Chapter 66: Making Tofu from Scratch
Not long after the teachers left, Zhao Yanglin, He Xianfei, and Qu Feng returned as well.
The three of them were full of praise for the scenery in the canyon.
They hadn’t experienced such beautiful, untouched natural scenery in a very long time.
It was time to eat again.
The three men ordered three servings of Cabbage in Boiling Water, one serving of Twice-Cooked Pork, and three bowls of rice.
After eating, the three of them took their leave.
They went to find an inn in Wenxian Town for the night.
After the three men left, Ye Shengge finished another bowl of beef noodles and said, "Boss, I’ll go to the market with you again tomorrow. I want to see if you can find any tofu."
Li You smiled. "Alright. Then let’s meet tomorrow at eight in the morning at our usual spot, the market entrance where we met this morning."
"Okay. I’ll get going then."
"Alright. Be safe."
"Okay."
After Ye Shengge left, the sky gradually darkened.
Li You cooked himself a bowl of beef noodles as well.
While eating, he pulled up his quest panel.
"Main Quest: Have 500 customers enter the store within one week.
(In Progress)
Current Day: Day 1.
Number of Customers: 32."
’I haven’t hit the average. I’ll have to keep at it.’
...
「The next day.」
At 7:40 in the morning, Li You got on his motorcycle and set off.
A little after 7:50, he arrived at the place where he was meeting Ye Shengge.
Ye Shengge was already there.
"Morning, Boss!"
"Morning. How long have you been here?"
"I just got here, too."
As they spoke, Li You finished parking his motorcycle.
The two of them walked into the market.
The market was clearly much livelier today than it had been yesterday.
The air was buzzing with voices from all directions.
They hadn’t gone far before they saw the first stall selling tofu.
It was selling soft tofu.
Unfortunately, its quality was only low-grade.
He moved on to check the other stalls.
Besides tofu, Li You was also on the lookout for two other ingredients: garlic sprouts and cabbage.
’If I find any of medium quality or better, I’ll buy some to take back.’
’That way, I can add Garlic Sprout Twice-Cooked Pork and Cabbage Twice-Cooked Pork to the menu.’
In fact, the truly authentic version of Twice-Cooked Pork is made with garlic sprouts.
Versions made with green peppers or cabbage are not considered the most traditional.
"Ingredient: Garlic Sprouts.
Quality: Medium-Grade."
Li You was overjoyed when he stopped in front of a vegetable stall with its goods laid out on the ground.
’Finally, some medium-grade garlic sprouts.’
"Sir, how much are the garlic sprouts?"
Li You squatted down, picking up a few garlic sprouts to examine as he asked.
Seeing this, Ye Shengge also squatted down. "Are you buying garlic sprouts to make Twice-Cooked Pork with them?" she asked.
Li You nodded. "As a matter of fact, Twice-Cooked Pork with garlic sprouts is the most authentic version."
Ye Shengge thought for a moment. "I think I’ve heard that somewhere before."
"Two yuan a pound. Buying some, young man?" The vendor, an older man around sixty, was very happy to have a potential customer.
’That’s a fair price.’
Li You nodded. "I’ll take all of them. Sir, could you weigh them for me?"
The man was pleasantly surprised to hear this and said repeatedly, "Alright, alright. I’ll weigh them right away, right away."
The man used a traditional steelyard scale.
The kind with a rod, a weight, a hook, and a pan.
He bundled all the garlic sprouts together and hung them on the hook.
He lifted the lanyard and slid the weight along the rod.
When it finally settled, the tail end of the rod tilted upward.
"Twenty-six pounds in total. That’ll be 52 yuan," the man said.
The upward tilt of the rod was a practice known locally as "weighing for prosperity," and it always made the buyer happy.
It meant the vendor had given them a little extra weight.
Li You smiled. "A prosperous weigh-in like that means your business is sure to boom."
The man laughed. "You’ve got a silver tongue, young man."
After paying, Li You carried the garlic sprouts and continued to wander through the market with Ye Shengge.
Soon, they came across several more stalls selling tofu one after another.
Unfortunately, the quality was consistently low-grade.
’Looks like I really might have to make the tofu myself after all.’
After wandering for a while longer, they ran into Zhao Yanglin, He Xianfei, and Qu Feng.
It turned out the trio had also come to browse the market.
The three were delighted to see Li You.
Zhao Yanglin smiled. "We were just wondering if we’d run into Boss Li. And here you are!"
Then he turned to Ye Shengge. "Ah, and Miss Ye is here as well."
The three men had been briefly introduced to Ye Shengge the previous afternoon.
Ye Shengge said, "Good morning, Mr. Zhao. And good morning to you, Mr. He and Mr. Qu."
Li You smiled. "What do the three of you think of a small-town market like this?"
Zhao Yanglin replied, "It’s fantastic. So full of life. A market like this is really interesting."
He Xianfei added, "You might not find certain ingredients here. But you can often find others that are hard to come by in big-city markets, like truly wild mushrooms or fish. It’s well worth a visit."
Qu Feng also remarked that the market was very interesting. All three men were in high spirits.
Li You laughed. "When it comes to that ’full of life’ feeling, it’s definitely stronger in a small-town market."
"Buying garlic sprouts, Boss? Are you planning to make Twice-Cooked Pork with them?" Zhao Yanglin asked.
Li You nodded. "These looked pretty good, so I bought them."
"Excellent, excellent! Twice-Cooked Pork with garlic sprouts is fantastic. It’s so much more fragrant," Zhao Yanglin said, delighted.
He Xianfei also said, "You should definitely add Twice-Cooked Pork with garlic sprouts to the menu, Boss. In fact, that’s the most authentic version."
Li You nodded. "Just as Chef He says."
"And what about the tofu? Haven’t you found any you’re satisfied with, Boss?" Zhao Yanglin asked.
Li You shook his head. "Not yet. But I haven’t checked all the tofu stalls. I’m going to keep looking."
"Then we’ll tag along with you," Zhao Yanglin said.
"Alright. Let’s go."
The five of them continued on together.
They went through all the tofu stalls they hadn’t seen yet.
The result was still disappointing.
It seemed that making medium-grade tofu was no easy task.
Of course, that didn’t mean none of the stalls in the market were capable of producing medium-grade tofu.
It also depended on the quality of the raw soybeans, not to mention a bit of luck.
Perhaps there would be medium-grade tofu available on the next market day.
For now, however, Li You decided to try making it himself.
’Since I already said I’d do it, there’s no reason to hesitate now.’
Ye Shengge was thrilled when Li You confirmed he was going to make the tofu himself. "Tofu is made from soybeans, right?" she said. "Are we going to buy some now?"
Li You nodded.
Zhao Yanglin, He Xianfei, and Qu Feng were also very interested.
Zhao Yanglin asked, "Boss, for the step where you grind the soybeans into soy milk, are we going to do it by hand with a traditional stone mill, or use a machine?"
Almost everyone used machines for that nowadays.
After all, it was more efficient, took less time, produced high-quality soy milk, and saved a lot of effort.
However, for a one-off experience, using a traditional stone mill was obviously more interesting and immersive.
Li You planned to use a traditional stone mill.
He had decided to make tofu himself not only to obtain a medium-grade product but also because he was genuinely interested in experiencing the process.
’If that’s the case, then using a stone mill is definitely the more rewarding way to do it.’
’As for where to find a stone mill...’
’Lots of people in the village have them.’
’There are the big, heavy kinds. But there are also smaller, lighter ones that are easier to move.’
’I’ll just borrow one of the lighter ones.’
"Let’s use a stone mill. That’ll be more fun," Li You said.
"Yes, yes, a stone mill is the only way to go," Zhao Yanglin said, extremely pleased.
He Xianfei’s and Qu Feng’s eyes lit up as well.
As for Ye Shengge, she was filled with anticipation!
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