Chapter 229 Mr. and Mrs. Smith, you have a wonderful wife who broadens your horizons! ...
In the summer of 1975, Feiyan Textile Factory was able to fulfill Qin Xiangxiang's wish—to slaughter a pig every day, providing hundreds of kilograms of fresh pork to the factory canteen and grocery store. Moreover, the factory canteen still had its previous pork rations, making the factory's pork supply much more abundant than any other unit on the island.
The surplus fresh pork each day is sold to internal employees, who can purchase pork with half of their meat coupons.
"I never imagined our farm would be this successful! If this continues, we'll be able to raise even more pigs and have more meat next year..." Zhuang Xiaoman exclaimed excitedly at the sight before him, "We've really made a name for ourselves in pig farming!"
“Xiao Qin, from now on, slaughtering two, no, three a day will be more than enough. Let’s set up a pig farm in a more spacious place, and manage it just like we do now. The pigsty we have here is designed exceptionally well. It’s clean and tidy, and the pigs don’t get sick easily. There’s also a disease isolation area. If a pig is not doing well, it’s immediately isolated… And Dr. Ye is very capable. We’ve never had a major disease outbreak. All these pigs are growing strong and healthy.”
Qin Xiangxiang felt gratified to hear that the pigs were being raised well, and felt that her dream of becoming a "food factory director" was one step closer.
Now she is pregnant and will soon have two more children. In addition, over the years, more and more employees in the factory have gotten married and had children, and the children in the textile factory have grown up in batches.
With more children, there's a greater need for snacks.
In order to benefit herself and the children of the employees, Qin Xiangxiang thought that their factory could add another snack production workshop and try to produce a batch of snacks to provide for herself and all the employees.
Qin thought for a moment: "If we raise more pigs, won't we have more pork than we can eat?"
"We can't finish eating all the fresh pork... But we've got in touch with the cold storage facility, and we can trade our pork for ice to preserve it for several days."
"If we develop this industry for a while longer, we'll have too many pigs. Our pigs are fat and grow fast; before, each one weighed five or six hundred pounds!"
"Wow! I never imagined such a day would come."
Qin Xiangxiang said, "Freezing pork with ice isn't a particularly good method. Making sausages is good, but we get tired of it. There's too much dried seafood on the island. Fresh pork belly, along with dried fish and eggs, is the best option..."
"Oh, Xiao Qin, please stop talking, it's making my mouth water."
Qin Xiangxiang said, "Xiaoman, let's think about making some 'pork jerky' or 'pork floss,' especially pork floss. We can make pork floss buns to give to the kids in our factory as snacks!"
"In addition to cream bread, let's add pork floss bread to our menu."
Zhuang Xiaoman swallowed hard at her words: "Pork floss bread... if you add meat to pork floss, wouldn't it become a steamed bun?"
"Pork floss bread, with a little bit of cream and maltose, it's sweet and salty with a meaty aroma, so it won't be too greasy!" Qin Xiang immediately imagined what pork floss bread would look like in her mind. Make a bread roll, spread maltose on it, sprinkle pork floss on it, squeeze a little bit of cream on it, and make a pork floss roll. It's salty, sweet and savory, with a milky and eggy flavor. It would be a wonderful breakfast, or a snack to replenish energy in the afternoon.
"I'm pregnant right now, so I don't want to eat anything too sweet. Cream cakes are too cloying. I want something savory and creamy, so I'll make 'Pork Floss, Scallion, and Cream Rolls,' with less cream, a smaller portion, and a cheaper price, so that everyone can afford them."
Zhuang Xiaoman was dumbfounded. Pork floss, cream, egg bread... any one of these would be extremely rare, but milk-flavored pork floss rolls? These must be a snack for the emperor!
Zhuang Xiaoman originally wanted to say that eating like this was too extravagant! But her mouth was filled with sourness, and the taste Qin Xiangxiang described made her stomach churn.
Zhuang Xiaoman murmured, "I can't go back to my old life..."
“Five years ago, when you first came here, I mixed rice bran and brown rice with our grains at home, and I couldn’t bear to eat them! Now you eat like this every day at the factory, and I feel like I’m letting my husband down.” Just before, when Zhuang Xiaoman first came to Feiyan Textile Factory as the farm manager, the food at home was very sparse.
Her husband adapted well because the conditions he trained in the naval kitchen were excellent. Even if he came home to eat a lot of rice bran-based "pig feed," he accepted it and only ate it a few times.
But now it's completely reversed!
There was an increasing amount of pork in Feiyan Textile Factory, and Zhuang Xiaoman even became a deputy section chief, with a job title and a salary. Every month, he could buy meat dishes at the factory canteen without pork coupons.
She eats really well at the factory! She even buys herself a cream cake from time to time... Even when her husband doesn't come home, she stays at the textile factory. When she changes shifts at midnight, she goes to the canteen for a bowl of wontons, and sometimes she even has a braised pig's trotter or a small plate of pig's ears as an extra treat.
This is so sinful! I'm so sorry to my man!
Zhuang Xiaoman spends most of her salary on food.
Zhuang Xiaoman: "My husband still doesn't know how well I'm doing! I don't even know how to tell him about it."
Could I just casually say, "The food at our factory is better than yours now. I'm so sorry that I have to take the kids out for late-night snacks when you're not home..."
Qin Xiangxiang: "Have there been any changes in your family's daily meals?"
"I'll eat the same way as before." Zhuang Xiaoman covered her mouth. "I'm used to it and haven't thought about changing it. It also saves me some money on food."
Qin Xiangxiang couldn't help but chuckle: "Pfft—"
"So you two eat well at the company cafeteria, and when you go home to eat, you eat brown rice with rice bran mixed in."
Zhuang Xiaoman: "Eating a little bit occasionally is just to regulate the stomach and intestines! That's what Dr. Ye said!"
Qin Xiangxiang chuckled: "You two are having a fun time."
Zhuang Xiaoman raised an eyebrow: "He used to feel sorry for me, but now I feel sorry for him... That's fair!"
"Find a few chefs in the canteen and research pork floss bread, or other pork floss pastries, and pork jerky—we're a textile factory, so our pork jerky should have some unique features. Silk tapestry is so thin, so our pork jerky should be made with the same high standards as textiles. Others have 'light shadow beef,' we have 'pork paper,' making pork jerky as thin as paper!"
"Pork paper as thin as a cicada's wing."
Zhuang Xiaoman was stunned: "Huh?! To make meat floss, you also need to make meat paper?! Factory manager, this is a textile factory."
Qin Xiangxiang said matter-of-factly, "Precisely because it's a textile factory, the requirements for craftsmanship are even stricter! We must strive for perfection!"
"Okay, let's strive for perfection."
Zhuang Xiaoman held a meeting with everyone on the farm and the canteen staff to convey the factory manager's requirements. Many people nodded in approval.
"Yes! We have to be strict! We're a textile factory that's been featured in movies!"
"The products from our factory must be of the highest quality! There is no room for carelessness."
"Even bread must be made as delicate and exquisite as textiles... The poplin and silk scarves in our factory, which one isn't exquisite? Our farm workers can't be inferior to the factory workers!"
"Yes, our cafeteria can't lose either!"
Zhuang Xiaoman: "?!"
This...this...they've even competed with all of them! And they're from a textile factory!
The factory quickly produced "meat floss" and "pork paper," both of which tasted quite good. The canteen cook remarked, "The cooks at our textile factory have all studied chemistry!"
"Cooking is similar to doing chemistry; you have to do a lot of experiments."
The newly developed pork paper is very popular among employees because it is indeed cheap and can be purchased in small quantities. A few cents' worth of pork paper can be eaten slowly and can pass the time for a long time.
The pork floss and cream bread sold out immediately upon its release. It's savory and sweet, soft and milky, very delicious, and not greasy at all.
Qin Xiangxiang also loves pork floss bread, but the factory doesn't have much cream, so it's only available one or two days a week.
These two days, when cream cakes and pork floss bread are served, are the happiest times for the factory children.
Qin Xiangxiang had a poor appetite during her pregnancy and craved sour foods. Now she was obsessed with shrimp in tomato sauce. Fresh shrimp were cooked with tomato sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and other sauces, making it sweet and delicious.
The shrimp on the island are mainly boiled or blanched. Once this tomato-sauce shrimp was introduced, it became a signature dish in the canteen. With more surplus money in the factory, they purchased a large amount of tomato sauce.
With Qin Xiangxiang, a "lazy and gluttonous" factory director, overseeing things, the food in the factory canteen was excellent.
Qin Xiangxiang ate tomato-sauce shrimp at the cafeteria at noon, and packed an extra portion to keep it fresh with ice. When she got home in the evening, she gave the leftovers to her husband.
The food at the factory canteen was good, and Xiao Pang was in charge of cleaning at home, so Qin Xiang didn't have much to do. She would occasionally cook or do some cleaning, and then rest peacefully to take care of her pregnancy, or make some clothes for her unborn child by hand.
"Li Jianzhi, is the food at our factory good?"
Li Jianzhi: "It's alright, but you still need to eat something fresh and hot when you get home. Don't cook while you're pregnant. Xiaopang and I will take turns cooking our best dishes to entertain you."
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
"Don't worry, it's all food you'd like to eat. If you can't eat it, there are still the two of us gluttons at home."
"Little Fatty eats everything, even the bad ones."
Li Xiaopang: "?? Dad, are you selling your son for personal gain?!"
Sui Sui: "Mom, I want to eat pork floss mini bread rolls."
Qin Xiangxiang: "I'm also planning to have the factory canteen develop fried yellow croaker. Could you make fried yellow croaker with a milky flavor?"
"But don't worry, everyone at home, I'll pack them all up and bring them home for you to eat!"
Qin Xiangxiang couldn't help but feel a little smug: "Li Jianzhi, have you noticed? You have a good wife who broadens your horizons!"
Li Jianzhi: "Oh."
"Honey, I think there's room for improvement in your pork floss bread."
Qin Xiangxiang: "???" You're really taking advantage of my kindness!
Li Jianzhi: "Why don't you make seaweed in your factory too? You could make seaweed and pork floss rolls."
"How about making a milk-flavored teething biscuit, or a nut and cream energy bar?"
Qin Xiangxiang: "...You've opened my eyes."
"You damn man, what other good ideas do you have? Speak them all! Let's make some more delicious food!"
Li Jianzhi: "When the taro ripens in autumn, we'll make taro cream cake, taro cheesecake... or I can make you taro milk tea."
“If you weren’t pregnant, I would have made you chocolate crispy rice.”
Qin Xiangxiang cupped her face in her hands: "Why is the man in my family completely different from the man in Zhuang Xiaoman's family?"
"Their family is still eating brown rice and rice bran."
Li Jianzhi: "Pfft—"
Just as there are Mr. and Mrs. Smith, there are also couples who go home to "reminisce about the bitter past and appreciate the sweet present."
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