Chapter 110 Chapter 110 Various kinds of rice dumplings.
Since hundreds of years ago, rice dumplings have become a traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival, but most of them were millet wrapped in cattail leaves, boiled, and eaten with honey. It was not until the previous dynasty that the variety began to increase gradually. The commonly seen rice dumplings with honey in them could no longer meet everyone's needs.
Rich families and even restaurants would put various wild game and animals into the rice dumplings, and add chestnuts, red dates, red beans and other things, in pursuit of richer and more diverse flavors.
After tasting and selecting by Lin Sen's family, the shop's servants, and regular customers, in addition to the basic sweet bean and meat dumplings, three sweet rice dumplings were also decided upon: the red bean and candied date dumplings made with homemade candied dates, the tangerine peel and red bean paste dumplings made with ten-year-old tangerine peel, and the yam and osmanthus dumplings made with homemade osmanthus syrup and yam from Hanoi County.
In addition, there are four types of salty rice dumplings: egg yolk and meat rice dumplings, preserved vegetable and meat rice dumplings, scallop and dried shrimp rice dumplings, and abalone and salted meat rice dumplings.
There are nine kinds of rice dumplings now. Linzhi thought about it and chose a double combination of sweet and salty ones to make it perfect.
Half a month before the festival, Nyingchi put up signs advertising their Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings. These billboards featured Song Jiaoniang's own hand-painted illustrations, clearly depicting the rice dumpling styles and fillings. The colorful designs were truly beautiful.
Linzhi then made samples and placed them on the fruit counter for customers to see. At the same time, the shop supported individual purchases and also accepted reservations. The prices ranged from the most basic ten coins per piece to several hundred coins per piece, and customers could choose as they pleased.
In addition to finalizing the taste of the rice dumplings, Linzhi also personally customized the outer packaging of the rice dumplings.
Nowadays, the food boxes used by Linzhiji are no longer the plain and simple ones without any patterns, but the special boxes made by carpenters in their shops.
The same goes for the packaging boxes, which come in a variety of styles, from the most common to the gold-plated wooden boxes, for people to choose from.
For example, the most expensive gilded wooden box, not to mention the exquisite and elegant patterns on the outside, the inside is made of silk cloth smoked with mugwort. In addition to the rice dumplings tied with colorful silk threads, there are also fans and sachets painted and customized by Song Jiaoniang herself, and gold and silver foil, pearls, jade and various gems can be added according to customer requirements.
This is the advantage of having a brand name: many regular customers order several boxes without asking any questions or tasting the food.
For example, the most expensive gift boxes can be sold out in less than three days.
On the day before the festival and the morning of the actual day, Linzhiji saw its peak sales. Lin Sen and Song Jiaoniang had originally planned to go watch the dragon boat race after giving gifts, but after seeing this, they gave up their original plan and hurried back to the shop to help.
Although Linzhi had made preparations in advance and had arranged for the kitchen apprentices in the shop to make rice dumplings as quickly as possible, the orders that poured into the kitchen one after another made everyone gradually put away their smiles and unconsciously start to speed up their hands.
Linzhi and a kitchen helper were responsible for making the insufficient quantities of various fillings, one person was responsible for washing the rice dumplings leaves, one person was responsible for sticking the lists sent from the front hall on the corresponding boxes and packing them one by one, and the remaining people were all responsible for wrapping the rice dumplings.
The few of them quickly formed an assembly line operation, which was orderly despite the chaos. The sales peak did not come to an end until the afternoon, when people gradually started to order gift boxes and then began to buy individual rice dumplings.
It was not until the sun set and closing time approached that the number of diners coming to buy rice dumplings gradually decreased.
Seeing that there were not many rice dumplings left and time was almost up, Linzhi simply hung up a sign to stop business, kept a few for his own use, and then distributed the remaining rice dumplings to the kitchen helpers, apprentices and waiters in the store, instructing them to share them with their families.
Of course, before everyone left, Linzhi did not forget to give everyone a red envelope to reward them and let them have a good holiday.
"Thank you, Madam Lin/Master!"
"You're welcome. Go back early and you'll be able to catch the family dinner!" Lin Zhi smiled and sent everyone away. She also used the same method to send away the servants at home, and then she was so tired that she sat in a chair in a daze.
Song Jiaoniang took a look, put on an apron, and went into the kitchen. Soon, she and Lin Sen came out with three bowls of soup noodles. She handed the bowl in her hand to Lin Zhi and said with a smile, "Sister Zhi, fill your stomach."
Lin Zhi was so shocked that she sat up straight, her eyes wide open: "Mom!? You made the soup noodles."
Song Jiaoniang nodded, raised her chin proudly, and hummed: "Isn't it amazing?"
"That's amazing!" Lin Zhi ignored the burnt egg inside and praised, "What about the suobing? Did you make it too?"
"Ahem... I don't have the skills to make these. Your father bought them at the market." Song Jiaoniang blushed and confessed honestly. She didn't even know how to knead dough. She even got blisters on her hands just making this bowl of soup noodles.
"I see." Lin Zhi couldn't help laughing and stopped teasing Song Jiaoniang. She happily picked up a chopstick and put it in her mouth, while giving Song Jiaoniang a thumbs up: "My soup noodles are delicious!"
"Really?" Song Jiaoniang beamed, quickly picking up a chopstick from her own bowl and shoving it into her mouth. Her eyes lit up, and she quickly beckoned Lin Sen to try it: "I said Sister Zhi looked like me. Look at what I made. It's so delicious."
"Really?" Lin Sen's eyes lit up when he saw the mother and daughter saying so. He happily picked up a chopstick of noodles and stuffed it into his mouth.
In an instant, Lin Sen's expression changed slightly.
The next moment, the three of them spat out the noodles in their mouths at the same time: "Jiao Niang/Niang - why aren't your noodles cooked yet?"
Song Jiaoniang smiled awkwardly: "How would I know? And I clearly added salt, so why is the soup so sweet?"
"I think you mistook sugar for salt!" Lin Sen spat twice. "The noodles are raw, the soup is sweet, and the fried egg is burnt..."
Lin Sen met Song Jiaoniang's fierce gaze, quickly put down his chopsticks, stood up and said, "I'll go cook the rice dumplings. Today is the Dragon Boat Festival, we should eat rice dumplings!"
Soon, he came out with the rice dumplings.
After being cooked, each rice dumpling has a neat appearance, exuding the fragrance of the rice dumpling leaves. You can faintly smell the salty fragrance inside, which makes people unable to stop salivating.
Song Jiaoniang silently moved the bowls of noodles aside to make some space on the table. Once Lin Sen's plate was on the table, she impatiently grabbed the colorful string and tugged, peeling the leaves off completely, revealing the tightly packed triangular glutinous rice ball inside.
"This is candied dates!" Song Jiaoniang looked at the jade-white glutinous rice and the candied dates that had absorbed the juice and become particularly round and plump, her eyes sparkling.
"Mine is the one with egg yolk and fresh meat."
"I'm lucky, it's dried scallops and shrimps!" Lin Sen smiled and showed it proudly to the mother and daughter.
"Look how proud you are!" Song Jiaoniang rolled her eyes at him, picked up the zongzi, and put it in her mouth. The first thing she tasted was the soft texture of the glutinous rice, with just the right viscosity and a gentle aroma, with a faint fragrance from the zongzi leaves and a faint sweet aroma from the candied dates.
As you chew, the sweetness of the candied dates gradually becomes stronger. The candied dates are delicious when eaten alone, but they can also be wrapped in glutinous rice. After absorbing juice and swelling, the date flesh becomes extremely soft and sticky. Just suck it, and the warm and sweet fragrance will bloom on the tip of your tongue and instantly fill your mouth.
Song Jiaoniang held her face in her hands and ate happily.
Lin Sen was holding a rice dumpling stuffed with dried scallop and shrimp, his eyes lighting up just by sniffing the aroma.
The zongzi in his hand is second only to the glutinous fish and salted pork zongzi in cost. It requires river shrimp roe, river shrimp brain, river shrimp paste, river shrimp meat and shrimp oil, and is paired with dried scallops that are half the size of a palm, and a special seafood soy sauce. First, use shrimp oil to stir-fry the river shrimp meat, dried scallops, round glutinous rice, onions and other ingredients until cooked through, then add some special pickles, supplemented with shrimp soup and soy sauce and stir-fry evenly, and finally wrap it with zongzi leaves.
With this bite, my mouth was filled with the sweet aroma of shrimp meat, and one word dominated my mind: delicious.
The extremely fresh and fragrant taste left Lin Sen speechless for a moment. He only remembered to take another bite. The soft and chewy scallops, wrapped in a strong seafood flavor, rushed into his mouth.
After another moment of daze, my tongue finally tasted a hint of salty fragrance. The homemade daoducai of Nyingchi was salty, fragrant, crispy, and tender. That hint of salty fragrance was like an oasis in the desert, giving my addicted taste buds a restful rest.
When he relaxed completely, Lin Sen suddenly caught a glimpse of the aftertaste of sweetness. The freshness, saltiness and aftertaste were intertwined, so delicious that he couldn't stop eating.
Only after swallowing the last bite did Lin Sen sigh deeply, "It's so delicious."
Linzhi also ate it up cleanly, bite by bite.
The family of three filled their stomachs, and then Song Jiaoniang went into the kitchen to get a few plates of fruit. She placed lychees and bayberries on the table, muttering, "Here, these bayberries were sent by Tao Lang, and these lychees were sent by Yan Ge'er."
"I don't know if the people we invited have arrived in Hangzhou, and if we were able to deliver the gifts to Tao Lang's house in time. I also don't know if they like the rice dumplings, fans, and sachets we sent them."
Song Jiaoniang was worried. Tao Yingce and Qi Niangzi were currently serving as magistrates in Hangzhou Prefecture, so she asked someone to bring back a box of local specialty fruits, a box of local bayberries, several large pots of Hangzhou rice wine, a portrait of Zhang Tianshi painted by Tao Yingce, and a pair of sachets made by Qi Niangzi.
"Don't worry, we'll definitely make it in time." Lin Zhi smiled. "The dental company has a guarantee. If it's different from what we said when we placed the order, we'll have to pay compensation."
"That's right." Song Jiaoniang thought for a moment and nodded. She peeled a lychee and put the moist flesh into her mouth. Then she thought, "Looking at the lychees reminds me of Yan'er. Why has Yan'er looked so tired these past few days?"
"I guess there's another case."
"Even if there's a case, you can't ruin your health like this." Song Jiaoniang sighed and muttered, "Maybe it's because Tao Lang left. Look, Brother Lu San and the others also followed Tao Lang to Hangzhou Prefecture. I'm afraid few of them can help."
Lin Zhi comforted Song Jiaoniang: "Mother, if you think about it, now that Tao Lang is gone, Yan Ge'er's superior must have changed. You must be diligent and low-key during this period to avoid being tabooed by others."
"We've made a lot of nourishing soups recently. I see that Brother Yan doesn't look well, but his figure is still good."
Chen Yan, worried about by the Linzhi family, had been quite busy lately. Although he had submitted his resignation, he was only allowed to leave after completing the handover of all matters. If he hadn't said he wanted to return to the Imperial Academy and participate in the Autumn Examination, his superiors might not have been willing to let him go.
After finally leaving, I had to make many efforts to return to the Imperial College to study.
The day after the Dragon Boat Festival, Chen Yan followed Tao Yingheng to Haoweizhai for a banquet.
Doctor Li sat at the table, looking at Chen Yan who had walked in with eyes that were not eyes, nose that was not nose, and snorted coldly: "Why is this kid here? Didn't he say he wanted to be a minor official?"
Dr. Zhou, who was sitting next to him, was at a loss for words. He raised his elbow and nudged him, "Don't take it to heart, Yan'er. Dr. Li talks about you every other day. Just ask the students here, who hasn't heard of you in class?"
After a pause, he continued, "Yan'er has already resigned from his official position. He was busy for a month before handing over all the affairs. Now he plans to return to the Imperial College to study."
"Look how thin and haggard he is!"
"Go back to the Imperial College to study?" Only after hearing this did Dr. Li's eyes light up and he stood up. He subconsciously wanted to sigh about Chen Yan's suffering, but looking at Chen Yan's taller and even fatter face, he hesitated: "...haggard?"
"Yeah... uh." Dr. Zhou glanced at Chen Yan, his expression stiffening. Not to mention being thinner, this kid was even a little fatter than the last time he saw him.
At most, the dark circles under my eyes are a little deeper.
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