Go back to the past to plant trees

"Fourth Brother, this college student is quite generous! Does he often treat you to nice meals?"

After entering the kitchen, Zhao Jinshui asked Zhao Jinquan curiously.

"Delicious food? What delicious food is there in Bashang? Besides potatoes and sweet potatoes, what else can you eat?"

"Isn't he a cadre? Doesn't he have a high salary? He can go down to the dam and buy it!"

"There's nothing to sell in the county town either. I've been to the county town. Now you need ration coupons to buy anything. Even if you have coupons, some things are useless. You have to see if they're in stock. If they are, you can buy them. If they're not in stock, you can't buy them no matter how much money you have."

Zhao Jinshui looked skeptical: "If you have money, why are you afraid you can't buy things? I don't believe it."

Zhao Jinquan curled his lip: "If you don't believe me, fine. You can ask the brigade secretary what the situation is like in the county town. He goes there often, he knows."

When Zhao Jinquan went to the county town to collect his salary, he wanted to buy some meat to take home on his way back, but when he asked, he was told that he needed meat coupons and had to come early, otherwise there wouldn't be any left.

Zhao Jinquan had heard that pig's head meat and offal did not require tickets, so he thought he would see if he could buy them. However, when he went there, he found out that those things could not be sold at all and were all consumed internally. If he wanted to buy meat, he could only do so with tickets.

Zhao Jinquan hadn't been to the county town much before, so he didn't know much about these things. He learned about them after going there once. Zhao Jinshui, on the other hand, had also been to the county town, but he obviously didn't know much about these things. In his opinion, there was nothing that money couldn't buy, and if you couldn't buy something, it just meant you didn't have enough money.

"Go, remove the scales from this fish and clean out the inside, but don't throw it away. We can feed it to the dog after washing it."

Zhao Jinquan sent his cousin outside to kill fish.

"Fourth brother, do you have enough food? Don't let the three of us eat it all, or you'll go hungry later."

As Zhao Jinsheng helped wash the sauerkraut, he asked with some concern, "These three young men could easily eat several kilograms of grain if they ate as much as they wanted."

Zhao Jinquan replied, "That's enough. You know we've set up a vegetable garden here, and we grow a lot of things that we can eat. Plus, with the supplies the bureau sends over, we can eat as much as we want!"

"Your place is pretty good! There are so many people in the team who don't have enough to eat," Zhao Jinsheng said with some envy. He had separated from his family and was supporting his entire family on his own. He knew how hard life was and counted his food every day, afraid that if he ate too much, he would go hungry later. So most of the time he could only eat until he was six or seven tenths full. This was only because he was the breadwinner of the family. Hearing that his younger brother could eat as much as he wanted, he was really envious.

Zhao Jinquan shook his head and said, "Come on! It's only because the Forestry Bureau is supporting us. If the Forestry Bureau hadn't sent us food and supplies every month, we would have starved to death long ago. How could we compare with the team?"

Zhao Jinsheng nodded: "That's true. It's not that no one has ever said they wanted to come here to reclaim wasteland before, but they couldn't stick with it for more than two years and ended up going back to the team to work with everyone else."

Reclaiming land in the Bashang area wasn't so simple. The winds and sandstorms were fierce, the land was barren, and the harvests wouldn't be good for the first few years. Moreover, you had to pay grain taxes on the reclaimed land. How could you expect the leaders to come all the way over to calculate the yield per mu? They just set the yield per mu based on the team's yield. Would the yield per mu be the same for uncultivated land and cultivated land? So after all that trouble, people gave up on the idea. Plus, now that production brigades were being established, no one had any thoughts about it anymore.

Zhang Jinquan's area only has a small amount of land, and since it's under the Forestry Bureau, nobody cares about it. They don't have to pay grain taxes, and the Forestry Bureau even sends them supplies every month. That's why they can eat their fill and live comfortably. If it were an ordinary villager without the protection of an organization, they would be ruined in no time if they came to cultivate the land.

"Fourth Brother, the fish is ready. I've left it here for you."

Zhao Jinshui worked efficiently and finished cleaning the fish in no time.

"I'll go ask Brother Feng how to do it," Zhao Jinquan said, washing his hands before getting up and heading to the dugout.

"Brother Feng, the fish is all cleaned and gutted. Come over and see what we need to do with it!"

As soon as he arrived at the entrance of the dugout, Zhao Jinquan shouted loudly.

"Okay, wait a moment, I'll be right there."

Feng Cheng, lying on the kang (a heated brick bed), immediately replied upon hearing Zhao Jinquan's words.

Scratching his slightly itchy scalp, Feng Cheng got up and left the dugout.

Upon arriving in the kitchen, Zhao Jinquan and the others didn't do much work, just tidied up a bit and chatted.

"Brother Feng."

Upon seeing Feng Cheng approach, Zheng Erqiang immediately greeted him.

“Yes,” Feng Cheng smiled and nodded at him.

"Brother Feng, how do we cook this fish?"

"Is the pickled cabbage washed yet?"

When Zhao Jinquan went home last time, he brought a jar of pickled cabbage. Feng Cheng and he ate it several times, and there was still quite a bit left. The temperature in the cellar wasn't high, so the pickled cabbage could be kept for a while after it was made.

"It's washed."

"Cut this fish into pieces, not too big, just half a finger's width will do."

"it is good."

Feng Cheng glanced at the ingredients and saw that the ginger and garlic had already been chopped. These were essential for cooking fish, and Zhao Jinquan, who cooked frequently, knew them very well.

Feng Cheng took out a few chili peppers and handed them to Zhao Jinquan to chop.

Zhao Jinshui, Zhao Jinsheng, and Zheng Erqiang stopped working and crowded around the narrow doorway to watch Feng Cheng. They were also curious about how Feng Cheng was going to cook the fish. They usually just pan-fried or stewed the fish, and as for the taste, well, it was edible.

"Jin Quan, you should do it. I've never actually cooked this fish before; I've only heard people talk about it a few times. You cook more often, so you're better at controlling the heat than I am."

Feng Cheng looked at the two hard-won fish, thought for a moment, and decided not to cook them. He had never cooked them before, and the chances of messing it up were very high. He would let Zhao Jinquan cook them, since Zhao Jinquan had cooking experience and could avoid some common mistakes.

"Okay, give it to me."

Zhao Jinquan didn't stand on ceremony. He knew Feng Cheng's level; he was knowledgeable and experienced, but when it came to getting things done, he wasn't so good.

"First, sauté the ginger and garlic in oil to bring out their flavor, then add the pickled cabbage and stir-fry together. Finally, add water, bring it to a boil, and then add the fish."

"That's it? That's very simple!" Zhao Jinquan felt that Feng Cheng's approach was not much different from his own before.

"I'd like to make something complicated, but I don't have any of the ingredients here. I don't have cornstarch, Sichuan peppercorns, black pepper, or cooking wine. What can I do?"

"Ok."

Feng Cheng had many ways of cooking fish in his memory: stone pot fish, sauerkraut fish, boiled fish, sweet and sour fish. But those required a lot of ingredients. Even with sauerkraut fish, Feng Cheng saved a lot of ingredients because they weren't available here. It wasn't that he didn't want to make it complicated, but he simply didn't have the ingredients. Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice.

Zheng Erqiang was tending the earthen stove, while Zhao Jinquan carefully prepared the pot of fish.

As time went by, the flavors of the pickled cabbage and the fish blended together, creating a fragrant aroma.

Upon smelling the aroma, Zhao Jinquan suddenly became interested in the pot of fish.

He added some chili peppers and simmered it for a while longer. When it seemed about right, Zhao Jinquan took it off the heat.

"Alright, you can prepare the rest of the dishes yourself!"

Feng Cheng smelled it; although it wasn't as fragrant as in his previous life, it wasn't too bad either.

Feng Cheng returned to the dugout, while Zhao Jinquan continued preparing the remaining food.

Half an hour later, Zhao Jinquan and his group brought the dishes into the room.

"Come on, everyone, don't be shy, let's eat together."

Feng Cheng picked up his own bowl and chopsticks and invited the others to eat together.

Feng Cheng was the first to pick up a piece of fish, and as soon as he did, Zhao Jinquan and the others immediately picked up their chopsticks as well.

"The fishy smell isn't too strong here, but the fishy smell is very strong when I cook it at home."

Zheng Erqiang ate a piece of fish and was very satisfied with the taste. He also took the opportunity to criticize the fish he had prepared at home.

Feng Cheng said, "Pickled cabbage can neutralize the fishy smell. With ginger and garlic, the fishy smell can be largely removed. This is how it's eaten in Sichuan. I heard it from one of my students. That's how they eat fish there."

"You can do this at home too. It tastes much better than the usual way. You can also try stewing some strongly flavored dishes with pickled cabbage. It may not taste that much better, but at least it can help remove the strong flavor."

Zheng Erqiang praised, "Brother Feng, you're so knowledgeable. We've never heard of this practice before."

"This way of eating isn't popular here, so you obviously wouldn't know about it. China has eight major cuisines, and each region has its own unique characteristics, so it's normal not to be familiar with them."

"The eight major cuisines? What cuisine do we have here?" Zhao Jinsheng asked while eating.

"I'm not sure about this place either. It shouldn't be included in the eight major cuisines. But those eight major cuisines are just the old name. Now that it's the new China, I guess there will be another name for it later."

"So, which of these eight major cuisines has the best dishes?" Zhao Jinsheng continued to ask.

"There are delicious dishes and there are average ones. It mainly depends on personal taste. Whether a dish is delicious or not varies from person to person. But there is a standard for judgment: dishes that can be served at state banquets or the Manchu Han Imperial Feast are delicious, or at least presentable."

"The Manchu Han Imperial Feast? I've heard of it. I heard it has 108 dishes and was eaten by the emperor? Brother Feng, have you ever eaten the dishes of the Manchu Han Imperial Feast in Beijing?"

"You should have eaten it before! Actually, I don't know what dishes are in the Manchu Han Imperial Feast. I may have eaten it, or I may not. But even if the dishes are the same, the chefs' skills are different, and the taste is very different. Just like Jinquan, even if you learn to cook, will your skill be better than the banquet chef in the commune? And can the banquet chef in the commune compare to the head chef of the big restaurant in the county town?"

"That's true. When it comes to cooking fish, even with the same method, a professional chef's fish will definitely taste better than ours."

"That's it."

They chatted idly, but none of them actually put any food into their bowls.

Because of the unique flavor of the sauerkraut fish, and because it was the only bowl of meat on the table, everyone unconsciously piled their food into it, and in no time the large bowl of fish and meat was gone.

Zhao Jinquan didn't waste any of the fish soup; he poured it into a bowl and ate it with potatoes. Seeing this, Zhao Jinshui also poured half a bowl.

"It's so good. I've never tasted fish so delicious before."

After cleaning the table, Zhao Jinquan put down his bowl.

Zhao Jinsheng, Zheng Erqiang, and Zhao Jinshui also showed satisfied expressions. They hadn't felt this full in a long time, and they had also eaten such delicious pickled fish.