Chapter 107 - Brother-in-law and Sister-In-Law Meeting
Chapter 107: Brother-in-law and Sister-In-Law Meeting
Translator: Atlas StudiosEditor: Atlas Studios
“The sun is rising from the west today. I thought you didn’t want to eat dinner?”
“Come and try it, it’s so delicious!”
Shu Qi said in satisfaction.
Bai Xiaoming looked at the plate that had been emptied. There was only a thin layer of oil left. There wasn’t even any residue remaining. He asked in surprise, “Didn’t you leave any for me, the manager?”
“We did.”
Zhang Liang stood up to take the plates and said, “We have only started eating for five minutes. The food I left for you is still warm. You can eat it directly.”
Bai Xiaoming was so shocked that his jaw dropped again. This was because celebrities had developed a habit of chewing and swallowing slowly because of their diet restrictions. When they normally ate, they would chat while eating. It was impossible to finish in less than half an hour.
They actually finished their meal in five minutes that day! How delicious could the stir-fried vegetables be?
Finally, after three minutes, Bai Xiaoming, who didn’t even want to sit down after tasting a mouthful, let out a long sigh. He placed the empty plate on the table and said, “It’s really too delicious! It’s just eaten with rice, but even if you give me three more plates, it wouldn’t be too much!”
Shu Qi gloated and said to him, “You’re not going to lose weight?”
“With such delicious food in this world, it’s a pity that if I can’t eat it!”
Xu Le was also surprised that a home-cooked dish received such high praise.
At this moment, everyone finally looked at him and treated him as a proper chef.
There were still a few more hours of business at night. As Bai Xiaoming cut the vegetables, he said listlessly, “We have earned enough for today, but if the turnover and net profits for the past three days don’t meet the standards set by the production team, we won’t be able to have enough money for
groceries tomorrow! And we won’t be able to add other dishes.”
After he finished sighing with emotion, he suddenly turned his attention to Xu Le and said, “Little Master Chef Xu, do you have any good ideas? Can we find a type of ingredient that’s cheap, tastes good, and can be used for many different dishes
“Thaven’t done any field inspections, so I don’t know what ingredients are cheap. Why don’t you bring me along tomorrow when you buy the grocerie:
“Alright! No problem!”
The next morning, Xu Le woke up early. After washing up in a hurry, he grabbed a bacon sandwich and sat on the electric scooter in a mess.
In the morning market of Bangkok, there were takoyaki balls, stir-fried spicy pork with kway teow, Thai-style fried rice, Mango glutinous rice, Thai-style milk tea, banana pancakes… There were also all kinds of barbecue skewers, fried basil leaves, mango dipped in chili flour, and fresh fruits.
Bai Xiaoming took a glance at everything and drooled. He sighed, “Today is the last day. If we can make enough money, we can get the money from the production team tomorrow. Then I’ll bring you here to eat, okay?”
“Okay.”
Xu Le retracted his gaze.
The seafood here in Thailand was very cheap, and they were all freshly caught. The fish and prawns were large and fleshy, and there was an endless variety of seafood. Xu Le, who had not seen much of the world, looked around curiously.
Bai Xiaoming was haggling with the stall owner at the side. Perhaps it was because his English wasn’t up to standard, the two of them had difficulties communicating. Miraculously, he managed to bargain using only his limited vocabulary.
This made Xu Le, whose English had passed level six in university, squeeze his lips together, afraid that he would burst out laughing the next moment.
Finally, they bargained to a very low price for the fish.
Xu Le fiddled with the net twice and found that the fish was jumping around energetically. Hence, he pointed at the crucian carp inside and said, “I want this. We can go back and make a crucian carp soup, West Lake vinegar fish, as well as the grass carp here. After bringing back the entire fish… West
Lake vinegar fish!”
Bai Xiaoming asked doubtfully, “What if it doesn’t suit the customers’ taste?”
“Don’t worry. Most of the people who come to the Chinese restaurant are Chinese. If we blindly cater to the sour and spicy taste of Thai people, the food in the Thai restaurants will definitely be more authentic than ours.”
Bai Xiaoming was quickly convinced. He nodded and said, “Rather than going with the flow, it’s better to stay true to yourself.”
The two of them bought the ingredients and went back. There was only an hour left before they opened for business.
Zhang Liang was busy preparing the vegetables for the day. When he saw them, he said, “Could it be that the stir-fried vegetables were too delicious yesterday? I’ve been eating them even in my dreams. So why don’t we add that dish onto the menu?”
“Lagree!”
“It’s really delicious. I’ll recommend it to the customers later!”
“That’s right, I think the price can be slightly raised! After all, there’s pork added inside.”
After Zhou Huangya said jokingly, Bai Xiaoming immediately rejected the idea, “No, we can’t do such shady business. We’ll just charge according to the normal price of the ingredients. If we have to earn less, we’ll earn less. We can’t ruin our reputation, right?”
They discussed the price while Xu Le swiftly handled the fish. He wore a mask, an apron, a chef’s hat, and rubber gloves. He was fully armed.
The fishy smell was very strong. Furthermore, he had to deal with so many of them at once. If he did not cover up properly, it would be so disgusting that he would vomit later.
He planned to make some vinegar fish first for everyone to taste.
The cameraman focused his camera on Xu Le. Xu Le knew that he had to start commentating again, so he coughed twice and started, “The main source of the fishy smell is its skin. If we don’t remove the layer of black sticky substance on the surface of the skin, it will be very stinky. In order to remove the
skin easily, we can boil a pot of hot water first. It doesn’t need to boil, just 80 degrees will do.”
As he spoke, he took a large spoonful of hot water and splashed it on the fish skin.
“Once the fish skin is splashed with hot water, it will shrink. If you use a knife to scratch the black layer, it will easily peel off.”
“After scaling it, wash it with cold water. In order to make it easier to cut later, use the kitchen tissue to absorb the moisture.”
Zhang Liang was watching and learning by the side. He said, “I remember that there’s a story behind the West Lake Vinegar Fish. It’s called ‘Brother-in-law and Sister-in-Law’s Precious Treasure’. I think it’s related to this?”
Xu Le nodded and said, “West Lake Vinegar Fish is a famous dish in Hangzhou. The earliest story can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. It said that two brothers lived in seclusion in West Lake. They read a lot of poetry and lived on fishing. There was a local thug, Lord Zhao, who took a fancy to
Sister-in-law Song’s beauty and wanted to take her as his wife, so he killed her husband.”
Xu Le held onto the fish’s tail and changed the topic. “Everyone, pay attention to the method of cutting the fish first. The tail will be cut off and push the knife in the direction of the head. It will stay along the spine and cut the fish into two.”
“Now, the two pieces of fish meat are thick. You need to cut along its spine. There’s no need to cut it off. It’ll be more convenient to make it tasteful later. Flip the sides and two fingers away from the fish gills, start the knife at this position. You just need to make four or five slices on one side. There’s no
need to cut it off. Everyone can do it at home. If the pan is too small, you can cut it from the middle.”
Xu Le reminded and continued to talk about the story. “Sister-in-law Song went to the authorities with my brother-in-law to complain. Who knew that the authorities would not only ignore them but also beat them up and chase them out. After they returned home, they could only pack their luggage and
escape.”