When Liu Peiqiang reappeared carrying large and small bags, Xu Milu was cooking hot dry noodles.
Authentic Wuhan hot dry noodles must be made with plump, round alkaline noodles with a slightly yellow color. When cooking the noodles, you must pay attention to the heat: if you cook them for too long, the noodles will become soft and fall apart easily; if you cook them for too short a time, the noodles will become hard and taste like dry flour.
Take the cooked noodles out, drain them, and put them in a bowl. Add chili oil, chicken broth, a little salt, MSG, pickled mustard greens, dried radish, chopped green onions, cilantro, and minced ginger, and mix them together. Of course, the soul sauce of hot dry noodles—sesame paste—is also indispensable.
The mixed hot dry noodles are glossy and coated with sauce. When you slurp them up, you're filled with the aroma of sesame paste, and the noodles are incredibly delicious.
Xu Milu personally believes that the soul of eating hot dry noodles lies in taking a sip of hot dry noodles, then chewing on the dried radish in your mouth, making a "crunching" sound, with the aroma of wheat and sesame paste complementing each other.
She saw Liu Peiqiang standing at the door and greeted him with a smile:
"Oh, you're here? I'm having hot dry noodles for breakfast today. It's only 50 energy points a serving. Want to try some? Let me tell you, I just made these diced radishes this morning. They're crisp and delicious. They're so good with a bowl of hot dry noodles, even the gods wouldn't trade them for this."
This time, Liu Peiqiang was finally not wearing that thick black cotton-padded coat. Instead, he wore a gray uniform with the medal containing the Mirage Tree locator pinned to his chest and a miniature national flag affixed to his right shoulder, on which a string of small Chinese characters were written:
[Coalition Government]
People's Republic of China
Please wait a moment.
Liu Peiqiang pulled the nylon bag, which was taller than a person, to the self-service energy machine, and the machine quickly provided feedback:
[Detected: 200 kg of lunar soil, 1 gram of gold, 1 gram of boron aluminum ore, 1 gram of red silica boron aluminum calcium ore, 1 gram of californium ore – available for exchange in energy points. Confirm exchange?]
Disappointment immediately appeared on Liu Peiqiang's face.
In addition to the 200 pounds of lunar soil, he also brought a lot of precious metals from Earth. To argue which precious metal was more valuable, many scientists even held a debate.
—If the gate weren't so small, the officials would probably have wanted to sell the entire moon to them.
Xu Milu then realized that the other party was experimenting with the energy exchange rules of the Mountain and Sea Restaurant.
However, the other party was destined to be disappointed. After system testing, these ores from this plane did not contain any spiritual energy, which meant that for a short period of time, the transactions between Shan Hai Restaurant and this plane could only be settled using lunar soil.
Liu Peiqiang quickly composed himself and turned to Xu Milu, saying:
"Give me one serving of hot dry noodles... or two servings, please. As for the remaining energy, I want to use it all to buy sweet potatoes or potatoes."
"Sweet potatoes? I don't actually have any of those. You're looking for something that's more filling, right? Then I recommend you buy rice and coconut."
After thinking for a moment, Xu Milu took out a round coconut, about the size of a football, from behind the counter:
"This ingredient tastes and looks similar to rice, but it is rich in starch. 400 grams of rice coconut can provide an adult with enough calories for a day. Moreover, the shell of rice coconut can be used to extract oil, with an oil yield of about 38% to 40%. Although rice coconut is more expensive than refined rice and flour, costing 0.5 energy points per kilogram, I recommend you buy rice coconut from a cost-effectiveness perspective."
It can be used to extract oil!
Liu Peiqiang's eyes lit up.
He knew all too well what it meant to be able to extract oil.
Oils can provide the human body with energy and essential fatty acids. They can not only promote the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, but also enhance the feeling of fullness. More importantly, coconut shells are just an additional agricultural product!
As for the question of people's acceptance of new foods?
We're starving, who cares about these things?
Liu Peiqiang carefully observed the rice-coconut plant and discovered that it looked exactly like a coconut on Earth. Inside the brown coconut shell, instead of coconut meat or coconut juice, there were grains of rice that looked like pearls.
He pinched open a grain of rice, and the soybean-sized grain easily turned into a white powder that felt smooth to the touch and tasted slightly sweet.
Fortunately, the authorities allowed Liu Peiqiang to make decisions within a certain scope, and he immediately made a decision:
"100,000 energy points. After deducting the 50 energy points owed from last time and the 100 energy points spent this time, the remaining 99,850 energy points will be used to purchase rice and coconuts, totaling 199,700 catties of supplies."
This is a human-shaped calculator!
Xu Milu immediately became respectful, and nodded after confirming that the quantity was correct:
"Okay, transaction complete. Will you eat your two bowls of hot dry noodles here, or should I pack them up for you?"
Liu Peiqiang originally didn't want to waste energy points, but remembering the order from the Strategic Bureau, he sat down anyway and took the initiative to start a conversation:
"I'll eat one portion here, and take the other back for my wife. She's been in the hospital recently and hasn't had any appetite... Hey boss, you said you were from Earth? Which Earth? Judging from your accent—you're from Northeast China, right?!"
northeast?
Where is that?
They only belong to Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning in China.
Xu Milu shook her head: "I do come from another Earth, but not yours—is your wife sick?"
"Yes, it's a Class II radiation sickness. She used to be an astronaut on the space station like me. It wasn't from prolonged exposure to solar radiation that she developed radiation-induced cancer—"
Liu Peiqiang's lips twitched and he said:
"Sun, if this were a few decades ago, who could have imagined that the Earth would be like this now? I guess in a few more decades, we won't even be able to see the moon anymore!"
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
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