1996: Starting from a bankrupt farmhouse restaurant

Chapter 131 The Big Pot of Food in the Cafeteria

The next morning, Lu Yuan and Wei Yinghong arrived at the fried dough workshop very early.

Now, the fried dough workshop is no longer just a place to fry dough cakes; it has long been upgraded to a pastry shop where bread and flatbread can be made.

There are different types of mooncakes in different provinces, but the mainstream styles are Beijing-style, Suzhou-style, and Cantonese-style.

However, considering that most of the diners on the national highway are from the north, Lu Yuan mainly serves Beijing-style mooncakes, paired with some classic Cantonese mooncakes.

After all, most northerners can't accept Suzhou-style fresh meat mooncakes.

The old-fashioned mooncake has a golden-yellow crust.

These types of mooncakes exist in both Beijing and Cantonese styles because the crust is made from a mixture of flour and syrup.

The syrup will turn this color when baked at high temperatures.

Therefore, the method for making this old-fashioned pancake is very simple, with only one difficulty: not being able to knead the dough until it becomes elastic.

The other type of flaky mooncake is more complicated to make.

The so-called flaky pastry is made up of layers of crispy, thin pastry that crumble in your mouth; the appeal lies in the crispy texture of the outer crust.

Flaky mooncakes all have a white crust, so they are not made with syrup, but with ghee, which is animal fat.

To achieve the layered, flaky texture, you need to alternate between layers of dough with a lower shortening content and a layer of dough with a higher shortening content.

Keep folding it, rolling it flat, then folding it again, rolling it flat.

This process is repeated many times, resulting in layers of flaky pastry.

Mooncake fillings include traditional varieties such as five-nut filling, jujube paste, red bean paste, salt and pepper filling, Cantonese lotus seed paste, and custard filling.

But Lu Yuan got up early and made the dough with Wei Yinghong, so he didn't have time to stir-fry the filling.

So he went to the central kitchen, found some dumpling filling, and put it in the pan. It was just to familiarize himself with the process; he could just stir-fry the filling when making large batches later.

The old-fashioned mooncake is made by wrapping the filling in the same way as making glutinous rice balls; you just need to keep using your thumb and forefinger to close the opening.

The round ball was placed in the mold carved by Master Zhou, flattened, and tapped down to reveal the mooncake shape.

Wei Yinghong was stunned: "So this is how mooncakes are made! Look at the patterns, they're so beautiful! I thought they were carved on later."

"That would be too much trouble!" Lu Yuan chuckled.

Another type of flaky mooncake doesn't require a mold; simply wrap it up and gently flatten it with your palm.

Traditional flaky mooncakes have a red dot in the center, and more elaborate ones will have a pattern stamped on the crust in red.

Lu Yuan didn't make too many of either type of mooncake; today was just to go through a complete process for Wei Yinghong.

Once she masters the techniques for making the dough and wrapping the mooncakes, there shouldn't be any problems.

As the oven temperature rises, the crust, this exquisite blend of sugar and oil, releases an enticing aroma.

After baking the traditional mooncakes for another 10 minutes, take them out, brush them with egg wash, and continue baking. This is why the crust is so golden and beautiful.

Before long, the mooncakes were completely baked. Wei Yinghong took them out with cotton gloves and placed them on an iron rack to cool.

At that moment, Zhao Yan, with her hair tied in a ponytail, bounced in from outside the door.

"Wow, Lu Yuan, you really are a master! You actually made mooncakes! Not only the old-fashioned kind, but also the fuzzy kind!" Zhao Yan's eyes were practically sparkling.

"Have a taste!" Lu Yuan pushed the mooncake in front of Zhao Yan.

"Yan Yan, stop..." Wei Yinghong was about to speak when Lu Yuan stopped her.

Zhao Yan was already drooling with envy and completely ignored Wei Yinghong's reminder. She picked up an old-fashioned mooncake and popped it into her mouth, muttering before eating, "The first bite of a mooncake has to be an old-fashioned one, and it has to be filled with five kinds of nuts. That way, the rest of the mooncakes will taste especially delicious!"

Zhao Yan took a bite, paused for a few seconds, then chewed a few more times in disbelief, before exclaiming with an incredulous expression, "Lu Yuan, this is too outrageous! What kind of mooncake has mutton and scallions? And with chili oil too!"

"Hahaha!" Lu Yuan couldn't help but laugh.

While he was making the dumpling filling, he was wondering if Zhaoyan would come out for a bite, and to his surprise, she actually took the bait.

Although Wei Yinghong felt a little reluctant, she couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh at Zhao Yan's reaction.

Zhao Yan wasn't annoyed. She hummed twice, put down the old-fashioned mooncake, and picked up a flaky one: "Lu Yuan, I know what you're thinking. You know everyone will eat the old-fashioned one first, so you're trying to sabotage this old-fashioned mooncake, right?"

Then Zhaoyan took a bite of the flaky mooncake, and her expression was even more interesting than before.

Her ability to hold back from vomiting is a testament to her good upbringing.

But her eyes were glistening with tears, she was already feeling incredibly wronged.

This broke Wei Yinghong's heart. She immediately took the mooncake from Zhao Yan's hand and slapped Lu Yuandao hard, saying, "You bad guy! Look how Yan Yan bullied you!"

While dodging, Lu Yuan clasped his hands together and said to Zhao Yan, "Teacher Zhao, I was wrong. It's the weekend, just kidding!"

He then took an old-fashioned mooncake from the oven and handed it to Zhaoyan, saying, "This is a genuine old-style Beijing mooncake, comparable to Daoxiangcun!"

"That's more like it!" Although Zhao Yan had been tricked by Lu Yuan, she still had full confidence in Lu Yuan's skills, so she reached out and took it.

Wei Yinghong asked curiously, "Where did this come from? I didn't see it just now?"

Lu Yuan chuckled as he moved toward the door, "I made it in the kitchen. I had some leftover red bean paste filling, just enough for this one."

Seeing Zhao Yan take another bite, Lu Yuan turned and ran.

Actually, Wei Yinghong didn't see it because of the angle; the mooncake that fell into the oven was also filled with dumpling filling.

Sure enough, after Lu Yuan ran off, Zhao Yan's angry voice came from behind: "Lu Yuan, I'll fight you to the death!"

. twenty four

After confirming the time with his second uncle, Lu Yuan decided to have the dance class on Friday afternoon. Zhang Yuwen and Jingjing would come to teach the children to dance.

However, my second uncle made another request: could he teach a dance that both boys and girls could perform?

After all, if only girls are dancing, the boys will completely let loose and might even interfere with the girls.

Zhang Yuwen readily agreed. She had been dancing since elementary school, specializing in folk dance but also dabbling in other styles, making her more than capable of teaching these children with no prior experience.

Yesterday, while looking at the calendar, Lu Yuan realized it was time to treat the children with cleft lips to a meal again.

But I've been a bit busy lately and forgot about updating the murals.

He plans to update the murals next week, and then invite the children to dinner next weekend.

On Monday morning, the cafeteria at Baiyang Elementary School officially opened.

Over the course of a week, Lu Yuan designed and built a multifunctional stove with a row of burners against the wall.

The work in the school cafeteria is actually not complicated; it's just that the quantity is relatively large.

For example, a lot of rice needs to be steamed, a lot of steamed buns need to be steamed, and even a lot of shredded potatoes need to be stir-fried.

Therefore, these stoves were designed to be divided into 10 shifts for each type of food.

For example, rice was cooked using two burners, each with five large plates, mimicking the electric steamer of later generations.

When the time comes, each class will just need to bring back a large plate of rice. The work of distributing the meals can be left to the homeroom teacher, which will greatly reduce the workload later.

To this end, Lu Yuan specially purchased a batch of large buckets. When making soup noodles or stir-fries, the food can be poured directly into the large buckets, and the students can simply take it to the classroom to share.

Although it looks rather unseemly, like feeding pigs, it's the most efficient method available.

For the canteen's kitchen, Lu Yuan specifically asked Lu Wen to find four aunties with decent cooking skills.

If you're cooking for adults, four people definitely won't be enough.

But the school cafeteria serves these young children, and their appetites are actually not large, especially for first and second graders.

So, four people are definitely enough for the current stage.

Lu Yuan was never quite at ease with people from outside the family. At least the Lu family members were kept in check by the old master and Lu Wen, making them easier for him to manage.

After all, Lu Yuan can't stay here all the time in the future, and his second uncle can't keep an eye on him all the time. At that point, it will all depend on his own conscience.

These four women only need to work half a day each day. After cooking lunch and cleaning up the kitchen, they can go home directly.

The homeroom teacher of each class will arrange for the students to wash their own tableware, such as rice bowls.

These days, students aren't so precious, and they often help their families with chores, so they can do these basic housework tasks.

On Sunday, my second uncle even invited a local geomancer (a Taoist priest) to recite some sutras, and pasted yellow talismans on the roof beams and the main gate.

It is said to be for purifying the house, removing evil spirits, and settling the Kitchen God; this is a local custom.

He even had his third grandfather make a wooden signboard, painted it himself, and hung it at the entrance of the canteen.

The sign above reads: Zhaoyan Charity Canteen.

Although the conditions were rather simple, they still did their best to give Zhaoyan full respect.

One person is responsible for feeding more than 500 students. In theory, that would be enough to erect a statue for Zhao Yan, but the school simply doesn't have the extra money.

Lu Yuan plans to personally prepare breakfast and lunch for the first week.

I'll also train these aunties on how to run the canteen, especially how to control the portion sizes of the communal meals.

In the canteens of rural schools like this, there is no need to consider the diversity of food.

All you need to do is make sure the portion is enough and the taste is decent.

Even so, compared to before when they didn't eat rice or only ate dry steamed buns, this is already a significant improvement.

For breakfast, Lu Yuan devised three menus: noodles cooked in a pot, soup with steamed buns and vegetables, and soy milk with steamed buns and vegetables.

The primary consideration for the canteen is whether the kitchen can prepare the dishes in a timely manner; dishes that are complicated to prepare, such as steamed buns and fried dough sticks, are simply abandoned.

Last Monday, Lu Yuan and Wei Yinghong were completely exhausted after making vegetable pancakes.

From then on, Lu Yuan decided to only make baked flatbreads, as complicated dishes were always the last thing the cafeteria wanted to make.

Today, Lu Yuan is going to make noodles in a pot for breakfast. People in Northwest China have a habit of eating soup noodles for breakfast. A bowl of soup noodles makes their stomach feel comfortable all day.

The method for making noodles in a pot involves first preparing the broth, adding enough water, and then adding the cut noodles directly into the broth to cook.

The advantage of this method is that it is quick to prepare, and the noodles absorb the broth well, making them very flavorful.

However, the drawback is also obvious: it can only use freshly cut noodles.

If the noodles have been stored for a long time, a lot of dry flour will be sprinkled on them to retain moisture.

When cooked into soup, it will become thicker and thicker, eventually turning into a pot of paste.

However, this drawback no longer exists, because these days nobody sells noodles. If you want to eat noodles, you either have to go to a restaurant or make them at home.

Lu Yuan first directed the two aunts to knead the dough, while the two aunts chopped the vegetables.

Even when making noodles, you must put a little bit of meat on it, not too much, just enough for the flavor.

For side dishes, use potatoes, tofu, carrots, chives, whatever is in season and cheap.

After chopping the side dishes, Lu Yuan simultaneously operated two woks, heating up plenty of oil.

If there's already little meat and even less oil, this noodle soup will be too bland.

After the oil is hot, stir-fry the meat first. Once the meat is cooked, add the chopped green onions to the pan.

I won't add ginger and garlic, as they will affect the taste if you taste them in the hot pot.

At this stage, start cooking vinegar and soy sauce, add chili powder and seasoning powder, and stir-fry until the oil turns red.

Add plenty of water until the pot is 7% full.

Now you can season it with salt, MSG, and a little dark soy sauce to adjust the color.

Finally, add the chopped side dishes to the pot, bring it to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer and cook slowly.

The reason why I include the pot noodles in my breakfast is because the soup base is very easy to make.

By this time, the kneaded dough should have rested enough, and it's time to roll it out.

Rolling out dough isn't actually complicated; it just requires patience. You just need to roll it out again and again.

The two aunts were rolling out dough on two separate cutting boards.

The aunties are very efficient at rolling out dough, after all, this is probably something they do every day.

This kind of large-scale dough rolling requires a special ingredient: corn flour.

Each time you roll out the dough, sprinkle a layer of corn flour on top.

This effectively prevents the dough from sticking together, and also prevents the corn flour from being rolled into the dough, thus keeping the noodles smooth and slippery after cooking.

When making noodles at home, all-purpose flour is fine because the amount is small, and even if it gets into the pot, it won't have a significant impact.

However, if you use wheat flour for this large portion of hand-pulled noodles, the soup will turn into porridge by the end.

After the two aunties finished rolling out the dough, they began to stack it layer by layer to a width of one hand, and then slowly cut it into noodles with a half-meter-long knife.

Pick up the cut noodles from the middle, shake off the corn flour, and then put them directly into the soup.

At this point, the person standing by the soup pot must keep chewing the bottom of the pot to prevent it from sticking.

These freshly rolled noodles are so moist that they're basically cooked when they float from the bottom of the pot to the surface.

After all the noodles were in the pot, Lu Yuan instructed his aunt to add the chives, followed by a few drops of vinegar and sesame oil to enhance the complex flavors.

Blanch the chives for about ten seconds, and they're ready to be taken out of the pot.

The way they were taken out of the pot was very brutal; they were scooped directly into a bucket with a large spoon. There were fewer first-graders and more fifth-graders.

The homeroom teachers, having calculated the time agreed upon with Lu Yuan, promptly sent the strongest boys in the class to fetch breakfast.

My second uncle stood at the classroom door, watching the children happily line up, holding their rice bowls as they got their food.

His eyes were also a little moist. He had a bad stomach over the years, a problem caused by hunger.

It wasn't that he didn't have money for food, but that he couldn't bear to eat while seeing the hungry children at school.

But he couldn't help them one by one, so in the end he made up his mind to just go hungry with them, which made him feel a little better.

Zhao Yan couldn't help but peek through the classroom window. She saw a little boy shouting "a noodle!" and happily swinging it around.

Although he was a bit mischievous, she could sense the genuine joy emanating from him.

That money was originally intended for her to start a business after she finished teaching in the rural area.

But seeing how much money could bring smiles to so many children's faces, she felt it was all worth it.

Suddenly, Zhao Yan felt someone tapping her shoulder. She turned around and saw Lu Yuan, who was covered in sweat, holding two rice bowls and looking at her.

"Hey, what are you daydreaming about? I've noticed you're acting like a kid. You don't even eat when the food's ready, you just run around aimlessly. Do I have to feed you all over campus?"

Faced with Lu Yuan's scolding, Zhao Yan blushed, stuck out her tongue, took the rice bowl, and said, "Thank you!"

"Where are we going..." Zhao Yan was about to ask where to eat when she found Lu Yuan already sitting on the steps outside the classroom.

So she sat down on the steps and casually asked, "But why do I have a rice bowl too?"

"Don't be touched, I bought it with your money!" Lu Yuan chuckled, then opened his rice bowl and started eating.

Zhao Yan curiously opened the rice jar and found a layer of meat floating on top of the noodles.

She glanced curiously at Lu Yuan's rice bowl, only to be met with Lu Yuan's somewhat stern remark: "What are you looking at? Eat!"

Then I heard him slurp it up, pick up a big mouthful of noodles, and eat it.

Zhao Yan had some doubts. She clearly watched the whole process when Lu Yuan was making the soup base.

There wasn't nearly that much meat, so why was there so much meat in my bowl that it completely covered the noodles?

She didn't dare ask if Lu Yuan was that fierce, so she simply picked up her chopsticks, scooped up a mouthful of noodles, and slurped them up in small bites.

It has to be said that Lu Yuan's skills are always so trustworthy.

Although this bowl of noodles wasn't particularly amazing, it was still savory and delicious. The noodles were chewy and refreshing, and the more you slurped them up, the more fragrant they became.

However, after she finished slurping the noodles, she discovered that there was a layer of meat at the bottom of the bowl.

So, taking advantage of Lu Yuan's inattention, she got close to Lu Yuan's rice bowl and found that there was hardly any meat in it, only potatoes and tofu.

What's going on? Lu Yuan gave all the meat to himself? This guy...

Zhao Yan pouted, then suddenly moved her rice bowl next to Lu Yuan and quickly put the meat into Lu Yuan's bowl.

"Lu Yuan, I don't like meat, you can have all the meat!"

Lu Yuan was showing off his food when he suddenly saw slices of meat floating in front of him. Dodging them, he said, "Nonsense, why don't you like eating meat when you're eating lamb or hamburgers?"

"Mind your own business!" Zhao Yan didn't take the bait at all, and leaned over to put meat on Lu Yuan's plate.

As a result, one hid too far away and the other chased too deep, causing Zhao Yan to lose her balance and fall directly into Lu Yuan's arms.

Faced with the choice between picking up the person or the rice bowl, Lu Yuan chose to pick up the rice bowl so that the noodle soup wouldn't spill on him.

Lu Yuan then steadily supported Zhao Yan's rice bowl, while Zhao Yan collapsed onto him.