Chapter 118 Tofu boxes, fish fillet tofu soup, salt and pepper...

They were all young people, and once they asked, who would refuse? Ren Haijin gave one to that person, and after the customer finished eating, his eyes lit up instantly. He then looked at the menu on the blackboard and had a purpose.

"One of these fried tofu skin and pork rolls, please!"

"Sorry, it's not open for business yet."

guest:……

I almost forgot it's only 10 a.m.

So all they could do was wait anxiously.

Various aromas wafted from the kitchen, and the electric mill behind the counter was still turning, with white soy milk falling into the bucket below.

Wen Fan clearly didn't intend to finish in just one day. Not to mention that tofu can be prepared in many ways, just considering the not-so-cheap electric millstone that her mother bought, Wen Fan was determined to make tofu dishes for several more days.

Soon it was lunchtime, and most of the customers who entered the restaurant cautiously chose the most expensive dishes at the beginning. It wasn't that they didn't order the cheaper dishes, but based on previous experience, they felt that the more expensive dishes were the main courses.

"Oh dear, I actually wanted to eat them all, but the proprietress said I couldn't order so many!"

Yesterday, Mrs. Wen discovered that after a customer came in, he ordered everything, ate very little, and took the rest home.

It's not that we don't encourage takeout, but if everyone does it, what will the later customers eat?

So today, Mrs. Wen posted a note at the front desk, saying that she hoped guests would order appropriate amounts of food based on the number of people. If the number of dishes per person exceeded three, she would advise them to reduce the number of dishes.

The customers hesitated, and the first items to sell out were the tofu boxes and fish fillet tofu soup.

The dish "Tofu Box" also has an auspicious nickname: "Opening the Box to Find Treasure".

The so-called "opening the box" involves making a square cut in a piece of tofu that has been fried until golden brown, then scooping out the inside, chopping the tofu stuffing, adding dried shrimp, wood ear mushrooms, green peas, and winter bamboo shoots, and stir-frying all the ingredients with minced meat until fragrant.

Fill the tofu box with the stir-fried filling and seal it with a little egg white.

Steam the tofu boxes in a pot, and then thicken them with broth.

The tofu boxes, after being thickened with cornstarch, glistened with oil. The tofu shells, fried until golden and crispy, looked like golden boxes from afar.

Wen Fan kept the steamed tofu boxes warm in the steamer. Once a customer ordered them, he would make soup, thicken it with cornstarch, drizzle a spoonful of oil, and serve the tofu boxes at lightning speed.

One by one, the guests took out their phones, taking pictures from different angles, and exclaiming in surprise.

"So this is a tofu box. It looks really nice."

Wen Fan garnished the tofu box with chopped green onions and ham bits. The green onion shreds hung down naturally on the tofu box, like ropes binding it, while the ham bits, like a decorative pattern, made the tofu box look like a gift box.

Having admired it enough, I couldn't wait to pick up a piece of tofu and "unpack" it.

With one bite, the tofu, fried to a golden brown with air pockets, is coated in a thick sauce. The filling inside is steamed, making it soft and delicate. The meat filling is fragrant, the dried shrimp is delicious, and the winter bamboo shoots are crisp and tender. Occasionally, you might bite into a refreshing green bean, which is like finding a treasure in a treasure chest that perfectly suits your taste.

"...Is this really made of tofu?"

It smells amazing! The minced meat is chopped to the perfect size. If it were too small, it would clump together and taste like dumpling filling, which would be too greasy. If it were too big, it would be too loose and the tofu wouldn't hold it. This perfectly balanced filling brings together all the ingredients, blending them together yet remaining distinct. Paired with a spongy, airy tofu shell, and a golden-brown broth thickened with cornstarch that softens the tofu, each bite releases a burst of flavor—the aroma of beans mingling with the meat, the rich broth creating a symphony of flavors. It's so delicious you'll want to swallow your tongue!

"Boss lady, please serve the rice first!"

The other dishes can wait; this tofu box dish is a waste of good food if it's not served with rice.

A tofu box is placed on top of rice, then a spoonful of soup is added, and everything is mixed well. One bite of tofu box followed by a bite of rice, and many people start to marvel at how tofu can be made into such a laborious yet delicious dish.

"It was worth it!"

The soybeans didn't die in vain to be made into a dish like this.

The tofu boxes had barely been served when the fish slice and tofu soup was served as well.

This soup didn't have a flavor option; Wen Fan arbitrarily defaulted to pickled cabbage and Sichuan peppercorns as the core flavor.

Wen Fan made a soup with fish head and added some of his homemade pickled cabbage.

She pickled quite a lot of sauerkraut this year; she used almost the entire large jar of sauerkraut she had pickled before. She stir-fried the sauerkraut with chili peppers, then added it to the soup. The resulting soup was delicious even without fish slices.

Wen Fan wasn't too disappointed; there was plenty of cabbage available, and she had pickled some more a few days ago. These pickled mustard greens, made a few months ago, were just finished now, and she could make new ones in the spring.

Wen Fan simmered the soup over the fire. When the customer ordered fish fillet and tofu soup, she used a small clay pot to ladle out a portion of the soup, added the fish fillets, cut the tofu into cubes, and finally added plenty of Sichuan peppercorns and poured a little hot oil over it. The aroma of the numbing broth could be smelled from afar.

This dish makes you want to eat even more rice than the previous one.

The golden-yellow pickled fish soup, with its numbing sensation from the Sichuan peppercorns, features tender fish and tofu that Wen Fan has broken into chunks by hand. These chunks quickly absorb the flavor of the soup, and the irregular edges of the tofu allow the broth to linger on their uneven surfaces.

Freshly made tofu has a rich bean flavor that tastes even better than fish.

The fickle guests immediately abandoned the thick sauce of the tofu box and instead poured the sour, fragrant, and numbing broth over the rice, preferably with more broth, so that the rice had a texture like scooped rice, half soup and half rice.

"Ouch! Don't scoop up all the soup!"

The fish slices in this casserole soup were only eaten a few slices; everyone started fighting over the soup and tofu!

Some people even asked if Wen's mother could add soup.

Wen's mother went to the kitchen and generously added a spoonful of soup.

So others followed suit and added it.

Wen Fan didn't feel like he lost out at all. A few fish heads made a big pot of soup, so this was pure profit!

After eating the fish soup, many people were already stuffed.

While marveling at his own foresight in ordering the main dishes first, he also poured himself some tea and sipped it slowly, secretly observing the dishes of the people around him.

It seems that the people in front of us ordered the two most expensive dishes, so the people behind us ordered some dishes like scallion tofu and salt and pepper tofu.

Scallion and tofu salad is fine; it's a cold dish, meant to be a garnish on the table.

Wenji used to make cold dishes their signature dish, so you can imagine they wouldn't be bad.

The salt and pepper tofu, however, surprised everyone.

Strictly speaking, this thing isn't even considered a bad dish.

It's a snack.

Wen Fan used the paper bowls that were used to sell snacks in the shop. Wen's father fried tofu in the back kitchen, cutting it into pieces the size of stinky tofu and frying them in oil until the outer skin was dry and fragrant. Each serving contained about ten pieces, topped with pickled vegetables, peanuts, small fried dough twists, chopped cilantro, and pickled cowpeas... Finally, he poured two spoonfuls of thickened sauce on top.

If you didn't smell the aroma, you might mistake this bowl of fragrant tofu for stinky tofu.

Father Wen brought out the salt and pepper tofu that the guests had ordered, with bamboo skewers and a small spoon inside.

The first customer to order the salt and pepper tofu said, "...No wonder it's the cheapest."

The name of this salt and pepper tofu was written at the very end of the small blackboard, with twelve pieces listed above it.

He actually ordered the food out of curiosity about which dishes cost only twelve yuan, and now he knows.

Oh, it's just a snack.

With confidence in Wenji's culinary skills, he picked up a piece of fried tofu. As soon as he tasted the rich, thick sauce, his brain reacted immediately.

tasty!

The fried tofu is coated with a thick gravy and is rich in ingredients. The small twisted dough sticks are coated with gravy on the outside but have a firm core inside. The savory and slightly spicy gravy really lives up to the saying online—it's so delicious you could dip it in a shoe sole.

Not many people ordered the salt and pepper tofu. As the customers ate, the people next to them couldn't sit still anymore and started asking for another serving.

Ji Baiyi came over and explained to the person that it was impossible to add it.

"Our restaurant operates on a one-time order basis."

Otherwise, if everyone adds this and that, what will happen to the people who come after?

Those who suggested adding more dishes seemed to make a quick decision.

"Can I go out and queue up again?"

Ji Baiyi: "...Okay."

There's no guarantee that you'll get a spot in the queue.

But the guests rushed out like the wind, obediently standing at the end of the line.

Ji Baiyi: ...

...

The tofu dish served at noon that day left many people wanting more, and before leaving, they even asked Wen's mother if she could make it again the next day.

"I didn't get to eat so many of them today!"

Wen's mother said it was no problem: "Recently, it's been mostly tofu dishes, but the specific dishes will change from time to time."

As for how things will change, it all depends on Wen Fan's mood.

The guests left with mixed feelings of joy and regret. The thought that many dishes would only be served once made them feel that they had eaten too quickly today!

Pigsy eats ginseng fruit.

We didn't even get to taste it properly!

Wen Fan ladled out the last bowl of fish soup and fried Sichuan peppercorns in a small pot: "Isn't this normal? It gets boring eating the same thing over and over again."

When she cooked for the emperor, she wasn't allowed to repeat the same dish for a whole month.

The lunch menu was even more extensive today, with a large portion of tofu boxes and fish soup. Wen Fan also used the fish soup to make noodles.

The hand-pulled noodles are round and plump. After cooking, they are scooped into a bowl and served with a few spoonfuls of fish soup. No Sichuan peppercorns are added to the fish soup, so the natural freshness and aroma of the fish soup are very prominent.

Ren Haijin ate bowl after bowl of noodles and vegetables without stopping, while Ji Baiyi, who was initially a little reserved, also couldn't stop eating.

Wen Fan chuckled inwardly. Many college students had come to work at the store, but she had never seen Ji Baiyi so...bookish.

He always tries to act like a frail scholar, pretending to be mature beyond his years, and even puts down his chopsticks and sits up straight when he speaks. But then he breaks down while eating, and sometimes he's actually competing with Ren Haijin in eating!

After finishing their meal, no one would say anything to them; instead, they would blush slightly and then voluntarily help clear the table and wash the dishes.

Tsk tsk. I wonder what kind of family could raise such a refined person.

After finishing the meal, Ji Baiyi got up and took the initiative to clear the table and wash the dishes.

Wen's mother: "This child is really something."

None of these were his jobs, but he insisted on doing them.

However, no one dislikes a diligent person. Wen's mother cut a few oranges and put them on the table, waiting for Ji Baiyi to finish washing them so he could take them and eat them.

"We eat dinner late tonight. If you come earlier this afternoon, you can have some tofu pudding to tide you over."

Wen Fan wasn't satisfied with just eating tofu pudding, so in the afternoon she started making iced tofu pudding.

She acted on a whim, and her father said he would buy her some condiments when he went to the market that afternoon.

Taro balls, pearls, matcha powder—they won't spoil anyway, so I'll bring them back and eat them slowly.

Wen Fan found some brown sugar and cooked red beans in a small pot.

Ren Haijin licked his lips. These past few days, he and Ji Boyi had been finding a nearby internet cafe to rest at noon, or occasionally going to the mall.

But iced tofu pudding...

"Boss lady, I'm free this afternoon, how about I help out at the shop?"