Chapter 7: Soup with Pea Sprouts.
With white rice, Liu Ying and Wang Xiulian enjoyed the steamed beef even more. They placed slices of beef on the rice, and the sizzling oil dripped down the grain of the beef onto the rice, making it look very appealing. The aroma of satay sauce, ginger, and scallions also spread from the beef onto the rice.
I picked up a piece of beef with my chopsticks, took a few bites, and felt its tender texture and slight chewiness. Then I mixed it with some rice and ate it – it was so satisfying.
They soon tried sour fish slices with rice and sour plum duck with rice, each with its own unique flavor.
Fang Zehua was quicker to try the pea sprouts in broth.
They had just been discussing what "shangtang dou shao" (上汤豆苗) was, and only after looking it up on their phones did they realize it was pea shoots.
The soup pea shoots were served on a slightly deep white porcelain plate. The bright green pea shoots looked tender after being stir-fried, which suited the name of the dish perfectly.
The pea shoots are mixed with finely chopped preserved eggs and small cubes of ham. The broth is greenish-yellow, slightly submerging half of the pea shoots. It looks like it should taste pretty good.
Fang Zehua could pick up several pea shoots with a single chopstick, and once they were in his mouth, there was only one word to describe them: tender!
The pea shoots are truly tender, with a delicate and fresh texture completely different from any other green vegetable I've ever had. They have the unique aroma of preserved egg, and you can swallow them after just a few gentle chews. The accompanying broth is also refreshingly sweet.
She picked up some preserved egg and ham to eat. The preserved egg was chewy and slightly firm, and the ham was infused with the aroma of the vegetables. Then she scooped up some soup with a spoon and drank it, finding it sweet and refreshing.
Fang Zehua could also taste the salty aroma of the salted duck egg. No wonder the soup was a bright green with a hint of yellow. It has to be said that the aroma of the salted duck egg added a lot to the soup.
The name of this pea shoot soup is also cleverly chosen; it's not just the pea shoots that are delicious, but also the soup itself.
Seeing that Liu Ying and Wang Xiulian were still enjoying their meal, she couldn't help but remind them, "You two should save some room. This pea shoot soup tastes just as good as the meat dishes."
Liu Ying and Wang Xiulian listened to advice. After finishing the meat in their mouths, they picked up pea sprouts to eat, and then tried preserved eggs, ham and vegetable soup.
Liu Ying: "This pea shoot soup is absolutely amazing. I've never eaten such tender greens before, oh wait, I mean pea shoots."
Wang Xiulian: "The dishes are delicious, the preserved eggs and ham are delicious, and the soup is also very tasty!"
Fang Zehua concluded: "Ordering a vegetable dish allows you to enjoy both vegetables and soup—it's amazing!"
The three of them devoured the plate of pea shoots in broth, eating with great gusto.
As her phone beeped with a notification, Liu Ying had a bad feeling, as if she'd forgotten something. She ate another bite of pea shoots before picking up her phone to check WeChat.
[Liu Jia: Where's the food? Where's my food?! Do you still remember me waiting for Yun to eat my food by Daming Lake? Death stare.gif]
Liu Ying's face froze, looking up at the messages the other party had sent intermittently.
[Liu Jia: So, have you arrived at Gu's Private Kitchen yet? What dishes are served today?]
[Liu Jia: My Northeastern-style lunchbox arrived. Have you guys eaten yet?]
[Liu Jia: Remember to take pictures and send them to me! I'm looking forward to seeing your dishes to eat with rice.]
[Liu Jia: ...Where is he?]
Then came the first message I saw.
Liu Ying thought that she hadn't heard the notification sounds for those messages before because she was too engrossed in eating meat dishes and occasionally discussing how delicious they were with her colleagues. In addition, the restaurant became busier with more customers, so she overlooked them.
Just then, the other customers at the other tables stopped talking, and I heard the notification sound.
Oops!
She quickly picked up her phone and took pictures of the remaining meat and vegetables on the table, sending them over one by one.
[Liu Ying: The food is here!]
[Liu Ying: I'm so sorry, Jiajia, the meat dishes at this restaurant were so delicious that we got so caught up in the food that we forgot to take pictures to show you.]
The other party replied almost instantly.
[Liu Jia: Haha, it's okay, I understand!]
[Liu Jia: The dishes look delicious today, it's a pity I didn't get to eat them. Okay, you keep eating, I'll just watch from the sidelines too (poor face)]
Seeing this, Liu Ying smiled and replied "okay," then told her two colleagues about it.
“That’s normal. We’re so busy eating that we haven’t thought about taking pictures,” Wang Xiulian said, sipping her soup.
Fang Zehua ate two more pieces of fish: "It's okay, it's understandable. Look, Liu Jia isn't angry. Let's keep eating!"
They fully understood what it meant to "only food and love should not be wasted"—they couldn't afford to waste a single second, so they ate as fast as they could!
The other tables of customers were also enjoying their meal. Some elderly people from Suli Street couldn't resist coming over to eat, and once they started eating, they kept praising it.
"I didn't expect the young owner's food to be so delicious. It seems to be better than the previous owner's!"
"This plum-flavored duck is just what I like; the sweet and sour taste is very appetizing! And this steamed beef is steamed perfectly—it's fragrant and crispy yet tender and chewy, not tough at all!"
"If you ask me, the sour soup fish slices are the best. They're sour, spicy, and numbing, which is really satisfying. The fish slices are fresh, tender, and plentiful. I could easily eat two bowls of rice with this!"
Meanwhile, an employee hurriedly walked out of an office on the seventh floor of a nearby office building to buy lunch.
Zhang Yonghao is a programmer. Recently, a project he is in charge of has reached a critical stage, and he is extremely busy.
Previously, everyone ordered takeout, but recently the team leader simply put him in charge of ordering lunch and dinner for the team, the kind with lots of meat and fish, so that no one would go hungry.
A few days ago, he ordered food directly from restaurants in the nearby square on his phone, trying all kinds of Sichuan and Hunan cuisine. This morning, he was getting frustrated while coding and thought he might as well go out and buy lunch as a break.
Zhang Yonghao took the elevator to the parking lot, drove directly to the nearby Suli Street, parked, and planned to get lunch from Lao Wang's Home-Style Restaurant, where he had previously eaten at a gathering.
When we arrived at Lao Wang's Home-Style Restaurant, all the tables inside were full of customers, and there seemed to be two other groups of customers waiting at the door.
He couldn't wait any longer, so he went further in, thinking of finding a suitable restaurant with no queue to pack his lunch.
As I walked, I came across the restaurant under the peach tree. A group of customers came out chatting and laughing, clearly satisfied with the meal they had just eaten. There were only three tables of customers left in the restaurant, and they were all eating, so it wasn't crowded.
On a whim, Zhang Yonghao walked over and, smelling the aroma wafting out, confirmed that the restaurant was of good quality, so he simply went inside.
Gu Qingqiu happened to be at the cashier and greeted them with a smile, "Welcome! There's a menu on the wall; you can take a look and see what you'd like to eat."
Zhang Yonghao looked at the menu and had no objection to the prices. The meals for the past few days had been reimbursed by the team's funds, so he simply said, "Two servings each of sour plum duck, sour soup fish slices, and steamed beef; one serving each of tofu skin and loofah soup and pea sprout soup; and six servings of rice to take away."
He noticed that the menu said a bowl of rice was 3 yuan and a serving of rice was 5 yuan, so he figured that a serving of rice in a takeout box was 5 yuan.
"Okay, please sit down and wait a moment," Gu Qingqiu replied. She immediately started printing the order on the computer, took a cup and a kettle and placed them on the table where the customer was sitting so that he could drink water. Then she hurried back to the kitchen to get busy.
Fortunately, she had anticipated this situation and ordered various styles of takeout boxes printed with her store's name online before opening, which came in handy.
The plum-braised duck is almost ready, and the fish and beef slices are marinated and ready to serve. She takes the pot off the stove and plans to make the sour soup fish slices first.
Heat the oil in a pan, then Gu Qingqiu put in two portions of fish bones and tails and slowly fry them over low heat, turning them over and over until both sides of the fish bones and tails turn golden brown. Then she added chopped scallions, ginger, and garlic and stir-fried them until fragrant. Next, she added chopped pickled cabbage and stir-fried it together, then added some chili peppers and small red chilies and continued to stir-fry.
When she smelled the aroma, she poured two large bowls of water into the pot, then added the key golden broth sauce, and then added bean sprouts to cook together.
After cooking for about two minutes, remove the ingredients from the pot and divide them into two large soup containers.
Only a thick, golden broth remained in the pot. Once it boiled again, Gu Qingqiu immediately turned off the heat and gently slid the fish slices into the pot. There were plenty of fish slices in the two servings of sour soup, almost covering the entire pot. After letting them soak in the broth for 30 seconds, she turned the heat back up to high and cooked them again.
This is also the key to making the cooked fish fillets tender yet not mushy.
Once the fish fillets changed color and their edges curled into a nice shape, they were cooked. Gu Qingqiu sprinkled some chopped green onions into the pot, then packed the fish fillets and broth into a takeout container, managing to pack them all.
Gu Qingqiu specially bought this large soup takeout box to pack meat dishes with soup, such as sour soup fish slices.
I've often heard that some restaurants lose out when you try to pack meat dishes to go. The same amount of meat can only fill the takeout box if packed in the kitchen, and the chef has to eat the rest. Therefore, many people suggest that it's best to order the food first, then ask a waiter for a box to pack it yourself.
She has to ensure that the amount of takeout is the same as the amount of dine-in, so as not to ruin her reputation and become a point of criticism for customers in the future.
Then Gu Qingqiu started making steamed beef.
While sitting in the dining room, Zhang Yonghao drank water to quench his thirst, but his attention was then drawn to the meat and dishes on other tables.
The plum-braised duck looked glossy and red, the sour fish slices were tender and the soup was rich, the steamed beef was crispy and oily, and even the tofu skin and loofah soup and the pea shoot soup looked very good.
He smelled the delicious aromas wafting around him, his stomach growling as he felt the hunger he had been suppressing for so long. To distract himself, he could only take out his phone.
Zhang Yonghao instinctively opened WeChat to check for any unread messages.
There are three groups in the company: a large company group, a large group for each team to post work tasks and handle various handovers, and a chat group for each team, although there is no team leader in the last group.
The chat group messages started flashing and showed messages that mentioned him; he clicked on them to read them.
[Old Zhao (that's me): Hao, what's for lunch? When are you coming back? I'm starving!]
[No pain, no gain (smiling version): Why did I suddenly decide to go out and get takeout today? Did I discover a great restaurant?]
[When can I stop working overtime? Dude, I'm just waiting for you to come back and save the day!]
[Silence is golden: In short, come back soon!]
There were also some joking messages tagging him to come back soon, and Zhang Yonghao quickly replied first.
[Rat's Tail Sauce: I'm getting meat and vegetables to go from Surrey Street; it should be ready soon.]
[Rat's Tail Sauce: Today we have sour plum duck, sour soup fish fillets, steamed beef, tofu skin and loofah soup, and pea sprouts in broth. It looks delicious; I'm practically drooling while waiting here!]
As soon as he sent his reply, the group chat started flashing with messages.
[Old Zhao is me: Really?! When did such a delicious restaurant open on Suli Street?]
[When can I stop working overtime? These dishes sound delicious, but I'm getting even hungrier, hurry back!]
[No pain, no gain (smiling version): God help me not to work all morning only to be served terrible food, otherwise I'll go on strike this afternoon. Mouse, I believe you, please don't let us down!]
[Silence is Golden: I can't wait!]
[Rat Tail Juice: Don't worry, it's absolutely delicious! If you don't, you can hit me!]
After replying to the message, Zhang Yonghao had just opened Weibo and scrolled through it for a while when the boss came out carrying three bags of packed lunch boxes: "Hello, the packed meals are all cooked. I've put in six sets of chopsticks and spoons, is that enough?"
"That's enough, thank you boss." Zhang Yonghao stood up and took the money; it was quite heavy. He went to the cashier, scanned the code, and paid 440 yuan. The boss rounded it down by 4 yuan.
He carried the hot food and walked briskly out of Suli Street. As he passed Old Wang's Home-Style Restaurant on the street, he smelled the faint aroma wafting from it and realized that it was far inferior to Gu's Private Kitchen.
Zhang Yonghao continued walking forward, found his car, sat inside, put the three bags of food away, and drove back to the company.
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