Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 1073 - 523: Beggar (Part 9)

"Today, Fu Ji's boss gave me two whole pounds of pork belly as a reward. Should we cook it all? Or save some for the Lantern Festival?" Jiang Weiguo completely ignored An Youyou's claim of eating a whole pig, bringing the topic back to braised pork.

As a leader easily swayed by her juniors, An Youyou quickly forgot about the whole pig, nodded confidently, and said spiritedly, "Cook it! It's just two pounds of meat. I know, Chen Shun told me that the meat shrinks when you cook it, so in the end, it won't even be two pounds."

"Didn't you see today's results? What I have now is money!"

"I'll eat half of tonight's braised pork, and you guys can split the rest!"

An Youyou insisted that as the leader, she must eat at least half of everything.

Jiang Weiguo was clearly used to this, calmly nodded, lifted the lid, and took a quick look at the Fire Control of the pork hock in the pot.

Qin Huai also glanced over.

Very tender.

The pieces of pork hock in the pot weren't large, perhaps because in this era, pigs couldn't grow very big. Earlier, Jiang Weiguo had mentioned that a whole pig might yield a hundred to two hundred pounds of net meat. Qin Huai, though never having raised pigs, wasn't completely ignorant of pigs as a city kid. When he was young, many families in Qin Family Village still raised pigs, and during the New Year, kids would run to watch the pig slaughtering with great excitement.

Qin Huai vaguely remembered that skilled pig farmers in the village could raise hefty pigs weighing four to five hundred pounds, and even six hundred-pound super-fat pigs had been raised. The meat was so fatty that a single piece of red-braised pork could leave a six or seven-year-old kid speechless for half a day—a true fat bomb.

Compared to the big fat pigs from the village, the one-hundred-to-two-hundred-pound pig Jiang Weiguo mentioned seemed like a slender pig.

Qin Huai didn't know how to cook pork hock, but he could tell Jiang Weiguo's skills in cooking it weren't bad.

The sauce was rich and deeply colored; just looking at the color of the sauce, you could tell that strong ingredients were used. The sugar color was cooked beautifully, and the skin of the pork hock appeared bouncy—just looking at it made you imagine how the skin would melt in your mouth, sliding smoothly down your tongue and into your stomach.

Slurp.

Qin Huai couldn't help but swallow.

Strange, he suddenly, like An Youyou, wanted to eat pork hock.

Qin Huai found Jiang Weiguo's culinary skills rather puzzling too; his pastries were mediocre, his stir-fries were average, and his everyday dishes didn't look appealing, appearing somewhat bland. Originally, Qin Huai didn't hold high expectations for Jiang Weiguo's pork hock. Pork hock is a major dish, even able to serve as a centerpiece at a banquet—a star among pork dishes, incomparable to regular everyday dishes.

Yet, Jiang Weiguo's pork hock turned out quite well. The guy wasn't lying to An Youyou; he actually knew how to cook pork hock and was rather good at it.

"Slurp." An Youyou noisily slurped her saliva, indicating that if the pork hock weren't in the pot, she would have grabbed some chopsticks to taste the saltiness.

"The pork hock smells so good!" An Youyou expressed regret, "If I'd known, I would've saved some money a few days ago instead of recruiting new members, and I could've eaten pork hock sooner."

Jiang Weiguo: ...

Accompanied by the fragrance of pork hock, An Youyou's stomach growled a couple of times.

It was obvious that An Youyou was genuinely hungry—her stomach never growled when she begged for food on time.

Jiang Weiguo also noticed An Youyou's hunger and pointed to the steamer: "There are potato buns inside. Boss, you can have a couple first to fill up."

"Potatoes?" An Youyou walked to the steamer, lifted the lid, and saw large, white buns inside. Each bun was bigger than An Youyou's fist, absolutely quantity-heavy and filling.

"Why not make meat buns? Isn't today New Year's?" An Youyou was a bit dissatisfied, feeling that the beautiful New Year was ruined by the potato buns before her.

"They're meat-filled too." Jiang Weiguo explained, "The pork belly needs to be saved for braised pork, so I didn't make meat buns. The meat used in the bun filling was from Sister in law Chen. She bought a pound and a half of fresh meat from the butcher today, not enough for meat buns. Cabbage buns... we already have cabbage in the New Year's Eve dishes, so I made potato buns."

"Sister in law Chen also went to the neighboring house today and exchanged for a bit of bamboo shoots, just a few, which I chopped up and added into the buns."

Hearing from Jiang Weiguo that there was meat in the potato buns, only then did An Youyou feel satisfied, grabbing a bun and taking a bite, not afraid of the heat at all.

"Not bad." An Youyou chewed the bun, but her eyes remained locked on the pork hock, "I heard from Chen Shun that people in the North eat dumplings during the New Year. What are dumplings?"

"A kind of snack with filling wrapped in a dough, no yeast, just boiled straight in the pot," Jiang Weiguo said.

"Why don't we eat dumplings for the New Year? Thirteen, I remember you escaped from Beiping, right? Did your family eat dumplings for New Year before?"

This question left Jiang Weiguo in silence, while An Youyou, oblivious, continued, "I wonder if buns are better or dumplings are better. I think buns are definitely better. How tasty could boiled ones be? Steam must make them better!"

"Tomorrow's the first day of the year too; why don't you make dumplings, Thirteen? I've never seen dumplings."

"But Chen Shun said dumplings need pure white flour to taste good—what a waste of white flour. Tomorrow, Thirteen, just make 26 dumplings. I'll eat half, and the rest you guys can have one each."

"How big are these dumplings? Are they as big as this bun?"

After mumbling for a long while, Jiang Weiguo finally spoke up slowly: "My family doesn't eat dumplings for New Year."

"Huh?" An Youyou was shocked, "Why? Isn't Beiping in the North? Or did Chen Shun lie to me? I knew he tricked me—he lived in Shu before. He's not a northerner. What does he know about northern New Year foods? He must've seen I was uneducated and lied to me. I'll go find him and settle this, and the piece of braised pork I promised him tonight? Forget it, I'll eat it instead."