章 163: The Savory-sweet Getuk Ubi Kayu
"Alright, Shi-chan, time to use Blender-no-jutsu to grind the coconut flesh into coconut flakes!" While maintaining the operation of the ice-contraption that suspiciously looked like a big ass food processor, Shiro upped his game by another level by manipulating the spiritual energy using another strand of his fur to transfer the coconut flesh into the Blender-no-jutsu area of effect. It's a one-man show!
Yes, it is as the readers' guess! Our lovable Shiro's level of spiritual energy manipulation is approaching the 'godly' level! He can remotely control tens and thousands of spiritual energy threads with his fur!
One thread per fur!
He had been practicing everyday from the first time Hana introduced the concept of Micro-control to Kuro at the very beginning of their meeting two months ago. From forty threads to eighty, from eighty to one-hundred-fifty, once it breached a thousand, he reached some sort of bottleneck. However, when he advanced a small realm, his diligence had brought him to at least fifty thousand spiritual energy threads today. Essentially, all of his outer furs could function separately as if they were alive!
That was the advent of Ten-thousand Helicoid Ice Lance!
It only took a minute to grind the coconut flesh into fine fresh fluffy white flakes. Hana was exceedingly impressed with the quality of the flakes; it was just like store-bought! Shiro really did an excellent job grinding them perfectly.
Hana took some of the coconut fluff from within the ice container and placed it in her mouth, "Yummy!" Her eyes twinkled with joy. Fresh, airy, and juicy, but not soggy. Shiro even being extra meticulous by removing any leftover coconut shells.
"Come, come, bring over the tapioca!" She turned to the purple Elemental Fiend who was always near her, "F1 deary, go and fetch me the flask with honey, and the container with salt. I'll show you what it looks like when you reach the rack."
The brawny purple-colored Elemental Fiend nodded and moved fast. Hana only closed her eyes and linked to Q-chan for a moment to reach out to F1 just to show which container should it brought down with it and brought it back in a flash.
Observed by one-hundred plus freshwater creature, hundreds of birds, tens of spirit avians, and thousands of Elemental Fiends, Hana placed one piece of tapioca, a handful of freshly grated coconuts, and some honey on a plate. She broke the large piece of tapioca into small bite sizes, dipped it in the coconut flakes, and finally, a tinge of honey. Finally, the mixture entered Hana's mouth as she savored the savory-sweet delectable tuber!
"Yummsss! Such a nostalgic taste!"
Ohhhh sounds resounded. The rest of the spiritual creatures finally realized that the Lords were working together to make a dish! Was it an advancement dish?! The information that they got from the Circle of Elders was quite vague. Still, they at least knew they need to use their cultivation resources to book for an advancement dish. As such, everyone gambled and brought their whole savings with them. Was it possible that the food prepared was an advancement dish?!
Hana took another small piece of tapioca, dunk it into the coconut shavings and honey, and feed it to Shiro next, Ara, and lastly Chomper, making the others so jealous! Even F1 got some!
"The ones who directly helped out will receive a tiny bit. This is the golden rule. If not, you have to pay. One Spirit Crystal per piece. Will it induce advancement? Is this a spiritual dish? I won't answer. Only the ones who pay and experience it will know."
Another loud ohhh filled the clearings again after the spiritual creatures heard the explanation from Lord Shiro! Everyone was super excited! One Spiritual Crystal per piece was neither too cheap nor too expensive! However, the fact that the unknown status of the tapioca thingy made no one dared to buy and risk it. After all, their funds were limited, and it seemed that the cost for a real advancement dish will make them go bankrupt if there was no option for installments!
"Mistress, may I purchase some?" Gramps Alpy immediately interjected and asked. He didn't mind since his team had so much to spare. Regardless of the effects, showing support to the Mistress' efforts was what matters most! It was a strategic investment!
"Nope. It's actually not done yet. After I tried making a kind of kuih (1) from the ingredients, you can buy them if got leftover. If not, better wait for the next round, alright?" Hana immediately cut off Gramps Alpy goodwill, making him chuckled helplessly. It was true. The Mistress was quite fickle; at one time, she said yes, and at another time, she suddenly said no.
…
"We have a few objectives to achieve after this. One, prepare coconut oil. Two, make balls out of mashed tapioca mixed with coconut flakes, salt, and sugar. The ball is about the size of a pigeon's egg. Our final product will be Getuk Ubi (2), a savory-sweet deep-fried kuih." Hana stood in front of her pets and explained what they need to do next. She was excited to try making pastries for once. In the near future, she would have more hands in her team who could perform intricate things besides Shiro, Ara, Chomper, and F1. The additional four wet helpers could speed up the process a bit more when they have enough skills after mastering Micro-control.
"Shi-chan, you will handle the part for making the tapioca-coconut flakes ball. Either you remodeled the ice blade to mimic this shape," Hana paused and drew a blunt-ended, turbine-like cutter on the soil where they stood.
"Or, you mimicked this motion of flattening-folding-flattening with a wide yet blunt-ended force. We called this 'kneading'. Of course, you must use the spiritual energy to achieve such effect."
"Nobody must come directly into contact with the food ingredients barehanded. I am very particular about this; whoever touched the ingredients directly with their bodies will never, ever get a turn for meal advancements! Another thing is, the food ingredients can never touch the floor, debris, soil, or any other random stuff unless it is my command."
Hana scrunched her brow while she said the words loudly, sending a signal to others that she meant business. She wasn't willing to let these wannabes in cooking spread saliva, scales, strange fishy smell, or bird poop over her precious cooking ingredients! Cooking required a high level of hygiene, and she could not tolerate a single fur, feather, or scale inside her cooking.
Due to the level of seriousness injected in her speech, Shiro sent words to the other immediately, lest he missed anything if he delayed sharing the information. Everyone nodded in synchronization, just like a pecking chicken, wondering why the Mistress was so stern this time, but of course, nobody dared to question the Mistress.
"Lead the others to follow you. However, the others can only use soil from the riverbanks. Only you will handle the food for the time being. Until they manage to master Micro-control to an adequate level, will they be eligible to touch food ingredients. We can't afford to waste."
"Mommy will handle making the coconut oil with Ara, Chomper, and F1. Good luck, Sweetie. Train everyone well. Remember, only soil for the rest. You can let them mix between wet soil and weed. However, the beauty of the riverbanks must be preserved. Mommy would never forgive anyone who makes holes all over the place! Whoever make our picnic place ugly, better be ready to be sent back for good."
"Oh yes, make sure you don't let the ice melt and soak the tapioca, alright. It will spoil the whole thing." Hana reminded Shiro before she walked a few paces away with her other pets.
…
"You good for nothings!! Group up, take some soil from faraway riverbanks, and line up! I will teach you how to make Getuk Ubi! Whoever destroys the beauty of the riverbank where Mistress loves to hang out can just return to your own clan immediately, lest I will hunt you and eat you for supper!" Shiro echoed out a series of instructions laced with threats. He had no other choice but to taunt these young ones with threats since Mommy prevented him from really eating anyone.
All freshwater creatures scrambled away in search for suitable soil.
After a while, the clearing in front of Hana's sojourn was filled with freshwater creatures lining up in grid form; the servants faction on one side, and the elite's faction on the other side. They couldn't see each other eye-to-eye anymore. But due to the restriction placed upon both factions by the Serpent's Lair administrative, they could only stare daggers at each other at times and ignore each other at other times.
In front of each of them was a pile of soil and weed at the side; both factions had a burning desire to be eligible to handle real food ingredients in the future. They anticipated Lord Shiro's teachings with eagerness. Finally, after learning the theory from the Mistress, they could practice Micro-control!
Although Shiro preferred to knead the cooked tapioca by modeling the shape of the miniature turbine for his Blender-no-jutsu, he had the responsibility to teach the others the second method too; the Gentel-kuih-no-jutsu. Although the name was weirder than the first one, it gave the same effect of intricately melding the mysterious Spiritual Energy into a more malleable form. Thus, directly enhancing Micro-control.
As usual, Mom always came up with ingenious ways to improve her pets' strength. Although he wasn't keen on Mom teaching these minnows, he acknowledged that to build trust and a solid tie between them and the Waterwave Clan, they need to be more sincere. It can only be shown with actions rather than words.
Shiro removed the fresh coconut flakes and suspended it midair. At the same time, he transferred the freshly cooked tapioca into the 'food processor'-like thing he made using a few spiritual energy strings connected to his fur. The blunt-ended turbine blade made of ice circulated slowly within the vessel, breaking the tapioca into small pieces, and finally, it turned doughy. It was the first for Shiro to see such a texture too. He needed to control his power carefully while mixing the tapioca 'dough'. Too rough, the Blender-no-jutsu could break. If too slow, it might take a while to be done.
Seeing the texture had turned into something that Mom approved of, Shiro moved to the next part. In a large transparent bowl he conjured up from ice, he mixed up a pinch of salt and fluffed up the coconut flakes before adding them into the mashed up tapioca.
This time it was trickier than usual. Shiro had never emulated the stray spiritual energy into shapes; it has always been in string-form. He concentrated and tried a few times before he could come up with an idea how to do it.
[Mom, is it alright to do it this way? I've never tried.]
[Excellent idea, Shi-chan. Your way is doable too. Just combine the threads into shapes.] From afar, Mom gave him a wink! So embarrassing! But Shiro had promised himself that he would absolutely care about Mom's heart. Hence, he winked back and blushed.
After a while, cute tapioca-coconut balls the size of a C-grade eggs started appearing one after another!
The freshwater creatures started to practice with the soil they brought over diligently. And it took days after days after days of practice.
…
Authors' Note:
1) kuih = bite-sized Malaysian pastries. Got too many kinds to explain
2) Getuk Ubi = 'Getuk' means pound, and 'ubi' means tuber. Hence, it's a somewhat straight-to-the point name; 'pounded tuber' will be the direct translation
3) Gentel-kuih-no-jutsu = a pun for the second method. When u knead doughball using only three fingers (namely your thumb, index and middle finger) by making a rotational movement, that is known as 'gentel' in Malaysian-language. Kuih means pastry. There is a very high variety of kuihs in the market. We ate for breakfast, teas and as desserts. You can see the sample from the pics from this link (https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enMY921MY921&sxsrf=ALeKk00J_zMLy9LD7NX5g3GHGonk_S5SPg:1613029794045&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=kuih&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjD94qfrOHuAhVP6XMBHTmUDdUQiR56BAgeEAI&biw=1920&bih=937)
Articles that talk about kuih in general (though the variety is more than this, this is just scraping the surface)
https://www.malaymail.com/news/eat-drink/2016/03/27/malaysian-kuih-a-marriage-of-flavours-and-cultures/1087719
https://www.timeout.com/kuala-lumpur/restaurants/ultimate-guide-to-malaysian-kuih
An article about Getuk Ubi:
https://www.azirahman.com/2018/12/getuk-ubi-kayu-selera-minum-petang.html
https://kitpramenulis.com/resepi-getuk-ubi-kayu-goreng-kesukaan-semua-bentuk-comel-macam-bebola/
The ones featured in the chapters (and is known to mrs mooncat) is as above. However, mrs mooncat couldn't find the English version ones. This one here, also have the same name, but of a differing variety.
https://www.guaishushu1.com/getuk-ubi-%E6%9C%A8%E8%96%AF%E6%A4%B0%E4%B8%9D%E7%B3%95%EF%BC%89/
クリエイターの想い 
mrandmrsmooncat
mrandmrsmooncat Yeah, you may asked, after reading the article on tens of kuihs, why there was no Getuk Ubi? Well, as I said, the kuihs mentioned is just a tiny bit from what we ate here.
Now during mco, our neighbors left and right all sell many random things including kuihs..we got some really rare ones (that we have never tasted for ages) posted in town groups haha..obviously, mrs mooncat ordered here and there very frequently (laughing heartily).
The last time Mrs Mooncat ate Getuk Ubi was ten years or so ago? In a tiny stall in my mom’s hometown. Huhuhu..
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