Food Intelligence King

Chapter 97 Chen Zhou's Little Tail, Customers Arrive at the Store

This time, since we're making a proper, customized version of crab roe soup dumplings, we can't just use minced meat like Chen Zhou did at home last time.

We need to boil a pot of soup and make it into soup jelly.

You will need one old hen, one beef bone, and some pork skin and tendons.

For these things, you can't go wrong with Old Zhang.

Chen Zhou went to the market and, with Zhang Jinsheng's help, prepared all the ingredients.

I carried a whole big bag.

Chen Taotao insisted on coming, so Chen Zhou now has a little tail following her.

Although he and Lao Zhang meet almost every day and are very stable business partners, they are already very familiar with each other.

But Little Tail was actually a little scared of Uncle Zhang.

It was a little better than last time; she greeted Old Zhang first before hiding behind her father.

Essentially, Chen Zhou flicked its tail and then pulled it back.

Every time Old Zhang sees this little girl, he is reminded of his own daughter when she was little. "My daughter wasn't afraid of me either."

Chen Zhou stated frankly, "I've observed her recently, and my daughter has absolutely no problems."

Hearing her father's words, the little tail wagged again: "No!"

Old Zhang looked on with envy and even considered going home with his wife to have a second child.

After taking Chen Taotao home, Chen Zhou went back to the store to do the preparations.

The old hen had already been processed at the market, and Old Zhang had also grilled the pork skin with a blowtorch.

At this point, clean the tendons and large bones thoroughly.

Put the ingredients directly into a pot of cold water, along with scallions, ginger, and cooking wine. Bring to a boil, then skim off any foam or impurities.

Turn the heat to low and simmer for three hours.

After simmering, strain out the solids and refrigerate the broth overnight. This is the soup jelly you'll use the next day.

In the evening, just as the soup was ready, the hairy crabs that Grandpa Yu had ordered arrived.

Chen Zhou glanced at the information on the express delivery and guessed that the crabs had arrived on an early morning flight, indicating a tight schedule.

Upon opening the packaging, all the crabs inside were alive; there were dozens of them at a glance.

The female crabs are a bit smaller than the male crabs. Weighing them with the rope attached, I estimate they weigh almost half a pound each.

Chen Zhou sent the photos to Grandpa Yu.

Tell him not to worry.

"The crabs have been received."
-
"【Clenched fists】"

Grandpa Yu has been in contact with Chen Zhou several times recently and has come to trust this young man quite a bit.

The two sides finally agreed on the time and place.

Tomorrow night at six o'clock, at the small shop.

Chen Zhou placed the crabs in the temporarily vacant refrigerator.

He followed the instructions on the gift box to set the temperature and then covered it with a damp towel.

Crabs are not that demanding in terms of their living environment.

Aside from missing a meal and being a little physically restricted, these hairy crabs will still be fresh tomorrow.

The following day, on Sunday, we opened for business.

From morning to noon, the shop was still busy with business as usual.

After the recent high-profile incident, quite a few people came to buy steamed buns over the weekend.

Chen Zhou had prepared the quantity according to the weekday's plan, but it was all sold out before noon.

The shop allows customers to leave a little early.

Of course, Chen Zhou had already prepared a copy for the employees.

The junior sister is eating at the shop.

Aunt Zheng still took her away.

She took the steamed bun with a cheerful smile, giving the impression that something good had happened.

Chen Zhou glanced at the date. It was clearly not payday yet. Curious, he asked Aunt Zheng:
"You get paid tomorrow, Auntie! Why are you so happy today?"

Aunt Zheng laughed and said, "Yesterday morning, Dafu Supermarket had eggs on sale. There were so many people there, but I managed to grab the last bag."

Chen Zhou looked at his intelligence again and thought: No wonder.

He gave Aunt Zheng a thumbs up, saying, "You're really good."

"Sigh, it won't work now either."

The boss consistently provided excellent emotional support. Aunt Zheng greeted the two young people with a smile, then took the steamed buns and went home.

My junior sister made steamed buns with cooked meat filling today.

While eating, she suggested to Chen Zhou about tea eggs. "Senior brother, have you forgotten? Your tea eggs are quite delicious. You should put them in the shop too."

Business has been so busy lately that Chen Zhou had completely forgotten about this.

"Add it later."

Seeing Zhao Yilin eating her lunch at the shop, Chen Zhou remembered that Ms. Lin often mentioned inviting Zhao to her home for meals.

But Chen Zhou still has things to do today.

He said casually:
"I have to entertain two guests this afternoon, so I won't invite you to my house for dinner this week."

The junior sister nodded; she had already heard Chen Zhou talk about the hairy crabs.

But I quickly realized: my senior said he was busy this week, so does that mean next week or the week after next is fine?
The junior sister was very frank: "I would feel quite embarrassed if I went to your house for dinner every week."

I'm sorry, but I ate quite a lot.

But it's really just a matter of adding a pair of chopsticks.

Chen Zhou smiled and then said:
“Sometimes on weekends, my wife and I take Tao Tao out to play, like beachcombing and crabbing. Your sister-in-law suggested that if you're free, you could come along too. I think Tao Tao would be quite happy about it.”

Zhao Yilin started babbling:
"I don't really have much to do usually. Take yesterday for example, I slept in late in the morning, and by the time I got up it was almost nine o'clock. I did some laundry, tidied up the house, went out shopping with my classmates at noon, grabbed a bite to eat, and then when I got back..."

"Alright, alright," Chen Zhou said, his head starting to ache again. He figured his junior sister would probably say she wanted to read novels or watch TV series.

So Chen Zhou quickly waved to her, "I'll call you next time."

"Thank you, senior brother!"

As he was leaving, his junior sister's long string of words were still echoing in Chen Zhou's mind.

He instructed:

"I just heard you say that you didn't eat breakfast yesterday? Remember to eat properly."

"it is good!"

The junior sister rode away on her electric scooter.

Chen Zhou went home and rested for a while.

I turned around and went back to the shop. I started preparing today's crab roe soup dumplings.

Yesterday's soup jelly, after sitting overnight, has become shiny and bouncy, just like cold noodles.

All the hairy crabs in the refrigerator are still alive.

Although they survived for one more night, they still couldn't escape the fate of ending up in the steamer.

After steaming the crabs and letting them cool slightly,

It was Chen Zhou's turn to showcase his talents again—crab-peeling time.

With his mastery of the techniques and a near-masterful "disregard for crabs" attitude, Chen Zhou even found a sense of enjoyment in his work.

It's the sense of accomplishment from dissecting crabs cleanly, one by one.

The crab roe and crab meat were placed in a bowl. Chen Zhou also arranged the remaining crab shells neatly.

It's quite pleasing to the eye.

Mr. Yu's friend's ideal crab roe soup dumplings are large.

So this time, Chen Zhou rolled out the dough for the steamed buns to a diameter of 30 centimeters, about the size of a pancake.

The filling uses ten crabs, and although it's mixed with soup jelly, one bun of this size is equivalent to three regular ones.

Chen Zhou finished wrapping the first two buns, and then he heard a conversation coming from outside the shop.

It was Grandpa Yu and his friend who arrived.

(End of this chapter)