Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 194

Wait for Me

Besides looking at the exterior, the next step is to feel it with your hands. It’s fine if you’re in a coastal city; they are basically fresh and alive. When you touch them, the skin is smooth, they feel very meaty, and most importantly, they have elasticity. When you press down on the bottom, it will bounce back in no time.

In places that require the fish to be air-freighted, it’s easier to buy ones that are old and on the verge of death. They don’t have much strength when you grab them in your hand, and they can’t bounce back when you press down on them, giving a dry and shriveled feeling.

The stall vendor might also tell the buyer: “These were all brought over packed in ice, so they’re still groggy right now. That’s why they don’t look very energetic, but in reality, they’re very strong.”

Only after looking and feeling with your hands can you find a Japanese Spanish mackerel¹ that is both energetic and has good quality meat.

After selecting the fish, the next step is the formal preparation process. The first thing to do is to roll the dumpling wrappers. The wrappers for mackerel dumplings must be rolled; it’s not enough to just press them with your palm. The requirement is for them to be thick in the center and thin on the four sides, and the thickness of the wrapper must also be uniform so that it doesn’t easily crack.

Under the System’s training, Sun Miao had practically become a fully automatic dough-rolling machine. But the System did not allow Sun Miao to use a mixer for the preparation, because flour-based foods made with a mixer are mostly not jindao². This wasn’t a matter of whether it had a handmade feel, but that flour-based foods made by a machine are genuinely different from those made by a person.

A person will follow the grain of the dough, kneading and rubbing it until it becomes jindao, whereas a mixer just stirs everything up, destroying everything inside, so how could there be any jindao left. At the very least, in handmade flour-based foods, machines cannot surpass humans.

After the dumpling wrappers were done, they were set aside, and it was time to start learning how to mix the filling.

The most crucial part was processing the fish meat. The mackerel was a bit larger than an average fish, and the ones Sun Miao picked out were all quite big. Mackerel dumplings require large fish, at least eight jin³ and up. That one fish was as long as Sun Miao’s calf.

Remove the head, scoop out the internal organs, and then first chop it into large chunks.

Looking at the cross-section, you could tell that this fish was truly beautiful. The light pink fish meat had a very obvious main fish bone in the middle, and besides that, there were very few bones extending outwards. One point to pay extra attention to is that when taking the meat, do not include the red parts around the center.

There are bones in this part, and it has a fishy smell; it cannot be eaten.

When taking out the pieces of fish meat, it wasn’t done casually either. One had to follow the grain of the fish meat to take it, so that the meat taken out would be complete and not broken, without having damaged the grain, which would cause the fish meat to be tough or dry when chewed.

After the fish meat was taken out, it was placed on the cutting board. Vertical cuts were made with a knife, and then it was carefully searched to find the hidden fish bones. Absolutely no fish bones could be allowed to be mixed in. Fortunately, the bones of the mackerel are few and conspicuous, and in a short time, all the fish bones could be removed, leaving only the light pink fish meat.

That fish meat was tender pink and also translucent white. Just lying on the cutting board, it revealed a certain cuteness. Sun Miao couldn’t help but start imagining how delicious it would be when it entered her mouth.

After picking out the fish bones, it wasn’t suitable for the fish meat to be laid flat on the cutting board for too long. Sun Miao washed her hands clean, kneaded the fish meat together, and then seemed to be slapping it to work up its springiness⁴. This step would give the fish meat an extra bit of resilience. It also couldn’t be mixed directly with a mixer, otherwise, it wouldn’t work up the springiness.

Once this step was finished, the fish meat and pork were to be mixed. They were mixed together with pork that had been similarly slammed, at a 1:1 ratio, while simultaneously adding garlic chives and seasonings. The fishy smell of mackerel is not very strong, but any seafood or fish will inevitably have a little. Fortunately, compared to river fish, sea fish lacks a kind of earthy, fishy smell from the river water.

When mixing the filling, there was actually another little trick, which was to prepare a bowl of Sichuan peppercorn water⁵ in advance. When mixed evenly with the filling, this step can effectively remove the fishy smell of the fish meat and the gamy smell of the pork.

But how much to add specifically, and in what way, all depended on the skill of the master. One bit more, and there would be a rich Sichuan peppercorn flavor; one bit less, and the fishy and gamy smells wouldn’t be removed. Chinese cuisine is really interesting; everything emphasizes an “appropriate amount,” and there is simply no universally applicable problem-solving method.

Perhaps it was also because of this point that the System preferred to teach Sun Miao how to make these Chinese dishes.

After finishing the filling, the next step was naturally to wrap the dumplings. Wrapping dumplings is different from wrapping bubble small wontons. The essence of bubble small wontons lies in having little filling and achieving a hollow inner cavity, so that when the bubble small wontons are boiled, they can float up like little bubbles.

But wrapping dumplings requires a thin skin and a lot of filling. The inside must be fully packed, so that with one bite, the juices and filling, along with the dumpling wrapper, all land in your mouth.

The fish she had picked was over 9 jin. After removing the head, tail, internal organs, and bones, there were seven or eight jin of fish meat left. Adding the mixed pork and garlic chives, a basin of filling could be sixteen jin. Packed this way, one jin of filling could only produce 30 dumplings.

Sixteen jin meant 480 dumplings.

The mackerel dumplings she made were all larger than the ones outside. She estimated that for an average adult woman who would eat 18 outside, ten from her place would be enough. Sun Miao wrapped them, took a look, and estimated that selling 10 per serving would be just right.

If a man couldn’t get full… then he could only buy more. In any case, for one of her servings, a woman would most likely be full.

Sun Miao’s craftsmanship was also really good. The wrapped dumplings were laid out flat over there, each one looking as if it had been copied and pasted. They were also beautifully pinched, each one round and plump, with the pleats revealing a certain artistry, even more beautiful than those made by a machine.

Seeing such dumplings, even someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder⁶ could be cured.

Next up was boiling them in water.

When Sun Miao and Su Ruixi went to eat locally, some restaurants would use steamer baskets to steam them, but authentic mackerel dumplings are still more delicious when boiled in water. The boiled dumplings are firm and don’t fall apart, and even the dumpling soup just has a layer of flour, being clear overall.

A separate serving of the boiled dumpling soup is brought up to be eaten with the mackerel dumplings; it’s beautiful beyond words.

When Sun Miao was released from the System Space, she looked to the side, and Su Ruixi was already gone. Su Ruixi had already gone to work, leaving Sun Miao all alone.

In her heart, there was a loneliness she hadn’t felt for a long time, and a longing to see Su Ruixi, but these were all beautiful emotions. There was no longer any sorrow in the bottom of her heart, nor was there any fragility. Because Sun Miao knew that no matter how long she was away, Su Ruixi would be waiting for her.

When she was missing her, she must also be thinking of her.

Maybe when she got to work, Su Ruixi would suddenly think: How is Sun Miao? Is she feeling lonely? Will she be as fragile as before when she wakes up?

At the thought of this, Sun Miao felt that even having stayed in the System Space for three months was nothing to be afraid of.

Of course, a year would still not be okay.

Sun Miao yawned and stretched. After thinking for a moment, she sent a message to Su Ruixi: I’ve been awake for a while, and I still miss you a lot. But I’m going to take a “return-to-cage” sleep⁷, and I’ll bring you something to eat at noon. Wait for me.

While waiting at a traffic light, Su Ruixi saw this message. She wanted to reply but was afraid of waking Sun Miao. In the end, looking at that message, she couldn’t help but lift the corners of her lips.

She missed her too.

The red light turned green, and Su Ruixi could only put her phone to the side, step on the accelerator again, and set off.

When Sun Miao woke up again, it actually hadn’t been too long. Su Ruixi left early in the morning, and even though three months had passed in the System Space, only a minute had passed in reality. Even though she had taken another “return-to-cage” sleep, it was only 8:40.

Sun Miao got up, tidied up a bit, and found that the Auntie had already come to work and had also made her breakfast. She immediately turned back to her room and took out the gift she had bought for the Auntie from her suitcase.

As she walked, the things in her hand jingled and clanged along with her movements. She couldn’t think of what to buy, so she could only buy these handicrafts that seemed rather useless. The stall owner said he picked them up from the seaside and processed them himself, but Sun Miao felt that he had just bought them wholesale online.

He didn’t sell them to her for an expensive price, 10 kuai for three.

Sun Miao’s stinginess was also revealed without a doubt at this moment.

When she placed the conch in front of the Auntie, the Auntie was still very happy. She didn’t really care what Sun Miao brought for her; Sun Miao had given her such delicious zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival before. She usually didn’t think of giving gifts to Sun Miao and Su Ruixi, so the fact that Sun Miao was thinking of her while she was out having fun already made her feel overwhelmed by the favor.

When Sun Miao saw the Auntie, she casually asked, “Yi,⁸ do you know where they sell live mackerel?”

When she asked this, she wasn’t really expecting an answer, only hoping the Auntie could provide some clues. Because the Auntie had been working here for a long time, her understanding of the surroundings was probably deeper than her own, so she might know something. But she didn’t expect that the Auntie actually knew.

“I do know a person who runs a small shop that sells vegetables and meat, and also some aquatic products. His place has quite a lot of live seafood. Before I worked as an hourly-waged auntie for Miss Su, the family I worked for loved to eat seafood and specifically requested it to be live and fresh. I looked for a long time before I found that shop.”

Sun Miao’s interest was piqued: “Then Auntie, give me the address, I’ll go take a look.”

The Auntie, however, was a bit hesitant. She told Sun Miao: “I’m not sure if that place is still selling. Mainly because I’ve been a housekeeper for Miss Sun for several years now, that shop might have already gone out of business.”

“It’s okay, you tell me. If it’s closed down, I’ll find another one myself.”

The Auntie gave her the address. Sun Miao quickly finished her breakfast, told the Auntie, and went straight out the door. She drove out in the food stall. It’s worth mentioning that there were two food stalls in the garage, one of which was the one previously left at the police station.

The Lawyer Xiaojiejie⁹ had sent Sun Miao a message, saying that after they finished assessing the damages over there, they returned Sun Miao’s food stall to her. She also specifically instructed Sun Miao: If you have other uses for it, don’t touch that food stall for now, as there might be something else later on.

These past few days, the troublemaking man had actually finished his detention, but he would soon be sued by the lawyer, since he hadn’t compensated for all these things yet.

Previously, the troublemaking man didn’t want to compensate, and now he wanted to even less. Because of this matter, he lost his job and was also fined by many departments for violating regulations. He also had to separately compensate the companies whose cafeterias he contracted. If the compensation for the stall was added on top of that, for him it wouldn’t be injuring muscles and breaking bones¹⁰—it would be being flayed and having his tendons pulled out¹¹!

So until now, he was still shirking responsibility. The lawyer went back and forth with him for several rounds, collected a lot of evidence, and on the grounds that mediation could not be reached, directly filed a lawsuit.

Depending on the amount of damages, he could potentially face the disaster of imprisonment.

But none of this had anything to do with Sun Miao anymore. The only one suffering was the lemon tea boss; she was still counting on the troublemaking man to come and flip her stall so she could get compensation. Now it could be said to be drawing water with a bamboo basket—all in vain¹², she wouldn’t be getting it.

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