Chapter 11: Hair-Thin Jook-sing Noodles

Although this was only Li Xiao’s second time making bamboo-pole noodles,

thanks to the experience granted by his system, his movements were even more masterful than some chefs who had been making them for twenty or thirty years.

In just twenty minutes, the dough had already been pressed over 200 times.

A closer look would reveal that the once-coarse dough had now become perfectly smooth.

Its thickness had been reduced from over ten centimeters to a mere 0.02 centimeters.

Li Xiao pressed a finger firmly into the thin sheet of dough.

The dough barely registered a faint indent, and the mark vanished the moment he lifted his finger.

Seeing the dough return to its original state, he nodded in satisfaction.

After being pressed over 200 times, the dough’s elasticity had reached its peak.

If he continued to press it, the elasticity would actually decrease, and the resulting noodles would be tough instead of having the crisp, snappy texture he was aiming for.

He lightly dusted both sides of the dough sheet with flour to keep it dry.

This would prevent it from sticking together during the next steps.

Li Xiao picked up a dough knife. With a few swift cuts, he trimmed the sheet of dough, leaving a perfect rectangle.

"There are two ways to turn this sheet of dough into noodles: with a dough knife, or with a noodle-making machine."

"If you’re making this at home, I’d recommend using a machine."

"It’s much more convenient, and the noodles come out more uniform in thickness."

"Of course, a machine has its drawbacks. The texture and elasticity aren’t quite as good."

"So today, I’ll be using a dough knife."

Li Xiao held up the dough knife for the viewers to see.

The dough knife was essentially a semicircular blade.

A silicone grip was fitted along the curved edge to protect the user’s hand.

The one Li Xiao held was a large model, a full 20 centimeters long.

When they heard he was going to cut the noodles by hand, many viewers in the chat were baffled.

"From what I know, wonton noodles use really thin noodles, right? Can you really cut them that thin with a knife?"

"I’ve seen knife-shaved noodles, but since when are wonton noodles cut with a knife?"

"My family uses a knife for noodles too, but we always make thick ones!"

"He’s really going to cut that huge sheet of dough with a knife? How long is that gonna take?"

Seeing the skepticism in the chat, Li Xiao didn’t rush to explain.

It was clear most of the viewers hadn’t seen the video he posted yesterday.

The best explanation was to prove them wrong with his actions.

With a flurry of movement, in just five minutes, he had sliced the entire sheet of dough into a pile of incredibly fine threads.

Li Xiao set down his knife and evenly sprinkled more flour over the noodles to ensure the strands wouldn’t clump together.

Once that was done, he casually grabbed a small bundle of noodles and shook them out in the air.

The excess flour rained down, like a localized snow flurry.

At the same time, the noodles, a mere 0.01 centimeters thick, whipped back and forth in the air.

They watched as the noodles, each as fine as a strand of hair and perfectly uniform in size, danced in the air.

The viewers in the chat, who had just been so skeptical, were dumbfounded.

"Whoa, that was way too fast!"

"I just went to the bathroom, how is there a huge pile of noodles on the table already?"

"That smooth, fluid knife work was so satisfying to watch!"

"My god, what level of knife skill is that?"

"Cutting fast is one thing, but getting every strand the exact same thickness? That’s insane!"

"No wonder he dared to call the other guy’s noodles inauthentic. He’s got the skills to back it up!"

"666!!"

"Incredible!"

...

As the praise rolled in, more and more viewers poured into the stream, and the viewer count finally broke 1,000.

Seeing the tide in the chat turn so quickly, a slight smile touched the corners of Li Xiao’s lips.

He wasn’t surprised by this reaction at all.

He glanced at the red packet icon in the top-left corner. Only one was left.

He lightly dusted the flour from his hands.

"Thanks for the support, everyone!"

"Anyone who comes to my stream is a friend. I’m sure a lot of you missed out on the red packets I just sent."

"But don’t worry. My stream might be lacking in some areas, but never in red packets."

As soon as he finished speaking, another ten password-protected red packets were sent out.

Seeing the screen fill up with comments like "Brother Li is awesome," Li Xiao chuckled.

"Alright, the noodles are ready. Next up are the soup base and the wontons."

"Also, since I didn’t add any lye water to these noodles, we can completely skip the ’aging’ process!"

"They can be cooked and used right away."

"Of course, I should warn all of you about something. You’ll see some shops that claim to make fresh bamboo-pole noodles on-site. They’ll have a couple of noodle machines right there in the open, but they add a lot of lye water to their dough."

"The truth is, those noodles can’t be used right after they’re made. They need to be refrigerated for at least 24 hours to let the lye-taste dissipate."

"So, when you see them making noodles, what you’re actually seeing are the noodles they’ll be using tomorrow."

"And the noodles in your bowl? Those are from yesterday, or maybe even the day before!"

His words sent another wave of shock through the chat.

「Meanwhile, in the back kitchen of Yun Ji Wonton.」

Yun Hongquan was staring, transfixed, at his phone screen.

Unlike the skeptical viewers in the chat, he was one of the people being called out, and he knew perfectly well that this streamer, this "Brother Li," was absolutely right.

To cut costs, they did add duck eggs to their bamboo-pole noodles, but only one-tenth of the proper amount.

Without enough duck eggs, the noodles could never achieve that perfectly crisp and snappy texture.

To get that snappy texture, they had to add lye water.

(Lye water is colorless and odorless. When heated, it absorbs moisture, which improves the viscoelasticity of the flour and gives the noodles a more appealing color.)

But there’s always a trade-off. After achieving that "snap," you have to let the noodles rest to get rid of the alkaline taste. This "aging" process usually takes one to two days for the taste to naturally dissipate.

GULP. Yun Hongquan swallowed hard.

’Looks like this guy isn’t some wet-behind-the-ears kid after all. He clearly has a ton of experience making authentic bamboo-pole wonton noodles, otherwise he couldn’t have explained the process and its secrets so effortlessly.’

’And his technique for making the noodles... it was just too practiced, too masterful. He even had the strange feeling that this young man’s skills were more refined than the old chefs he’d fired—men who had been in the business for over a decade.’

For some reason, a sense of panic began to well up inside Yun Hongquan.

Watching Li Xiao portion out the noodles on the counter, Yun Hongquan tried to reassure himself.

’The kid is probably just good at making noodles, that’s all!’

’For wonton noodles, the soup and the wontons are what really matter. As long as he can’t get those two right, there’s no way the final dish will be any good!’