Food starts with Mapo Tofu

"where is this place?"

When they woke up, they found that the surrounding scene had changed again, and it was no longer the old house in Chang'an City.

Although the various facilities in the house are still a bit outdated, they are all modern things.

They lived in a queen room with a TV set on a wooden red desk with drawers.

The whole room is warm. Although there is no air conditioner, the heater is right next to the bed.

At the same time, new memories enter Chen Nian's mind.

But after browsing, Chen Nian knew where he was now.

"This is the Northeast."

"Northeast? How did we come here? Weren't we still in Chang'an when we slept yesterday?"

"Here is another master of mine, but if you really want to talk about it, this person is actually my elder brother. I learned some Northeast dishes in my shop from him."

"Then he runs a hotel? I feel like the place we live in is an old-fashioned hotel."

"He doesn't run a hotel, and he's not here, but I know how to find him. Let's get up and wash up first. I'll take you out for a walk first, and then we'll get in the car."

"Okay." An Hongdou nodded, "It's all up to you."

Everything felt wonderful to her now.

Just like traveling through time and space in a movie, you will come to a new place when you wake up.

After washing and wiping their faces, they put on the thick padded jackets and hats in the house and went out.

"What time is it?" An Hongdou asked when she was going downstairs.

"Now... let me take a look." Chen Nian took out the mobile phone in his pocket. This mobile phone was an old Nokia with a yellow screen.

"6:30 in the morning."

"So early?" An Hongdou said and wanted to go back and sleep for a while. Normally she would not get up so early unless she had work.

"In the Northeast, you have to get up earlier, otherwise those stalls will be closed."

"Is it a breakfast stand?"

"more or less."

After going downstairs, Chen Nian looked at the signboard behind him, and it turned out that he lived in a guest house.

No wonder the stuff inside looks old.

Chen Nian is also very familiar with this small county town. When he came down from the mountain every once in a while, he was basically in this county town.

Although it has been a long time since this dream space, Chen Nian still found the morning market here based on his memory.

"There are so many people!" An Hongdou was stunned by the scene in front of her. It was only 6:30 in the morning, and the morning market was already crowded with people.

"If you want to catch the morning market, you have to come so early."

At a glance, the whole street is full of people, and on both sides are various small vendors selling goods.

There are all kinds of fragrances floating around.

But on the whole, it is still mostly carbohydrates, but at this time, An Hongdou touched his stomach, and he did feel a little hungry.

Soon, they entered this morning market street.

On the left is an uncle who is selling something like a cake, but his signboard says "beef fire spoon".

"Uncle, how do you sell this beef fire spoon?"

"Sixty cents each, not expensive. How many do you want?"

"It's only sixty cents?" An Hongdou's jaw was about to drop from shock. Although this beef patty was only the size of a palm, it was quite thick, about two or three centimeters.

And there was beef in it. Even as the uncle was talking, his hands kept moving, turning the beef patties on the iron plate from time to time, and filling them with stuffing from time to time.

"If it's in our place, how can it cost five yuan a piece?"

"It must be the price." Chen Nian nodded.

After hearing this, the uncle asked with a smile, "Are you two foreigners? Are you here to play in the mountains?"

"Yes." Chen Nian nodded.

"Oh, then you two have come to the right place, our size is considered a small tourist town, but don't look at the many restaurants in this county, but many of them are deceiving tourists from other places.

Aren’t you young people good at making strategies online, but sometimes you can’t do it all, but those of us in the morning gatherings in the county are definitely not deceptive. If you don’t say anything else, just say that I am a beefcake, and you put it outside. It's definitely impossible to buy it for [-] cents, but I can buy it here. I'm not bragging to you, my beef patties are straight and delicious.

Take a bite and the oil will sizzle out, giving you a lot of fragrance. "

The uncle speaks like a sketch, the words are dense, but Chen Nian enjoys this feeling very much.

"Then let's have two first."

The uncle nodded: "That's right. If you want to buy ten or eight, I may not necessarily sell them to you. It's your first time here. You must eat a few more. Try it here first. Come back and buy more if you want to eat when you come back."

The uncle quickly packed two beef fire spoons in a paper bag and handed them to the two: "It's one piece and two."

Chen Nian took out his pocket, took out a total of 20 yuan and handed it to the other party.

"Are there any zeros?"

"No, this is the most zero."

"There is still money, wait for me to find it for you."

The uncle gave a thumbs up first, then took the 20 yuan and threw it into the milk box he put aside. Then he dug around and found 18 yuan, and then found a [-]-cent note and three [-]-cent coins. .

Hong Dou quickly reached out to take it, and carefully put it into the pocket of his padded jacket.

"Come on, have a taste."

Hong Dou nodded, and picked up the beef fire spoon. It was still hot in his hands, and Hong Dou's hands moved around like playing a piano to avoid contact with the bag for too long.

The golden outer skin is extremely crispy. When you bite into it, you will hear a clicking sound, accompanied by the aroma of the baked dough. After you bite into it, it is even more amazing. The filling is tender and juicy, the deliciousness of the beef and the crispiness of the crust. Perfectly combined.

While chewing, the aroma of beef spreads in the mouth. The beef is very fresh and tender, not only slightly elastic, but also the irresistible aroma of oil in the meat stuffing stimulates the taste buds again and again. People can't help but eat it one bite after another.

In this way, they were eating beef fire spoon while walking, but as they walked, they saw another tofu bread seller.

"Ma'am, how do you sell tofu brains?"

"One bowl for one yuan, two bowls?"

An Hongdou thought to himself, this tofu brain only comes in a bowl?
The old Honghong restaurant sells more than one yuan, and it costs three yuan in other places, and it sells for four or five yuan outside.

"Auntie, what's in this tofu brain?"

"The brine is poured, and there are coriander, garlic, mustard diced, chili oil, vinegar, and chive flowers after finishing the work, but you can put these things if you like them, and don't put them if you don't like them. They are salty and salty. It's delicious."

An Hongdou looked at the stew next to him and it was similar to what he had eaten when he was in the north.

"Then have two bowls, auntie."

"okay."

The aunt swiftly picked up a bowl wrapped in a plastic bag, and scooped two bowls into the bucket of tofu nao with a large iron spoon: "Eat here or take away?"

"Just eat here."

"Okay, is there anything I can't eat?"

"No, eat everything."

"Okay, there are two bowls here for you guys."

"Thank you, auntie." An Hongdou quickly ate the beef fire spoon in his hand while talking, took out the change from his pocket, took out two pieces and put them in the box next to him, "Auntie, then I'll put it here for you ah."

"Okay, thank you."

Chen Nian came to the small table behind with two bowls of tofu nao.

After An Hongdou put the rest of the money back, she took two iron spoons from the small water basin at the aunt's booth.

Simply mix the stewed side dishes and tofu nao in it, scoop a spoonful of An Hongdou first, blow it and put it in your mouth, sip it lightly, and the tofu nao will melt on the tip of your tongue, exuding a fresh bean flavor The fragrant, salty marinade and this tofu brain are just right for saltiness.

Because An Hongdou prefers spicy food, she asked her aunt to add more chili peppers. At this time, the spiciness of garlic paste and chili oil complemented the fresh coriander, and also made the taste of tofu nao more layered.

"Would you like some fritters? Or do you want something else to go with it?"

An Hongdou looked up and looked around: "I want to eat fried dough sticks, but I also want to try other things." After she finished speaking, she thought for a while, "Then I'll go buy it. Is there anything you want to eat?"

"I'm the same as you." Chen Nian said with a smile.

An Hongdou nodded, and then planned to buy some dry food with tofu nao with money in his pocket.

"How do you sell this fried sugar cake?"

"Fried sugar cakes are five yuan and nine, how many do you want?"

"Nine? We can't eat that much, can I just buy two?"

"Okay, there's nothing wrong with it, you just need to buy two...give one piece."

"Thank you uncle, how do you sell the hemp ball next to it?"

"Five dollars and three."

"Can I just have two of these?"

"Okay, you can get three yuan for those two."

But after finishing speaking, the boss looked around again: "But don't tell others when you go out. If people ask you, you can say that this is five yuan and nine, and the mochi is five yuan and three."

"Okay uncle, I will keep it a secret."

But just after paying, Hongdou saw a cake with bean fillings on the side with sharp eyes: "Uncle, do you still have bean fillings here?"

"There's rose bean stuffing. I'll give you a piece of it too. Do you want it?"

"Yes, come here." Just 10 minutes after coming in, Kean Hongdou already spoke with a Northeast accent.

Looking at the things in his hand, An Hongdou felt that he had eaten enough, but the cries around him were still loud, and the sound of fried things was particularly pleasant.

"Forget it, let's buy some more. Anyway, it's old enough to eat, so I'll just have a taste." An Hongdou inspected it, then wandered to other stalls.

"Auntie, how do you sell this trough cake?"

"Pull one yuan for a catty, fifteen or two catties, how much is the girl?"

Hearing that the trough cakes here were sold by the pound, An Hongdou was embarrassed to only ask for two, so he asked for half a pound.

"How do you sell egg burgers?"

"Three dollars and fifty one."

"Then I want one."

"How do you sell tortillas?"

"Five and six."

"Then can I have one?"

"Then you get eight cents."

Hongdou happened to have one fifty-cent coin and three ten-cent coins in his hand, so he gave them to the other party.

Now An Hongdou still had two pieces left, so she bought another pancake and a leek box.

So far, she has spent all the 20 yuan.

When she returned with a lot of things in her hands, Chen Nian was dumbfounded: "Why did you buy so many?"

"I don't think it looks delicious, and what's the matter with the prices here? How can it be so cheap? Didn't you say that the era here is similar to ours?"

"Things in the Northeast are cheap. This is still a morning market. If you go to a restaurant to eat, the dishes will be bigger. The two of us probably can only eat one dish."

But when they put the things on the table, An Hongdou realized that she didn't seem to have bought fried dough sticks.

"It's okay, these things are enough to eat, we probably won't be able to finish them all."

In this way, they sat here for a long time, and in the end they ate all the things they bought except the trough cakes. When they left, the two of them walked on their stomachs.

An Hongdou never imagined that she would be so full for breakfast one day.

Although the big hotel she used to stay in had a free breakfast with a lot of variety, but she didn't feel this way at all when eating.

Holding her belly with one hand and holding each other's hands with the other, An Hongdou was walking in the morning market, and then she realized that she didn't even have half of the food she had eaten.

Others include big buns stuffed with pork ribs, braised pork, and dried sausage, as well as honey cakes, freshly made hemp flowers, various old-fashioned pastries, and spiced quail eggs, which are steaming hot. Steamed rice porridge, freshly baked pretzels, ten pieces of egg chicken legs, and various meat pies.

The people who watched were dazzled, but finally An Hongdou couldn't hold it back anymore, and bought some pastries, two pretzels, half a catty of honey cake, half a catty of marijuana flowers, three yuan each of pineapples, and another five yuan The money bought two catties of tangerines, freshly fried melon seeds and dried fruits, and some haw jelly.

"Wait a minute, aren't we going to take a bus? We'll save these for the road." An Hongdou said, looking at the big bag Chen Nian was carrying.

"That's okay. Anyway, we have to take a long ride there this time."

Seeing Chen Nian pampering herself so much, Hong Dou couldn't help but hug Chen Nian's arm happily.

In the end, Chen Nian found another store, bought two boxes of milk and two boxes of bread, took a motorcycle for five yuan to the bus station, and bought two bus tickets.

"Are you motion sick? Red Bean."

"I don't get carsick."

"That's fine, tell me later if you get motion sickness."

"It's okay. I read online before that you can just eat something on the way. Anyway, it doesn't matter as long as it's not spicy instant noodles."

Just like that, they got in the car and started walking up the mountain.

In fact, there are still some people living in the mountains, but the higher you go, the fewer people live there.

The road was sometimes flat and sometimes bumpy, and they watched the scenery outside in the car, and it became more and more magnificent.

Although it has been some time since the last snowfall, the snow in the mountains does not melt that easily.

At a glance, the mountains are undulating, the wind is green, and the snow-covered peaks are like sharp swords, piercing the sky, and the sun shines on the snow-capped mountains, shining dazzling light, which makes people feel refreshed.

The dense forest is covered with thick snow, and on the road on both sides of the car, there are crystal icicles hanging on the branches, like a string of bright gems.

"Oh, it would be great if we could take pictures. Now our mobile phones are too old to even have the function of taking pictures."

Chen Nian also sighed: "It's my fault. When I came here, I lived in the mountains all the time, so I used this kind of old-fashioned mobile phone. If I changed to a better mobile phone at that time, we can also take pictures this time. gone."

"Come back when we get back."

It took about five hours of driving before they arrived at their destination.

However, the place where they got off was also a village, and they had to continue to take the car if they wanted to go to Wang Chuang's place again.

But as soon as they got off the bus, they met an old man driving a donkey cart.

"New year?"

"Why are you back? New Year?"

When Chen Nian heard this familiar address, he also recognized him.

This old man’s surname is Ma, and he has a good relationship with Wang Chuang. He lives alone and has several pieces of land here. He usually farms by himself. If he is too lazy to cook one day, he will go directly to Wang Chuang’s ranger cabin. Have something to eat.

Sometimes I go there empty-handed, and sometimes I buy some meat and bring a bottle of wine.

"Master, I haven't been back for a long time, thinking about going to my brother Wang's place for a while."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Let's go."

"Where are you going, come on, get in the car, and I'll pull you there."

"Master, how embarrassing is that?"

"Don't be so hypocritical with me, you were not such a person before, why don't you know us after living in the city for a while?"

"Hahaha."

As Chen Nian said, he directly put the things he was carrying on the donkey cart: "Hongdou, get in the cart!"

"Thank you, thank you Uncle!" Hong Dou also quickly thanked, and got into the donkey cart directly after speaking.

"Is this your daughter-in-law?"

"Yes, it's my daughter-in-law."

"Very good. Which one of you is older?"

"I'm a few months older."

"Well, when you're older, you have to take care of him, you know? The girl followed you because she fell in love with you. You can't be sorry for him. You have to take responsibility."

"Uncle, you don't have a wife, how come you keep talking the same thing?"

"Go away, I don't have a daughter-in-law and I haven't seen anyone else's house yet? Let me tell you that after marriage, there will be a lot of troubles, but if you can handle the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, That's old shit."

"My mother likes my daughter-in-law very much. They have a better relationship than me."

"Then there's nothing wrong with it, I'll tell you that."

Just like this, while driving the donkey cart, they chatted with Uncle Ma. Both Chen Nian and Uncle Ma spoke Northeastern dialect, while An Hongdou laughed happily.

About half an hour later: "We're here, get off the car, and I'll go in and have a look to see if he's done anything good."

The three of them walked into the yard together. Since it was winter, there were only bare vegetable fields left in the yard, and nothing was planted.

However, Wang Chuang's dog barked twice when he saw Chen Nian, and then ran over and circled Chen Nian happily. After wandering for a while, he tried to crawl on Chen Nian and stepped on Chen Nian's pants. Several plum blossom footprints.

"Rhubarb, is my brother Wang here?"

Chen Nian touched Dahuang's head and then asked.

But Da Huang couldn't understand human words, and only knew how to crawl on Chen Nian.

At this time, Wang Chuang heard the sound outside, first looked through the window, and ran out after seeing Chen Nian.

"Hey, isn't this New Year's Eve? Why are you here?"

"Brother Wang, I'm married, I'm coming back to see you."

"That's fine, but why didn't you call me when you got married? It's not interesting."

"Isn't this too far away? I'll make it up for you later, my elder brother must not be left behind."

"Okay, then don't look back, just today, you stay here for one night, if you stay here, I still have a room here, I will make room for the two of you, and the small stove will keep the kang warm."

"Then just stay one night."

"Okay, I just got a lamb yesterday, and I planned to eat it in a month or two, but you came today, and I killed the lamb tonight."

"I'm sorry about that. Let's just eat whatever we want."

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, just eat what you need, anyway, you'll have to eat sooner or later."

"Okay, then we will kill together later."

However, the old horse had to leave after staying here for a while. He still had some things to do. Seeing this, Wang Chuang brought a box of old milk and bread to the old horse, but the old horse didn't say anything. don't want.

Just like that, they pushed the donkey cart away again.

In the afternoon they were killing sheep in the yard, while Hongdou helped boil water.

She didn't dare to watch the scene of killing a sheep. After all, Wang Chuang said that the sheep had to be bled first, and then the skin was peeled off and the various parts were removed.

Some parts are used to cook, some parts are used to bake, and some parts are used to stew.

The white knife goes in and the red knife comes out, and the screams stop immediately after being patient.

Just thinking about it makes me feel bloody.

After working on it all afternoon, they finally finished killing the sheep around five o'clock.

Then Chen Nian went to cook mutton, and Wang Chuang went to set up a rack for barbecue.

Although I haven't been back for a long time, and I haven't done this kind of cooking for a long time, I am still very proficient in getting started again.

"What would you like to eat tomorrow morning?"

While waiting for the ingredients, Wang Chuang asked.

"I haven't eaten dinner today, so what do you want to eat tomorrow?"

"That's for sure. I'm afraid you won't be able to get up in the morning, so I'll say hello first and call you when you're done."

"Brother, what do you mean, who have I become?"

"Just drink stick noodle porridge tomorrow morning."

Wang Chuang looked at An Hongdou: "Can your wife get used to drinking?"

"It's okay, she can get used to everything."

"Okay, let's have stick noodle porridge with steamed buns tomorrow morning, and I'll make some pickles."

While chatting, the food was ready, but it was already dark at this time.

"Where to eat?" Wang Chuang asked.

"On the kang, it's warm on the kang."

When all the food was placed on the table, there was even more room on the table, and there was still a lot of food below. An Hongdou looked at the table full of whole sheep feast. Although she did not dare to see the slaughtered sheep, she could smell the smell at the moment. This taste still makes me admire it from the bottom of my heart.

"It's delicious."