A doctor who travels through two eras

Chapter 153 Top-quality ingredients: Abalone

During dinner time, there were not many customers in Green Island Hotel.

Obviously, Xiamen’s economic situation in 59 was not much better. The old man had not yet drawn a circle. Xiamen was at most a strategic location, not a special economic zone.

Lin Sanqi sat by the window, looking left and right, mentally assessing how much the restaurant's daily turnover would be, and whether it would lose money.

Southerners’ business acumen will never be lost no matter where they go; it’s ingrained in their bones.

In fact, what Lin Sanqi didn't know was that the situation in the entire Hujian Province was even worse, because 90% of Hujian Province was mountainous and there was very little arable land. Since ancient times, it was considered not to be a place that military strategists must fight for because it was too poor and had no strategic value.

Coupled with the impact of natural disasters, the food supply in Hu Jian Province was never enough, let alone in 59.

This is also the reason why a large number of Hu Jian people go overseas to survive. Life is very hard, but they really cannot support themselves in China. Although they are close to the sea, they can't stop eating fish every day.

There are few customers, and there are probably a lot of chefs backstage, so the dishes are served very quickly, especially the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, which is the fastest.

When the yellow earthenware jar was placed on the table, Lin Sanqi opened it and smelled it. The fragrance instantly spread throughout the dining room, attracting many customers nearby to turn around.

Lin Sanqi was so happy that he stirred it with a spoon:
"Wow, such a big sea cucumber! Such a big abalone! Two-headed abalone, and this is fish glue, right? What is this?..."

Seeing the young diner in front of them looking excited, the customers beside them all laughed, and the waiter was also proud of it:
"Comrade, if you want to eat the most authentic Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, you must come to our Hu Jian.

Our Hu Jian's Buddha Jumps Over the Wall uses the best abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin, fish maw, scallop, pigeon pigeon lips, pigeon eggs, flower mushrooms, spare ribs, etc. There are dozens of ingredients alone, including all kinds of delicacies from land and sea.

We also have very high requirements for side dishes. For example, the sea cucumber must be from Liaohai, and it must be a sea cucumber with six rows of spines and pointed ends. The abalone must be abalone with two ends, and it must be our Hu Jian Putian Nanri abalone..."

Lin Sanqi listened to the waiter bragging, and suddenly his ears moved:
"Wait, comrade, the Putian Nanri abalone you mentioned is the Nanri Island?"

"Yes, it is the Nanri abalone that is unique to Nanri Island. Let me tell you, comrade, the abalone produced in this Nanri Island is fat and thick-shelled, and the abalone meat is tender. After being cooked, the abalone meat does not shrink significantly. There is no better abalone in the world."

Who doesn't praise his or her hometown? But the speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it to heart. Lin Sanqi's eyes were already rolling around at this time.

"Also, the Nanri abalone not only has delicious meat, but its shell is also a treasure. If you dry it and grind it into powder, it becomes a traditional Chinese medicine called Ligusticum Cassiae. Do you think the entire Nanri abalone is a treasure?"

Lin Sanqi felt relieved. He was going to Putian to purchase Shijueming, and the place he was going to was Nanri Island. Now they were facing each other.

At the same time, he was secretly happy, thinking that it seemed that Hu Jian would not return empty-handed this time, as he had found another source of income.

The next day, Lin Sanqi went to the post office first.

Firstly, he sent a telegram to his workplace to report his safety and keep abreast of his itinerary; secondly, he also sent a postcard to Pan Ye to tell her that he was in beautiful Xiamen.

After coming out of the post office, Lin Sanqi drove the jeep and headed quickly towards Putian.

Putian is only more than 200 kilometers away from Xiamen. If it were taken on the highway decades later, it would take less than 2 hours. But in 59, Lin Sanqi drove for a whole day and had lunch in Quanzhou in the middle.

Fortunately, the jeep was modified. If it was an old jeep, I would have no left feet and hands today.

The next day, Nanri Island.

Li Weihua, director of the Nanri Abalone Economic Cooperative, was delighted when he saw the job and letter of introduction handed over by Lin Sanqi.

Before the Republic of China, there was no abalone farming on Nanri Island. All abalone were wild and had to be salvaged manually by diving into the seabed. The salvage right was in the hands of a few landlords on the island.

After liberation, individuals were not allowed to catch abalone, so a rural cooperative was established on Nanri Island. The policy adopted was collective catching, collective sales, and then collective distribution. Everyone was fair and there was no exploitation of anyone.

"So you are comrades from the capital. Ah, we have been looking forward to seeing you for so long."

Lin Sanqi was a little surprised. Why was Director Li so polite?
But even if others are polite, I can't pretend that people in the capital have their eyes on the top of their heads:

"Director Li, you are too polite. I was also commissioned by the hospital to come all the way to Nanri Island. How about the stone cassia seed I want to purchase? Is it okay?"

What buyers fear most is that the locals say the product is out of stock. Then they are done and have to either wait or return empty-handed.

"Yes, yes, yes. We have Shijueming. You can have as much as you want, haha."

Lin Sanqi felt relieved when he heard this:

"That's good. This time I'm here to buy 500 kilograms."

When Director Li heard this, the smile on his face immediately disappeared: "Ah, only 500 kilograms?" Lin Sanqi smiled and said:
"500 kilograms is not a small amount. After all, Ligusticum chuanxiong is a niche medicine and its clinical usage is small. If the quantity was not small and the supply and marketing cooperative was too lazy to purchase it, our hospital would not have to travel so far to purchase it in person."

Semen Cassiae, in traditional Chinese medicine, can calm the liver, improve eyesight, and treat vertigo.

In fact, the raw materials are very simple. You just need to choose Nanri abalone shells, remove the meat and clean them, dry the shells and then bake them. Finally, use a stone hammer to crush and filter them. The fine powder obtained after sieving is Shijueming.

The medicinal stone cassia must be made from the abalone or the large abalone produced in Nanri Island. Other abalone shells will not work.

As for why the Nanri Nine Hole Abalone must be used, you can ask Lin Sanqi. Who should Lin Sanqi ask? Or send a WeChat message to ask Li Shizhen?

Director Li smiled and said in a cautious and flattering manner:
"Comrade Lin, look at this warehouse. There are so many Cassiae piled up and unable to be sold. I, the director of the cooperative, am worried. You can see that we are an island. We cannot grow rice or wheat on the island. All the food is shipped from the mainland.

We can't sell so many Cassiae, and we have no money to buy food. There are more than 2,000 villagers on the island, and they are really starving to death. Comrade Lin, your Capital Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine is the largest hospital in the country. Can you buy more? Please help me."

Lin Sanqi blinked and asked in confusion:

"That's not right. Apart from our Capital Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, wouldn't other hospitals of traditional Chinese medicine in other provinces, cities and autonomous regions come to purchase?"

Director Li asked Lin Sanqi to sit down, and personally made a glass of boiled water before explaining:

"I don't agree with what you said. The amount of Lijueming used was not large. There were several businesses in Fuzhou that bought it for a long time and then sold it all over the country. Now that we have been liberated, private clinics are no longer allowed to open. This, this, this..."

Lin Sanqi understood that if private Chinese medicine shops and clinics were gone, the downstream demand would be gone, and as an upstream raw material supplier, he would not be able to ship goods.

It relies on a few traditional Chinese medicine hospitals across the country, and since Lithospermum officinale is a niche medicine, naturally no one buys it.

Even many provinces' traditional Chinese medicine hospitals have changed their prescriptions and stopped using Lithospermum officinale. That is, the Capital Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine is "rich" and has sent staff to purchase it.

Lin Sanqi rolled his eyes and decided to turn the topic to abalone.

"That's not right, Director Li, Shijueming has no sales, but your Nanri abalone is world-famous.

I had Buddha Jumps Over the Wall at Xiamen Green Island Hotel before. The staff there highly recommended your Nanri abalone and said that the authentic Buddha Jumps Over the Wall must be made with Nanri abalone to be delicious.

Your Nanri abalone must be selling very well, right? You have the only abalone in the world, are you afraid that you can't sell it and exchange it for food?"

When Director Li heard this, the bitter smile on his face deepened, and he stood up immediately:

"Comrade Lin, come on, I'll take you to see our Nanri dried abalone."

Lin Sanqi followed Director Li to another warehouse nearby.

As soon as he opened the door, Lin Sanqi saw that the warehouse was full of flat-bottomed round bamboo dustpans stacked up one above the other, with dried abalones in golden color placed inside.

Lin Sanqi smelled it and said, "Oh, it smells so good. Wow, so many dried abalones."

Director Li felt a little proud after hearing this:
"That's right. The reason why our Nanri abalone is famous is because our abalone is first-class in color, smell, taste and shape. Look, it's so pink and tender, very tempting, and makes people want to take a bite. Only low-quality garbage abalone smells like the fishy smell of the sea."

(Lin Sanqi thought, you bad old man better say "abalone", otherwise this statement will not pass the review...)
After complaining inwardly, Lin Sanqi took a dried abalone in his hand, and was a little surprised:

"Wow, how come it's so big? It's bigger than my hand. Director Li, is this considered a double abalone?"

Director Li nodded and praised repeatedly:
"Comrade Lin is from the capital, and he has good taste. This is indeed abalone. This abalone weighs about 300 grams."

"Hey, isn't abalone half a pound? It should be 250 grams."

"Comrade Lin, you may not know that our traditional abalone is weighed in Sima Jin, which is about 605 grams. There was a saying in the past that a thousand gold coins cannot buy two abalones, which refers to this.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that the abalone is only this big now. This is because the fresh abalone loses 90% of its weight during the drying process. So, if we infer from the reverse, when the fresh abalone is taken out of the sea, it weighs about 3000 grams, which is 6 kilograms today.”

Lin Sanqi was even more surprised: "Wow, an abalone weighs 6 jin, so it must be this big, even bigger than a plate."

Director Li laughed:
"This is just a two-headed abalone. There is also a rarer single-headed abalone, which is as big as a washbasin when it is fished out. Comrade Lin, take a look. This is it. Isn't it big enough? This was used as a tribute to the emperor in the past."

Lin Sanqi took the abalone and thought, “They are all this big? ? ! ! How much can they be sold for in 2023? ? ! !
"My goodness, Director Li, you have so many top-quality dried abalones, so there must be a lot of people rushing to buy them, right?"

Lin Sanqi was not stupid. The director of the cooperative flattered him so enthusiastically that he even took him to the warehouse to see the dried abalone. Several warehouses were piled with dried abalone like mountains, which was obviously unsalable.

(End of this chapter)