Food starts with Mapo Tofu

Chapter 258 Traveling together (seeking a monthly ticket)
Although Yangzhou is not particularly big, the scenery is still good. The current development of this small city is not as good as other cities in Jiangsu Province, even though Yangzhou was a place where the dynasty vigorously developed in ancient times.

Yangzhou in the Tang Dynasty was the largest city besides Chang'an and Luoyang.

In the later period, due to its location on an important traffic road and convenient water conservancy, its development became stronger and stronger.

But now they are all tired, so they plan to sleep for a while, and then go out together in the evening. Since they came to Yangzhou, they naturally plan to have dinner outside.

You can say a lot about the dishes here by just opening your mouth.

After taking a nap in the house in the afternoon, Chen Nian got up and took a shower, then dressed himself up a bit, and threw the clothes he wore today into the washing machine in the room.

Then, he took out a new suit from the box and put it on.

After taking out his mobile phone and doing a brief strategy, Chen Nian chose the destination for tonight.

Dongguan Street is relatively famous here, although this place is likely to be similar to Jianshe Road in Rongcheng, Hubu Lane in Jiangcheng, and Huimin Street in Xi'an.

But in any case, it can be regarded as a more lively place.

Then I sent a message to An Hongdou, telling her to go here at night and try the snacks here. An Hongdou quickly wrote back and said there was no problem.

Chen Chuan came here for the first time and it was night, so it was not easy to go out privately and trouble Liu Qingsong to get a car to pick him up, so the most convenient way to travel freely was to take a taxi.

After checking the map, Chen Nian found that it was not too far from the hotel to Dongguan Street. He tentatively searched on Xianyu, and then found out that there were coupons for online car-hailing.

After a brief inquiry, Chen Nian learned that these coupons were directly charged into his account.

于是陈年只花了3块5就买了4张5元优惠券以及两张8折的最高可抵15元的优惠券。

Soon An Hongdou also dressed up.

As expected, An Hongdou only wore a slightly loose white T-shirt with short sleeves, while her lower body was a pair of denim shorts, and she wore a baseball cap to symbolically cover her face.

Although the height is only about 160, there is no doubt that a pair of slender and straight legs like chopsticks are obvious. Although he usually eats a lot, due to regular exercise, the two legs still look very slender.

But this attire is the attire of ordinary girls going out, and it doesn't stand out in the crowd.

"Let's go, how do we go?" An Hongdou stood at the door of Chen Nian with his head slightly tilted, and asked with a smile.

"Take a taxi."

Then Chen Nian closed the door, put the room card in his pocket, and walked side by side with An Hongdou, one high and one low, towards the outside of the hotel.

"Aren't you worried about being recognized by others when you go out like this?"

"What's there to worry about?" An Hongdou said with a puzzled face, taking out a mask from the small bag she was carrying and putting it on her face, "Isn't there still a mask? You shouldn't have worn it Masks? Although the inspection is not very strict now, if you go to this kind of place, you may not be able to enter without wearing a mask."

"Of course you have to bring a mask. How can you not wear a mask when you go to public places? And when I came here, my mother packed a big bag for me, a total of 100, even if I use one a day, it is enough."

On the way downstairs, Chen Nian booked an online car-hailing car on his mobile phone, and when he got downstairs, the car happened to stop at the door.

The elder brother of the taxi driver is obviously a local. When he learned that the two of them were here for tourism and business trip, the corners of their mouths were slightly raised, obviously trying to figure out the relationship between the two in their hearts.

But the smile was only fleeting, but the car stopped before the driver gave them a good introduction to Yangzhou in the eyes of the locals and where they should go.

"Okay, if you don't know, you can go back to the hotel and ask, they also know how to play in Yangzhou." After getting off the car, the driver brother said alone, which fully made Chen Nian feel the enthusiasm of the people of Jiangsu.

Then Chen Nian took out his mobile phone and saw that it only cost more than two yuan.

At this time, An Hongdou also inadvertently saw the deduction number on the old mobile phone, and was shocked: "Why did you only spend more than two yuan? Although the hotel is not far from here in the car, it is obviously two yuan It’s not even the starting price!”

"I bought some coupons when I was in the hotel, and I got 5 yuan off."

"Can you still do this? How can you teach me?"

In the end, Chen Nian and An Hongdou walked into Dongguan Street while talking like this, which is actually a Yangzhou local food street plus special specialty street.

Among the shops on both sides, there are many specialty snack bars, and some shops selling cheongsams, as well as craftsmen who sit at the door of the shop with a small hammer and beat a long silver bar on the table, and some sell silk. Scarves, a store of long-established domestic cosmetics.

In addition, there are some grilled squid, milk tea, candied haws and the like that can be seen all over the country.

Soon they passed by a shop that sold Yangzhou delicacies, and it was written on the outside that there were Wensi tofu, lotus root flour balls, boiled dried shredded rice, Yangzhou fried rice, lion's head and the like.

"Why don't you try this one first and see the difference between the local one and yours?" An Hongdou asked.

Chen Nian nodded, anyway, this is just a snack bar, just order a little bit to taste, there is still a long way to go, don't be in a hurry to eat as soon as you come in.

And one of the purposes of coming to Yangzhou this time is to see the authentic practices here.

So they ordered a lotus root rice dumpling, fried lotus root pancake, and Wensi tofu.

Soon the food was served, and they took off their masks. The surrounding area was a mess, but no one recognized An Hongdou.

Aging first look at the Wensi tofu on the table.

This dish is actually just a soup dish, and its ornamental value and significance are far higher than the soup itself.

And this Wensi tofu only costs 12 yuan.

Looking carefully, the shredded tofu in the bowl is uniform in thickness and basically the same length, even if compared with the ones I cut myself.

But even so, Chen Nian can tell at a glance that the tofu in this Vance Tofu uses "technology".

That is to say, these tofu are not cut out by hand, but directly pressed out with related equipment.

Chen Nian took a sip with a spoon and found that the taste was similar to his own, except that he added ham and other ingredients into it.

It only sells 12 yuan in other stores, which is only a little less than that in your own store.

It turned out to be about the same taste.

For some reason, Chen Nian suddenly felt a sense of loneliness in his heart.

Because this is probably because the owner of the store wants to keep the cost down, but if he is willing to add some accessories and raise the cost by one or two yuan, the taste is basically the same as that made by himself.

But other people's prices are much lower than those in your own store.

That is to say, compared with cutting this dish with tools and people with a kitchen knife, there is actually no difference in the final product.

"What's wrong? Why don't you look very happy?" An Hongdou was a little puzzled, wondering why Chen Nian suddenly showed such an expression.

"I just feel that the development is getting faster and faster now, and many machines and equipment can completely replace labor. Take this Wensi tofu as an example. There is actually not much difference between the one pressed by the machine and the one I cut by hand. The taste is the same.

But the cost of pressing it out with a machine is much lower than the cost of cutting it out with a knife. "

Youdao is a fan of the authorities, but a bystander is clear. This matter seemed a little troublesome to Chen Nian, but when An Hongdou heard it, he felt that it was not comparable.

"Although on the surface it seems that their labor and time costs are lower, but you have to know why Honghong Restaurant became popular? It's not just because the food you cook is delicious, but also because they can spend less For the money, you can eat delicate dishes comparable to those of those well-known restaurants."

"Isn't this also the reason why you set the barrier between the kitchen and the restaurant as glass? Every move you make inside can be seen by the diners outside, whether you are a chef or a chef. Braised pork is also good, or it is good to make Wensi tofu.

So this is your advantage. If you put it in the past, maybe only those high-ranking officials and dignitaries were so particular about food, but now people's living standards are getting higher and higher. Even if "handmade" is used as a gimmick, people are still You will buy it, not to mention that you are doing it for real. "

While An Hongdou was talking, Chen Nian was also thinking...

Indeed, there may be many devices that can replace human labor, but those devices and machines cannot be as flexible and convenient as human labor.

Take the Honghong Restaurant as an example. Uncle Niu likes to eat stronger flavors, so Chen Nian will add more salt and soy sauce when cooking for Uncle Niu.

Another example is Xiao Jing, who likes to use vegetable soup to pour over rice, and then mix it up to eat. Aging will also make the soup more flavorful.

In layman's terms, it means "watching people order dishes."

"How about it? Doesn't it make it clearer? Even if you go to the vegetable market to buy noodles, you will definitely feel that handmade noodles are better than machine-pressed noodles, and you will also feel that hand-made flowering steamed buns are better than machine-made dough. , and then steamed buns are delicious.”

"It seems so."

After figuring it out, Chen Nian no longer struggled.

An Hongdou divided this bowl of Wensi tofu, and lotus root noodles and Yuanzi also divided them, but in the end, Chen Nian took the majority.

Otherwise, if you want to eat more red beans, you may be full before you finish walking Dongguan Street.

However, eating here is still not satisfactory.

Although Wensi tofu is considered to be okay, it is because this kind of dish is not easy to make mistakes, and the store has been selling it for so long.

But the others were hard to describe. The lotus root flour balls were made too thin, even if they were only sold as lotus root flour, they were completely unqualified.

The lotus root cake is fried, and the heat is a bit overcooked. Although it may taste better if it is slightly burnt, the taste will start to deteriorate if it exceeds that limit.

Of course, this is also because of the old age in this business, so I am a little picky about eating. On the other hand, the red beans on the side are very delicious.

After eating here, they switched to another store.

The owner of this shop sells Sixi glutinous rice balls, and before Chen Nian went in, he saw many old people waiting to pack them.

Walking in and listening to them talk like locals.

Generally speaking, there are not many authentic delicacies on this kind of food street, but the taste of the restaurants patronized by many local elderly people in the same city is generally not much different.

So the two looked at each other and walked into the store.

After entering, a couple just left after eating and checking out, so they sat down.

"Let's try Sixi glutinous rice balls too." Chen Nian said, but just after he finished speaking, he glanced sideways at the bowl on the next table.

Including...the glutinous rice balls in that bowl.

"This glutinous rice ball is as big as my fist, and I can't finish it!" An Hongdou obviously saw the glutinous rice balls, and said that she couldn't accept it. If she swallowed 4 glutinous rice balls of this size, she would have to hold on to the wall for a while. out.

And Chen Nian suggested at this time: "How about... let's have a copy?"

However, An Hongdou immediately thought of the situation where the waiter brought up a bowl of glutinous rice balls with 4 inside, and she and Chen Nian took a bite each.

"At that time, we will ask the boss for another empty bowl. I just observed about it. The Sixi glutinous rice balls here have one kind of filling in each glutinous rice ball. There are 4 glutinous rice balls and 4 kinds of fillings. We can One person picks two or splits them with chopsticks, and then one person has half."

Just when An Hongdou was thinking about whether this progress would be too fast, Chen Nian immediately gave two solutions.

"Okay, let's have one."

Soon Chen Nian went to order food, then paid and took the number plate to the window on the other side and brought back a bowl of glutinous rice balls. After putting it down, he ran to the window to ask for an empty bowl.

After returning and sitting down, the two went to look at the glutinous rice balls in the bowl.

I saw 4 white, fat, soft and glutinous glutinous rice balls in a square shape, displayed in a bowl, and they were close to each other like four chubby quadruplets.

It was like four cuties in the world smiling at Chen Nian.

And it can be seen with the eyes that the balls are rolled out by hand. Although they are not as round as those made by machines, they seem to be more resilient. Even if they are placed there, they are slightly flattened due to their own weight. Some, but that makes them all the cuter.

"I also asked about these 4 flavors just now. There are four kinds of fillings: green vegetables, red bean paste, pork and sesame seeds, that is, two salty ones and two sweet ones."

Ke Anhongdou obviously had a difficult choice at this time. She didn't mind whether the glutinous rice balls were sweet or salty, just like the sweet and salty rice dumplings were just different tastes for her, but the two tasted equally delicious. .

"Then I'd better clip them all." Chen Nian finally said.

An Hongdou nodded: "Okay, I'll listen to you, but can we drive one by one?"

(End of this chapter)