Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 123

One Year

After all, Sun Miao was a complete novice when it came to makeup. All she could tell was that the lipstick shades were similar. She knew that color codes could be deceiving; what looked similar might be completely different from the one Su Ruixi usually used.

So, Sun Miao was apprehensive, her voice even trembling slightly. “This… I saw it today and just wanted to give it to you. Susu-jie, can you accept it?”

How could Su Ruixi not be moved by how cautiously she spoke? She quickened her pace, walked up to Sun Miao, and wrapped her in a hug. Su Ruixi’s voice rang in Sun Miao’s ear, “Thank you, Sun Miao. I love it!”

Even without having used it yet, Su Ruixi knew she would definitely love it.

To be honest, this gift was probably the cheapest she had ever received. Although it was from a known brand, the items available in the VIP mini-program were incomparable to those displayed on the counters, with a world of difference in price.

The products she used daily were far from this price range.

Yet, Su Ruixi felt that she would surely love it.

Su Ruixi suddenly recalled a quote she had once read: don’t look at the monetary value of what someone gives you, but at what percentage of their wealth it represents. This sentence was easy to understand now. While the lipstick wasn’t expensive for Su Ruixi, it wasn’t exactly cheap for Sun Miao either.

At the very least, it would take her a whole day to earn it.

Su Ruixi could sit in a high-rise building and easily earn several thousand yuan; but Sun Miao had to work from dawn till dusk, pouring all her effort into her small food cart just to make a thousand back.

What a wonderful person Sun Miao was. Aside from being a bit of a penny-pincher when running her stall, she was incredibly generous most of the time, even willing to use what little money she had left to buy her a gift.

Here, Su Ruixi had a slight misunderstanding. While Sun Miao’s savings weren’t vast, she had at least five figures¹. Of course, in Su Ruixi’s eyes, five figures was probably as insignificant as a speck of dust on her pinky nail, but she could still afford this lipstick.

In any case, Su Ruixi was deeply moved, and when Sun Miao saw how happy Su Ruixi was, she became happy too. The two of them hugged, holding each other close for a long time before Su Ruixi finally lifted her head and leaned in to kiss Sun Miao.

Su Ruixi could be quite domineering at times, like when she confessed her feelings, and like now. She moved closer, their lips meeting. Perhaps because they had kissed so many times before, she had now learned how to French kiss.

Her arms, slender and fair like lotus root segments², hooked around the back of Sun Miao’s neck, while her other hand still clutched the lipstick Sun Miao had given her. Her lips pressed against Sun Miao’s, continuously grinding and pressing, before finally her tongue slipped out. The two of them embraced in a deep kiss, only separating after a long, long time.

“Thank you, I love it.”

Su Ruixi’s voice was much lower now, and the recent kiss had left her lips looking moist and glistening. After saying this, she pecked Sun Miao’s lips once more before letting go. Taking a few steps back, she waved the lipstick in her hand, a smile on her face as she wished Sun Miao goodnight.

“Goodnight.”

Sun Miao was also in a great mood. She returned to her room, washed up, and then, following Su Ruixi’s instructions, she tentatively began to apply the skincare products. Having been exposed to the wind and sun for years, Sun Miao’s skin condition was a bit poor, so the products Su Ruixi recommended were mostly focused on repair.

She spread the repair essence and patted it onto her face, feeling only a cool, refreshing sensation that was very comfortable.

After a night’s sleep, Sun Miao was pulled into the system space. Furthermore, the system had informed her in advance that this training session would last for one year. After a period of silence, Sun Miao began to question the system, “What?! One year?! Do you think that’s reasonable?! And your ‘one year’ is different; it’s 24/7 for 365 days straight! Do you think I’m Superman?! Huh?”

But no matter what Sun Miao said, the system pinned her down in the system space and began to teach her how to make Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe³.

The most fundamental step was selecting the pork. Pork is the most important component of a Lion’s Head; if you can’t pick good pork, the whole effort is wasted.

Moreover, the selection of the pork for a Lion’s Head is related to the season. A mix of fat and lean is best, but in winter, it should be seventy percent fat and thirty percent lean; in summer, fifty-fifty; and in spring and autumn, a sixty-forty split of fat to lean is optimal. This is because temperature affects people’s appetites; when the weather gets hot, too much fat can make the dish taste bland and greasy.

It was currently the end of May, about to enter June, the cusp of late spring and early summer, so a sixty-forty split was ideal.

Pork from the rib area was preferred. But when selecting, the system told her that black pork⁴ was better than white pork. Native pigs were hardier and their meat more sinewy. Unfortunately, native pork had a very strong gamy taste, and getting rid of it was no simple task.

Sun Miao had eaten native pork from the supermarket before. It was indeed more textural to chew, but it came with a heavy gamy odor. After buying it once or twice and finding it unacceptable, she had given up on it. Cooking wine⁵, scallions, ginger, and garlic could all mask the taste, but too much cooking wine would make the dish taste strongly of alcohol, losing its original deliciousness.

If one were to use black pork, it could be summed up in one word: difficult.

To eliminate that gamy smell required many steps: blanching, marinating, and even adding lemon juice during preparation. Lemon juice is sour, but it is indeed very effective at removing odors. How to use lemon juice to remove the gamy taste, retaining the fresh scent of lemon without introducing sourness—the technique and dosage were of utmost importance.

A fraction more, and it becomes sour; a fraction less, and the gaminess remains.

And mastering that technique required a great deal of time and practice.

This step alone left Sun Miao feeling dizzy and overwhelmed. Even though her body wouldn’t feel any fatigue in the system space, Sun Miao still felt mentally exhausted. She shook her head and continued to grit her teeth.

Sun Miao was not afraid of hardship; she had never been someone who feared it. If she were, she never would have been able to save up enough money to open her own breakfast shop before she transmigrated. The problem was… this was just too much hardship. Especially since after this ordeal, there was more to come. After learning how to remove the gamy taste, it was time to start making the meatballs.

A Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe is, in essence, a giant meatball.

To make meatballs, the first step is to chop the meat. There’s a particular technique here as well. The meat is cut into small dice. Each one must be perfectly square. In the industry, this size is called “chopstick dice,” as they are the size of a chopstick tip. After all the meat is cut into chopstick dice, they are mixed together and a few more shallow cuts are made.

This step is meticulous. The chopstick dice are not minced, but small incisions are made in them to increase the adhesion between the meat pieces.

Next, water chestnuts⁶ are added. Water chestnuts are fragrant and add stickiness, as well as a crisp texture when eaten, making them a perfect partner for any meat filling. Many places that make stuffed river snails with pork filling also add a suitable amount of water chestnuts. These are set aside to be added later during the meat-slapping process.

At this point, scallion-ginger water must be prepared. Instead of adding chopped scallions and ginger, only the water they have been soaked in is used. Here, the technique learned in the previous step came into play: add a suitable amount of lemon juice and mix well.

Cornstarch was added to the diced meat, and then the guàn ròu⁷ process began. The purpose of guàn ròu is to make the meat filling sticky and to completely dissolve the cornstarch into it. This process was difficult and required a lot of strength. Her wrists and arms were constantly exerting force, and even though her body wouldn’t feel tired, Sun Miao could still feel her arms aching.

After slapping for a long time, her hands even began to tremble.

Only at this moment would the system allow her to stop and rest for a while.

While slapping the meat, ingredients like the scallion-ginger water, water chestnuts, egg whites, and salt had to be added. It was worth noting that the scallion-ginger water and salt were not added all at once, but in three separate additions.

Knowing when to stop slapping the meat was a science in itself. The mixture needed to feel gelatinous, but not overly so. If it was overworked, the texture would be too dense, and it was possible for the outside to be stewed until it fell apart while the inside was still undercooked. It also couldn’t be too loose, or it would disintegrate during cooking. To what exact degree should it be worked? Words were useless. Only through years and years of experience could one achieve that point of perfection.

Once the meat filling was slapped, it wasn’t time to poach⁸ it in water just yet. A coating had to be made for the outside. Egg white, cornstarch, and water were mixed. This coating had to be exceptionally fine, without any large particles of starch. Using her fingers, she pressed the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve with water, grinding the powder until it was silky smooth.

This coating could only serve to shape the meatball; it couldn’t completely encase the Lion’s Head. If it were fully coated, it would truly just be a meatball, and the “lion’s beard” on the Lion’s Head would completely disappear. Then how could it still be called a Lion’s Head?

Sun Miao was dumbfounded listening to the system’s explanation. Under what circumstances could one not completely coat it? Just two words—technique. It still had to be practiced.

The path of a chef was just this: only through accumulated daily training, with no shortcuts. Of course, the culinary profession also had many geniuses. Seasoning was a matter of talent; without enough of it, one could never reach the true summit.

After all that was done, it was still not time to poach the Lion’s Head.

It was time to prepare the crab roe.

Initially, many restaurants would mix the crab roe directly into the Lion’s Head meat filling. But they quickly discovered that doing so would lighten the flavor of the finished Lion’s Head, the taste of the crab roe wouldn’t be as potent after stewing, and the soup in the pot would become cloudy. Over time, the method evolved: the crab roe was to be stir-fried first, and then inlaid on top of the Lion’s Head.

This way, after poaching, the soup remained clear, and the flavor of the crab roe would also permeate the Lion’s Head.

The system really procured a large number of big crabs for Sun Miao to choose from. The crabs were steamed in a steamer, and then a special eight-piece crab toolset⁹ was used to extract the contents completely. The crab roe went onto one plate, the crab meat onto another, and it was required that the crab’s body could be reassembled. The most demanding part was that the picking required technique; the natural texture of the crab meat absolutely could not be damaged.

After this came the stir-frying of the crab roe. After stir-frying, it had to be thickened with a starch slurry. Once that was done, it needed to cool down and then be chilled in the refrigerator for a while before it was ready.

Once the crab roe was prepared, it was inlaid on top of the Lion’s Head. Only then was the Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe in its complete form.

Looking at that Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe, Sun Miao truly felt how difficult it was. The white, round Lion’s Head, topped with golden crab roe, looked utterly adorable, but it had also nearly been the death of her.

---

---