farmhouse ditty

Chapter 22 Selling Bamboo Shoots for Making Bamboo Shoots
Chu Ge and Xiu Niang waited outside for a while, when a man in his forties came out of the restaurant with two waiters.

He looked at the bamboo basket on the cart, and swung his arms towards them as if he was bored, "Hey, Chu Ge, this is the only basket."

Xiuniang reckoned that he was the head cook of this tavern, as the old saying goes, a cook who survived three years of famine can tell just by looking at her big and round belly.

Seeing that Chu Ge nodded, the man snorted, and said to the two guys behind, "Come on, unload it and carry it to the yard."

Xiu Niang made way to stand behind Chu Ge, grabbed the hem of his clothes and dented him.

Knowing this, Chu Ge put his hands on the bamboo basket, "Cook Wang, wait a moment."

Chef Wang frowned, "Why, it's not for sale."

Chu Ge said, "I need to sell it, but I just want to ask, how do you plan to buy it, Chef Wang?"

Chef Wang laughed, "Hey, I said Chu Ge, don't you think you've been buying and selling a lot these past two days, and you've been too happy, and you don't know what the money is spent on?"

Chu Ge was not annoyed when he heard this, "Cook Wang, what are you planning to buy bamboo seedlings for?"

Cook Wang said impatiently, "Why, I bought you a bamboo seedling, do you still have to ask me how to do it? Is there anything special about it?"

Chu Ge thought for a while, and said to Cook Wang, "Yes, these bamboo seedlings are made differently, and the buying and selling prices are also different."

Cook Wang said with a "tsk", "It's still made differently. My mother is very particular. Didn't I just tell you that this bamboo seedling has no taste after eating it, and it's still bitter. No one can eat it." If you use it to cook big dishes, it can only be salted and sour.”

He glanced at Chu Ge, "I said you boy, but you haven't cooked a stove before, why don't you even know the ingredients for a snack."

After hearing this, Chu Ge thought he didn't know anything about cooking, and he couldn't compare to Chef Wang's perennial thinking about cooking, but Xiu Niang made a good dish with bamboo seedlings last night.

He said firmly, "This bamboo shoot of mine is not something to drink with."

Chef Wang got annoyed, "You've done it, you really know how to find money. If I didn't look at the wild goods you got, I would not hesitate to talk to you..."

Listening to this person chattering non-stop, and always talking about Chu Ge, Xiu Niang couldn't stand it anymore, she cleared her throat aloud.

Chu Ge looked back at Xiu Niang, "What's wrong, but I have to go back."

She shook her head lightly, and said with a smile, "Chuge, the pickled vegetables mentioned by Cook Wang just now are the way we cook in the countryside, so they can't be put on the table."

Cook Wang looked at Xiu Niang, "Hey, who is this?"

Hearing the tone of Cook Wang's words, Chu Ge frowned in dissatisfaction, and said in a rough voice, "She is my wife, Xiu Niang."

Cook Wang sneered, "Oh, so it's a girl, I'm talking to your man, what are you talking about?"

Xiuniang didn't want to waste words with him, so she thought about selling out the bamboo shoots as soon as possible so that she could go back to the village, she smiled, "Oh, I've heard from Chu Ge all the time, what's wrong with this chef Wang who is so knowledgeable, but why are you so knowledgeable?" I don’t know that bamboo shoots can be made in different ways.”

Chef Wang glanced at her up and down, "Look at you, you're a woman, and you have a serious tone, but you know how to cook!"

Xiu Niang smiled secretly, and pretended to lean towards Chu Ge, "What? Chu Ge, what are you talking about?"

Chu Ge was stunned for a while, and Xiao Mo said, "Xiu Niang, I didn't say anything..."

Before he finished speaking, Xiu Niang straightened her neck, "Oh, listen to you, if people don't know the good stuff, then let's go elsewhere."

Chef Wang quit. Chu Ge came from Xiayang Village. He heard that it was a small village. How could he let the young couple look down on him.

He stopped his hand, "Hey, wait a minute, you just said that I don't know good products, but you made me a dish with this bamboo seedling, don't be silly if you don't know anything."

Chu Ge secretly looked at Xiu Niang, and seeing her wink at him, he said, "If we use these bamboo shoots to cook, what are you going to do?"

Xiu Niang smiled when she heard that, Chu Ge is really a genius, and he knows how to negotiate terms.

Cook Wang made a joke, this country dish is pickled and salted for dinner, what good can you make, he pointed to Chu Ge and said, "Chu Ge, if you can make a dish that will make me applaud , your basket of bamboo seedlings depends on your price, if you don’t do well, you don’t want to sell your basket of bamboo seedlings for money.”

Chu Ge had tasted Xiu Niang's cooking earlier, and it was very fresh. He made a guarantee for himself in his heart, seeing that Xiu Niang had nothing to say, he agreed with Cook Wang.

Chef Wang told the two guys who had been looking around to keep an eye on Chu Ge's ox cart, grabbed a bamboo shoot, and took Xiu Niang and the others to the back stove.

After passing the restaurant, you come to the big yard at the back. There are two rooms here, one is big and the other is small. The staff in the yard are very busy, shouting to order the food, but they are all in the big room. The room was coming and going, and in the small room next to it, a few guys were nestling at the door and chatting secretly.

Listening to what Chu Ge said, the big one is for the little spoon chef, who cooks ordinary side dishes, and the small one is for the rich masters to cook delicate dishes, usually busy evening.

Chef Wang stepped forward first, and then called them in when they were done. Xiu Niang looked at it as soon as she entered the door. The stove in this restaurant is full of everything, pots, pans, soy and vinegar oil, coriander leaves, green onion, ginger, garlic, etc. have all.

Chef Wang put the bamboo shoots on the chopping board in front of Xiuniang, "It's alright, girl, there are stove blades, chicken, duck, fish and other cutting boards, you can do it."

Xiu Niang looked at him ignorantly, and said to Chu Ge, "Chu Ge, you are chatting with Cook Wang, I just need to cook a soup."

Cook Wang snorted, walked to the back and watched, Xiu Niang asked for a basin of water to wash her hands, and took an apron to tie it on. She searched around the small stove to see if there was anything for hair.

She looked at a clay pot next to the iron pot, with a copper handle in it. She stirred the pot and scooped up a spoonful of soup, with a lot of oil floating on it.

Xiuniang thought that this pot of soup should be bone soup or something, and it is necessary to use high broth to enhance the flavor of this fine dish.

Xiu Niang asked, "Cook Wang, what is this?"

Chef Wang looked at Mo Yaner, "Duck bone soup."

Xiu Niang said, "Can this work?"

Chef Wang said impatiently, "Why can't you make it? It was just cooked this morning. We don't have overnight food in this restaurant!"

Chu Ge was dissatisfied, and Xiu Niang just asked, why is this person so hard to talk, so he started talking to Cook Wang.

Xiu Niang didn't pay attention, she set the fire on the pot tightly and poured the duck soup into it. Compared with frying sliced ​​bamboo shoots, she was more rare to make soup from bamboo shoots, because it was so simple.

Yesterday she made a soup at home, using the pheasant that Chu Ge caught earlier.

At that time, Xiuniang picked out the chicken and fried it. She boiled the pheasant bone into a soup, put more salt, and put it patiently. She added water, cut the bamboo shoots into pieces and boiled them. The chicken soup is very fresh, but if the bamboo shoots are cooked in the chicken soup, it is still fresher than the old duck soup.

Now it happens that there is old duck soup in Chef Wang's stove, which is exactly the right taste. Xiu Niang took the bamboo shoots and wanted to hold them upside down. It looks like it was dug two days ago.

She laughed, this chef Wang's hands have eyes, and he grabbed a bamboo shoot that was stale overnight, but it's not a big deal, and when the bamboo shoot soup comes out, she'll make sure he doesn't even touch his tongue. Swallow them together.

(End of this chapter)