like an ordinary girl. When she was learning to cook, she must have suffered several times more than Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng went to check on the congee in the pot.

Since his congee brewing skills had risen to the intermediate level, coupled with this period of practice and mastery, Jiang Feng’s congee brewing skills were without rival.

Jiang Feng guessed that if his congee cooking skills could rise to the advanced level, the entire country’s Hong Kong and Guangdong congee shops would not be able to become his competitors.

Given that only his knife skills had reached the advanced stage, the situation mentioned above could only happen in a dream.

At least at this stage, Jiang Feng had a mysterious confidence in his own congee cooking skills.

He opened the lid and stirred it with a spoon.

This Sweet Potato Congee… It seems a little too sweet.

Sweet potatoes in winter should be sweet.

But the sweet potatoes in this pot were too sweet.

They were of good quality, smooth and evenly colored, with a strong fragrance. They were absolutely top-notch sweet potatoes, but their sweetness had completely overwhelmed the taste of the pumpkin and even the fragrance of the congee.

Wu Minqi had added the sweet potatoes as a seasoning, not to overpower the other ingredients.

Jiang Feng covered the pot and went to cut the sweet potatoes.

He cut them into large chunks, large irregular pieces.

“Why are you cutting the sweet potatoes?” Wu Minqi looked at the onions rolling in the pot and glanced at Jiang Feng.

“The sweet potato flavor of the first pot is too strong. I cut some sweet potatoes to throw them in, we’ll make it into a Sweet Potato Congee.” Jiang Feng said.

Jiang Feng cut nine sweet potatoes in a row and added them into the first pot. He stirred the congee in the pot slowly with a big iron spoon and scooped the froth out spoonful by spoonful.

The dough had risen and the heat of congee was just right.

Jiang Feng glanced at the clock, 6:47.

“Professor Chen, you can send the congee and the egg custard out. I’m going to pull and cook the noodles now.” Jiang Feng reminded.

Professor Chen nodded repeatedly: “I’ll call someone to help.”

Three big pots of congee were not something a few female teachers and a dozen little carrot heads could move.

After a while, several tall and strong male teachers came in to help move the pot. The first male teacher was surprised to see that they had even made egg custards. He said, “Professor Chen, it’s been hard on you, making so many egg custards.”

How could Professor Chen dare to claim any hand in it, she had just been helping out: “All of this was made by these students, there will be noodles later as well, if they’re not full, they can eat some noodles.”

The male teacher was even more surprised: “These three students…they’re from the home economics club right? You A University students are indeed great! ”

“We are from the chess club.” The three spoke in unison.

The male teacher and Professor Chen were both dumbfounded

Jiang Feng divided the dough.

Wu Minqi stared at him.

Jiang Feng was a little hesitant.

Wu Minqi stared at him.

Jiang Feng sucked in a deep breath.

Wu Minqi stared at him.

“Don’t… Don’t you have to go and help give out the congee? ” Jiang Feng kindly reminded her, everyone had already left, only he and Wu Minqi were left in the back kitchen.

His pastry-making skills were not that good, and his noodle pulling skills were even worse, he couldn’t even be compared to the uncle in the canteen. Wu Minqi’s constant stare was really stressing him out.

“I just want to see you pulling the noodles.” Wu Minqi was very straightforward.

Jiang Feng grabbed the dough and pulled it into two sections.

Plop.

It broke apart.

Wu Minqi: …

She began to wonder if she had lost her taste when she had the Mung Bean Cake that day.

According to her observation these days, Jiang Feng’s cooking skills were quite good among his peers, similar to those of her cousins, but far worse than her. She had doubted whether Jiang Feng had specialized in pastry making, but just as he pulled the noodles, she determined that he probably hadn’t learned much about pastry making.

How could she have invited Jiang Feng to compete with her?

Wu Minqi felt that she was bullying him.

Jiang Feng’s family only had a small stir fry restaurant. She, as the successor of the Wu family, had bullied the weak as the strong.

Wu Minqi was even feeling a little guilty.

She made her way slowly to the canteen, everyone was giving out the congee and egg custards plate by plate.

“Minqi, go and scoop out the congee.” Liu Qian was giving out the egg custard.

Wu Minqi went to the pot and lifted the lid.

The sweet and soft fragrance of the Sweet Potato Congee wafted out.

“It smells so good!” Liu Qian exclaimed.

Wu Minqi was stunned and hurriedly stirred the congee in the pot with a spoon. The rice grains were full and plump, the consistency viscous. The chopped pumpkins and sweet potatoes had mixed together to dye the original white congee an orange-yellow color. The large sweet potato chunks were evenly scattered among it, dominating the whole pot of congee.

How…How is this possible?