Chapter 40: New Drink Becomes Popular in Bianjing
At this time of year, peas are newly available in the market. Buy them, peel them, grind them, filter them, and then starch them.
The jelly made with this pea flour is the most refreshing. It is topped with sour sauce, mixed with bright red chilies, and shredded juicy cucumbers. It is then mixed with coriander, onions, garlic, and chopped peanuts. The sauce is sour and spicy, and the jelly tastes soft and delicious.
This jelly is not expensive to make and is sold cheaply, only eight cents a bowl. It sells well both at the wharf and on Zhouqiao Street. Many people who have worked hard all day often buy one or two bowls in the evening. The family can share it directly or have it as a side dish with rice. It is very cheap.
As for the hot and sour noodles, you can just use the sweet potato vermicelli you buy, and there is no need to go through the trouble of making vermicelli yourself. Now there are more fried skewers on the stall, and if you want to add vegetables or meat, you can just pay more for it.
Whether it is jelly or hot and sour noodles, taste is the most important thing if you want to sell well. The soup stock of hot and sour noodles is made with pork shanks, and the two elder brothers and I have researched many kinds of other condiments. We distributed the soup base to the neighbors for tasting before deciding on the one that best suits the taste of the people in Bian Jing.
While the weather was hot, Xu hired someone to wash the winter felt blankets and quilts, and dried them in the hot sun. She also cleaned the well and emptied out all the ditches and sewers in and outside the yard that she could, to prevent the water from overflowing when it rained.
The leaking tiles on the courtyard wall were repaired and replaced by craftsmen, and the Pei family's house next door was also repaired. Bianjing was full of new things, and the old ladies of the two families often went out for tea and the theater.
The dynasty's waterways were well developed, and green plums were arriving by ship in Bianjing at this time of year. Baozhu bought a few baskets of fermented green plum juice, waiting for the summer to boil it with tea foam and then add rock sugar and rinse it in well water. The drink had a sweet and sour taste and was perfect for cooling off the summer heat.
In addition to green plums, there are also fruits such as watermelons and peaches. After work, Zhen's father came back and bought a few watermelons that were left over by others. The stall owner pushed a cart to help deliver them to his home. At night, the family shared two. The juice was sweet and greasy, and it was a great pleasure to eat them. After eating them, they went to the toilet one after another at night.
In the spring, grandma cleared two ridges of land against the courtyard wall to plant cucumbers. The vines grew as long as they were fertilized, and they grew even better after the vines were pulled. At this time, the new cucumbers were tender.
The previous honey grapefruit drink and pear soup have been removed long ago. Now the stall offers free cucumber drink and mulberry drink when you buy noodles. These two drinks are very popular and very refreshing to drink at this time of year. Officials who get up early to go on duty often take a detour to buy cucumber drink to cleanse their mouths.
My second brother will be taking the exam this August. He's not only studying at school, but also visiting the Dong family's home in the evenings with his cousin. Dong's uncle has paid a large sum to hire a scholar to teach them. Baozhu leaves home early and returns late, and aside from her free time to bring her second brother a couple of meals, she rarely sees him. Whenever she'd visit him before, she'd always lament how much thinner he'd become. Fortunately, now that he goes to the Dong family's home in the evenings, his aunt can make him something good to nourish him. Otherwise, even if he'd passed the exam, he'd have been exhausted.
The Dragon Boat Festival was in two days, and since the stall wasn't busy during those two days, Baozhu wanted to take a break, only visiting during mealtimes. Aunt Cui had already cooked, so Baozhu always agreed to take time off when the stall was busy. Many employers stipulated two days off per month in their contracts, but when they did ask for leave, they often delayed or simply refused. She knew how hard it was to find a long-term job like this, so she cherished it.
Baorong followed Lady Yu for a long time, and Baozhu saw that her paintings were becoming more and more spiritual. The two sisters sat under a tree to enjoy the cool air, one shelling beans while the other carved a picture with a chisel.
"My master knew that I was short of money, so she found me a job. It's to carve illustrations for the bookstore's storybooks. She gives me 20% of the profit from every book I sell." Baorong's hands kept moving, carefully carving along the lines printed on the plate.
"You have studied very carefully, and Lady Yu has seen it all." Baozhu took a look and even carved a picture on the wood, which was lifelike. Even the hair of the lady in the painting was particularly vivid.
Bao Rong sighed maturely, "My wife is not in good health, and she has to divert her attention from teaching me. If I don't do my best, I will inevitably feel guilty."
This year, the whole family had no time to go out and join in the fun during the Dragon Boat Festival. Needless to say, the stall was very busy. Before the festival, the whole family gathered around the table and hurriedly made sweet and salty rice dumplings. They made a lot of dumplings with candied dates and red bean paste, fresh meat and egg yolk, and pickled mustard greens and meat. They also bought dried scallops and shrimps from the seafood store to make seafood dumplings.
They couldn't finish all the dumplings at home, so Madam Xu asked Baozhu to go to the carpenter's shop early to make a wooden box, carve it and paint it. Most of the dumplings were given away by Madam Xu, and the old lady from the Pei family next door and her aunt's family also gave some to her.
Baozhu took time out during the Dragon Boat Festival to steam rice dumplings with Baorong and send them to the Imperial College for her second brother and classmates to taste. The rice dumplings also symbolized passing the high school entrance examination. These classmates who were familiar with her second brother often ordered food from Baozhu's stall and were also familiar with Baozhu. As soon as the two sisters arrived, her second brother would be urged by his classmates to come and ask for food.
Whenever Baozhu brought food to her second brother, she always brought extra cakes and pastries so that her classmates could have a bite. This time, she brought zongzi, and they all smiled and praised her endlessly. She had brought a lot, so that everyone could get at least two. The zongzi were wrapped big, so two of them would be full.
The cousin from the Dong family took two away, and then he took out a bunch of colorful threads from somewhere and asked Baozhu Rong to play with them.
The day after the Dragon Boat Festival was even harder to bear. Even silk at this time of year would make sweat stick to your body. Baozhu simply found some old cotton and linen clothes to wear. Although they were a little wrinkled, they were cool at least. This year, Xu Niang wanted to make summer clothes, and Baozhu asked for cotton and linen clothes as well.
Ms. Xu's buying and selling business is stable. She can help sell more goods in the summer. People are too lazy to look at houses in the hot weather, so helping people sell goods has become her main job.
Spices, fruits, dried fish and seaweed shipped from the seashore, and other seafood all sell well with her.
Baozhu came back from setting up her stall and saw a lot of hairy coconuts piled up in the yard. She was a little surprised. She hadn't been to a fruit store last year and didn't know there were coconuts for sale in Bianjing. Seeing her mother in the kitchen, she asked curiously,
"Where did the coconut come from?"
Madam Xu was curious about how she knew this thing was called coconut. Baozhu laughed and said she read it in a book.
"A merchant from Guangnan brought coconuts and olives and asked me to sell them to him. He offered a generous profit, but I'm worried about how to sell them." Madam Xu pointed at the pile of coconuts on the ground and frowned in worry. This pile of coconuts was given to her by the merchant.
The big businessman and his good friend hired a ship together. Half of the cargo on the ship was agarwood and frankincense brought back from Southeast Asia. These good things had no trouble selling and made a lot of money. The other half was just coconuts and olives to fill the warehouse, which did not make much money.
I think the other half is not satisfied and feels at a disadvantage, so he or she just randomly adds coconuts to make as much money as possible.
The hairy coconut was huge. Baozhu cut a hole in it and found thick coconut meat, sweet coconut milk and rich coconut aroma. Hairy coconuts can be stored longer than green coconuts, and it was still very fresh after being transported all the way.
"This coconut milk can be used to make drinks, the coconut white can be made into coconut oil, and the dried coconut flakes are perfect for making snacks!" Baozhu thought a lot. This coconut is full of treasures. She wanted to buy all of them. "I wonder how many coconuts there are?"
Mrs. Xu didn't ask any further questions. She just followed them aboard, took a look, and roughly estimated the amount before answering, "About five thousand catties, yes. The base price for me is twenty cents a catty."
It was not possible for her to make the best use of the resources by herself. Baozhu considered whether this deal could be done. If she accepted the whole deal, it would be too late and difficult to make coconut flakes and coconut oil. But if she hired a few people to help, it would not be a bad idea to just make coconut powder. Then she would have fresh coconut drinks all year round.
The coconut drink was the first of its kind in Bian Jing. Even if someone wanted to try it next year, she had already taken the lead this year.
Baozhu told Xu Niangzi not to look for a buyer yet, but to go into the house and calculate the cost of buying the coconuts and the cost of hiring someone to take the coconut meat to dry and grind into flour. When she felt that this was a very profitable deal, she came out to find A Niang.
"Mother, tell the merchant that I will buy all these coconuts."
Madam Xu saw Baozhu walking around and then said she wanted to buy something. Although she didn't know what she wanted to buy it for, she agreed anyway. "Do you have enough money? If not, I'll give you some money."
Baozhu shook her head, "That's enough."
This was the largest amount of money she had ever invested since she started setting up the stall, and she was determined to make it back.
Mrs. Xu said nothing more, only saying, "Then this money will be used as a subsidy from my mother."
More than 5,000 kilograms of coconuts cost a total of more than 100 strings of cash. The coconut merchant was a little surprised that they were sold out so quickly. When he learned that they were bought by Xu Niangzi's family, he gave her a few strings of cash as a bonus. Xu Niangzi was very considerate in her dealings with others, and they might have to deal with each other again in the future. This merchant was mainly in the spice business, so he didn't care much about a few strings of cash more or less.
There were few people selling coconuts in Bianjing. If coconut powder could be made in Guangnan and then transported directly to Bianjing, it would save a lot of trouble and there would be no need to worry about the coconuts going bad by the time they arrived in Bianjing due to the long journey.
But for those big businessmen, coconut powder is really a small profit. The money earned from one trip may not even cover the cost of hiring a bodyguard and a boat. Unless they bring it along as a side item, they are unwilling to transport coconut powder to Bianliang alone.
Baozhu accepted the boatload of coconuts and nervously hired a few people to open the shells and take out the coconut meat, which she then cut into small pieces and dried in the hot sun.
After drying, it was ground into powder and then dried in the sun. More than 5,000 kilograms of coconuts produced less than 1,000 kilograms of coconut powder. The coconut shells in the yard piled up like a mountain. Baozhu asked the hired workers to clean the coconut shells and dry them together so that they could be used to make drinks later.
Even the best wine needs a well-maintained reputation. Having already spent so much money, Baozhu decided to go and ask storytellers and famous musicians to recommend the coconut drink. Just by mentioning it, Baozhu spent over thirty strings of cash.
In addition, some customers at my stall had tried the drink and were satisfied with it, so they helped to promote it themselves.
Therefore, many people in Bianjing have heard that a small food stall in Zhouqiao has become quite famous recently. The food on the stall is good, but there are two sweet drinks that are even rarer. One is called "Golden Wind and Jade Dew" and the other is called "Hidden Green in the Mist".
The Golden Wind and Jade Dew is a drink made from osmanthus honey and coconut milk jelly, and the Mist and Blue is a drink made from matcha and coconut milk.
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