(Morcster Chef) Glass noodle salad (part 1) - Ch. 98 (Patreon)

Malissa set the crisp noodles in the bowl. Arek set it aside and grabbed another wok – this time claiming it from the wall. He set it over the heat.

“Glass noodle salad is composed of three main parts. The first is the noodles. The second is the sauce, and the third are the toppings and mix-ins,” Arek explained, pointing at each group of ingredients as he spoke. “The noodles and sauce are the most important, in my opinion. This dish is very flexible, so you can pick and choose whatever you’d like to include for the toppings.”

Malissa nodded. She listened intently as Arek spoke, doing her best to commit each word to memory.

“I’m going to start by quickly frying up this ground pork,” Arek said. He tapped a package with a clawed finger. “While I take care of this, I want you to do the sauce.”

The orc noticed Malissa’s panicked expression and chuckled. He gave her a reassuring grin.

“Don’t worry, it isn’t difficult. Nothing in this dish is, actually. Simple recipes can yield some of the greatest results. Start by getting the juice from those limes into a bowl.”

“Okay,” Malissa said. She took the two limes from the counter and raised them over the bowl. Then she paused. The tall woman lowered her hand and brought the limes to the sink and rinsed them thoroughly.

Once they were clean, Malissa then cut them in half with her knife and squeezed the juice out of them and into the bowl. A seed managed to slip through her fingers as she wrung the fruits dry. She fished it out with the tip of a knife and tossed it into a trashcan.

“Now what?” Malissa asked.

“Get the soy and fish sauce. Add a few normal sized spoons of the soy and one spoon of the fish,” Arek said. Now that the wok had heated, he poured a drizzle of oil into it. He emptied the package of ground pork into it and immidiately started moving the meat so that it wouldn’t stick together.

Malissa followed Arek’s instructions closely. She meticulously watched the spoon as she filled it, making sure the dark liquid filled it perfectly before tipping it into the bowl.

“There’s no need to be that exact,” Arek said. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being precise. Just remember that cooking is just as much of an art as it is a science. Feel the ingredients. Taste the sauce as you work. Mistakes can be corrected.”

“Unless you put too much salt in,” Voulier called. “Then your dish is pretty fu–”

A loud crash echoed through the kitchen as someone dropped a pan. Voulier spun, already screaming furiously as he strode over to check on the food and his employee.

“Right,” Malissa said, letting out a slow breath and letting some of the tension out of her shoulders. “Less exact unless I’m working with salt. What next?”

“Sesame oil, ginger, and brown sugar,” Arek said, pointing at each ingredient. “Sesame oil is very strong, so we don’t need a lot of it. Add a small glug to the sauce and then taste it with the back of a spoon. You’ll have to grate a small amount of the ginger, and you’ll need about two spoons of the sugar.”

Malissa nodded, memorizing his instructions for a moment before setting to work. She poured a tiny amount of the dark, smokey oil into the bowl. She turned her attention to the large, somewhat ugly looking root.

“What do I use to grate?” Malissa asked.

Voulier swept past her, depositing a metal trapezoid full of holes on the counter beside her. The chef vanished before she could even thank him.

“You use that. Rub the root up and down on the small holes,” Arek said, chuckling. His hand blurred as he minced several cloves of garlic into what almost resembled a paste. He tossed the garlic into the wok. The rich aroma of garlic and pig fat drifted into Malissa’s nose and she had to keep herself from drooling.

Malissa followed the orc’s instructions again. It started off slowly as she got used to the amount of pressure she needed to apply to the strange metal contraption with the ginger, but Malissa quickly got the hang of it.

She grated a tiny pile of the spice and tossed it into the bowl. She followed it with two spoons of the dark brown sugar and mixed everything together without waiting for an instruction from Arek. The orc’s mouth curled up in a slight smile as he watched her.

The water in his wok started to boil. Arek poured the boiling water over the noodles and set a plate on top of the bowl to cover it.

Malissa mixed the ingredients for around a minute, the ingredients had become a homogenous brown liquid. Malissa dipped the back of her spoon into it and tasted the sauce. She quickly washed the spoon and chewed on her lower lip as she thought.

“Is the ginger what gives this…warm spice?” Malissa asked, struggling to find the right words to describe it.

“It is,” Arek said.

“I think the sauce needs more.”

The orc just cocked an eyebrow. Malissa cleared her throat and nodded, grating some more of the root and mixing it into the sauce. She mixed it again and gave it another taste. This time, a smile crossed her face.

“I think it’s good,” Malissa said.

“Fantastic,” Arek said. He removed the cooked pork and garlic, setting it into a small bowl. He tossed the shrimp into the pan, using the leftover pig fat to cook the new meat. “The noodles still need a few more minutes to properly rehydrate. Can you watch the shrimp for a few moments? I need to get some fresh herbs from my garden. If they turn pink, flip them over.”

The orc grabbed his medallion and vanished before Malissa had a chance to respond. She darted over to the wok. Somehow, she’d already known that the shrimp would already need to be flipped. Malissa would have rolled her eyes if she had time to take them away from the food.