Chapter 88 Chapter 88 Water is different from water

"dad."

The little girl skipped to her father, eager to show him the handful of grapes she had just been given.

Although there is a whole handful of grapes, if you look closely you will see that there are only about ten of them. This is because the grapes are too big, and are almost the same size as the local plums in Anhuai.

Zhong Yan is very filial. The first thing she did after putting down the grapes was to pick one up and put it to her father's mouth: "Dad, please eat it quickly. It's delicious!"

"Where did these grapes come from?" Mr. Zhong opened his mouth and held the grapes, his voice a little unclear.

The grape skin explodes with a light lick of the tongue, and the juice fills the mouth. The rich sweetness is mixed with the fragrance of flowers, giving an indescribable refreshing feeling.

"These are the grapes grown by Aunt Wang Nian. Are they delicious?"

"It's delicious." Mr. Zhong nodded repeatedly.

Lao Gu was curious and asked Zhong Yan for one so he could taste it too. But in the blink of an eye, his eyes lit up.

The father and daughter had already changed the topic to taro. Here, Lao Gu's mind was wandering and his eyes kept drifting towards the kitchen.

"What are you thinking about?"

After his daughter successfully finished her meal, Mr. Zhong realized that his old friend had put down his chopsticks at some point and was slowly turning his wine glass with one hand.

"You said..." Lao Gu tilted his head towards the kitchen: "If I ask the owner of this restaurant for advice on a few dishes, will she kick me out of the restaurant?"

Competitors are enemies... This sentence can be applied to every industry.

Lao Gu's fellow apprentice fell out because the two of them had different recipes taught by their master, and in the end they never spoke to each other again, let alone the restaurant proprietress who was just a chance acquaintance.

Then, Lao Gu smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Forget it, forget it, just pretend I didn't say anything."

"Is your restaurant going to receive some distinguished guests?" Mr. Zhong has a keen eye and immediately guessed the reason.

Lao Gu nodded.

"Our restaurant has always had a cooperative relationship with the city government. Did you know that?"

Mr. Zhong certainly knew that the restaurant where Lao Gu worked was a public-private partnership and had received many domestic and foreign businessmen who came to Anhuai to invest in recent years.

So there are four chefs, Chinese and Western chefs in the restaurant, and Lao Gu is mainly in charge of the Chinese kitchen and the second kitchen.

"Next month, the restaurant will host an investor returning from abroad. I heard that his ancestors were from Sichuan Province, so the manager specifically instructed us to prepare some heavy-tasting side dishes..." Lao Gu said leisurely after taking a sip of wine.

It looks like just a table of food and wine, but it actually involves the competition between two Chinese chefs for the position of head chef.

“Even if someone is willing to teach you, how can you catch up with the skills that take more than ten years in just one month?” Mr. Zhong smiled and shook his head.

"You mean?"

“Instead of worrying about whether others are willing to teach, why not just invite them to the restaurant to cook directly?” Mr. Zhong laughed.

In the early years, chefs were considered to be craftsmen who learned from masters. Most craftsmen have a bad habit of being stubborn and unable to adapt.

"Please?" Lao Gu was in deep thought.

If Lao Zhong hadn't suggested it, he would never have thought of using other people's strengths to help himself.

"How many people are you in charge of right now?" Mr. Zhong suddenly asked without any context.

"Fifteen."

"So now you are no longer just a chef responsible for cooking, but a chef! A chef needs to know how to integrate the advantages of the team and magnify the advantages of the team members..."

Mr. Zhong spoke eloquently about management, and many of the points he mentioned were issues that Lao Gu had never noticed.

The two adults were chatting excitedly, but they didn't know that Zhong Yan, who was eating obediently, had already listened to their conversation.

After he was full, he slid off the chair, picked up the grapes he had not finished eating, and ran to the back of the kitchen.

Zhong Yan knew that Shi Feiying should be eating in her own yard at this moment.

"Shi Feiying, Shi Feiying."

As soon as I went out of the back door of the kitchen, I saw Shi Feiying leaning against a railing and looking inside curiously.

"What do you want me to do?" Shi Feiying turned around with a look of regret on her face.

Zhong Yan leaned over to take a look and discovered that there was a well behind the railing. An iron cage was welded to cover the wellhead, and there was a lock on the lid.

Just now, Shi Feiying lay on the railing just to see how deep the well was.

If Wang Nian were here, he would definitely be very grateful that the iron cage was installed as soon as the well was dug, otherwise today would not be as simple as just lying on the railing and looking inside.

"Do you have a well at home?" Zhong Yan looked into the well curiously.

She has been using tap water at home since she was born and has never drunk well water. She is curious about the difference.

"My mother said that well water tastes better than tap water for making tea or cooking, so my father asked someone to dig a well."

Seeing that Zhong Yan seemed unconvinced, he waved to her to follow him into the living room.

In fact, Shi Feiying couldn't tell the difference between well water and tap water at first, because she had been eating and drinking at home since she was a child.

This situation continued until I entered kindergarten, when I drank hot water poured by the teacher for the first time.

From then on, Shi Feiying started to bring a water bottle to school, and one of the main reasons for going home at noon was to get water.

"Try the tap water first, and then I'll pour you a glass of well water."

The house was connected to the water pipe before we moved in. Now we only use it for washing dishes and washing our hands. We usually use well water for eating and drinking.

“…”

Zhong Yan and her friends have been drinking tap water since they were young, so they didn't think there was anything wrong after taking two sips. Then Shi Feiying scooped a spoonful of well water from the water tank and handed it to her.

Pure sweetness, without any unpleasant taste.

I took another sip of tap water and instantly felt that the water had a fishy smell, and I could even taste the taste of rusty iron.

"It's really different!" Zhong Yan shouted.

"I told you!" Shi Feiying raised her eyebrows proudly, put her hands on her waist and raised her head and chest: "I told you that the water in school tastes bad, but you didn't believe me."

"It's a pity that I live on the second floor, otherwise I would have asked my father to dig a well at home."

Zhong Yan said this enviously.

Shi Feiying then generously said that people could come to his house to get water in the future, as much as they wanted.

The two little guys' chattering came into Wang Nian's ears as he was busy cleaning the wok.

The tongue will not lie about good and bad; even a child of seven or eight knows it.

Tap water is not as bad as they say, and well water certainly can't be that delicious.

In fact, the water used for cooking at home is evolved water, so the taste is naturally different.

When it comes to evolutionary water, Wang Nian can't help but think of the next level in the space that has not appeared for several years. He doesn't know what conditions can trigger it.

"Wang Nian."

Just as he was in a daze, Hu Wenli suddenly came out of the kitchen carrying a stainless steel pot, with a somewhat amusing and helpless expression on her face.

"A customer wants to trouble you."

"What is it?"

A middle-aged woman with long wavy hair stood at the kitchen door. She looked haggard and exhausted, and it seemed like she was wearing more than one pair of shoes.

“Hey…” The woman clapped her hands as soon as she saw Wang Nian: “I just want you to cook me a bowl of noodles.”

"Sister, our restaurant doesn't sell noodles!" Wang Nian replied.

The two of us are busy with lunch and it’s already expensive, so we don’t have the time and energy to make breakfast and dinner.

"Boss, please listen to me first. This is what happened..." the middle-aged woman hurriedly explained.

She lives at No. 12 Guanghua Street, and she and Qiu Chengjun are employees in the same factory.

The problem was her daughter-in-law who was more than four months pregnant. The joy of having a new baby was very torturous for their family.

My daughter-in-law had been vomiting since before she found out she was pregnant. She vomited everything she ate, and finally she even vomited bile. Her throat was so hoarse that she couldn't speak.

The situation became worse these days, to the point where I didn't even have the strength to get out of bed.

"The hospital said that if the morning sickness continues, the only option is to terminate the pregnancy." The curly-haired lady sighed and beat her chest several times in grief: "They have been married for seven years and finally got pregnant. How can you just abort it..."

Wang Nian instantly recalled that when she was still at Factory 431, her next-door neighbor Sun Xiumei also suffered from morning sickness during her pregnancy.

But her condition was not as serious as that of her eldest sister and daughter-in-law, who vomited to the point of being unable to get out of bed. This was already a threat to the mother.

Wang Nian quickly asked, "Sister, what do you need our help with?"

"This morning, she was lying in bed and she said she smelled beef stew in your restaurant and wanted to eat beef noodles."

It was rare that the daughter-in-law took the initiative to ask for food, so the eldest sister rushed to the restaurant with the pot and asked for help without saying a word.

"I'll pay no matter how much it costs. I can even wait for the beef stew to be ready." The elder sister was firm.

"Sister, your daughter-in-law has a really good nose." Wang Nian smiled, turned around and pointed to the yard: "My family did stew beef, it's our dinner."

"Big sister, just sell some to big sister!"

"How about this, I can sell you the beef, but I don't have any noodles..." Wang Nian said.

"Then do you know where to buy that kind of noodles nearby..." The elder sister's description was not enough, and she gestured with her hands: "It's the kind of noodles that are pulled out by hand. My daughter-in-law said it's called ramen or hand noodles."

"Hand-pulled noodles?" Wang Nian asked.

"Yes, yes, that's it. My daughter-in-law said that when she was a child, there was a state-owned restaurant next door to her home. The hand-pulled noodles made by the chef were especially delicious. She wanted to taste that!"

"There shouldn't be any nearby." Wang Nian said regretfully.

"What should we do?" The eldest sister was so anxious that her face turned pale. After a long time, she sighed helplessly: "Then we can only cook some noodles and try it out."

"Don't worry, big sister." Wang Nian'an stroked the curly-haired big sister and said, "I know how to make noodles, but you have to wait for an hour or so while I knead the dough and let it rest."

Several pairs of eyes instantly looked at Wang Nian.

Hu Wenli was surprised: "You can also make noodles with your hands?"

"I like it, so I tried to learn it." Wang Nian smiled modestly, and then told her elder sister: "Don't blame me if the food doesn't taste good."

"How can I blame you? I can't even thank you enough." The eldest sister replied.

"Then... you go back and rest for a while, I'll bring it to you when it's ready."

All the dishes prepared for lunch have been sold out, so even if more guests come, Wang Nian will not be able to entertain them, so he has plenty of time to knead the dough.

"Just call me when you're done. I can't really ask you to deliver it."

The eldest sister left happily, and then Lao Gu and Mr. Zhong stood up.

"I've never seen hand-pulled noodles, I don't know if I can..." As soon as Lao Gu opened his mouth, Wang Nian waved his hand nonchalantly: "If you want to watch, just watch, but don't make fun of me for not being professional."

"The boss lady is joking!"

As soon as you enter the kitchen, the rich aroma of beef hits you. The aroma not only has the traditional spice flavor, but also seems to have a hint of sweetness.

"The stewed beef has been fried and brown sugar is added to it?" Lao Gu smelled it immediately.

"Brother, you are really amazing! You can even smell this."

In fact, the name of this dish should be Crispy Beef, which is a recipe that Wang Nian learned from an old master in Yunnan Province.

Crispy beef and noodles are a perfect match.

I was willing to help my elder sister just now, and actually I was planning to change the dinner at home to crispy beef noodles.

Even if it's just to help out!