Food: Starting with Wonton Noodles

Seeing Cao Xuezhen reminiscing about her youth with great relish, Zhou Yu couldn't help but ask, "Mom, don't you hate Grandpa anymore?"

Cao Xuezhen laughed and said, "He's probably nowhere to be found now, what's there to hate? What are you gossiping about? Hurry up and cook your dishes, they're not very good..."

She realized that Zhou Yu's cooking skills had changed, so she changed her words and said, "Since it doesn't taste as good as it used to at Koufu Restaurant, I'll just stew you."

Zhou Yu smiled and walked into the kitchen. Since Cao Xuezhen didn't want to talk about it anymore, he didn't inquire further.

While waiting for the alum to arrive, he processed the pomelo peel.

Some schools of thought use fire to burn the grapefruit peel. After burning, the outer skin peels off easily, which also removes the oils.

However, if not done properly, this can ruin the base flavor of the grapefruit peel.

Zhou Yu chose the most labor-intensive method: using a tin rubber to slowly rub off the green peel of the pomelo.

Just as Zhou Yu finished wiping the green skin off, the takeout arrived.

Zhou Yu used only about 3 grams of alum dissolved in boiling water, and then soaked the pomelo peel in the alum water.

Alum water can remove bitterness, kill bacteria, and enhance color.

Once the grapefruit peel regained its green color, Zhou Yu boiled another pot of water and put the grapefruit peel in to boil for half an hour.

After boiling the pomelo peel, Zhou Yu began to soak it in cold water.

Seeing Zhou Yu come out of the kitchen, Cao Xuezhen asked, "Xiao Yu, is the pomelo peeling done?"

Zhou Yu: "It's not that fast. We've only just started soaking it. We probably won't be able to eat it until tomorrow night at the earliest."

Cao Xuezhen couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. She said, "Is this dish really that complicated?"

Zhou Yu began to explain to her the process of peeling a pomelo.

Cao Xuezhen felt increasingly distressed as she listened: "Xiaoyu, why don't you stop cooking? This dish is so bad, even the pomelo peel is worth the price of dragon meat. Sigh, I still can't cook for you often. If you cook every day, my gas bill will increase several times over."

......

The next day, Zhou Yu first completed his bodyweight training before continuing to peel the pomelo.

After soaking overnight, the pomelo peel had swelled up. Zhou Yu changed the water and continued to rub and squeeze it, then slowly tore out the tough, fibrous strands of the pomelo peel.

Once he felt that he had squeezed and rubbed the grapefruit peel enough, Zhou Yu boiled water and cooked it for another half hour.

Then continue changing the water and squeezing and kneading.

He began to regret making the dish, but since he was already halfway through, he had no choice but to continue.

After the water was changed again at noon, Zhou Yu felt completely dazed.

Fortunately, his technique for extracting the threads was good enough, and he had already extracted all the old tendons.

The bitterness of the grapefruit peel is completely removed, so there's no need to soak it again.

Zhou Yu cleaned and pan-fried the mud carp he had bought over a low flame, then set it aside.

Once the pomelo peel has been cold-soaked, you're halfway there. The final step is to simmer it in a thick broth over low heat.

Take out the earthenware pot from home. First, place a bamboo mat at the bottom, then layer pomelo peel and mud carp three times, and finally weigh it down with another bamboo mat.

Zhou Yu first laid a layer of broth, using the broth from wonton noodles. Then he spread lard over the noodles and simmered them over low heat for half an hour.

The purpose of pressing down the pomelo peel with a bamboo mat is to prevent it from flipping over in the boiling soup, as this would affect the taste.

After the pomelo peel had absorbed most of the lard, Zhou Yu poured the broth into the earthenware pot.

After adding the salt and cooking wine, Zhou Yu turned down the heat and simmered the soup slowly once it came to a boil again.

At this point, the process of peeling the pomelo is basically complete, and only the simmering time remains.

After finally completing all the tedious procedures, Zhou Yu felt like his whole body was about to fall apart.

When he went to He Jiafu's place to get noodles with Sun Zhigang in the afternoon, he didn't want to say a word.

Seeing that his expression was off, Sun Zhigang didn't dare to ask any questions. He just stood there and watched obediently.

After finishing making the dough, Zhou Yu began to recover and explained the key points of making bamboo-pressed noodles to Sun Zhigang.

I've finally returned home from Ho Kee Bamboo Noodles, and the pomelo peel is finally ready.

After removing all the grapefruit peels, Zhou Yu used the remaining broth in the clay pot to make a thickening sauce, which he then poured over the grapefruit peels along with oyster sauce.

And so, the oyster sauce-peeled pomelo is finally done.

Cao Xuezhen deeply regretted having Zhou Yu cook this dish. She felt that her gas bill for the month was starting to exceed the limit significantly.

Even after Zhou Yu brought out the dishes, she was still nagging.

It was almost five o'clock, and Zhou Yu didn't have time to listen to her nagging. He put a few pieces of pomelo peel into his lunchbox and rushed off to open his stall.

Since it was Jiang Yan who gave us the pomelo, and we've already prepared the peel, we should leave some for her too.

Cao Xuezhen didn't think much of it, assuming that Zhou Yu had taken it to eat by himself.

......

After setting up the stall, Zhou Yu didn't rush to call Jiang Yan over to eat.

These past few days, Jiang Yan has been coming over at 7:30 every day to have wonton noodles provided by Zhou Yu for dinner.

So Zhou Yu first put the pomelo peel in a steamer to keep it warm. Once the pomelo peel is cooked, it can be stored for a long time.

It wasn't until Jiang Yan came to work part-time that he handed her a bowl of wonton noodles and a peeled pomelo.

Jiang Yan looked at the extra dish and then looked at Zhou Yu with some surprise.

Zhou Yu laughed and said, "I made this dish with the pomelo you gave me yesterday, but we've finished the pulp, so there's only the peel left. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, I don't mind." Of course, Jiang Yan wouldn't be so naive as to think that it was really just a grapefruit peel.

She initially felt it was a bit stingy to give Zhou Yu the leftover pomelos from her own family.

But Zhou Yu not only didn't mind, he even made her a dish with pomelo, which touched her.

With a hint of excitement, Jiang Yan began to eat the peeled pomelo that Zhou Yu had prepared.

Pick up a thick piece of skin and meat, and it's soft, tender, and smooth in your mouth.

It really is pomelo peel?! Jiang Yan smelled the unique fragrance of the Shatin pomelo from her hometown.

But she soon realized it wasn't just a simple grapefruit peel.

First of all, there is not a trace of the bitterness of grapefruit peel.

Then there's the texture. After being simmered for a long time, the grapefruit peel is very soft and tender, but not completely mushy.

It's like biting into a rice cake; you can feel the fibers of the grapefruit peel breaking.

Then came the aroma of oil, and a rich, familiar savory fragrance.

It has a savory flavor very similar to that of wonton noodle soup.

And there's a familiar feeling etched in my memory. What is this?

After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Yan asked, "Brother Yu, besides using the soup base of wonton noodles, did you also add mud carp?"

Zhou Yu laughed and said, "Your tongue is really sharp; you even figured it out by taste."

Jiang Yan blushed, though she hadn't actually tasted the difference. She was just too familiar with the freshness of the mud carp.

Her hometown is in a mountainous area, where there aren't many fish. Her mother mostly cooks mud carp, which is why she recognized it.

The amount of peeled pomelo that Zhou Yu brought was not much, but Jiang Yan finished it quickly even though she ate slowly.

But the pleasure brought by the delicious food did not disappear.

Jiang Yan suddenly felt that anyone who dated Zhou Yu would be very happy.

Yes, because I can eat this kind of delicious food every day.