Changfen1
This thought had barely popped up before Sun Miao squashed it.
โGo wash up and sleep, you really can dream up anything.โ
The next day, Sun Miao was pulled into the System space by the System to start learning the food she would be selling next.
This time, the food was also an exceptionally famous regional specialtyโChangfen.
The knowledge of how to make it was poured into Sun Miaoโs head by the System, but the actual hands-on practice required arduous, painstaking effort. Facing a three-month duration, Sun Miao felt that sooner or later, she would work herself to death in the System space.
The System comforted her: ใItโs okay.ใ2
โYour โokayโ definitely isnโt the โpass awayโ kind of โokay,โ right?!โ
Changfen, this thing, has a lot of intricacies. The very first step isn’t grinding the batter, but selecting and soaking the rice. To get delicious Changfen, this first step absolutely cannot go wrong; you have to use early-season rice.3
This early-season rice, if cooked and eaten normally, really doesn’t taste that great. The texture of early-season rice grains is looser, the main part is whiter, its transparency is less than regular rice, and it lacks luster. However, it has high water absorption, low stickiness, and its volume increases more after gelatinization.
After selecting the rice, comes soaking.
Time is practically magic in the creation of delicacies; originally unremarkable ingredients can transform into things with completely different textures through the fermentation of time. The System was sufficiently strict with Sun Miao. She had to keep a constant eye on the rice during the final critical hour, ensuring the early-season rice had absorbed enough water without going overboard and becoming a sticky, mushy mess.
This balance required her own judgment.
Soaking took six hours. She would wait like someone waiting by a stump for a rabbit4 after the fifth hour, occasionally dipping her fingers in to pinch a grain of rice, feeling the state of the early-season rice after absorbing water. The System directly provided her with rice that had already soaked for five hours; she was about to go mad just from pinching rice grains.
After learning how to discern the right state, the next step was making the rice batter. The System taught her both methods: the lazy way using an electric grinder, and the hell-level difficulty of grinding by hand. After learning both, Sun Miao compared them and subsequently made Changfen using both types of batter.
In reality, the Changfen made from hand-ground batter looked prettier and tasted better.
But considering the disproportionate amount of effort involved, Sun Miao chose: when it’s time to be lazy, one must be lazy.
After three months, Sun Miao finally mastered it. She wanted to make a portion for herself, but soaking the rice in advance took over five, approaching six hours. She could only make herself a bowl of rice noodles first. After eating, she hopped on her scooter and headed to the wet market to buy ingredients.
Pork was essential. Sun Miao asked the owner of the beef shop she frequented before and found out which stall had fresher pork. After getting clear directions, she hurried over to buy it. Only after buying everything did she return home.
While cooking, Sun Miao thought: Su Ruixi should quite like this food this time. After all, it’s Changfen, from Yue Province5, right? People there really can’t handle any spiciness. However, after Changfen spread beyond Yue Province, many modifications were made to cater to different regions.
For exampleโmany small stalls selling Changfen offer the option to add chili. This time, the System also provided a recipe for a chili sauce suitable for Changfen. Just based on this point, Sun Miao felt the Changfen method taught by the System wasn’t authentic at all.
What kind of decent person adds chili to authentic Changfen?
Because of this, besides simmering the sauce, Sun Miao had the additional task of making chili sauce.
Howeverโฆ
โThis chili sauce is really delicious.โ
Although somewhat inauthentic, Sun Miao still loved eating Changfen with chili sauce; she was someone who couldn’t enjoy a meal without spice.
Sun Miao also sent a portion over to the neighbor’s Kaixin-meimei. Kaixin-meimei was quite pleased, hopping and skipping as she took the Changfen home to eat with her mother. That evening, the neighbor sister brought her some fruit in return.
The System also timely assigned a task. This time, the location finally had nothing to do with Su Ruixi, which made Sun Miao breathe a sigh of relief. Yet, while relieved, she also felt a tiny bit disappointed.
But she thought: Susu-jie will definitely still come buy food from her, because Susu-jie really loves eating the things she makes!
Sun Miao checked the location for this round of stall setup; it was near a school district. But there were relatively few universities nearby, mainly vocational colleges6.
Sun Miao blinked, remarking inwardly: Vocational colleges, huh.
Nowadays, many people look down on vocational college students, especially online. The moment they hear “vocational college,” it’s as if those people are some kind of inferior beings. But for Sun Miao, vocational college was also an unattainable dream. She went to vocational high school right after junior high graduation; where would she get the chance to take Gaokao7 and attend a vocational college?
So Sun Miao still felt a sense of aspiration; whether it was vocational college or university, she aspired towards them equally.
Anyway, they were all more impressive than her.
Sun Miao posted in the group chat about what she’d be selling next week and the location. When mentioning the price, she still felt a bit sheepish: ใChangfen is also 30 yuan per serving, nothing else is being sold this time.ใ
Actually, her production process wasn’t much different from others; the method for making the rice batter was the same. Although pre-made rice batter was indeed sold online, the stuff made from that tasted almost inedible. Anyone discerning could taste the difference immediately.
And handmade rice batter only had a shelf life of 24 hours; any longer and it wouldn’t be good.
Only the System confidently thumped its chest and guaranteed to her:8 ใHost, please rest assured about the refrigerator’s preservation effect. Storing it for 72 hours is no problem.ใ
โWell, thank you so much for that.โ
Preservation effect aside, she still had to make it fresh daily. Moreover, what she was doing, others were doing too. Sun Miao’s ingredient selection might be slightly better than others, but everyone bought from the wet market; even if there was a difference, how big could it be?
With materials being largely similar, the final presentation depended solely on the taste of the food. On this point, Sun Miao was quite confident.
It was just that thirty kuai9 was much more expensive than similar products.
Sun Miao remembered when she previously set up her stall behind the hospital, there was also a Changfen stall. Plain egg Changfen was ten kuai, minced pork and egg was fifteen, and beef was twenty. Her minced pork and egg version was double the price of theirs.
It’s fine! It! Is! Fine!
She had to believe in her own skills.
The group chat erupted into a heated discussion about the new stall food Sun Miao announced:
ใWhat, she’s actually selling my favorite Changfen?! I won’t say who’s dying of happiness right now.ใ
ใI love Changfen too! I wonder how delicious Boss Sun’s will be!ใ
ใThis location is quite close to my home! Awesome! Get up every morning and buy a serving of Boss Sun’s Changfen first!ใ
ใIs it only Changfen this time? No duck snacks?ใ
ใWho’s still dreaming about eating duck snacks? There’s no way duck could be stuffed into Changfen this time.ใ
ใPetition for other snacks! Bring on the Suanlafen,10 bring on the Guantangbao,11 bring on the Guoqiao Mixian,12 bring on the Zhengjiao,13 bring on the Shengjian,14 bring them from all directions!15ใ
ใStop talking! Please stop talking! Someone on a business trip these past two days is about to die from craving!ใ
ใThirty yuan a serving? Isn’t that basically giving it away for free? How much other Changfen costs has nothing to do with me, Boss Sun’s Changfen must be the best in the world! Thirty? Selling it for 300 would still be cheap!ใ
ใSports car driving fu’erdai,16 I’ll fight you! Don’t inflate the prices! You know Boss Sun is out here doing charity work, who else treats us like kids if not Boss Sun?ใ
Sun Miao watched the group chat for a while. After half a moment, everyone shifted to other topics. They started chatting about delicious snack shops in the city, with the most heated discussion revolving around an old-brand17 shop selling Mian Tuo Da Pai.18 Sun Miao grew curious watching them, noted down the shop’s name, planning to go try it when she had time.
Sun Miao cooked very well, but after making and eating so much, she occasionally wanted a change of pace.
A group member who hadn’t tried it suddenly interjected: ใHow does this shop compare to Boss Sun? Is it really that good? If it’s really good, I’ll go try it too.ใ
ใโฆโฆใ
A row of ellipses instantly appeared in the chat. After a moment, Hip-hop Mei finally spoke up: ใIt’s pretty good, you can give it a try, but once is enough. Definitely can’t compare to Boss Sun. Although Boss Sun hasn’t made Mian Tuo Da Pai, her beef pancakes are so delicious, I imagine since they both involve frying with oil and flour, the difference shouldn’t be huge.ใ
ใI think so too, if Boss Sun made it, it would definitely be exceptionally delicious!ใ
ใSo when is Boss Sun making Mian Tuo Da Pai? Fried chicken, fried chicken legs, I love those too, hurry up and serve them!ใ
Well, that was uncertain. Seeing the group starting to hound her again, Sun Miao simply closed the chat. She had soaked the rice for a day, and it was finally ready. Then, she took out the grinder provided by the System and slowly ground the rice into batter.
Speaking of which, making this rice batter also had its techniques. It wasn’t a matter of just putting the rice in and being done with it; you needed to watch carefully and add water bit by bit, using the same water that was used for soaking the rice. Water and rice were added gradually according to proportion, and then finally ground out.
This rice batter couldn’t be used directly in the steamer drawer either; it needed further processing.
Cornstarch and wheat starch were mixed with water according to proportion, then added to the rice batter and stirred again to fully combine the two starches. Only then was the powder base for the Changfen considered complete. Going through process after process, Sun Miao felt mentally exhausted.
It wasn’t particularly bitter work, though, since the cornstarch and wheat starch were ready-madeโฆ it wasn’t like she had to hand-grind those too.
After this came the most important part of Changfen: the sauce. Boiling water was brought to a boil, various aromatic ingredients19 were added, and once their fragrance was released, seasonings like rock sugar20, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, etc., were added. The most crucial ingredient was fish sauce. This wasn’t commonly used in daily cooking, but it was a favorite among the Lao Guang21.
Not only in Changfen sauce, but it was also often added to marinated cold seafood.
Sun Miao made a few trays of Changfen as a trial run. She sent a box each to Kaixin’s family and her landlord, ate one box herself, and seeing there was still one box left, Sun Miao thought for a moment and sent a message directly to Su Ruixi: โSusu-jie, I made some trial Changfen today, there’s an extra box, could you help me taste test it?โ
Su Ruixi replied quickly, with just one word: Okay.
Sun Miao then asked where to deliver it. Since it was already nearing evening, Su Ruixi told her to deliver it directly to Cuiting Yayuan. Sun Miao rode her newly bought little electric scooter, hung the Changfen on the hook at the front, humming a tune as she set off towards Cuiting Yayuan.
โRiding my beloved little e-scooter, it never gets stuck in traffic~โ22
ใStop singing, it sounds awful.ใ
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