Cute Wife Gourmet

Chapter 48 Preserved Eggs

Li Erniang's brother's restaurant is right on the bank of the Qinhuai River. It is built along the river and is an excellent location. The restaurant is not small, a three-story building with carved beams and painted buildings, steep eaves, and an even more domineering signboard, called "Tian Shang Ju".

Damn, this kind of sign has not been censored.

Li Erniang took Ye Jiayao to meet her brother, the owner of the restaurant.

The boss was looking at the menu and told his men: "The ingredients must be fresh and good. Those princes and sons are not like others. They are very picky eaters."

"Yes." The subordinate took the menu and went to work.

Li Erniang called out, "Big Brother."

"Hey, my sister is here." Seeing that there was a young man following behind her, he asked, "Isn't your brother-in-law coming with you today?"

Li Erniang said with a smile: "I brought you a cook. Let him help me today and make a few dishes. If you are satisfied, you can use them."

Ye Jiayao stepped forward and saluted: "Manager Li, my surname is Li, Li Yao."

Shopkeeper Li frowned at his young age. How could there be such a young chef? However, since he was brought by the second sister, he had to give her face. After all, it was just a try, and he didn't have to stay. So he said, "Then you can try it! But let me be frank. Although our Tianshangju is not the top restaurant in Jinling, it is also well-known and has high requirements for chefs."

Ye Jiayao expressed her understanding. The success of a restaurant involves many factors, including location, environment, service, marketing methods, etc., but the core is still the dishes. Are the dishes delicious? Can they retain customers? Do the dishes have characteristics? Whether they can make a name for themselves and gain a foothold in the competitive Jinling catering industry is the key.

Therefore, no matter which restaurant it is, they all attach great importance to chefs and are willing to spend a lot of money to recruit them. A famous chef is equivalent to the restaurant's second signboard.

Ye Jiayao didn't dare to say that she was the best. There are always people better than you. Moreover, she had just arrived in Jinling and didn't know much about the catering industry here. She could only say: "Thank you, Manager Li, for giving me this opportunity. I will definitely work hard."

She must work hard to get this job. A high starting point can save her many years of hard work.

Shopkeeper Li didn't say anything extra, and Li Er Niang took Ye Jiayao to the kitchen.

The kitchen was in the yard behind the restaurant. When Ye Jiayao entered, she was shocked by the scene in front of her.

On the more than ten-meter-long workbench, more than a dozen kitchen helpers were processing various ingredients. The sound of cutting vegetables came one after another, and the different rhythms mixed into a percussion music. Further in was a row of stoves, more than a dozen large and small stoves, with red fires, white mist rising from the steamers on the large stoves, and various soups stewed on the small stoves, and the whole kitchen was filled with fragrance.

A restaurant of this scale would be considered impressive in ancient times, worthy of being called a grand restaurant.

As soon as Li Erniang arrived, everyone greeted her.

Li Er Niang nodded as a return gesture, then quickly rolled up her sleeves, put on an apron, and handed another apron to Ye Jiayao, who quickly put it on.

"What's your best dish?" Li Er Niang handed her a restaurant menu.

Ye Jiayao looked through the menu. She knew all the dishes and cooking methods, but there were some that she hadn't tried yet. Today was an interview and an assessment. Er Niang had let her choose her own topic, which was already a special favor. She had to show her best skills and try to pass it in one try.

"Wensi tofu, crab roe lion head and fried black flower." Ye Jiayao said.

She had a reason for choosing these three dishes. First, today was a test, so she couldn't cook too many dishes. Three dishes was neither too many nor too few. Second, these three dishes were signature dishes of Huaiyang cuisine. Wensi tofu could show her knife skills, crab roe lion head was more about seasoning skills, and fried black fish required control of the heat. These three dishes were enough to show her level of cooking skills.

Li Erniang said calmly: "Then I'll leave these three dishes to you, start now."

Just now, when Ye Jiayao passed by the workbench, she observed the kitchen helper's knife skills. Her skills were quite high, and it seemed that she had learned them for at least five years. But she believed that she was not weak either.

Ye Jiayao washed her hands and took a piece of tender tofu. As soon as she touched it, she felt that the tofu here was just as tender as tofu from other places, and even more flexible, similar to egg tofu, and more suitable for making Wensi tofu soup.

As soon as the kitchen helpers saw this, they knew that this young man was here to try his hand. The original Chef Niu was poached by Xiangyilou, and Shopkeeper Li was having a headache about this. Fortunately, Shopkeeper Li had a girl who was proficient in cooking and came to the rescue. Everyone was curious about who would take over as the chef of Tianshangju.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and came over to watch.

Ye Jiayao had been through many battles under the training of the modern education system, and her mental quality was strong. She took a deep breath, threw away all distracting thoughts, calmed her mind, and then decisively cut the knife.

Tap, tap, tap. The blade of the knife hits the chopping board, making a continuous and crisp sound.

You can see that her hand speed is quite fast, but the effect of the cutting depends on what the tofu looks like after being put into water and broken up, whether the filaments are complete and how thin they can be. This is the standard for judging whether the knife skills are good enough.

As soon as the tapping sound stopped, Li Erniang placed a bowl of cold white wine in front of Ye Jiayao.

Ye Jiayao carefully used the blade of a knife to wipe the cut tofu and put it into the boiled water.

Use a chopstick to gently push it apart.

There were gasps of air all around.

Wow, "as thin as a hair" is usually just an expression to describe the fine knife work and the thin threads. But at this moment, the tofu shreds presented in front of everyone are of uniform length, thickness, and as thin as hair.

Everyone couldn't help but secretly praise in their hearts "Amazing". You know, if even one of the knives was off by a little bit, there would be no such effect.

A hint of surprise flashed across Li Erniang's eyes. Brother Li's knife skills far exceeded her expectations. She had to admit that he was better than hers. Ye Jiayao's nerves were still tense. The work was not over yet. The next step was to cut bamboo shoots.

Tofu is soft and fragile and difficult to cut, while bamboo shoots are crisp and easier to break. It is even more difficult to cut them into the same thickness as tofu shreds. She herself has raised the difficulty to more than one level, so the following will not be easy.

By the time all the ingredients were shredded, Ye Jiayao's back was already drenched in sweat, but she had managed to make it through.

In the mansion of Marquis Jing'an, Qingliu, the maidservant in Xia Chunyu's room, came to ask what to eat for lunch.

What to eat? Xia Chunyu used to be very particular about this question, but now he seems to have no interest in the word "eating" at all. He said lazily, "Whatever."

Qingliu was not surprised to receive the two-word instruction. The prince had been back home for seven or eight days, and every time he was asked what he wanted to eat, the answer he got was "whatever".

The prince wanted to be casual, but the servants dared not do so, so Qingliu ordered the kitchen to prepare according to the prince's previous taste, but the prince would put down his bowl and chopsticks after eating something casually.

This made the servants very worried, wondering if there was something wrong with the prince's health. This matter also alarmed the old lady, who specially invited the imperial physician to come and take Xia Chunyu's pulse, which made Xia Chunyu laugh and cry.

Lunch was served, a steamed shad, a plate of braised chestnut chicken, Wuxi braised spareribs, braised lion head, and three-shredded bird's nest soup.

Xia Chunyu looked at the exquisite dishes, especially the lion's head dish, and thought of the dishes made by Yaoyao.

He didn't know if it was a psychological effect, but he always felt that no one's food was as delicious as Yaoyao's. Was it because Yaoyao had spoiled his stomach, or was it because he was only craving her taste?

Seeing that the prince held up his chopsticks for a long time without putting them down, Qingliu and Qiao Xi looked at each other, with worry in their eyes.

The prince had lost a lot of weight when he came back this time. He was very quiet and seemed to be very worried.

"Young Master..." Song Qi walked in with a bowl in his hand, smiling.

Xia Chunyu sniffed and frowned, "What did you take? It stinks so bad?"

Song Qi chuckled and placed the bowl in front of the prince: "Prince, this is the preserved egg I brought back from the mountain. Miss Ye pickled it and said it can be eaten after forty-five days. I almost forgot."

Xia Chunyu raised his eyebrows and asked in surprise, "She made it? It's so smelly, are you sure you can eat it?"

This preserved egg not only smells bad, it is also ugly. It is black, yellow, and translucent, with white snowflake-like patterns on it. I have never seen such a strange egg.

Song Qi said: "I haven't tasted it either, but Miss Ye said that this Songhua egg is a good thing. It can clear away heat and inflammation, nourish the heart and mind, and it tastes good."

Xia Chunyu looked at the size of the egg and asked, "Is it made of duck eggs?"

"Yes, it was the duck eggs that Aunt Jiang sent. Miss Ye heard that the prince didn't like duck eggs, so she pickled the duck eggs into Songhua eggs."

"Since you know I don't eat duck eggs, why did you give them to me?" Xia Chunyu said indifferently.

Song Qi pouted. Ever since Miss Ye passed away, the Young Master had not had a good meal, and nothing tasted good. Today, he suddenly remembered the preserved egg, and hurriedly brought it over to the Young Master to try, but was rejected.

"I'll take it right away." Song Qi said unhappily.

"Leave it there!" Xia Chunyu said expressionlessly.

He thought he would never be able to eat Yaoyao's cooking again in this life, but he didn't expect that she would leave him a preserved egg. It was made by Yaoyao, so he had to eat it no matter how bad it tasted!

Xia Chunyu crushed the egg with chopsticks, dipped it in the sauce, took a sip, and was stunned.

This thing smells bad and looks ugly, but it tastes fresh, fragrant and smooth, with a very special flavor.

Xia Chunyu actually finished the whole bowl of rice with two eggs, and he seemed to be still reluctant to leave.

"How many eggs are there?" Xia Chunyu asked.

Song Qi thought for a moment and said, "There are probably about 20 to 30 of them."

Xia Chunyu sighed. There were only twenty or thirty of them. They were eaten up in no time and were gone.

"From now on, have one every morning. It's not suitable to be eaten with rice, but it's more suitable to be eaten with porridge."

"Hey, then let the kid give all the eggs to the kitchen." Song Qi said happily.

Qing Liu and Qiao Xi were both curious, who was Miss Ye? How come the prince enjoyed eating something so stinky that she made?

"By the way, my Lord, the prince of Yong'an Marquis is holding a banquet at Tianshangju today. Please come to the banquet. This is the invitation." Song Qi remembered the business at this moment and took out a piece of invitation from his arms.

Xia Chunyu was not in high spirits. He was exhausted from all the celebration banquets recently and felt a headache. He said, "Just say I'm not feeling well and go back!"

(End of this chapter)