Xia Shuo swagger

Chapter 56 Old Oil Hot Pot and Love

The authentic Huaijiang old hot pot originally had no mandarin duck pot.

However, with the development of the tourism industry, most old shops still made concessions.

"Here we go, three delicacies white soup and spicy mandarin duck."

Maybe it's a leisure time at noon, the shop seems to be the only owner now.

The middle-aged man took a big pot and walked steadily to Xia Zhaoyao and Qin Shuo's table to put it down.

Different from the string pot that Xia Zhaoyao had eaten before, the shape of the mandarin duck pot is quite unique.

In the center of the thick iron pot, a soothing "S" shape divides the left and right sides, and the red and white pot bottoms each occupy half, which is very beautiful.

click.

The fire at the bottom of the pot was lit.

"I've prepared fresh duck blood for you over at the red soup, try it later?"

The boss pointed to the side of the red pot, grinned and explained to the two of them.

"The fresh duck blood in the hot pot must be served in a cold pot to taste—"

Since it's a dish test, he must say hello more, otherwise it will still be his own signboard that will be smashed.

…………

Generally speaking, hot pot restaurants do not have the order method of "half portion".

But it's different if the boss is easy to talk, at least the two of them have the privilege of this meal.

Qin Shuo didn't look at the menu, and directly ordered half portions of each item—except for very few items that couldn't be shared equally.

The boss is also a straightforward person, he simply asked, and went straight back to the back kitchen to prepare various dishes.

Now Qin Shuo and Xia Zhaoyao are the only ones left staring at the empty hotpot restaurant.

The fire was sizzling at the bottom of the pot, and the scorching air slowly spread out.

Compared with the white soup, the red soup obviously boils faster.

The gurgling butter red soup was tumbling lazily, and a very strong and special aroma came out.

"..."

"..."

Xia Zhaoyao and Qin Shuo glanced at each other, embarrassment written in the air.

Now what is this, well, anyway, to rule out dating in the first place—

Xia Zhaoyao couldn't bear the pressure at first, retracted his gaze, and began to fiddle with his mobile phone.

work, work—

It was as if he had overheard Xia Zhaoyao's inner voice.

next second.

Qin Shuo asked suddenly.

"Well, you are still in the employment time, right?"

"Of course—I keep track of time!"

Xia Zhaoyao quickly raised his head as if being pricked by a needle, stared at Qin Shuo, and replied aggressively.

If it wasn't for the sake of money, who would have dinner alone with such a perverted, shameless, and lecherous guy?

"You don't want to renege, do you? Let me tell you, the love counseling time will last until we part."

"That's good, that's good—"

Qin Shuo nodded, put down the menu in his hand, and moved towards Xia Zhaoyao.

"Then if, I mean if, I asked Han Mengxi alone to have dinner at a hot pot restaurant—"

"Look, in an embarrassing situation like now, there's nothing to talk about. What should I do?"

Qin Shuo took a look at Xia Zhaoyao's expression, and added something very sincerely.

"Anyway, sitting in the chair, you can play the role for a while—"

"..."

Xia Zhaoyao couldn't help but twitch his brows, and almost spilled the tea.

Forget it, don't be angry, there is no need to get wrinkles for this bastard.

"What are you talking about, don't you know how to talk about food?"

Xia swaggered his chin and nodded towards the hot pot, and replied angrily.

This is not something she made up, it was introduced in Zhao Huanxi's "No Embarrassment" rule for couples.

"Eat? Uh—how can we talk about hot pot? Han Mengxi is from Fuzhou."

"What happened to Fuzhou?"

"Huaijiang and Fuzhou both have hotpot."

"In that case, we also have them in Yancheng—"

Xia Zhaoyao looked at Qin Shuo helplessly, this time she really hated iron for being weak.

It's no wonder this guy is coming to Huantang Wanshiwu for campus love counseling.

With this IQ, it is not impossible to be lonely for the rest of your life.

Xia Zhaoyao put down his phone, took a sip from his teacup, and imitated Zhao Huanxi's expression and asked in an old-fashioned way.

"Hot pot, hot pot, there is a pot on the fire, but do you know how to distinguish where the hot pot belongs?"

"Uh, the bottom of the pot?"

Qin Shuo hesitated for half a second and said tentatively.

"Yes, the ingredients of the hot pot are not enough to distinguish the place of the hot pot. But the bottom of the pot must be."

Xia Zhaoyao snapped his fingers teachably like a child—well, the kind that didn’t ring—and patiently guided Qin Shuo.

"The base of sauerkraut is the sauerkraut hot pot in Northeast China; the base of tomato and sour soup is the sour soup hot pot of Guicheng; A pot of red oily soup with peppers floating on it must be..."

"Huaijiang or Fuzhou's Nanpai hot pot?" Qin Shuo nodded and looked at Xia Zhaoyao in confusion, "And then—"

"Then the question is—is there no way to distinguish between Fuzhou hot pot and Huaijiang hot pot?"

Xia Zhaoyao put down his teacup, and concluded with the attitude of a great detective.

"There must be, otherwise the two should have the same name."

"Uh--"

Qin Shuo froze for a moment, he was really asked about this.

As an authentic Huaijiang native, he really doesn't know the difference between the two hot pots.

after all……

As a Huaijiang native, who would go to Fuzhou to eat hot pot?
"Maybe... we put a lot of pepper in the hot pot here?"

Qin Shuo looked at the prickly ash and pepper floating on the red soup, hesitated for a few seconds, and replied with an uncertain expression.

Fuzhou is spicy and Huaijiang is spicy, he roughly remembers this.

As for other differences -

At this moment, dissatisfied shouts came from beside the two:

"Hey, what's the matter with you kid?! Lost the chain at such a critical time?!"

Is the owner of the hot pot restaurant.

He was carrying a large iron tray with a small dish of half-served dishes placed on it.

"Aren't you from Huaijiang? It's really embarrassing, your little girlfriend knows better than you!"

("Not a girlfriend..." Xia Zhaoyao clarified subconsciously, but his voice was immediately covered by the boss.)
"How can the difference between Fuzhou and Huaijiang hotpot be pepper?"

Xia Zhaoyao and Qin Shuo looked at each other, but couldn't figure out what the boss was talking about for a moment.

"The bottom of the pot, of course the bottom of the pot—the soul of hot pot is the bottom of the pot!"

The boss looked as if he was very angry.

So, the two quietly put down the dishes and sat down obediently.

"Although it's all spicy, the bottom of the Fuzhou hot pot is not the same as our Huaijiang..."

"The soul of Fuzhou hot pot is Danxian Douban, and the soul of Huaijiang hot pot is butter."

Looks really pissed off.

The boss knocked on the side of the pot, and quickly withdrew his hand—the edge of the iron pot was still very hot.

"The authentic Huaijiang old hot pot is definitely fried with pure butter. The bottom of the pot is butter. This is the symbol of our Huaijiang hot pot."

"Of course, the bottom of the butter pot doesn't mean throwing it in directly, it needs to be fried first."

The boss patted his chest proudly, looked at the two triumphantly and said.

"Butter, watercress, dried chili, white wine, fermented glutinous rice, ginger, onion and garlic...the proportion of each spice, the order of cooking, time, and color are all commercial secrets. For example, the recipe of our store, that is It’s been passed down from my great-grandfather’s generation, and it’s passed down to my fourth generation. After you go out of this door, Quanhuaijiang can’t find another one with the same taste as ours.”

"Uh, but I see...there aren't many DIY recipes on the Internet—" Xia Zhaoyao asked curiously, raising her hand cautiously.

Internet search is a good thing, and as a newborn in the Internet age, she is not easy to fool.

"Formula, what's the use of light formula—"

The boss snorted disdainfully, waved his hand and replied.

"Fire, proportion, and color reversal, these things are the key."

"To give a very simple example, as far as the oil temperature is concerned, if the temperature of the oil is too low, the chili will not be fragrant; if it is too high, it will burn, and it will have a bitter taste—"

Speaking of this, the boss seemed to be interested, and he did it directly at the table of the two of them.

"I see you two don't know how to eat hot pot at all—"

"correct."

"Actually... uh, yes."

Xia Zhaoyao nodded confidently.

Qin Shuo seemed to want to refute, but because of the boss's momentum, he held back.

"Come on, you guys will eat hot one by one first, and I will give you two a good lesson while eating."

The boss glared at Qin Shuo, and patted his shoulder with a big hand like a cattail fan.

"Especially you, you are a baby, listen carefully and remember well!"

"Don't embarrass our Huaijiang's skin outside in the future—"

"Oh, well—"

Qin Shuo was caught off guard and was almost slapped on the table.

He rubbed his shoulders with a wry smile, and nodded in agreement with the owner of the hot pot shop.
On the other hand, Xia Zhaoyao was extremely happy, his eyes narrowed into crescents.

Seeing Qin Shuo deflated, he was happier than going whoring for nothing.

"Good-quality butter, which enhances the aroma and taste and is not greasy—"

The boss picked up the long hot pot chopsticks, put two pieces of hairy belly into the tumbling red pot, and explained.

"Traditional Chinese medicine says that butter can nourish the five internal organs and nourish qi and blood. But those are the matters of the hot pot association."

"Let me tell you, the most important thing is the dish cooked in butter. It must be wrapped in butter. Try it—"

Steaks in Western food are divided into raw, medium-rare, medium-rare, medium-rare, medium-rare, and well-done.

However, the principles of Huaijiang people seem to be unified in terms of hairy belly:
"Up and down" is just right.

"Be careful when you burn your hairy belly, it's either 5 or 6 seconds, or 8-15 seconds if you're afraid it's not cooked."

The boss told Qin Shuo and Xia Zhaoyao in a serious tone while sharing their belly.

"Fresh hairy belly, it must be 5 seconds. The freshly broken one is crispy—"

"Below 10 seconds is almost fine, more than 15 seconds is too much."

The boss shook his head, a little indignant and a little helpless.

Obviously, he has seen too many counterexamples in normal times, so he just took this opportunity to do the same.

"Let me tell you, hairy belly is meant to be crispy, but if it's boiled for more than 15 seconds, it's a waste of money!"

"At that time, the hairy belly was definitely old, and the teeth were not good enough to bite, and it didn't feel crispy at all."

"All right--"

After the boss burned a few slices, he handed the chopsticks to Qin Shuo.

"Take it and iron it for your girlfriend, don't spoil my fresh hairy belly."

"us……"

Xia ostentatiously defended weakly.

However, her attention is now mainly on her dishes.

This... straight from that old oil...

"What's the matter, sister? Try it."

The boss looked at Xia Zhaoyao who was frozen there holding up his chopsticks, and asked with a puzzled expression.

"Don't worry, it won't be very spicy, the old hot pot gets hotter as it cooks—"

"no……"

At this moment, Qin Shuo suddenly spoke.

"Showing her off should be, uh, not very accepting of old hotpot."

"Just this oil, she saw on the Internet that it was actually eaten by many people—"

Hey Hey hey--

Xia Zhaoyao's eyes widened, and he looked at Qin Shuo with murderous eyes.

This black-hearted bastard is trying to harm her, right? !

There is a hot pot fanatic sitting next to him, how can he say such a reason directly in front of others? !
"Uh, uncle, I actually..."

Xia Zhaoyao turned his head with a smirk, trying hard to think about how to round up this topic.

But to her surprise, the boss didn't seem so angry.

"Oh, this... I understand—"

The boss sighed, as if deflated.

"The Health Bureau and other officials sometimes check this. It's hard to make old hot pot now."

"Let's not talk about it, a few years ago someone said what kind of hogwash our store was selling, and I almost lost the whole store."

"Uh--"

Looking at the suddenly aged boss, Xia Zhaoyao asked in confusion.

"But, the bottom material is boiled anyway, can't it be replaced with a new one?"

"If you reuse it, it's mainly to save costs, right?"

"of course not--"

The boss stared and retorted without thinking.

"Maybe some restaurants are messing around, but how can an old hotpot restaurant like ours be greedy for such things."

"Old hot pot, old hot pot, what you eat is the old oil that has been boiled over and over again!"

"Hey..." Xia Zhao shook the hairy belly in the oil dish with his chopsticks.

"Do you know why butter is used?"

"Because of the fragrance?"

"More than that, the key is that the butter is heavy, which can lock the taste of various ingredients."

The boss shook his head, raised his hand to help the two put the meat on the table into the pot, and explained while watching the slices of meat slip.

"The bottom of the pot just out of frying is meaningless. After rounds of cooking, the freshness of the hot pot ingredients, especially the flavors of various meats, will be preserved in the butter. This is like The old soup in the stewed pork shop is boiled repeatedly every day, and finally it will form its own unique taste, and the cost of our pot of old oil is higher than that of old stewed ingredients."

"The aroma of Huaijiang old hot pot is not only pepper, chili or other spices, but the most important thing is the fragrance of meat in this old oil."

The uncle boss looked at the man and woman sitting at the table, and after thinking about it for a few seconds, he added another sentence.

"Or playing friends with you young people, the restaurants are the same, and the places where you play are the same, but the feelings of each pair are definitely different."

"This thing depends on time to boil it slowly. There are not so many things that can be cooked slowly."

"Try it, I guarantee with my life, the oil in my store is absolutely clean—"

"Well--"

Before the boss finished speaking, Xia Zhaoyao directly picked up his hairy belly and stuffed it into his mouth.

She's not some difficult princess and the pea, and...

So hungry - so fragrant -

next second.

Xia Zhaoyao suddenly opened his eyes wide.

She raised her head, covered her mouth with one hand, and said vaguely.

"Wow! It's delicious!"

(End of this chapter)