SC1 12.1 – Egg Noodles

After accompanying Yunno and Yui carried out their morning study as Sanno, I leaved the hut and then went back as Warrior Deitoro. As we had planned, starting today Yunno and Yui would help me completing the instant noodle order from Sotora. Wasting no time, I took them to working kitchen in the balcony.

Before starting the work, I took the time to explain a few things to Yunno and Yui. “Always remember that warrior, cook, and craftsman have one similarity. From the moment they get up from their bed in the morning, they will dedicate themselves to whatever art they want to master.

This lifelong dedication is called self-discipline. Understood?”

““Hai!”” Yunno and Yui replied at the same time

“Any question?”

Yunno raised her hand, and she waited until I lightly nodded at her before asking, “Which one we have to prioritize, self-discipline to become warrior or self-discipline to become cook?”

“We are warrior before a cook. We cook in order to become a better warrior, by earning money we use to buy essence cube, by training our grip and cut when preparing ingredient, by training our patient, determination, and indomitable spirit when crafting a complicated cuisine, and so on.”

“Do we also eat, hunt, shop, play, baths, and do other stuff in order to become a better warrior?” Yui curiously asked me with her childish tone.

“Precisely,” I replied. “Whatever we do, we do it in order to become a better warrior, even when we sleep at night, always remember this simple but important aspect of our life.”

““Hai!””

“Other than self-discipline, warrior, cook, and craftsman also can’t share their skill, knowledge, and craft to just anybody.” I paused for a moment before continuing in a drop dead serious tone. “They won’t share it to people who were not connected to them by teacher-student relationship, familial relationship, or guild membership.

In fact, a lot of martial family, school, and guild will harshly punish anyone who leaked their knowledge, skill, or craft to outsider. Some will even being hunted and killed.

Got it?”

““Hai!!””

“Unfortunately, yesterday you had broken the taboo of sharing knowledge,” I firmly said. “You have told your youngest aunt the method to manufacture oyster sauce.”

Dark cloud in instant filled Yunno’s face to the brim. “Uncle Deitoro, please forgive Yunno. I don’t know I can’t share it, but Yunno is ready to receive your punishment.”

“Please don’t punish Big Sis Yunno,” Yui said before she started to sob in panic. “It was Yui who told Aunt Yuko about oyster sauce. Big Sis Yunno only added some little pieces into Yui’s story.”

“Oyster sauce is one of key elements in our cooking, so the leak is truly fatal. However, it’s not your fault. I have not told you about the taboo yet,” I said as I wiped Yui’s tears. “Sanno also have ensured your youngest aunt will keep the method to produce oyster sauce as secret. So, it is fine as long as you don’t do it again.”

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“Uncle Deitoro,” Yunno firmly said. “We will not do it again, at all cost.”

“Yeah, we won’t do it again,” Yui firmly added, even though she still lightly sobbed.

Even though in a corner Kato gave me an intense gaze, a sign that she didn’t agree with the way how I warned Yunno and Yui, I firmly believed that I had to deliver a strong message to Yunno and Yui as this matter was tightly related to their future. And so, I sternly continued.

“I do hope you two will not do it again, truly” I genuinely said. “Because if you do it again, I will kick you out of my household and you can live in the street or wherever place you can go. I won’t give a damn about it.”

“We understand.”

Yunno said as determination flashed in her eyes, while Yui firmly nodded.

“Okay.” I wiped Yui’s tear one more time before continuing, “Let’s start today work.”

Without delay I took out a black board from my spatial ring and hang it in one corner of the kitchen, along with small basket of chalk and eraser clothes. Then, I wrote down our first project in the blackboard.

List of On Going Project:

A. 200 bowls of soy sauce oyster noodle, Sotora.

“This is our project currently,” I said as I put back the chalk to the small basket. “You already know how to produce oyster sauce, so today we will make the noodle, the main ingredient in our project.

If you have question, raise your hand, and wait my permission to speak. Got it?”

““Hai!!””

I nodded and then arranged the ingredient and equipment we need on the table. “The noodle we will make is egg noodle. It has root to Chinese cuisine, made of high-protein flour, salt, egg, and water. A nice man from a small but great country of Taiwan taught me how to make it.”

Now, Yui, you just learnt about high-protein flour with Sanno earlier. Please tell me what you remember about it.”

“Ummm…” Yui tilted her head to the side before replying, “High-protein flour or bread flour usually is milled from hard wheat with high gluten content. It has 12-14% protein content, which make the dough more elastic and light, and the final product very chewy in pleasant way and has more texture.

It’s also the most expensive flour in the market.”

“Correct.” I happily said before turning my gaze to Yunno who raised her hand. “Yeah?”

“Why does Uncle Deitoro also put a bag of sweet potato flour we made a few days ago on the table?”

“We will mix the high-protein wheat flour with our sweet potato flour, to suppress the production cost.”

“What about the final taste? Will the mix lower the noodle’s quality?” Yunno curiously asked.

“We and Minami already taste it, and it is totally fine,” I casually replied.

“Was the noodle we ate yesterday also made of the mixed-flour?”

“Yeah,” I firmly replied. “I didn’t include sweet potato flour in the calculation to determine the instant noodles’ price, and made Minami assumed that our noodle was made purely with high-protein wheat flour, but actually it was made of mixed high-protein wheat flour and sweet potato flour.”

“So, did we just trick Big Sis Minami yesterday?” Yui worriedly asked.

“To some extent, yes, we tricked her,” I openly admitted. “But she agreed with the product and the price we offered after tasting it personally.”

It was clearly visible that Yunno and Yui had a hard time to accept my dishonest act to Minami, and so I continued my explanation.

“It’s not honorable thing, but it’s a necessary assurance. Always remember that when we enter into a trade partnership, we can’t just naively expose every piece of vital information we have.

Moreover, I believe the person who guided Minami will try to replicate our noodle secretly.” After taking a deep breath I added. “Therefore, in case Sotora produce their own noodle based on our noodle, we will at least have some room to compete with them and don’t get swallowed completely.”

“How does Uncle Deitoro know Big Sis Minami’s teacher will try to replicate our noodle?” Yui curiously asked.

After a smile I firmly replied, “Every good merchant will always try to secure upper hand from their partner, and from how big Sotora’s success is, it’s easy to tell that a seasoned merchant run it.”

“So, we have to be super careful when making a deal with Sotora?” Yunno asked.

“We have to be super careful when making a trade deal with anyone,” I firmly replied. “But don’t easily show our concern, wariness, or hostility, especially to an old fox from merchant world. Got it?”

““Hai!!””

Hearing Yunno and Yui gave me determined reply always made me happy. And so, after another smiled we started the work to make egg noodle.

*****