Snack stalls
I spent 350 coins in one go. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel any pain, but I spent all the money and bought this little guy, so I can say I got a lot of money.
He Yingchun has never raised a dog, but her relatives do have one, a big golden retriever, which is quite large. Every time it sees her, it wags its tail and sticks out its tongue, looking very well-behaved, but after a while it starts rubbing against her, very lively.
This one is very well-behaved. It nestles in its mother's arms without moving, with soft white fur. When it talks to its mother, its ears stand up quietly, and its eyes like black gemstones are wet. It is very timid. When someone passes by, it will bury its head in its mother's arms, and its small body will tremble.
"The little thing is afraid of people. I guess it's because that bearded guy often bullies it." Mom touched the puppy and said with concern.
He Yingchun nodded and said, "Let's go back, there are too many people here."
"Okay, let's go!" The two of them walked back, protecting the puppy.
"Noodles! Freshly cooked noodles! Steaming hot noodles!" The waiter wore a small dark square scarf on his head and a white cloth on his left shoulder. Whenever a guest came, he would wipe the table and chairs, "Sir, please come in!"
"Sir, please take care! Come often!" The waiter called out skillfully and with great enthusiasm.
This is the noodle shop that Li Bin mentioned!
The noodle shop is not big, just a simple little shop. There is a tattered wooden sign hanging at the door with the word "Noodle Shop" hand-painted on it. It is simple and straightforward. Although it is a bit old, it is also unique. The Chinese New Year has just passed, and a string of fluttering red lanterns are hung at the door, adding a bit of liveliness and festivity to the whole shop.
It was noon, and there were quite a lot of people. He Yingchun's stomach was rumbling, and she felt a little tired. Her mother also stopped and said, "Let's go in and take a look."
The waiter greeted him warmly, "Sir, please come in!"
The two walked in. There were quite a lot of customers, and they were immediately surrounded by heat and noodles. They felt warm and ordered two bowls of shredded chicken noodles. After sitting for a while, the puppy stopped shivering and stuck its head out to look around. When it heard any movement, it retracted its head.
He Yingchun looked at the decoration of the noodle shop. It was not a big place, and the tables and chairs were very close together. Apart from the checkout counter, the rest of the space was for customers to sit down and eat noodles.
She also asked the waiter about the prices. If it was a vegetarian noodle, it would be 5 cents, and most of the others were 7, 8, or 9 cents. There were also some dishes, but the waiter also said that there were too many people and the dishes might be served slowly.
He Yingchun nodded. After this trip, she had a general idea in her mind.
“Noodles are coming!!”
He Yingchun drank the soup first, then ate some noodles. First, the good points: the flavor was fresh, the meat was plentiful, and at 8 wen a bowl, it was a good deal. Then, the bad points: the chicken was overcooked, dry and tough, and the noodles were too soft and mushy, losing their chewiness by the end.
She rinsed the shredded chicken with water to remove the salt taste, and gave it to the puppy. It sniffed left and right, licked its mouth, and ate it carefully after a while. She fed it a few more pieces of shredded chicken, but He Yingchun stopped giving it any more, fearing that it would get indigestion if it ate too much.
Mum has become quite picky lately. After finishing a bowl of noodles, she wiped her mouth and muttered, "It's just okay."
He Yingchun finished the last mouthful of soup and nodded, "I'm full."
A woman in a cloth apron walked in, pinching a man's ear. "Good on you! You're not doing your job and you're betting on me! I'll break your legs if I see you!"
"Ouch! My lady, my lady, it hurts! Give me some face, so many people are watching us..." The man's steps were unsteady and his face was distorted by being pinched.
"Oh my! Wu Yong, Wu Yong! You've been punished by your wife again!" A man who had just finished his noodles and looked like a regular customer teased with a smile.
"Everyone, eat and drink well! Everyone, eat and drink well!" Wu Yong smiled apologetically while covering his ears as he was dragged into the backyard.
Everyone was amused by this and burst into laughter.
After paying the bill, He Yingchun went back with her mother.
"Wu Yong, Wu Yong, day by day, you will gamble away all your family property sooner or later! Poor Madam Wang has to clean up his mess every day." Passing by the door, a scholar-like man was also eating noodles. Everyone laughed, but he alone shook his head and sighed.
At this time, Madam Wang came out and comforted everyone with a smile.
He Yingchun saw that her smile was forced and sighed, saying that every family has its own problems.
After returning home, they let the puppy adapt first. He Yingchun and her mother worked together to give it a bath. "The puppy is quite white here." After washing with a large bucket of water, the puppy finally turned white.
"Then let's call him Xiaobai!" It sounds nice and easy to remember, said He Yingchun.
Mom nodded, "Okay."
"Xiaobai! Xiaobai!" He Yingchun called out twice, but the dog didn't look at it. It seemed that the dog was not familiar with the new name, so it just needed to be called out more often.
He Yingchun and her mother would call out every once in a while, "Xiaobai! Xiaobai! Xiaobai!"
Xiaobai raised his eyelids and ignored the two people.
"Maybe it's shy. It'll be fine once it gets familiar with the place!" The puppy didn't bark. He Yingchun had never raised one before, so she guessed.
It was cold, and there was no doghouse, so Xiaobai walked around the house first, then found a corner in the main room and sat there motionless.
When Wen Jingzhao came back at night and walked in, he saw a white ball. He went over to touch it. The puppy was frightened and opened its eyes. It stood up vigilantly, shrank back, and barked.
He was a little surprised. "Where did the dog come from?"
He Yingchun was cooking when she heard the dog barking. She came out and exclaimed, "Ah! It's barking!" But she didn't go any closer. "I bought it from a merchant from out of town when I was at the market."
"Guess how much it is?" He Yingchun thought that this person must not know what dog prices are. "The man asked for two taels, and I negotiated it down to 350 wen!!" She looked happy and her eyes sparkled, as if she had found a treasure.
Wen Jingzhao smiled, reached out, wiped her face, and rubbed some flour on his fingers.
The slightly cool fingertips rubbed against her face, making her feel tingling and numb. A blush crept up her face. She raised her arm and rubbed it, and her face turned red instantly.
She pretended to be nonchalant and said, "You have no idea how pitiful Xiaobai is. That bearded businessman strangled her neck, and just like that, Xiaobai started crying."
"Xiaobai?" Wen Jingzhao glanced at the dog, and it was indeed quite white.
But this kind of small dog should be less than 100 Wen on the market now, right? But seeing He Yingchun's expression, he didn't say it out loud.
Wen Jingzhao asked the puppy to come over and sniff his hand. The puppy wagged its tail and turned around. Seeing that it was not aggressive, it came over and Wen Jingzhao scratched its chin.
Dogs are always like this. Even if people hurt them a thousand times, as long as they are nice to them once, they will come up to them eagerly.
Wen Jingzhao knew that she was afraid of dogs, so he stayed far away from her when teasing them.
"Okay, then you two can play. I'm going to cook!" The little guy was jumping around, and He Yingchun was also happy.
He Yingchun raised the corner of his mouth, "Xiaobai, wait, we'll eat meat later!"
Wen Jingzhao also smiled when he saw it. He patted the dog's back, and the dog stretched forward comfortably.
“How cute.”
The dog didn't understand and continued to let him tickle, "right?"
He looked at He Yingchun, not knowing whether he was talking about the dog or the person. He Yingchun's face turned red and she ran away in a hurry.
Tsk, He Yingchun slapped her face. Mom was cutting potato shreds. "What's wrong? Is the young master back?"
She nodded, "Yeah, I'm playing with Xiaobai."
"Okay, I'm almost there."
He Yingchun nodded, "Okay, I'm almost there too!"
She went to the market today and asked several food stalls about it. They found out that there is a stall fee for setting up a stall. A stall of about ten square meters costs 300 wen per month in the off-season and 500 wen in the peak season. It is the first month of the year and the weather is very cold, so it is considered the off-season.
She couldn't afford to rent a shop, but she could set up a small food stall. However, she was at a loss as to what to set up. People here loved pastries, and she had heard that Zhou's pancakes were the most famous. No matter how delicious theirs was, they already had a competitor, so it wasn't feasible.
As for the noodles, they are soupy and it might be too cold to eat outside, and the place is not big.
She and her mother pondered over and over what kind of stall to set up.
"If you go out to eat, do you want meat or vegetarian food?" He Yingchun had two things in mind and was hesitant.
My mother said without hesitation, "If we go out to eat, we definitely want to eat meat." She added, "But it can't be too expensive."
I want to eat meat, but I also love noodles.
What flashed through He Yingchun's mind was the small restaurant that she often ate at in high school. After evening self-study, she was so hungry that she bought a roujiamo. The roujiamo was made with fat and meat. The juice would spurt out when she took a bite.
She clapped her hands and said, "Okay, I'll order the roujiamo!"
The page about roujiamo in the fragment of the chef's cookbook finally came in handy.
She ran out again and bought all the missing ingredients, and this time she had only less than 100 coins left.
The marinade is key! Put ginger slices, star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns, tangerine peel, bay leaves, and dried chilies in a small mesh bag and place it in clean water for a quarter of an hour. This will help wash away any dust and bring out the aroma.
Then make the syrup. Put some rock sugar and oil in and stir-fry until it melts and turns caramel color, which means it is almost done. Add hot water and stir evenly, and the syrup is ready!
The pork should be leg meat with alternating fat and lean meat, cut into large pieces, put into a pot, add cold water, and a little rice wine to remove the fishy smell. This step is to blanch the pork, skim off the floating foam, remove the blood and some impurities on it, and then take it out for later use.
Clean the pot, add pork, marinade, sugar water, some cooked eggs and bean curd skin, then add soy sauce, salt and white wine, and finally add water to cover the meat. According to the system recipe, add half a bottle of spiritual spring water.
"Ding! You have redeemed the spiritual spring water. Your points are 43!"
Over there, the mother was kneading the dough according to He Yingchun's requirements. She added alkaline flour to the flour, put salt in the water, and added water to the flour several times. When the flour slowly turned into flocs, she kneaded it into dough slowly. After it was formed into a ball, she let it relax for a while.
He Yingchun rolled the relaxed dough into a rectangle, brushed oil on it evenly, and then rolled it up along one side, leaving half of it, and cut the remaining half into strips as thick as chopsticks. She continued to roll it, and after rolling it up, she twisted it into small pieces.
This step is crucial. If you want to make a crispy and beautiful crust, twist it in opposite directions with your hands to create spiral patterns.
The last step is to make the pancake crust!
She heard a dog barking outside, so she asked her mother to hold the dog while she went out for a while and came back trotting with a red face.
The crust is ready, open the pan!
As soon as the big pot was opened, water from the edge of the pot flowed down with a "whoosh".
"Hiss." Both of them took a breath.
The surface of the stewed meat is an attractive reddish-brown color, and the meat is plump, chewy and shiny.
Wen Jingzhao was attracted by the fragrance. He walked in holding the dog and exclaimed, "What a nice smell!"
He Yingchun took out a piece of braised meat, put it on the chopping board and cut it open. The delicious marinade permeated the layers of meat, tempting people to take a bite.
The meat was chopped up in a few strokes.
"Quick! Give me the crust!"
Mom handed over a small bowl of pancake crusts. He Yingchun put a pancake crust on her palm, and without caring whether it was hot or not, she opened the middle and stuffed the meat in it. She made four in a row.
The three of them couldn't wait to taste it and looked at each other.
One word: "Absolute!"
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