With Su Ronghan leading the way without saying a word, the two of them went out from the side door of the university and entered an alley. From a distance, they saw a lit signboard, the only one in the entire alley.
But as soon as I walked into the store, I found that it was a bustling scene inside. In addition to the large number of customers, it was also because this was a hot pot restaurant!
What's special is that this is a small hot pot restaurant. It's not a big pot of soup in the center of a round table, and everyone sits around and throws in the ingredients. Instead, everyone has a small pot, chooses a different pot base, and mixes it with a certain amount of vegetables and The advantage of eating the main course in a set menu is that it is not awkward to eat with few people. You can even come alone, and everyone can cook their own dishes very neatly.
The decoration in the store is simple, but the use of wooden furniture in many places brings a warm atmosphere. In addition to a long row of so-called counter seats, which is especially suitable for individual customers, there are tables for four scattered on both sides, and in the center. There are two long tables that can accommodate a dozen people, which is also very suitable for gatherings of many people. Hot pot restaurants always have the best business in winter. When the two sisters came, it was dinner time. When they opened the door and looked around, the four-person table was already occupied, and there was only a single seat left at the counter. They couldn't let others in. Halfway through the meal, I moved the pot to another stove and made up a continuous seat for two people, leaving only a long table.
The two sisters squeezed into the crowded and narrow shop, where waiters and customers were constantly walking around, and sat down directly at the two remaining seats at the corners of the long table. Su Mingzheng subconsciously sat on the outer seat and placed Su Ronghan is separated from other guests and can sit in a relatively free and safe corner seat. It can be said that she still has a strong sister-consciousness, or perhaps a protective consciousness.
When the waiter brought the menu, Su Mingzheng directly passed the responsibility and said, "Since you brought it, just order it." Then he drank hot wheat tea.
With a faint smile on her lips, Su Ronghan showed a good-natured, whatever-you-will attitude and drew two set meals on the menu. After drawing, she carefully explained to her sister: "I chose seafood pot and sesame oil Hericium mushrooms. Sister, you can How about eating the seafood pot first? Anyway, we can share it."
Su Ronghan knew that Su Mingzheng ate seafood. When Su Guoming and Huang Wanying held their wedding, the whole family had a seafood dinner on the island. Choosing the seafood pot was considered a safety card, and the sesame oil dishes with stronger flavors were kept. candidate.
Su Mingzheng, who had no reason to object, nodded. She had just glanced at the menu. According to the price, although this store is mainly for students, it is a place where students occasionally want to eat something good or have a big meal. , instead of just looking for cheap and filling restaurants on weekdays.
She remembered that there were several restaurants of this type near Davis University. They had a similar lively atmosphere, but the food was completely different.
Because hot pot does not require cooking by the store, two small hot pots filled with soup base were soon brought up and placed on the mouth of the gas stove built in the table. The waiter taught the two how to use the knob to control the fire and then left. After one trip, two different dishes were served to the two of them.
Hey, it’s so rich, Su Mingzheng said silently in his heart, because he just remembered the restaurants near Davis University and compared them. The restaurants in Davis all serve fresh agricultural products, large pieces of meat, and large pieces of bread. , a big bowl of soup, rough and guaranteed to be full, and it is also very rich here, but the East seems to be more delicate. Vegetables are placed on a wide-mouthed plate. Wash and cut green vegetables, bright yellow corn, plump shiitake mushrooms with starbursts cut on the top, and snow-white enoki mushrooms, plus cut tomatoes, pumpkins, taro, etc., and put them together. Like a brightly colored still life painting, the seafood is packed in a small wooden barrel with crushed ice as the bottom. On the snow-white crushed ice are five large shrimps, a small pile of clams, large scallops and snapper fillets, and two A wild seaweed shrimp with a reddish shell and a conspicuous shell, estimated to be over 20 centimeters in length, has become a spectacular sight on the seabed.
The vegetable plate at Su Ronghan's place is the same, but the main course is much simpler, just a plate of sliced meat. The menu says it is black pork, but the golden soup base is full of Hericium mushrooms, and thick soup comes out after boiling. The aroma of sesame oil made Su Mingzheng's nose twitch twice, and she couldn't help but look sideways.
You can’t eat traditional dishes like sesame oil chicken abroad─
"Sister, if you don't mind, can I cook it?" People are always more confident in their own territory. Su Ronghan also proposed enthusiastically with a smile.
"Leave it to you." In fact, Su Mingzheng was very happy that she could not do anything. She was originally a young lady who did not touch Yang Chun Shui with her index finger and would not enter the kitchen until she was starving to death.
Su Ronghan leaned over, holding her chopsticks in a very dignified manner, and calmly and elegantly placed the vegetables on the plate that could sweeten the soup or needed to be cooked for a long time, such as corn, pumpkin, mushrooms, and Chinese cabbage. She put them in the soup first, and then put them in without rushing. For the dishes on his side, he waited for the sesame oil soup base to boil before serving a bowl to Su Mingzheng.
"Warm yourself first." It seemed that she saw everything Su Mingzheng did.
"Then you have a bowl too." Su Mingzheng felt like she had been discovered, so she picked up the bowl and turned away to drink the soup.
"Okay──" Su Ronghan agreed obediently.
Enjoying a traditional stew that is not available abroad, the unique slightly bitter taste of sesame oil floating on the boiling liquid surface spreads on your taste buds, coupled with the spiciness of fried ginger slices, it has an immediate effect on warming the body. Su Mingzheng quickly took off her coat. There were also elastic Hericium mushrooms in the soup. When she bit into it, the soup juice absorbed by the mushrooms overflowed, adding to the sweetness and pleasure of eating.
Sesame oil dishes have always been considered to have a warming and tonic effect in traditional Chinese cuisine. It is one of several tonic soups that people often drink in autumn and winter. Hericium is also a mushroom that Chinese medicine believes is beneficial to the five internal organs, aids digestion, and has nourishing effects. It can be said that The soup Su Ronghan ordered was a warm and tonic soup.
"Sister, you must not be able to drink soup like this when you are abroad, right? You need to replenish your health when you come back." Su Ronghan gradually put the ingredients into her soup, but suddenly Su Mingzheng stopped her with chopsticks.
"Don't put sweet things in it." She doesn't like sweet vegetables in sesame oil soup.
"Okay." Su Ronghan stopped and removed the pumpkin, corn and other ingredients. She asked tentatively: "I can also make soup. Can I cook it for you at home?"
Sure enough, Su Mingzheng's face turned cold, and her upper body, which was slightly tilted forward, returned to its original position, "Su Ronghan, are you used to taking care of old men, so you do this to me?"
"Did your mother teach you this?"
Su Ronghan slowly widened her eyes, obviously a little surprised, but she blinked and steadily suppressed her surprised expression, pretending to be calm and calm.
She asked calmly: "What would you like to eat, sister?" She was referring to the seafood in the small wooden barrel.
"Yeah." Su Mingzheng nodded with the tip of her chopsticks.
In the following time, Su Mingzheng used the tip of her chopsticks to point out the ingredients she wanted to eat, and drew a direction to indicate the soup base that should be put into it. Then Su Ronghan put the ingredients into the soup in sequence, such as putting white shrimps into the soup. Kelp seafood soup base, put clams into a ladle and cook, black pork is cooked into sesame oil slices, and the fire is controlled at all times.
But when the ingredients are cooked, Su Mingzheng will not only pick up the ingredients he wants to eat for himself, but also pick up a portion for Su Ronghan, "Don't be too busy cooking, eat quickly."
Su Ronghan nodded and said yes, holding a rice bowl with cooked hot pot ingredients and rice.
After the store owner asked them if they came together, he placed a small wooden bucket between the two of them. In it was the hot white rice that came with the meal. You could eat as much as you wanted and put it into the bowl yourself. After the wooden bucket was covered with the top lid, there was Certain thermal insulation capabilities.
The white shrimp and wild seaweed shrimp were cooked at once. After Su Ronghan scooped all the shrimp into the plate, she wiped her hands with a wet paper towel and naturally began to peel off the shrimp shells.
Seeing her acting so automatically, Su Mingzheng felt that she couldn't stop it, so just enjoy it. It felt good to be an uncle.
At this moment, a loud shout reached the ears of the two of them - "Xiao Huan, you who peel shrimps and prepare soup, are you Brother Jue's little wife!?"
It was so noisy that one had to hear it, and the sound quality sounded like that of a young boy shouting.
Su Mingzheng and Su Ronghan looked to the left almost at the same time. The source of the sound was right in front of them. To be precise, it was opposite the long table. In the almost full store, the long table was also occupied by various combinations of customers. Across from them was a group of four young boys who looked like college students, jostling and playing around.
The objects being teased seemed to be a fair-skinned boy who was easy to bully, upright and somewhat handsome, and a thin-looking boy with bright eyes and a bit of evil called Jue Ge. The two were squeezed in the middle by their companions. The fair boy named Xiao Huan was holding half-peeled shrimps, while Brother Jue was eating the shrimps slowly.
Xiao Huan was obviously embarrassed after being teased, but Brother Jue smiled evilly at him like a joke, gave him an empty bowl and tapped his chin to indicate that he was waiting for him to serve the meal, very calmly.
"Tell yourself, do you look like a little wife when you serve him like this?" The two friends kept teasing.
It seemed to be a joke between a few friends. Su Mingzheng looked at it for a while and stopped looking. However, Su Ronghan took a few glances at the shrimp in her hand, which was also half-peeled.
My throat feels a little itchy. Why does it seem like the store is getting hot? Su Ronghan coughed a few times, pretended as if nothing had happened, and continued peeling the shrimp shells.
When the naked orange prawns and small shrimps were arranged on the small plate, Su Ronghan cheered up and waved her hand with a sense of accomplishment: "Sister, this is your seafood pot, eat it quickly."
Without answering, Su Mingzheng used chopsticks to pick up a large and small curled-up shrimp and placed them side by side on Su Ronghan's small plate. "You eat." Then his eyes returned to the front, he picked up the shrimps and dipped them in the five-flavor sauce. In the mouth.
Su Ronghan looked at the big shrimps and small shrimps on her plate and somehow suddenly felt a sense of parenthood and seemed to be cute.
