Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 8
Father Jiang wiped the sweat on his face with the linen towel around his neck and looked at the sun. “The food was delivered so early today.”
But after working all morning, he was really hungry. He walked to the field edge and washed his hands. He saw the leek pancakes and laomo(Chinese burrito) that were different from usual ones. He sat on the field edge and took one and ate it in his mouth.Â
“Well, this one is delicious today.”
Especially since there was crayfish meat in it.
The locals disliked crayfish because they were dirty, required a lot of oil to cook, and their general difficulty in preparing them to taste good. They never expected that these ubiquitous crayfish would become so delicious in the hands of their daughter.
Father Jiang quickly finished the three laomo and took another piece of leek pancake. As he walked, he stuffed the leek pancake into his mouth in small bites and bent down to continue harvesting rice.
Mother Jiang also approached. Upon seeing the crayfish laomo, she looked at it, noticing cucumber strips within. Expressing her disdain, she remarked, “It’s all these wild vegetables.” Then, she picked up a piece of oily leek pancake with golden sides, stating, “She must have used up all the oil.”
During harvest, the farm work was heavy and oil was really needed, so Mother Jiang didn’t say much about oil.
She took out three yuan from her pocket and gave her “to weigh a pound of meat”.
Pork at that time was only two or three yuan a pound.
Like Father Jiang, she finished two laomo and two leek pancakes in a few mouthfuls, and then went to cut the rice with a sickle.
Jiang Ning covered what was not finished with a plate on the porcelain basin and placed it under the shade of a tree. She greeted Father Jiang and the others, and then went to deliver breakfast to her grandfather.
She didn’t stay much at her grandpa’s place, and hurried to the neighboring village to buy meat. If she got there later, only lean meat would be left.
Because it was too hot, Jiang Ning couldn’t help it and went home to get an umbrella. Even though it was just an umbrella, it was better than nothing.
Uncle Jiang, who was not far from the Jiang family’s fields, saw her when he got up to put rice. He also sneered next to Aunt Jiang beside him, “It’s a long way, but Ning Ning still needs an umbrella.” There was a lot of sarcasm in his tone.
Aunt Jiang raised her eyebrows after hearing this, “She is a little girl with so many things to do. Why can’t she have an umbrella? She has to be tanned like you, right?”
Uncle Jiang was scolded by his wife, and he muttered, “Everyone is so busy now, but she isn’t helping her parents with work.”
Aunt Jiang glared at her, saying, “Why did she faint in the fields yesterday when she wasn’t working? You are blind and didn’t notice that she is going to Xu Village to buy meat.” She then shouted loudly, “Ning Ning, Ning Ning!”
When Jiang Ning heard someone calling her, she turned around and looked sideways at the fields beside the road. She saw her aunt running towards her quickly with a smile on her face. “Ning Ning, you are going to Xu Village to buy meat, right?” She took out a few yens and gave it to Jiang Ning, “Bring me a pound too and a piece of tofu.”
She wanted to touch Jiang Ning’s head, but her hands were dirty and she didn’t reach out.
The aunt was a round-faced, short stature, but very kind person. When she was a child, her deepest impression of her was that the food she cooked was delicious. There were all kinds of vegetables in the vegetable patch of her uncle’s family. In childhood, every time she went back to her parents’ home after visiting her aunt’s, she would not eat at home and would always go to her aunt’s house to eat.
She was the most promising person in the family in the eyes of others. Every time she came home, her relatives rushed to invite her to dinner at restaurants.
It was only her auntie who simply asked her to have a home-cooked meal.
The pork available at that time was all large pigs raised by the family, which were fat and strong. Jiang Ning didn’t buy pork belly. She directly bought the fattest and thickest meat according to the needs of Mother Jiang and her aunt, and went to the tofu shop to buy four cubes of tofu.
The tofu at that time cost fifty cents per square. Jiang Ning needed fifty cents less when buying meat.
Tofu was also a high-protein food, so she decided to make braised pork and tofu for them at noon.
When she passed by her uncle’s family’s field she gave the meat and tofu to her uncle’s wife. When she got home, she thought about it, took the fishing net, and went to the pond to fish for loaches.
Battery fishing, a practice that nearly eradicates fish and shrimp, had not yet emerged. There were fish, shrimps, loaches, and eels everywhere in various fields and rivers. In the past, it was her brothers who would catch them. She followed behind to watch, but in fact, it was not difficult to catch loach fish.
She had fishing nets at home, all handmade by her two brothers.
She caught almost two kilograms of small fish and loaches, as well as a lot of crayfish. The loaches still needed to spit out mud, so they could be cooked at night. She grilled the small fish until both sides were golden brown and cooked braised pork and tofu, leaving the remaining next piece of tofu in water.
Various vegetables were ripe in summer, including cowpeas, sword beans, green beans, lentils, edamame, green peppers, tomatoes, gourds, winter melon, amaranth, etc.
She made eggplant the previous day, and this day she cooked winter melon and tiger green pepper.
They were just ordinary ingredients, but she cooked them so well that they were full of color and flavor. Just looking at them made people’s fingers twitch.
The enamel basin from the day before had not been washed yet, and Jiang Ning didn’t care. She found a new ceramic basin in the cupboard to put the rice in. The ceramic bowl and soup bowl were filled with vegetables. She put them in the basket and delivered them to the ridge of the field.
At that time, the rice in this field had been harvested. Father Jiang and Mother Jiang were bundling rice straws, and the others were carrying the bundled rice straws to the rice field.
Even though they had eaten three crayfish laomo and several leek egg pancakes in the morning, they were still hungry at that time. Seeing Jiang Ning bringing food, Father Jiang couldn’t wait to carry a load of rice to the threshing floor and hurriedly washed his hands in the ditch and came to eat.
When he saw that there was no random stew in the basket, but clearly defined braised pork, stewed tofu, stir-fried winter melon, tiger skin green pepper, and stir-fried small fish, the aroma hit his face. Father Jiang couldn’t help but move his index finger and picked up the bowl. He quickly picked up a piece of tofu stewed in gravy and put it in his mouth. He couldn’t help but quickly pick up other dishes and started eating.
It was so delicious that he didn’t even have time to talk.
What a pity, what had he been eating these days?
He was the one who usually cooked at home, but there was nothing he could do during work days, so Mother Jiang and Grandpa Jiang did the cooking. What Mother Jiang and Grandpa Jiang cooked was no different from pig food. In the past two days, he had finally eaten something edible.
One meal the previous night and two this day, they were simply better than the ones in restaurants in town.
Comments for chapter "Chapter 8"
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Adequate2025
No a whisper of praise, but they are happy to eat whatever she cooks. I say STOP feeding them! 😆