Chapter 327.1 – Fragrant Noodles (h) Failed Snoodles
Re-written by Gumihou
Before you read this, please take a look at this video:
https://gi-act.maff.go.jp/en/register/entry/12.html
“It’s about time, I should take a look at the noodles.”
The noodles that had just been kneaded had been drying in the sun for about a quarter of an hour now. Because the noodles are very thin [1] the water within the noodles should evaporate very quickly after a short amount of time.
Also, because it had been placed by the flower field, the fragrance of flowers [2] and pollen had adhered itself onto the noodles. Thus, when Shiyu collected the noodles, she could smell the faintest scent of medicine on them.
Now that the noodles have been sundried [3], they were… still limp?
Hesitantly, Shiyu touched the noodle strands again.
But no, instead of the expected hard brittleness typical of the sumien she knew, the noodles were still limp!
When she pinched the end of one strand, it squashed into a dough.
Then… had she wasted hours rolling out each noodle strand from dough to a 2mm string for nothing?!
“Miss, what are you doing?”
Shiyu jumped.
Behind her was one of the cooks.
“Hey you, didn’t I ask you for the recipe for sumien noodles? Why aren’t they done yet?”
Shiyu had elected to use sumien noodles for her Boiling challenge because they were the simplest to make back in the modern days. Even the poorest people could afford to buy sumien cheaply.
She could only cook basic noodles and sumien is the most basic of basics!
“Erm,” said the nameless cook. “Miss, you specifically want the recipe for sumien, right?”
“Of course!”
“Well, it will probably only be ready tomorrow or the day after.”
“WHAT?! Tomorrow?!”
“…or the day after.”
“Wait, it specifically says here 15 minutes!!” Shiyu flipped open the instructions for sumien making recipe and, “look! It says 15!”
“Uh, it says 15 daylight hours, more if the weather is humid.”
“No, it didn’t!”
Actually, yes. It did.
Shiyu, “… …”
“Shall I, uh, make some cut noodles for lunch? We still have those dough balls in the kitchen that you failed to roll into thin nood-”
“Fine!”
“Just so you know, sumien is pretty tricky to make, that’s why only noblemen get to eat them. I respect you, boss!!”
Shiyu, “… …”
Two days later, the noodles were finally dry and hard to the touch. A little strength was enough to break it.
It was finally time to cook the noodles.
Sumien noodles are very simple to cook, all one has to do is cook them in salt and water and the simplest dish in the world would be done. First, wait until the water is boiling before adding the noodles. As soon as the noodles touched the boiling water, it would soften.
Once the noodles could be stirred easily with chopsticks and looked like floating grasses in the water, Shiyu quickly fished them out of the boiling water and set them aside to dry [4].
The cooking time for noodles cannot be too long or too short. If cooked too long, the noodles would be too soft, if too short they would be too hard. However, compared to the 10 seconds needed to decide on the victory or defeat of the Double Crisp, the margin of error for noodles could be considered relatively generous. [5]
Shiyu preferred spicy flavour. Thus, while the noodles were drying [5], she poured out all the water from the pot and added onion, garlic and ginger and fried herself a small pot of chilli oil [6].
The noodles were almost ready by this point. Shiyu cheerfully stuck her chopsticks into the bowl of drying noodles and…hmm?
The noodles… refused to move.
“Hmm?” Shiyu tugged harder and a lump broke off.
“… …” she stared at the small, fist-size lump at the end of the chopsticks. Then at the rest of the noodles that had hardened into artistic looking lumps of undulating waves.
“W-well, maybe it just needs a little heat to loosen it up. I’ll just…” Shiyu placed the noodle lump onto a plate and tried to gently heat it up with her power.
The noodle lump wavered and began to crisp up on the edges but inside, the strands of noodles stuck together even more.
“M-maybe some chilli oil will loosen the strands a bit.” Shiyu heat up the chilli oil and poured it over the noodles lump. The once spotlessly white noodles lump were immediately stained with a layer of sauce that transformed it into artistic rock waves during sunset.
The spicy scent of the chilli oil along with the scallion and garlic were particularly attractive fragrant but failed to seep through the noodle strands.
Trying not to think too much Shiyu grabbed Fat Cat out and urged, “Go on, try it quickly!”
Maybe she could still squeak past this level!
After popping out of the Saint’s Dwelling, Fat Cat approached the plate of noodles red lump.
He sneered.
“You call these noodles?”
“Of course!” Shiyu said, suddenly very confident with herself.
Oh, but Fat Cat probably doesn’t want to eat the spicy versions. She had forgotten how these high-level Cultivators are just so sensitive about spicy food. Qing Chen is the same but he’s handsome so let’s forgive him. Fat Cat’s her teacher and evaluator, so let’s forgive him too.
Therefore, Shiyu grabbed another bowl and snatched up another piece of lump off the big lump and set it flatteringly in front of Fat Cat.
“Try this one instead.”
One corner of Fat Cat’s mouth raised up in a sneer. “What is this disgusting lump of dough?”
“They are noodles! Noodles!” Shiyu grabbed her chopsticks, ready to shove some noodles down someone’s throat. “Here, let me show you.”
The chopsticks stabbed through the noodles and lifted. The bowl nearly came up as well. At the end of the chopsticks was a dull lump of whiteness that wobbled gently in the breeze. When Shiyu shook it, strands broke off, showing what it had been in its past life.
“You enjoy that lump of chilli flavoured squidge,” said Fat Cat. “Call me when you actually made noodles.”
[Gumihou: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what would have happened if you follow Shiyu’s recipe]
[1] …even so, 15 min is… you might as well not hang it out. Also, shouldn’t your conversation and stare off with that Jin Ming character stretch the time beyond 15 min?
[2] This is the real reason why you’d even bother to hang
it out, isn’t it?
[3] for the whole of 15 min.
[4] … wait, set the boiled noodles on the side to DRY?
Are you making LUMP NOODLES? If your raw noodles are really so thin that they dried into stiffness within 15 min, it would turn into a LUMP in, like, 5 seconds!!!!!
[5] …wh-what is this nonsense?!!? You carefully cooked
the noodles only to set them aside to turn into a LUMP!!!
[6] …frying herself some chilli oil with neither oil nor
chilli… while her noodle lumps were chilling on the side
[7] …okay, the reason why it’s SUMIEN (or somen, it’s the
same thing) here, it’s because this is the first time it was Ever Mentioned.
Although Gumi already had some suspicion when the noodles were set out to dry.
Although it generally takes 1.5 to 2 days to dry, not 15 min if made from
scratch, by hand.
Listen NO ONE makes sumien by hand now. Because it’s
difficult. It would certainly be impossible for
Shi-I-can-certainly-make-some-of-the-simplest-noodles-yu. It’s mostly
machine-made now.
If ‘sumien’ is cheap and easy to cook, that’s all thanks
to MACHINES. MACHINE made sumien is cheap! As cheap or cheaper than the
cheapest pasta noodles.
[8] …if you made the ‘sumien’ according to the proper
steps, the noodle itself would have contained enough salt to flavour the soup,
let alone when served plain fresh off boiling water (salted or no)
Version 2: The truth comes out, the lumps were only noodles within her delusion.
I criiinnnggeeee…
[SHIYU has used JUST EAT IT ALREADY!]
[FAT CAT has used SNUB!]
[GUMI has used APPROVE!]
I was disappointed in the author’s original version when it didn’t mention “mala oil” for spicing up the noodles. It’s not like Shiyu forgot her past culinary skills where year after year she would mala most of her foods.