Shu Hui invited him to stay for dinner, but Mi Fei declined with a smile, saying, "You must have a lot of things to pack up, so I won't stay and hold you back. There's plenty of time for dinner. If you don't invite me another day, I'll come to your place myself."
This was Shu Hui's first time in Beijing, and Chu Xiang had already described Chu Yu's courtyard house to her.
But seeing is believing, and even after witnessing it firsthand, Shu Hui's shock was still indescribable.
After the courtyard was renovated, it has heating and a bathroom, and is fully equipped with appliances. Living here, you can use a washing machine to wash your clothes, watch TV when you're bored, and go out from the backyard to face the vast Houhai Lake.
Shu Hui was visiting Beijing for the first time, and after walking around Houhai Lake, she felt like it was all unreal.
The weather was cold, and some people were skating on the river, while others had ropes tied to chairs and were playing with their grandchildren.
The surrounding area is filled with Beijing accents, and old men are playing chess under the trees. Neither the scenery nor the way of life can compare to Deyang.
Chu Yu smiled. "Mom, isn't it nice? The trees are green in the summer, and the scenery is even better. After dinner tonight, we can take a walk around the neighborhood to digest our food. Isn't that better than staying in Deyang?"
Shu Hui was persuaded by Chu Yu, and her heart gradually found its home. Chu Yu said that Beijing had great potential for development, and she should have confidence.
With such a wonderful place, what else could she possibly complain about!
I must work hard in my career and not let my daughter down!
She's always busy, and since Chu Yu hadn't started school yet, she bought the necessary ingredients and busied herself making fast food.
Shu Hui can handle the marinade, but the main challenge is the batter for the fried chicken, which requires repeated experimentation and adjustments.
In her previous life, Chu Yu's mother not only sold roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), but also fried chicken and chicken rolls.
Her mother's method was to mix flour and starch in a 5:1 ratio, add eggs, salt and five-spice powder, stir, coat the mixture with dry flour, and then fry it.
This method of making fried chicken basically achieves the desired result.
However, to achieve a taste that appeals to the masses, is loved by most people, and can be chained and popular nationwide, the recipe needs to be repeatedly adjusted.
The recipe wasn't easy to come up with, but with Chu Yu's guidance, it became much easier for Shu Hui to do other things. She followed Chu Yu's instructions and adjusted the heat herself, resulting in chicken wings that were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Shu Hui had never tasted anything like this before.
Chu Chu praised it highly:
"Sis, these fried chicken wings are so delicious, I can't get enough of them."
In her previous life, Chu Yu's family ran a roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) shop near the school. In order to make more money, Shu Hui also set aside a piece of land in front of the school to run a fast food business, selling fried chicken, chicken rolls, chicken strips and other foods, along with carbonated drinks. It was very popular with students, especially male students.
Most of the fried chicken her mother makes is store-bought chicken nuggets that she dips in oil twice before selling. Only the chicken wraps and Crazy Burger Wraps are homemade.
The recipe her mother developed wasn't particularly delicious, but it was inexpensive near the school, and it was sufficient.
In the 1980s, fast food was not yet widely popular.
China lacked the fertile ground for its popularity, but Chu Yu firmly believed that no child disliked fried chicken, and that a fast-food restaurant that swept the world wouldn't be built overnight. First, establish the basic menu items and get the store up and running.
Once the store is ready, we plan to open a chain of stores, and then hire food professionals to develop new recipes. We will gradually improve them, and perhaps in ten, twenty, or thirty years, the variety of fast food will be basically finalized, and it will be able to reach a level that everyone likes.
Chu Chu's praise greatly encouraged Shu Hui. She tried a bite herself and found the crispy outer shell to be quite unique and tastier than ordinary chicken wings.
Oil isn't cheap these days, so very few people sell fried products.
With money in her pocket, Shu Hui was more confident in her work. Chu Yu asked her to make the outer shell of the chicken roll, which was quite similar to the flatbread in China, but slightly thicker.
As soon as Chu Yu described it, Shu Hui knew what it was.
"This is no problem for Mom. I'll make it for you."
Shu Hui was making flatbread, with Chu Chu assisting her, while Chu Yu pondered how to make bread.
In the early 1980s, the domestic baking industry had not yet taken off, and the days of rationing rice, flour, and cooking oil had just ended. The Chinese people could not take big strides in pursuing so-called bread freedom.
Currently, the dessert industry is still dominated by traditional pastries, with only a few Western restaurants selling bread.
In her previous life, Chu Yu bought a bread machine and made bread herself. Eggs, sugar, and salt were common items, and high-gluten flour and butter could be found in imported stores, but yeast was a hard thing to find.
There are very few cake shops in China, and the yeast brand has no domestic distributor, which means that yeast can only be purchased from abroad.
I need to buy ketchup too.
Fortunately, Dai Donglin regularly travels abroad and has his own ship, so we can only trouble him.
It just so happened that Dai Donglin was in Gangcheng, so Chu Yu called Mi Fei and asked him to pass on the message.
The mother and her two daughters worked until midnight to make the flatbread that Chu Yu had requested. Shu Hui fried chicken pieces, and Chu Yu put the chicken pieces in the flatbread. Since there was no cucumber or tomato sauce, she simply left it plain.
Chu Chu took a bite, and the aroma almost brought tears to her eyes.
"This is so delicious!"
Roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) is also delicious, but Chuchu prefers fried chicken, which is crispy and refreshing, and she never gets tired of it.
Shu Hui made two more rolls, one for herself and one for Chu Yu. Chu Yu tasted them and found they were not quite as good as those from later generations, but they would definitely be delicious with ketchup and some soda or cola.
Chicken wings, chicken nuggets, chicken drumsticks, chicken rolls, and popcorn chicken are all decided. The rest will have to wait for the yeast to arrive. We'll start making them once we have everything we need.
Chu Yu plans to make several more chicken burgers, as the variety of fried chicken is still insufficient and further research and development is needed.
Order some chicken over rice, braised pork rice, or something similar.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
