dognovel Chapter 7 Aunt Zhang's Tea Eggs
Chapter 7 Aunt Zhang's Tea Eggs
The crowd of onlookers quickly dispersed, and Aunt Zhang led Xu Liang to sit down at her stall.
Aunt Zhang's stall isn't very big, but it's not small either; it can just comfortably accommodate three tables of people.
"Look what you've done, Liangwazi. You've given someone a bruise on their face. Even if they don't report you to the police later, they'll still come after you."
"Him, he even wants to come back and get revenge on me."
Aunt Zhang didn't say anything more, but just asked a question out of concern.
Have you had breakfast yet?
"Not yet. To be honest, I've been busy all morning, trying to sell breakfast, but I just can't seem to sell any!"
Upon hearing Xu Liang's words, Aunt Zhang smiled and smoothed her cheeks.
"You only learned half-baked cooking skills from your master, so what made you decide to open your own small restaurant?"
"If you can't sell these, you'll lose money!"
Xu Liang thought to himself that Aunt Zhang was right. If this small restaurant didn't make money, then everything he had done would be in vain.
The current situation is that we first need to learn how to attract users, and then we need to get a business license, since Ma Cuimei interfered earlier and mentioned that we didn't have a business license.
"I feel like I've learned the essence of what I learned from my master, and I'm ready to open a small restaurant."
"Impossible. You've only been in the factory for two years. Starting your own business is an impossible task."
Aunt Zhang has sold out of this batch of tea eggs and is now preparing to sell the next batch.
Xu Liang saw Aunt Zhang start making tea eggs, and the system panel mentioned that he should learn Aunt Zhang's tea egg making skills and her experience in making her stall popular.
Then, Aunt Zhang took out 10 eggs of similar size from the woven basket filled with chaff, and then took out a small box of tea in a tin can from the platform under her cart.
She turned the lid over, and the aroma of tea leaves wafted out. Xu Liang could roughly guess from the smell that it was a treasured black tea.
As for the variety, it might be Sichuan Red Kung Fu, because Xu Liang could also smell a faint orange candy aroma.
Next, Aunt Zhang took out a gauze bag containing spices from her small styrofoam box, and took out two star anise, a small piece of cinnamon, two bay leaves, a small pinch of Sichuan peppercorns, one cardamom (cracked and seeded), and three to four cloves.
On the wooden shelf are condiments: a bottle each of dark soy sauce and light soy sauce, aged vinegar, salt, and large pieces of rock sugar.
Then, following the water pipes of the neighbor's house, I found a tap, took a metal bucket, and filled it with some clean water.
Place the cooking pot on the brick stove and use firewood cut from the mountains to start a fire in the stove.
Once the fire is lit, if the temperature isn't high enough, you have to use black honeycomb briquettes to heat it up.
However, if honeycomb briquettes are not burned completely, they will definitely produce carbon monoxide as a byproduct of carbon dioxide.
Therefore, when Aunt Zhang was building this furnace, she not only made one ventilation opening, but also designed an impermeable steel chimney at the back for better exhaust.
Xu Liang stood to the side, his eyes fixed on Aunt Zhang's movements, feeling that she was skilled and just right.
The first step is to check if the raw eggs are intact. Then, put them in a pot of cold water and spread them out so that the raw eggs are submerged.
Add a little salt to enhance the saltiness, and then add a drop or two of vinegar to prevent the egg from cracking.
The fire burned brighter and brighter. After a while, the fire was turned down to a simmer. Aunt Zhang kept a close eye on the time. When she saw that it was almost done, she took the eggs out and rinsed them in cold water.
What is the purpose? Because according to the principle of thermal expansion and contraction, it makes it easier to make marks and peel off the shell later.
Immediately move on to the most crucial step in making tea eggs: cracking the shell to allow the braising liquid to penetrate the egg and enhance its savory tea flavor.
What Xu Liang saw was Aunt Zhang gently tapping the shells of each hard-boiled egg with a slotted spoon. The effect she wanted was not for the shells to be obviously cracked, but to create a fine, net-like crack pattern.
Another reason is that before his rebirth, Xu Liang had seen on Douyin that the denser the cracks in a tea egg, the more flavorful it is, and the more beautiful and attractive the pattern is.
At this moment, Xu Liang couldn't help but ask a question.
"Auntie, this should be your specialty. I think I understand now. It's about using a slotted spoon to tap and crack the hard-boiled egg."
"But why do you always control the force so well? If it were me, I'd probably crack a hard-boiled egg with just a light touch."
Looking at Xu Liang's serious and curious expression, Aunt Zhang thought of her own time in high school when she was young.
One spring weekend, a group of close friends dressed up beautifully, took a bus that ran for several hours, and brought some old-fashioned cooking utensils to Qingcheng Mountain near Dujiangyan in the suburbs of Chengdu for a picnic.
While enjoying the scenery and eating, they also visited some farmers' homes in Qingcheng Mountain, where they obtained rice and cured meat. The group worked together to enjoy the feeling that nature brought them.
Unfortunately, Aunt Zhang chose not to continue her studies at university after finishing high school.
Because her mother had passed away when she was very young, and during the summer after she finished the college entrance examination, her father fell and became paralyzed from the waist down due to a work accident.
At that time, there was a six or seven-year-old younger brother in the family. Her father was paralyzed and needed her to take care of him. Her younger brother was about to start primary school and also needed money.
Desperate, she started a small stall selling tea eggs, traveling to every corner of Chengdu. Little did she know that this would last for many years, and now she is about to enter middle age, having wasted the years that a young girl should have had.
But it's well worth it.
Xu Liang had also heard Zhao Hongzhi talk about Aunt Zhang's past. When he was a child, he often saw Aunt Zhang selling tea eggs at her stall, but when she closed up, she was a scavenger, picking up discarded items to sell for money.
These experiences tugged at Xu Liang's heartstrings as he recalled them.
"You want to learn? Do you want me to teach you?"
He hadn't yet recovered from the memory of Aunt Zhang in his mind.
He just stood there, stunned.
"Liangwa, what's wrong? Are you listening to me?"
Aunt Zhang reminded him again before he snapped out of his reverie.
"Auntie, I'm sorry, I was thinking about something else, I didn't hear what you said."
"This kid, hahaha, what's he thinking about? Is he just itching to eat my tea egg?"
Xu Liang didn't know what to say, so he just stood there scratching his head.
"Liangwa, I'm not teasing you anymore. Didn't you just say you wanted to learn this? I'll let you try the last one left."
After saying that, Aunt Zhang called Xu Liang to come to her side from the stroller and taught him how to hold the egg, how to grip the strainer, and how to apply force, etc.
They taught him step by step, and the scene was very heartwarming.
Xu Liang didn't know what was wrong. He had the egg and the strainer in the right hand, but he couldn't control the force.
Before long, Xu Liang tapped the eggshell lightly, and the cracks on the surface became thick and long, making it not only unappealing but also ruining the best taste after it was braised.
Aunt Zhang witnessed all of this, shook her head, and said to Xu Liang, "You still need to practice more. We're all seasoned veterans; there's no other way but practice makes perfect."
"Okay, I'll go back and study it some more, and practice more!"
After the hard-boiled eggs have been processed, they are first placed in a large enamel bowl, and then the next step is called simmering the brine.
Pour water into a pot, add dried red tea leaves and various spices, then take out some ginger, garlic, and wild onions dug from your own vegetable garden from your apron pocket.
Cut the ginger into chunks, smash the garlic, and put the wild scallions in.
Simmer over high heat for a while to allow the flavors of the ingredients to infuse into the water.
Then add rich light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, three parts rock sugar, and a suitable amount of salt. Stir well, adjust the heat to low, and simmer for a while longer.
Finally, put the cracked hard-boiled eggs into the braising liquid, making sure the liquid covers the eggs. Place the lid on the pot and simmer over low heat for half an hour.
As expected, after finishing, Xu Liang lifted the lid and saw Zhang Niangniang's tea eggs. The braising liquid was bright red, the cracks were even, and a strong aroma of tea could be smelled from afar.
He thought to himself that he should also learn this authentic craft.
"Here, Liangwazi, you're starving. Have one."
Aunt Zhang skillfully scooped out a tea egg from the pot with a slotted spoon, keeping the cracks in the eggshell almost intact throughout the process.
She quickly pulled out a small bowl from below and gently placed the tea egg inside.
Then he handed the bowl to Xu Liang.
Xu Liang was probably starving; after peeling the shell, he stuffed the whole thing into his mouth.
After chewing it, I found it was really delicious. The egg white was just right, not losing its activity, and it was bouncy and refreshing without being dry. The egg yolk was also powdery and crumbly, making it very tasty.
These tea eggs have every reason to be bestsellers. Not only are they fragrant with tea and have a rich egg flavor, but they are also safe, green, healthy, and highly nutritious.
"Delicious, so delicious!"
Xu Liang kept praising it after he finished eating.
"Liangwazi, let me tell you, I've been making tea eggs for so many years. They're not only delicious, but they're also enough to fill you up for breakfast."
Suddenly, Xu Liang pulled out two yuan from his pocket, treating it as the value of the tea egg he had just eaten.
He then handed it to Aunt Zhang.
Seeing this, Aunt Zhang kept pushing the money toward Xu Liang.
"Why are you taking out money, kid? I won't accept it. Consider this tea egg my treat."
"No way! How can you eat someone else's food and not pay? Besides, I see that your aunt works hard all day long, getting up early and working late to earn money. You have to accept this money!"
"Hey, I don't want it, I just don't want it, don't try to give it to me. If you really want to return it, you'll have to expand your small restaurant and treat me to a big meal someday."
Xu Liang seemed to have remembered something again.
Yes, I just unlocked a new dish catalog.
No one has tried this water yet, but Aunt Zhang might be able to give me her opinion.
Xu Liang was secretly pleased, because he could gain the approval of another diner.
But I don't know why the system didn't broadcast a notification just now.
His own younger sister, Xu Tian, is also one of his customers.
Did the control panel freeze?