Border Cook

Chapter 17: Pork Slices with Soup
Big eyes and small mouth are not good!
Xia Mingyue warned herself not to do that again, and she just put the remaining braised noodles in a bowl, ready to eat them the next morning.

After thinking about it, Xia Mingyue found a half-broken coarse porcelain bowl, picked up a spoonful of braised noodles from it, and placed it next to the泔水桶 at the door.

Last time, all the kitchen waste was eaten up by wild cats. I guess those furry creatures must be starving too, so I left some for them to fill their stomachs.

When Xia Mingyue woke up the next morning, she felt comforted when she saw that the bottom of the coarse porcelain bowl next to the泔水桶 had been eaten clean.

I just don’t know what kind of cute furry creature is coming here to look for food…

After finishing breakfast early, Xia Mingyue and Lu started busying themselves with making cakes when Liu Caisheng arrived.

They were pulling a flatbed cart piled with various materials such as blue bricks and loess for building stoves.

"You're here quite early." Xia Mingyue greeted.

"I took another job yesterday, and after finishing yours I have to go to the next one." Liu Caisheng told the truth and started unloading things from the flatbed truck.

Since the work can be completed in such a tight schedule, the craftsmanship must be as excellent as what the previous people said.

Xia Mingyue had a plan in mind, but she did not forget to remind him, "Even if we are in a hurry, we have to do the work here well. If the stove is done well, I want to clean up my kitchen, the courtyard wall and the roof. There is still a lot of work to do in the future."

"Yeah." Liu Caisheng looked up at the roof and courtyard wall that Xia Mingyue mentioned, and said, "Don't worry."

After saying this, he put all the neatly cleaned blue bricks aside, went to the water tank, fetched a bucket of water, mixed the loess and crushed wheat straw together to make mud.

After the preparations were completed, Liu Caisheng and Xia Mingyue repeatedly confirmed the location and size of the stove and began to build the stove.

Xia Mingyue and Lu had already made all the cakes. They asked Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu to watch over Liu Caisheng at home, and then they went to the street to sell cakes as usual.

Business is still booming.

Seeing that the cakes were almost sold out, Xia Mingyue said, "Sister-in-law, come to my house for lunch at noon."

For this kind of work, the employer usually provides meals.

Xia Mingyue lives alone, so it is inevitably inconvenient for her to take care of Liu Caisheng's meals at home.

Mrs. Lu understood and did not refuse. "Okay, I just want to take a break at noon. The cakes are almost sold out. My sister-in-law should go back to work first. I will come back to help you when you are done."

"You are going to build another stove next to the original one. It may be inconvenient for you to light a fire. Go use my stove first and ask Erhu to help you light the fire."

"Okay." Xia Mingyue agreed, and after buying all the ingredients, she went to the kitchen of Lu's house and started working.

The lean meat slices are cooked in warm oil, and are served with fresh garlic sprouts cooked with lard, soaked fungus cubes, chopped bean curd sticks, shredded oyster mushrooms, deep-fried tofu cut into long strips, etc., with plenty of pepper and aged vinegar, and then served with a thin starch, drizzled with a little sesame oil, and garnished with a little chopped coriander...

At noon, it was served with a few original flavor sesame cakes with crispy crust that Xia Mingyue had specially made with Lu in the morning.

The soup is a combination of meat and vegetables, and the meat slices in the soup are cooked with aged vinegar, which makes it sour and mellow. The spiciness comes from pepper, and the aftertaste is spicy but mellow in the mouth. You won’t feel tired even if you drink two big bowls of it. Instead, the more you drink, the more you enjoy it.

Shaobing and soup are an excellent match, and the pork slices in soup are sour, spicy and refreshing, very appetizing. Drinking a bowl of this on a spring day like this, you will feel that all the tiredness in spring has been swept away, and replaced by a whole body of clear and comfortable feeling.

The two brothers Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu drank two bowls each, Mrs. Lu drank three bowls, and even Xia Mingyue drank two bowls and added another spoonful.

Liu Caisheng, who was used to doing physical work, had a big appetite. He had worked all morning and was very hungry. He ate to his heart's content and drank five bowls of meat with soup and six original-flavor sesame cakes.

As he put down his chopsticks, Liu Caisheng said hesitantly, "After I finish the work, I'll only give you 480 yuan."

He ate too much. And this Lady Xia was very honest, and there were too many slices of meat in the soup.

Liu Caisheng felt that he was taking advantage of him.

Taking advantage of others was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Why?" Xia Mingyue was a little surprised, but when she saw Liu Caisheng's eyes wandering around the bowl in front of him, she immediately understood, "Brother Liu, is it because of the food?"

Liu Caisheng nodded and said, "We can't let the host suffer too much."

He is an honest person.

Xia Mingyue praised in her heart and said with a smile, "When you hire someone to do the work, it is a rule that the host provides meals. It would be inappropriate to ask the person doing the work to pay for the meals. If you are afraid that the host will suffer a loss, then do the work better."

Seeing Xia Mingyue say this, Liu Caisheng did not insist any more, "Okay, next time you want to repair the roof, build a wall, etc., I'll give you a cheaper price."

"Okay." Xia Mingyue agreed, "There's still some soup in the pot, but not much meat. It's too hot to keep it, so I'll give you some more."

Just now, Xia Mingyue saw Liu Caisheng finish all the meat slices with soup in the bowl, and he was quite hesitant in holding the bowl.

He was obviously not full, but was too embarrassed to eat more.

"Thank you." Liu Caisheng did not refuse.

When Xia Mingyue helped him scoop soup, she also gave him a sesame cake.

Liu Caisheng thanked him again, finished his meal quickly, scooped water to wash his bowl and chopsticks, put them back in the basket, and continued to work.

Bricklaying, mudding, shaping...

After Liu Caisheng finished making the stove and the low chimney, he carefully measured the size of the middle of the stove to make sure there was no error before starting to do the finishing work.

There was still some wheat straw and yellow mud left, so Liu Caisheng pasted it on the edge of the window.

The house has been used for a long time, and the gap between the wooden frame of the window and the wall has become larger due to the usual thermal expansion and contraction and weathering. After pasting it, the window frame will prevent creaking when the wind blows, and the winter will not be so cold.

"Thank you." After all the work was done, Xia Mingyue counted the wages for Liu Caisheng.

"The stove must be completely dry before you can light a fire, otherwise it will crack." Liu Caisheng reminded, "The weather has been getting warmer and windier these days, so I estimate it will be fine in three or four days. To be on the safe side, you can use it on the fifth day. Toast it over low heat first. If there are no problems, you can use it normally the next day."

"If you need anything, you can come to North Street to find me. If I'm not here, just find someone who knows me to help pass on the message."

Liu Caisheng loaded all his stuff onto the flatbed truck.

"Walk slowly."

Xia Mingyue sent the person out, and seeing that it was not too late, she and Lu started to prepare leeks and other ingredients for tomorrow's business.

Because we started late today, it will be dark the day after tomorrow when we finish.

The stove at home was temporarily out of service, so Xia Mingyue had dinner at Lu's house that night.

Lu cooked a big pot of white flour porridge, including tofu with green onions and spicy and sour potato shreds, and finally cracked four egg flowers into the pot.

　Luoyang banquet comes with sliced ​​meat soup, but the author has not eaten the Luoyang version, only the version from his hometown, also called sliced ​​meat soup, which tastes basically the same as tofu meatball soup. They are both very, very, very delicious, especially at weddings and funerals. The taste is far better than the authentic ones in restaurants. I suddenly miss my childhood...o(╥﹏╥)o
　　
　
(End of this chapter)