Border Cook

Zhuang Cui was helping on the side while looking at the large pieces of Guanyin soil with a frown on her face.

Both her parents had died, and she had been fleeing famine with others. She was starving along the way, and had eaten almost everything in order to fill her stomach.

Guanyin soil is naturally no exception.

In order to deceive the eyes and the stomach, the Guanyin soil was ground into powder and mixed with water into thick mud. The mud was then shaped into a pancake shape and dried by the fire or in the sun. When people picked it up and ate it, it was as if they were eating a pancake instead of a lump of soil.

After eating this cake, I no longer felt hungry. Next time when I was hungry, I would even take the initiative to eat this mud cake in order to satisfy my hunger for a while.

And on the road to escape famine, people are always hungry.

Therefore, many times, she even looked forward to having Guanyin clay cakes for her next meal so that she would not be so hungry and uncomfortable.

This is a memory full of pain, so painful that even after Zhuang Cui followed Xia Mingyue and her life was completely settled, she would still have nightmares frequently.

In her dream, she was starving and saw many delicious foods. When she happily approached them and wanted to have a full meal, the delicious foods immediately turned into mud cakes made of Guanyin clay...

Therefore, when Zhuang Cui saw these lumps of Guanyin soil again, the bitterness in her eyes almost turned into tears, surging out of her eye sockets.

After a long time, he took a long breath and suppressed all the emotions that were surging up.

The Guanyin soil had been almost collected, so Xia Mingyue and Zhuang Cui walked back together.

After a large bamboo basket of Guanyin soil was placed in the yard, Xia Mingyue found a grater that she usually used to grate the Guanyin soil into fine powder bit by bit. Then she used a rolling pin to roll the Guanyin soil finely and passed it through a sieve twice.

The Guanyin soil processed in this way becomes as fine as flour, and can be put into a pot and slowly heated until the Guanyin soil becomes hot and bubbling as the temperature rises.

While the Guanyin clay was being heated, Xia Mingyue mixed the fermented dough with eggs, salt, pepper leaves, black sesame seeds, etc., kneaded it into long dough balls, and cut it into small cubes half an inch thick.

Put the diced noodles into the bubbling Guanyin soil, stir-fry slowly with a spatula, and use the spatula to thoroughly scoop up the bottom each time so that the diced noodles in the Guanyin soil can be evenly heated.

Continue in this way until all the small pieces of noodles become hard and brittle, and make a "pop" sound when touched. You can then use a colander to scoop out all the small pieces of noodles, shake off the Guanyin soil on them, and put them in a basket to dry for a while.

At this point, the small pieces of dough can already be called small steamed buns, but because the surface is covered with Guanyin soil, they become a little gray and it is difficult to distinguish their original color.

But this did not prevent the small steamed buns from emitting a subtle fragrance, which went straight into the nostrils of everyone present.

"This smells so good." Fan Jinglan sniffed, but looking at the things in the basket that looked more like small pieces of soil than small steamed buns, she frowned and looked at Xia Mingyue, "Is this really edible?"

"Why don't you try it and know?" Xia Mingyue smiled and handed one to Fan Jinglan.

Fan Jinglan took it, looked at the thing in her hand for a moment, and then, as if she had made a great decision, she stuffed the thing in her hand into her mouth.

If this thing was placed anywhere else, she would definitely not eat it, but now Xia Mingyue asked her to have a taste...

Then try it first. Even if it's inedible, she will accept it!
Fan Jinglan originally had such determination, but after she mustered up the courage to take a bite of the steamed bun in her mouth, she immediately exclaimed "Huh".

The crispy texture, full of burnt aroma and slightly salty taste make the steamed bun not so bland and more fragrant. After chewing it a few times and swallowing it, I can still feel the unique and mellow taste in my mouth.

This gray-looking thing actually tastes so good?

Fan Jinglan was a little unsure, so she simply picked one up and continued eating.

The rich taste in her mouth rose up again and successfully aroused the appetite in her stomach, making her feel unable to stop eating this "little lump of earth".

“It’s delicious!”

Fan Jinglan suddenly felt like she had opened the door to a new world and stuffed several more into her mouth. She changed from picking them up one by one to grabbing a handful and slowly enjoying the deliciousness.

Others who were originally hesitant about the steamed buns fried in Guanyin clay, after seeing Fan Jinglan eating them so happily, also took some and tried them tentatively.

After tasting one, they all praised the steamed bun as being delicious. Then they all turned into "Fan Jinglan" and started grabbing handfuls of it.

Even Yin Lingyou couldn't help but nod his head, "This steamed bun tastes good, and if you eat it this way, if you often have stomachaches, eating some of it can help relieve some of the pain."

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"That's right." Yin Lingyou affirmed again.

Zhuang Cui, who was the most resistant to the Guanyin Fried Steamed Buns, couldn't resist the temptation after seeing everyone eating it so happily, and only picked up one to eat.

The fragrant and rich taste spread quickly in her mouth, making Zhuang Cui squint her eyes.

I really didn't expect that the steamed buns fried with Guanyin soil have such a unique flavor!
Zhuang Cui was filled with emotion, and Mrs. Lu beside her also sighed, "When I was young and had no food to eat, I also ate this Guanyin soil. Now that life is better, I didn't expect to eat this Guanyin soil again, and I also think that the steamed buns fried with this Guanyin soil are so delicious..."

"Who can I talk to to explain this?"

"Why bother to reason? In the past, we ate Guanyin soil without anything else. Eating this soil alone was tasteless. Of course, we felt that life was difficult. Seeing this Guanyin soil is like a nightmare."

In the central kitchen, Chen, who was about the same age as Lu, said, "Nowadays, we just use this Guanyin soil to fry steamed buns and eat them. The main thing we eat is this steamed bun, which is of course different."

"Yes." Mrs. Guo nodded, "Besides, this steamed bun contains white flour, eggs, and black sesame seeds, so it is different."

"It's like when we had nothing to eat before, we could only hunt rabbits and catch crabs to eat. The more we ate, the hungrier we got, and the colder we got. But now, we can eat stewed rabbits and steamed crabs, and it's like trying something new..."

Yes, times have changed, things are different, and they are no longer the same.

Everyone nodded in agreement, and then sighed. (End of this chapter)