Night 57: Lee, Noodle with Stewed Meat Sauce
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.
"How's business?"
A sleazy voice asked. Accompanied it were two figures outside the counter, one tall, one short. The Chef raised his head and glanced at the customers. The tall one, a man with polite manner, shifted his glasses and took off his hat. He smiled.
"Not bad. What would you like? Noodle with Stewed Meat Sauce again?"
"Three bowls."
"Uncle Lee, I'm not that hungry." The girl beside the man muttered.
"Two large and one small." Lee added. "We can take out if we don't finish. You keep on with your work, boss. We'll be sitting over there."
Lee was not something of an usual customer at the Diner. Although Waaifu would bring him some snacks and spirits on her occasional late night incursion for food after a long evening of studying, Lee himself rarely showed up in person. In fact he seldom visited the land ship, yet despite his limited appearances he still received hands in friendship among many an operators and strangely, their admiration.
"I heard Lee is the boss of the largest private detective agency in Lungmen, he knows people from both sides of the law!"
"It's true! I heard from a countryman of mine stationed in Lungmen branch of the company that he saw Lee and the Rat King practising Tai-chi together in the park!"
"Is he really? He looks to be just another Yanese like the one who lives next dorm to me."
"You can never judge a book by its cover! I heard he's the type that even Governor Wei would think twice before bothering him. The kind of cases he dealt with was the kind that even LGD would never consider ever viewing. You know that Ch'en Hui-chieh? As soon as she meet Mister Lee she instantly turns into a yes-woman. There isn't a single bone in her to muster a 'no' when she saw him!"
"Not only Mister Lee is well-connected and an all-around smooth person, he's also a super great cook! I'll let your guys on something - Hung learned all his cooking from Mister Lee! I heard it from himself! He said that just on making fried rice alone, he's no where near a tenth of Mister Lee's ability to make it delicious!"
"Really now?! Then who's better, him or the Chef from the Diner?"
"Hard to say. Boss is probably on par with Mister Lee. I really wish they could get together someday and combine their recipes. I'd change all my shift to nights in a heartbeat if that happens!"
"I also heard that he knows the art of tea, do house works and mend cloth by hand. Heavens! Where else do you find a perfect man like him?! Apparently he's still sing-"
Waaifu placed her tablet faced down on the table. If she kept on reading, she felt that the on-board forum users would brought out enough boasts to make Lee shinier than the Golden Prince of Leithanien legend and more alluring than the great banshee warlock Logos. As for Lee, he was blissfully unaware. He was sitting on the other side of the table twirling the pair of walnuts in his hand, while stealing occasional glances at other customers.
"What are you gawking at?" Waaifu waved her hand before Lee's eyes. "You dragged me out here for 'dinner' in the middle of the night, and just sitting there twirling walnuts without a word. Wait, don't tell me you lost some bet somewhere again and have to pawn the agency out for dept?"
"Shush, you. Even if your Uncle Lee couldn't manage to wrangle in a client or two for a few years, we are not that desperate." Lee straightened up and sipped on his hot tea, then leaned back again on the soft cushioned back of the dining chair. "I'm taking you out for food, and you are mad about it?"
"As rare as the occasion is, I just happen to not be hungry." Waaifu refuted. "And you are having two full bowls of noodle for supposed late night snacks?! Do you have to over-stuffed yourself like that?"
"Hey, what you just said makes you sound ignorant, you know." Lee shifted his neck till he felt comfortable, then waved his finger. "Noodles with Stewed Meat Sauce is the stuff. It may look commonplace, but when you have a single bite of the noodle and a single sip of the sauce, its flavour is like a heavenly tune reverberating in your ears, makes you wonder and wonder~~"He said, licking his lips. "and leave you always wanting for more."
"Isn't it just some leftover meat stewed up with chopped button and wood ear mushrooms? You can't shut up about it ever since you came back from your trip to Shangshu." Waaifu pouted. "Thanks to you, boss here had been trying ever hard to recreate it with meat leftover from the canteen kitchen and haven't made anything else in a month. Everyone is coming for the noodles every night, and swept up all the dim sums and soup on the way, making Closure's overtly sweet bread the only option for me. For a month!"
"Wasn't it a good thing, then? People get their fill of noodles, boss has good earnings, and you have less for late night snacks so you don't have to watch your weight." Lee said, smirking. "One stone, many birds."
"Haha, right. You are so funny." Waaifu faked a laugh and looked a bit sullen.
Despite of Waaifu's disapproval, the Chef's Noodle with Stewed Meat Sauce, recipe provided by Lee, had indeed help the Rhodes kitchen rid of much left over meat trimmings without throwing them away. Hogbeast and fowlbeast meat were stewed for a long time till soft and tender and easily separated from bones. Then the sauce was made with pepper oil by frying high grade red Yan peppercorn in canola oil with low heat, chopped re-hydrated dried day lilies and wood ear mushrooms, as well as fresh button mushrooms. Some ginger and scallion were added and the thick flavorful soup from stewing meat was used as base. Just a few pinch of salt and a splash of soy sauce to bring out the flavor of the mushrooms and the meat, plus a few drops of sesame oil, the delicious, scalding sauce would then be poured over the boiled, chewy hand-rolled noodles. When the three bowls of steaming noodles were placed before Lee and Waaifu, the former was just having quite a time reading palm of a girl who discovered he was visiting the Diner.
"Hmm, your palm says much about your fortune, miss..." Lee squinted his eyes, going through the girl's palm lines thoroughly. "Although they foretell a lifetime of good fortune, they also speak of hardship and obstacles. You will see your career taking off not long, yet you still need to be vigilant and put in actual hard work towards your goals. But your love line was quite prominent, miss, and if you meet anyone that makes your heart skip, just go and pursue them."
When the girl thanked Lee profusely and left, Waaifu pulled her bowl of noodles to herself. "When could you use the energy of poking into others' business to visit Rhodes Island more and improve the kitchen's cooking, O Magnificent Mister Lee?" She said with sarcasm.
"Do I look like I'm working at the moment?" Lee picked up a bowl, and pulled out a pair of chopsticks from a nearby holder.
"Um..no. Wait, when have you ever worked?"
"So answers your question." Lee mixed the noodles in the bowl with his chopsticks, and picked up a piece of meat coated thick in sauce and took a sniff. "I'm free, so why not do something reserved for free time? I'm not giving her bad ideas anyway."
"Tch." Waaifu huffed, then shifted her focus on the bowl of noodles before her. Although proclaiming being not hungry, she still swallowed and licked her lips looking at the delicious food. Brown sauce coated the ivory noodles, every bite brought forth thick and tasty flavour of stewed meat, Yan peppercorn and scallion. With chewy noodles accompanied by soft meat and zesty mushroom and day lily, only when she placed her chopsticks down Waaifu realized she had finished the entire bowl in one go, noodles and sauce and all.
"Who was saying she's not hungry just then? I got some extra here, let me share with you." Lee poured much of the noodles and meat from the second bowl to Waaifu. "You study into late night every night, you are working too hard. Don't just eat bread all the time, those are just empty carbs. Especially so when young girls like you who are always concerned about your weight and not eating well. If it keeps going like this, you won't even know it when you mess up your stomach and getting sick. You are also practising martial arts everyday, what do you have to worry about your figures? Just eat and drink...like normal." He chided.
"Um...uncle Lee, there's too much meat..."Waaiful said, picking out a few meat chunks from her bowl, but Lee blocked her moving hands with his chopsticks. "Don't your worry about it. You eat your share, I still have practically a full bowl here. You are graduating, yeah? Though it isn't quite my place to tell you this, but if you want to hang out with other kids in your class, just go out and play. Your life shouldn't just be martial arts practise and work other than studying - you can't just bury your head in the books and call it a life. You gotta get in touch with the world, with others."
Waaifu awkwardly glanced at Lee, then kept her stares down and focused on her noodles.
"I heard Uncle Tung's apprentice was not bad. Good guy, a good cook too."
Upon hearing this, Waaifu suddenly chocked on a piece of mushroom and started coughing. A silence fell upon the table. For a few minutes, both of them said nothing, just kept themselves busy slurping noodles.
Lee only finished half a bowl, and he called the Chef over for a take-out box for the rest. On their way back to the dorm, many operators off their night shift and on their way to the Diner greeted them warmly. Lee returned greetings with each, yet answered all sorts of their curious questions with just a smile. After a few turns and there were no longer anyone come bothering them. The pair, one tall, one short, cast long shadows on the hallway floor.
"How was the dinner? Had your fill?"
"I'm good. Thanks Uncle Lee."
"Still got enough money to spend on things?"
"Uncle Lee, money from work is enough to cover both my tuition and other spending. Just keep my part of wage from the agency. For rent."
"Alright then, as long as you have a plan. You are so much better than the other two boys."
"Uncle Lee, who was the girl you were having noodles with back in Shangshu? Something start with Du?"
"Ah...um..."
Lee let out a string of cough, and did not answer the question.