These juicy beef balls were made by Meng Zhao with a lot of effort. First of all, the raw materials were not easy to obtain, as beef is not available every day.
Moreover, it takes a lot of effort to grind the beef into minced meat. Even with her homemade tools, it took her a full hour to make several pounds of beef into meatballs.
The reason these beef balls burst with juice is not because they were filled with broth during the wrapping process, but because they contain pork skin jelly.
Wash the pig skin with clean water, put it in a pot, add scallions and ginger, and cook for half an hour.
After removing the pork from the water, clean off the fat, cut it into cubes, add scallions, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, and salt to taste, and simmer together for half an hour.
After stewing, pour it into a bowl and let it cool down to solidify into a jelly. Then cut it into appropriately sized small pieces, wrap each piece with ground beef, and later, when cooked in water, the pork skin jelly will turn into a broth. Your juicy beef balls are now ready!
Every bite Song Wanyin took was amazing. First, many of these things were things she had never seen before, and second, the taste was really good. Even the vegetables inside were very fragrant, and the smell alone made her mouth water.
Song Wanyin ate one bite after another without stopping. When she finally put down her chopsticks, she felt her stomach had become rounder. She leaned back slightly, rubbed her stomach, and let out a heavy sigh of relief, feeling very comfortable.
Seeing this, Coral quietly tugged at Song Wanyin's sleeve, "Miss, there are so many people here."
It turned out that it was lunchtime, and people were slowly starting to enter the shop. Meng Zhao stopped talking to them and started greeting other customers.
Old Sun and Old Wang hesitated at the shop entrance, their faces showing some embarrassment. "Boss Meng, look at what happened yesterday. We just stood by and watched, unable to help at all. We really feel bad about it."
Yesterday, something happened at the lunchbox stall, and the two of them were watching from the side. At first, they said a few words to help, but seeing how fierce the stall owners looked, they could only stay away in the end.
Upon hearing this, Meng Zhao's lips curled up into a gentle smile. "What's the big deal? Those people were dressed in official robes and carried knives. I had to muster up my courage to speak to them. There was really no need to confront them. You don't mind their words and are still willing to patronize our shop. I'm more than grateful to you."
Old Sun breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Boss Meng is right to think that way. Just don't confront them head-on. Those people have a lot of dirty tricks up their sleeves."
Old Wang nodded repeatedly, "We've eaten at Boss Meng's place so many times. If there were a problem, we would know it by now. It's obvious that someone is deliberately causing trouble because Boss Meng's business is good."
Meng Zhao greeted them with a warm smile and invited them in. His gaze casually swept over their clothes, which were made of relatively new materials, and he asked casually, "Are you two out on business today because you don't have to work?"
Old Sun sighed heavily. "Sigh, what do you mean we don't have to work? We've been working all morning, but the foreman requires us to wear new clothes to work for the next few days, otherwise he won't let us come."
Old Wang also complained, "That's right, this is a new dress my mother made for me. I was planning to wear it for the New Year, but now I'm wearing it to carry sacks. It's really a tragedy."
Hearing their words, Meng Zhao was very curious, "What's going on? We've never had these kinds of requests before?"
Old Sun explained, "It's because the person in charge heard that the new county magistrate was coming to inspect the docks, so he required us to wear new clothes. If you ask me, this county magistrate is a bit crazy. Why doesn't he stay in the county office properly and instead wanders around aimlessly? He's really causing trouble for everyone."
Upon hearing this, Old Wang, who was standing nearby, quickly looked around and then covered his mouth with his hand, saying, "What nonsense are you talking about? Don't you want to die?"
Old Sun realized he had said the wrong thing and looked around warily. Only when he saw that no one was paying attention to them did he feel relieved.
Song Wanyin and Shanhu, who were sitting to the side, heard everything. They looked at each other and had a slightly embarrassed expression on their faces, but Meng Zhao was busy greeting the guests and did not notice.
Both of them were regular customers at the shop, so without Meng Zhao's introduction, they each chose what they wanted to eat and gave it to Aunt Suyun to cook.
Seeing that the shop was getting more and more crowded and there would soon be no place to sit, Song Wanyin prepared to get up and say goodbye, gesturing to Shanhu to pay the bill.
Meng Zhao calculated that the two of them had spent nearly seventy coins in total. Logically speaking, two people shouldn't be able to eat that much, but the dishes they ate were all troublesome to make and the ingredients were expensive, so the price was naturally higher.
When it came time to settle the bill, Song Wanyin paid no attention and just listened. Even the little maid Shanhu next to her paid the bill without any sign of anything amiss, which shows that her family was very well-off.
After the two left the shop, Coral leaned close to Song Wanyin and whispered, "Miss, should we tell the master about what we heard today?"
Song Wanyin frowned slightly, thought for a moment and said, "Tell him. Since we heard it, we should tell him. But we shouldn't say that we heard it in Zhao Zhao's shop. He's the most cunning person. Last time, he suspected that others had ulterior motives just because he met Zhao Zhao. If he finds out that we heard it in Zhao Zhao's shop, he'll start overthinking again."
Coral nodded and said she understood.
Meng Zhao stayed in the shop until it was almost closing time when a man in official uniform walked in. Upon closer inspection, Meng Zhao realized that it was Wu Rongzhou, the son of Aunt Zhang from the dock.
At this moment, Wu Rongzhou was dressed in the same official uniform as the constables from yesterday, with a sword hanging at his waist, making a slight metallic clanging sound. He had a square face, giving people a sense of determination, and his cold expression made him look somewhat imposing without being angry.
His expression softened slightly when he saw Meng Zhao. Meng Zhao quickly put down his work and stepped forward to ask:
"Brother Wu, is there any news?"
Wu Rongzhou nodded slightly. "I wasn't on duty yesterday, so I don't know exactly what happened. After hearing what my mother said, I quickly went to the county government to inquire. The person who caused trouble yesterday was named Song Qi."
“This Song Qi is the nephew of the head of the household affairs office. Because of this relationship, he is usually very arrogant. But judging from his previous words and actions, he doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would cause trouble for no reason. So I asked the people who went with him yesterday. From their words, I realized that Song Qi may have been ordered by the head of the household affairs office to cause trouble at your lunchbox stall.”
After saying this, Wu Rongzhou raised his head, his eyes filled with concern, and asked softly, "Madam Meng, do you have any grudges against the head of this household?"
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