Hainan Rice Noodles
In the early morning, the train station was crowded and noisy.
Trains are like cans, transporting people who are determined to leave their hometowns from all over the world. People leave the cans and enter another bigger can.
At the same time, it is also a transit station. Many people do not regard it as their destination. They just come here to inquire and see what the environment is like before making a final decision.
Lao Huang is one of them. Adhering to the idea of "taking one step at a time", he did not resign from his position in the factory, but specially picked a weekend to visit Shenzhen.
Everyone in his family mocked his behavior.
"What a pipe dream!" This was his wife's response. "How come, just because of the reform and opening up, you think there's gold everywhere? What a beautiful dream!"
Looking for trouble! The son sneered at him. The old man was really unreasonable. He obviously had a job, although it was not a formal job, but he did it well. When he had connections in the future, he could pass it on to himself, and when he got married, he could pass it on to himself. How stable would that life be?
The only person who gave Mr. Huang some comfort was his old mother, who expressed great concern about her son's eating problems.
"Son, you're from the north, how are you going to eat when you get there?" The old mother's concern was certainly not groundless.
Old Huang is from the north. He is a rough man and originally didn't pay much attention to diet. But after his mother talked about it many times, he gradually started to pay attention to it. Yes, what should he do?
So, in front of the train station where he was boarding the train from his hometown, he patted the steamed buns in his arms that his family insisted he take with him, and boarded the train with lingering fear.
After three days and three nights on the green train, he was squeezed so hard that he felt dizzy and wanted to vomit. Now that he finally got off the train, he touched his empty stomach and the first thing he wanted to do was find a stall to sit down and eat something.
Besides, if that doesn't work, he can always dip the steamed buns in the soup. Looking at the last big steamed bun in his arms, Lao Huang smiled contentedly.
With this thought in mind, Lao Huang walked out of the train station. The moment he saw a number of snack stalls, he smelled a special scent.
The smell is hard to describe. It seems to be a mixture of the unique aroma of brine, the delicious aroma of meat, the fragrance of rice noodles and other flavors. It is very appetizing and makes people swallow their saliva as soon as they smell it.
He followed the strange fragrance and came to a small stall.
At first glance, this stall looks no different from other snack stalls, with the same busy people and the same big cooking pot with steam rising from it, but there is a strange magic that attracts Lao Huang to come closer.
Jian Jianan had sharp eyes and immediately spotted the potential customer, Lao Huang. He was standing at the back of the crowd, with curiosity and eagerness on his face, but his body language showed him leaning back.
This won't do. They've been setting up their stall since early this morning, but apart from a few fellow villagers, no one else has come to buy anything.
The rest of the people were curious, but they didn't actually pay. They just stood in front and asked, then turned around and left to buy breakfast such as sesame cakes and shrimp dumplings from the next door.
If they continue like this, they will be defeated today!
Moreover, the most important thing is that her parents are used to being formal workers. In their decades of life experience, they have never had the experience of shouting loudly in front of strangers. Today is their first time setting up a stall, and they are a little embarrassed to let go of their pride and shout loudly to attract customers. Even if the product is good, others must know about it!
Jian Jianan urgently needs someone to break this dull and silent atmosphere, make the atmosphere lively, and make the food they sell more attractive.
Just when he was dozing off, someone brought him a pillow. Looking at Old Huang, Jian Jianan had an idea.
She waved towards Old Huang energetically, "Uncle! Uncle!"
"Judging from your movements, you just got off the train, right? Are you from the North?"
Jian Jianan greeted the stranger enthusiastically, "Uncle, are you tired from the train ride? Come and have something delicious after you get off the train! People from other places may not have tasted our Hainan cuisine yet! Come and try it!"
After being called out by Jian Jianan, Old Huang could no longer play dumb. He cleared his throat, walked to the front of the stall, and asked with his hands behind his back, "What are you selling?"
Old Huang had never seen such a scene before.
An ordinary cart with several buckets of different sizes on it. One of the buckets was filled with boiling water, which was bubbling.
There were nearly a dozen or twenty small bowls placed in front of the iron bucket, all filled with condiments. Old Huang took a quick look and found that he didn't recognize many of them. He could only distinguish peanuts, sesame paste, pickles and other condiments that he had seen before.
Jian Jianan poked his mother's hand, signaling her, the chef, to introduce the food to the guests quickly.
Receiving Jianan's hint, Su Qinxuan quickly spoke, "This is a local delicacy from my hometown, Hainan Island, called Hainan noodles. Take a look."
She picked up the food and showed it to Lao Huang personally: a large ball of dry powder, a variety of small ingredients, and a fragrant marinade.
When he saw the pot of marinade, Lao Huang finally determined where the fragrance he had just smelled came from.
It’s this bucket of brine!
Su Qinxuan was a little nervous at first, but the more she spoke, the more fluent she became, and the bolder she became. "We locals love this kind of noodles. Every morning before work, we have a big bowl of this, and we're full of energy all day long!"
"Is that so?" Old Huang had to admit that he was touched, but he was still a little hesitant. Although his family was not rich, they lived frugally and every penny had to be spent wisely. If this bowl of noodles was not delicious, wouldn't the money be wasted?
Jian Jianan had been keeping an eye on Old Huang since he left the station. Seeing that he was showing some signs of loosening up, he immediately struck while the iron was hot and said, "Uncle, give me one! Try our Hainan Island breakfast. You haven't tried it yet, have you?"
"When you go to a new place, you have to try some new food, right? Plus, you can dip the leftover sauce into steamed buns, so it's a complete meal. It's cheap, plentiful, and affordable."
Jian Jianan seemed to have a talent, an innate ability to incite. When she promoted something with genuine emotion, few people could resist her offensive.
Old Huang couldn't resist any more. He coughed a few times and said, "Hey, give me a bowl!"
"Okay!" Su Qinxuan smiled, moved her fingers briefly, and then took action immediately.
When Jian Jianan saw his mother's actions, he immediately took a big step back and watched the chef start cooking in awe.
Father Jian Yangping and brother Jian Jiabei also followed her movements and stepped back.
She had to retreat. Once Su Qinxuan started cooking, it was as if she had entered a magnetic field, with a unique aura, as if she had become a different person.
Maybe this is what it means to be a natural born chef!
Jian Jianan quickly came to the conclusion that it would be best not to disturb the chef while he was cooking.
So, Old Huang was surprised to see that the family members all stood back to give the hostess, who was in the lead, space to cook.
Su Qinxuan lived up to everyone's expectations of her, her movements were efficient and her results were gratifying.
The longer a marinade is cooked, the more fragrant it becomes. Like an antique, it has been tested by time and emotion, and through countless cooking cycles with different ingredients added, and after repeated simmering, it finally becomes a base with a rich and tempting aroma.
Jian Jianan and Jian Jiabei first prepared the Hainan vermicelli, added boiling water and cooked it until soft, and then divided it into disposable plastic bowls.
Su Qinxuan stood in his own battlefield, arranging sauerkraut, bean sprouts, peanuts, celery, green onions, coriander, braised meat, and beef jerky in order on the snow-white flour like a general commanding his soldiers.
Next comes the main event—making the sauce. Su Qinxuan first sautés the chopped garlic in hot oil until fragrant. Then, she adds light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and balsamic sauce, and continues to stir-fry. She then adds a handful of scallions, thirteen-spice spices, and a few cubes of fermented bean curd. Simmer over medium heat for a while until the aroma gradually develops. Then, she adds a little starch to thicken the sauce, and the sauce is ready.
This is not enough. Su Qinxuan’s unique weapon has not yet been used. Only by pouring a spoonful of thick marinade can the job be completed.
Jian Jianan and his brother were waiting by the stove, watching eagerly as the hot marinade was poured over the vermicelli and soaked through the pile of side dishes on top, the white vermicelli, the green chopped green onions, and the brown sauce. The unique aroma filled the entire small space and spread out along the small bowl.
As soon as Old Huang saw it, his appetite was aroused and he couldn't help but drool.
He is a foreigner who has been making a living at home for generations. He has never been here, let alone Hainan Island under Guangdong Province. Now when he sees the specialty food of Hainan Island, how can he not be tempted?
As soon as he took the bowl, he started slurping it up in big gulps.
The rice noodles were extremely smooth. With just a light suck, the rice noodles covered with sweet sauce rushed into his mouth. The scene seemed like passive inhalation.
The rice noodles are smooth and go into the stomach easily with just a sip. The soup is equally delicious and blends well with the rice noodles, creating the best finishing touch.
Su Qinxuan's years of experience are no joke. Marinades are different from most foods. The older they are, the more fragrant they are, while the fresher they are, the less delicious they are.
Su Qinxuan had this jar of marinade with her before she married Jian Yangping. It was passed down from her mother, Grandma Nan of the Jian family.
I don’t know how many years have passed, and how many ingredients have been nourished, and these ingredients have in turn fed back into the marinade and soup base.
Now that the policy has changed, guests from far away can also enjoy such rich and delicious vermicelli soup base in a foreign place.
The rice noodles wrapped in the marinade complement each other and are indispensable. Lao Huang has no time to think about other things, such as where to go next after arriving in Shenzhen, how to eat the last steamed bun left in his arms, and when is the best time to go home.
He had no time to care about anything else and just immersed himself in eating the bowl of Hainan noodles in front of him.
The seasoning is the most stimulating to the taste buds, and there are many small ingredients, covering the rice noodles with a full layer. When you take a bite, you can taste the freshness and fragrance of the braised rice noodles, the crispness of the peanuts, and the saltiness of the beef jerky...
This revitalized his taste buds, which had become dull after a day and night of train travel. His mouth felt refreshed, his brain restarted, and he felt like he was coming back to life.
Jian Jianan, who had been observing his expression, smiled and said, "People in my hometown say that the best way to get rid of travel fatigue is to eat a bowl of hot Hainan noodles. You see, they are right, right?"
Jian Jiabei touched his nose. What his sister didn't explain clearly was that the original words were to eat a bowl of delicious food, so how did Jian Jianan arbitrarily change it to eat a bowl of Hainan noodles?
But thinking that this was all for the purpose of attracting his own business, he said nothing.
Old Huang stood in front of the stall, holding his bowl and eating. In just a few minutes, he had finished the entire bowl of Hainan noodles. He didn't say a word until he put the bowl down and returned it to Su Qinxuan, his face still wearing that dreamy look.
It’s hard to tell whether it tastes good or not, whether it’s so unpalatable that one becomes expressionless, or so delicious that one completely forgets everything else.
It was Jian Jianan who came forward again. She was still smiling and asked enthusiastically as always: "How is it, uncle? Is our food delicious?"
This sentence seemed to pull Old Huang back to reality from his dream. He strode forward and slammed his big hand on the wooden table with a loud "bang!"
This action not only scared the parents, but also scared Jian Jianan. Her brother Jian Jiabei calmly stepped forward and stopped her behind him, while thinking in his mind all the time, could it be that she doesn't like to eat it? Could it be that she is angry because the food is so bad?
But my mother has been cooking for many years and has superb cooking skills. Hainanese noodles are her specialty, so she shouldn’t make any mistakes.
During this period of time, a large number of people gathered around the stall, surrounding Lao Huang as if to join in the fun and waiting for his conclusion.
The four people were very nervous, watching their surroundings closely, waiting for the judgment of the customer who could determine their success today.
Unexpectedly, the next second the customer spoke, it was not praise or criticism, but a statement.
"Any more? Give me another bowl!"
Jian Yangping: "Ah?"
Su Qinxuan: "Ah?"
Jian Jiabei: "Ah?"
None of the three people were frightened by this reversal of events, only Jian Jianan was smart enough to strike up a conversation.
"Yes! A small bowl is 25 cents, and a large bowl is 30 cents. Do you want a large or small bowl?"
"Oh, by the way, uncle, you haven't paid the thirty cents for that big bowl in front yet?"
She spread out her hands with a smile, palms facing Lao Huang, waiting for her first reward of the day.
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