Chapter 176 The Qiao Family Makes Rice Cakes
As the twelfth lunar month approaches, people in Guangdong are busy making sweet rice cakes, people in Ningbo start preparing rice cakes, and people in Suzhou are keen on making sweet-scented osmanthus sugar rice cakes.
Mrs. Qiao was originally from Suzhou, but she married and moved to Ningbo and now lives in the port city.
In the early years, when the Qiao family was in a difficult situation, they relied on the old lady's pastry-making skills to make a living and also saved capital for Qiao Qiming to make a comeback after the war.
Later, her daughter Qiao Shuyi married into the Cai family. The old lady gave the pastry business to her daughter as a dowry and began a leisurely life of enjoying her grandchildren.
The business was passed on to her daughter, but the craft remains. The descendants of the Qiao family all grew up eating the cakes she made.
Every year at this time of year, the Qiao family seemed to have a tacit understanding. The children and grandchildren stopped what they were doing and steamed and beat rice cakes with the old lady. Yue Ning heard about it and wanted to come too. Early in the morning, Qiao Junxian drove her over.
Yue Ning followed Qiao Junxian to the backyard of the Qiao family, and saw cleanly washed stone mortars and stone hammers placed in the courtyard.
Walking into the kitchen, the servants who were usually busy were nowhere to be seen. Only the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were busy working. Mrs. Qiao stood in front of the steamer, sifting the rice flour carefully, while Ye Yingyi added water to the rice flour and kneaded it gently.
Yue Ning walked into the kitchen and greeted with a smile: "Grandma, Auntie."
Ye Yingyi agreed to her and looked up and asked, "Mom, do you think this is enough?"
The old lady put down the sieve, walked over to check, and said, "It's too dry. The cake will crack easily. Add a little more water."
"Okay." Ye Yingyi responded and continued to add water, her hands moving non-stop, kneading the rice noodles skillfully.
Yue Ning went to the old lady. Yue Ning knew how to make Ningbo rice cakes and he had used rice cakes to cook in his previous life, but this was the first time he had personally participated in making rice cakes.
She asked with great interest, and the old lady answered carefully.
The first basket of cooked rice noodles came out, steaming hot. The old lady walked to the kitchen door and shouted, "Junxian, bring down the steamer."
Qiao Junxian walked quickly into the kitchen, and Yue Ning also hurried forward to help. The two carried a steamer of cooked noodles to the backyard and poured them into the stone mortar.
The old lady called Qiao Qiming, who was drinking tea with a teapot, and said, "You and Junxian make rice cakes together."
Qiao Junxian held a stone hammer and pounded the rice noodles. Qiao Qiming stared at the stone mortar and turned the rice noodles. The two worked in perfect harmony. To make delicious rice cakes, you need to hammer them one by one to make them tough.
Yue Ning followed the old lady into the kitchen. The old lady picked up the flour that Ye Yingyi had kneaded and prepared to steam it again. The rice cake flour had to be steamed layer by layer, and then one layer was added after each layer was steamed. Yue Ning and Ye Yingyi began to knead the flour for the next steamer. Taking advantage of this gap, Ye Yingyi talked to Yue Ning about the transformation of Hong'an Department Store.
"After your uncle and I confirmed the transformation of Hong'an in Gangcheng, we bought the bankrupt department store as soon as we came back and hired a decoration company to renovate it." Ye Yingyi said while rubbing the powder, "Things are going very smoothly. Those brand owners are also worried about their inventory. Although there have been factory stores and warehouse stores selling these products, most of the factories are in remote suburbs with limited radiation range and less than ideal sales. Now we want to buy out these products, of course they are happy to do so. In addition, Hong'an has been selling their products for decades and has a good reputation. The negotiation process has been relatively smooth, and we have already negotiated with more than 20 international brands. At this rate, Hong'an Famous Brands Discount Mall will be open before the end of the year."
"That's good." Yue Ning asked.
"It's just a small inconvenience." Ye Yingyi frowned. "I think your suggestion of moving restaurants into the mall is a good one, so I reserved some restaurants during the renovation. I've been soliciting business these days, and people below said that merchants prefer shops along the street on the ground floor, and have little interest in shops on the third and fourth floors of the mall. In addition to Baohua Building and Ning Xiaoguan, there is also a tea restaurant that will move in, but all other merchants have declined."
"This is a new way of doing business. It will definitely take time for everyone to accept it." Yue Ning thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we wait until the mall opens and has customers?"
"This is the only way." Ye Yingyi sighed helplessly.
After they finished kneading the flour, they had nothing to do, so they went to the backyard to watch the grandparents and grandchildren make rice cakes. The stone hammer looked very heavy. The temperature in Hong Kong was more than ten degrees at this time, but Qiao Junxian was only wearing a T-shirt. His forehead was covered with sweat, and the clothes on the back were also soaked with sweat.
Seeing this, Yue Ning took off her coat and said, "Let me try." Qiao Junxian smiled and handed her the stone hammer. The stone hammer was really heavy. Yue Ning raised the stone hammer with great effort and began to beat the rice cakes. Qiao Junxian took over from Qiao Qiming and was responsible for turning the rice cakes.
At this time, Qiao Junshen came to the backyard and greeted with a smile: "Ningning, you're here early!"
"It's still early!" Ye Yingyi said with a smile, "Don't you see what time it is?"
"Jun Shen, please take Ningning down. I will take Ningning to make rose cakes." said Mrs. Qiao.
Yue Ning handed the hammer to Qiao Junshen and followed the old lady into the kitchen. Rose sugar cake originated from Suzhou recipe and is slightly different from Ningbo rice cake. "It is a bit similar to Ningbo rice cake."
The old lady said as she poured the dry rice flour into the basin and added red yeast rice powder: "I added red yeast rice powder to make the color look better."
Then, she took out a can of sugar rose jam, scooped half of it in, added some sugar, and began to knead the powder while adding water. "Knead the powder until it is firm and will not fall apart when you squeeze it, but will fall apart when you pinch it. That's it."
The old lady handed the kneaded flour to Yue Ning and asked her to steam the flour layer by layer in the steamer.
"Grandma, come and take a look. Is it okay?" Qiao Junshen asked with sweat all over his forehead.
The old lady went out to take a look and said, "It's enough. There's still one cage left, you guys keep fighting!"
Qiao Junshen panted and said, "Junxian, you fight and I'll turn over."
"Brother, how long have you been fighting before you can't bear it anymore?" Qiao Junxian stood up.
Qiao Junshen: “…”
Yue Ning finished steaming the rice flour and took down the large steamer, which contained the steamed rose-colored rice flour. The old lady spread a wet gauze on the chopping board and said, "Our Suzhou sugar rice cake is kneaded."
Then, she taught Yue Ning how to knead the rice flour step by step. Yue Ning kneaded the rice flour while it was still hot. When the rice flour was smooth and a thin film could be seen when it was torn apart, the old lady brought a bowl of sugar lard and spread it on the smooth rice flour dough. Yue Ning wrapped the sugar lard and continued to knead it. After kneading the lard sugar cake, she came to the yard.
At this time, Qiao Jiahe replaced Qiao Junxian, and Qiao Qiming replaced Qiao Junshen. The father and son fought and flipped each other. The brothers kneaded the rice cakes and rolled them into strips.
The old lady brought out a bowl and called out, "Ningning, it's time to eat the rose cake."
"Here it comes." Yue Ning walked over quickly and took the bowl, which contained three pieces of cakes.
Just as she was about to eat, she saw Ye Yingyi also brought out a bowl and first put a piece of rice cake into the mouth of Qiao Jiahe who was pounding the rice cake. Yue Ning turned her head to look at Qiao Junxian, and seeing that he was looking at her eagerly, she also picked up a piece of cake and fed it to him. Qiao Junxian ate the cake that Yue Ning fed him, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
When Qiao Junshen saw the old lady coming out, he quickly shouted, "Grandma, I want to eat some cake too." The old lady walked over and fed him a piece. Just as the old lady was about to eat it herself, Qiao Qiming asked eagerly, "What about me?"
"There's some on the stove. Come down and eat it," said the old lady.
Qiao Qiming looked at his old wife with anticipation on his face.
Qiao Junshen shouted again: "Grandma, I want more."
The old lady smiled helplessly and went over to feed her eldest grandson another piece.
Qiao Qiming watched his old wife walk over and said again, "I want one too."
"Why are you still acting like a child?" The old lady muttered, but still picked up a piece of rice cake and fed it to Qiao Qiming.
The old man ate the rice cake and said, "You're still talking about children! Jun Shen is already thirty years old."
Qiao Junshen smiled and said, "In my grandma's eyes, I will always be a child."
"Aren't you going to pick up Huiyi?" Qiao Qiming reminded.
When Qiao Junshen heard this, he immediately put down the work in his hands and ran away.
Seeing Qiao Jiahe sweating profusely, Yue Ning went to take over from him making the rice cakes.
"Ningning!" Qiao Qiming said as he turned over the rice cakes, "After you and Junxian finish your meal, go take a look at the land behind. You two can discuss what kind of house you want to build."
"Ah?" Yue Ning didn't react for a moment.
"The house where you and Junxian got married."
"No rush, right?" Yue Ning thought that he still had to study and it would take at least four or five years before he could get married.
"About that. The design, construction, decoration, and custom furniture will take two to three years!" Qiao Jiahe said, "We were originally planning to build a house for Junxian when he came back. Now that he has decided on it with you, it would be even better if you two could discuss it together."
"Oh!" Yue Ning responded.
"It's right behind. From now on, your grandfather and I will drink tea, take walks and take care of the children together." Qiao Qiming said.
Yue Ning understood that Grandpa Qiao knew that she wanted to live with her grandfather, so he said that.
As they were talking, Cui Huiyi came in, greeted everyone one by one, and ran to Old Lady Qiao: "Grandma, I want to eat cake too."
The old lady immediately went into the kitchen and brought her a cake: "Eat quickly."
Cui Huiyi talked about her trip to Japan while eating.
"Ningning, you and Junxian are so popular in Japan."
The commercial film shot by Qiao Junxian for PN was originally released in Hong Kong and Southeast Asian markets. After the commercial was broadcast, the audience may not care much about the performance of the camera, but they were attracted by his handsome posture of holding the camera.
Coincidentally, in Japan, PN originally invited a Japanese superstar to shoot an advertisement for its new camera. As a result, the star had negative news in Thailand and his image collapsed.
PN immediately removed the original advertisement and replaced it with Qiao Junxian's advertisement. Qiao Junxian not only had an outstanding appearance, but also had a noble air brought up by a wealthy family. In addition, he was the boyfriend of a girl who was a genius in Chinese cooking. The sales of PN cameras, which were already quite popular in Japan, soared.
Yue Ning is a talented Chinese cooking girl. Her weekly cooking program has many viewers watching it even though it is broadcast at an unpopular time like 3 p.m.
Seeing her rising popularity, TS introduced the "Hong Kong and Macau Chef Competition". The first few episodes were broadcast in Japan. The ratings of the episodes in which Yue Ning appeared were absolutely guaranteed. The episode in which Yue Ning competed with Lu Peide was even more exciting. People are looking forward to the exciting showdown between Zhang Junming and Lu Peide.
Just two days ago, TS said that they would make a TV series based on their prototype. The plot was that the son of a Tokyo chaebol family went to Hokkaido in winter and met a Japanese food genius girl.
After hearing this, Yue Ning agreed deeply and offered many plots. For example, the young master had anorexia, but after eating the girl's food, his anorexia miraculously healed; the young master's mother didn't like the country girl at first, but after eating the girl's food, her attitude changed drastically and she fell in love with her; even more ridiculous was that the girl was originally the daughter of another chaebol family, but her identity was swapped by the nanny. The screenwriter praised Yue Ning for her expertise, but Qiao Junxian shook his head helplessly, thinking that her idea was too outrageous.
"I don't want them to accuse me of being Japanese, so I just want them to make up stories."
The two of them became extremely popular in Japan, further boosting the sales of instant noodles.
Cui Huiyi decided to speed up the construction of the Lide Osaka factory that was originally planned. She went to Japan these days just for this purpose.
Liang Ze had also arrived in Japan, and together with the staff of the Japanese real estate company newly established by Qiao Junshen, he began to select a location for Ning Xiaochu. All the shops for opening Ning Xiaochu were bought by the real estate company, so that these shops would have long-term and stable tenants.
The initial plan is to open two Ning Xiaochu restaurants in Tokyo and one in Osaka. However, Yue Ning is also worried. In Hong Kong, Ning Xiaochu Noodle Restaurant is backed by Baohua Building, but in Japan, how to unify standards and coordinate logistics are difficult. Therefore, if Lide can speed up the pace of development, Ning Xiaochu Noodle Restaurant backed by Lide Factory is equivalent to having a processing center and a logistics center, so that expansion will be more secure. Fortunately, Cui Huiyi did it as soon as she thought of it, and her execution ability is super strong.
After eating the cake, Cui Huiyi also came to make rice cakes with Yue Ning.
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