Pei Xing and Li Hua, who don’t understand Green Bean Cake, are burying their heads eating green bean paste. While eating, their brains are rapidly organizing vocabulary, waiting for Qin Huai to ask them about the green bean paste and give a perfect tasting note.
Unfortunately, Qin Huai has no intention of asking that question.
Because there’s someone more exaggerated next to them.
An Youyou is almost becoming a loyal follower of green bean paste.
She’s not only emitting exclamations comparable to movie lines, but her expressions are also very exaggerated. Surprise, happiness, praise, intoxication, and falling in love with green bean paste—all these complex emotions fleetingly pass across her face. If she were the lead in a food movie, her acting skills alone would win her the Best Newcomer Award of the year.
An Youyou has already tasted five plates.
As a qualified worker, An Youyou knows that this isn’t how you taste dishes. But as someone with a taste and a love for Green Bean Cake, An Youyou feels that often you don’t need to worry about so many principles; you just eat first.
Qin Huai watched as An Youyou tasted plate after plate, and when she reached her 6th plate, he couldn’t help but ask, "Don’t you feel greasy?"
Although An Youyou tasted many plates, the amount of green bean paste in each plate isn’t much. These green bean pastes are freshly stir-fried, still in a loose and unpressed state; a mere six plates wouldn’t be enough to fill An Youyou considering her appetite.
An Youyou is just at the age of growing, able to eat.
But wouldn’t she feel greasy?
No matter how unsweet Qin Huai’s Green Bean Cake is, it’s still a cake, made with loads of butter and white sugar, rich in oil and sugar content.
"Not greasy at all, it’s super delicious!" An Youyou exclaimed in admiration, "Master Qin, the Green Bean Cake you make is much tastier than those sold outside!"
"There’s a bakery at the entrance of my residential area that also sells Green Bean Cake. Sold by weight, it’s 25 yuan for half a pound, cheap but not tasty at all."
"That Green Bean Cake tastes oily and greasy. When bitten, it feels powdery and sticky in the mouth. After eating a piece, your mouth is filled with crumbs that require rinsing. Most importantly, there’s no green bean flavor at all; eating one piece feels sickeningly sweet."
Listening to An Youyou, Qin Huai could roughly guess how that bakery makes their Green Bean Cake. The owner probably cuts corners using inferior green bean powder, sugar powder, and vegetable oil, coupled with poor culinary skills. During stir-frying, they fail to control the Fire Control, making the already skimped Green Bean Cake seem more like a sugary oil mixture, with a massive amount of cheap starch.
Making snacks is ; the chef’s skill is one aspect, but the quality of the ingredients is another. Good snacks require good ingredients and good skills. If the ingredients aren’t good, even with great culinary skills, one can only end up like a clever woman cooking without rice.
After hearing An Youyou, Qin Huai felt relieved. An Youyou isn’t a professional chef nor a professional food critic, but she is a professional worker, and a financially strapped worker at that.
Qin Huai’s Green Bean Cake was originally prepared for customers like An Youyou.
For those with limited budgets, busy work schedules, yet who want to eat some affordable and delicious snacks to relieve daily work pressure.
Qin Huai smiled, "If you like eating, don’t eat paste, this is now just un-molded green bean paste. Once it’s demolded, placed into the fridge for a while, and chilled before eating, it’ll have a different taste."
"If you like it, take a portion home to eat after work. I’ll tell Huang Xi later, starting today, every employee at Yunzhong Restaurant can take a portion of chilled Green Bean Cake from the fridge to eat at home after work, as an employee perk."
"Thank you, old... Master Qin!"
After stir-frying the green bean paste, the subsequent tasks are no longer Qin Huai’s. Whether it’s mold pressing, demolding, or placing the molded Green Bean Cake into the fridge to chill, it’s all assistant work.
Master Qin, who is very skilled at arranging assistants to do work, began making Four Happiness glutinous rice.
Someone might ask, why is the production process for Four Happiness glutinous rice scheduled before Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns and Three Meat Buns? Is it because Four Happiness rice has higher profits?
No, it’s because it’s almost mealtime.
The hungry diners at Yunzhong Restaurant can miss out on Three Meat Buns and Fermented Rice with Steamed Buns, but they can’t miss a steaming bowl of Four Happiness glutinous rice.
The considerate Master Qin will definitely wrap enough Four Happiness glutinous rice by noon, letting the financially sound workers who have been working hard all morning rely on that one bowl for energy to work through the afternoon.
Simultaneously, allowing the early-rising uncles and aunts, who’ve been waiting all morning at Yunzhong Restaurant since 6 o’clock, to eat Master Qin’s latest signature snack.
This was the scenario from a few days ago.
Today, just like those days, Xu Tuqiang, who arrived at Yunzhong Restaurant at 6, keenly noticed something amiss.
He discovered the waitstaff at Yunzhong Restaurant seemed to be cooking secretly. They were passing around a mysterious little green cake block among themselves, stealthily eating it.
Even Huang Xi was eating.
Xu Tuqiang glanced at the time.
Eating snacks secretly at this time, it’s suspicious!
Xu Tuqiang seemingly unintentionally stretched his neck and looked toward the window, noticing the waitstaff arranging Green Bean Cake; plate after plate demolded Green Bean Cake neatly placed on small platters. The platters come in two sizes; small platters have 4 pieces each, larger ones have 6 pieces; every Green Bean Cake is very small, too little for adults, just right for children.