Chapter 18. Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple, and Bok Choy with Mushrooms. ...
There was still some rice at the bottom of the bowl. The scallops were big enough that the shells could fit inside at a slight angle. Gu Chuntang used her chopsticks to pick up the vermicelli and garlic sauce from the scallops and ate them first.
The mouth is filled with the salty and savory flavor of garlic. The vermicelli is moist and soft, with a savory and slightly spicy taste, and a hint of scallop freshness.
After eating two bites of vermicelli, she finally saw the meat hidden inside the scallop. It was square and about the size of a thumb, but it was quite large compared to ordinary scallops.
Perhaps because the garlic sauce had seeped into the vermicelli and dripped onto the scallop meat, it also had a slightly soy sauce color. She poked at it with her chopsticks before she could peel the piece of scallop meat off the shell. She picked it up and put it in her mouth to bite into it; it was quite chewy.
Then comes a very fresh aroma. The scallop meat is delicate and tender, almost like it tastes of the sea, and it blends perfectly with the garlic flavor of the minced garlic. That sweet and fresh taste is the finishing touch.
Eating steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli is like an exploratory process of peeling back the layers of mist. Only after tasting the salty and smooth flavor of the garlic and vermicelli can you appreciate the fresh, sweet, and tender scallop meat.
This process is undoubtedly enjoyable, because neither the garlic vermicelli nor the scallops are overshadowed by the other; rather, they complement each other and are equally delicious.
Gu Chuntang really liked the vermicelli on the scallops. The vermicelli was soaked until soft and tender, and it was full of the aroma of garlic sauce. It was smooth to eat and had the freshness of scallops. It could be said that it was the best vermicelli could be. It was not too salty. It was just the right amount of salty and fragrant, and it was even very good with rice.
Of course, she didn't forget to take a close-up photo of one of the scallops with her phone.
Why didn't she take a picture of the whole plate of steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli? Because she only had two scallops left.
After taking a photo to document the event, Gu Chuntang continued eating the remaining two scallops with vermicelli using her chopsticks.
The vermicelli was savory and flavorful, and the scallop meat was tender. Moreover, the scallops were much larger than the small, delicate ones I usually eat at seafood restaurants, making it more enjoyable to eat.
While she was enjoying steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli, three more tables of customers arrived at the restaurant, including Wang Chong.
Wang Chong was still yawning, clearly not fully awake, but he couldn't slow down, afraid that another customer would suddenly appear and take his table.
If it weren't for coming to eat Gu's private cuisine, he would probably still be sound asleep in his big bed at home right now.
After experiencing the overwhelming superiority of Gu's Private Kitchen's meat dishes, his father remained silent for an entire afternoon, refusing to even enter the kitchen. Then, in the evening, he suddenly called him to give him some instructions.
“Xiao Chong, these days you go to Gu’s Private Kitchen for a meal every now and then, and every time you have to pack at least half of the meat and vegetables back for me to eat.”
"They say you can only win one battle if you know yourself and your enemy. Let's learn more about their cuisine and I'll come and learn from them! I refuse to believe that after all these years of wielding a kitchen knife, I'm no match for a young girl."
"In the past, I was too stubborn. I just kept making the same dishes on the restaurant menu over and over again. Customers must have gotten tired of it after eating it for so many years. We can't do anything else, so let's focus on improving our cooking skills first. Remember, when you go to eat there, you must pack half of it to bring back for me to eat!"
When Wang Chong heard this, he smirked. He was genuinely impressed that his father had come up with this idea after thinking for so long, and that he was seriously trying to improve his cooking skills.
He was also craving the taste of Gu's private kitchen, so he said, "Sure, let me go eat there for you, no problem, but you have to reimburse me!"
His father, though still looking pained, gritted his teeth and agreed: "I'll give you two hundred each time, enough for four dishes, but you have to eat there at noon. It'll be a good way to cure your habit of staying up late!"
I have to say, it did help him a bit in treating his habit of staying up late.
In order to make it to Gu's Private Kitchen for lunch, Wang Chong played games until 3 a.m. last night and then lay in bed for a while before falling asleep. He was just woken up by an alarm clock that started ringing every five minutes at 11 a.m.
He washed his face, rinsed his mouth, put on his clothes, asked his dad for two hundred yuan, and came over wearing slippers.
He sat down and glanced at the menu on the wall. The meat dishes looked good today, but two hundred yuan wasn't enough. Normally, he wasn't one to think things through, but now he was calculating which dishes to order.
First, remove the shiitake mushrooms and bok choy. No matter how delicious the vegetables are, they can't compare to meat. Steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli seem pretty good. The coconut chicken soup is so delicious and has chicken, I have to have another meal with it. I have to choose between sweet and sour pork with pineapple and braised beef brisket with tofu skin. I'll go with the sweet and sour pork with pineapple.
When you calculate the price like this, wow.
Wang Chong couldn't help but complain about his father's stinginess again; these three dishes cost 214 yuan, and he had to pay 14 yuan out of his own pocket.
The same pained expression on his face as when his father had promised to give him the money yesterday still led him to obediently ask the waiter to order the three dishes.
Wang Chong poured himself a cup of monk fruit water that the barista had just served him. It was warm and slightly sweet, and he instantly felt healthier.
Looking at it from another perspective, it's such a great deal to be able to eat such a delicious meal of meat and vegetables for just fourteen yuan.
Because he needed to pack half of it to take back to his dad, Wang Chong didn't call out to any of his brothers this time. He also wanted to enjoy the delicious meat and vegetables all by himself.
Besides, he's not a sucker, why should he spend his dad's money to treat his buddies to dinner?
He swung his legs, almost crossing them if it weren't for the many people eating around him, as he scrolled through his phone to agree to hang out with his buddies that afternoon.
In the kitchen, Gu Qingqiu was frying sweet and sour pork.
After marinating the pork shoulder pieces, she coated them with an egg and cornstarch batter. Once the oil in the pan was hot, she picked up the batter-coated pieces and slid them into the pan. She turned the heat to medium and waited until they were slightly set before gently pushing them with a spatula to ensure they were fully heated.
Gradually, the meat pieces turned golden brown and looked slightly crispy. Gu Qingqiu saw that it was almost done, scooped it out with a slotted spoon, turned up the heat, and fried it again. This time, the meat pieces were even more golden brown, and the outer shell looked even crispier.
She scooped them all out and set them aside, then started preparing the sauce.
Once the sauce is ready, heat some oil in another pot, pour in a bowl of sauce, and stir constantly with a spoon. The dark brown sauce begins to bubble and gradually thickens.
Gu Qingqiu poured green, red, and yellow bell peppers, yellow pineapple, and fried meat pieces into the pot, then used a spatula to stir-fry them so that the sauce coated every piece of meat, pineapple, and bell peppers.
Add a little chicken bouillon when the dish is almost done cooking. This will allow the chicken bouillon to work its magic and enhance the flavor of the dish.
She held the wok handle with one hand and rhythmically tossed it upwards, making the ingredients in the wok mix more evenly, ensuring the sauce fully coated the meat and the chicken bouillon dissolved completely.
The dish was now complete. Gu Qingqiu plated it up. The golden, crispy pieces of meat coated in a thick sauce, along with yellow pineapple and green, red, and yellow peppers, were mixed together on the white porcelain plate. The colorful presentation was very appealing and tempting.
She placed the dish in the small window that was already in the kitchen, wrote the table number on a small piece of paper and weighed it down, so that Sister Zhou would see it and come to serve the dish later.
Gu Qingqiu looked up and saw that the store was full of people. Among them was a man who stood out. He wore a bright red short-sleeved T-shirt, military green shorts, and a pair of extremely casual black flip-flops. Or perhaps the impression of his sleazy demeanor in the crowd last time was too deep, which is why she noticed him at a glance.
I checked and didn't find anything unusual. I guess they came back to eat here again because they really like the food at their restaurant.
Since the guest was a guest, Gu Qingqiu naturally welcomed him. She turned around and went back to the stove to continue her work; there were still quite a few meat dishes to prepare.
Wang Chong played mobile games for a while, feeling utterly bored. He'd recently become a bit obsessed with Snake, managing to rack up billions of points when he was bored. But now, smelling the delicious aroma wafting around him, he wasn't in the mood, and he'd only managed to kill one snake after scoring tens of thousands of points.
Seeing the waiter carrying a plate of golden-brown meat and vegetables, he assumed it was for his table, only to find it had been taken to another table. Disappointed, he lowered his head and continued playing on his phone. After a while, the steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli finally arrived.
He's not particular about things; he washed his hands before leaving the house, picked up a scallop with his left hand, brought it to his mouth, and took a sip of the broth from the scallop.
The garlic flavor is mixed with a salty and savory aroma, along with the unique sweetness of seafood. It's incredibly refreshing, much better than monk fruit water.
As soon as Wang Chong tasted the broth, he knew this dish would not disappoint him.
He held the edge of the scallop to his mouth with one hand, and with the other hand, he used chopsticks to mix the vermicelli and minced garlic into his mouth.
The glass noodles are smooth with a slightly grainy texture from the garlic sauce. When you bite into them together, they are savory, flavorful, and a little spicy. The glass noodles are also moist with some juice.
After finishing all the garlic vermicelli, he lowered the scallop slightly, used his chopsticks to poke the rather large piece of meat off the orange-red hard shell, and put it in his mouth.
It has a richer, more intense umami flavor than garlic vermicelli, and it's tender with a savory garlic taste. Before you can even savor it, you've already unconsciously swallowed a scallop after just a few bites.
Wang Chong could only fiddle with the next scallop, leaving his phone lying aside unattended.
He ate two scallops in a row, then grabbed another and started eating. As he was thinking of eating more, he remembered his father's instruction to pack half of them home, and his hand stopped, he began to hesitate.
Two scallops should be enough for the old man, right? There are other meat dishes too, and the coconut chicken soup alone has enough chicken for him.
With that thought in mind, Wang Chong picked up another scallop without hesitation and started eating, not even paying attention to the waiter serving the food.
After finishing the meal, he still felt a lingering savory aroma of garlic and scallops, but he really couldn't eat anymore. He shifted his gaze from the remaining two scallops to another dish.
The pineapple's yellow color is very eye-catching, and the chili peppers are green, red, and yellow, mixed together in patches, which looks quite nice. Of course, they should also be somewhat spicy.
What catches the eye most are the round, golden-yellow pieces of meat that look crispy and coated in a slightly dark sauce that looks a bit sticky and glistening with oil, which tells you that they will taste good.
He used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of meat and ate it.
The meat chunks coated in sauce are quite smooth to eat, and you can quickly taste the salty-sweet, sweet-spicy flavor, as well as the sweet and sour taste of pineapple.
The meat chunks were indeed as crispy as I had imagined. The outer shell was puffy and crunchy, while the meat inside was tender and savory, making it very delicious.
After eating several pieces, Wang Chong simply ordered a bowl of rice to eat with it.
The sweet and sour pork is not tough at all. The crispy outer shell is covered with sauce, so it is not too hard or dry, which greatly improves the taste.
After savoring the sweet, sour, salty, and savory flavors, the moment you taste the meat inside, you enter another magical realm. The fresh, tender meat carries a unique salty aroma. Take another big bite, and the crispy and tender textures intertwine—there's no meat more delicious than this.
Wang Chong ate it with rice. The white rice did not diminish the aroma of the meat. The thick sauce added a touch of sweet, sour, salty and fragrant flavor to the rice. After biting off the crispy outer shell, he tasted the meat inside, which also had a fruity aroma. It was very satisfying to have a mouthful of rice.
He ate for a while before picking up a piece of pineapple to eat.
The pineapple is crisp and tender, and its natural sweet and sour taste instantly cuts through the greasiness of the sweet and sour pork. It tastes refreshing, sweet and sour, and bursts with juice.
Because it was coated in sauce, it was initially a bit salty and sweet, followed by the natural sweet and sour aroma of pineapple. This time, the sourness outweighed the sweetness, but it was surprisingly acceptable.
"This pineapple is pretty good," Wang Chong exclaimed, picking up another piece to eat. This sweet and sour pork with pineapple had become his favorite dish of the day. He ate the pork with rice, and the pineapple served as a refreshing and appetizing break.
At another table, Gu Chuntang was also praising how delicious the sweet and sour pork with pineapple was.
She ate a third of the plate of sweet and sour pork all by herself, and she also ate a lot of pineapple. It was so satisfying to have both meat and fruit in one dish.
She resisted the urge to order a bowl of rice, because she had eaten quite a bit of vermicelli while eating steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli, and vermicelli could be considered a staple food.
She still needs to save room for more coconut chicken soup later. She heard that there's a lot of chicken in the coconut chicken soup, and it's a delicious meat dish when you take some out and dip it in the sauce.
Having satisfied her with the sweet and sour pork with pineapple, she began to try the only vegetable dish.
The shiitake mushrooms and bok choy were also drizzled with a slightly thick sauce, but they still looked quite clear and didn't hide the brown color of the shiitake mushrooms or the green color of the bok choy.
Gu Chuntang picked up some bok choy with her chopsticks. The bok choy was sweet and slightly crisp, and because it was coated with sauce, it was quite smooth with a hint of saltiness.
The rapeseed was very fresh, small and tender, with a crunchy sound when you ate it, but it was actually cooked until quite soft.
Trying the shiitake mushrooms again, they also have the silky smoothness brought by the thick sauce. The shiitake mushrooms are quite elastic when you bite into them, tender with a hint of saltiness and savory aroma, as well as their own unique fragrance.
If Gu Chuntang were to give this dish a rating, it would be "fresh and tender." Both the bok choy and the shiitake mushrooms were quite fresh and tender, and the stir-frying was done to perfection. The sauce was the finishing touch, enhancing the freshness and adding a smooth texture.
The vegetables tasted better than I expected. No wonder that blog post was full of praise for the owner of Gu's Private Kitchen, saying he could make vegetables taste as good as meat.
After tasting it, she quickly picked up her phone to take a picture, almost forgetting about it.
Many freelancers, due to their flexible schedules, inevitably develop habits such as staying up all night and having irregular eating habits.
Gu Chuntang, as one of them, sometimes stays up all night when inspiration strikes or she gets engrossed in a game.
If her eating habits are irregular, it's probably because she often skips breakfast. She tries to make sure her lunch and dinner are balanced, and even though she likes meat, she also eats plenty of vegetables.
She came across some really delicious shiitake mushrooms and bok choy, and she ate them one after another with great relish.
The last dish, coconut chicken soup, arrived, and the unique sweetness of coconut juice could be smelled almost as soon as the staff brought it to the table.
It's not the sweet taste of a coconut juice drink, but the sweet taste of fresh coconut water straight from the coconut.
Looking at the soup pot, the broth was clear with a few specks of oil floating on top, goji berries were floating, red dates were hanging in the middle, pieces of chicken almost filled half the pot, and there were also white strips of coconut meat.
Without hesitation, Gu Chuntang abandoned the shiitake mushrooms and bok choy she had just been vigorously cooking. She ate the little bit of garlic that had fallen out of the bowl when she was steaming scallops with garlic and vermicelli. She then ladled out a bowl of soup with a spoon, adding some chicken pieces, coconut meat, red dates, and goji berries.
She picked up the bowl and took a big gulp. It was hot and had the unique sweetness and aroma of coconut, along with the fresh sweetness of the chicken, and the sweetness of the red dates and goji berries.
A bowl of soup like this on a hot summer day, or even just a sip, is incredibly refreshing.
Gu Chuntang drank several mouthfuls in a row, first eating goji berries and red dates, which are all good for replenishing blood, and then eating a piece of coconut meat.
The coconut meat has a richer coconut aroma and is chewy and delicious. To be honest, if she bought a coconut from a fruit shop, opened it, and ate the coconut water, she would just throw away the shell.
But eating the coconut meat now, I suddenly find it quite delicious. Besides the original aroma of the coconut meat, there's also the savory flavor of chicken. And perhaps because it's been used in soup, the coconut meat has absorbed all the broth, which makes the texture even better.
After finishing the coconut meat, Gu Chuntang tried the chicken and was surprised to find that the chicken was very tender and had distinct texture. It didn't have much seasoning flavor; it was the natural sweetness and aroma of the chicken itself. Perhaps because it had been washed with some broth and cooked with coconut juice and coconut meat, it had an extra coconut flavor.
After eating one piece of chicken, she picked up another, this time choosing to dip it in the accompanying sauce.
The chicken, dipped in the sauce, gained a richer, darker color. It was savory and slightly spicy, with a hint of refreshing sourness, instantly enriching the flavor.
After trying both ways of eating, Gu Chuntang thought both tasted delicious, so she treated them equally.
Pick up a piece of chicken and eat it directly to savor the original freshness and flavor of the chicken. Then pick up another piece of chicken and dip it in the sauce to eat. You'll experience a perfect balance of salty, fragrant, spicy, and sour flavors.
Of course, she would occasionally have a bowl of coconut chicken soup to drink. It was sweet and refreshing, with the savory aroma of chicken and the coconut flavor blending together for a unique taste.
Gu Chuntang thoroughly enjoyed the meal, feeling as if all her energy had been restored.
If people's emotions are a barometer, then this must be a bright and sunny day.
She felt that even if a customer pointed out her illustrations and asked for repeated revisions, she would... well, she still couldn't stand it. She would simply give up the business and refund the deposit.
Feeling incredibly free and comfortable, Gu Chuntang was in the highest mood.
She took out her phone, opened Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), found the posts about Gu's Private Kitchen in the likes, and commented on the latest one.
[Ji Jian Chun Tang: Hehe, I've already eaten at the restaurant! Today's sweet and sour pork with pineapple, braised beef brisket with tofu skin, and steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli were all delicious, absolutely amazing! The shiitake mushrooms and bok choy were also pretty good. Also, the coconut chicken soup recommended by the blogger was available again today – it was incredibly delicious!]
After posting the comment, I casually glanced at the comments section and was surprised to find that some netizens from the same city said they couldn't resist after holding back all night and were already eating at the restaurant.
The comment was posted a dozen minutes ago. Gu Chuntang subconsciously looked up at the customers around her, trying to recognize this online friend she had met by chance.
Unfortunately, everyone was too busy enjoying the food on the table and chatting and laughing occasionally. Even if someone was looking at their phone, it was impossible to tell whether they had actually commented on this post. She chuckled and shook her head, then looked down at her phone again.
This note has now received over 4,000 likes, over 2,000 favorites, and over 600 comments. If you go to the homepage, the account has over 1,500 followers.
She vaguely remembered that when she last saw Gu's Private Kitchen notes, the account only had a little over 700 followers, and the highest number of likes for those notes in the past was only a few hundred, while Gu's Private Kitchen notes had several thousand likes.
This is why she suspects the account is advertising; if it weren't for the merchant's traffic boosting, there wouldn't be such a sudden surge in posts.
Of course, it must be admitted that the photos of the meat and vegetable recruitment ads in the notes were very tempting, and it was obvious that they hadn't been heavily filtered or edited.
Now Gu Chuntang understands: the meat dishes in Gu's Private Kitchen are truly delicious. Netizens have discerning eyes; no wonder the notebook became so popular.
She felt a sense of joy, as if a hidden gem restaurant had been discovered, and also thought that perhaps next time she came, the restaurant would be so popular that there would be long queues.
Hearing the new customers at the next table ordering, the waiter said apologetically, "I'm sorry, sir, we're out of scallops, so we can't make this steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli. I was just about to put that on the menu."
The customer was disappointed and a little dissatisfied: "Oh, it's only this late and the scallops are already sold out? Do you look down on your own business? You only prepared so few scallops."
The shop assistant's smile remained unchanged, but became even more sincere: "We are very sorry, this was indeed our oversight. We will definitely prepare more next time. Thank you for your recognition of our store."
The customer managed a weak smile: "Okay, then remove the scallop, and bring one of each of the other meat and vegetable dishes."
The clerk smiled and agreed, then got busy, printing the order on the computer, bringing out bowls, chopsticks, washing utensils, and tea, and then modifying the menu on the wall, adding a "sold out" label after the scallop dish.
Gu Chuntang was relieved to hear this; thankfully she had arrived early, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to enjoy the steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli.
She was really full and couldn't eat anymore, so she simply called over a staff member to bring over a takeout box to pack her food.
We finished all the vegetables. We can save the sweet and sour pork with pineapple and the braised beef brisket with tofu skin for dinner. We also packed up the coconut chicken soup, but it's a pity that the sauce for dipping the chicken is not easy to pack.
I muttered something casually, and to my surprise, the clerk smiled and said, "Sir, I'll go and pack you a new dish of sauce."
Gu Chuntang exclaimed in surprise, "Really? Your restaurant is wonderful!"
The staff quickly went to the kitchen, filled a special sauce container with sauce, and put it into a plastic bag containing two lunch boxes and a soup container.
Gu Chuntang felt even better and got up to take the packaged meat and vegetables to the cashier to pay.
Holding an umbrella, she left the restaurant and walked towards the street. Looking at the surrounding environment, she thought Suli Street was quite nice, and if nothing unexpected happened, she would come here often in the future.
It doesn't matter if it's across most of Jiang City.
Once on the bus, the temperature dropped slightly. Gu Chuntang placed the packed meat and vegetables on the empty seat next to her and instinctively opened her phone to look at the photos she had just taken.
It looks great and tempting even without filters or photo editing.
The lunch was so memorable. Gu Chuntang was very satisfied with everything, from the young and beautiful owner who was also a highly skilled chef to the enthusiastic service from the staff.
She decided to share the deliciousness of Gu's Private Kitchen dishes today on Weibo.
You should know that she has more than 200,000 followers on Weibo, and she usually shares some of her daily life.
Wang Chong had just enjoyed a good meal at Gu's Private Kitchen. He actually ate only half of the sweet and sour pork with pineapple, drank two big bowls of coconut chicken soup, and ate a lot of chicken. Only then did he ask the waiter to bring a takeout box to pack up the food and take it back to his father.
If he weren't afraid of offending his father and having him stop paying for Gu's private kitchen meals, he would have eaten a few more pieces of sweet and sour pork.
Wang Chong does understand what sustainable development means.
The takeout box cost an extra two yuan, so he paid sixteen yuan out of his own pocket for the meal.
As Wang Chong strolled out of the restaurant carrying the takeout meat and vegetables, he was still thinking, "Maybe next time I should just take takeout containers from my own restaurant to pack them up?"
Back at the shop, he went inside and called out to the people working in the kitchen, "Dad, come out for dinner."
He was quite respectful to his father in front of the shop assistants.
This way, the packed meat and vegetables will be placed on the corner table closest to the kitchen, so that others won't see that the owner of Lao Wang's Home-Style Restaurant is actually eating Gu's Private Kitchen for lunch.
After Wang Zhiguo finished cooking another dish of stir-fried pork with chili peppers, he handed the rest to the other chefs and rushed out.
"Why did you take so long? Don't you know your old man is still hungry?" He preemptively struck to prevent the kid from getting too cocky. "By the way, what dishes are served over there today?"
"Does it really take this long to eat a meal? I tried my best to get back, okay?" Wang Chong said irritably.
I finally told them the names of the dishes: "Sweet and sour pork with pineapple and braised beef brisket with dried bean curd, both are 58 yuan per serving. Steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli are 68 yuan per serving, but the scallops are quite large and fresh. Mushrooms and bok choy are 28 yuan, and coconut chicken soup is still 88 yuan."
Wang Zhiguo hesitated: "The two hundred yuan I gave you isn't enough to order this much, is it?"
Wang Chong rolled his eyes: "That's why I didn't order the braised beef brisket with tofu skin, and I even paid sixteen yuan out of my own pocket. Eat up, it won't taste good if it gets cold."
"Okay, okay, I'll reimburse you for the sixteen yuan," Wang Zhiguo coaxed with a smile.
"I'm leaving." Wang Chong went straight upstairs, intending to take a nap.
Wang Zhiguo sat down at the table, opened the bag, and took out two boxes of meat, vegetables, and soup. After tearing off the plastic film from the disposable chopsticks, he first picked up some steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli, because seafood tends to have a fishy smell when it gets cold.
The garlic vermicelli was a little cold, but that didn't affect the wonderful taste at all. The smooth vermicelli mixed with garlic was very fragrant with garlic and a little spicy, and it was salty and fragrant with the freshness of scallops.
After finishing the vermicelli, I saw the scallop meat, which was indeed quite large. I used chopsticks to poke it off, picked it up, and put it in my mouth. It was smooth, tender, and sweet, with no fishy taste at all.
Wang Zhiguo enjoyed his meal. After finishing two scallops, he thought that a dish costing 66 yuan couldn't possibly only have four scallops; there should be at least six, since good things come in pairs.
"That brat even stole a scallop!" Wang Zhiguo cursed as he picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork with pineapple and ate it.
I have to say, the sweet and sour pork with pineapple was delicious. Besides eating the pork and pineapple, he also ate all the green, red, and yellow peppers. And then there was the coconut chicken soup, which, even though he'd had it yesterday, was still incredibly tasty.
This time, he also brought back some sauce. Wang Zhiguo picked up some chicken, dipped it in the sauce, and ate it. The salty and savory flavor had a refreshing sourness, and the chicken was tender and juicy. It was simply a delight.
After eating, Wang Zhiguo made a decision: he would learn to make sweet and sour pork with pineapple, which would become a new dish in Old Wang's family repertoire.
Gu's Private Kitchen closed for business around 1:00 PM. While they were less busy serving customers, Gu Qingqiu and Sister Zhou had lunch first.
At this moment, Sister Zhou tidied up the bowls and chopsticks on the table in the dining room, put them in the sink in the kitchen, took out a rag to wipe the table, and then went back into the kitchen to wash the dishes.
Gu Qingqiu had been busy in the kitchen for so long, so now she was sitting in a chair, leaning back and scrolling through her phone to relax.
After playing for a while, she got up and went to the kitchen to say hello to Sister Zhou. She told Sister Zhou to put the dishes in the sterilizer later and then she could close the door and go home. She was going upstairs to take a nap.
The restaurant's wooden door was pulled shut from the outside and couldn't be opened even without a key.
Anyway, there are security cameras downstairs at the restaurant, and Sister Zhou is a good person to her, so she doesn't feel at ease and there's no need for her to stay here and keep watch.
Sister Zhou smiled and agreed, knowing that the boss trusted her and she had to work hard.
Around 3 p.m., Gu Qingqiu went to the vegetable market again with an umbrella.
The scallops I picked this morning were large and fresh, and the customer feedback was good. She liked them too and planned to cook them for dinner. If they're sold out, there's nothing I can do but order another dish.
Fortunately, the seafood stall still had scallops for sale this morning, and they looked very fresh, with quality similar to what I had in the morning.
The seafood stall owner said, "I just picked up these scallops at noon." He patted his chest proudly and assured the stall, "Our seafood is definitely the freshest in the entire market."
Gu Qingqiu smiled and agreed. This time, she had chosen sixty scallops, enough to make ten dishes of steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli.
After resting for a while at the restaurant, she went into the kitchen to continue working.
Business is better in the evening than at noon, with a steady stream of customers.
Fortunately, the deliveryman brought the queue chairs she bought that afternoon. After unpacking them, Ms. Zhou washed and dried them, and placed them on the left side of the store entrance so that waiting customers could sit down.
Gradually, there weren't enough seats, and some customers had to stand and wait. Some people waited patiently, while others couldn't wait and went to other restaurants.
Once the kitchen had used up most of its ingredients, Gu Qingqiu quickly told Sister Zhou to tell the customers outside not to wait any longer.
After a busy night, the restaurant quieted down a little after eight o'clock. Sister Zhou finished her work and left at nine o'clock, while Gu Qingqiu took a shower and stayed in her room looking at her phone.
She stumbled upon a post about a cultivation novel and instinctively glanced at the tiny amount of spiritual energy in her dantian.
Huh?
It seems to have solidified quite a bit!
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