Chapter 26 Sour Plum Pork Chop, Cold Spinach Salad, Winter Melon and Barley...
On a porcelain-white round plate, slices of pork chops are arranged in a neat row. The edges of each slice are braised to a dark reddish-brown color, and through the clear, deep yellow sauce, you can vaguely see the firm lean meat with a hint of fat in the marbling, glistening with oil.
The air was filled with a sweet and sour aroma, making one's mouth water involuntarily and prompting a desire to taste it.
Lin urged, "Hurry up and save some, I'm going to start eating."
"I know." Huo Youjin picked up the chopsticks that were placed aside specifically for keeping food, picked up two pieces of pork chop and put them into the takeout box. After thinking for a moment, he reluctantly picked up another piece and put it in as well.
He pursed his lips, suppressing his urge to eat. Ever since he had that passion fruit and sour beef soup a few days ago, he, who didn't usually like sweet and sour flavors, suddenly had no resistance to these sweet and sour meat dishes.
"That's fine."
Seeing his wife already eating the plum pork chopsticks, Huo Youjin quickly and carefully closed the green takeout box lid before picking up his chopsticks and no longer restraining his appetite to fully enjoy the dish.
The pork chop has a richer sweet and sour flavor, not too sour or too sweet, just right, with a hint of plum fragrance.
The pork chop has a slightly charred texture, making it crispy, and then it's tender and juicy when you bite into it. The sweet and sour flavor has been fully infused into the pork chop meat, making every bite an ultimate enjoyment.
Even after swallowing the pork chop, the sweet and sour meaty aroma lingers in your mouth.
Huo Youjin couldn't resist picking up another piece of plum pork chop and eating it. This time, after biting into it and tasting the sweet and sour flavors and the tender and juicy pork chop, he mixed it with a mouthful of rice, chewed it a couple of times, and swallowed it. Even the rice tasted better.
The rice used in Gu's Private Kitchen must be of good quality. The cooked rice is round, plump, and each grain is distinct. After he poured a spoonful of deep yellow and translucent sauce over the rice in the bowl, the rice grains also had a sweet and sour taste and were glistening with oil. You could eat two bowls of rice just by eating it without any meat or vegetables.
Lin ate three slices of plum pork chop in a row. She really liked the thickness and size of the pork chop cut by Gu's Private Kitchen. It was slightly larger than the usual slices of pork belly, and she could finish it in just a few bites.
My mouth was filled with a sweet and sour taste, and I was still savoring the tender and juicy pork chop, unlike the pork chops I usually eat, which are sometimes hard and chewy.
She was a little puzzled: "Pork chops are usually made with pork tenderloin, but these don't taste like tenderloin. I don't know what part of the pork is used to make them so tender and juicy."
"I'm not sure either, but if it tastes good, I'll eat more," Huo Youjin said.
Although he usually cooks at home, when he goes to the market to buy pork, if he wants to make pork chops, he will tell the vendor, "Boss, could you please give me a piece of pork for making pork chops?"
As for which part of the body it is, you might forget it quickly after hearing the butcher mention it. Anyway, it's enough that the butcher knows; whether he knows it or not is unimportant.
Moreover, he usually marinates pork chops, coats them in egg wash, and frys them, and he thinks they're quite fragrant. He never expected that making them into plum pork chops would be so delicious.
Lin remembered the Xiaohongshu notes about Gu's private kitchen that she had read before. She had been longing for it so much these past few days that she could only look at it from afar. So she dug out those notes and read them again. She still remembered all the dishes on them.
"If this plum pork chop is so delicious, I wonder how delicious the plum duck must have been. The duck skin was so glossy and the meat was so browned and braised. It must have been really good."
Lin sighed after speaking, "It's a pity that Gu's Private Kitchen updates its menu every day, and so far, none of the dishes have been repeated. I wonder when we'll be able to eat this plum duck again."
Huo Youjin was very satisfied with the sour plum pork chop. He didn't expect anything like the sour plum duck that he could only see in pictures. He stood there and encouraged him without thinking, "You should be bold and go to the boss and ask her to make sour plum duck again. You'll be willing to spend a lot of money to buy five servings."
"We'll eat one portion in the restaurant, and reheat the other two at home. We'll also send one to each of our parents to try. Perfect!"
After saying that, he snapped his fingers.
Lin glared at him and said irritably, "Get lost."
Huo Youjin smiled and said, "Really, that's a good idea."
Lin Guoran said, "There are only so many dishes in China, and the ingredients are nothing more than chicken, duck, fish and meat. There will always be a time when sour plum duck will reappear. I can wait for that."
"How can you be so sure that you knew you would come to eat the day the shop made plum duck?" Huo Youjin couldn't hold back his words after eating plum pork chop.
Lin glared at him again: "Go to hell, hurry up and eat your pork chop."
She thought to herself, "If only Gu's Private Kitchen had an official account to announce the menu for each day."
Shaking his head to stop thinking about it, Lin picked up another piece of plum pork chop and ate it.
The staff quickly brought out a cold spinach salad and a winter melon and barley pork rib soup, and all the dishes were served.
As usual, they each kept some and put it in a takeout box, sealing it tightly with the lid. Lin had no time to complain about how wasteful it was to use such a nice and useful box to only pack such a small amount of food. She quickly reached for her chopsticks and started eating the cold spinach salad.
A spinach castle was piled up on the plate, with tender spinach leaves mixed together and garnished with minced garlic and sesame seeds from top to bottom.
The first bite is salty and savory with a hint of vinegar, crisp and tender, with the aroma of vegetables and the salty fragrance of fried garlic. The inconspicuous little chili peppers gradually spread their spiciness as you chew.
Then, I quickly picked up another bite and continued eating. This time, there was not only crisp and tender spinach, but also refreshing black fungus and sweet carrot shreds. All kinds of flavors intertwined, making it very refreshing to eat.
The fried garlic is undoubtedly the finishing touch, adding a crispy and salty garlic flavor to the otherwise refreshing and tender dish, without any bitterness.
The acidity in the cold spinach salad is just right; it's not too sour, yet it adds a nice texture to the dish.
Lin savored it carefully. After the third bite of spinach, he realized that there must have been some peanut sauce in it. The subtle peanut aroma was hidden in it. If you couldn't taste it, you would just think that the cold spinach was particularly fragrant. If you could taste it, you would think that the peanut sauce must have played a part in making the cold spinach so fragrant.
Unlike his wife, Huo Youjin chose to drink the soup first. He had just finished a bowl of rice with the plum pork chop, so he used a soup spoon to scoop himself a bowl of soup, adding some winter melon, barley, and pork ribs to the bowl as well.
As a meat lover, he first picked up a piece of pork rib to eat.
These pork ribs used for soup are clearly not scraps; each rib is cut evenly, and the meat naturally wraps around both sides of the bone. Because they are for soup, they are light in color.
The pork ribs weren't as dry as I'd imagined; they fell off the bone easily with a bite, and you could feel the texture of the lean meat. They weren't bland at all, but rather had a hint of sweetness from the broth. Dipping them in the sauce provided by the restaurant made them a bit saltier and more flavorful.
After Huo Youjin finished eating a piece of pork rib, he still preferred to eat the meat directly, as he could taste the sweetness of the broth when biting into the pork rib meat.
If there's still some fat on the ribs at this point, it won't be greasy at all; instead, it will balance the texture of the lean meat and make it even tastier.
After finishing the three pieces of pork ribs in his bowl, he picked up some winter melon to eat. The winter melon was not peeled; the green skin was attached to the soft, cooked flesh, making it both crisp and tender, juicy, and sweet.
Even after being simmered for a long time, and although most of the flavor has been infused into the soup, Job's tears still have a roasted Job's tears aroma.
Huo Youjin came to this conclusion by observing the slightly burnt yellow color of the Job's tears while eating them. The Job's tears were cooked quite soft, and they were soft, sticky, and a little chewy.
While eating the soup ingredients, he would occasionally pick up the bowl to drink the soup. The soup was clear and tasted very sweet, with the sweetness of winter melon, the aroma of barley, and the meaty flavor of pork ribs.
"This soup is good for relieving summer heat and dampness, and it tastes pretty good too. Don't you often complain about having too much dampness in your body? Drink more later," Huo Youjin said, trying to make up for his earlier careless remarks that offended someone.
Lin was not really angry. The aroma of meat and dishes on the table made her too busy to be angry. Why should she be angry on a rare weekend when she didn't have to look after the students? Wasn't she angry enough at school?
She nodded: "Okay, you should try this cold spinach salad too, it's quite refreshing."
As he spoke, Lin scooped a bowl of soup for himself with a soup spoon, putting all the soup ingredients into the bowl together.
The pork ribs used for soup were not as dry and bland as I had imagined. They were moist and soaked in the sweet broth. The rib meat was also the kind of lean and fatty cut, which was quite tender and delicious.
As for the accompanying sauce, Lin tried dipping a piece of pork rib in it and ate it, but decided to just eat the pork rib meat directly. After tasting the sweetness of the winter melon, she found the most original meaty flavor of the pork rib meat, and the barley and winter melon were naturally delicious as well.
This soup perfectly blends the flavors of pork ribs, winter melon, and barley, resulting in a refreshing and sweet taste without any excessive seasoning. You can drink two bowls without getting tired of it.
Just as Lin was getting tipsy and was about to eat a piece of plum pork chop to change things up, he heard the last thing he wanted to hear.
"Teacher? So you also like Gu's Private Kitchen. I knew this restaurant was so delicious that many people would like it."
Lin recognized the voice and immediately regretted not thinking that Yuan Keying always talked about Gu's Private Kitchen at noon, and that she would definitely come over to eat there since she finally had a weekend off.
Even if she had thought of it beforehand, she would still come to eat at Gu's Private Kitchen. After all, the pain of running into students on the weekend was not enough to make her give in to delicious food.
Lin greeted her with a smile: "Keying, what a coincidence. I also heard that Gu's Private Kitchen is quite delicious, so I came to try it."
Yuan Keying was about to go to the cashier with her parents to pay when she unexpectedly saw a girl whose back looked so much like her homeroom teacher. She walked over and was pleasantly surprised to see her and greeted her.
He laughed and said, "Right? I told you no one could resist the deliciousness of Gu's Private Kitchen. Su Yi, Lin Qingyang, and Wang Ke also said they'd come to the restaurant this weekend to try it out."
"Really? That's great. It's a good time to relax and have a nice meal during your holiday." Lin nodded without changing his expression, thinking to himself that he would have to resist coming to Gu's Private Kitchen this weekend.
When Ms. Yuan and Chang Siyi heard their daughter talking to someone, they didn't pay attention at first and went to pay the bill. When they came back, they realized that it was their daughter's homeroom teacher.
They smiled and reached out to greet us: "Hello, Teacher Lin, we are Yuan Keying's parents."
"Hello," Lin said with a smile, shaking hands with them.
Yuan Keying happily shared with her parents: "Mom and Dad, it turns out that Teacher Lin also saw a post recommending Gu's Private Kitchen on Xiaohongshu, which is why she came to eat here with her master. She also thought the food at this restaurant was particularly delicious."
After exchanging greetings with Teacher Yuan and Chang Siyi, Teacher Yuan had a rough idea of the identity of the man sitting at the same table as Teacher Lin, and they smiled and nodded in return. Hearing her daughter address him as "Grandmaster," she couldn't help but twitch her lips and gave him an apologetic look.
After a few brief pleasantries, Chang Siyi tactfully said, "Then, Teacher Lin, we won't disturb your meal any longer. Let's chat again when we have time."
Teacher Yuan smiled and nodded, saying that she had to go back and take care of some things at home.
Lin nodded: "Okay, take care."
Yuan Keying playfully waved goodbye to her homeroom teacher and then waved goodbye to her grandmaster before turning around and following her parents.
Chang Siyi walked ahead and said to her husband, "We unexpectedly ran into Keying's homeroom teacher. Why don't we pay her bill too? It's not expensive anyway."
Teacher Yuan shook her head: "No need. What teachers fear most is running into students' parents and being secretly treated to a meal."
He first learned about Gu's Private Kitchen from a Xiaohongshu account run by students in his class. Later, many students in the department probably came to eat there after reading the post, and even posted about it on their WeChat Moments.
When Teacher Yuan comes over for a meal, he's afraid of running into his students. Of course, the students won't pay for him; they just need to exchange a few pleasantries.
Just now, while I was focused on eating the delicious meat dishes, I overheard a group of young people chatting and realized they were from Jiangnan University. Luckily, no one knew each other, so I was able to enjoy the family meal peacefully.
"Alright, I'll do as you say." Chang Siyi nodded.
The couple slowed their pace to wait for their daughter to catch up before leaving the restaurant together.
Lin was indeed sitting in his seat watching Yuan Keying's family, afraid that if the parents suddenly decided to pay for her, he would sprint to the cashier to stop them.
Fortunately, they are wise parents.
Seeing Yuan Keying and her family leave the restaurant, Lin Guoran finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Huo Youjin had been sitting calmly to the side ever since his wife ran into the students and their parents, smiling and greeting them as they acted as the "master" in the students' eyes.
He then laughed and said, "Alright, let's just let this chance encounter go. Let's eat and drink as we please, and not waste this meal."
Although there wasn't much left.
Lin nodded in agreement, no longer thinking about Yuan Keying's family, and continued eating the plum pork chop that he hadn't been able to finish earlier.
At the next table, a little further away, Yang Liu and her family had already finished eating. However, Yang Liu had seen other tables packing up their food earlier, and the takeout boxes looked good quality and the bags were particularly pretty, so she asked the waiter to pack up a portion of plum pork chop that she hadn't tried before, to take home.
Yang's mother, who is usually frugal and advocates eating only enough, also supported this time. She was completely impressed by the delicious meat dishes at Gu's private kitchen, and when she looked at the prices on the wall, she felt that they were not expensive at all.
While I was eating, I kept smelling the sweet and sour aroma of plum pork chops wafting from several nearby tables. They looked pretty good, so I packed them up to take home and heat them up for dinner tonight.
Yang's father had been holding back his words, but he was almost about to say that he wanted to order another serving of spicy clams, crab stick and tofu casserole, cold spinach salad, and barley and winter melon pork rib soup.
The two noticed the unexpected encounter between the teacher, student, and student's parent earlier, and couldn't help but laugh after exchanging a glance.
Yang Liu looked down and typed a message on her phone.
[Liu Yiyi: That cracked me up! A teacher was eating at a restaurant just now, and suddenly some students and their parents greeted her. The teacher visibly froze for a moment, then greeted them with a big smile. The student was quite lively, saying he was happy the teacher also liked the meat dishes at this restaurant.]
[Liu Yiyi: It's like when I'm eating and the restaurant owner suddenly appears and greets me. Even though I really don't want to talk to them, I still have to smile and say a few words.]
My good friends reply to my messages almost instantly.
[A big, clumsy bear: Hahaha, that's hilarious!]
[A big, clumsy bear: Teacher: Oh no, I've run into a student and their parent! Parent: Oh no, I've run into my child's homeroom teacher! Student: Hehehe, teacher, you like this place too!]
[A big, clumsy bear: achieved a world where only the student is happy.]
[A Big Silly Bear: I suddenly remembered something, probably from when we were in the second year of junior high, I don't know if you remember. Back then, your English was pretty bad, right? You went out to eat with your parents and ran into your English teacher. Your parents were incredibly kind and paid for the teacher's meal, then walked away without looking back, as if afraid the teacher would catch up with you. It made you really embarrassed, like your parents were bribing the teacher, and you became even more afraid of seeing your English teacher in class.]
[A big, clumsy bear: But I remember you saying that your English teacher secretly gave you money to take back to your parents.]
Seeing the pop-up messages, Yang Liu recalled a past event that had once made her feel ashamed, and couldn't help but smile. She looked up at her parents, who were whispering and secretly laughing at how naive and clueless they were about what had just happened, and shook her head with amusement.
She still dislikes her parents' practice of paying for the teacher's bills, just like when she was in junior high school. As she grows up, she can understand her parents' good intentions, but she doesn't support it.
Fortunately, after her English teacher privately asked her to return the money to her parents, her shame gradually disappeared. She even started to like her English teacher, thinking she was a good person. She became much more attentive in class, and her English grades gradually improved in high school. In college, she even passed the CET-4 and CET-6 exams smoothly.
She typed on her phone to reply to messages.
[Liu Yiyi: Don't even mention it, I really don't want to recall this. Those parents were so good at handling things. In this situation, paying for the teacher's meal isn't making friends, it's making enemies. The teacher is probably terrified.]
The clerk brought over the packaged pork chop with pickled plum filling, neatly placed it in the takeout bag without sealing it yet: "Hello, this is the packaged pork chop with pickled plum filling."
"OK, thanks."
Yang Liu looked at the takeout bag she had just received with great delight. Upon closer inspection, she discovered even more surprises. The mint green color of the bag was undoubtedly eye-catching, and the shop's logo and the smiling little figure eating on it seemed to perfectly capture the scene inside the shop, making one want to come and have a meal there.
Mr. and Mrs. Yang liked the takeout bag and felt that the one yuan they spent on the takeout box was well worth it.
As Yang's mother sealed the packing bag, she said, "This bag can keep food warm. I think you should use this bag to pack your lunch to work from now on."
Actually, the company has a microwave oven that can heat things up, but Yang Liu was still very happy to reply, "Great! My colleagues will definitely envy me when they see this bag."
These days, even milk tea packaging bags can be made of canvas, so Gu's Private Kitchen's takeout bags can be used as lunch boxes without any problem, since they look so good they're like fashion items.
The family got up and went to the cashier to pay, then walked out of Surrey Street to drive home.
At the other table, Lin Guoran and Huo Youjin also ate to their hearts' content. All the plates and bowls on the table were emptied, and their stomachs were bulging.
Lin had initially been tempted by every dish left in the takeout box, thinking that if she left more, she would eat less. But now she had no desire for it at all.
The portions of meat dishes at Gu's Private Kitchen are really generous. The couple ate and stopped frequently, and it took them more than an hour to finish the meal.
Seeing that there were only a few customers left in the store, Lin Guoran and Huo Youjin got up to pay the bill, carried the packaged meat and vegetables out of Suli Street, and drove to the food testing agency to deliver the testing supplies to Lao Wu.
Gu Qingqiu was unaware that some customers had already experienced positive changes in their health and suspected that the meat and vegetables at her restaurant might contain magical substances, so they took samples and sent them for testing.
She finished cooking the last dish in the kitchen a dozen minutes earlier, told Sister Zhou that the ingredients for lunch were used up and not to serve any new customers, and then came out to the dining area, moved a chair to a corner, and sat down to relax and cool off.
Even though there's a ceiling-mounted air conditioner in the kitchen, and the high-efficiency range hood is constantly running to quickly remove the fumes and heat from cooking on the stove, the temperature is still much higher than in the dining area.
Besides, cooking is physically demanding, and even in early summer, it can be very hot to cook for extended periods.
Gu Qingqiu focused her mind and observed the tiny bit of spiritual energy in her lower dantian. Sure enough, it was more condensed than she had observed before, and it seemed to have increased in size as well.
Just as she guessed, cooking in the kitchen every day was actually a form of cultivation. The tiny specks of spiritual energy that condensed when the meat and dishes she cooked were served were a manifestation of the circulation and use of spiritual energy within her body.
Through continuous use and practice, her cultivation level improved slightly, much to Gu Qingqiu's surprise and delight.
Who would have thought that if he couldn't become a powerful spiritual chef in the world of cultivation, he could cultivate by cooking after returning to the modern world?
She didn't have any extravagant goals, such as trying to improve her Qi Refining stage cultivation, like flying with Qi or soaring through the air at will. If she were discovered, she'd probably be captured and dissected for research.
Gu Qingqiu had only one small wish—
She can improve her physical fitness, and then when she reaches the middle stage of the first level of Qi Refining, she can use a cooling spell to lower the temperature in the kitchen and increase her enjoyment of cooking.
This is the real benefit that comes with it.
Thinking this way, Gu Qingqiu actually hoped that more customers would come to the shop so that she could cook more dishes, earn more money, and cultivate at the same time, so that she could achieve a cool working environment in the kitchen as soon as possible.
She chuckled and shook her head, deciding to start buying more ingredients tomorrow and try her luck.
For now, let's relax by scrolling through our phones for a bit.
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