Chapter 21 So cheap? The food this man cooked...
In 2025, when the food delivery industry was highly developed, very few young college graduates, regardless of gender, knew how to cook. After starting work, they relied on cafeterias or food delivery for their livelihood, and ordering food delivery every day was an indispensable part of many people's daily routine.
Li Jian knew he could only cook online, and he never dared to dream of finding a wife who was good at cooking.
He can make noodles taste so good even with just ordinary pickled cabbage and salted fish... He really struck gold!
When he went back to Shanghai on vacation, he ate a seafood noodle dish that cost 120 yuan on the way. The taste was not very good. Nowadays, most dishes are pre-made. Although the toppings are plentiful, with all kinds of things like lobster and abalone, it is not common to find delicious noodles.
The noodles weren't chewy enough; they cut corners and used cheap ingredients. It was all about technology and ruthless workmanship.
"What kind of noodles are these? They're delicious."
Qin Xiangxiang was surprised: "Of course the handmade noodles made by an old man are delicious, even if it costs extra..."
In the 1970s, fine noodles were considered a "luxury item," a gift to be given during holidays. Many families had the skill to make handmade noodles, some well and some poorly. Qin Xiangxiang specially found a master craftsman who knew how to make them to help her make noodles for daily consumption.
Her mother, Zhou Aodong, was a person with no taste for good food, always saying that these noodles tasted no different from ordinary noodles, which left Qin Xiangxiang speechless.
Could this man really tell something was wrong with the taste? Would he criticize her for wasting money?
"How much more money did you overpay?"
"Made with high-quality wheat flour, it costs about 30 cents a pound." Nowadays, ordinary noodles mostly cost between 17 and 25 cents a pound, depending on their quality.
Li Jianzhi exclaimed in surprise, "So cheap?"
Qin Xiangxiang was speechless: "..."
Are you a rich man? Why are you offering such a low price? Who exactly is the one who came back to the big city from a remote island?
You're so rich, let me spend some of it! Humph!
The little drama queen looked like an inflatable pufferfish, but she herself couldn't figure out why she had suddenly been inflated so much.
Li Jianzhi quickly finished the bowl of noodles and couldn't help but sigh in his heart once again, thinking how lucky it was to have a virtuous wife and how delicious the noodles his wife cooked were.
What good fortune did this "Li Jianzhi" accumulate in his past life to be able to marry such a virtuous and beautiful wife in this life?
He even wondered if he was really living in a male-oriented novel on X-point, where the author arranged for him to travel through time and get a beautiful and virtuous wife for free—the perfect treatment for a male protagonist.
After finishing the noodles, Li Jianzhi left a poached egg and two pieces of smoked fish for his son, Li Qingfeng. The chubby boy stared longingly at the bowl of noodles, and watched as his father sucked up every last noodle from the broth... sucked it all up.
In the end, only a fried egg and a piece of smoked fish were left.
"Mom made you a poached egg, so you won't eat a boiled egg. You can have this poached egg for breakfast, and also the smoked fish that Mom made." Li Jian knew that he only ate the poached egg and noodles, leaving the smoked fish for his son. He considered himself a good father. As for noodles, a high-glycemic carbohydrate, it was fine if the child didn't eat them. He should eat less carbs. Actually, he underestimated the appetite of this 29-year-old body, and the noodles his wife cooked smelled so good that he couldn't resist and didn't leave a single noodle.
Let him, a grown man, bear with this high-glycemic carbohydrate noodle dish.
After finishing his math problems, the chubby boy ate his fried egg hesitantly and cautiously, as if afraid his father wouldn't let him have any more. Seeing his pitiful state, Qin Xiang gave him some noodles.
The chubby boy looked at his mother with teary eyes... Mom is still the best.
Li Jianzhi: "You spoil the child too much."
Qin Xiangxiang: "...?"
The little drama queen took a deep breath, wanting to say something, but found herself unable to say anything.
"After you finish eating the noodles, take the kids to line up to buy meat. If you can buy ribs, buy a pound of ribs and another pound or half a pound of pork." Qin Xiangxiang, her mind full of calculations, began to covet the money in the man's pocket again.
Let him know how powerful a little drama queen can be.
"Where should I buy pork?" Li Jianzhi asked curiously.
Whether before or after his time travel, Li Jianzhi, who had served in the navy for ten years, had rarely bought meat, so he found it quite novel.
No wonder they all say that life is different after you have a wife; it becomes much more down-to-earth.
Qin Xiangxiang was stunned. She realized that the other person really didn't know where the grocery store was. After so many years away, they probably forgot.
"Then let's ride there together."
Li Jianzhi: "Okay, son, sit on the front bar, and we'll go buy meat as a family. I'll also teach him to recite the multiplication tables."
Qin Xiangxiang: "..." Isn't it a bit too much to make a four-year-old memorize the multiplication table?
Li Qingfeng: "My butt hurts, I don't want to go!"
"How can a four-year-old child like you stay at home alone? Let's go out for a walk together. If you sit crookedly, it won't hurt."
Little Fatty: "!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
If I had known this man would be so cruel to the kids, I should have just given them to him to take care of.
"We'll have wontons for lunch!"
Qin Xiangxiang wrapped her arms around Li Jianzhi's waist and casually touched his taut, hard abs. Although this guy was sexually apathetic, he had extraordinary waist strength. She still remembered how she had gripped his waist yesterday, and the force he exerted had startled her.
The chubby boy clung to the front of the car, his swollen little bottom exposed to the wind. It didn't actually hurt anymore, but he still looked miserable, as if he were a little cabbage in a model opera.
"Weren't we supposed to buy meat? Why are we having wontons?"
Qin Xiangxiang replied matter-of-factly, "Buy meat-filled wontons."
Li Jianzhi exclaimed "Wow!" to himself. His wife actually knew how to make wontons. In all his years, he had rarely seen anyone who knew how to make wontons. They usually ate them outside or had them frozen and packaged.
Is eating wontons for lunch considered a proper meal?
"Hmm, and the fish you brought back too." Qin Xiangxiang was planning what to eat for lunch in her mind. This little brain of hers only wanted to put effort into food.
Li Jianzhi brought back a lot of island specialties, mostly dried fish, which is essentially air-dried salted fish, or dried seafood. The fish he brought back were all dried on the boats by the fishermen; they were of very high quality, and he was a man who knew how to appreciate quality.
There are dried yellow croaker, dried eel, dried cuttlefish... and there is also a kind of dried black wolf pufferfish, which is actually a pufferfish from the sea. Pufferfish is poisonous, but after being dried, it is basically non-toxic and very delicious.
If you can find pork belly, stewing it with these dried fish will be very delicious.
"Those are all dried fish, they can be stored for a long time and eaten slowly." Although dried fish is delicious, in the eyes of Li Jianzhi, who came back from 2025, dried goods are not as good as fresh ones. Dried fish, like cured meat, is a forced product of a time when storage technology was backward. In the future, seafood will not be made into dried fish first, but will be flash-frozen to preserve freshness.
As a first-time father, he wanted to try to be a good father. He knew that it wasn't good for his child to eat too many pickled foods because they were too salty. "I'll buy some fresh fish and make healthy meals for my child so he can eat more high-protein fresh seafood."
Qin Xiangxiang: "You know how to cook fish?"
"Of course I am, I've been a veteran of the Navy for over ten years."
Qin Xiangxiang nodded.
"Mom, I want to eat pan-fried buns!" The chubby boy turned his head, pressed his face against his father's chest, and called out to his mother across the distance.
He no longer has any expectations of his father, and he still relies on his mother for food.
The family happened to pass by a pan-fried bun shop. Qin Xiangxiang was tempted by the smell, but she wanted to eat wontons instead.
Li Jianzhi: "Think about it, do you want to eat pan-fried buns?"
The chubby boy raised his paw: "I want to eat! I want to eat!"
“Your mother can eat it, but you can’t.” Li Jianzhi refused ruthlessly: “It’s almost noon, and Dad will cook fish for you himself.”
"Eat more fish, tofu, and green vegetables."
When they arrived at the grocery store, the family bought a pound of pork belly but couldn't find any spare ribs. Li Jianzhi bought two wild crucian carp for his son. Wild crucian carp are not cheap, costing more than 60 cents a pound, sometimes even close to 80 cents. They are not something that ordinary families can afford. Some people need crucian carp to nourish their bodies, and even buying fish can take up most of their monthly salary.
Qin Xiangxiang said, "Other river fish have a muddy taste, and nobody likes to eat them."
"Only wild crucian carp from farms can still fetch a good price."
"In this era... all the fish are wild, so they shouldn't have a strong fishy smell, right?" Li Jianzhi wasn't sure either. After all, they were... wild? It would be difficult to eat purely wild fish in the future.
Purely wild and all-natural...
Nowadays, people in Shanghai are picky eaters when it comes to fish. They only care about big yellow croaker and pomfret. They consider ribbonfish to be cheap, and mackerel to be scraps. Other unnamed fish, as well as lobster and crab, are considered junk.
Before his transmigration, Li Jianzhi served in the South China Sea Fleet. He once heard from an old veteran that in the 1970s or 80s, near a certain island in the South China Sea, lobsters were abundant there. So the soldiers ate lobsters every day until they were sick of them. They only got to eat pork during the Lunar New Year. They would sigh whenever they heard about lobsters.
Li Jianzhi eats a lot of seafood, but he hasn't eaten much river fish... though he's heard that crucian carp and tofu soup is a delicious dish.
Back in the old apartment building, the two families on the second floor shared a kitchen. The Xu family next door didn't cook much for lunch, and the families on the first floor were quite envious when they saw Qin Xiangxiang and her husband making wontons.
"The family is reunited, let's eat wontons."
"Eating wontons is a big deal!"
Li Jianzhi suddenly realized that eating wontons also symbolized family reunion; his wife was truly thoughtful. Fifty years later, wontons, dumplings, glutinous rice balls, zongzi... these kinds of foods had become ordinary street food, and the festive atmosphere of the New Year had become increasingly weak. Even when the family was reunited, his mother, with her personality, would never eat wontons or dumplings. One year, however, his mother ate dumplings and then ate a bottle of vinegar worth 100,000 yuan.
"You...killed a fish?" Qin Xiangxiang asked with a strange expression.
Li Jianzhi, holding a knife, said, "Yes, I'll kill the fish."
Although Captain Li often eats seafood, he doesn't really have much experience in killing fish. There are special cooking squads in the army, and when you buy fish on the roadside, most vendors will kill and clean it for you, cutting it into sections or slices according to your request.
Unfortunately, fishmongers in this era don't have this kind of service awareness.
Li Jianzhi knew how to kill fish, but he wasn't very familiar with it.
He often watched others process seafood, but watching is one thing, when it came to killing fish himself, he could tell that RT-Mart's ten years of experience in killing fish was still valuable.
There are discrepancies between actual operation and theory.
Qin Xiangxiang was kneading dough on the side, and she couldn't bear to watch for long. Anyway, she had made up her mind that she would not eat a single bite of anything cooked by this man.
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