Chapter 263 Dining Etiquette
In the magical kingdom, if you want to find a source for most customs or rituals, most of them will be traced back to the royal court or even the queen herself.
As the saying goes, the King of Chu likes thin waists, and many people in the palace starve to death. Although the Queen of the Rose Palace does not demand others to follow her own preferences, her love for desserts is well known. Many royal nobles would naturally take the initiative to cater to his tastes. Not only did they invent a variety of dessert techniques, they also standardized a series, or even a set, of tableware that was designed solely for eating desserts.
Eventually, this type of dining etiquette was passed on to the people of the kingdom. As people followed suit, not only did desserts become the most popular and well-known meal category in the magical kingdom, but "whether one can skillfully use dessert tableware" also became a symbol of a person's living standard.
Unfortunately, as a magical girl who was born in a common family, suffered misfortunes at an early age, and was left with a disability, Mo He obviously did not experience any "high-level country life" in her early years.
Cuiqiao originally thought that she invited herself to such a restaurant for dinner because she must have been exposed to a relatively luxurious material life in the next twenty years of her life, but now it seems that she was just overthinking.
“…This is a layered folder.”
Holding the cutlery in her hand, Cuique demonstrated to Mo He while explaining: "Before cutting the cake with a table knife, in order to prevent the layers of the cake from spilling or falling off, we can first use a layering clip to secure it."
"Ah, yes, yes."
Mo He watched Delphinium's movements very seriously, imitating them step by step like a primary school student: "Okay, I fixed it."
"Well, and then the table knife."
Delphinium pointed to the five table knives lined up on the table and said, "These knives are the Frost Leaf Knife, the Flame Leaf Knife, the Nut Knife, the Sandwich Knife, and the Pudding Knife. You can turn them over and look at the blades. The shapes and colors of the blades should be different."
"I, I saw it." Mo He responded stutteringly.
"Well, then we need to identify what the cake in front of us is. When the waiter served us the dish, he emphasized that this is a hazelnut chocolate sweet coffee mousse cake."
Delphinium pointed to the plate in front of her: "So it will be mousse and nuts inside, you understand that?"
"Hmm..." Mo He nodded.
"So we use the nut cutter first."
Delphinium picked out the one with a silver blade and a long handle from the five table knives: "The function of the nut knife is that when it touches the nut kernel in the cake, the blade can directly split it with the smallest vibration amplitude, ensuring that it will not press the nut kernel down and thus destroy the original structure of the cake."
As she said this, she cut off a small piece of the cake with just a light stroke of the knife. Then, she put the nut knife aside and picked up another table knife with a white blade:
"This is a frost blade. Its blade has a certain cooling effect. It is usually used to cut ice cream, mousse and other structures. We have just cut the cake, but this is not enough. We need to use the frost blade to cut again along the cut mark. This way, the mousse can be cooled down and it will have the best taste."
"This is a nut knife, this is a frost leaf knife..."
Mo He pondered for a moment, selecting among the knives with his fingers, and then, following his memory, he took out a silver knife and lifted it onto the cake...
--"Wait a moment."
Cuique, who was also watching Mo He's movements, first felt that something was wrong. When she noticed the cutlery in Mo He's hand and what she was doing, she immediately wanted to stop her, but she was still a step too late.
"Puff", "Ding——"
The series of strange noises startled the diners at another table not far away, and they all looked over.
At this time, the cake in front of Mo He had been completely "pressed" into two halves. Even the layered sandwich that had been added earlier could not protect the poor mousse filling inside, and it had already shattered into pieces.
As for Mo He himself, he was now looking at Cuique with a blank and innocent look.
"…You got the wrong thing. This is a butter and jam knife, used to spread jam on bread, not a table knife."
Delphinium sighed helplessly, "Also, you cut the cake at too much of an angle, and you literally pushed the butter knife down, so everything inside was squeezed out."
She did not mean to criticize Mo He for this matter, because in her opinion, the so-called usage of dessert tableware and dining etiquette were not knowledge that normal people needed to master. If the other party wants to know, you can explain it to them. If they don’t want to care, you can just pretend that nothing happened.
However, seeing that Mo He still seemed a little lost, she finally gave him half of the cake on her plate, and then used a spoon to take some of the broken cake from Mo He's plate.
"It doesn't matter. You can try it. Actually, there is no difference in taste between my half and your half."
As she said this, she scooped a spoonful of the broken mousse with a spoon and put it into her mouth: "So-called etiquette may add some spiritual flavor to the food beyond seasoning, but that's all. It's not that important."
Cuique thought that explaining these things could make Mo He feel a little relieved, but she found that her act of exchanging half a piece of cake did not seem to make the other party's expression brighter, but instead looked even more stunned.
"…What's wrong?" That was all she could ask.
"team leader."
Mo He pointed at the half of the cake that Cui Que gave her, and said with some inexplicable emotion in her voice: "It's the same as that time."
"At that time?" Delphinium wondered.
"That's when you left."
Mo He stared at the Delphinium, and there was an unexpected softness in her quiet voice: "Give me yours, and then take it from me."
Delphinium was silent.
She realized what Mo He was talking about, but for her, the scene Mo He described was actually closely related to the past that she wanted to forget, so that she was completely unable to respond normally.
"ah."
After a while, she could only reply stiffly: "Indeed."
"So, Captain, this time, can you tell me the answer seriously?"
Mo He looked at Kuijin, with a look of intense, undissolved passion in her eyes, almost overflowing with passion: "After that, are you happy?"
Delphinium pursed her lips, unwilling to look at him or say anything more.
For some reason, the two of them suddenly fell into a strange stalemate, which lasted until a vibration sound came from Delphinium's bag.
"Sorry, I have to take a call."
So Delphinium immediately stood up, without even taking the step of confirming the identity of the caller, and directly took her bag and left the table: "You eat first, I'll be back soon."
Mo He was the only one left at the dining table.
Soon, the restaurant's waiters approached the dining table with the next dish. They silently cleaned up the mess caused by Mo He cutting the cake, and placed a copper pot with white mist floating on it and several strange metal balls on the table.
"Hello, this is your chocolate fondue and the ingredients for the fondue."
"...Chocolate hot pot?" Mo He asked curiously.
"Yes, putting the ingredients in the pot, coating them with melted chocolate, and then taking them out to enjoy is the way to eat this dish."
The waiter said politely: "If you want to adjust the flavor of the chocolate, we can also help you change it."
"Thank you." Mo He nodded: "I understand."
Obviously, Delphinium's departure had some impact on her, but the various novelties in this restaurant still aroused her strong curiosity. In this mood, she began to study what the waiters called chocolate fondue.
She already knew that there was melted chocolate in the pot, so what were those metal balls? Mo He picked up one of the metal balls and placed it in front of him. He looked at it from left to right. He could vaguely see the middle seam on the ball, but it was not very obvious.
She tried to pull the ball apart, but the structure didn't budge, and she tried to twist the ball apart, but still nothing happened. After trying for a long time without any results, she began to look for other solutions.
Could it be that I need to use the cutlery next to it? Once this idea came into my mind, it became uncontrollable.
Mo He identified the tableware one by one, searching for parts that might be related to the ball among the needles, forks, knives and boards, until finally, she noticed a table knife with a red blade.
This seems to be the "Flame Leaf Knife" that the captain mentioned earlier.
Mo He found relevant content in his memory. At that time, Delphinium only explained to her the functions of the nut knife and the frost leaf knife, and did not mention what this table knife was used for.
Want to try it?
Mo He was still thinking about the rationality of this action in his mind, but his hands had already moved before his brain.
——“Crack”! Half a minute later, when the waiter, attracted by the strange noise, came to the table, all he saw was a metal refrigerated ball with several holes poked in it but still unopened. And a dinner knife that was broken into two pieces, still emitting a slightly cold air.
Of course, there is also a magical girl who is sweating profusely and should be the culprit of the incident, but she is still trying to pretend that nothing has happened and is folding paper with a napkin.
(End of this chapter)
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