Crossing the Unknown Country

The waiter continued, "My name is Qin Ming, and I am from Fengyu City. Don't let me get scolded. I must have a good menu. Our shopkeeper is a good person."

As they spoke, they came to the backyard. He asked Su He and his daughter to wait, and he went outside the house and called out, "Manager Wu, are you there? I have something to talk to you about."

Shopkeeper Wu agreed: "Qin Ming, come in!"

Qin Ming went in alone and replied to Shopkeeper Wu. After a while, he came out and called Su He and his daughter in to talk.

When Su He entered, he saw a middle-aged man in his thirties wearing black and blue brocade. He had a short beard on his mouth, a fair and ruddy complexion, clear eyes, and regular features. He looked like a person who was easy to talk to. He was also a frequent business person. He had a kind and friendly face and smiled at everyone.

He smiled and said, "I heard from Qin Ming that you are his distant relatives and he wants me to look at a few recipes. Can you bring them to me and let me take a look?"

Su He took out the recipe he had written from his schoolbag and handed it to his father, asking him to pass it on to Manager Wu.

Shopkeeper Wu had just looked at the father and daughter. They were neatly dressed, made of ordinary fabrics, and had ruddy and healthy complexions. They did not come from poor families. The temperaments of both of them were not like those of ordinary farmers. The little girl looked well-behaved and clever, and the father had a calm look in his eyes, and he was steady and generous.

Su He's father handed over the recipe, and Shopkeeper Wu picked up the paper and looked at it carefully. He saw something different about the braised pork. Shopkeeper Wu looked at a few recipes carefully and said with a smile, "The recipe is good, but I wonder how much you want?"

Su He discussed with his family at home yesterday what to say in several situations. His father bowed and said with a smile: "Qin Ming is a distant relative of my wife's family. We are not strangers. Just give it to him as you see fit! We will bring you good recipes and new dishes in the future."

Shopkeeper Wu laughed loudly, and then said, "Qin Ming has been with me for quite some time, so I'll give him 80 taels for each prescription! Here are five prescriptions, which is exactly 400 taels. But you must not give it to anyone else, or I'll sue you."

Su He's father immediately replied in a serious tone: "Don't worry about this. Our Qin Ming is still working for you! We in the Su family never do such unscrupulous things."

Su He smiled and said, "Boss, please take me to see the chef. I will tell him in person. I know how to cook it."

Su He's father also chimed in: "This child cooks for our family now, and this recipe was also copied by the child himself."

Shopkeeper Wu was stunned. This child could write at such a young age, and his handwriting was pretty good. He said to Su He seriously, "This recipe was really written by you, and you can cook these dishes."

Su He nodded and said, "I wrote all of these. I can cook many of the dishes. I will send you recipes every month. Do you think it's okay?"

Shopkeeper Wu nodded happily, said yes with a smile, then stood up and took them to the kitchen to have a look.

As they walked, Shopkeeper Wu introduced their restaurant to them. He went straight to the kitchen and called a fat chef over: "Chef Wang, come here and take a look at this recipe." He handed him one and asked him to take a look.

He looked embarrassed and said awkwardly: "Boss, you are embarrassing me. I can't read a single word. I don't recognize anything!"

Su He smiled and said, "Uncle Wang, let me tell you, can you do it? I wrote this."

Chef Wang looked at the little girl and didn't know what to do. Shopkeeper Wu said to him, "Just do what the little girl says. We'll be watching from the side. There won't be any problems."

Su He followed the usual cooking order and asked Chef Wang to boil the pork belly cubes in warm water, drain and cut into small cubes. There was no sugar here, so he had to put a little oil in the wok, put the meat in and stir-fry evenly, fry out a little fat in the meat, add star anise, green onion and ginger to stir-fry until fragrant, and drain the fat. Add Huadiao wine, soy sauce, boiling water, pepper powder (there was no pepper here, so he had to remove it), add a few green onion leaves, and finally add brown sugar and simmer on medium heat for an hour.