Chapter 123 [Turning Decay into Magic]
Jiang Lili picked up the spoon and took a bite of the seafood porridge. Before it even reached her mouth, her nose was immediately filled with the fishy smell of seafood.
Looking at Wen Xiaomei's eyes as she watched the show, Jiang Lili immediately understood that things were not simple.
But Su Sanniang's scorching gaze was too intense, so Jiang Lili put the seafood porridge into her mouth and swallowed it quickly.
She smiled and said to Su Sanniang, "This seafood porridge is quite filling, and the shrimp and crab meat are very fresh."
Su Sanniang was a straightforward person. When she heard Jiang Lili say that, she waved her hand and said, "I know my cooking is terrible, but I don't have the money to hire an extra cook."
"Miss Jiang, you don't have to be polite. What's wrong with it this time? Is it too salty or too bland?"
Jiang Lili had no choice but to tell the truth: "It's too fishy."
"Hey...I washed the shrimp and crabs thoroughly..."
Su Sanniang slapped her forehead and said, "Oh no! I forgot to use shredded ginger and mint to remove the fishy smell first!"
She was afraid that she was careless, so she placed the shredded ginger and mint in a conspicuous place, but... Su Sanniang frowned. How could she forget again?
The boatmen who were serving porridge on the side also complained: "Sanniang, are you the one who made the meal again this time?"
"This is too fishy. What a waste of good ingredients. We finally reached the shore and got some fresh ingredients."
One of the boatmen couldn't help but ask, "Why isn't Sister Wen cooking?"
The "Sister Wen" mentioned by the boatmen is Li, the wife of Wen Kang, the eldest son of the Wen family. Although Li's cooking skills are not particularly good, with the help of Su Sanniang, and with no one else cooking on the boat, Li has become a savior of the cooking god.
Li, who was standing by, heard that the boatmen all wanted her to cook, and thought that the food she cooked was delicious, so she smiled with a sense of success.
When Su Sanniang heard the boatmen's question, she replied, "My sister-in-law said she was too tired today and didn't want to cook."
When Li heard Su Sanniang's answer, she was speechless.
She was not tired, she wanted Su Sanniang and the boatmen to understand his importance to the ship and wanted to raise their wages.
When preparing the meal earlier, Li and Su Sanniang frantically hinted that the cook's job was too tiring and they would not cook unless their wages were increased.
As a result, Su Sanniang, who was straightforward, not only spoke directly herself, but also could not understand other people's roundabout talk. She mistakenly thought that Su Sanniang had not slept well and asked her to rest.
A young boatman saw through Li's ulterior motive and pointed it out: "How can Sister Wen be tired? The cook on the boat only cooks a few times, and the rest of the time we eat dry food ourselves, and the seaweed rice balls invented by Wen Qiao are enough to keep us full."
What Li wants to do is none of his business, but it is wrong to affect the meals of the boatmen. Everyone is already working very hard on the boat.
Li said aggrievedly, "I, I just think my salary is too low, and I want my sister-in-law to give me a raise. You are too stingy to your sister-in-law."
"Sister-in-law, be honest with yourself, isn't the salary I pay you enough?" Su Sanniang was upset. This was the third time Li had asked for a salary increase. Now her salary was higher than the helmsman's, but she often shirked her responsibilities. She couldn't bring herself to say this in public.
"If you say so, then I won't do this job anymore. You can just be a cook and save a lot of money."
Li said to the boatmen, "From now on, you will all eat the food I cook. I quit!"
After Li said this, the boatmen suddenly became worried when they thought about the future.
The boatmen had a heavy workload and a big appetite, so Su Sanniang prepared two buckets of porridge.
These two buckets of porridge had so much ingredients that no one wanted to eat them.
"Sanniang, why don't you give your sister-in-law a raise? You are all family after all."
"Look at this porridge today. It's a complete waste of ingredients. How can anyone eat it? We still have to work later."
Everyone started to persuade Su Sanniang, and Li watched proudly from the side.
Jiang Lili felt that there was still so much porridge and it was a shame to throw away the shrimp and crab meat.
Suddenly, an idea struck her.
When she was working part-time, she worked in the kitchen of a chain restaurant. In order to save time and effort and ensure the taste, the restaurant usually used cooking bags to season this kind of seafood porridge, which could bring out the seafood flavor.
Of course, these meal packs from chain restaurants have all undergone food safety inspections.
Jiang Lili pulled Su Sanniang over and said to the crowd, "Hey, don't be so anxious! These two buckets of porridge are still edible. If they're too fishy, just process them a little."
Seeing that Jiang Lili was interfering again, Li was annoyed and said, "How can you make such fishy porridge? If it's too salty, you can add water. If it's too bland, you can add salt."
Wen Kang shook his head. "Do you want to add some pickled mustard greens or something? I've already said that everyone here prefers light flavors and can't handle strong ones."
"No, I guarantee you'll eat it."
Jiang Lili sent a message to Zhang Xiaopang: [Xiaopang, does your supermarket sell those seasoning packets? I need a seasoning packet for seafood porridge.]
@张小胖: I remember they do have these seasoning packets, and they're selling pretty well, especially among kitchen novices. Wait a minute, I'll go downstairs and look for them.
Jiang Lili said to Su Sanniang, "Come, Auntie, take me to the kitchen. I'll teach you how to save these two buckets of porridge!"
Upon hearing this, Su Sanniang looked at Jiang Lili as if she had seen a lifeline. "Is there really a solution? I'll take you to the kitchen right away. Just tell me if you need anything!"
Su Sanniang picked up the two buckets of porridge that were still half full and took Jiang Lili to the small kitchen. The cooking conditions on the boat were rather simple.
In the kitchen was a simple stove made of mud, on which stood a casserole with a diameter less than half an arm's length.
There is still plenty of dry firewood because we replenished it when we docked today.
The kitchen is small, with poor lighting and air, and is very cramped.
The kitchen at sea is quite special. The cook needs to watch it at all times and cannot make any mistakes, otherwise it will easily catch fire.
Jiang Lili was quite impressed when she thought that Su Sanniang cooked these two big pots of porridge under such conditions.
"Is this pot too small? Will it take too long to remix these two buckets of porridge?"
Su Sanniang didn't want to tire Jiang Lili out: "Miss Jiang, why don't you just forget it? I'll apologize to them and give the boatmen some of the dried meat we brought with us."
Jiang Lili smiled and said, "It's okay, wait a little longer, I'm trying to remember the formula for removing the fishy smell."
If it was someone else, it would be fine, but this was her friend's mother, so there was no reason not to help.
As Zhang Xiaopang went downstairs to look for seasoning packets on the supermarket shelves, he asked Jiang Lili, "Sister Li, I just saw you invite our class bully to join the group. Why isn't the bully speaking in the group?"
@Hou Xiaoxiao: Yeah, we haven't heard from Wen Qiao in two years, and everyone misses her. With the school bully around, we feel really safe.
Everyone in the class group was very excited about the school bully joining, but the school bully had not spoken out for a long time, which made everyone unable to suppress their curiosity.
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