Chapter 32: Fried Egg
After Antony returned to the castle, the first thing he did was take a bath.
His cat originally wanted to rub him politely, but stopped when it came near, slowly arched its back and hissed at him.
"I know, I know." Anthony said helplessly, "Cleaning up is not a panacea." He sniffed himself, "It's much better. Cat, you should see how I look in the morning."
He smelled like a cross between currant rum, dog food, and fang drool... "like tooth tartar," in Hagrid's words.
The standard bathroom in the staff dormitory is a small cubicle, and Anthony didn't make too many adjustments. His room is basically the default, and his office now only has a set of desks, chairs and a shelf, and there is no suitable portrait or statue hanging at the door - he would rather walk around with a key than give it to the office Set password.
He stared at the shower, thinking about yesterday's adventure. After he entered the magical world, he learned that there were mermaids, unicorns, and centaurs in the world... but he only "knew" it. These thoughts were stored in his brain as knowledge, but he never expected to see them with his own eyes.
Somewhat similar to his attitude towards the aurora on the glacier.
He has been growing up in the UK. Because of the health of his grandparents, he never traveled with his classmates during holidays. Later, his grandparents passed away, and he could not find a traveling companion. But it's always nice to know that there are auroras in the world.
These beautiful things are like distant anchors, keeping him from drifting away in nightmares.
…
He left school and went to the supermarket to buy some 100% Muggle cooking ingredients. The price difference between the magical world and the non-magical world opened his eyes. He went to Hogsmeade Village and took a look around, and immediately decided not to purchase all materials from magic supermarkets, even if it meant that he would be the only one One wrote pounds sterling on the expense reimbursement form.
He couldn't understand the price difference. Although there is only a brick wall between them, sunflower oil in the magical world is as expensive as sunflowers are infertile in the magical world. It seems that the sun never sets on the Empire and does not shine on his magical part.
He bought a lot of eggs, bacon, milk, flour, and in the seasoning section bought oil, salt, sugar, and black pepper. The items piled up such a small hill in his shopping cart that the cashier glanced at him several times as he stood in line to pay.
"A big party, sir?" the cashier asked between identifying items.
Anthony was watching with envy as he scanned the barcode. His previous employer, Whaley Supermarket, was a traditional small retail store that used ledgers and calculators until he left.
His appreciative gaze as he stared at the scanner might have been misunderstood by the cashier as impatience, so he took the initiative to talk to him.
"No, sir, learning by doing," replied Anthony.
This Thursday he was going to let the fourth years try Muggle cooking.
This is a topic decided by the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw classes. As a reward for giving them all perfect scores on two consecutive tests, Anthony allowed them to choose the one that interested them most from a series of practical activities.
After he announced the vote counting results, the students were very happy. I heard that some of them went back to consult with their Muggle-born classmates. At breakfast the next day, there were a lot of owls carrying letters and books... Those teenage students didn't do much cooking, so they simply wrote letters to ask their parents.
Professor Sprout was also very interested, but the sapgrass just matured on Wednesday, and she had to spend the whole night picking and processing the herbs, and she really didn't have the energy to cook with the students early in the morning. Anthony had no choice but to promise her that if there were similar activities in the future, he would definitely call her.
"But you can do it." Anthony said strangely, "You are not the kind of wizard who relies on cooking magic to solve everything."
"I can, but students can't." Professor Sprout said with a smile, "If you can't see the fried crucible that Severus complained about, it would be interesting to see the bottom of the pot."
Anthony considered the choice of recipes carefully. He decided to start with a simple breakfast: fried eggs and bacon, and if all went well, they could try Yorkshire pudding.
He persuaded the house elves to help temporarily transform the classroom into a restaurant kitchen - a shiny new stove replaced the original desk, and the place for chalk and blackboard erasers became a storage box for cutlery and dishes. For ventilation, the windows were at least doubled in size.
In order to make these changes, Anthony explained to the elf at least thirty times that this was just a teaching exercise. They couldn't understand why the professor and students decided to do it themselves even though they had prepared delicious food, and they couldn't understand why Anthony went out to buy materials.
"Our eggs are very good!" Coco said sadly, "All the eggs we carefully selected were over three ounces!"
"Yeah, that's the reason." Anthony said helplessly, "The eggs that Muggles usually eat don't all exceed three ounces."
Fortunately, this kitchen-like classroom is loved by students. The first words everyone said when they opened the door were "Wow". Anthony, wearing a chef's uniform, stood in front of a podium piled with raw materials to welcome them.
"Take an egg." He stopped the students who went straight to the stove as soon as they came in. "We'll start by frying the egg."
Although the students think that fried eggs are boring, this practice is still full of situations.
"The bottom of the pot isn't completely soaked in oil, is it? No, no, the Muggles haven't cleaned it. Use this, a wire ball."
"The oil temperature is too low, please burn it for a while."
Anthony walked up and down the stove. Contrary to his expectations (but exactly as Professor Sprout said), the students who burned the bottom of the pot were all from Hufflepuff.
"Aren't you right next to the kitchen?" he asked doubtfully, "I thought you were all good at cooking."
His students raised their hands holding the wire ball high and shouted: "Professor, you are stereotyping!" They had just talked about the stereotypes of wizards and Muggles about each other in the last class.
Anthony smiled: "Okay, sorry. A very strong rebuttal, plus one point for Hufflepuff."
Thanks to him buying all the materials in double, otherwise he might have had to ask a house elf to borrow eggs from the beginning of this practice - a totally non-Muggle solution.
But the students all had a great time. They pushed the spatula awkwardly, trying to shape the omelette into various shapes. Without a mold, a talented student even managed to fry a five-pointed egg.
Anthony awarded a point and immediately regretted it.
After this student's talent for shaping was discovered by his classmates, he has been shuttling around various stoves to help his classmates fry eggs into the shapes they specified. Anthony's eyes were quickly filled with omelettes of various shapes - stars were the most popular, followed by hearts, and the more difficult one spelled out his own initials.
"What was this idea at the time?" Anthony asked, pointing to a long, crooked omelette. He even thought it looked a bit like an omelette-colored slug.
"It's you, professor." The student said shyly.