"Hey, this stewed tofu with mullet tastes pretty good!"
Ye Xiaocui picked up a piece of mullet with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth. Mullet is not as expensive as grouper or other fish, and her family usually eats it.
So she's cooked mullet quite a few times, but honestly, this restaurant's mullet is much better than hers.
Not only is the fish incredibly tender, but the tofu inside is also very flavorful.
"Really? Let me try it."
Upon hearing this, Fu Wan also picked up a piece with her chopsticks. The fish and tofu were both delicious, and indeed very good.
Mullet, also known locally as blackfish, is a common and affordable type of sea fish. This fish is somewhat shuttle-shaped with a relatively large head. Its back is bluish-gray, while its belly is typically white.
This fish has relatively small scales and a distinctly forked tail. (Image of a mullet, please delete if infringing copyright). Mullet are generally active in brackish water and like to appear in groups, so if you're lucky enough to encounter a school of mullet, your net will be overflowing.
Because it is so common, the price of this fish is not very high. Generally, if Fu San buys it, it will cost about 50 cents per pound.
Mullet can be braised or steamed, but locals, including Fu Wan's family, prefer to buy a dime's worth of tofu and add it to the stew.
There's an old saying that tofu needs to be boiled a thousand times and fish ten thousand times. Tofu stewed with fish needs at least half an hour, but mullet's flesh isn't very firm. If the heat isn't controlled properly, you might end up with a pot of tofu stewed with fish scraps.
Ye Xiaocui learned to cook from scratch. In the early years, she sometimes cooked fish into scraps, but since her family was poor, it was good enough if there was even a hint of meat flavor.
Fu Wan and Fu Ming are not picky eaters. They can eat a big bowl of fish scraps soaked in brown rice, even after the bones have been removed.
The tofu and mullet stew on the table today is not only beautifully presented, but the fish and tofu are also exceptional.
Even the tofu is full of the umami flavor of fish soup, and it bursts with juice when you bite into it.
If you add some fish soup to the rice, wow, the taste is amazing!
As the group was discussing, the waiter brought the food.
Fu Ming heard that tofu was delicious, so he picked up a piece with his chopsticks and habitually stuffed it directly into his mouth. He knew that the tofu was full of soup, and it burned his mouth so badly that he grimaced.
This comical sight made even Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu chuckle while holding their bowls.
Everyone ate too much at the meal, and Jiang Chunlan and her son Fu Liang rubbed their bellies, full of regret.
Hey, if they had known they would eat so well in town today, they would never have eaten breakfast this morning!
No, I shouldn't have eaten dinner last night either!
After eating, Ye Xiaocui decided to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to digest her food. She felt very sorry for the food left on the table.
Especially the bowl of braised beef, because there were so many other dishes and my mouth was too busy, I barely touched the beef.
She thought the waiters would take the dishes back to eat themselves, but as soon as she went outside, she saw several waiters dumping other people's food into a large bucket.
It didn't look like something you'd take home to eat at all.
Seeing this, she grabbed Fu Wan and asked, "Wan, what are these leftovers for?"
"Huh? Shouldn't we put them away to feed the dogs and pigs?"
"What?! Feed them to dogs and pigs?!"
Ye Xiaocui immediately lost her composure and went out to buy a lunchbox to pack the food.
Fu Wan glanced at the table and saw that there was indeed a lot of food left. She decided to let Ye Xiaocui and the others leave first, and went to find the waiter from before to ask for an aluminum lunchbox.
It would be a shame not to take such good beef home.
The other dishes are not worth mentioning, as they all contain some soup and are inconvenient to hold.
Their fighting ability was actually quite good; most of them ate so much that only some vegetable soup was left.
After packing it up, Fu Wan thought for a moment and then took out fifty yuan.
The meal should cost around this much. She put the money on the service counter and, before the waiter could react, quickly ran off with the takeout food.
What a joke! You can't just eat rice for free!
She had only run a short distance when she saw Ye Xiaocui and a few others waiting for her at the intersection ahead.
The supply and marketing cooperative wasn't far from here, so the group went in and browsed around before selecting three television sets and three rice cookers.
Ye Xiaocui and Jiang Chunlan stopped in their tracks when they reached the fabric section. Good heavens, the patterns on these fabrics are so beautiful!
Fu Wan and Qin Anning placed an order for the television set, and only after signing the papers did they realize that Ye Xiaocui and the others were gone.
Fortunately, there weren't many people at the supply and marketing cooperative at the moment, and only Fu Wan and her group were able to order three color TVs at once.
The sales clerks at the supply and marketing cooperative treated Fu Wan and her companions like gods of wealth, immediately pointing out the whereabouts of Ye Xiaocui and her companion.
Fu Wan went over and saw that the two of them were holding up the fabric to their bodies.
"Mother, Aunt, do you want to buy fabric?"
"Hey, Wan, you've finally arrived! Quickly show us, isn't this fabric beautiful?"
Jiang Chunlan was holding a large red floral cotton cloth, which looked very festive.
This style was all the rage at the time, and Fu Wan looked away and nodded.
"It's...not bad, I guess. But why don't you buy ready-made clothes? Taking the fabric back would mean making the clothes yourself, which is such a hassle!"
"Troublesome? Not at all!"
Ye Xiaocui glared at Fu Wan and pointed to the ready-made clothes next to her.
"Look at this, ready-made clothes are so expensive! One ready-made garment can cost as much as several pieces of fabric used to make clothes!"
Fu Wan helplessly spread her hands and advised, "Mother, have you forgotten that after you buy the fabric, you still need to sew on the sewing machine for several days to make a single garment?"
And most importantly, we don't have a sewing machine at home!
Ye Xiaocui was taken aback by these words. They indeed didn't have a sewing machine at home. They couldn't afford one before, but now that they could, neither her daughter nor her daughter-in-law knew how to use it.
A few days ago, when she tried to buy Qin Anning a three-wheeled vehicle and a radio, the child refused. So she could only give Qin Anning the money for the three-wheeled vehicle and a radio and let them decide what to buy.
"Well... if all else fails, I'll sew it up with a needle..."
"Why are you sewing? It's so cold. If you finish sewing that garment, your eyes will probably be ruined!"
"Look at those ready-made clothes, don't you think they're nice?"
Upon hearing this, Ye Xiaocui looked at the ready-made clothes hanging to the side. Weren't they good-looking? She really couldn't bring herself to say such a heartless thing.
Seeing that she was somewhat interested, Fu Wan directly asked the sales clerk to bring down those clothes for Ye Xiaocui and Jiang Chunlan to try on.
"Mom, try it on and see if it fits."
"Auntie, you should try it too."
Jiang Chunlan was taken aback upon hearing this, and quickly waved her hand to refuse, "I...I don't need it."
"Hey, you guys don't even have a decent set of clothes. When my brother and his family get married, are you going to wear the patched clothes from home again?"
Fu Ming and Fu Liang nodded in agreement, and Qin Anning even picked out a dark red patterned dress and held it up against Ye Xiaocui.
"This outfit looks great, and it makes me look very energetic!"
"Really...really?"
Ye Xiaocui was skeptical, and dared not put the clothes on, fearing she might ruin them.
Fu Wan nodded and immediately helped her put it on.
"It couldn't be more real, Mom! Look how beautiful it is! Why don't we buy this one?"
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