Riding the wind of rebirth

Zhou Zhi ordered three tender dishes and a pig blood soup, and then introduced to Mai Xiaomiao: "Qiaotou is not the real Qiaotou, but a town in Yanzhou City. There is a family surnamed Xie in the town, which is famous for its delicious food. The restaurant was passed down from the first generation, Xie Quyi, and is now the fourth generation. Their three best dishes are stir-fried pork liver, stir-fried kidney, and stir-fried tripe. They are very popular and are known as the 'Qiaotou Three Tenders'."

The store is small, and you can hear Zhou Zhi introducing the dishes here and the chef cooking there. Mai Xiaomiao saw the waiter take out a large plate from the hot water basin and put a handful of raw pea tips on the plate. She couldn't help but be a little surprised: "Is it raw?"

"Yes, there will be some vegetables on top of them soon, and the heat from the vegetables will cook the pea tips."

As we were talking, the chef started to serve the dish. He heated the large pot very hot and added a large amount of vegetable oil. He added salt, bean paste, chopped pickled chili peppers, chopped dried chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger and garlic at the same time as the kidney. He then added green onions and leeks, and finally added water starch. It took only about ten seconds from the time the kidney was put into the pot to the time the dish was served.

"Come, come, eat this dish while it's hot." Zhou Zhi hurriedly called Mai Xiaomiao: "Eat the small pieces first. The core of the big piece is not fully cooked yet. While we are eating the small pieces, the big piece is actually still in the process of heating, just like the pea tips below. There is a saying here, which is 'half-cooked in the pot and cooked on the table'."

"Delicious, delicious!" Mai Xiaomiao nodded as she ate: "What part of the kidney is it?"

“It’s the kidney.”

"She's so beautiful, it doesn't look like that."

"This is called knife skills. There are at least six or seven kinds of knife skills used in China to cut kidney. The first kind of knife skills is called Phoenix Tail Flower Knife, which is composed of three connected knife spikes. In addition to being beautiful, it also improves the taste."

As they were talking, two other dishes were served, one was pork liver and the other was tripe.

The pork liver is also fried well in Zhouzhi. Mai Xiaomiao has eaten it several times, but he doesn’t think it’s amazing. However, he rarely eats tripe. He took a bite and said: “The tripe here seems to be cooked with white wine.”

"Yes." Zhou Zhi took a bite and said, "This tripe is so tender and crispy, so delicious."

"It seems like you rarely cook this dish?"

"This dish requires very high heat control, and it has a low tolerance for error. If it's overcooked, the tripe will become tough." Zhou Zhi bowed to the chef who was looking over and said with a smile, "Some chefs will add some soda when marinating, but I saw the chef didn't add any just now. He just used the right heat to make it look so beautiful."

The chef didn't say much. He was very busy at the stove. He just nodded to Zhou Zhi.

In fact, the cooking method and seasoning of "Qiaotou Sanneng" are exactly the same. It is a typical Sichuan cuisine that is cooked quickly over high heat. Its characteristics are heavy oil, strong flavor, high heat, and the dish is quickly cooked in one pot.

Seeing Mai Xiaomiao happily eating with rice, even Zhou Zhi sighed: "Xiao Miao, you seem to like spicy food a lot? I really admire your good stomach."

Fresh and spicy means adding a lot of fresh chili peppers into the dishes to make the spiciness of the dishes more complex. This is also the characteristic of Yanbang cuisine. When Zhou Zhi returns to his hometown from other places, he often needs a day or two to adapt first. However, Mai Xiaomiao doesn't seem to need that. He has a natural gluttonous stomach and particularly likes this taste.

Mai Xiaomiao nodded: "There are so many delicious foods here, it's like two different worlds compared to the United States."

At this time, the pig blood soup was also served. The waiter put a large spoon in the soup and said, "Master said that you are from other places and you know the origin of Qiaotou Sannen and how to eat it. You are experts. This pot of pig blood soup is for you. It's free."

Zhou Zhi quickly expressed his gratitude: "I really came here because of its reputation. It really lives up to its reputation. Especially the color of the fire on the belly is so exquisite. I admire it."

"Master has been cooking these dishes since he was young. It has been more than 30 years now. Of course, he is better than the average chef." The waiter said with a smile: "Enjoy your meal, both of you."

"It's a pity that we drove here, so we can't drink alcohol, so we can only eat with rice." Zhou Zhi said to Mai Xiaomiao: "Eat!"

In addition to Qiaotou's three tender dishes, Yandu's specialties also include beef and rabbit. After dinner, Zhou Zhi took Mai Xiaomiao to buy other things.

Cows were once the source of power for the salt wells here, and a lot of them were lost every year, which led to the tradition of eating beef here.

The most distinctive method here is the "cold eating" series.

Whether eating beef or rabbit cold, the method is similar. Just add the marinated beef and rabbit cubes and spices, put them into medium-temperature oil and slowly fry them. Add dried chilies soaked in water in the middle. Fry until all the ingredients have lost a considerable amount of water and the aromatic substances of the spices have been diffused into the oil. Then turn off the heat and soak the ingredients in the oil for several hours until the ingredients cool down.

Such beef and rabbit cubes can be stored for up to two weeks without spoiling. In the past, they were the must-have delicacies that the salt gangs took with them on long journeys, and now they have become the first choice for tourists.

In fact, Zhou Liu Niang Food Company's flagship product, spicy beef sauce, also borrows the ingredients and methods of cold-eaten beef, but the process is more rigorous, the meat is finer, there are more sauces and auxiliary ingredients, and the price is cheaper and more affordable.

The seller processes the food right next to the store. The big pot for processing cold rabbit and cold beef can be used by Mai Xiaomiao as a bathtub. Mai Xiaomiao could not help but be dumbfounded when he saw the big pot of beef soaking in oil and the chef stirring it in the pot with a shovel as big as a digging shovel.

"Master, how many pounds does this pot of yours weigh?" Zhou Zhi simply asked the question that everyone was curious about.

"This pot of 50 kilograms of meat only yields less than 30 kilograms." The chef took the opportunity to promote his product: "So in fact, our prices are really not expensive. When cooking cold beef, the loss per kilogram is so small."

"You should start using the vacuum packaging machine as soon as possible, so that the shelf life will be longer." Zhou Zhi also made a small suggestion: "Give us 10 kilograms, or 20 kilograms? Do you have spiced and spicy ones?"

"Twenty kilograms of beef?" The chef was shocked. "We also have cold rabbit and cold tofu. Tofu is much cheaper than beef."

Many people nowadays are so honest. Zhou Zhi couldn't help but smile: "Then let's get another ten kilograms of rabbit and ten kilograms of dried tofu. There's nothing I can do, I have many children at home."

The chef looked at Zhou Zhi, then at Mai Xiaomiao, who was still a young girl, and was a little suspicious: "Since we have family planning, how many children can we have?"

"About twenty or so. This year, if we mobilize the remaining few people in the mountains to come down and live on campus, we should be able to get to thirty."

"I see! You are teachers at the village primary school! Hahahaha..." The master chef was so happy when he understood: "You scared me when you said there were so many children!"

Because he bought a lot, and heard that the goods were for the children in the village primary school, the chef gave Zhou Zhi a bag of each variety he bought after he settled the bill, to thank him for taking care of the business.

After calculating that he could get back to Shudu before twelve o'clock, Zhou Zhi gave up the plan to stay in a hotel in Yanzhou and continued driving.

"China is so strange. Not only do guests not have to tip the hotel staff, but the hotel staff actually tip the guests instead."

"Hmm?" Zhou Zhi understood the first half of the sentence, but he was confused by the second half: "When did the hotel staff give me a tip?"

"It happens every time. Doesn't the boss always round off the decimal point? That counts as a tip for us."

"Ah? Hahahaha..." Zhou Zhi suddenly realized: "That's right, this can indeed be considered a tip from the boss. Xiao Miao, you have discovered another cultural difference." (End of this chapter)