Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 602 Chapter 601 Candied Haws Are Sweet
Tang Zhitong estimated that the string of candied haws was more than one meter long. The rosy red haws were covered with a thin layer of sugar coating, and a small red flag was inserted on the top of the candied haws. Many children stopped to look at it, but they didn't buy much.

"Want to eat candied haws?" Tang Zhitong didn't plan to buy one for his brother-in-law, but that didn't stop him from asking.

"Yeah! Big sister likes to eat it too!" Jingmin nodded hurriedly when he heard his brother-in-law's question. After nodding, he looked at his brother-in-law's pocket, wishing he could immediately and generously donate money to solve his urgent problem. To be on the safe side, he even included Wang Jingwen.

"Okay, I'll make it for you when I get home. I guarantee it's something you've never eaten before, so don't bite your tongue." Tang Zhitong smiled and lightly scratched his brother-in-law's nose. He knew that Xiao Wang loved to eat it, and he was almost seduced by a string of candied haws.

During the Chinese New Year, Tang Zhitong plans to do something different to conquer Xiao Wang's stomach.

"Brother-in-law, can you make candied haws?" Jingmin was a little disappointed, and asked reluctantly, staring at the big bunch.

"Be more confident and use affirmative sentences. If you don't believe me, ask your sister or Fengzhi. They have all eaten it." Tang Zhitong pulled Jingmin out, "Come on, if we don't walk quickly, we won't be able to eat Tanghulu tonight."

Upon hearing this, Fengzhi started talking and describing to Jingmin how delicious the candied haws made by her brother were, praising them to be rare in heaven and on earth.

Tang Zhitong blushed as he listened. The main reason why many snacks are made at home is for hygiene reasons.

At present, the food sold outside does not have too much technology and hard work, but the hygiene conditions are quite worrying. There is a thin layer of dust visible on the outside of the candied haws...

Others may not mind it, that’s because you don’t have it at home.

In addition to this reason, price is also slightly related.

As long as the candied haws has something to do with "big", the price will go up.

A “one-meter long string” requires no more than two kilograms of fruit and two kilograms of sugar, and the price is 168!

Judging from the profit margin, all listed companies have to kneel down, but if the emotional value is taken into account, there are still people willing to pay.

In fact, it’s not only the candied haws that are expensive today, but also the snacks.

When he came in, he passed by a snack stand. Because there were so many people, he moved slowly forward, and the voices of other people's discussions inevitably reached Tang Zhitong's ears.

It was not until today that Tang Zhitong learned that during the Chinese New Year, every resident of the city would be provided with an additional two kilograms of flour and two kilograms of rice.

Even though the supply has increased, there are still people queuing up. The reason is that diners in the queue said that the prices here are reasonable and no tickets are required.

According to Tang Zhitong's observation, although no tickets were required and the prices were reasonable, the serving speed was not good. The chef's movements were slow, as if he had received instructions.

The group squeezed out of the temple fair, picked up their bicycles, and started heading to the flower market.

Perhaps because it is the coldest time of the year, the north wind has become much gentler and no longer as fierce as before.

Fengzhi was sitting in the back seat, holding the windmill and watching it turn, laughing happily.

Jingmin was sitting in the back seat, holding a big knife, grabbing Tang Zhitong's collar from behind, and shouting "Gee", as if he had turned into Guan Erye.

After returning home, Zhang Guifang first asked Tang Zhitong to prepare paper money.

The so-called paper money is actually yellow paper, the kind made of straw. It is first struck with a copper coin-shaped mold, then twisted open, and used to send off the deceased.

Ordinary people these days all use this kind of yellow paper, and those who are more particular will even add some paper ingots. There are no printed materials with a face value of several hundred million yet. I guess there is no inflation in the underworld, right?
Tang Zhitong did not stop Zhang Guifang from mourning Grandma Tang and Father Tang.

Right now, the situation is not serious, but it will be hard to say in two years...

After everything was packed up, Tang Zhitong began to prepare the dishes. In addition to the pork head, Zhang Guifang also cooked a lot of prawns: "Mom, how are you going to cook the prawns?"

"The sweet and sour shrimp you made last time was pretty good. I'll prepare it for you and wait for you to cook it." Zhang Guifang replied confidently.

"Okay! Just hold it!" The prawns this time were a little bigger than the ones brought back last time. If they were made into soft-fried shrimps and topped with a layer of sweet and sour sauce, it would look good, but the oil at home did not allow Tang Zhitong to do so.

"What is sweet and sour shrimp?" Jingmin was confused and asked his good friend Fengzhi.

"It's sweet and sour shrimp, made by my brother, it's delicious!" Fengzhi's mouth began to drool when she thought of the sweet and sour shrimp she had eaten last time.

Tang Zhitong first went back to the room to light the stove, found a pot, put two scoops of water and two handfuls of red beans, then squatted over the stove and started to cook the red beans.

As for candied haws, the best ones are those with fillings. Tang Zhitong plans to make some red bean paste and make candied haws with red bean paste for his family.

Before going out, Tang Zhitong opened the pot lid to prevent it from spilling.

Sweet and sour shrimps are not difficult to make. The difference from last time is that Tang Zhitong kept the shrimp heads this time and planned to make a bowl of shrimp oil noodles tomorrow morning.

After listening to Fengzhi's description, Jingmin stayed by and watched Tang Zhitong make sweet and sour shrimps.

When you first start frying the sweet and sour food, the smell of vinegar is quite pungent, but as the sugar bubbles and takes on color, the pungent smell becomes much lighter and begins to become sweet.

The taste of vinegar can easily stimulate the secretion of saliva in the mouth, so Jingmin's saliva never stopped whether it was at the beginning or when the shrimps were out of the pot.

After the shrimps were out of the pot, Tang Zhitong gave Jingmin a large shrimp first: "Try it, be careful of the heat."

"Brother! Brother! Where is mine?" Seeing that Jingmin had a copy, Fengzhi on the side couldn't help herself.

"Okay, I'll give you one too." Tang Zhitong gave the one at the bottom of the pot to Fengzhi, then took the cut steamed buns on the side and wiped the bottom of the pot clean.

Ever since Jingying and Jingmin came here, the steamed bread in the house has been hidden by Zhang Guifang. We ate dumplings yesterday and steamed buns today. I guess we should switch to rice tomorrow.

In short, it's all fine grains.

After finishing the dish, Tang Zhitong went back to the room and took a look at the pot of boiling red beans. He added some firewood to the stove, covered the stove lid, and then placed the pot on the stove lid, slowly heating it through the lid.

Sweet and sour shrimps are very popular. During the meal, the large plate of shrimps is the first to be eaten up. Even the soup is not wasted. Jingmin eats it all with steamed buns.

"We still have a lot of shrimps at home. If you want to eat more, we can make more." Seeing that the sisters were still not satisfied, Tang Zhitong smiled and comforted them. "Eat it once and you'll be satisfied. It uses too much sugar." Jingying also likes the taste, but when she saw the amount of sugar used just now, she secretly smacked her lips. The family's quota is only four times at most.

"You are not that old yet, but you have learned to care about household affairs. That's good. Don't worry about the sugar. I have a way." Tang Zhitong said with a grin.

"Okay, eat quickly. We still have to make candied haws later. Jingmin, eat less and don't get too full." Regarding the supply issue, Xiao Wang didn't want the younger ones to hear and spread rumors, so he interrupted the conversation.

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Marry a woman from Sichuan and Chongqing and enjoy a happy life. Xiao Wang's ancestral home is in Sichuan and Chongqing, and Tang Zhitong is very much a henpecked man.

With the candied haws hanging in front of them, Fengzhi and Jingmin restrained themselves in eating. But Jingmin heard from Fengzhi that her brother-in-law made a lot of them, so he had to save some food for snacks.

After dinner, the two little ones lost interest in playing and turned into Tang Zhitong's little helpers, following behind him to wash hawthorns and place them on the tea tray to wait for them to dry.

Tang Zhitong ignored the two of them and focused on preparing the bean paste.

Although it is possible to use space to remove the core of the hawthorn, Tang Zhitong did not do so. Instead, he cut the hawthorn in half with a kitchen knife and gave it to the two children to remove the core manually so that they could feel involved.

While the two of them were removing the cores, Tang Zhitong went outside to find a piece of bamboo, and secretly used an external plug-in to process it into bamboo sticks. In order to appear realistic, the bamboo sticks were rough in style, but without burrs on the outside.

As for child laborers, they had no concept of unequal treaties. The premise was that what they were given was what they expected. That was why things like doing housework for seven and a half years in exchange for the right to use a telephone watch happened. Even Li Hongzhang did not dare to sign such a treaty, and capitalists would cry with envy when they saw it.

While the two child workers were removing the cores, Tang Zhitong was skillfully making red bean paste balls, which he then folded together using two hawthorn petals and then strung together using bamboo sticks. The three of them worked in perfect harmony.

"Okay, wash your hands and wait for the food to be served." Tang Zhitong wiped the tea tray. In order to cool it down faster, he planned to use the tea tray to dry the candied haws.

There is a certain level of technical content in making sugar juice, which is described in Chapter 391, but in order to make it easier for those who like to do it, Tang Zhitong summarizes the following four points.
The boiled syrup is very hot, and the vendors pay great attention to the angle at which the candied haws are dipped in the syrup, especially when dipping them in fruits with a relatively high water content, such as strawberries, grapes, and kiwis.

These candied fruit usually just roll on the bubbles on the surface and then are taken out immediately. If they go in too deep, they will easily be scalded and affect the taste.

It doesn’t matter about hawthorn, after all, it has thick skin and flesh.

Tang Zhitong had limited ingredients to bring out today, only candied haws with red bean paste, but he also made them according to the standard of rolling foam, dipping them in syrup and immediately throwing them on the tea tray, so that the sugar coating on the outside of the hawthorns would be thinner and cool faster.

As for the taste, Tang Zhitong feels that it should not be affected because the bean paste also contains sugar.

"Okay, let it cool down outside and you can eat it." After Tang Zhitong was done, he added some hot water to the pot, intending to turn the remaining syrup into sugar water to drink later.

"Okay! I'll take it out!" Jingmin rolled up his sleeves and volunteered.

"Don't worry, let me do it. Be careful not to burn your hand." Tang Zhitong was quick to stop his brother-in-law. The hot hand was just an excuse. He was really afraid that he would accidentally spill it, and if he really spilled it, all his efforts tonight would be wasted.

"Then I'll hold a stool and watch!" Jingmin had no objection. All he could think about now was when he could eat.

"Okay, put on your hat and don't catch a cold." Tang Zhitong put a small green hat on his brother-in-law, then held the tea tray in one hand and a stool in the other. The tea tray had to have a place to put it.

Everything was ready, and Tang Zhitong felt like smoking again. He took out a cigarette and put it under his nose to smell the tobacco.

When he first came here, Tang Zhitong was very disgusted with this kind of cigarette without a filter. If he puffed it with a little more force, a puff of tobacco foam would appear. That feeling was best matched with the word "Puh".

But after I really quit smoking, I found that cigarette smoke was not unacceptable...

People are all cheap. They don't cherish what they have, and regret it when they lose it.

After taking a few deep sniffs, Tang Zhitong resisted the temptation and put the cigarette back. He took the pot to the main room and distributed the syrup to everyone. Jingmin was very dedicated and stayed outside the house and refused to go in, waiting for the candied haws to cool down.

It was cold and the sugar coating was thin, so Jingmin didn’t have to stay outside in the freeze for long before he tasted the candied haws with red bean paste.

"Is it delicious?" Tang Zhitong distributed the strings of candied haws to his family and took one for himself.

Although Tang Zhitong can't stand the sourness of hawthorn, he has a special liking for candied haws with red bean paste. They are not too sour and have a strong sweetness, and the soft red bean paste makes them taste great!

Tang Zhitong used to buy them, starting from three yuan a string with eight, all the way up to seven yuan a string with six.

Until one day I ate a hawthorn seed. The sour and refreshing feeling on my teeth was so intense that anyone who ate it would have to warmly greet the female elder of the vendor's family.

"Yeah, yeah!" Jingmin didn't even have time to praise. He was chewing on a string of candied haws in both hands, his eyes fixed on the remaining strings on the tea tray. Fengzhi was in a similar situation.

"Delicious! I think this is much better than the ones sold outside! If I sell it outside, even if it's three times more expensive than ordinary candied haws, there will definitely be people who will buy it." Jingying praised while eating.

Hearing what his sister-in-law said, Tang Zhitong smiled knowingly. Jingying was right. The candied haws with fillings are more expensive than ordinary ones. The raw materials are not expensive, but they are labor-intensive. The labor cost is much higher than the raw materials.

Thinking about it this way, the 15-yuan string of ice and snow world doesn't seem that expensive, but what the hell are the rock sugar hairy crabs, rock sugar pig's trotters, and rock sugar red sausages that keep up with the times? ? I can't accept it.

"Could this be the way to make money you mentioned?" Xiao Wang was also very satisfied with the taste. His smile became even bigger and his dimples were very charming.

"How could that be? I wouldn't do such a thing. I just made some for you to try." Tang Zhitong shook his head. Although small vendors have not been completely banned yet, it would be bad for their reputation if it got out.

"Are you short of money? I still have some saved." Both sweet and sour shrimps and candied haws require sugar, and the amount used is quite a lot, but Zhang Guifang didn't say a word of "no" and didn't even frown. But when she heard her son and daughter-in-law planning to make money, she spoke.

"No, we don't need it. We are just joking." Before Tang Zhitong could react, Xiao Wang immediately denied it.

"Yes, I'm just kidding. I make dozens of dollars a month, so I don't need it." Tang Zhitong also added, and then he saw Xiao Wang turning his head to the side, with his back to Zhang Guifang, and sticking out his tongue at him.

How to make money? It seems that Xiao Wang is looking forward to this!
A total of twelve skewers were made. Zhang Guifang and Tang Zhitong only ate one, and each of them had two skewers left.

After eating the candied haws, Jingmin became energetic. He put on his painted face, waved a big knife, and ran out of the main house to play in the yard.

Fengzhi was not to be outdone, so she asked Zhang Guifang for half a candle, lit the lantern, and followed her out holding the windmill.

(End of this chapter)