As for Yuan Zhou, he was preparing the dishes earnestly.
The cooking method of Swedish Meatball wasn't actually complex but the ingredients required were nevertheless not little.
As Yuan Zhou's requirements on dishes were getting higher and higher, he had practiced for a long time before starting to serve it.
Of course, Yuan Zhou could swear that he never intended to serve the dish at the same time as when the new restaurant commenced business. Well, after all, it was him that had chosen the time first.
As for the matter of it being the first day of National Day Holiday, that was totally God's will.
Who should one blame if one wanted to seek embarrassment themselves?
As was known to all, Yuan Zhou was a good boy and a good chef, always honest and kind.
The Swedish Meatball dish was quite influential in Sweden and the neighboring countries. In Norway, Denmark and Finland, it was a very popular dish.
Besides, the meatball could be seen everywhere, in various restaurants, fast food restaurants, supermarkets, companies or school canteens.
Even among the top 10 cuisine hot list, the meatball had never fallen far behind.
After Yuan Zhou obtained the recipe, however, he studied the dish for quite a long time and tried every classical cooking method.
By the way, the chef that appeared in Yuan Zhou's mind this time was really like what Yuan Zhou had imagined, all foreigners except for a single Chinese.
"Carry them to the customers." After Yuan Zhou prepared several servings of meatball, he directly carried them onto the countertop and instructed Zhou Jia to carry them to the customers.
Yuan Zhou had finished most of the preparation work beforehand this time, so the speed of producing dishes was much quicker.
Of course, it was also because that the Nordics were reluctant to spend more time and efforts on cooking, compared with Easterners.
"Holy sh*t. The meatball is way too beautiful," Wu Zhou said first in surprise.
"Is this a peacock?" Zhao Yingjun craned his neck long and was rather curious.
Indeed. The Swedish Meatball on the table was truly good-looking.
An ordinary dish would have no more than a few meatballs at one side and the prepared mashed potatoes at the other on a white plate with surrounded edges. Accompanied with that would be a small plate of blueberry dipping sauce or even some pickled cucumbers.
However, the meatball cooked by Yuan Zhou was quite different. The meatballs were placed on a stage on the plate. In the middle part that was left vacant, he made the body of a peacock with the mashed potatoes. At first glance, people would almost mistake the jade-color thin pieces inserted beside the meatballs as the peacock tail.
"How awesome is this styling!" Wu Zhou rotated the plate slowly and watched it carefully.
"Not only is the styling marvelous, but it also has a mechanism inside." Wu Hai said at the side with a showing-off manner.
"Mechanism? By the way, aren't you providing the cranberry sauce, Boss Yuan?" Manager Shi suddenly thought of this important supporting role.
"I do. You can try to find it out by yourself." Sometimes, Yuan Zhou would make some small jokes with the regular customers.
Of course, his customers generally believed that Yuan Zhou's jokes weren't funny at all.
Speaking of which, Yuan Zhou had mastered a tip of not shedding tears while cutting the onions after he made the meatballs for so many times. Although it wasn't quite necessary for him due to his swift cutting skills, it was nevertheless fairly simple.
First, even the onions chosen by Yuan Zhou were different. Wash it clean and then cut it from the top down in parallel lines without breaking it. Then rotate the onion towards the right and vertically cut several straight lines with an angle vertical to the former lines.
After that, it would become easier. This was because the onion was basically cut into the connected long strips, he only needed to lay it down and then started to cut it. That way, the onion strips cut would be very uniform. Apart from that, the juice wouldn't spatter and the taste of pungency would be locked, thus not causing people to shed tears.
"What the hell do you mean by finding it out by ourselves? Shall we eat it just like that?" Wu Zhou straightforwardly picked one up and stuffed into his mouth.
The meatball was covered with thick glossy brown sauce and was scattered with little green leave pieces on the surface. Furthermore, there was a glimmer of delicate fragrance blended along in the strong meat flavor, which appeared fairly mouth-watering.
"Slurp slurp". Unlike the girls who ate the meatball mouthful by mouthful, Wu Zhou directly stuffed the entire one in the mouth and started to eat.
When the meatball was in touch with his mouth cavity, the outer layer was the soft and smooth gravy while the inner layer was the scorched and crisp shell. When Wu Zhou gave it the first bite, the intense gravy burst out from the meatball.
When he chewed, the gravy penetrated the meat. While the scorched shell wrapped the freshness and tenderness inside, there was occasionally a crisp texture. It was the onion that could be distinguished easily.
The strong pungency of the onion became weak and in the meantime, the fragrance became stronger. The slight pungency helped to get rid of the underlying bad smell of the meat while the fragrance increased its layers of the taste. The onion itself nevertheless improved the texture of the meatballs.
When the entire meatball was in the mouth, multiple tastes swept by directly like the heavy storm that never gave an opportunity for a single breath.
The stimulating fragrance of black pepper, the mellow flavor of milk and cheese, the onion that provoked the great smell of meat and the thick gravy that had a tender and smooth texture pushed the meatballs to the epitome of taste.
"This is absolutely delicious. Boss Yuan really thinks a lot for us meat-eaters." Wu Zhou squinted his eyes contentedly and said with an expression of enjoyment.
"Absolutely. It has abundant gravy and is tender inside and scorched outside. The texture is fresh and sweet. It's the authentic Swedish Meatball that is free from much grease, yet; it brings the intrinsic delicate flavor of meat into play," Manager Shi said contentedly while eating.
"It's indeed delicious. A good news for the meat-eaters. Never did I expect that a meatball could be so delicious. Boss, when will you serve the Chinese dish, Lion's Head①?" While eating the food in the bowl, Zhao Yingjun was still thinking about those in the cooking pot.
"I think we can order another serving of the meatball." Wu Zhou looked at his girlfriend and said nervously.
He was truly perturbed. Just in a little while, he had eaten four meatballs with gravy filled in his mouth while uttering "so delicious" continuously. When he reacted, however, there were only two meatball left in the plate.
Such a thing had never happened before. Wu Zhou was fairly uneasy and afraid that his girlfriend would be unhappy.
"Never mind. I don't really like dishes made with cream." Zhuang Xinmu was only interested in watching the exotic dish rather than eating it.
"I think this thing is very interesting and should be edible." Right after that, she pointed at the decorative peacock tail and said.
"Have a taste, now." Wu Zhou picked up the chopsticks and handed them to Zhuang Xinmu flatteringly.
"Ok. Don't worry." Zhuang Xinm said smilingly. Then she received the chopsticks and picked up that piece of peacock tail as thin as a cicada's wings and with natural lines.
After a light sound of "Ka La", the meatball that had been placed on it suddenly disappeared.
"What's this?" The meatball rolled out again before they became puzzled.
It's just that the meatball this time was different from the former one. It was surprisingly wrapped in a rose red layer outside and appeared extraordinarily beautiful, mellow and full.
"What's this?" Wu Zhou, Zhuang Xinmu and others customers at the side all revealed a surprised expressions and looked at Yuan Zhou with puzzlement.
Only Wu Hai smiled complacently at the side. The mechanism...
①Lion's Head is a particular dish of large meatballs in Chinese. It's a very famous Chinese cuisine.