Chapter 27: Boiled shrimp and stir-fried eel, hot tea and chili peppers, spicy...
Several people held the bowl of clear soup in their hands. They looked at it from left to right but couldn't make out anything special. However, they found the soup smelled strange with a slight bitter taste.
Someone tasted the soup with the tip of his tongue and immediately grinned, "It's bitter, this soup is bitter. Can the pork ribs in it still be eaten?"
“Although bitter melon is bitter, it is truly a gentleman among vegetables. The bitterness is only in itself and does not contaminate other dishes, so the spareribs will not have a bitter taste.”
"This soup has a special flavor. If you like it, it is very good for cooling off and relieving greasiness."
Chai Heng was aroused by what she said, and he also took a small sip like the man, frowning slightly, as if he was not used to it.
"Do you think this soup is similar to this tea? It tastes bitter at first, but becomes fragrant after a careful sip."
After hearing what she said, several people felt that it was very consistent. Although this soup did not have the sweet aftertaste of tea, it had a fresh fragrance, and there was no bitterness left in the mouth. Even the grease that had just been eaten did not feel greasy at this moment. It was really a good soup to relieve greasiness.
"Now that you mention it, I feel it's good. This soup is indeed different from the soups I've had before. It's light and refreshing. Although it's made with pork ribs, it doesn't have any meaty smell. It tastes very good."
People are probably like this. Once one person says something is good, others will start to cheer. Especially if the person in the main position doesn't deny it, others will not dare to deny it at will.
So a soup with a special taste was accepted by people.
"Gentlemen, would you like to drink wine today? Nv'erhong or Jinhua wine?"
"Jinhua Bar, we are used to drinking Nv'erhong, it's nothing special."
Song Jin agreed with a smile and ordered the waiter to serve some wine.
"Your dishes are light and small in quantity, not enough for us brothers. Boss, please serve whatever dishes you have."
Song Jin said: "Then I will go to the kitchen to prepare it first."
After Song Jin finished speaking, she did not linger any longer and turned to go downstairs, asking two waiters to bring up the common dishes prepared by the two maids, while she went to prepare other dishes herself.
Pour a large bowl of lively river shrimps into a pot of boiling water, wait until the shrimps turn completely red, then use a strainer to scoop them out and drain the water, then arrange the red apricots on a plate, making sure they form a circle to look nice.
The sauce should be made with chopped green onion, garlic, and chili pepper, as well as soy sauce, aged vinegar, and a spoonful of sesame oil. Song Jin saw that the soy sauce was too dark in color and the dipping sauce was too thick, so he scooped a small spoonful of chicken broth as water to dilute the dipping sauce to make the color better looking.
It’s a pity that she doesn’t know how to make light soy sauce, otherwise she would have to use light soy sauce instead of soy sauce.
River prawns are fresh, quick to cook and sweet, and the simplest and most authentic way to eat them is to dip them in just a few seasonings.
Song Jin asked the waiter to bring the food to the table and told him how to eat it. The waiter responded and went to serve. Song Jin then began to prepare one of her strange dishes: stir-fried eel slices.
The strange thing was not the eel, but the stir-frying with chili peppers. At that time in the Ming Dynasty, chili peppers were not a common dish on the table. When Song Jin cut the chili peppers, he realized that they were quite spicy, and it was most suitable to stir-fry the eel slices, which was guaranteed to be spicy and satisfying.
Cut the pepper diagonally into long strips, about the same size as the eel pieces. Heat the pan and add plenty of oil. When the oil is hot, pour in the boneless eel pieces and stir-fry until the eel pieces are golden and the edges are hard, then remove from the pan.
Leave some oil in the pan, add shredded ginger and minced garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, then add the chili peppers. Stir-fry until the chili peppers are 70% to 80% cooked.
There was no range hood in Daming's kitchen. As soon as the peppers were put into the wok, they were choked by the hot oil. The people inside felt so miserable that they ran out, covering their noses and picking their noses.
"Boss, what are we cooking? Why does it smell so pungent?"
“Is this edible?”
“Is this also Cantonese food?”
Song Jin didn't dare stop using the spatula in his hand even though tears were coming out of his eyes from the spicy chili smoke. He kept frying the chili until it became soft and almost cooked, then he added the eel slices and started frying them together.
Add salt, soy sauce, and a circle of shochu along the edge of the pot, sprinkle a handful of chopped garlic leaves, and wave the spatula until each eel piece is dyed with color. When the aroma of the sauce is fragrant, it can be removed from the pot.
After the eels were out of the pot, Song Jin couldn't help it and ran out of the kitchen, her face full of tears.
Song Jin thought that the people of the Ming Dynasty had not yet eaten chili peppers, so they gave little thought to ventilation issues. When building a kitchen in the future, he would make sure it was ventilated on both sides, otherwise people would choke to death.
"Oh, this dish is so choking."
The maids and maidservants were waving their sleeves and complaining. Chunyun ran to grab a fan and fanned around in the kitchen. Seeing this, the others had to come to help. After fanning for a long time, the pungent smell was mostly fanned away.
The steamed sea bass in the pot was just cooked through, and Song Jin specially cut some red pepper shreds on it to make the color look much better.
Song Jin asked the waiter to carry the two dishes and followed him upstairs.
The dishes were served. Song Jin saw that the chicken and goose were almost finished eating, and the soup pot was moved aside. Song Jin understood.
If you drink too much soup, you won’t be able to eat the food or drink the wine, and you won’t make any money. The guys in the store understand this better than she does.
Now the few of them were enjoying their drinks. When they saw the dish of steamed fish coming up, Brother Wa Song Lu Guan said first, "This shopkeeper is very clever. Last time I said the color was too plain, but today he added bright red. It really looks much better than that day."
Song Jin smiled and did not argue. Who told her that she didn't have red peppers that day? She only had them today.
"Brother Chai, try it. The fish is very tender. It tastes better when dipped in the soup below."
Chai Heng said: "This Cantonese dish is interesting, each one needs to be dipped in sauce to taste good."
Song Jin thought about it and realized that there are indeed quite a few dishes that can be eaten in this way.
While thinking, Chai Heng had already picked up a piece of meat with chopsticks and put it into his mouth. After tasting it, he nodded repeatedly and said it was good. He then used chopsticks to dig out a piece of tender meat from the fish face, which was more tender and smoother than the fish meat in the belly.
Song Jin thought, this is the same hobby as mine.
"Hey, what is this dish?" Someone pointed at the plate of stir-fried eel next to Song Jin and asked.
“Stir-fried eel slices.”
"I know eel segments, but what is this red thing?"
Song Jin naturally knew that he was asking about chili peppers, but he did not answer: "You will know after you taste it, young master."
A plate of stir-fried eel slices was placed on the table, red, green and golden, with a fragrant aroma and attractive color.
Chai Heng picked up a piece of eel with chopsticks and put it into his mouth. He frowned, let out a breath, and ate one piece without saying a word. He picked up another piece with chopsticks and continued eating.
The texture of the eel is strange, and it is very resistant to frying. Even when fried like that, the middle is still tender, and the edges are slightly burnt from being fried in hot oil, with a strange burnt aroma. Song Jin guessed that it tasted good, and Chai Heng's mouthful after mouthful also showed that it tasted good, but...
Song Jin saw that Chai Heng's face had turned even redder after drinking.
"This tastes... strong."
As soon as he finished speaking, he could not help but let out a breath again and stretched out his chopsticks to the eel slices again. Others also became curious and started to pick up some.
"It's more flavorful than the braised ones, but what's that smell? It's spicier than garlic, so spicy that it hurts my mouth."
Someone laughed at him: "Brother Li, if you can't eat spicy food, don't eat it. I think the taste is just right and it's very satisfying."
The man called Brother Li was not to be outdone: "If you have the guts, eat more. Eat some of the red ones too."
The man was quite straightforward. He picked up a piece of chili and said, "What's there to be afraid of?" Then he put it in his mouth and started chewing.
Song Jin stared at the man's face to see how he would react. After just two breaths, the man stopped chewing, his eyes became dull, and he suddenly screamed.
"Ah! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It's spicy! It's spicy! It's spicy!"
He shouted and spit out, his face turned red instantly, his eyes were filled with tears, his tongue stretched out long, and he kept breathing out.
Brother Li did not miss this great opportunity to laugh at me: "What did I say? You have no ability but you still want to try. Now you know how powerful I am."
Someone became curious and took a piece and put it in his mouth.
Why do they say curiosity kills the cat? Curiosity is like an infectious disease. After one person keeps crying and panting, he or she starts to provoke another person, "Do you dare to eat it?"
So everyone stuffed a piece of red pepper in their mouths and stuck out their tongues. The one who suffered the most was the plump Brother Chai.
The weather in June is already hot and dry, and I can't stand spicy food. After being provoked to eat a piece of red pepper, my face turned red, and my forehead was sweating profusely. My originally pink lips were now as bright as raindrops. I couldn't sit still, so I stood up and ran around the building with my tongue sticking out.
“Ah… it hurts… hiss… it hurts… it hurts… hiss… it hurts… hiss…”
When he walked to Song Jin, he couldn't help but stretch out his chubby finger and point at Song Jin: "You...hiss hiss...what the hell...hiss hiss..."
Song Jin looked at him with his eyes almost popping out of their sockets, suspecting that the food was too spicy. He was afraid that it would hurt his heart, so he turned around and asked if the store had any beef □□, but it turned out that there was none.
Song Jin had no choice but to order someone to fetch cold water from the well. The waiter went to get it, but when he turned around, he saw that the others had already served the tea and were drinking it.
“Don’t drink!”
It's too late.
The hot tea mixed with the chili peppers, making it even spicier. The five or six people at the table couldn't stay where they were, and they all jumped up and down from the spiciness.
"Ah! What kind of dish is this! Hiss, hiss, hiss..."
"This dish...is terrible...hiss, hiss..."
"What is that...hiss,hiss..."
......
Everyone in the restaurant was dumbfounded. They were all running around while eating one dish. No one knew what deadly seasoning the shopkeeper had put in it.
"Drink some cold water, or even hold it in your mouth, it can cool you down."
Song Jin tried to persuade everyone, but no one listened. They opened their mouths and couldn't close them. Song Jin had no choice but to bring well water to persuade everyone, feed them one by one, and tell them to shut up.
The waiter simply brought up a basin of well water, soaked a clean towel in it, and used it to wipe the sweat from the few people who were sweating from the spicy food. However, it was impossible to wipe them all off, and soon everyone had a puddle of sweat on their backs.
"It's over, sir, it's over..."
The waiter was muttering on the side, and Song Jin was also depressed. If he couldn't eat it, he shouldn't eat it. But he ate it when he was provoked, and then complained after eating. What was going on?
But now is not the time to worry about this, she remained calm. The people in front of her all had well water in their mouths, their heads dizzy from the spicy taste, and now they were sitting there motionless.
The waiter brought some water to help the people rinse their mouths. Someone took the opportunity to complain, "Boss, I'm afraid I've offended you before, haven't I?"
Song Jin smiled and shook his head: "It's just a dish."
Someone said, "Food? Then eat it too. Eat it and show me."
"That's it. You eat. You eat."
Chai Heng was too tired to speak because of the spiciness. Song Jin had no choice but to take a look at the red pepper and actually picked up a piece with chopsticks to taste it.
It's spicy, but...
This bunch of rubbish!
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