Chapter 25 Dongping Chicken Rice
Director Xie asked everyone to leave, and Cui Huiyi said, "I'll stay and take a look."
"Master Zhang, there should be extra rice, right? If not, we need to steam it." Yue Ning asked Master Zhang.
"There is rice. I steamed some more. This is the leftover from last night. We can use it for soaking rice tomorrow morning." Master Zhang took Yue Ning over to open the steamer and check the steaming rice.
The fragrance of the rice wafted out with the steam. Yue Ning immediately guessed that it was Northeast rice and said, "It smells so good."
It is best to use Thai fragrant rice or the less sticky japonica rice from the south to make chicken rice, so that the rice grains are distinct. However, who can resist this fragrant Northeastern rice that can be eaten without any side dishes?
Master Zhang whispered, "We are a food factory, and our rice is better than others. It's all Northeast rice, and it's very fragrant. Those people outside said they came here to urge us to deliver goods, but in fact they came for our fragrant rice. If the dishes I cook are either bland or salty, they would like to eat three meals a day in the food factory."
"Ah? Then you don't need food coupons?" Yue Ning asked.
"They pay the same food coupons and try to urge the garment factory to deliver the goods. They just eat yellow rice every day." Master Zhang said confidently.
"Master Zhang, you are so bad." Yue Ning said with a smile.
She really couldn't agree with Master Zhang's concept. Only in this era can one truly treat customers as "grandsons" and look down on them for coming here just to have a bite of white rice.
"Did I assign the work?" Yue Ning said.
"As you say."
"Master Zhang, help me chop some meat. I want a small bowl of fine sauce, and cut the rest into soybean-sized cubes." She turned to Yue Baohua, "Grandpa, celery, garlic, onion..."
After assigning the tasks, she picked up the chicken and walked to the chopping board. Master Zhang, who was dicing the meat, asked, "Girl, can we use a meat grinder? Or do we have to chop the meat by hand?"
"Ah? There's also a meat grinder?" Yue Ning asked.
Master Zhang pointed to the meat grinder installed on the bench and said, "You haven't seen it before, have you?"
"No. I grew up in the mountains of the northwest."
"Didn't you say you were the big boss from Hong Kong?"
Yue Ning sliced the chicken breast, removed the fascia, and said, "Where? I was born in Yuecheng. When I was two years old, my mother ran away to Hong Kong. In addition, my grandfather went to Hong Kong before liberation, and my father was implicated and sent to the Northwest for reform. He took me to the Northwest, so I grew up in the Northwest."
"What about your father?" asked Master Zhang.
Yue Ning took a kitchen knife and moved it skillfully between the chicken bones, removing the meat and bones, and sighed quietly: "Dad is gone."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay, that's the truth."
The fat master looked at Yue Baohua who was cutting celery and said, "Master! Why did you go to Hong Kong? No matter how good Hong Kong is, can it be as good as home? How much suffering did the children suffer by going to Hong Kong?"
This touched Yue Baohua's heart, and he looked sad. This was something he had regretted a million times. If he could do it again, he would never go to Hong Kong City. He choked up and said, "Yes!"
Master Zhang put down the meat and slapped his mouth: "Why am I so bad at talking?"
"You're right." Yue Baohua said softly.
In just a few minutes, Yue Ning separated the skin, meat, bones and fat of a chicken clearly. She took two pieces of chicken breast and gave them to Yue Baohua: "Grandpa, chop these two pieces of chicken breast into fine pieces."
She turned around and said to Master Zhang, "My grandfather didn't know that this would happen. He had no choice but to worry about my father all these years. Money can't buy you early knowledge, don't you think?"
"Yes! Yes! Who could have predicted such a thing?" After Master Zhang finished mincing the meat, he asked Yue Ning, "Girl, is it about right?"
Yue Ning pinched the meat filling and said, "It's done."
Master Zhang walked up to Yue Baohua and said, "Master, don't take it personally. I don't think before I speak."
"No, no." Yue Baohua couldn't help but sigh heavily.
Seeing Yue Baohua still looking depressed, Master Zhang said, "You are not a god, and you can't predict the future. Besides, this is not your daughter-in-law's fault. Here, there were also people who ran away before liberation. At most, they just swept toilets and did some heavy labor, and were scolded by everyone. Being sent down to the northwest must have special reasons. It's all that woman's fault."
"Yeah! How could there be such a mother? Who would be willing to abandon her man and children?" Cui Huiyi also said.
Yue Ning took the chicken bones and chicken feet and walked to the stove. She saw Mrs. Cui standing at the kitchen door. She asked, "Mrs. Cui, is there anything wrong?"
"It's okay, I just came to take a look." Mrs. Cui walked in.
Cui Huiyi snorted: "You haven't learned it from your family yet, and you want to learn it by stealing?"
Mrs. Cui did not confront Cui Huiyi head-on. She ignored her and walked straight in and stood beside the stove.
Seeing that Master Zhang had already chopped the meat into cubes, Yue Ning said, "Master Zhang, please help me light a fire. I need to light fires in both the middle and outer pots. I will use the middle pot to boil chicken fat and the outer pot to boil soup with chicken bones."
Master Zhang turned on the blower and added firewood to the stove. Yue Ning first stewed the chicken bones, added a little water to another pot, put the chicken fat into the pot, and added green onions and ginger. Whether it is lard or chicken fat, it must start with boiling.
The water was so little that it dried up quickly and the fat began to come out. Yue Ning fished out the ginger slices and scallions. If the scallions and ginger were left in the pot for too long, it would affect the aroma of the chicken fat. Yue Ning praised again: "Master Zhang, Beijing Fried Chicken is really as good as its reputation says. It's so fragrant."
"These chickens run around in the mountains and eat a lot, so the meat they raise is fat and firm. The oil is also more fragrant than the oil from ordinary fat chickens. Is it okay to use a low heat in both pots?" Master Zhang asked her.
"Just right." Yue Ning gave a thumbs up, "As expected of a master who can make good sauce."
Master Zhang wasn't sure if her compliment was genuine, so he laughed and said, "Little girl."
Yue Ning scooped out the chicken fat boiled from the chicken belly. It was golden and translucent with a pure aroma.
There was still some oil in the pan, so Yue Ning put the chicken skin in. The skin is the fattest part of a chicken, and the chicken skin is watery, so it crackles and fries when it encounters the oil.
Master Zhang and Mrs. Cui stood in a row. He asked, "Your grandfather came back to look for you. Where's that woman? Didn't she come to look for you and your daughter?"
Yue Ning used a spatula to stir-fry the chicken skin. The chicken skin contains collagen and is easy to burn. "I just want to explain to you why I went to the Northwest. Her existence, first, gave birth to me, and second, caused my father and I to go to the Northwest. When she left, I was only two years old. What did she mean to me? Don't mention her."
Yue Ning turned around to get the minced garlic, ginger, and onion that Yue Baohua had chopped. Seeing that her grandfather had already chopped the chicken, she said, "Grandpa, help me cut the remaining chicken into dices for the Dongping Chicken Rice."
"But you are going to Hong Kong soon. What if that woman comes to look for you?" Cui Huiyi asked her, "You don't know who she is, but she knows who you are! Your grandfather has never changed his name and is very famous in Hong Kong. If you go back, she may find out soon. She went to Hong Kong alone and didn't dare to look for your grandfather, but you are her daughter, so she will definitely want to find you."
"Sister, just because I'm her daughter, she wants to look for me? I'm still her daughter, but she still abandoned me without blinking an eye. If she really wants to look for me, I will definitely stay eight feet away from her. My grandfather was forced to separate from my father, and he has been waiting for us for so many years. He is a sentimental and righteous man, and I am his only blood. I am willing to cultivate feelings with my grandfather. But, that person? She chose to abandon us on her own initiative, and she even suggested giving me away at that time. If a two-year-old girl is given away, do you know what the most likely result will be?"
"I might starve to death. Even if I don't, I might be taken as a child bride, and then I'll become a little Chinese cabbage... The fields are yellow..." Master Zhang began to sing.
Yue Ning smiled and took out the chicken skin that had been fried until golden brown. The chicken skin produced much more oil than the chicken belly.
Yue Ning first put minced garlic, chopped onion and chopped ginger into the chicken oil: "Between her own future and my life and death, she chose her future. I respect everyone's choice and will not blame her choice. But from the moment she left, she has nothing to do with me. My father chose me, so I am the continuation of my father's life, his responsibility is my responsibility, and his ideal is my ideal. Now you say, if I go to Gangcheng and she comes to find me. Let me make an analogy, you and she are both strangers to me. Standing in front of me, who do you think I will choose to date?"
"Only if you know she's your mother? You're mother and daughter!"
"I will choose you." Yue Ning interrupted her.
"Choose me?"
The aroma of minced garlic and chopped onions in the pot was brought out by the chicken oil, and the rich aroma spread throughout the kitchen, almost permeating every pore.
Yue Ning said: "When I learned that you were reluctant to close your grandfather's food factory and wanted to keep it going no matter how difficult it was, and when I heard you say that you were willing to invest in the mainland under such conditions because you were Chinese. From that moment on, I was willing to associate with you and regard you as a close friend. Because you are loyal and righteous, such people are reliable. That her? She can abandon her husband and daughter for the sake of profit. Even if she is living well in Hong Kong, she came to me. At this moment, whether it is guilt or maternal love, it may be true, and she may be very good to me. But I believe that if she encounters a situation where she needs to sacrifice me in the future, she will sacrifice me without hesitation. Do you think you are willing to associate with such a person?"
Cui Huiyi didn't know why, but when Yue Ning said that he regarded her as a close friend, she felt warm in her heart.
"Xiao Yue, you are such a smart man. You can't have anything to do with this kind of woman. As the saying goes, even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. She is someone who can abandon even her own daughter." Master Zhang said.
Yue Ning glanced at Mrs. Cui Er, whose red lips made her skin look even whiter. But her skin was abnormally white, as if she had been frozen in winter. But it was summer now, and she was still in the kitchen. Yue Ning raised her hand and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.
The Chaoshan people in southern Fujian like to use fried garlic and shallot sauce when making soup and rice noodles. They just fry the shallots and garlic in oil to bring out the aroma, and then put a little bit of it in the clear soup to make the soup become tempting.
The restaurant and the kitchen were separated only by a window for serving food. The smell made the people in the restaurant unable to sit still. Someone looked through the window and asked, "What are you cooking? Why does it smell so good?"
The auntie who was serving food stopped and turned to look inside.
The aroma floated upwards, and since there was no range hood in the kitchen, the smell went straight to the dormitory on the second floor. The supply and marketing staff who lived in the dormitory also ran down and rushed to the kitchen door: "What smells so good?"
Director Xie, who was talking to Boss Cui, walked to the door and said, "It's the Hong Kong businessmen who are testing the seasoning. It has nothing to do with you. Let's go!"
Not only did the smell not dissipate, it became even stronger. How could the smell dissipate?
"What kind of seasoning is that? Why does it smell so good?"
"It must be the secret seasoning of Hong Kong City?"
"This is garlic oil. The garlic oil my mom makes isn't as fragrant."
Cui Huiyi walked to the door. She was tall and had been exercising for many years. She had a straight and well-proportioned figure, neat short hair, fair skin, and three-dimensional facial features. She was a cold and beautiful woman. At such a young age, she managed a half-dead food factory to its current situation. She was very imposing. When she looked around, those who were reluctant to leave stepped back.
Cui Huiyi saw that something was wrong. These were all her potential customers. If they all left, it would be terrible. She immediately put on a smile and said, "Everyone, don't leave!"
Hey? Are the Hong Kong businessmen calling them?
Everyone turned around, and Cui Huiyi took out a business card box from her bag: "Hello everyone, I am Cui Huiyi, the general manager of Gangcheng Lide Food. I came to the mainland for an inspection this time. I plan to set up a joint venture with our food factory to produce instant noodles."
Yue Ning corrected her from inside: "Instant noodles."
"Yes, instant noodles." Cui Huiyi handed a business card to the man who had been pushing for the delivery the most. "Sir, this is my business card."
In that era when people traveled far and wide with letters of introduction, this group of supply and marketing personnel who were often away from home had never seen a business card with Chinese on the front and English on the back. Several people came up to take a look.
Cui Huiyi handed out business cards one by one: "I found in my research that China is a vast country with different tastes in the east, west, south and north. I am worried that the instant noodles in Hong Kong are too light and may not be suitable for the mainland market."
She turned sideways and looked inside. "We invited Hong Kong's famous chef, Mr. Yue Baohua, the owner of Baohualou, and his granddaughter to help me figure out how to improve the taste and make instant noodles that suit our mainland tastes."
Yue Ning added more spices to the pot, and the taste was even better. She turned around and said, "Boss Cui said that she hopes the instant noodles she makes will have the flavor of the south while also being suitable for our northern tastes. If you are willing to help try it, please give us a review later so that we can have a direction for improvement."
"Fang... instant noodle seasoning?"
“Can it smell so good?”
"That guy knows about garlic crisps, right?"
"The fried garlic in our store isn't as fragrant as this one," said the older brother.
Before Yue Ning could answer, the person next to him said, "If your garlic crisps are as fragrant as this, Mr. Cui will ask you to improve the seasoning."
Yue Ning used a slotted spoon to scoop out the garlic crisps with chicken fat and toppings, and then scooped out the chicken fat used to make the garlic crisps: "Master Zhang, turn on the high heat."
"Okay!"
There was some oil in the pan, so Yue Ning put the pork belly in first. He flipped the pan and stir-fried it for a few times. The fat in the pork belly was squeezed out and mixed with the chicken fat from the fried garlic. Yue Ning exclaimed: "What a good meat!"
This meat is as good as the Yunnan small-eared black pig meat that was her favorite in her previous life.
"Of course, the meat from our factory, how can it be bad?"
At this time, add the diced chicken, and mix the lard and garlic-flavored chicken oil to moisturize the lean meat and chicken. The two kinds of diced meat keep rolling and colliding in the pot, and the aroma of meat is overflowing.
Master Zhang looked at Yue Ning and added a small spoonful of salt, and said, "Your food is really bland."
"We Cantonese people prefer light tastes, so if you put too much salt, there's no way to adjust it. If you think it's too little, you can add more."
Someone shouted: "Is this the seasoning for instant noodles?"
"No, we haven't had dinner yet. I'm making western Guangdong chicken rice." Yue Ning poured in the crispy chicken skin pieces and added white wine. Flames rose in the pot and then it was served.
Master Zhang shook the flesh of his cheeks and held up a pair of chopsticks: "Let me have a taste?"
"Please."
He picked up a piece of diced meat with chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth. The chicken skin was crispy and refreshing, the pork belly was oily and chewy, and the chicken was soft and tender. These three distinct textures were wrapped in the aroma of garlic, onion and a hint of coriander, giving people an indescribable wonderful taste.
Yue Ning scooped a spoonful of the soybean paste made by Master Zhang into the bowl: "Master Zhang, how is it? Is it too bland?"
Just now he complained that she didn't put enough salt, but now he felt that it was just right. Chef Zhang was facing the plate of food in front of him, and remembered that the meat in the Mushu pork was the same as the pork belly. He added so much salt and soy sauce, and it was very salty. He felt guilty and thought he had wasted a good piece of meat.
"Not bland, just right." Master Zhang looked at Yue Baohua who was also tasting the diced meat and said, "Girl, if you have this ability, how powerful must your grandfather be?"
Yue Baohua, who was savoring the diced meat, didn't know whether to say that Dongping chicken rice was a way of cooking that fishermen in western Guangdong used to make eating easier. It was not as well-known as clay pot rice, Hainan chicken oil rice, or Hainan chicken rice in Southeast Asia. He knew how to make it, but he hadn't thought about it carefully, so he couldn't make it taste like Yue Ning's.
"My cooking skills were taught by my father, and my grandfather is my father's father." Yue Ning added soybean paste to the chicken soup, and then added a spoonful of chicken fat boiled with garlic oil. "I'm ready here. Is the rice ready?"
"It's ready, it's ready!" said the auntie who serves the food.
Yue Ning put the chicken paste in and asked, "Master Zhang, would you like a bowl too?"
"want!"
"Make the chicken soup as well." Yue Ning took a tray and put the two kinds of chicken fat and the seasonings she had mixed into the tray. "Grandpa, you serve the diced chicken."
Yue Ning called Cui Huiyi who was talking to the group of supply and marketing personnel: "Sister Huiyi, let's eat first. After dinner, I still need to stir-fry the seasoning and sauce!"
"Here we are! Here we are!" Cui Huiyi responded, and then said to everyone, "You all come from all corners of the world, that's great, help us taste it later."
“I want to try the taste of that chicken rice now.”
This made Cui Huiyi very embarrassed: "This..."
"Brothers, let's be frugal and share the food among ourselves first. The rest cannot be left to everyone. Each person can have a bowl and have a taste. First come, first served." Yue Ning said.
Hearing this, a group of people rushed into the restaurant, fearing that they would be late and miss out on the food. The people behind pushed forward, and Yue Ning said, "Find a seat and sit down!"
"You can choose the chicken fat for the rice. I made three kinds of chicken fat: original chicken fat, garlic chicken fat, and sauce with soybean paste and chicken broth." Yue Ning said to the people at their table, "I'm sorry, I'm young, and seeing that everyone is showing off, I can't help but want to show off my skills... We can only eat less."
Boss Cui calls himself a gourmet. According to tradition, he only added pure chicken oil, scooped a spoonful of diced chicken on the rice, sprinkled some chopped green onions, and began to stir.
Yue Baohua only added a little chicken fat and mixed the rice in a corner of the bowl. He took a bite and found that this was the original taste of chicken fat rice. Then, he changed to garlic chicken fat. Ning Ning added ginger, coriander, celery and onion in addition to garlic. The aroma was really fragrant! He added another spoonful of sauce and stirred it evenly. After the soybean paste was diluted with chicken soup, its salty taste blended with the umami taste of the chicken soup, which was very delicious! Then he covered it with diced chicken and started to enjoy it.
Everyone was very restrained and didn't scoop up much diced chicken. Yue Ning added some diced chicken to his own bowl, then went to get a large bowl of rice, poured the remaining diced chicken and sauce into the bowl, stirred it up and down with a rice spoon, and asked the aunt to share it with everyone.
She sat down and prepared to eat. After taking two bites, Cui Huiyi said to Yue Baohua, "Uncle Hua, if Baohualou launches this chicken rice right after Ningning returns to Hong Kong City, it will definitely be very popular."
Yue Ning shook his head: "No, no, no, when I return to Hong Kong City, I will focus on promoting roast meat, especially roast duck. I will sell my roast duck together with my grandfather's traditional roast duck."
Cui Huiyi asked in surprise: "You want to compete with your grandfather in roast meat? Your grandfather's roast meat is a well-known sign in Hong Kong. Otherwise, Huihuang would not have sought cooperation with your grandfather."
"I'm not competing with my grandpa in roasting meats. I'm making roast duck with a different flavor and selling it together with my grandpa's traditional roast duck. The selling point is the difference in taste between the grandfather and grandson."
"Have you figured out how to promote it?" Cui Huiyi asked.
Yue Ning leaned close to her and whispered, "Not only did I think of how to promote it, I also wanted to vent my grandfather's anger. Did you know? Just yesterday, a customer found adhesive tape in the food at Baohualou and beat up my grandfather's apprentice. I was so angry that I wanted to rush over and pour foot washing water into that person's pot."
Pour the water for washing feet? Cui Huiyi put down her chopsticks, pinched Yue Ning's face which looked like a pufferfish, and said, "Don't be angry. I may not be able to do other things, but if you really want to pour the water for washing feet, I will bring you water."
Yue Ning: ...
At this moment, a noisy voice came from the side:
"Anything else? Just a small sip, and it's gone before I can even taste it."
"No, this is what they saved for us."
"That's good. I'll be thinking about this smell in my dreams tonight."
"Can't I have a big bowl too? Then I can sit down and enjoy it slowly."
This situation is just like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit. Yue Ning turned his head and said, "Brothers, can you help us try the flavor of instant noodles later? Don't collect the bowls yet."
"Of course I can. But if it tastes good to me, where can I buy it in the future?"
Cui Huiyi said: "Please leave me your contact information later. When I have figured out how to sell the products in the mainland, I will send you a letter to inform you."
When it comes to sending letters, everyone falls silent.
After all, that sensitive era had just passed, and everyone was concerned about whether they could contact Hong Kong businessmen privately.
Director Xie frowned and said, "Boss Cui, I'm afraid this matter needs to go through the Commerce Committee, right?"
"Thank you for the reminder. I will discuss this with the Commerce Commission first."
When Boss Cui saw Yue Baohua added sauce, he couldn't help but add a spoonful himself.
When he heard Yue Ning talk before, he just felt that she had knowledge that was not in line with her age. As a gourmet, he knew that even if one had a natural talent for cooking, it would take more than ten or twenty years of study to reach perfection.
This chicken rice completely changed his view. The more ordinary the food is, the more it reflects the cooking skills. But where did this little girl learn such top-notch cooking skills?
Boss Cui asked, "Ningning, was your cooking really taught by your father?"
"No one in Xiaoyanggou Village knows how to cook Cantonese food. Only my father can teach me. Chicken rice is not something you can eat whenever you want. Occasionally, when we have chicken and make garlic oil, my father lets me scoop a little every day and mix it with potato cakes." Yue Ning was about to lower her head to eat when she saw Mrs. Cui staring at her infatuatedly.
Isn't what I said clear enough? If I didn't want Grandpa to know that the woman who caused his son and granddaughter to suffer and caused his son to die in a foreign land was now living well under Grandpa's nose. Every time Grandpa saw her, he would think of his father who died unjustly and could not live a peaceful life. I would expose her true face now.
Yue Ning hurriedly ate a few mouthfuls of rice, stood up and said, "You guys eat slowly, I'll go stir-fry the seasoning."
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