Travel back to ancient times and open a Sichuan restaurant

Chapter 28

Chen Dongzhi hesitated and took a chopstick to his mouth, but he didn't expect that the taste was surprisingly good, oily and elastic, the more he chewed, the more fragrant it became, without any pickled smell of pig offal. He lowered his head and slurped the noodles, eating a piece of braised food from time to time.

After eating, we paid the bill, 20 cents for a bowl. When leaving, I heard the lady boss of the noodle shop complaining to the boss that she only bought four spoonfuls of pig offal today, and four spoonfuls were not enough. Moreover, starting tomorrow, Zhongji will limit the quantity, and each person can only buy two spoonfuls. Tomorrow, I will ask my two children to queue up together, and we have to go early, otherwise Zhongji's braised goods will be sold out.

Chen Dongzhi left after hearing this, thinking that it turned out that the braised food was not made by the boss himself, but the boss had to buy it from other shops every day and then sell it at the same price as the meat noodles.

When he rushed home, Chen's mother was sitting under the eaves, holding one of his cotton-padded coats in her hand and stuffing cotton into it.

When she saw him come back, she asked him if he had eaten. If not, she would heat up the lunch for him. Chen Dongzhi said he had already eaten, so his mother continued to stuff cotton into his mouth.

Chen Dongzhi put down the cage and went to the back of the house to take a look. There was a pile of cabbage and a basin of clean water in the rabbit cage. He thought it must have been cleaned by Xiaoxue.

Just after resting for a while at home, he couldn't sit still and ran to chop firewood. Gradually, it got dark, the oil lamp was lit in the house, and Chen's mother was calling everyone to eat.

The Chen family's living conditions have been pretty good recently. Yesterday, Chen's mother asked Zhong's mother to save some braised food for her. If it hadn't been arranged in advance, she probably wouldn't be able to buy it when she got there. The pot of braised pork offal prepared by the eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhong family would always be sold out every day.

She thought of eating it occasionally. Xiaoxue and Xiaoman had eaten it before, but her eldest son had not eaten it since he came back. She couldn't buy it every time she went to buy it, so this time she secretly asked Zhong's mother to leave a portion for her so that no one would know.

On the table were a plate of stir-fried vegetables, a plate of scrambled eggs with wild onions, a bowl of braised offal, and a pot of radish and bone soup. This bone soup was taught to her by Zhong's mother, who said that children would grow fast if they drank too much bone soup. Her children grew up well because they drank bone soup regularly. Moreover, bones were not more expensive than meat, and one bone only cost one penny.

Chen Dongzhi looked at the bowl of braised offal and fell silent. How come someone in the village also sells this braised food? He thought it was a food only available in town.

Seeing her son staring at the bowl of marinated offal, Chen's mother put a chopstick into his bowl and said, "This is what your aunt Zhong's eldest daughter-in-law sells in the village. Her second daughter-in-law also makes a living from this in town. She said that her youngest daughter Ruyi came up with the recipe. Try it and see if it tastes good. If it does, I'll buy some more tomorrow."

It turned out that the Zhong Ji that the noodle shop owner mentioned was the one owned by Zhong Laosan's second brother. He suddenly remembered that he had met Zhong Laoer on the street today and thought that he also came to the town to buy things, but he didn't expect that he was making a living in the town.

While eating, Chen Dongzhi looked up and saw Chen's mother looking at him with a look of wanting to say something but stopping herself. As soon as she saw her expression, she knew what she was going to say. He quickly picked up a piece of braised food with chopsticks and put it into his mouth. After taking the last bite of rice, he left.

Chen's mother called him to drink the soup, but he just said he didn't want to drink it because he was afraid that drinking it would make him urinate more frequently at night.

At night, Chen Dongzhi was lying on the bed. The general had given him a letter of recommendation before, asking him to take it to their local county magistrate. The content of the letter recommended Chen Dongzhi, hoping that the county magistrate could find a good job for Chen Dongzhi in the yamen for the sake of the general. However, Chen Dongzhi had never taken the letter to see the county magistrate since he came back.

First, he was unwilling to let the general use his personal connections to help him find a job. Even if it was farming or hunting, he could support himself and his mother.

Secondly, he didn't like a life of being constrained. Although there were military regulations in the barracks before, his colleagues were all generous men who spoke their minds and were straightforward. He had a dull personality, and those who disliked him in the barracks would only use their fists to argue, and they would submit to whoever had the stronger fist.

The yamen is not like a military camp. One has to consider everything one says and does. He considers himself not to be the kind of person who would guess people's minds, so it is better not to go to this yamen.

Let's go up the mountain to take a look tomorrow. The weather has been a bit cold recently. If we can't catch big prey, we might as well catch some rabbits and raise them. We will go to the fields to sow seeds in the spring of next year.

......

Before Zhong Ruyi took the four rabbits into the kitchen, she asked Aunt Chen if she minded her making other dishes with the rabbit meat. Aunt Chen said she didn't mind.

Zhong Ruyi had a chance to make some fun. She first made a dish of cold rabbit. When the remaining rabbit meat was ready, the cold rabbit would taste better because it was already cold. She decided to make fried rabbit meat with peppers.

Most of the peppers brought from home were washed and dried by Zhong's mother, leaving only a few fresh peppers. She took out a handful, washed them, removed the seeds, and cut them into shreds. She also took out the ginger and onions and cut them into shreds. She washed the rabbit meat and cut it into thin shreds.

Heat oil in a pan, and when the oil is hot, pour in the shredded chili and rabbit meat, and remove them after frying. Then add the prepared shredded ginger and scallion to the pan and stir-fry until fragrant. After stir-frying, pour the rabbit meat and chili shreds in and stir-fry. After stir-frying evenly, when it feels almost cooked, add salt and stir-fry for a while before serving.

Zhong Ruyi originally wanted to cook today's dinner together, but then she thought that the three of them had just eaten lunch and should not be hungry so soon, so she decided to cook dinner later.

The second sister-in-law took the basket and took it to Aunt Chen. As soon as she opened the door, Aunt Chen smiled from ear to ear and thanked her repeatedly. She also invited the second sister-in-law Zhong to come in for dinner. The second sister-in-law quickly refused, saying that her younger sister had just prepared dinner and they could eat it now.

As soon as Mrs. Zhong left, Aunt Chen was still wondering why the Zhong family was so nice. But when she lifted the cloth on the basket and smelled the fragrance, she saw a plate of red and green stir-fried rabbit meat and a plate of cold rabbit that she had eaten last time.

When the food was served, the whole family looked on eagerly, waiting for Aunt Chen to come to the table and start eating. As soon as Aunt Chen sat down, everyone at the table kept eating, including the three grandchildren, whose mouths were full of oil and whose foreheads were sweating from the spiciness, but they were still unwilling to stop.

Aunt Chen told her daughter-in-law today that she would ask the little girl from the Zhong family next door to help cook rabbit meat, so Yu Hui Niang only fried a vegetable dish and a pot of soup. At this moment, the three children drank the soup because it was spicy, and the adults also had red and swollen mouths due to the spiciness.

I don't know how the Zhong family's little sister cooked it, but the rabbit meat was fragrant, spicy, and tasty, with fresh and tender meat and no fishy smell at all. The children ate half a bowl of rice more than usual. The rice cooked today was not enough, so the adults took steamed buns to eat with it, and they felt that even the steamed buns tasted good.

After the family had eaten and drunk their fill, the little grandson asked Aunt Chen, "Grandma, why is Sister Ruyi's cooking so delicious?"

Aunt Chen didn't know how to answer, so she could only say, "Because she's very smart and the food she cooks is very delicious."

The young grandson thought for a moment and said, "When I grow up, I will marry Sister Ruyi and have delicious food every day."

As soon as these words came out, the whole family laughed. Aunt Chen hugged him and laughed non-stop, "When you grow up, your sister Ruyi will be married."

"I don't care. I'm going to marry Sister Ruyi! I'm going to marry her tomorrow!"

"Okay, okay, then go ask your sister Ruyi tomorrow if she's willing to marry a little brat like you."