Chapter 102 Roasted Pepper Tofu with Beef, Hot and Sour Noodles...
Mao Xue Wang has always been one of the most popular Sichuan dishes. Wen Fan's Mao Xue Wang is made with no restraint in the amount of chili peppers, fully demonstrating the domineering and spicy nature of Jianghu cuisine.
The man's eyes welled up with tears after just one bite of the spicy food, but seeing his wife's eyes glistening with tears from the spiciness as she ate duck blood and tripe, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her stomach.
"Yali, take it easy..."
This is so spicy, the whole bowl is covered in red oil, I'm really worried she'll get sick from eating it.
Sun Yali, supporting her belly and wearing only a sweater, enjoyed a refreshing iced drink while eating to her heart's content, feeling radiant with happiness.
"Oh, it's alright. I've finally gotten a good appetite lately, so please stop nagging."
During the first three months of her pregnancy, Sun Yali experienced severe morning sickness that prevented her from eating anything. She still doesn't dare to recall the pain of that time. She vomited three times a day, and even when she had a little appetite, she would only eat a little before losing her appetite.
Her husband was also exhausted, searching all over town for delicious food to bring back for her, but it didn't work.
Her husband, Lü Qiang, works for a travel agency. Although the local tourism resources are average, the cultural and tourism industries in the cities under its jurisdiction have been booming in recent years.
With an ancient capital here and a film and television city there, the cultural and tourism industries are coming up with all sorts of creative ideas, resulting in a significant increase in the number of tourists visiting the province this year.
Lü Qiang had worked at this travel agency for several years, his job being a tour guide.
Sun Yali suffered from persistent morning sickness, which worried Lü Qiang greatly. So, whenever he led a tour group, he would always bring back some local specialties.
Especially with the farmhouses of our partner companies, Lü Qiang was so eager to ask them if they had any traditional remedies to stop morning sickness.
The elderly women helping out at the farmhouse were all very kind. One suggested making pickled radish and old duck soup, another suggested something appetizing, and someone even brought him some homemade pickled plums.
"This cured my daughter-in-law's morning sickness; sour things are the best for stimulating the appetite."
The old lady proudly puffed out her chest and said, "My daughter-in-law later gave birth to two big, healthy boys! Twins!"
The old lady would tell everyone she met that they were twins, as if her own pickled plums had played a part in it.
Lu Qiang accepted Mei Zi's gift and thanked her. He didn't really care about the whole "twins" thing.
The key point is that my wife, who usually has a round face, has lost more than ten pounds in less than half a month, which is quite frightening.
Lu Qiang brought the plums home, but Sun Yali vomited after just one sniff.
He quickly waved his hand: "Take the plums away, I can't stand the smell of sourness right now."
Sun Yali didn't know what was wrong with her. She couldn't stand the smell of sour plums, let alone vinegar, which she usually used for cooking.
For more than half a month, Lü Qiang had no appetite and was at his wit's end, looking gloomy at work.
One day at noon, when his colleagues were ordering takeout, Lü Qiang happened to need to find a colleague, so he went into the meeting room that the female colleagues had temporarily requisitioned for lunch.
As soon as he entered, Lü Qiang smelled a fragrance that was very different from the takeout food.
The female colleagues had braised dishes and braised pork in front of them, and they shared them with great interest.
After getting his colleague to sign his name, Lü Qiang didn't leave. He braced himself and asked the colleague which store it was.
He'd tried everything, from the most famous restaurants in the city to the fewest that catered to his wife, but she just wouldn't have any of them. He could only hope that a takeout restaurant had anything good to offer.
His colleagues enthusiastically sent him the link: "Sister Liu ordered this summer's after-school care for her son. This restaurant is doing really well!"
Lu Qiang rushed off work to the store, but being inexperienced, he bought a huge amount of braised food.
I thought my wife would find it greasy, but to my surprise, she smelled it and found that it didn't have that unpleasant sour smell, so she ate a chicken leg and a chicken wing.
Lu Qiang's palms were sweating nervously: "Do you feel like throwing up?"
I've had similar experiences before; sometimes even if I swallow it, it doesn't work because I vomit it up again after a short while.
Sun Yali pushed his face away: "I don't want to."
Sun Yali did not vomit until the next morning, which put Lu Qiang at ease.
Now there's nothing more to say. Lu Qiang comes to Wenji for three meals a day. Occasionally, when Wenji is closed, he will stock up in advance, buying some braised dishes to store so that his wife can eat all day long.
After a long period of morning sickness, Sun Yali finally found that her appetite was gradually returning.
Once her appetite returned, Sun Yali developed a preference for certain foods.
Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and salty—my favorite is spicy.
Mala Tang, Maocai, Chuan Chuan Xiang, Hot Pot...
I eat these six days a week!
At first, Lü Qiang would accompany his wife to eat, then he would watch her eat, and finally he would usually order a bowl of plain porridge to take with him to the restaurant, where he would drink the porridge while watching his wife eat.
Sun Yali's pursuit of spiciness is unparalleled, to the point that after learning that Wenji sells Maocai (a type of Sichuan hot pot), she seizes every opportunity to order takeout.
Seeing that this wasn't working, Lü Qiang ordered a private meal, hoping she would eat some home-style dishes.
Who knew that by sheer coincidence, everything today was spicy!
Lu Qiang watched his wife eat Maoxuewang with a worried expression. Sun Yali even managed to mix dried chili peppers into her rice and eat it!
Even my breath felt spicy after eating.
"I finally made it through."
Sun Yali breathed a sigh of relief; she wouldn't have known she could vomit so much if she hadn't been pregnant.
Mother Wen served the third dish: "Braised Tofu and Beef with Roasted Peppers".
A pot of chili peppers, no longer as vibrant red as before, was served. The roasted peppers had a bluish tinge and were mixed with the beef, carrying a unique aroma of roasted peppers. The yellowish-green broth submerged the beef slices, and the white tofu could be vaguely seen beneath the beef.
Sun Yali's eyes sparkled, and Lü Qiang breathed a sigh of relief. At least the dish didn't look that spicy, otherwise he really would have told his wife not to eat it anymore.
Wen Fan saw fresh chilies in the store today, so he made a big jar of roasted chili sauce.
The roasted chili sauce uses at least five kinds of chilies: green peppers, Erjingtiao peppers, screw peppers, millet peppers, and red peppers. All of them are put in a pot and dry-fried until they are all soft. Then the roasted chilies are taken out and chopped.
Heat oil in a wok, then simmer scallions, ginger, green peppercorns, and Sichuan peppercorns in the wok to extract the base oil. Remove these spices, add chopped chili peppers to the oil, and then add various seasonings to taste.
Once the roasted chili sauce is made, it's very convenient to use. No matter what kind of meat it is, adding some roasted chili sauce makes it perfect with rice.
The flavor of roasted peppers is not as sharp and harsh as that of fresh peppers; roasted peppers have a mild spiciness after being grilled over a fire.
This pot of roasted pepper tofu and beef is made with a savory, sour, and spicy roasted pepper sauce. The beef slices are soaked in the sauce and are extremely tender. The thinly sliced beef is soaked in the roasted pepper sauce and the first bite is a hot and tender sensation, followed by the rich and slightly spicy flavor of the roasted pepper. The sourness of the sauce comes back later, but it is not unpleasant. The sour and spicy flavors eventually converge like a river, forming a layered sour, fragrant, fresh, and spicy taste.
It took quite a while of eating before I realized how spicy the roasted peppers were.
At first, Lü Qiang didn't take it seriously, but later he realized that the warmth of the roasted peppers made the spiciness meander. Watching his wife eat meat with gusto, he suddenly asked, "Don't you not eat sour food?"
Although Sun Yali's morning sickness has stopped, she has retained most of her sensitivity to sour tastes. Although she doesn't vomit, she still feels uncomfortable for half a day after eating sour foods.
But the roasted pepper tofu and beef dish in front of me clearly has a sour and fragrant flavor.
Sun Yali then suddenly realized that she hadn't actually felt uncomfortable at all!
Lu Qiang was also puzzled. Surely there couldn't be an antidote in Wenji's food. His wife was so picky about other restaurants, but she was fine as soon as she ate at Wenji.
"...I think it would be better to go to the hospital to get it checked out."
This is too bizarre! In an instant, various news headlines flashed through Lü Qiang's mind.
Sun Yali rolled her eyes: "What are you looking at? Didn't the doctor say last time that there aren't that many taboos?"
One minute she's saying she can't eat rabbit meat, the next she's saying she can't eat carp. What's worse, a colleague she barely knows pulled her aside and tearfully told her to stay away from another female colleague.
Sun Yali instinctively clutched her stomach and asked the other person why they said that.
The female colleague looked at her with resentment: "She had ulterior motives! When I was pregnant, she was sharing peaches in the office! My mother-in-law said that it was because she gave me peaches that I had a daughter."
"Think about it, wasn't Taozi the one who ran away with her child? It was because she ate that peach that my son died."
Sun Yali: ...
Sun Yali managed to hold back from uttering the word "lunatic," but after returning home, she dragged her husband aside and vented her frustrations for a long time.
"What era are we living in? Stop doing this kind of thing!"
Not only does it discriminate against girls, but it's also a completely baseless pun! Bad review and a deduction!
Anyway, Sun Yali eats whatever is available and whatever she wants.
As long as she doesn't vomit, she has no taboos about herself.
Why did the Wen family's food suit her taste? Sun Yali felt the reason was obvious.
—It's delicious!
While happily munching on meat, Sun Yali complained to her husband, "The one in my belly is guaranteed to be a glutton."
She's already being picky before she's even born.
Lu Qiang just watched his wife eat and eat, and she managed to finish half of the three dishes all by herself!
Lu Qiang asked her if she was full, and Sun Yali said she was about 70% full, and it would be even better if she had some soup.
As they were talking, Wen's mother brought over three bowls of hot and sour noodles.
Sun Yali, who had been leaning back in her chair, sat up straight again when she saw the hot and sour noodles.
Fried minced meat and peanuts are soaked in a spicy and sour soup. The sweet potato noodles, cooked until translucent, are topped with diced pickled mustard greens and pickled cowpeas, and finally garnished with white sesame seeds, cilantro, and scallions.
The bowl of hot and sour noodles is big enough for two people.
In the end, Lü Qiang only ate a little, and Sun Yali ate the rest.
Sun Yali was burping a little after eating.
"It's so delicious."
The other tables were in a similar state, and many people even shared the same feeling as the warm reminder that Wen's mother had posted on the wall tonight.
"Order appropriate portions."
Isn't it just a matter of ordering the right amount of food?
Every table said they needed some side dishes after eating the beef offal, like potatoes, vermicelli, and baby bok choy, one serving of each! And staple food too, how can you eat beef offal hot pot without some instant noodles or hot dry noodles?
Come on, come on! We're already here, we'd be doing something wrong if we didn't come back!
In the end, everyone was shouting "pack up!"
Some tables even used three disposable boxes for packaging!
Wen's mother decided to print another friendly reminder tomorrow, and this time she would make the font bigger!
The guests helped each other out of the house, and as the cool breeze blew in, they couldn't help but reminisce about the delicious beef offal stew they had just eaten.
Just thinking about a hot pot of beef offal in the dead of winter makes me want to do anything for it.
"Will you come again tomorrow?"
If you eat something spicy today, you'll have to try something non-spicy tomorrow. You have to try them all to do justice to your own taste buds.
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Author's note: Only one update today. I'm not feeling well, so I'm taking a break for one update.
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