Chapter 69. Sha Shen Yu Zhu Liu Wu Tang (Six-Ingredient Decoction of Adenophora and Polygonatum).
After the Dragon Boat Festival event ended, even though Gu Qingqiu was mentally prepared, she was exhausted. After closing, she didn't want to talk or even browse her phone. She simply moved a chair to the restaurant entrance and sat for a while, enjoying the evening breeze that still carried a lingering heat.
Sister Tang was washing dishes and chopsticks in the kitchen, while Sister Zhou was wiping tables, sweeping, and mopping the floor in the dining area.
After the two of them finished all their work, Gu Qingqiu got up and came in: "You two have worked hard today, go back and rest early."
Sister Zhou nodded: "Okay, boss, you should get some rest too."
Sister Tang: "Yes, you've worked the hardest today, boss. Get some rest and take care of yourself."
Gu Qingqiu smiled and agreed. After they left, she closed and locked the wooden door and shut the windows before going upstairs to turn on the air conditioner and taking her pajamas to the bathroom to take a shower.
After washing up and drying her hair, Gu Qingqiu didn't plan to use her phone and went straight to bed to sleep.
Before going to bed, I was thinking that it would be great if I could rest tomorrow. It's not easy to accommodate the crowds that come with the holiday and the restaurant's promotions.
As she pondered, Gu Qingqiu gradually drifted off to sleep.
When I woke up again, it was already six o'clock the next morning. My biological clock was already fixed, and even though I was so tired yesterday, I still woke up naturally before the alarm went off today.
Gu Qingqiu opened her eyes and looked at the white light on the ceiling. She blinked before realizing that she had fallen asleep so quickly yesterday that she had forgotten to turn off the light.
She let out a long breath, stretched her arms to relax her body, and after regaining her senses, sat up, put on her shoes, stood up, and went to turn off the room lights.
Then I drew back the curtains, and outside the window was the familiar scene of Suli Street. Uncles and aunties walked by from time to time, some carrying small carts to buy groceries, some getting up early to take a walk, and some standing under the shade of trees facing the rising sun to practice Baduanjin... Everything looked so vibrant.
After a night's rest, Gu Qingqiu felt all her fatigue vanish and she was fully recharged with energy. She was in top condition, both mentally and physically, without any of the muscle soreness left from yesterday's overexertion.
That's good. She felt that her physical strength and mental energy had reached their peak after yesterday's hard work, and there might even be some breakthroughs.
As she thought about it, Gu Qingqiu unconsciously smiled and her eyes crinkled. She subconsciously looked into her dantian and found that the tiny bit of spiritual energy at the beginning had condensed and grown to the size of a lollipop, and now it was as big as a tennis ball!
She didn't usually pay much attention to the spiritual energy in her dantian, only checking it occasionally when she remembered. She remembered that last week it was about the size of a ping-pong ball, but in just one week it had grown to the size of a tennis ball!
In this world where spiritual energy is so scarce that it's practically nonexistent, such a rapid pace of cultivation and solidification is an incredible surprise, and Gu Qingqiu is overjoyed.
She thinks this might be related to the fact that she cooked more than usual yesterday.
Just like when you were cultivating in the world of immortals, you had to circulate your spiritual energy within your body for a certain number of cycles in order to break through. Only when your spiritual energy accumulated and expanded to its limit could you break through.
In actual combat, extreme bursts of energy under dangerous circumstances can also lead to breakthroughs, as was the case yesterday.
It's just that it's not as exaggerated as breaking through a realm directly; instead, it's about rapidly gathering and strengthening the spiritual energy in the dantian after it's been depleted.
This alone was enough to make Gu Qingqiu happy for a long time; it was the second Dragon Boat Festival gift she had received.
She tried using the cooling technique, but failed.
But Gu Qingqiu had a premonition that she was just a little bit away from success, that victory was just around the corner, and that a cool and comfortable kitchen temperature was waiting for her in the near future!
After the initial excitement, Gu Qingqiu sat obediently at the dining table, devising today's menu based on some food videos she had recently watched and several nutrition cookbooks.
There was no way around it; I was too tired last night, so I went straight to bed after taking a shower. I had to order the menu I owed this morning.
After finalizing today's menu, Gu Qingqiu took out her phone and called Boss Zhu to order ingredients.
Today I ordered the most pork from Boss Zhu. I ordered 20 jin of spare ribs, 25 jin of pork tenderloin, and 15 jin of pork leg meat. I asked Boss Zhu to grind the pork leg meat into small pieces that are suitable for stir-frying before sending it over.
Normally, if the quantity is small, Gu Qingqiu would ask him to send her the hind leg meat and chop it herself, as hand-chopped meat tastes better than meat ground by a meat grinder. But preparing the ingredients today wasn't easy either; there were more important ingredients that she needed to chop by hand, so she decided to take a break.
Mr. Zhu laughed heartily on the other end of the phone, this was a big deal: "Okay, no problem, Mr. Gu, don't worry, I guarantee I'll reserve the best meat for you and send it over."
"Okay, thank you, Boss Zhu," Gu Qingqiu said with a smile.
There was no chicken, duck, or beef available today, so she planned to buy other meats and vegetables at the market.
Gu Qingqiu turned off the air conditioner, changed her clothes, went to the bathroom to wash up, then went to the kitchen to boil some water and made a quick and easy breakfast.
After finishing our meal, we went downstairs, grabbed two shopping carts, and headed to the market.
When she arrived at the market, she first went to the seafood stall to check the quality of the shrimp.
The seafood stall owner greeted her warmly: "Little Gu, you're here! We have some great stuff today. These prawns aren't as big as before, but they're all very fresh. The crabs are also plump and full of roe, and the clams, oysters, and squid are very fresh too. Lots of people have come to buy things today. What would you like to buy?"
Gu Qingqiu looked over and saw that the seafood in each white square basin was indeed quite good; the quality was very high today.
She focused on the shrimp. Although they were only about the thickness of an index finger, she didn't care how big they were, as long as they were fresh enough, that was fine.
There were three large white square basins filled with shrimp, all swimming lively and waving their claws around, as if they were being aerated.
She pointed to two basins with the least amount of black smoke and said, "Boss, could you scoop out twenty pounds of shrimp from these two basins for me?"
"Okay, just a moment." The owner replied happily, and immediately picked up a long ladle and a perforated basin to start scooping shrimp.
After scooping out each basin of shrimp, which is about eight-tenths full, she shakes the water off the square basin, suspends it in the air to drain, and then takes a new perforated basin to continue scooping out shrimp.
Only after all four perforated basins were filled with shrimp did they bring over a bag to put the shrimp in, and before putting them in, they would gently shake the bag up and down to drain out more water.
After bagging the shrimp, they were weighed. Seeing that they were still two pounds short, the shrimp were scooped out again, and the above steps were repeated. After scooping out twenty pounds of shrimp, only a few shrimp were left crawling around in the two white square basins.
"Twenty catties and eight taels in total, let's say twenty catties. Thank you for supporting my business today. You sold out two basins of shrimp in one go," the seafood stall owner said with a smile, then used a calculator to calculate the price and report it to Gu Qingqiu.
"Okay, thank you, boss." Gu Qingqiu replied, taking out her phone to scan the code and pay. "We should take care of each other. Your seafood is so fresh, I love buying from you."
Another thing is that the owner is honest enough. Like when he was catching shrimp, he would try his best to drain the water so as not to take advantage of customers. He has done the same thing several times before, which has left a good impression on her.
The boss was very happy: "Thank you very much, please come again when you have time."
She came out carrying four bags of shrimp and helped Gu Qingqiu hang them on both sides of the shopping cart handles, adding with concern, "Little Gu, be careful."
"Okay, thank you, boss." Gu Qingqiu nodded in agreement and pulled the grocery cart toward the next stall.
The fish stall was nearby. When business wasn't busy, the owner had already spotted this VIP customer buying shrimp at the seafood stall. Judging from the smile on the owner's face, Boss Gu had bought quite a lot.
As she walked towards his stall, the owner's lips gradually curled into a smile, and he called out from a distance, "Little Gu, you're here!"
"Okay, here it is. Boss, can I buy the fish head separately? I'll make braised fish head with tofu skin." Gu Qingqiu said.
The owner's smile faded slightly upon hearing this, and he said truthfully, "Young Master Gu, this dish sounds delicious. If it's just a small amount of fish heads, I can get them for you. Many customers ask me to remove the fish heads when they buy fish. However, if your restaurant orders a large quantity, I really can't provide that many fish heads for you."
Gu Qingqiu nodded in understanding. She looked at the fish being sold at the stall today and saw that the silver carp was quite fresh with little black fuzz. She said, "How about this, boss, can you pick out fifty good silver carp for me? Cut off the heads and put them in a bag separately, and remove the tails from the remaining fish bodies and put them in a bag as well. I'll use the fish meat to make fish balls later."
Silver carp heads are highly nutritious, and the soup made from them is rich, white, and delicious. Silver carp meat is also tender and has few bones, making it perfect for making handmade fish balls. Buy some and freeze them; you can make fish balls whenever you have time.
The fish stall owner's eyes lit up. He had thought his big business deal was going to fall through, but things took an unexpected turn for the better. He immediately smiled and nodded in agreement.
"No problem, you know me. I guarantee I'll pick the best and freshest silver carp for you and process everything according to your requirements."
He picked up a basket and started selecting fish. After quickly shaking off the water, he weighed the fish, quoted a price, and immediately picked up a cleaver to process it on the cutting board. His cleaver movements were exceptionally swift and skillful.
Gu Qingqiu scanned the code to pay and trusted him: "Boss, I'll go buy something from another stall first, and then come back to pick it up from you later."
"Okay, go ahead and buy it. When you're done, come back and I'll deliver the fish to the restaurant for you, just like always," the fishmonger said, taking the fish and then immediately separating a fish head and setting it aside. He then removed the tail, scraped off the scales, and set it aside again.
Gu Qingqiu nodded in agreement and then went to buy groceries.
Today, the old lady was selling broccoli, and coincidentally, she ordered a very interesting steamed egg dish called "Welcoming Pine" that she had seen on a short video food channel a few days ago. Gu Qingqiu simply bought fifteen broccoli, filling the two shopping carts and baskets to the brim, leaving only a little room.
After thanking the old lady, Gu Qingqiu went to buy some scallions, ginger, garlic, five carrots, and three ears of sweet corn. Then she went to the grocery store to buy sauerkraut and dried bean curd.
She asked the shop owner, "Boss, do you have Solomon's Seal, Adenophora stricta, figs, dried snow pears, sea coconut, and apricot kernels?"
If you can't buy all six ingredients in today's Sha Shen Yu Zhu Liu Wu Tang (a traditional Chinese medicine soup), you'll have to try your luck at a pharmacy.
The shopkeeper nodded: "Yes, except for the sand ginseng, which sold out the day before yesterday and hasn't arrived yet, we have everything else."
Better than expected, Gu Qingqiu nodded, and told the owner the amount for thirty servings of soup, asking him to weigh it for her. She casually asked, "Hey, do you sell bacon and toast here?"
The owner replied enthusiastically, "Yes, yes, the bacon toast is in the freezer inside. You can go in and take a look. Just tell me what you want."
"good."
Gu Qingqiu went inside to look at the freezer. There was also a standing freezer at the entrance of the general store, mainly for storing various cold drinks and ice cream. This freezer was very large with many sides, containing frozen dumplings, wontons, bacon, ham, cheese, yogurt, and other frozen foods.
She glanced at them and saw that there were several kinds of bacon and cheese, and at a glance, they were undoubtedly from well-known brands, containing less black silk mist.
The price was acceptable, so Gu Qingqiu simply chose well-known brands with good quality. She calculated the amount she would need for the day and asked the shopkeeper to help her pack the bags and pay for them all at once.
This time, she didn't even need to say anything. Seeing that she had bought so much and it was quite heavy, the shop owner simply said, "Miss, I'll take it to you with a cart later. Gu's Private Kitchen, right?"
Gu Qingqiu nodded: "Yes, Gu's Private Kitchen, which is located in the middle section of Suli Street. Can you deliver it around 9:30?"
"Sure, it's easy."
"OK, thanks."
After leaving the general store, Gu Qingqiu went to the stall where she had bought tofu before and found it to have a strong aroma of soybeans and firewood. She bought another 25 jin of tofu.
The tofu is delicate and easily broken, so the owner thoughtfully wrapped some bubble wrap around the plastic bag containing the tofu. Most of it was put in the shopping cart, and a small portion was hung directly on the handle of the shopping cart.
With both shopping carts fully loaded, Gu Qingqiu pulled them in her left and right hands as she walked back to the fish stall. She couldn't help but wonder whether to turn back and buy more shopping carts or replace them with larger ones.
Three shopping carts are hard to pull, and even a larger one might not be easier. Maybe you'll need someone to come with you to buy groceries and carry the ingredients.
In fact, most restaurants have cooperative food suppliers. Small restaurants usually have the suppliers deliver directly to them or order online and have it delivered to the restaurant. Gu Qingqiu insisted on coming to the market to buy food because she thought that she could buy some fresh ingredients with less black silk mist by coming in person.
She always believed that ingredients with less black mist were better prepared than those with more black mist, even though she always managed to remove all the black mist and condense a tiny bit of spiritual energy after cooking them.
Gu Qingqiu put the matter aside for the time being, thinking about how to handle it later. She walked over to the fish stall and waited for the owner to finish serving the two or three customers who were waiting. Then she walked back with him.
As before, the fish stall owner's cart was large, so he let her put the four bags of fresh shrimp hanging on the handle of her grocery cart on his cart, making Gu Qingqiu feel much more relaxed.
On her way back, she passed a pharmacy and went in to buy some sand ginseng before heading back to the restaurant.
After the fishmonger helped carry the fish and shrimp into the kitchen, Gu Qingqiu thanked him and saw him off. Then she went into the kitchen and began to sort and organize the ingredients she had bought that day.
During that time, they also went to sign for the pork and various ingredients delivered to the grocery store.
She got busy in the kitchen, and just cutting off the shrimp heads and tails with scissors, removing the shrimp intestines, and then chopping the shrimp meat into shrimp paste with a knife was quite a task, so she had to hurry.
Around 11 a.m., Cai Baozhu, Chen Chen, and Han Liwen, the trio who avoided the rush hour, walked into Suli Street just as Gu's Private Kitchen opened for business. When they arrived at the restaurant, they saw that there was only one table of elderly people inside, and they couldn't help but smile.
They went into the store and found a small table to sit down.
Chen Chen breathed a sigh of relief: "We arrived really early today, and we were quite in sync."
The three of them came from their respective homes and agreed to meet at a restaurant around 11 o'clock. They had arrived at different times before, but today they happened to meet at the intersection of Suli Street.
Han Liwen nodded: "It is quite a coincidence that it is finally our turn to eat Gu's private dishes."
"God knows how we survived these three days. Not only did we have to eat the awful food at the service area, but every time we scrolled through Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), there were all sorts of posts showing off the delicious meat dishes from Gu's Private Kitchen. And we even missed the best and rarest free salted egg yolk and meat rice dumpling."
When Cai Baozhu talked about this, her tone was even tinged with resentment, which showed how deep her grievances were.
She had bad luck during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, being assigned to work three consecutive days. Watching the endless stream of cars at the highway entrance, she became completely indifferent.
Chen Chen and Han Liwen fared slightly better than her. One worked two-day shifts and the other worked one-day shifts, both of which happened to fall on the Dragon Boat Festival. They both missed the special event organized by Gu's Private Kitchen. They could only see various photos of the supposedly delicious salted egg yolk and pork rice dumplings, without even smelling the aroma, which made them depressed all day.
Sure enough, I came to the restaurant for a meal right away today.
Chen Chen sighed, "What a pity. No matter how delicious the meat dishes are today, we still won't be able to taste the salted egg yolk and meat rice dumpling."
Han Liwen wholeheartedly agreed: "Who can argue with that?"
Cai Baozhu tried to be optimistic: "Maybe we won't have to work next year's Dragon Boat Festival? Then we can come to the store to eat salted egg yolk and pork rice dumplings, if the store still makes rice dumplings then."
Hearing her words, Chen Chen and Han Liwen became even more sorrowful.
Who can say for sure what will happen next year?
When they came in, the staff greeted them with a smile and said "Welcome!" They were about to come over to serve them, but were stopped by another table who asked them all sorts of questions. Now, they brought over three sets of bowls and chopsticks and washing utensils, and said apologetically, "I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting."
“It’s alright,” Cai Baozhu said. “We’ll take everything on the menu, and a pot of barley tea.”
On their way here, the three of them seemed to be going their separate ways, but they had actually been chatting about what they were going to eat that day in the "Gu's Private Kitchen Rice Group". This group was created after the three of them became dining buddies, and since they often come here to eat together, it's convenient to have a group to keep in touch.
When they come to the restaurant, they usually order all meat dishes and soup. After all, it's not like the elderly folks on Suli Street who come every day. They have to try every dish. If they can't finish it, they can pack it up and take it home.
The group chat mainly discusses how delicious today's dishes will be, and also chats about what tea to drink.
I decided to drink barley tea today because I feel life is quite bitter, and I need to drink some slightly bitter tea to refresh myself. As the saying goes, if you eat too much bitterness, you won't feel bitterness anymore.
The shop assistant smiled and agreed, then quickly went to get some menus for them and brought over a pot of barley tea.
While rinsing her own bowl and chopsticks, Cai Baozhu smiled and said, "I'm really looking forward to the taste of the sweet and sour pork later. I wonder how this Northeastern dish, Gu's Private Recipe, will taste."
"Anyway, we'll just blindly trust that Gu's Private Kitchen won't let us down," Chen Chen said with a look of confidence. "I'd like to try the cheese and bacon shrimp rolls, and the pickled cabbage and tofu casserole is also good."
Han Liwen said, "I really want to eat fish head stewed with tofu skin, but I also really want to eat other meat dishes."
Today, there are six dishes in total, including soup, and they are all looking forward to them. It can be said that there is no dish at Gu's Private Kitchen that they don't look forward to.
After discussing the dishes they would be eating soon, the three of them started talking about some bizarre things they encountered at highway exits during the short holiday. It's true that the world is full of wonders, and once they started talking, they couldn't stop.
The staff quickly brought over a pot of soup. Today's soup was quite interesting; it was called "Six-Ingredient Soup with Adenophora and Polygonatum".
On the way here, bored, they chatted in the group about what the six ingredients in the soup were. They could only confirm that there was sand ginseng and Solomon's seal, and guessed the others.
It's not that we can't check online; we'll most likely be able to find it. We just want to keep some suspense until the answer is revealed.
Cai Baozhu stirred the clear soup with a ladle, recognized the other two ingredients, and asked the waiter with a smile, "Hello, besides sand ginseng, Solomon's seal, sea coconut, and fig, what are the other two ingredients in this soup?"
The shop assistant explained with a smile, "We also have dried pears and apricot kernels."
"I see, that's why I said there was one that looked a lot like an almond. Thank you," Cai Baozhu said. Chen Chen and Han Liwen nodded in understanding, looking like they had learned something.
Of the guesses they made in the group chat, only Fig guessed correctly.
"You're welcome. Just let me know if you need anything," the clerk said before leaving.
Cai Baozhu and the other two took bowls and drank the soup, which looked refreshing and delicious.
Scoop a spoonful of the warm, even slightly hot, soup and drink it. It is rich, delicious, sweet, and refreshing. After swallowing, you will feel refreshed from the tip of your tongue to your throat and even to your stomach.
Besides the delicate sweetness and aroma from the various ingredients, there's also the fresh and savory flavor of the pork ribs. Even the surface of the soup in the bowl is covered with a few specks of oil, which visually represent the aroma of the meat, making it not greasy at all.
The soup didn't feel very hot, so she simply picked up the bowl and drank it in big gulps. The soup was rich and delicious, with a subtle sweetness that soothed her body and mind. After drinking it, she felt much more relaxed and happy, temporarily forgetting her resentment at missing Gu's Private Kitchen's salted egg yolk and pork rice dumplings during the long holiday.
After finishing the soup in her bowl in one gulp, Cai Baozhu let out a comfortable sigh, then picked up her chopsticks and ate the pork ribs in the bowl.
The spare ribs used in Gu's Private Kitchen soups are never scraps; they are the kind of whole ribs that can be used to make proper meat dishes with a good balance of meat and bone.
This meat has a rich meaty flavor, and the meat is tender and juicy, falling off the bone with just a bite. The ribs have absorbed some of the broth, making them tender and juicy. In addition to the meaty flavor, you can also taste the sweetness of the broth, so it's not bland at all.
She ate with gusto, finishing both pieces of pork ribs in her bowl in no time, leaving not a single scrap of meat behind.
There were still some ingredients for the Six-Ingredient Soup in the bowl. She didn't eat things like sand ginseng and Solomon's seal, but picked out some figs that were soft and creamy, and some slightly crisp and sweet apricot kernels. The sea coconut tasted a bit like coconut milk, and the dried pear was also good.
Chen Chen and Han Liwen also enjoyed their soup. After finishing the soup, they ate the soup base and gnawed on the pork ribs and other ingredients. For a while, none of the three spoke much.
Only after everyone had finished their bowl of soup and all the broth did conversation begin at the dinner table.
Chen Chen looked satisfied: "This soup is so delicious! It's sweet and refreshing, and it feels really nourishing. I feel so relaxed and comfortable right now, I can forgive the whole world!"
"Let's not dwell on the past. From another perspective, if it weren't for this damn shift, we wouldn't have had a day off today. Without the day off, we wouldn't have been able to enjoy this delicious Sha Shen Yu Zhu Liu Wu Tang (a traditional Chinese medicine soup). Okay, I can forgive myself for not getting to eat salted egg yolk and pork rice dumplings yesterday," Han Liwen said with a touch of realization.
Cai Baozhu had just agreed with Chen Chen's words, but after hearing Han Liwen's words, she vaguely felt that Han Liwen was manipulating her. After drinking the soup, her head was still sweet, and she didn't think too much about it. She just nodded and agreed: "This soup is really delicious, very sweet. The pork ribs are delicious and the six ingredients are also quite good. It is indeed a top-notch soup produced by Gu's Private Kitchen!"
Just as I finished my exclamation, the waiter came over and served a delicious dish, sweet and sour pork, which looked equally appealing and tempting.
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