Chapter 227 (1/2)

Chapter 227: Colored Pastry

“How fragrant the glutinous rice is!” Since Yuan Zhou was wearing the face mask, his voice sounded a little hollow.

The fragrance of the glutinous rice had been fully grounded by the stone mill out of the flour while Yuan Zhou rolled the stone mill in a way that could contain all the fragrance in the flour.

As a matter of fact, the pastry was very simple to make. It was merely making the flour into paste and then steaming it until it was well-cooked, or making the flour into wet starch and then steaming it. The problem was that this method was a little difficult and an ordinary novice wasn’t able to master it.

Another way was that people could make the flour into a dough, cut it into small pieces, and then cook it by steaming or boiling. They could also roast them in the modern oven. All these were the methods that could be used as civilization progressed.

The pastry actually had a very long history and various varieties. It could be traced back as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The popularity of the pastry could then be seen.

There were particular pastries in the 12 solar terms of the ancient Chinese calendar. Divided by categories, there were birthday pastries or cake for the birthday party of the aged; the honey cake or pastries for the daughters that were to be married; the haircut pastries and the celebration pastries for one-month-old infants and one-year-old kids; the flat pastries for the children’s entrance to a school; the Dingsheng pastry for setting the roof beams in place and the housewarming party. It had so many varieties that one could hardly list all of them.

What Yuan Zhou was cooking today was the colored pastry, of five colors in particular. They were dark reddish purple, bright orange, dark green, snowy white and rose. The flavors were naturally different from each other.

There was a certain particular sequence to make the pastry in each color. Yuan Zhou selected to make the pure white pastry to start with, therefore he had to make the stuffing of it beforehand.

While Yuan Zhou was busy cooking in the kitchen, Shen Min, likewise, didn’t idle at all. Out of the side street was a bus stop board, where she stood and waited for the bus to the university town.

During the time, Shen Min took out an old used Nokia and began to make a call.

Currently, young people basically used the iPhones while fans of China-made goods used Xiaomi or Huawei phones. Only Shen Min was still using the old and used Nokia, which was so hard that it could be used to smash walnuts.

For this reason, she was even teased by her roommates.

“Min Min, are you using the Nokia to defend yourself?” The girl who was asking said curiously.

“You are wrong. Even if Min Min wants to defend herself, she should use the newly-marketed Nokia phone, which is pentagon shaped.” Another girl at the side followed.

“Pentagon? What exactly is the phone like?” The girl who first asked became astounded. Including Shen Min, all of them looked at this classmate with curiosity.

“It’s a kind of irregular pentagon with a pointed right angle. With the quality of Nokia, the phone can definitely be used to poke a person to death.” The classmate climbed onto the bed neatly and then explained.

“Incredible! It seems that we should truly buy such a phone to defend ourselves. If there was a thief, we could poke him dead if smashing doesn’t work.” The girl who first asked about it said after awakening from her daze.

The phone was so peculiar that Shen Min would recall the matter every time she took her Nokia phone out. Luckily, the phone got through in a little while.

“What’s up, Min Min?” From the other end of the phone passed a clear female voice. It sounded like that the girl was also young.

“Xiao Jia, have you found a job?” Shen Min first asked her tentatively.

“That’s not easy. I don’t have a university degree and basically can’t find a job with two days off per week. What’s wrong?” The girl called Xiao Jia said straightforwardly. Despite saying that, she didn’t seem to be frustrated.

“I just got one. It’s a part-time job.” Shen Min wasn’t an optimistic person, therefore she didn’t tell her friend directly that she wanted her to come to work.

“Terrific! Congratulations. I will bring your favorite dried tofu to you the next time when we meet.” Xiao Jia was very happy.