From selling box lunches to becoming a famous Chinese chef

Chapter 640: It’s over, just brush off your clothes and go away

The dish of sweet and sour carp is not only popular in the village.

Even in Zhanhua City, and even some people who have been to Bincheng City, have never seen such beautiful sweet and sour carp as the one served at the Ma family’s wedding banquet today.

The sweet and sour carp on every table is a whole carp.

The fried carp looks like it has just jumped out of the water.

The skin is fried until golden brown, and the flower cutouts are completely opened up and almost look hollowed out.

Before serving, pour the hot sweet and sour sauce on it, and you will get a sweet and sour taste.

Everyone at every table in the village was so shocked that they were speechless.

After a long time, it was a child from the village who shouted.

"Grandma is so beautiful. The fish in this dish looks like it's about to fly."

The child's shout immediately woke up everyone in the village.

Instantly the whole village exclaimed.

"It's so beautiful."

"I tell you, I've never seen such beautiful sweet and sour carp in any big restaurant in the city."

"The Ma family has hired a master."

"This sweet and sour carp, I'm afraid only the master chef in Quancheng can make it?"

"Yes, I've seen it on TV. In a national cooking competition on TV, our Shandong cuisine chef made sweet and sour carp like this on the spot."

"Really? How much did the Ma family spend? Did they really hire a master chef from Quancheng?"

"It doesn't look like a master chef. I think it's a few young chefs cooking."

"Young chef? Could it be the national champion from our province?"

"Hahaha, how is that possible? The Ma family is related to them, right? Can they invite the number one chef to cook this wedding banquet for their family?"

"That's right. If we hire a top-ranked chef to cook a wedding banquet, how much would that cost?"

Although some people in the village suspected that it was Feng Zhengming who came.

But even if there was doubt, no one was willing to believe it.

Because if Feng Zhengming, the top chef, came to prepare the wedding banquet for the Ma family.

Everyone in the village found it incredible.

No matter how you look at it, it doesn't seem like the Ma family can afford to hire Feng Zhengming.

In fact, what the villagers didn’t know was that Feng Zhengming was busy at the stove in Lao Ma’s yard at this moment.

The stove was built by the Ma family specifically for the wedding banquet.

Although it is an earthen stove, Grandpa Ma’s skill in building the stove is really good.

The earthen stove can not only gather the fire, but also has special air intake and exhaust vents to ensure that the fire remains stable.

Feng Zhengming actually felt that it was quite handy to use.

Grandpa Ma saw that Feng Zhengming used it very smoothly.

He was still a little worried, so he came forward and asked.

"Zhuangyuan, is this country earthen stove okay for you?"

Feng Zhengming responded to Grandpa Ma with a smile.

"Grandpa Ma, this stove you built is very good. It is very convenient for me to use. You may not know that when I first learned to cook, I cooked for my master, so I am used to using this kind of earthen stove."

Grandpa Ma laughed when he heard it: "Okay, just get used to it."

Feng Zhengming continued waving the spatula in his hand with a smile.

Because the pot is very big, there are a lot of dishes in it.

At this time, Feng Zhengming could not use a spatula, but could only use a larger spatula to scrape the bottom of the pot and turn the vegetables in the pot from the bottom up.

Stir-frying like this is actually very physically demanding.

Ding Yuan and Gao Yongfu, both from the kitchen team, knew it very well.

This is basically the situation when they are cooking big pots of food in the kitchen.

Often they need several people to take turns stir-frying the food.

However, Feng Zhengming's strength really made Ding Yuan and Gao Yongfu feel ashamed of themselves.

When he used his shovel, he could really shovel directly to the bottom of the pot.

Then the whole pot of food turned upside down.

Seeing this strength, Ding Yuan and Gao Yongfu could only remain silent.

Hou Dong's eyes lit up as he stared at Feng Zhengming with admiration.

Dishes were served one by one.

The pork belly was also served.

The villagers were really satisfied with the meal and praised the Ma family repeatedly.

When serving pork elbow and four-happiness meatballs.

Once again, the whole village was shocked.

There is a pork elbow on every table.

After being cooked by Feng Zhengming, the pork elbow was stewed until it was tender and the bones fell off when it was served.

Whether it is the skin, fat or the lean meat inside, it is really tempting just by looking at it.

The key is the rich meaty aroma that goes straight into your nose.

As soon as the pork elbows were served on many tables, everyone ignored all other dishes and immediately started eating the pork elbows with their chopsticks.

When the Four-Happiness Meatballs were served, many people also drooled.

When the villagers tried to separate the four-happiness meatballs with chopsticks.

A scene occurred that shocked everyone.

With a gentle poke of the chopsticks, the four-happiness meatballs were pierced directly.

Then use the chopsticks to gently pick up and divide.

All the four-happiness meatballs can be easily separated.

There is juicy meat filling inside.

These four-happiness meatballs are so delicious that they make people salivate just by looking at them.

Someone in the village couldn't help but exclaim.

"These four-happiness meatballs are so good. Most of the four-happiness meatballs I've eaten in restaurants in the city needed to be cut with a knife."

"Yes, yes. There are so many Four Joy Meatballs that you can't even scoop them out with a spoon."

"These four-joy meatballs are really good. Look, the meat filling inside is still very sticky."

"And there's juice coming out of it. How did they make it?"

Feng Zhengming's dishes really impressed the whole village.

Finally, Feng Zhengming specially made a big pot of sweet soup.

It is a blessing for Ma Qixian to have a sweet and happy life.

When Ma Qixian and the bride toasted, they toasted Feng Zhengming first.

Feng Zhengming felt a little embarrassed when he saw Ma Qixian toasting him first: "Toasting me first? How can I feel embarrassed about this?"

Ma Qixian raised his glass respectfully and said, "Master Chef, thank you so much for preparing such a sumptuous wedding banquet for me today. This first glass of wine must be in your honor."

The bride also echoed, "Thank you, Chef Zhuangyuan. We really admire your cooking skills."

Feng Zhengming raised his glass and said, "Well, I wish you can live in harmony and happiness, just like the wedding banquet I prepared today, which will always be so beautiful."

After drinking the toasts from the bride and groom, Feng Zhengming and his friends sat down to eat. They had been busy all afternoon, and by this time, most tables in the village had almost finished eating.

Some villagers originally planned to wait until the wedding banquet was over so that they could pick some dishes to take home and eat.

As a result, thanks to Feng Zhengming's cooking skills, there was nothing left at each table.

Because the food was so delicious, many people who came to the wedding banquet to drink didn't even drink much of the wine and just focused on eating the food.

After the bride and groom toasted, the Ma family gave everyone a bag of wedding candy.

The wedding candies distributed in the village are candies bought from the city and then wrapped at home using handkerchiefs printed with festive flowers.

Every guest at every table gets a pack, and some village children are given two packs.

However, the villagers are not very interested in drinking and wedding candy now.

Almost every table asked the Ma family where they found such a good chef.

"Guoqiang, where did you hire the chef this time? If we have a wedding banquet in the future, I will also invite him."

"Yes, tell us about him and introduce him to us all. We will ask him to prepare our wedding banquets in the future."

"The cooking skills are really great. I feel that if we ask him to cook our wedding banquet, all the guests will definitely be satisfied."

"That's right, Lao Ma, please tell us about him and introduce him to us."

"We are all from the same village, let's get to know each other."

Facing the villagers' questions about the chef.

Almost everyone in the Ma family tried to evade the issue whenever possible.

When asked further, the Ma family said that the person was a relative who had returned from another place. Because they couldn't hire a chef, they temporarily helped to prepare the wedding banquet, and they were not sure whether they would be able to return to the village in the future.

This set of rhetoric made the villagers feel regretful, but it also stopped everyone from asking further questions.

After dinner, Feng Zhengming took off his chef's uniform, went back into the house, took out his camera, and took some photos in the village.

Not only did he record the appearances of some of the people in the village who were attending the wedding banquet, he also recorded the festive atmosphere of the entire village.

The wedding banquet lasted from noon to three in the afternoon.

The Ma family was busy packing up their things.

Feng Zhengming and others wanted to help, but were rejected by the Ma family.

"I can't ask you to help anymore. You've already worked very hard at noon today."

Seeing that the Ma family did not ask for help, Feng Zhengming went back to the house to pack up his things.

Then he smiled and asked the three people accompanying him: "Are you tired? Can you leave now?"

Ding Yuan, Gao Yongfu and Hou Dong looked at each other.

Ding Yuan quickly understood what Feng Zhengming meant.

"Brother Feng, you don't want the Ma family's money, so you want to leave early?"

Feng Zhengming nodded: "Yes, for this wedding banquet, I never thought of asking for money from their family, nor did I think of asking for anything in return. It was just my spur of the moment idea, so I kept you busy for a few days.

When we return, I will compensate you, and we don’t want the Ma family’s money anymore.”

Gao Yongfu immediately stood up and said, "No need to compensate. Brother Feng, you led us in preparing the wedding banquet and we also learned a lot. We really don't need compensation."

Hou Dong and Ding Yuan also followed suit and said that no compensation was needed.

Seeing that the three of them refused, Feng Zhengming asked with a smile, "Really? I didn't even say what kind of compensation I'd give you. What if it's a chance for you to learn in the kitchen of Huiquanlou?"

After hearing what Feng Zhengming said, the three people immediately expressed their desire for the compensation.

Seeing the looks of the three people, Feng Zhengming laughed happily.

Afterwards, the four people did not alarm the Ma family. They left a note for them, packed up their things and left the village.

When the Ma family packed up their things and returned home, they found that Feng Zhengming and the others had already left.

When Ma's grandmother heard her grandson read the note to her, she couldn't help but sigh, "What a good man, he really deserves to be the top scholar. He helped us prepare such a wonderful wedding banquet, but he left without asking for any money."

Everyone in the Ma family also felt that they were really indebted to Feng Zhengming.

Ma Guoli suddenly prepared to chase after him.

"No, I have to chase them. I can't let them go like this."

Ma Qixian immediately agreed: "Yes, my brother won't take you with him to chase after him, uncle."

Ma Guoli did not let his nephew go with him.

"Don't go. Today is your big day. You and your niece-in-law must have been very busy at noon. You should rest at home. I'll go by bike."

Finally, Ma Guoli rode his bicycle and chased after him out of the village.

What Ma Guoli didn't expect was that Feng Zhengming and others were actually waiting for him at the intersection outside the village.

The intersection here is the fork in the road that goes to the city and continues east.

When Ma Guoli chased here, he happened to see Feng Zhengming and others waiting at the intersection.

Feng Zhengming saw Ma Guoli riding his bike towards him.

He smiled and pointed to the other three people.

"What did I say? Will Ma's uncle come after us?"

Ma Guoli kicked hard a few times and came to Feng Zhengming and the others, panting.

Seeing Ma Guoli panting.

Feng Zhengming spoke first: "Uncle, you see I call you uncle. If you caught up with us and gave us money, I can accept the money, but after I accept the money, I will no longer call you uncle. We will just be strangers in the future."

These words interrupted Ma Guoli's plan of how to persuade Feng Zhengming and others to accept the money.

I heard Feng Zhengming call me "uncle".

Ma Guoli really doesn't want his relationship with Feng Zhengming to become strangers in the future.

Seeing Ma Guoli choked by his own words.

Feng Zhengming continued to enlighten him with a smile.

"Uncle, I told you that our meeting was fate. I helped your family prepare this wedding banquet because I thought we were compatible and it was also for this fate, so let's not talk about money."

Having said that, Ma Guoli knew that he definitely couldn't afford the money.

"Okay, if you don't want the money, then don't worry. But you can't just leave like that, right? You've worked hard all day, so you should at least stay at home for another night, right?"

Feng Zhengming waved his hand: "No, we are not very tired, and we have been delayed here for a few days. We also need to hurry up. There are still many places in our Qilu land waiting for us to see."

Then Feng Zhengming gave Ma Guoli serious advice without waiting for him to speak.

"Uncle, you must not be in a hurry to sell the dates yourself. It is best to register a company first, and then find a place to store the purchased dates. It may be difficult at the beginning when the sales channels are not open."

Ma Guoli listened carefully and nodded and wrote it down.

"Thank you. I will definitely not do it rashly. I need to investigate the market and establish good sales channels first. I know all this."

Feng Zhengming is full of expectations: "I hope to see your winter jujube brand in the future."

Ma Guoli smiled and nodded seriously and agreed: "Okay, I will definitely work hard."

Feng Zhengming and the other three said goodbye to Ma Guoli and continued to head east together.

Ma Guoli watched their backs as they walked away, his heart filled with gratitude and the entrepreneurial enthusiasm inspired by Feng Zhengming.

After leaving Zhanhua, Feng Zhengming and his team headed eastward. This time their goal was very clear.

We have to walk to the Yellow River and then head east along the river.

Go to the mouth of the Yellow River and take a good look.

Because there was no mobile phone positioning in that era, Feng Zhengming and his friends could only hold the map and ask as they walked.

It was getting dark and we still hadn't reached the Yellow River.

Although there was light from the village ahead, Feng Zhengming and his friends finally decided to sleep in the tent tonight.

(End of this chapter)