Life is a Game

The kitchen is very big. Although there are only two stoves, there are many shelves, and there are many boxes on the shelves. Jiang Feng took a closer look at each of the boxes. Some boxes were empty, some contained tableware, and very few contained condiments and ingredients that could be preserved for a long time.

Fresh vegetables and meat are placed on the bright surface, and there is a basin on the ground with several live fish in it, all the ingredients are clearly visible at a glance.

Zhao Lanhua is like a little girl visiting the market with her mother for the first time, looking here and there, even cabbage tofu.

"Well, Comrade Jiang Weiguo, is that hanging bacon? Why are there stickers on it?" Zhao Lanhua asked curiously.

"That's ham, the cut part should be preserved with a sticker," Jiang Weiguo said.

"What is ham?"

"...a kind of bacon, made from a whole pork leg."

Zhao Lanhua was immediately in awe of the hanging ham.

Jiang Weiguo began to search for recipes in his mind, his eyes fixed on the fresh pork on the chopping board from time to time, obviously he didn't give up the idea of ​​making meat dishes, and wanted to cut some minced meat and shredded meat to fry with vegetables.

Zhao Lanhua continued to visit the vegetable market, not only marveling at the meat and vegetables, but also marveling at the seasonings. Basically, she would open every jar to take a look, smell it, and if she hadn't seen it before, she would ask Jiang Weiguo what was in the jar, and then send out something similar to: Wow, as expected of a state-run restaurant, there is The wonder of something I've never even heard of.

Finally, Zhao Lanhua saw the jars of sugar, a jar of brown sugar and a jar of white sugar, both of which were extra-large. The sugar in the jar was so full that Zhao Lanhua couldn't help staring at the sugar in the jar with envy.

"Comrade Jiang Weiguo, is the candy in your state-run restaurants always so full?" Zhao Lanhua asked.

Jiang Weiguo glanced at the sugar jar: "I make brown sugar steamed buns and white sugar steamed buns in the morning, so I use a lot of sugar, and I usually fill it up when I run out."

"Wow." Zhao Lanhua made an envious voice.

She thought that steamed buns were already the most wonderful thing in the world, but she didn't expect that there would be brown sugar steamed buns and white sugar steamed buns that were even more wonderful.

"Then will there be sugar in your subsidies?" Zhao Lanhua thought that there should be no more enviable job in the world than a chef in a state-run restaurant.

"Basically there is sugar in the subsidy. We seem to have a little more. I don't remember how many catties a month. I don't fire much in private." Jiang Weiguo said, glanced at Zhao Lanhua, "You like to eat sugar?"

"I like it." Zhao Lanhua blurted out, realizing that these two words might detract from her image, and hurriedly corrected, "I just...that is, when my brother got married, I ate two of them when there was wedding candy at home. No, I just ate two, and I really like it, it's sweet."

Jiang Weiguo thought for a while and said, "Do you want to eat lotus root?"

"eat."

"Are you hungry now?" Jiang Weiguo asked.

"Ah, no, actually... I'm actually a little hungry." Zhao Lanhua carefully recalled all her performance since she met Jiang Weiguo just now, and felt that her performance could be described as extremely poor. It was difficult to leave a positive impression on Jiang Weiguo, so he simply gave up on himself and treated each other honestly.

"Do you have any steamed buns? Do you have any left over from the brown sugar and white sugar steamed buns you made this morning?" Zhao Lanhua felt that, anyway, today's blind date will not be successful, and it would be a good thing if she could eat two brown sugar steamed buns.

Zhao Lanhua suddenly stopped hiding that she was hungry, and even offered to eat steamed buns with brown sugar and white sugar. Jiang Weiguo was a little surprised by this huge change.

"There are no more steamed buns. They were sold out this morning," Jiang Weiguo said.

Zhao Lanhua sighed in disappointment, it seemed that she couldn't make a blind date or eat steamed buns.

"But there are still a few meat buns, I'll go and warm them up for you." Jiang Weiguo said and went to warm up the buns for Zhao Lanhua.

There were five big meat buns that were bigger than a grown man's fist, and Jiang Weiguo steamed them all in one go.

Soon, the smell of meat buns permeated the kitchen. Zhao Lanhua had been trying to control her expression so that her inhalation would not be so obvious. Bite down the oily big meat buns.

Now is the season for lotus root, which is fresh and tender. Jiang Weiguo took two sections of tender lotus root, cut them open from the middle instead of slicing them after peeling, and took out a pot of glutinous rice from under the table, which was presumably soaked in the morning, drained the water and carefully filled the hole of the lotus root with glutinous rice inside.

In order to ensure that every gap was filled, Jiang Weiguo poked it with chopsticks while filling it back.

He is making glutinous rice lotus root.

Just because Jiang Feng could see it didn't mean that 17-year-old Zhao Lanhua could see that the glutinous rice pudding dish was completely beyond the standard for her, and she hadn't even eaten lotus root a few times.

For 17-year-old Zhao Lanhua, food is a very unfamiliar term. Vegetables are rarely seen on the dining table in her family. Her family has a lot of mouths and a shortage of labor. It is the greatest luck to be able to eat enough. The food is basically a mess of wild vegetables, sweet potatoes and other ingredients cooked in one pot.

The land is too precious to grow food, so how could it be used to grow vegetables?

"Comrade Jiang Weiguo, what are you doing?" Zhao Lanhua asked.

"Glutinous rice lotus root." Jiang Weiguo said.

Zhao Lanhua nodded half-understood. Today, Jiang Weiguo introduced too many things that she didn't understand.

Before a section of lotus root was stuffed, Jiang Weiguo put down the lotus root in his hand, walked to the side of the steamer and lifted the lid. Seeing that the buns had been steamed, she called Zhao Lanhua over to eat the buns.

Zhao Lanhua walked to the steamer, fixed her eyes on the steamed buns, her eyes were full of steamed buns, it was as beautiful as a dream - she couldn't even dream of such a beautiful scene, at most she dreamed of eating steamed buns with white flour, how could she dream Eating buns with white flour and meat.

"Really, can I eat it?" Zhao Lanhua confirmed again and again.

"Okay, it's leftover. It was originally intended for dinner. Eat whatever you want," Jiang Weiguo said.

"What if I eat and you don't have enough to eat at night?"

"I'll eat something else tonight." After speaking, Jiang Weiguo went back to deal with the lotus root.

Only then did Zhao Lanhua feel relieved, rubbed her hand on her new gown, and then stretched out her hand to pick out the biggest bun, the kind that couldn't be grasped with one hand. The thin and small hands are holding the big meat buns, just like a child grabbing an adult's thing.

Zhao Lanhua opened her mouth and took a big bite, closed her eyes happily, and chewed, her happiness was beyond words.

The skin of the steamed stuffed bun is made of white flour, and the stuffing is pure meat. The skin is thin and full of filling, and the oil and water are particularly rich. Zhao Lanhua grabbed the steamed stuffed bun with both hands, she was thin and small, but she ate it unambiguously, and she was not afraid of choking when she devoured it voraciously. In less than a minute, a whole big steamed stuffed bun was eaten.

After eating the buns, Zhao Lanhua let out a long sigh of satisfaction, looked at the sticky oil on her hands and couldn't help but licked her fingers again, took a last look at the four buns left in the pot, put the lid on the pot superior.

Zhao Lanhua returned to Jiang Weiguo's side again, this time he looked at Jiang Weiguo completely differently.

Zhao Lanhua felt that although her performance wasn't very good today, and Jiang Weiguo didn't seem very satisfied with her, this person was still very good. Even if you don't like to cook for yourself and invite yourself to eat meat buns, even if you can't get a blind date, it's good if you can be friends.

Since you want to be a friend, you have to show your own strengths, and you can't be a friend who is worthless.

"Don't eat?" Actually, when Zhao Lanhua was eating buns, Jiang Weiguo took a few glances at her and knew that she only ate one.

"One is enough, but two are too many." Zhao Lanhua said, "Comrade Jiang Weiguo, thank you for inviting me to eat buns. They are really delicious."

"This is the first time I have eaten such a delicious steamed stuffed bun. The skin of white noodles is very thin, and the meat inside is very fat and oily. I feel like I have gravy in my mouth when I bite. It's really special. Delicious, super delicious." Zhao Lanhua tried hard to use her few words to describe the beauty of the meat buns she just ate.

Jiang Feng noticed that the corner of Jiang Weiguo's mouth raised a little unconsciously.

"It's good to eat." Jiang Weiguo said, "I made the buns today."

After complimenting the steamed stuffed bun, Zhao Lanhua decided to praise herself: "Comrade Jiang Weiguo, although I'm not very good at cooking, the main reason is that my mother cooks at home. Others are not qualified to cook, but I can cook other things."

"I do housework very well. After the second sister got married, I did all the housework in our family. Sweeping the floor, cleaning the table, tidying the quilt, washing clothes, and feeding the pigs. I feed the pigs very well! By the way, I I can also chop firewood and plant the land, and I will go to the field with my sister-in-law every afternoon, which can be counted as half a day’s work points.”

"I can also make clothes. The gown I wear is all made by myself. It's new. Today is the first time I wear it."

"I can also take care of people. I took care of my sister-in-law when she was in confinement. I took care of her very well. My sister-in-law didn't even have a root cause of her illness."

"I will still..."

Once you talk about things like boasting yourself, you can't take it back. The more Zhao Lanhua talked, the more she felt that although she couldn't cook, she couldn't read, she hadn't made love at this age, and she occasionally ate food and even the maltose at home. He may not have a son in the future, but other than that, he has all the advantages in himself, it is simply the advantages of the whole body.

The kind that can't be finished for three days and three nights.

Just when Zhao Lanhua was trying to praise herself, Jiang Weiguo had already processed two lotus roots, and the cut parts were connected together with bamboo sticks.

Jiang Weiguo left the lotus root in the basin, poured water into the soup pot, and began to sprinkle sugar.

The kind that picks up the can of brown sugar and sprinkles it directly, the kind that sprinkles half a can without blinking your eyes.

Zhao Lanhua looked at it and gasped.

"Comrade Jiang Weiguo, what are you pouring so much sugar for?" Zhao Lanhua had never seen such a heroic way of sprinkling sugar, it was simply too enviable.

If she was allowed to steal it, half a can of candy could last a year.

"Cook." After Jiang Weiguo finished speaking, he picked up the sugar jar and began to sprinkle it again.

Zhao Lanhua was dumbfounded.

"cook?"

"Well, the glutinous rice lotus root is boiled in sugar water, and it takes a long time. If you don't mind me, you can wait here a little longer." Jiang Weiguo said, "About two hours."

Zhao Lanhua was speechless.

Seeing that Jiang Weiguo was about to put the lotus root in the pot, Zhao Lanhua thought, anyway, the meat buns are good for the day, if my friends can't do it, they can't do it, so they summoned up their courage and said, "Comrade Jiang Weiguo."

"Um?"

"Can I have two sips of sugar water first?"