Chapter 78 Ha, you've really made something of yourself. I think I just heard something...
"Ugh! Unreliable."
"It's really unreliable."
Chen Changyu and Duan Jing shook their heads in disappointment and left.
Qi Zhao went to the locker to change his clothes in frustration. After changing, he reluctantly put his phone in front of the locker and glanced at it. Unexpectedly, when he opened it, he saw a WeChat message from An Fusheng.
"Aaaaaah!!! The restaurant owner said he'd deliver lunch to us!!!"
Chen Changyu and Duan Jing, who should have walked far away, suddenly appeared beside Chen Changyu. "What's going on?"
"The boss said he'll bring us lunch today and let us order!" Chen Changyu gripped his phone tightly, his heart pounding with excitement.
"Then what are you waiting for? Order the food quickly!"
"Let's see what dishes are available?"
"Let me see too!"
"Hey, Duan Jing, don't grab my phone! Let's all watch together!"
The three of them stood head to head, scrolling through the menu that An Fusheng had given them.
"Order this, stir-fried green peppers with pork. This was the first thing I ever had, and it was super delicious. I wanted to order it yesterday, but it was all gone."
"The braised pork ribs look good, I'll have one!"
"I love fish marinated in fermented rice wine, order one quickly!"
"Damn, don't order so fast, there's more to come."
The three of them ordered their food, and An Fusheng asked them if they wanted bamboo shoots, saying that he had just bought them today and had bought too many, so they couldn't finish them.
"We absolutely have to get some bamboo shoots! Old Shen loves bamboo shoots, waaaah, the boss is practically our god."
"Yes, yes, yes, add it!"
Not long after An Fusheng's menu was sent out, he received a reply from Qi Zhao. In addition to ordering the dishes, Qi Zhao also specifically asked An Fusheng to send eight servings of rice since they ate a lot.
“They must be starving. Our rice portions are so big, and each of them needs two portions,” An Fusheng said sympathetically.
Xu Sannian couldn't help but complain, "Good-for-nothing."
The ingredients for the dishes already on the menu are ready, so we can cook them directly in a bit. Bamboo shoots are an extra dish, so we need to prepare them separately.
Xu Sannian found the bamboo shoots he had bought that morning. "Master, what are you planning to do with these bamboo shoots?"
"Let's stir-fry it with pork belly," An Fusheng said. "If only we had cured pork, we could make a stew with bamboo shoots and pork belly."
Xu Sannian said, "Didn't I bring some cured meat when I became your disciple? Have you finished eating it?"
An Fusheng exclaimed in surprise, "You brought cured meat? We've never had it before!"
Xu Sannian: "Huh? There should still be some left."
"I'll go ask Aunt Lou." With that, An Fusheng ran out.
A moment later, An Fusheng happily returned carrying a bag. "I got it. It's good that you mentioned it, otherwise, if Aunt Lou had kept it in the cupboard as dried goods for a while, it would have gone bad."
An Fusheng cut open the sealed bag and took out the cured meat, turning it over to look at it. "This cured meat is really good. It's made from authentic pork belly, and the fat is thoroughly smoked."
Xu Sannian said, "Of course, it was given by the students my mother sponsors. They are all black-haired pigs raised in rural areas for a whole year, and their method of making cured meat is a craft passed down from generation to generation."
An Fusheng: "Today's braised pork and bamboo shoot soup will definitely be delicious."
Xu Sannian: "It's a pity we can't get any food."
"We'll cook for ourselves tonight."
An Fusheng cut a piece of cured pork, found a pair of tongs, and placed the cured pork on the fire to roast. Only after the skin of the cured pork was completely charred did he put the cured pork in hot water to wash it.
Xu Sannian asked curiously, "Why do we need to burn it once?"
An Fusheng explained, "The main thing is to crisp the skin, otherwise it will be too hard to chew."
As An Fusheng spoke, he quickly scraped off the charred parts of the cured pork skin with a cleaver, revealing the golden-brown part underneath. The charred skin also emitted a rich aroma.
"Wow, it smells so good! The skin is burnt to a golden brown, it looks so beautiful." Xu Sannian has been learning to cook from An Fusheng for so long, and through this exposure, he has become able to fully appreciate the beauty of various foods.
“It tastes very good,” An Fusheng said.
"You're making me want to eat them." Xu Sannian vigorously peeled the bamboo shoot husks. "It would be even better if the husks weren't so tight."
An Fusheng looked and saw Xu Sannian grabbing a tightly wrapped bamboo shoot husk and trying to pry it apart. "That's not how it's done. You'll hurt your hand if you do that. I'll teach you."
An Fusheng put down the meat in his hand, washed his hands, took the bamboo shoot from Xu Sannian's hand, placed it on the cutting board, first used a cleaver to cut off the old root part at the bottom, then cut from the part of the root without shell, cut the bamboo shoot in half from the middle, and then gently pry the bamboo shoot shell outward from the tip of the bamboo shoot. The layers of bamboo shoot shell were peeled off all at once like dominoes, one on top of another.
"Wow, Master, you're so smart!"
“I learned it from someone else.” An Fusheng placed the peeled bamboo shoots on a plate. “Try the other half.”
Xu Sannian imitated An Fusheng's technique, pinching the husk at the tip of the bamboo shoot and pressing it down, easily peeling off half of the husk. "Wow, this is the wisdom of the working people!"
An Fusheng watched as Xu Sannian cut open a bamboo shoot, quickly peeled off the outer skin, and then continued washing the cured meat.
Seeing that An Fusheng was still sitting there cooking, Xu Sannian said, "You start cooking first. Leave the cured meat there, I'll wash it in a bit."
"The cured pork releases oil when cooked, which makes my hands dirty, but I can wash them. I know exactly what's going on with the vegetables cooking in the pot, so it won't delay anything."
"That's fine then."
After washing the cured meat, An Fusheng saw that Xu Sannian had already peeled the bamboo shoots and said, "Cut the bamboo shoots again, cut them in half from the dense part starting from the bamboo nodes."
"Why?" Xu Sannian picked up the kitchen knife and did as An Fusheng told him to do.
"The upper part of the bamboo where the nodes are dense is too tender and not suitable for cooking for too long. We can use it to stir-fry with pork belly for ourselves. The lower part is a little tougher, so you can cut it into triangular pieces later and use it to make a stew with cured pork."
Xu Sannian readily agreed: "Okay, although we didn't get to eat pickled bamboo shoots and pork soup, we did get to eat bamboo shoot tips, hehe."
"Cut the bamboo shoots, and also cut the cured pork into pieces about two centimeters in size."
"no problem."
The takeout orders went well at noon today; they were sold out by around 12:30 pm.
Qi Zhao and his group ordered stir-fried pork with green peppers, braised pork ribs, fermented fish, and a dish of pickled bamboo shoots and stewed pork that An Fusheng decided to make on the spur of the moment. The braised pork ribs had been stewed in advance in the morning and could be taken out directly later. The fermented fish was also prepared in advance, and they could just take as much as they wanted. Only the stir-fried pork with green peppers and the pickled bamboo shoots and stewed pork needed to be made on the spot.
An Fusheng first blanched the chopped bamboo shoots in water for about four or five minutes, then took them out and added some Shaoxing wine to the water used to blanch the bamboo shoots, along with the cured pork and leftover spare ribs from the takeout.
"Why do some dishes need to be blanched before cooking, while others don't?" Xu Sannian asked from the side.
"Blanching of leafy vegetables is mostly to remove some of the toxic and harmful substances they carry. Blanching of meat is generally to remove its odor. Blanching of some root vegetables grown in water, such as lotus root and water chestnut, is to kill parasites."
"What about the bamboo shoots?"
"The main purpose of stir-frying bamboo shoots in water is to remove their astringent taste."
"I never knew there was so much to know about blanching water."
An Fusheng nodded. "Yes, and the blanching time varies depending on the type of vegetable."
Xu Sannian said anxiously, "Master, please stop for a moment. I think I need to get a notebook to take notes."
An Fusheng laughed and said, "You don't need to memorize it deliberately. You'll naturally know it after doing it a lot."
After blanching the cured pork and ribs and draining them, it's time to start cooking.
Because the stewed pork and bamboo shoot soup needs to be cooked in a clay pot, An Fusheng directly used a clay pot to stir-fry the cured pork and ribs. After stir-frying, he added boiling water, then poured in the blanched bamboo shoots, brought the soup to a boil over high heat, and then covered the clay pot and simmered it over low heat.
While they were stewing pickled bamboo shoots and pork belly, An Fusheng made stir-fried pork belly with bamboo shoots and stir-fried pork with chili peppers. He also used the remaining vegetables to make a simple stir-fried vegetable dish. Lunch was ready.
The stew needs to be simmered for about half an hour more, so the family will have lunch first.
Lou Lan noticed a plate of stir-fried pork belly with bamboo shoots on the table and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Are there still bamboo shoots this season?"
An Fusheng, arranging the vegetables, said, "Yes, I was also curious when I saw them at the wholesale market today, so I bought some to try. I just don't know if bamboo shoots taste good this season."
“Your mother-in-law especially loves bamboo shoots, we should save them to cook tonight,” Lou Lan said.
Lou Lan helped Wen Xinglan and Wen Xingrui put on their bibs, and An Fusheng casually put a large pork rib in each of their bowls, saying, "There will be more tonight. Bamboo shoots don't keep well; they lose half a day's freshness if left out for too long. Let's have a taste at noon first."
"We really have to try it." Lou Lan said, sitting down after seeing that Wen Xinglan and Wen Xingrui had already started eating. "Let's eat too."
The family sat down to eat.
Lou Lan picked up a bamboo shoot tip and ate it, exclaiming with delight, "Mmm, crisp, refreshing, and sweet, delicious!"
Xu Sannian quickly ate one after hearing this, "Wow, it's really delicious, especially tender, and has a faint natural fragrance."
Seeing the two praising it so highly, An Fusheng immediately tried one himself. It was fresh, tender, crisp, and sweet. The bamboo fiber absorbed the fat from the pork belly, making it very soft and tender. It was indeed quite good.
...
After lunch, the stewed bamboo shoots and pork soup was almost ready. There were still some bamboo shoot tips that hadn't been stir-fried, so An Fusheng put the remaining bamboo shoot tips into the casserole to simmer together, and then packed up the other dishes.
Xu Sannian went into the kitchen to help An Fusheng. Seeing a pot full of pickled bamboo shoots and pork soup, which was still very hot after being cooked, he said, "There's so much pickled bamboo shoots and pork soup, why don't we just take the whole pot over? Otherwise, how are we going to fit it?"
An Fusheng was having a dilemma. "Okay, that's fine. It also keeps the food warm. Let's put the braised pork ribs in another clay pot so we don't waste any bowls."
Xu Sannian: "I think it's okay."
In the end, they didn't even bother packing the rice; they just carried the rice cooker along with it into Xu Sannian's car.
"No wonder they insisted on ordering from us. Who else offers such top-notch service? The food, the dishes, the utensils—everything is specially supplied. Even the delivery is done personally by the boss and his close disciple," Xu Sannian said while driving.
As soon as An Fusheng got in the car, he sent a WeChat message to Qi Zhao to let them know that he had set off and would arrive in about half an hour.
Half an hour later, An Fusheng and Xu Sannian saw Qi Zhao looking around at the school gate from afar.
Unfortunately, Qi Zhao hadn't noticed them when the car arrived in front of him. An Fusheng rolled down the window and greeted Qi Zhao.
Qi Zhao was startled: "You, you, you, you delivered food to us in such a luxurious car?"
An Fusheng had no concept of luxury cars; he only thought that Xu Sannian's car was very clean, and the interior was very quiet and comfortable when the windows were closed.
"Why did you come here to pick us up? Can't we go in? Is it far from your lab? It might be difficult for us to carry our tools," An Fusheng said.
Qi Zhao waved his hand, "We weren't supposed to go in, but the security guard is an old friend of Duan Jing's cousin's second great-uncle's cousin. I just introduced him to him, so he'll let us in."
Xu Sannian unlocked the door. "Then get in the car and lead the way for us."
"Alright!" Qi Zhao happily opened the car door and got in. "I'm riding in a luxury car now, and the driver is a beautiful woman. What a dream come true experience!"
Xu Sannian: "Don't be disgusting."
Qi Zhao silently shut his mouth.
Four minutes later, Xu Sannian's car stopped downstairs in front of the laboratory building.
Duan Jing and Chen Changyu were already lying in the corridor, eagerly waiting.
Qi Zhao got out of the car and looked up to see the two people craning their necks to look into the distance. He cupped his hands around a megaphone and shouted, "They're here! Come down and get your food!"
"Holy crap, it really is this car!"
"Never underestimate anyone who runs a small business."
The two quickly went downstairs.
An Fusheng handed them the food from the car one by one, saying, "Be careful."
"Don't worry, the hand that holds the scalpel must be steady when eating."
"As long as the food is there, the person lives; if the food is gone, the person dies!"
"Ha, you've really made something of yourself."
"Why do I think I heard Old Shen's voice?"
"Why don't you look behind you?"
Everyone turned around at the same time.
Duan Jing: "Old...old..."
Chen Changyu: "Teacher!"
Qi Zhao: "Director...you...you're back?"
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