Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 237

Hulatang

“Then you need to be a little nicer to the next host. Stop being so poison-tongued¹ all day long.”

【Host, I haven’t left yet. And rest assured, Host, once you successfully graduate, the system space will open up to you completely. At that time, you will also be able to learn any dish you wish to make within the system space.】

The subtext of this sentence was actually: Don’t make some half-finished product out in the world and cause our system to lose face². The system really had changed a bit; at the very least, it wasn’t as poison-tongued when it spoke anymore.

The three-month teaching period passed in a flash. Youmoutou was easy to learn. Sun Miao had extensive experience making wheat-based foods and was also skilled at deep-frying, so she had already reached the pinnacle realm³ with the youmoutou in just two or three days. But hulatang, this seemingly simple little thing, was not actually simple at all.

How to make this hulatang, a dish that practically every family in Yu Province⁴ knew how to cook, in a way that everyone would find delicious was a monumental challenge.

Because everyone could make it, everyone made it differently. Aside from the overall production process remaining unchanged, the slightest omission of one ingredient or addition of another seasoning by any given family would result in a completely different final flavor for the hulatang.

Discussion threads about which family’s hulatang was the most authentic could even rack up tens of thousands of posts.

Some people even divided it into different schools of thought based on the color of the hulatang pot lids. Those who used large, cyan-colored aluminum pots to serve the soup had a stronger medicinal flavor, and the meat inside was primarily sliced beef in whole pieces. People who loved it felt it was incredibly authentic; those who didn’t like it thought it had a medicinal taste and said it was a heretical path⁵. Then there were those who used large, yellow-colored copper pots, where the meat inside was lamb and the soup had a smooth, mellow flavor, giving it yet another distinct feeling.

Furthermore, the debates over whether to use sliced meat or minced meat, whether or not to add cilantro, and what kind of flour to use for the gluten could spark fierce, unending arguments.

Even online encyclopedias had to subdivide hulatang into eleven different regional varieties.

However, the version that had spread throughout the country now was an abbreviated one: minced meat mixed with various shredded ingredients in a thick, savory soup.

What the system taught Sun Miao was the hulatang from Xiaoyao Town⁶. To improve its palatability, the medicinal components were reduced, and it also incorporated the mellow thickness of the latter style. It was a union of the best of both worlds⁷.

The ingredients for hulatang weren’t too many, but they weren’t too few either. The most important was the seitan; next were the accompanying ingredients. The simplest were dried daylily buds, wood ear mushrooms, kelp, shredded xianggu mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, mung bean vermicelli noodles, and sliced beef.

Depending on one’s preference, peanuts, cilantro, and other things could also be added.

But before doing all this, Sun Miao first had to learn how to grind the powders to create the soup base packets for the hulatang. Although the medicinal components were reduced, they couldn’t be completely eliminated, just added in smaller, appropriate amounts.

If the medicinal herbs were completely gone, it would lose the very essence of hulatang.

According to the records in the 《Taiping Huimin Heji Jufang》⁸, hulatang was already widespread during the Song Dynasty. Later, during the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty, it was said that hulatang had the effect of prolonging life, which made it quite favored by the emperor.

Without medicinal herbs, how could it have any life-prolonging effects?

When Sun Miao heard this, she was a bit curious and couldn’t help but ask the system, “Does it really have any life-prolonging effects?”

【Nonsense. If it could really prolong life, why not just eat yaoshan⁹ or traditional medicine directly instead of drinking hulatang? To say it has that kind of effect is more like lying to yourself. But with the medicinal components as a base, a wonderful collision of flavors is produced, making the taste fresher and more delicious.】

In modern times, many hulatang recipes also include a widely known seasoning, which is——white pepper.

Not only must it be added, but it must be added generously.

Following the base recipe provided by the system, Sun Miao ground the powders and made them into packets. It was a good thing she had the help of modern equipment, with a full range of scales for weighing grams. Otherwise, Sun Miao would have had to spend a great deal of effort on the mixing alone. But even with the help of equipment, Sun Miao still spent a very long time learning how to make the powder packets.

She had to be intimately familiar with the function and flavor of every single spice and medicinal herb. The system wasn’t trying to train a robot; otherwise, it could have just done it itself. Merely knowing the specific recipe for the packet was useless. Only by thoroughly understanding all the ingredients and their functions could she be considered to have truly learned.

As soon as she entered the phase of listening to a heavenly book¹⁰, Sun Miao’s learning ability would plummet. Fortunately, the system had a uniquely crafted¹¹ teaching method: since you couldn’t die in the system space anyway, Sun Miao would just rely on tasting. She made and tasted every combination of weights and every ingredient. After trying them all, she naturally came to know what they tasted like and how different powder packets should be blended.

For a full two months, Sun Miao was learning this.

Only in the last remaining month did she truly begin the hulatang production process.

To make hulatang, you must have seitan, and for seitan, you have to use high-gluten flour. When kneading the dough, it has to be kneaded a bit softer so that it’s easier to let it rest. After the dough is ready, the next step is to wash the gluten out. After washing out the gluten, the water inside is decanted, but this water cannot be thrown away directly. Instead, it must be set aside to be poured in later when making the hulatang.

The gluten must be washed at least three times, until it turns a faint yellow, before you can stop.

After the gluten is washed out, the next step is to stir-fry the ingredients. Heat oil in a wok. Once the oil is hot, add the beef slices and stir-fry them. After adding cooking wine to the beef to remove any gaminess and cooking it through, it’s time to add water. At this step, you can also pour in the powder packet you prepared earlier and stir it evenly. Once the powder has dissolved in the water, add the large pile of small ingredients that were prepared in advance.

When it’s nearly cooked, it’s time to add the gluten. After tearing the gluten open, you have to pull it into slightly longer strips before placing it in the pot. A little while later, pour in the decanted starchy water from before.

This starchy water actually contains flour, so this step is, in effect, also for thickening. Then, add white pepper powder to enhance the flavor.

Next, you have to stir it slowly.

Many soups, after being thickened, should be taken off the heat, or they will stick to the pot if cooked too long. Sun Miao had previously made braised abalone in its original shell, and thickening was basically the final step. But hulatang is different. It can withstand it; it can be simmered. Simmering it a little longer makes the soup thicker and more flavorful.

Only after all this is it considered finished.

As for the youmoutou made earlier, whether you set it aside and take a bite after a sip of hulatang, or tear it into pieces and toss it into the soup, it is a special kind of enjoyment.

After Sun Miao finished learning hulatang and youmoutou, she was kicked out of the system space by the system.

Because it was Saturday, Su Ruixi was sleeping soundly beside her. Before Sun Miao even opened her eyes, she smelled a familiar scent. She wriggled over, nuzzled into Su Ruixi’s arms a few times, and then burrowed into her embrace.

Su Ruixi asked drowsily, “What time is it?”

“It’s still early. Susu-jie, you go back to sleep.”

Su Ruixi wasn’t awake yet, but she subconsciously hugged Sun Miao tighter, then asked in a complete daze, “What did you learn? Why do you smell so good?”

Sun Miao instinctively lifted her arm and sniffed herself. She was a little confused: I don’t smell anything. That wasn’t my real body in the system space, so it’s impossible to bring a scent out across dimensions. The next moment, she belatedly realized that Susu-jie truly thought she smelled good.

“It was hulatang and youmoutou.”

“Mmm…” Su Ruixi snuggled against Sun Miao again and fell back asleep.

Sun Miao was amused. Su Ruixi really hadn’t woken up at all.

She too, in Su Ruixi’s arms, slept a cage-return sleep¹². After waking up again, Sun Miao didn’t make hulatang for Su Ruixi right away, because grinding the powders and mixing them would take a lot of time. She definitely wouldn’t be able to do it for breakfast or lunch, so she would wait until evening to make it for her.

For this brunch, they would just have some fennel mini-youtiao.

Now that she had learned youmoutou, she had naturally comprehended without a teacher¹³ how to make youtiao as well. Sun Miao figured Su Ruixi would also love the fennel mini-youtiao¹⁴ that were currently very popular.

The production method was similar, just with the addition of fennel. Fennel was a common seasoning anyway, so Sun Miao had conveniently bought some extra to keep at home. Now, she made the fennel mini-youtiao and served them with a bowl of plain rice congee, which made Su Ruixi eat with great satisfaction.

There was also an art to cooking plain rice congee. When Sun Miao made it, she certainly wouldn’t just press a button on the rice cooker and let it cook. She made her congee in a clay pot, slow-simmered over a low flame. Su Ruixi liked thin congee, so she would add a little more water. The resulting congee was something a rice cooker could never compare to.

It was the most thorough defeat of technology at the hands of manual labor.

The rice water was clear and bright. With a gentle stir of the spoon, she ladled the congee out. Paired with the small side dishes Sun Miao made herself, Su Ruixi would normally be very happy to eat it, not to mention that today there were also fennel mini-youtiao.

These fennel mini-youtiao could be considered a viral food trend, more commonly seen in hot pot restaurants. But the ones in hot pot restaurants were all pre-prepared dishes, taken out of a bag and barely thawed, dry and hard. Even after being fried in an air fryer, they seemed desiccated due to the loss of moisture.

But what Sun Miao made was completely different.

After fermentation, air pockets naturally formed inside the dough. After being deep-fried, these air pockets expanded. When you took a bite, the outside was crispy, but the inside was soft. The flavor of the fennel added a bit of saltiness to the mini-youtiao, but after a few more bites and some chewing, a faint milky fragrance and sweetness emerged in her mouth.

“I added a little cream. Milky-fragrant mini-youtiao seem to be pretty common too. I tried to combine them; I don’t know if it tastes good.”

If anyone else had tried such an innovation, it would have most likely been a failure. A combination of salty and sweet flavors like this couldn’t possibly taste good. But Sun Miao’s wouldn’t. She had always been skilled at combining two different textures and flavors, and she hadn’t failed this time either.

Especially in terms of texture, the outside was golden and crisp, while the inside was a faint white and soft, making Su Ruixi devour a mini-youtiao in three bites.

Later, she put the youtiao into the congee. After it was soaked, it had yet another different flavor. But no matter what, it was a delicious taste that Su Ruixi was addicted to.

After eating two bowls of congee with some fennel-flavored youtiao, Su Ruixi was actually no longer hungry, but she still wanted to eat more. She licked her lips, stood up, and quietly tried to sneak another bowl for herself. However, Sun Miao noticed and reached out to pull Su Ruixi back.

“Susu-jie, stop eating. Have some fruit or something in a bit, and that should be enough. You shouldn’t eat until you’re too full; it’s not good for your health.”

How could Su Ruixi listen to that? To her, both the fennel mini-youtiao and the plain rice congee were perfectly suited to her tastes. But Sun Miao was very firm at times like these, and no matter what, she refused to give her more.

Su Ruixi was so annoyed, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything to complain about Sun Miao. After a long moment, she could only stammer out, “Stingy.”

---

The author has something to say:

Su Ruixi: Stingy xN¹⁵

---

---