Chapter 85 Wonton [Second Update]
The store has been upgraded, and Wen's mother asked Wen's father to buy a string of firecrackers to set off on Monday.
It was also a lucky day; that day happened to be an auspicious day, saving us the trouble of choosing another date.
Wen Fan had just finished his exams, and aside from doing his homework, all he could think about over the weekend was that he didn't want to study at all.
The kitchen of the new storefront was clean and tidy. Wen Fan laid out his sauce jars one by one. The various meat sauces he had made before were used up very quickly. Wen Fan had to make more every half month to make enough for the store.
The chicken sauce is spicy and savory, the beef sauce is rich and creamy, and the pork sauce is salty on its own, but it's a great ingredient for cooking.
Especially when Mr. and Mrs. Wen didn't feel like cooking, they would simply make some noodles, put two spoonfuls of pork sauce in the pot, crack an egg, add some greens, and the soup noodles would have a meaty aroma, which was a pretty good lunch.
In addition to the meat sauce, Wen Fan also made some osmanthus sauce.
Most of the osmanthus flowers used in the shop are dried osmanthus flowers. Later, Yang Hong said that there was a golden osmanthus tree in one of her rented rooms. No one had paid attention to it in previous years, but now that they saw that they used a lot of it to make persimmon cakes, she asked Wen's mother if she wanted some.
Of course, Wen's mother wanted to, and she and Wen's father spent half a day picking osmanthus flowers, finally bringing back a bag full of fresh ones.
Fresh osmanthus flowers possess a fragrance that dried osmanthus flowers simply cannot match. Wen Fan first patiently picked out all the impurities, then soaked the osmanthus flowers in salt water to clean them, and finally dried them in a cool, ventilated place. Then, using syrup, lemon juice, and some maple syrup, she made several large jars of osmanthus honey.
Wen Fan keeps the osmanthus honey in the shop. She uses it for cooking, and occasionally she makes a cup with hot water, adding some black tea at the bottom. The warm, fragrant osmanthus flavor makes it a perfect hot drink.
Aside from osmanthus honey, the rest were just some pickled vegetables.
There was a jar each of pickled cucumbers and pickled cowpeas. Wen Fan was reluctant to give them to customers, keeping them for himself to cook a dish or eat with rice.
Other items include pickled peppers, brine, and kimchi...
Wen Fan took stock of his "family assets" and was finally relieved to have "food in hand and peace of mind".
While Mrs. Wen was cleaning up clutter outside, neighbors would occasionally come to check on her. They noticed how tidy the house was inside, clearly showing that she had put a lot of effort into it. The stall carts that used to be placed in front of the shop had also been repurposed to make it easier for people to queue.
"Yingzhi, your shop is really well done."
When these words are spoken, they are mostly sincere, with few being insincere. Even if one or two people feel a pang of jealousy, wondering how the Wen family could turn their lives around so quickly, they won't show it on their faces.
With the Wen family's business booming, which family on the street didn't benefit?
Take these past few days for example. In the mornings, people line up to buy sesame seed cakes. After buying them, they always grab a cup of soy milk. Or they feel that one sesame seed cake isn't enough, so they take the cake with them and go to another shop to order other things, like tofu pudding, spicy soup, mung bean porridge, or eight-treasure porridge, which adds a lot to the popularity of the place.
At lunchtime, wouldn't a flatbread filled with vegetables need to be served with some soup? The chain rice noodle shop not far from the street has benefited from this, as it's packed with people every lunchtime.
Fried food at night, paired with milk tea, isn't that a bit much?
Besides the two chain stores near the school gate, there are also two stores that make old-fashioned artificial flavored milk tea. Some people come here because of the fame of the internet celebrity stores, and when they drink the nostalgic drinks, they will excitedly post on their WeChat Moments.
Originally, some people were unwilling to let the Wen family set up a food stall outside their house. They thought that everyone was renting the same place, and since the Wen family's business was so good, how could others make a living by setting up a food stall?
Especially for breakfast, there are many kinds of flatbreads, and some shops sell them as a side dish. But when Wen's fresh meat flatbread came out, other shops' flatbreads suddenly became hard to sell.
Actually, a few days earlier, Wen's mother had noticed that the neighbors who sold sesame cakes were looking at her strangely.
Before Wen's mother could even consider whether to make adjustments, the store's business suddenly exploded.
That's good, no need to worry anymore.
Those shops sell so much porridge and tofu pudding in the morning, and their profits are increasing day by day.
After making money, everyone's mindset became much more peaceful. As soon as the renovation of Wen's mother's place was completed, people came to deliver things.
Nowadays, everyone knows that the Wen family uses seasonal vegetables the most when cooking private dishes, so they also send out fresh fruits and vegetables.
Autumn pears, large pomegranates, winter jujubes, figs...
When Wen Fan emerged from the kitchen, he saw a table full of fruit.
Wen's mother: "They were all gifts from everyone, saying they were a token of appreciation for the opening of the new store."
Wen Fan picked up an autumn pear, wiped the skin, and took a bite: "Keep it, I'll make some pear syrup later."
Autumn Moon Pears nourish yin and moisten the lungs. Especially when they are in season, they are sweet, juicy, and have a delicate texture, unlike some low-quality pears that have dry, fibrous flesh when you take a bite.
The neighbors gave so much fruit, and Wen's mother asked her daughter what she should give back.
"I was thinking of giving some persimmons, but it wouldn't look good if we gave fruit in return."
Wen Fan took a large pomegranate, and with a few light strokes of the cleaver, he split it open like a lotus flower, then patted the pomegranate seeds into a bowl.
"What trouble is there?"
The pomegranate seeds were like rubies. Wen Fan found two spoons, one for himself and one for his mother, and scooped a spoonful of pomegranate seeds into his mouth. The super sweet pomegranate made Wen Fan squint his eyes.
"Let's buy some meat and make wontons."
Sending a box of wontons to each family is considered a good omen.
Wen's mother thought about it and agreed; the dumplings weren't fresh, but the wontons were alright.
After counting the number of people, Wen's mother asked Wen's father to buy several dozen kilograms of meat.
With a new pot and stove, Wen Fan found the stainless steel iron plate she used when she sold cold dishes before and made five kinds of fillings.
Salted egg yolk with pork, corn with pork, preserved egg with pork, shrimp with pork, pure meat.
Plates of fillings were prepared, and Wen Fan kneaded the dough to make wonton wrappers herself.
When neighbors came to visit, they saw the Wen family busy with chores and asked if they would start business in the evening.
Mother Wen: "No, it'll be tomorrow. Today we're just making some wontons to share, which is a way of warming up the pot."
Upon hearing this, neighbors immediately offered their help: "I can wrap them too."
The dough and filling were readily available, and wrapping them was not troublesome. Neighbors came one after another, and those who had things to do at their shops would leave. It was like a relay race, and the wrapping was finished in less than an hour.
Mother Wen took out the takeout boxes, stuffed a dozen or so wontons into each box, with some of each kind of filling, and distributed them to the neighbors one by one.
Wen Fan went to the kitchen to watch over her large pot of pork bone soup. Her father had bought the pork bones, which had been simmering on the stove for a long time without being taken off. Wen Fan opened the lid to take a look and felt that it wasn't ready yet, so she took the opportunity to make some scallion oil.
After the scallion oil was made, the whole house was filled with the aroma of fried scallions.
Wen Fan put the scallion oil into a jar so that his father could use it to cook casserole noodles tomorrow.
Several large bowls are lined up in a row. At the bottom of each bowl, there is half a spoonful of scallion oil, a little seaweed, a pinch of dried shrimp, a little soy sauce, and a little pepper. The cooked pork bone broth is poured into the bottom of the bowl, and the cooked wontons, which look like steaming fathead fish, are thrown into the soup.
The wonton wrappers are extremely thin, and the cooked wontons have a pinkish-red hue. The bone broth is thick and white, with black scallion oil circles floating on the surface of the bowl.
Wen's mother ate a wonton that was slightly black. The preserved egg pieces had a chewy texture, while the egg yolk was smooth and had a rich aroma. The meat filling was delicate, bouncy, tender, and juicy.
Wen's mother instantly fell in love with the flavor: "If I had known, I would have made more and frozen them in the refrigerator."
Wen Fan took a bite of the salted egg yolk flavored one; the oily yolk and meat filling were her favorite.
"Phew... I'll make it later if you want to eat it."
The advantage of foods like wontons and dumplings is that you only need to make the wrappers and fillings; making dumplings and wontons is not troublesome at all!
The family was enjoying their wontons when Lou Da and his wife Feng Huijuan came to deliver persimmons.
Wen's mother ushered them in, and Lou Da was still a little embarrassed.
"Did I interrupt your meal?"
Father Wen: "Don't mention it, we just ate too late."
I was busy making wontons today, and it's already three or four in the afternoon before I finally got to eat my first meal.
Wen's father wanted to make two more bowls of wontons, but Lou Da and Feng Huijuan refused to let him go.
"We've already eaten, don't be so polite!"
While the adults were pulling and tugging at each other, Wen Fan squatted down to inspect the persimmons he had specifically chosen this time.
Feng Huijuan: "They are all the best ones. This load is full of live animals, while the rest are hatched."
Although she didn't understand how to eat raw persimmons.
The local persimmon variety is not the crisp persimmon type; it's an unripe persimmon that doesn't hatch, and it has a numbing sensation in the mouth when eaten.
Wen Fan was very satisfied with the load of raw persimmons, especially since Feng Huijuan and her husband had also brought some yams and bamboo fungus.
The yams were the same ones the couple had grown before, but the bamboo fungus was fresh.
"We picked these on the mountain, and we didn't know if you wanted them."
There wasn't much in total; Feng Huijuan's contribution was purely an extra.
"Yes, yes, yes!"
Fresh bamboo fungus is best used for making soup.
Wen's mother quickly calculated the cost for Feng Huijuan, and Feng Huijuan exclaimed how much the store had changed.
"It wasn't finished when I came a few days ago."
Wen's mother transferred the money to Feng Huijuan and said with a smile, "I was just about to tell you that when we send more persimmons later, we should send more, about 200 catties each time. Business is good at the store now, so we can use up more."
Recently, persimmon cakes have been selling like hotcakes. People who line up in the morning can't buy any after 7:30, and the store's account is always filled with complaints.
Many people don't actually like persimmons that much, but persimmon and osmanthus cakes are something you've never tried before, and you always feel a strong urge to eat them.
Fortunately, the store has now expanded, so Mrs. Wen decided to prepare more in the morning.
Feng Huijuan was overjoyed, and before the couple left, Wen's mother even gave her a box of wontons.
There wasn't much in the box of wontons. Lou Da and his wife tasted it, and the rest was used to feed their two children.
Lou Yue's eyes lit up as she ate. Lately, her family had been earning money, and her parents would occasionally bring her food to school. In addition, her weekend meals had improved, and she had gained some weight on her cheeks.
"Mom, these wontons are so delicious."
She loves it so much that she wants to sell wontons exclusively in the future!
Feng Huijuan: "Now they're saying they're selling wontons again; just a few days ago they said they were selling sesame seed cakes."
Lou Heng popped a wonton into his mouth and, like opening a blind box, found a prawn inside, feeling both surprised and satisfied.
"...Ignore her, she once said she wanted to raise pigs!"
That happened during the Chinese New Year. Lou Yue was so scared when she saw the pig being slaughtered that she covered her eyes, but she ate pork without hesitation. While eating, she decided to raise pigs, which made Lou Heng very angry. Why did his good sister want to raise pigs?
Now he understands that this girl fills her ideals with her favorite foods, and those ideals are constantly changing.
Lou Da and his wife looked at their two children with smiles.
"Mom, you eat too!"
Lou Yue held up the last wonton, determined to give it to her mother.
"……good."
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Author's note: I'm too sleepy to stay awake any longer. I'm not very satisfied with what I wrote at midnight. I'll revise it and post it again tomorrow.
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