The conversation's already gone this far.
Lin Xu could only pick up a bag and start choosing.
He picked about twenty pounds of tomatoes, thirty pounds of eggplants, seven or eight pounds of carrots, over ten pounds of baby greens, plus scallion, ginger, and garlic, as well as other veggie ingredients for making chicken fat and chili oil.
When he was picking out the eggplants,
the stall owner sneakily took out his phone and snapped a photo.
Then he posted it under Lin Ji's Food hashtag.
Uncle Shen from Chunfeng Market: #LinJiFood# Boss Lin is buying veggies at my stall—everyone can probably guess today's lunchtime topping now, right?
Once posted,
Uncle Shen put his phone away.
And helped Lin Xu select the rest.
Once all the ingredients were picked,
Uncle Shen switched on the digital scale, weighed everything one by one, calculated the total price, and gave Lin Xu a discount.
In the market,
there's always a discount for bulk purchases like this.
Not just because the customer buys a lot.
More importantly, customers who buy like this are usually restaurants.
Keep the relationship good and you've got long-term business.
Compared to other customers, though,
Uncle Shen gave Lin Xu a slightly bigger discount.
After all, he's one of our own.
"Boss Lin, next time you're adding any new dishes, tell me ahead of time, I'll stock up on some higher-quality stuff. For our own people, you gotta use the best ingredients!"
It was only when he scanned his phone to pay that Lin Xu found out the stall owner's surname was Shen.
He laughed and said:
"Thanks for the trouble, Uncle Shen. For now it's just tomatoes and eggplant, but if I add more things later I'll give you a heads up."
Uncle Shen saw Lin Xu was planning to buy more stuff.
So he told him:
"If you need to buy more, just leave your veggies here for now. Once you're all done, you can use my three-wheeler to carry the stuff—all so you won't have to go looking for a truck."
Lin Xu didn't stand on ceremony with him,
left the veggies somewhere out of the way of Uncle Shen's business, then strode off toward the meat stalls.
He bought twenty pounds of pork belly, ten pounds of big pork bones, six pounds of chicken carcass, two old hens full of butter fat, two crates of chicken skin, and a good twenty pounds of pork lard.
He was using more and more pork lard these days.
Buying ready-made lard just wasn't cost-effective anymore.
Plus, ready-made pork lard just didn't taste as good as homemade.
As for the chicken skin—
that's the main ingredient for rendering chicken fat.
After Lin Xu left,
Uncle Shen, with nothing to do, pulled out his phone again.
Only to discover—
there were actually replies under his post already.
Lin Ji Boy Yue Liyue: Eggplant? What kind of topping is that? Any Northern folks wanna explain?
Genius Girl Loves Food: Braised Eggplant and Pork Sauce! Topping made with eggplant and pork dices, ugh why didn't I guess it T_T.
At this hour…
Uncle Shen reflexively checked the time on his phone.
05:03:36.
Just past five in the morning.
Shouldn't everyone be snoozing under their comforters with the AC on?
Uncle Shen from Chunfeng Market: What do you all do, why are you up so early?
Lin Ji Boy Yue Liyue: I boost game accounts, haven't gone to bed yet.
Genius Girl Loves Food: I just got up to go memorize vocabulary, so tragic.
Lin Ji Boy Yue Liyue: Aren't you a genius girl? You still need to study vocab?
Genius Girl Loves Food: The Tsinghua University admissions officer told me yesterday, direct admit students can't pick whatever major they want, only from their assigned list. So I turned them down, planning to take the college entrance exam and choose what I like.
Lin Ji Boy Yue Liyue: …
Uncle Shen from Chunfeng Market: …
After Lin Xu finished buying meat and came back,
Uncle Shen rolled over his electric tricycle.
They packed on all the ingredients.
Lin Xu drove the electric tricycle to his shop.
After unloading the goods,
he drove the trike back again,
and returned it to Uncle Shen.
Back at the shop once more,
Lin Xu threw himself into intense prep work.
On went the chicken stock.
On went the pork bone broth.
Veggies soaking.
Next, he soaked the pork lard, cut it into mahjong-tile-sized cubes,
and started rendering it.
In modern times,
people care more and more about healthy eating.
Pork lard's gotten a bad rap.
But in the restaurant business,
pork lard is still super useful.
Like when you stir-fry veggies—just a bit of lard and the taste and mouthfeel straight-up level up.
The so-called "vegetarian dish, meat-style fry" is really about cooking vegetarian food with animal fat.
Even though his shop didn't have any stir-fry dishes right now, whether it was oil-based chili sauce or today's new braised eggplant and pork topping, you couldn't do it without pork lard.
Once the lard was ready,
Lin Xu fished the soaking eggplant and carrots from the sink.
Washed them and chopped them into thumb-sized chunks.
After chopping, tossed the pieces into a bowl.
Sprinkled in two big handfuls of salt.
Mixed them up well.
Started "killing water."
If the braised eggplant and pork is going to taste good,
you have to salt and draw out the water after cutting the veggies.
This not only gets rid of eggplant's weird taste,
mainly, the salt draws out moisture and softens the eggplant, like squeezing water from a sponge.
Once it goes in the pan,
these eggplant cubes will soak up the meat juices,
becoming super soft, slippery, and delicious.
The carrot's mostly for color, though.
Salting the carrots makes them cook faster,
so the carrots aren't still raw when the eggplant is already done.
After that,
Lin Xu diced meat, chopped tomatoes, cracked eggs, made dough…
He kept busy all the way till nearly eleven.
Only then was the morning's prep about done.
"Ley ho, Boss Lin, are you open yet or what?"
Lin Xu had just grabbed a cold Coke from the fridge for a breather when the door swung open and a few half-conscious young guys wandered in.
The one in front looked about twenty-something,
speaking pitch-perfect Cantonese-accented Mandarin.
Everyone's face rocked heavy dark circles,
a bunch of hardcore "cultivators" if he'd ever seen 'em.
"Everything's ready. You guys hungry now? If so I can start cooking right away."
Lin Xu twisted open his Coke and took a swig.
Then he grabbed the digital chalkboard.
Wrote up the prices again:
[Tomato Egg Noodles: Large 28 / Small 25]
[Signature Noodles with Braised Eggplant and Pork Sauce: Large 30 / Small 27]
"Whoa, so Uncle Shen from the market was right, it really is braised eggplant!"
"Told ya, Lin Ji folks never scam Lin Ji folks."
"Boss, get us each a big bowl, quick, we gotta taste test!"
"Yeah, and after we eat, we'll check in and make Panda Bro jealous."
Once he finished writing and put the board outside,
Lin Xu headed back to the kitchen to roll out noodles.
The Cantonese-accented youngster grabbed four bottles of North Pole soda from the fridge,
scanned the payment code at the counter, and paid 140 yuan.
Back at the table,
he whipped out his phone and snapped a shot of Lin Xu,
posting it under the Lin Ji's Food hashtag.
Lin Ji Boy Yue Liyue: I'm already at #LinJiFood#, and I ordered the large Signature Noodles with Braised Eggplant and Pork Sauce—anyone got something to say?
Panda Bro: May you always choke while drinking.
Saving Hard for a Hair Transplant: May you always burn your mouth with soup.
Eighteen-year-old Silver-Haired Kid: May you always get noodles stuck in your throat.
Genius Girl Loves Food: May you always get groped by creeps when crossdressing!
Everyone: …