Chapter 39 Fried Eggs in Tomato Sauce, Salt and Pepper Nine-belly Fish, Fish-Flavored...
Before Fang Nianxiang had even finished the soup in her second bowl, the waiter brought out a dish of salt and pepper flounder and fried egg in tomato sauce, saying with a smile, "Your meat and vegetables are all served. Please enjoy."
"Thank you." She nodded in acknowledgment.
The salt and pepper flounder was actually deep-fried. Each piece looked golden and crispy, and you could vaguely smell the aroma of fish, but the aroma of oil was more prominent. It was also served with a small dish of sweet sauce.
The other dish, fried eggs in tomato sauce, looked more tempting. The rich, orange-red sauce covered the porcelain plate, and a large, golden-brown, crispy fried egg lay in the center, also drizzled with sauce. One could imagine that the egg must have been soaking up the sauce inside, and the sweet and sour aroma filled the air from the moment it was served.
Actually, before this dish was served, Fang Nianxiang could smell the sweet and sour aroma wafting from other tables.
The aroma of sweet and sour flavors, combined with the tempting tomato-sauce fried egg, was a tantalizing experience for her taste buds, both in terms of taste and appearance.
Even after finishing two bowls of morel mushroom and seafood soup, she still had a great appetite and couldn't wait to try the delicious food.
After finishing the remaining tofu and shrimp in a few bites, Fang Nian picked up her chopsticks and poked a few times at a large piece of fried egg that was almost the size of a porcelain plate. She then picked out a small piece of fried egg and put it in her mouth to taste it.
The sweet and sour flavor spreads across the tongue, a very fresh tomato taste, sweet and sour, a very refreshing feeling. The fried egg is crispy and tender, with crispy edges and skin, and very tender inside. This time, in addition to the sweet and sour flavor, you can also taste a salty and savory flavor.
After finishing her meal, Fang Nian immediately picked up another piece of fried egg and ate it.
This time it's probably a larger piece of fried egg from the center, so it's fluffier and soaks up more of the orange-red tomato sauce, making it sweet and sour. When you bite into it, the fried egg still retains its original aroma.
The small fried egg was also coated with some garlic, probably from the sauce, which made the flavor more complex when you bit into it, rather than just a simple sweet, sour, salty and savory taste.
Even after chewing and swallowing the fried egg, the aroma lingered in her mouth. Fang Nian wanted to fully whet her appetite, so she simply called the waiter over a bowl of rice. This fried egg in tomato sauce would definitely be a great accompaniment to rice.
She took a bowl of rice from the waiter and scooped some tomato sauce onto the white rice. The top layer of rice grains was instantly coated with the orange-red, slightly crystalline sauce. The sauce continued to seep down, and as she scooped another spoonful of sauce onto the rice, the rice visible on the surface of the bowl soon turned an enticing color.
Fang Nianxiang picked up another large piece of fried egg and ate it, feeling the fluffy, soft, and tender fried egg, with a sweet and sour taste and a salty aroma.
When you've almost finished chewing, mix in a bite of rice. The rice soaks up the tomato sauce, making it moist and flavorful. Your mouth will be filled with a sweet and sour taste. It's especially satisfying to take a few bites and swallow it all at once.
She couldn't resist picking up another piece of fried egg and putting it in her mouth. This time, she mixed it with a mouthful of rice. The fluffy and crispy fried egg combined with the soft and sticky rice was undoubtedly the best combination.
The taste buds and stomach are greatly satisfied, which in turn sends a pleasant signal to the brain, making the whole person feel comfortable from body to mind.
From the self-doubt that followed when deciding to take annual leave to come to Jiang City, to the worries and disapproval of her family, to the tense mind rushing to finish the work that needed to be done, Jiang Nianxiang seemed to have rested for a night after landing in Jiang City, but only now, after drinking two bowls of soup and eating a lot of fried eggs in tomato sauce and rice, did she truly relax, and her previously straight back slumped slightly.
She then realized she had forgotten to take a picture, so she quickly picked up her phone and snapped a photo of the half-eaten tomato fried egg in front of her, followed by the untouched, beautifully plated, golden and crispy salt and pepper nine-belly fish.
Before filming the morel mushroom and three-delicacy soup, Fang Nian wanted to use a soup ladle to level the soup in the pot to make it look nicer, since there was still a lot of soup left, and it would also allow some of the ingredients to be partially exposed.
She took a picture with her phone and looked back at the three photos she had just taken. Every dish looked great in the photos and looked very appetizing.
This was taken without any beauty filters, using the original camera settings.
Fang Nianxiang finally understood why the food photos were so beautiful when she browsed Xiaohongshu and Weibo for content related to Gu's Private Kitchen. Just like some netizens commented, the meat dishes at Gu's Private Kitchen always looked good in photos.
She opened the WeChat family group "Family of Three (Dog)" and posted the three photos she had just taken.
[Xiao Nian: Photos x3.jpg]
[Xiao Nian: I've already eaten at Gu's Private Kitchen! It's so delicious! I only remembered to take a picture to show you guys when I was halfway through my meal (scratches head)]
[Xiao Nian: This morel mushroom and seafood soup was incredibly sweet and delicious; I drank two bowls straight away. The tomato-sauce fried egg was also wonderful—fluffy and crispy on the outside, yet soft and tender on the inside, soaking up the tomato sauce for a sweet, sour, and savory flavor that went perfectly with rice.]
[Xiao Nian: The salt and pepper flounder looks golden and crispy; it should taste pretty good too. I'll tell you how it tastes after I eat it.]
[Xiao Nian: Coming to Jiang City for tourism is definitely worthwhile. This restaurant is really good. Even if it doesn't have any health benefits, just enjoying the food is worthwhile.]
Before she came, her biggest worry was her parents. Since puberty, her parents had been very supportive and cooperative in taking her to various hospitals to see a dermatologist. They had also helped her try some folk remedies that others had shared.
She told her parents about how Gu's Private Kitchen's meat dishes could fade acne scars, which she had seen in a group chat, and suggested that she take annual leave to come to Jiang City to try it. Their first reaction was disbelief, and they also thought it was just an advertisement.
Knowing what she cared about, her parents tried to persuade her to stay. After realizing her determination, they offered to take time off work to accompany her to Jiang City, treating it as a trip.
Jiang Nianxiang disagreed, smiling and saying that she was a grown woman and going to Jiang City was no problem for her. She had traveled alone before, and since they were both so busy with work, they should save their annual leave for a trip together at the end of the year.
Her father has recently seen a lot of news about cracking down on fraud. Some victims were not only cheated out of money but also tricked into having their hearts and kidneys removed. He is particularly afraid that Gu's Private Kitchen is also a predatory restaurant.
He said that otherwise, why would a restaurant advertise in an acne-fighting group, even going so far as to claim that eating restaurant meat and vegetables consecutively can fade acne scars?
Fang Nian tried her best to persuade her parents, and even showed them the real notes posted by netizens on Xiaohongshu and Weibo, before she could barely convince them to let her come to Jiang City for dinner alone.
However, she has to frequently send her location to the group chat and say a few words from time to time to reassure them.
There was still no activity in the group chat. Judging from the time, they were probably still busy with their work and hadn't finished their shift yet. Fang Nian thought she might as well put down her phone and continue eating.
Having enjoyed the tomato-sauce fried egg, she now picked up a piece of salt and pepper flounder to eat.
As soon as I picked it up, I felt that the fish piece had some weight, but the outer shell was light and airy, as if it had expanded during frying.
Fang Nian wanted to put the salt and pepper nine-belly fish to her mouth and take a bite. It made a satisfying crunching sound, and it was indeed very crispy.
The first bite reveals a golden, crispy outer shell. The second bite, in addition to the crispy shell, reveals fish meat that is so tender it's almost like tofu, making it difficult to perceive the texture of fish.
If it weren't for the unique freshness and aroma of the fish, she would have suspected that what she was eating was actually fried tofu.
Beyond its crispy texture, it's savory and fragrant. The tender fish meat hidden inside the crispy shell is savory and delicious, with the unique numbing aroma of Sichuan peppercorns. The overall taste is exceptionally good.
After tasting a piece of salt and pepper flounder, Fang Nian realized that she had underestimated the dish. This was no ordinary fried fish; nothing was more suitable for deep-frying than flounder.
She then picked up a piece of nine-belly fish, this time dipping it in the accompanying sweet sauce before putting it in her mouth.
The first thing I tasted was the sweet sauce spread on the flounder's shell. It was sweet and savory, and after biting into the crispy shell, my mouth was filled with the aroma of oil and the freshness of the fish. The sweet sauce perfectly balanced the greasiness from the deep-frying, without being too sweet, achieving a wonderful harmony.
Take another bite and you'll taste the tender, smooth fish meat. It's so delicate that you can barely feel any fish bones. It's salty, savory, and slightly numbing, and you can swallow it without even chewing it.
She put the remaining small piece of nine-belly fish in her mouth, then mixed it with a mouthful of rice and chewed it together. It was very fragrant and went well with the rice.
Without pausing, she picked up another piece of nine-belly fish. This time, as she took a bite and chewed, she saw the tender white fish meat peeking out from the crispy shell on her chopsticks. Fang Nian quickly picked up her phone, opened the camera, and took a picture of this beautiful cross-section.
She overheard customers at the surrounding tables praising the salt and pepper nine-belly fish, saying it was crispy on the outside and so tender on the inside, like tofu.
I searched on my phone's browser and found out that the pufferfish is also known as tofu fish. It has very soft flesh, very few bones, and you can even chew and eat them directly. Salt and pepper pufferfish is a classic way to prepare it.
Fang Nian wanted to open the WeChat family group and post the photos she had just taken.
[Xiao Nian: Salt and Pepper Nine-belly Fish Picture.jpg]
[Xiao Nian: This salt and pepper nine-belly fish is especially delicious. It's very crispy, and the fish meat inside is as tender as tofu. It's savory and delicious. I just looked it up online and found out that nine-belly fish is also called tofu fish. This is the first time I've ever heard of this kind of fish.]
After she sent the message, she glanced at the messages her parents had sent just three minutes earlier.
[Mom: These dishes look great, they smell and taste delicious (thumbs up)]
[Mom: It seems this restaurant has some merit, to receive such high praise from someone as picky as you.]
[Dad: Daughter, you're so good at describing things! The words you posted along with those pictures make my mouth water. No wonder you're an advertising professional (thumbs up)]
[Dad: I also ate at work, and it looks much worse than your meals. When you come back, we'll go to Jiang City as a family for Gu's Private Kitchen next time.]
Fang Nian thought about replying to the message.
[Xiao Nian: Hehe, yes, it really is delicious! Mom, I disagree with you. I'm not picky at all; I love whatever you cook.]
[Xiao Nian: Dad, your lunch looks pretty good.]
[Xiao Nian: When we have the chance, our family will come to Jiang City again, and we'll take you to try Gu's Private Kitchen.]
Her parents had probably finished get off work and were having dinner by now. While she was sending messages, the other party was also replying, and new messages kept popping up in the group chat.
[Dad: Your fried fish looks great. Just looking at the photo, I know it will be very crispy, and the fish meat looks very tender.]
[Dad: It's so delicious! Remember to share with us at every meal (smiles)]
[Mom: This salt and pepper flounder looks good. It's not commonly sold in our local market, but I've bought it once or twice to cook. I was worried it might cause you to have a sore throat, so I made fish soup instead. You two were only focused on drinking the soup, saying it was very delicious, and didn't eat any fish.]
Fang Nianxiang always wanted to laugh whenever she saw her dad send a message with a smiling emoji.
Among the younger generation who frequently browse the internet, the least used emoji is the smiling face emoji, which represents silence, sarcasm, and cynicism.
But people of her parents' generation really like to use this smiling emoji, believing it represents friendliness, approval, and encouragement.
Fang Nian tried to explain to her parents, but they still preferred to use it, saying that their colleagues used it too.
One of her parents works in a government agency and the other in a public institution, so their retirement age is later. Therefore, she is one of the few people of her age whose parents have not yet retired.
Seeing that her attempts to persuade them were futile, Fang Nianxiang stopped mentioning the use of the smiley face emoji, since her parents mostly chatted with people their own age on WeChat anyway. Gradually, she found it somewhat cute whenever she saw her parents use that emoji.
She was a little surprised to see her mother's reply, so she quickly replied.
[Xiao Nian: Ah! Mom, I really didn't know that. So the fish I said was really fresh was this nine-belly fish. What a pity I missed it all these years. (The puppy sighs)]
[Dad: Ugh, I really didn't know. Honey, how about we see who goes to the market first this afternoon to check if they sell any nine-belly fish? If they do, we can buy some and make some salt and pepper nine-belly fish.]
[Mom: Sure, I'm drooling too. We can't let Xiao Nian eat all that good food alone. You're not as smart as me. You can check on a food delivery app to see if they sell nine-belly fish. If they don't, the market probably doesn't have it either.]
Fang Nianxiang smiled as she watched the messages popping up in the family group chat. She replied to a few occasionally, but her mind was mostly focused on the two dishes and soup in front of her.
The fried egg in tomato sauce and the salt and pepper flounder were both delicious; I took turns mixing them with the remaining half bowl of rice and finished them all. The morel mushroom and seafood soup was excellent; I ate all the soup ingredients and even slowly drank the broth.
During the meal, Fang Nianxiang went to the restroom to relieve himself before returning to drink the soup, enjoying the delicious and fragrant soup in a relaxed and happy manner.
At another table, Xu Shiren and Feng Jianguo were also engrossed in their meal, their mouths brimming with delicious flavor.
Ever since Yunyang ordered takeout to their home that day, they were completely won over after eating the meat and vegetables.
After that, the food at home always felt a little off. Fortunately, they were both retired and had more free time. They also knew where Gu's Private Kitchen was, so they had already come over to eat there three or four times.
I don't know if it's just my imagination, but the freshly cooked meat and vegetables I ate at the restaurant seemed even better than the ones I ordered at home last time.
It was only on their first visit that they realized the person who made so many incredibly delicious and visually appealing meat dishes was actually a young girl, who was also the owner of the restaurant.
"This is incredible!" the two elderly people exclaimed, exchanging a glance.
They always have a great experience dining at Gu's Private Kitchen. The daily updated menu is like winning the lottery; you never know what delicious food will be available until you arrive at the restaurant, which makes life seem more exciting.
They ate heartily, barely saying a word. They ate each dish with such speed that their chopsticks seemed to blur, only slowing down after tasting it.
The morel mushroom and three-delicacy soup truly lived up to its name; it was so delicious it almost made your eyebrows fall off! The soup ingredients were also wonderful: the tofu was tender and smooth, the shrimp was sweet and fresh, the fried egg was crispy and soft, and the morel mushrooms were thick, firm, and chewy, with a unique aroma that lingered in your memory.
The salt and pepper flounder is fried until crispy, and once you bite into it, you'll realize how tender and smooth the fish meat inside is. You don't have to worry about fish bones at all, and you don't need to chew much. Just savor the salty, savory, and slightly numbing flavor, and feel the combination of crispiness and tenderness before swallowing it directly.
The tomato-sauce fried egg is sweet and sour, which is very appetizing. The edges of the fried egg are crispy, while the inside is soft and tender. After soaking up the tomato sauce, it is moist and bursts with sweet and sour juice when you bite into it. It is especially good with rice.
They are eating shredded pork with garlic sauce right now.
Despite his advanced age, Xu Shiren still has excellent eyesight. On the white porcelain plate, a mixture of dark brown shredded pork, black wood ear mushrooms, orange-red carrot shreds, and green bell pepper pieces, all coated in a thick sauce, he can still reach out with his chopsticks and, without hesitation, accurately pick up two shredded pieces of pork and put them in his mouth.
Biting into the shredded meat, you first taste the sweet and sour flavor, which seems to be mixed with a salty and savory taste. The shredded meat is tender, and then a faint spiciness spreads in your mouth, making the flavor particularly rich.
He immediately picked up two more strips of shredded meat to eat. The dish was very flavorful, and the thick sauce made the shredded meat even more tender. The sweet, sour, salty, and spicy flavors were infused into every inch of the shredded meat during the stir-frying process, and they were only released after chewing a few times.
Xu Shiren immediately picked up the bowl and mixed another mouthful of rice into his mouth. The shredded meat was also very good with rice. The soft and sticky rice grains mixed with the sweet, sour, salty and savory shredded meat were especially delicious.
It has a completely different flavor from fried egg rice with tomato sauce, but both are sweet and sour.
Feng Jianguo ate several bites of shredded pork and also mixed it with a couple of bites of rice. He had eaten half of the bowl of rice he ordered earlier with fried eggs in tomato sauce, and now he had half a bowl left, which was perfect to go with this shredded pork with garlic sauce.
After tasting the delicious shredded meat, he added some black fungus and shredded carrots to eat together. It was very crunchy, and he could taste the sweetness of the shredded carrots. Of course, the sweet, sour, salty and savory flavor of the sauce was the most appealing.
Feng Jianguo can handle spicy food, so he picked up some green pepper pieces to eat, which were also very crisp and had a spiciness that was more intense than that of the shredded meat.
He exclaimed, "I've traveled all over China and eaten many different kinds of shredded pork with garlic sauce, but this dish definitely ranks in the top three."
"I think this dish has that home-style flavor that both adults and children would enjoy," Xu Shiren said after chewing and swallowing the carrot shreds in his mouth.
After saying that, she seemed to remember something, took out her phone and took a group photo of the dishes on the table, then opened WeChat and sent it to her grandson.
[High Mountain Boulder: Image.jpg]
[High Mountain Boulder: I'm having dinner at Gu's Private Kitchen with your Uncle Feng again. The meat dishes are quite good today too!]
The reply came almost instantly.
[Grandson: ! Grandpa, you're so mean! Going to Gu's Private Kitchen is one thing, but you even sent me this tempting message!]
[Grandson: Braised Pork Bento Box.jpg]
[Grandson: Compared to your food, the cafeteria food I get here is utterly disgusting; it suddenly doesn't taste good anymore.]
[Grandson: You guys could at least wait until I get off work tonight before we go out to eat together, and I can pay for it, right? Why do you have to go at noon? Aren't you deliberately leaving me out?]
Xu Shiren smiled after reading the message and replied by hand on the keyboard.
[High Mountain Boulder: Nonsense! Your food looks pretty good, all good grains. You have to finish it!]
[High Mountain Boulder: Since we don't have to work and have nothing to do, we can just come over whenever we want to eat. If you're going to treat us, we wouldn't mind having another meal.]
After sending the photo, he exited the chat with his grandson and opened the chat with his grandson, sending the same photo of meat and vegetables.
[High Mountain Boulder: Image.jpg]
[High Mountain Boulder: Your Uncle Feng and I are having dinner at Gu's Private Kitchen. You've been so busy with work, we haven't had a chance to eat at Gu's Private Kitchen in so long. Doesn't this photo make your mouth water?]
I guess my grandson is resting and eating right now, because he replied to the message very quickly.
[Grandson: It looks good. I'm glad you and Uncle Feng enjoy your meal, Grandpa.]
Without responding to his question at all, Xu Shiren shook his head helplessly after reading it, too lazy to reply. He exited the chat page and clicked into the chat box with his grandson to reply to a few newly sent messages.
His grandson and grandson-in-law have completely different personalities. One is calm and indifferent, with nothing to care about except work and family. The other has been lively and active since childhood, good at everything from eating and drinking to playing. He has only become better in recent years after finding a job at a company.
Feng Jianguo enjoyed his meat and vegetables. After finishing the rice in his bowl, he scooped up half a bowl of soup to drink, savoring the deliciousness while also moistening his throat.
He looked up and saw his friend still holding his phone and texting. He said, "Hurry up and eat, or I'll eat it all."
“I sent the photos to the kids as soon as the food was served, but you were a step behind.”
Xu Shiren put down his phone, looked up, and said, "I'm just being considerate of the kids. They were all at work just now, and sending them messages would have been a real bother. Now it's lunchtime, so it's perfect for them to have a good time."
Feng Jianguo sent the photos to the child just now, hoping to tempt him, since Xiaoshan stubbornly refused to believe that Gu's private kitchen was delicious.
Hearing his friend's words and realizing their shared secret thoughts, he couldn't help but laugh out loud, not even bothering to care about the sarcastic tone in his friend's words.
Feng Jianguo: "Alright, alright, keep eating."
Just as Xu Shiren sent the message, the shop assistant served a dish of garlic vermicelli and baby bok choy.
He picked up his chopsticks and started by tasting the green vegetable dish.
After eating at Gu's Private Kitchen a few times, he and Lao Feng realized that the vegetables here were just as delicious as the meat dishes, not to mention that the garlic vermicelli baby bok choy was already quite tasty.
He picked up the garlic sauce on top, the baby bok choy in the middle, and the glass noodles at the bottom, along with the sauce, and quickly put them into his bowl.
Only then did I slowly pick it up and eat it. The baby bok choy had a strong garlic flavor, was steamed until very soft, and after absorbing some sauce, it tasted salty, savory, and very sweet.
The glass noodles at the bottom are even more amazing. They've been soaking in the sauce while steaming, and they're even softer than baby bok choy. They're savory, smooth, and easy to swallow in just a few slurps.
"This vegetable dish is delicious!" Xu Shiren praised, then quickly picked up another piece with his chopsticks.
Feng Jianguo was also eating garlic vermicelli baby bok choy. He also used his chopsticks to pick up the bok choy leaves and vermicelli and put them in his bowl. He also specially picked up some of the garlic sauce that was spread on the surface and mixed it into his bowl.
Now the baby bok choy tastes even more garlicky. The minced garlic is very salty and fragrant, and the baby bok choy is also very flavorful, with juice in it and an irresistible sweetness.
The glass noodles are also soaked in sauce, making them smooth and delicate to eat; you can swallow them after just a couple of bites.
If there weren't too few glass noodles in this dish, it would be nice to eat it as a main course.
They both really liked this garlic vermicelli baby bok choy dish, and whenever they reached for their chopsticks, it was always this dish.
After having eaten my fill, I started trying other meat dishes.
Almost all the customers at the tables in the restaurant were immersed in the delicious meat and dishes, occasionally sharing their eating experiences with family and friends at the same table, or chatting about life and work, creating a joyful atmosphere.
In the kitchen, Gu Qingqiu and Sister Zhou also started eating lunch.
Gu Qingqiu prepared a little of almost every dish, after all, it would be ridiculous if the customers ate it without him tasting it.
She particularly enjoys salt and pepper flounder, which is crispy and crunchy with tender fish meat inside. She was quite satisfied with the quality of her fried fish today.
The fried egg in tomato sauce and the shredded pork with garlic sauce tasted good and went well with rice, but she didn't serve herself any rice, wanting to save room for more soup and broth.
Garlic vermicelli with baby bok choy is also very good. She likes this combination of vermicelli and greens, which brings out the most essential fragrance of the ingredients while absorbing the savory aroma of the sauce.
Sister Zhou served herself a bowl of rice to eat with the meat and vegetables; every dish was delicious. The morel mushroom and seafood soup was incredibly fresh; the praise from the customers in the restaurant earlier was no exaggeration.
While eating, the two would occasionally look up towards the dining area to make sure customers had something they wanted without being noticed.
There were a few customers queuing outside the restaurant, but the seven tables in the dining room were full and they couldn't serve customers for the time being.
When they were almost full, Sister Zhou looked over at the dining area and said anxiously, "Boss, look, two people in work uniforms have come in. They walked right in and looked around as if they were looking for someone. One of them seems to be holding a camera."
Gu Qingqiu looked over and knew they were probably heading towards the restaurant, so she quickly stood up and said, "I'll go out and take a look."
Sister Zhou also put down her chopsticks and followed her out.
Gu Qingqiu walked over to the dining area and greeted the two people with a smile: "Hello, is there anything I can help you with?"
The two staff members exchanged a glance, and one of them said, "Hello, we are from the food supervision and management department. We received a report that there are problems with the meat dishes at your Gu's Private Kitchen. It is possible that some additives have been added that may affect people's health. We have come here to take samples for inspection in accordance with the law."
As soon as these words were spoken, the laughter and merriment in Gu's Private Kitchen suddenly stopped, and all the customers turned to look at them.
There were reactions of shock, doubt, and fear.
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