Su Chen pressed down with the back of his spoon, speeding up the melting of the soup base.
"Time for the most important part!"
He added a spoonful of white sugar to the boiling broth, let it bubble for another two minutes, then ladled out a basin of the liquid. The remaining broth, he strained through a sieve until it was clear.
Su Chen heard a commotion outside again.
It was Bai Xiaobo!
"Aunt Fang, Aunt Fang! Where’s the boss?"
Aunt Fang pointed to the kitchen. "The boss said no one is allowed inside without his permission."
Xiaobai said, "Oh," then added, "I’ll just leave my stuff here then!"
Peanut butter and sesame paste.
Su Chen poked his head out. "Xiaobai, you can come in."
A look of pleasant surprise flashed across Bai Xiaobo’s face. ’Just as I thought! Only Brother Chen’s friends get this kind of special treatment!’
’No one else is allowed in, but I can go in.’
AHAHAHA!
Su Chen opened the sesame paste and peanut butter Xiaobai had bought. "I’m going to teach you a trick today. Next time you have hot pot at home, it’ll make you the coolest guy in the room!"
"Really?" Bai Xiaobo’s eyes widened in disbelief.
"Mhm." Su Chen measured the peanut butter and sesame paste into a basin in a two-to-eight ratio and added a spoonful of salt. "This is the golden ratio for a lamb hot pot dipping sauce."
"Then, add a little warm water and start stirring in one direction. Once the water is fully incorporated, add a little more. Keep going until you’ve thinned it to a thick, flowing consistency, almost like a curtain of water."
Xiaobai held the basin, a little confused. ’This doesn’t seem that amazing,’ he thought. ’Isn’t this just mixing sesame paste?’
’He did it all the time when he had hot pot at home and never thought it was anything special.’
But since the boss didn’t elaborate, Xiaobai just grabbed some chopsticks and started stirring the sesame paste.
Meanwhile, Su Chen took the first basin of broth he had ladled out and added some yellow powder—yellow millet flour.
He performed nearly the same action as Bai Xiaobo, stirring the broth with chopsticks as he added the yellow flour, not stopping until the mixture in the basin was on the verge of setting.
Into the other basin of strained broth, he added condensed milk and olive oil, stirred until smooth, and poured the entire mixture into a teapot.
"Boss, what’s that for?" Xiaobai asked, his hands still stirring as he stared blankly at Su Chen.
"Making a little gadget. We went on that trip, and President Ling got the whole second floor set up perfectly for us. This celebration feast is for her, so shouldn’t we make a little something extra for her?"
Xiaobai nodded. "That’s true. We can’t let President Ling feel unappreciated."
"You’re a veteran employee now, so it’s good that you understand this principle." Su Chen gave him an appreciative look.
This look made Bai Xiaobo stir the sesame paste in his hands even faster.
Su Chen took the teapot and, aiming for the holes in the already-dried eggshells, poured in enough broth to fill them about a third of the way. He then immediately put all 12 eggshells in the freezer to flash-freeze them.
After only two minutes in the freezer, the broth inside hadn’t frozen solid. Instead, it had become slightly bouncy, like Jell-O on the verge of melting!
He sealed the hole with a small, round piece of egg crepe and placed it in the refrigerator to chill.
’Holy cow! Making just one of these is a ton of work.’
’Su Chen was used to making bold, hearty dishes, and doing this kind of slow, meticulous work was almost unbearable. He felt as restless as if he had ants crawling all over him.’
He repeated this process until all 12 eggshells were filled and chilling in the refrigerator.
And with that, the so-called "special reward" was temporarily taken care of.
"Is the sesame paste ready?"
Xiaobai looked up. "Does it need anything else?"
"Nope." Su Chen began pouring condiments like fermented bean curd and soy sauce into small bowls. "For a proper two-to-eight paste, this is all you need. Everything else is just for personal taste."
Bai Xiaobo nodded, only half-understanding. "What else can I do?"
Su Chen thought for a moment. "Didn’t we get another order a few days ago? Go think about how you’re going to handle it."
It was an order placed by Brother Fang Chang before the team-building event.
He hadn’t specified any dishes, but he gave a budget of 3,000 yuan for a six-person meal.
"You got it, Brother Chen! I’ll head out now!"
After this exchange with Su Chen, Xiaobai felt like he was different from the others. Even his form of address had changed from "Boss" to "Brother Chen."
It didn’t matter to Su Chen; he didn’t mind.
After sending Bai Xiaobo on his way, Brother Fang Chang and Jiang Yuan arrived.
Su Chen invited the pair right into the kitchen. "President Fang, how much do I owe you for the fish and shrimp?"
Brother Fang Chang waved his hands frantically, enduring the searing pain of the flesh of his arm being twisted a full 360 degrees. "No, no, it’s fine! I just picked them up on the way. It was nothing!"
"In that case, thanks." Su Chen took the live shrimp and the cleaned fish. "This leg of lamb... I’ll take that too. Let me get started on it."
"Boss Su, about our partnership..." Brother Fang Chang was desperate to use this deal to prove himself to his girlfriend. Otherwise, he was never going to hear the end of it about this leg of lamb.
"Don’t panic. We’ll eat first. After the meal, we’ll take a vote. As long as everyone thinks it’s delicious, we’ll use your family’s meat, alright?" In truth, Su Chen had already made up his mind. He was perfectly fine with sourcing meat directly from the Fang company.
’But he had to go through the motions. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be right to just take a free leg of lamb off him.’
"That works!" Brother Fang Chang breathed a sigh of relief.
He was confident in the quality of his family’s meat, especially this batch of grass-fed lamb. It was shipped from Inner Mongolia to be butchered daily, and because it was so expensive, it was only sold in high-end supermarkets.
Su Chen placed a hind leg on the cutting board. It was frozen rather stiff.
Just as he was about to start cutting, he stopped, took out his phone, and made a call.
"Hey, Ah Bao? How come you’re not at the restaurant yet? Yeah, that’s right, the celebration feast is tonight. We can’t start without you."
"Yeah, you know my knife skills," he said sarcastically. "Mhm, mhm, get over here. That’s right, help me break down this leg. I can learn a thing or two while you’re at it."
After hanging up, Su Chen washed his hands with satisfaction.
’Now *this* is what it means to be a boss!’
’If you have to do everything yourself, what’s the point of being the boss?’