Free Web NovelChapter 530: Chapter 442: The Eyes Have Learned, but the Hands Haven’t
"Everyone, rest assured, we have professional chefs on site to guide you. Even if you mess up wrapping, at worst, you just waste a dumpling skin. The filling can still be reused."
"Also, this experience activity is completely voluntary. If you don’t want to participate, just queue up as usual to get a number card. Participating or not won’t affect your normal purchase."
"We just introduced this activity because we worried you might get bored waiting."
Impatient customers immediately raised their hands.
"Excuse me, when can we start getting number cards?"
"Right away!"
"I have a question."
The male customer at the front of the line stretched his hand in front of Dais, "If I buy now, does that mean I won’t have time to experience dumpling wrapping?"
"Um..."
Dais was stunned, thinking about it. That was indeed a problem.
"Please wait a moment, I’ll ask the chef."
"Now?"
Lin Chen was placing dumplings in the pan when he received Dais’ message. He looked at the empty steamer beside him.
"I just started preparing Fried Dumplings. The steamed ones will take a while. You should ask them if they want fried or steamed."
If they wait until the customers finish wrapping to fry them, the waiting time will increase.
But if they batch them in the pan, it would be hard to control the doneness of the dumplings.
This was indeed a bit troublesome.
However, it only concerned the first batch of customers. The dumplings made by customers afterward could be produced together with the subsequent batches, without worrying about doneness.
Thinking about this, he simply stopped his current actions and started putting dumplings in the steamer instead.
The steamer can be stacked for steaming without any impact, the pan cannot.
The walkie-talkie soon crackled again.
As expected, most of the customers wanted Fried Dumplings.
In Western countries’ cooking methods, steaming is almost nonexistent. They generally focus on frying, deep-frying, boiling, and roasting.
With the spread of Chinese and Asian cuisine in recent years, steaming has slowly entered the vision of Western chefs.
But it’s mostly used for steaming seafood and such.
Therefore, for the vast majority of diners, steamed dumplings were just a name, with no image in their minds.
Without a concept, people naturally choose more familiar foods.
"Alright then, I won’t make Fried Dumplings first. Wait until the customers finish, then bring them to me. A pan can hold... about fifty or so?"
"Steamed? Steamed ones will be fewer, only thirty per steamer."
Upon receiving Lin Chen’s reply, Dais had a general idea and informed all the waiters of this news to prevent any misunderstandings during communication later.
"Everyone, since the restaurant cart can accommodate limited quantities of dumplings per round, please decide in advance when purchasing whether you want to participate in hand-wrapped dumpling experience. Once you’ve paid, you can’t change your mind."
"Of course, the number you can wrap is unlimited, but if you make too many we might not be able to help cook them. Hence, we advise wrapping about five dumplings per person."
The dumpling skins are sold at the Great Xia Supermarket, and if you’re interested, you can try them out here and then do more at home afterward."
Upon hearing that each person could only wrap five and that the extras had to be taken uncooked, the diners felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over them, making them calm down on the spot.
Thinking it through, it’s true, everyone present, one by one, were people who didn’t usually cook at home.
Even housewives mostly made oven meals, rarely using frying pans, let alone making food step by step by hand.
Five is actually quite sufficient.
To make a complete shape can already be considered quite an achievement.
Reasonable people are in the majority after all, and quickly figured out the reason, not getting angry, and quietly awaited the waiters to distribute the number cards.
"Five is just right, enough to have fun, without affecting the speed of dining."
"I saw chefs making dumplings on TV before and thought it was amazing. Never saw how they pinched them exactly, and the dumplings were already done."
"This is a high-end restaurant after all, shouldn’t kitchen techniques be confidential? Is it really okay to expose them this way?"
"Starving, starving, hurry up, hurry, when do we eat?"
This sudden change didn’t disrupt Lin Chen’s team rhythm at all. There was already half an hour’s stock of dumplings wrapped in advance, plus the time diners took for their own experience, as well as the continuously produced dumplings during this period, ensuring a supply for an hour without running out was definitely not a problem.
At this point, Zhao Shun had moved the table to one side, a few meters away from Lin Chen’s food cart, with Old Chen standing at the cart window, continuously focusing on wrapping dumplings.
The queue just happened to pass his side, then onto the food cart, without affecting each other.
"Customers who have received number cards please step forward in order."
Nicole was responsible for organizing the line of diners on this side. Those who were able to come here had already received number cards, while those who hadn’t were still lined up outside the main entrance, with Dais controlling the distribution speed of the number cards.
"Those who wish to experience the dumpling-making activity, please stand in front of the table, six people per group taking turns. If you’re purchasing directly without participating, please stand in front of me."
She was no longer the shy person she used to be. After a few days of adjustment, even when faced with countless unfamiliar diners’ gazes, she still managed to remain calm and composed.
"After completing the dumpling-making experience, please bring your dumplings to me to place an order. I will include your dumplings in the total order quantity."
"If there are guests who do not require assistance with processing and cooking, you can enjoy a two-euro processing fee waiver at checkout."
As soon as she finished speaking, guests number one to six immediately gathered around Zhao Shun’s table, staring at him expectantly.
Zhao Shun had already put on a mask, pretending to be calm as he quickly grabbed a lump of dough from the board in front of him and started kneading it.
Rolling, pinching portions, flattening the dough—all three actions were done in one fell swoop.
To save time, he even employed his unique skill of flattening ten dumpling skins at once.
This wasn’t his limit, but there was no need to make it harder for himself. It was enough as it was—if he messed up, it would bring shame to the Great Xia people.
"Darn it, this chef looks so young but his movements are so skilled. What on earth just happened?"
"I didn’t catch it either. I only saw a few swishes, and then suddenly a pile of dumpling skins appeared before me."
Under the curious gazes of the six diners, Zhao Shun grabbed a stack of dumpling skins in front of him and seemingly tossed them casually in front of each person.
Five per person, no more, no less.
Without saying a word, he picked up a dumpling skin again, lifted it into the air, and gave it a shake, letting the excess flour fall off.
Seeing the guests looking at him in confusion, Zhao Shun extended his right hand, making a gesture of invitation.
"Oh, oh, you want me to follow you?"
A quick-witted guest immediately understood his meaning, hurriedly picking up a dumpling skin and gave it a light shake, indeed witnessing a flurry of flour falling from the air.
Zhao Shun nodded, dipped his right index finger in a bit of water from the bowl in front of him, and rubbed it on the ends of the dumpling skin.
He scooped a spoonful of meat filling, placed it in the center of the dumpling skin, and then slightly hollowed his palm.
Stopping, he looked up at everyone.
With the previous example, the six guests quickly imitated, also dipping some water to apply it onto the dumpling skins.
As they began to experience how to make dumplings, dozens of curious glances from the queue behind them were also directed their way, eager to see how this food called dumpling was made.
Zhao Shun was teaching the basic crescent dumpling, which was neither too simple nor too difficult, and was also the most common shape of dumplings.
After watching his entire process of making dumplings, the eyes of the six foreigners brightened up.
"I got it, I got it!"
"I didn’t expect making dumplings to be so easy. It looked quite difficult in videos."
"Sure enough, you have to learn in person from others."
"Start by pinching a corner, right? I remembered it clearly, then... then... what’s next?"
"Pinch like this? No, no, the shape is different. How about like this? Still no! Strange, I clearly remembered pinching it like this?"
The few of them fumbled with the dumplings for ages, but none of them got it right, even sneaking glances from side to side to learn from others, only to find that they weren’t getting it either.
From Zhao Shun’s angle, he could clearly see all their little movements.
The corners of his mouth lifted triumphantly under the mask, silently calling them idiots in his heart.
After clearing his throat twice, he picked up another dumpling skin to demonstrate again.
"Wait!!"
"Let me get the filling in first, so I can follow step by step!"
This time, everyone got smart: they called for a pause, quickly applying water around their dumpling skins, scooping the filling in the middle, and gathered around Zhao Shun, determined to emulate his actions one-to-one.
Zhao Shun had no intention of keeping it to himself. He slightly bent his index finger, folding the outer edge of the dumpling skin inward, releasing, and then repeated the previous action, allowing the guests to see more clearly.
"I got it!"
"Oh, so that’s how it’s done. I got it backwards earlier; no wonder something felt off."
Under Zhao Shun’s deliberately slowed demonstration, they finally grasped the technique, successively forming the correct folds, and then one by one they pinched down along the edges, ultimately wrapping a ’correct’ crescent dumpling.
"Hahaha, these idiots, can’t even learn something so simple? I learned it from over a meter away!"
A young guy in the queue behind them sneered dismissively.
Although other diners around him weren’t as expressive, their indifferent expressions conveyed more or less the same thoughts.
It’s just a few pinches of the dumpling skin, how hard could it be?
The few guests making dumplings wanted to argue back, but were afraid that if the others succeeded right away, it would make them look even more foolish.
So they pretended not to hear and continued making dumplings, secretly hoping that those behind wouldn’t be able to make them either.
