Late Night Diner at Rhodes island

by setarium

A series of character-based stories. Slice-of-life style - think the Midnight Diner meets the Solitary Gourmet, with cooking shows sprinkled in between. This is a translated version. As per original author's request, the link to the stories in Chinese will be posted...once I find a way to link it here. Published with the approval of the author.

34. Day 34: Genesis of Delicacy

Day 34: Genesis of Delicacy (Passenger, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall Soup)

The Late Night Diner is a part of Rhodes Island's canteen. That goes without saying – to whom had anyone ever heard of a diner in the boiler room?

As the name implies, it opens around midnight. There are only a handful of customers at a time.

Operators off their night shift could take an order and bring back to their quarters. Night owls could sit dining-in while leeching off the Diner's wi-fi. The Doctor would come for instant noodles from time to time.

Drinks are in the cooler. Anyone burdened by their own thoughts could take one and chug it down, anytime.

Menu? No such thing exists. What the Chef prepares is what you get. It all depends on his mood of the day.

Welcome to the Rhodes Island Late Night Diner. In here, you might even meet a familiar face or two.

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Note: Somewhat of a joke entry, this was written on the date of Passenger's in-game birthday. It was written in the style of Genesis 1-2 in King James version of Bible to celebrate his memetic status of having godlike power in Integrated Strategies 2 among CN players.

In the beginning the Chef was buying ingredients.

And dried goods of excellent quality came from Yan. And they were quite expensive. And the Chef swiped his credit card on the POS machine.

And the Chef said, Let there be four-eyed abalones; and there were four-eyed abalones.

And the Chef saw that the ham came from Kou-wu and that it was good; and the Chef separated the ham from the stock of the merchant.

And the Chef selected Higashi scalebass fins, Iberian seabeast skirt, dried shell meat and scalebass snout and scalebass maw. And thus was the first Day.

And the Chef said, Let the dried goods be soaked and steamed.

And the Chef soaked the dried goods in distilled water, and steamed the rehydrated sea-cucumber and abalone; and it was so.

And the Chef cleaned the steamed sea-cucumber and abalone, and soaked scalebass snout, scalebass maw and scalebass fins. And thus was the second day.

And the Chef said, Let the water be changed for each soaked dried goods, and keep the water clean; and it was so.

And the Chef deep fried cystbeast tendon in hot oil, and chilled steamed scalebass fins with ice; and the Chef saw that it was good.

And the Chef waited for the dried goods to be soaked through. And thus was the third day.

And the Chef said, the fowlbeast must be aged, and the beast ham hock must be fat for the broth, and fried beast skin and tenderloin needed to be added to thicken the broth; and it was so.

And the Chef skimmed the foam off the top, and washed the fowlbest meat and ham hock clean, and added in scallion, ginger and cooking wine to stew the broth. And thus was the fourth day.

And the Chef said, Let there be another pot of broth, and thus make the finished delicacy thick with pleasant aroma.

And the Chef picked out beast ham hock, intestine, fowlbeast meat, cut up the ham, and boiled and cleaned them; and the Chef saw it was good.

And the Chef then put the ingredients into a pot and simmered; and the Chef said it would take a day with low heat to simmer down the broth. And thus was the fifth day.

And the Chef said, first pot of broth needed to be added into the second pot of broth; and beast ham hock, ham, fowlbeast meat were given to the canteen staff and customers; and it was so.

And the Chef scooped out jellied broth in the first pot and filtered through into the broth of the second pot.

And the Chef skimmed off the floating oil and cast off the impurities from the broth; and the Chef saw it was good.

And the Chef said, Let the ingredients be readied and put into the pot in ordered fashion, and to make the flavour of the broth seep into all scalebass fins, all sea-cucumber, all seabeast skirt, and all soaked dried goods.

And the Chef put the soaked ingredients into the pot by the ancient order of ingredient addition from Yan, and the Chef added aged wine and rock sugar into the broth, and the Chef turned down the heat, and made the scalebass snout, scalebass maw, cystebeast tendon, shiitake mushroom soak full of broth.

And the Chef said, Behold, I put the most tender fowlbeast egg and the fattest shell meat into the pot and let them simmer.

And the Chef said, I shall give the fowlbeast meat and ham hock from the broth to the canteen staff and customers; and it was so.

And the Chef saw the ingredients and the golden broth he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And thus was the sixth day.

Thus the delicacy was completed, and all the ingredients were simmered into perfection.

And on the seventh day the Chef ended the delicacy which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

And the Chef dedicated the delicacy to the seventh day, and sanctified it as it was the brithday of Mister Passenger; because that in it he had rested from all his work which the Chef created and made.

Amen.