1996: Starting from a bankrupt farmhouse restaurant

Chapter 122 Lu Yuan's Tricks

This beef rice soup looks ordinary, but it has a lot to offer.

In addition to beef, chopped sea cucumber was also added.

Sea cucumber itself has little flavor, and under the rich beef sauce, those who haven't eaten it before can hardly taste it.

In addition, Lu Yuan added some vegetable pieces to it, which also disguised the taste to a certain extent.

Sea cucumbers are very expensive these days, and Grandpa Xu, being a discerning palate man, immediately recognized their exceptional quality.

But his old buddies couldn't tell the difference; they just thought the rice porridge tasted incredibly delicious and kept praising it.

Lu Yuan cut the beef cubes a little larger in order to cover up the sea cucumber pieces inside.

After taking the first bite, Grandpa Xu was completely relieved. Lu Yuan always brought him surprises when it came to cooking.

To make the meal less unusual for the elderly, Lu Yuan interspersed it with many local dishes from northern China.

They even deliberately made the food look ugly, in order to highlight the stereotype that only delicious food is good enough for a rural restaurant.

Lu Yuan occasionally interspersed a few specially prepared dishes among the local northern cuisine.

One of the dishes is a classic Shandong dish: braised fish in a pot.

Pot-stuffing is a unique cooking technique of Shandong cuisine, which was later widely used in the Tianjin area as well.

The term "guota" refers to a dish where the meat filling is on the inside and an egg skin is on the outside. It is first pan-fried and then simmered, resulting in a dish that is soft on the outside and tender on the inside, with a chewy texture.

The technique of pan-frying can be used to make many dishes, such as pan-fried tofu, pan-fried pork tenderloin, and pan-fried fish cakes.

Lu Yuan chose the pan-fried fish box for its fish flavor, which allowed him to smuggle in his own goods.

To make braised fish dumplings, first slice off the boneless fish meat.

However, there are very few fish in the northern region that meet this requirement, so Lu Yuan finally chose the Yellow River big fish.

Cut the fillets into rectangles and score them with crosshatch cuts to help them absorb flavor.

For the meat filling, Lu Yuan chose lean pork with a 3:7 fat content, along with shrimp and sea cucumber.

The minced meat is beaten until it becomes elastic, then sandwiched between pieces of fish. The fish is folded in half to form a box shape.

The traditional way to make pan-fried fish involves mixing an egg batter and pouring it over the fish.

Make sure there's more meat than egg; if the outside is a whole sheet of egg, then it's not right.

The method for making this dish is not difficult. First, fry the ingredients, then sauté them with shredded scallions and ginger, add water, and simmer until cooked.

The only challenge is flipping the pan after frying one side.

Only by flipping the fish in a large pan can the perfect shape be guaranteed; if you flip it piece by piece, you might puncture the fish box.

When this pan-fried fish box is served, it is very well concealed, looking just like an ordinary plate of fried egg wrapped with meat.

But after taking a bite, Grandpa Xu realized how many treasures were hidden inside.

So he immediately called out to the other elderly people, "Everyone, eat this quickly, fried egg and meat rolls, they're soft and tender, and easy to digest."

C

An elderly gentleman took a bite and nodded repeatedly, saying, "This restaurant tastes really good, it's a pity it's a bit far away. If it were closer, I could come here more often."

Old Master Xu broke out in a cold sweat. If they came often, wouldn't his side be exposed?

Fortunately, the next dish—steamed chicken with millet and lotus leaves—interrupted the old men's conversation.

Steamed chicken in lotus leaves is a dish that has been passed down among the people for a long time.

Lu Yuan made a slight improvement, wrapping the chicken pieces in soaked millet and then steaming them with lotus leaves.

Lu Yuan's trick was in the millet; he used the shop's broth to soak the millet, which gave it a rich and mellow aroma.

At the same time, Xiaomi is also a perfect disguise, able to completely cover up what's inside.

In addition to chicken, Lu Yuan also added a small amount of sea cucumber and fish maw to the millet.

These are all ingredients with a mild flavor and excellent texture. Once they have absorbed the chicken broth, they bring out the characteristics of top-quality ingredients.

Moreover, steamed meat is the most tender, which is perfect for the teeth of these old men.

When Zhenzhen brought the dish to the table, Grandpa Xu immediately perked up.

Through the first few dishes, he had figured out Lu Yuan's methods.

There's definitely something fishy about these vegetables that are wrapped up so tightly!

He eagerly picked up a piece, took a bite, and immediately a knowing smile appeared on his face.

This time, there was also fish maw. Grandpa Xu nodded in satisfaction, feeling a sense of joy akin to playing chess with Lu Yuan.

"My friends, eat up! This millet is good for your stomach, you should eat more!"

An elderly man sitting at the very end of the table took a bite and burst into tears: "This millet! I wish the class monitor could eat such delicious millet! Waaaaah!"

When the topic of the squad leader came up again, Grandpa Xu was lost in deep memories.

That year was very cold, and their class braved the wind and snow to move forward with difficulty on the Korean battlefield.

They were on a covert mission, but were discovered by the enemy en route.

Left with no other choice, the squad leader detonated a grenade to cover their retreat and used his body to shield them from the enemy.

The squad leader had never eaten white rice in his life. He ate millet all year round and often said: "After the war is over, let's grow some white rice to eat!"

Grandpa Xu was the deputy squad leader. After the war, he saw that the squad leader's family was so poor that they didn't even have enough pants to wear, and he had been quietly helping them ever since.

After the reform and opening up, he resolutely went into business, his biggest purpose being to take care of the squad leader's family and his old comrades.

"Young lady, do you have any wine?" Old Master Xu asked Zhenzhen.

He wasn't planning on drinking today, since everyone is getting old.

But when the atmosphere gets this far, it just feels like I'm going to feel uneasy if I don't have a drink.

Zhenzhen gave an affirmative answer and then brought out the liquor that Lu Yuan had prepared in advance.

The liquor Zhenzhen brought over was just a broken glass bottle, without even a brand name.

After gathering her emotions, Zhenzhen introduced the bottle of baijiu as being brewed in her own home.

After opening the lid and taking a sniff, Grandpa Xu's expression changed noticeably, and he probably had the answer in his mind.

He then poured himself a glass, took a sip, and immediately confirmed his earlier guess.

What do you mean, homemade wine? This is clearly Wuliangye liquor!

This is the absolute king of baijiu in this era, a bottle costs 200 yuan!

Grandpa Xu felt a bit of a toothache and thought to himself, "Is this Boss Lu really taking advantage of us old guys who can't afford such good wine?"

However, on the other hand, this Boss Lu is indeed reliable.

He hadn't decided on baijiu at all before, and had even said he wouldn't drink it.

Unexpectedly, Lu Yuan still prepared it, and it was the expensive Wuliangye liquor with golden hoops. He just opened it and poured it into a glass bottle.

Mr. Xu was very satisfied with the meal, and the other elderly people also enjoyed it very much.

In their opinion, these dishes looked ordinary, but tasted delicious.

They kept praising the place Mr. Xu had chosen for its excellent quality, reasonable prices, and simple, honest atmosphere, which made Mr. Xu blush with embarrassment.

As they were leaving, Zhenzhen and Pingping suddenly blocked their way at the door.

Lu Yuan came out and said that an old commander who was passing by had asked him to deliver a gift to the veterans who came to eat.

The gifts were cooked meat, fried dough sticks, and a bottle of Wuliangye liquor disguised as a golden hoop.

Given the veterans' style, they would absolutely not accept it.

However, Lu Yuan directly invoked the old commander's name, indicating that it would be troublesome if they didn't accept him, so they reluctantly accepted.

This was actually a gift from Lu Yuan to express his respect for these veterans.

With all these gifts given out, Lu Yuan barely made any money from the meal.

But as a normal person, how can one not be moved when seeing these veterans?

Zhao Yan didn't come back that night; she and Chen Nuo would spend two days enjoying the sights of the northern frontier.

Lu Yuan enthusiastically recommended the photo spots for Supreme Treasure and Fairy Zixia, but when he asked, he found out that none of them had seen "A Chinese Odyssey".

That's really frustrating; it's incredibly annoying to have a joke stuck in your head and not be able to share it.

However, Lu Yuan did not give up. He racked his brains for a long time and finally remembered another joke.

"Xu Lingjun, do you want a wife?"

"The Herdsman" was a hugely popular movie back then, and as soon as this line came out, Zhao Yan and Chen Nuo immediately understood.

This most classic dialogue took place in Zhenbeibao Film City in northern China, near the filming location of the later wildly popular TV series "Supreme Treasure" and "Fairy Zixia".

So, Lu Yuan used this meme to persuade them to go to the film studio for fun.

Besides, the biggest highlight of the scenery in the northern frontier is Wang Wei's line, "A lone plume of smoke rises straight from the desert, the setting sun hangs round over the long river."

The scenery where the desert meets the Yellow River is unique.

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