The prosperous era of courtyard houses

Chapter 11, shopping for groceries

I walked out of the door and walked to the bus stop. It took about ten minutes to take the bus to the Dongdan Vegetable Market.

Dongdan Vegetable Market is not small in scale and is one of the four major vegetable markets in the imperial capital. It has a complete range of vegetables, fish, and dry goods, but Li Weiguo doesn't really need them. He has vegetables himself, so he only needs to buy a chicken and some meat.

But after shopping for a long time, Li Weiguo realized that he was hasty.

This chicken is not so easy to buy.

Chickens, ducks and geese are only served once a year during major festivals (Spring Festival, National Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, etc.).

According to the household registration, they are divided into "large households" and "small households". Depending on the population, the amount of supply is different.

At that time, you have to go to the vegetable market at three o'clock in the morning and start queuing up. Some people use vegetable baskets, bricks, and benches to occupy seats.

By that time, the entire vegetable market was crowded and noisy.

If you want to buy chickens, ducks and geese, you have to wait in line for 6-8 hours, which is not easy.

If you want to buy chickens, ducks and geese in the wet market on weekdays, forget it.

Get up early in the morning and go to the pigeon market to try your luck to buy one.

If you can't buy chicken, then buy meat. Fortunately, you still have 5 taels of meat tickets in your pocket.

At this time, the meat kiosk has not yet started construction, but hundreds of people lined up one by one and waited patiently.

This was the first time for Li Weiguo to experience this kind of scene, and he followed the queue with great interest.

It wasn't until eight or nine o'clock, when the sun was rising, that the pork man slowly came out and began to place various pieces of meat and tools for chopping and selling meat.

First, cut off the good pieces of meat ordered by the relevant departments of the government agencies.

Secondly, part of the pork liver and ribs are reserved for hospitals and kindergartens, and then the backdoor meat of each person's relationship is cut.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, after a while, there were not many good pieces of meat left in his heart.

After the pork guy cut the backdoor meat, he started selling it to the people.

From the 1950s to the early 1980s, there was a general lack of oil and water, so fat meat was more popular than lean meat.

If you know the butcher and ask him to "tilt" when operating the knife, it will definitely be a great honor and worth showing off for five minutes.

The queue to buy meat kept shortening, and some people bought more fat meat. They were happy for a long time and kept thanking the pork guy.

Some people have more lean meat, so they can only admit that they are unlucky and whisper a few words secretly, but they dare not complain to the pork guy in person.

The people at the back stretched their necks and kept looking ahead, trying to see how much meat had been sold.

After waiting in line for almost two hours, it was Li Weiguo's turn.

At this time, the fat meat and pork suet on the meat stall were gone, leaving only lean and slightly fat pieces of meat, pig offal and pork bones, and there were still some ribs left.

You don't have to choose, it all depends on how you handle it.

"Master, please help me cut 5 taels of meat. How can I sell these big bones and ribs?" Li Weiguo looked at the meat stall and pointed at a pile of bones and asked.

"5 taels of meat, 5 cents, the meat ticket is 5 taels. Bones and ribs are cents a pound, no vote." The pork guy said while cutting the meat.

Li Weiguo: "Okay, master, please help me with ten pounds of large bones and ten pounds of pork ribs."

As he spoke, he took out ten yuan and thirty-five cents and five taels of meat coupons from his pocket and handed them over.

The pork guy was startled, looked up at Li Weiguo, but didn't say anything.

After collecting the money, he quickly cut into 5 taels of pork with alternating fat and thin, and skewered it with bamboo skewers.

At the same time, 10 kilograms of large bones were weighed, tied with ropes, and 10 kilograms of ribs were chopped, wrapped in oil paper, and put all into Li Weiguo's vegetable basket.

After buying the meat, I went to the vegetable market. I saw fish for sale at a fish stall and wanted to buy one. But after thinking about it, I gave up. Cooking fish takes too much oil. I don’t have a few taels of oil left at home. This fish can’t be cooked well. , let’s talk about it later.

After another ten minutes of bus ride, we returned to Nanluogu Lane.

When passing by a grocery store, I bought two bottles of Red Star.

When I walked to a deserted place, with a thought, I put 5 kilograms of pork bones and 5 kilograms of ribs in the vegetable basket.

At the same time, another ten kilograms of vegetables were put out, including white radish, cabbage, green peppers, lettuce, beans, etc., and some onions, ginger, and garlic were also taken out.

Cover the pork and bones with green vegetables and then slowly walk home.

As soon as I entered the front yard, I saw the third uncle taking care of the green onions planted at his door.

When the third uncle saw Li Weiguo coming back with a basket of vegetables, he immediately came over and said, "Oh, Weiguo, how can you buy so many vegetables? These radish and cabbage look so fresh."

He touched the white radish in the vegetable basket and said with a smile: "Weiguo, it's troublesome for you to cook by yourself. Why don't you team up with the third uncle? I'll leave it to your third aunt to do the cooking from now on. Just sit down." Just wait and eat, how about that?"

He is worthy of being the iron abacus Yan Laoxi. He can make you lose three ounces of oil just by walking through his door.

However, although the third uncle was stingy and calculating, Li Weiguo still admired him.

A primary school teacher's monthly salary is only 42 yuan, which supports a family of six.

It is said that the younger ones will eat me to death. They have three sons and one daughter. The eldest, Yan Jiecheng, is two years younger than Li Weiguo and is still in high school. The youngest, Yan Jiedi, is about the same age as Banggeng and is only 6 years old.

The four boys and girls were growing up, and it was also an era when there was a lack of oil and water. They were really better off than the other. They supported the whole family with just their own wages. They survived three years of famine and helped all the way to the country. Having a family and a career is a big deal.

In the original drama, you can see the character of the third uncle by picking up garbage to earn money to subsidize the fool.

Although he is stingy, calculating, and has some minor flaws, his integrity has not been lost. Li Weiguo still admires the third uncle very much.

Thinking of this, Li Weiguo smiled and said: "Third uncle, didn't I join the steel rolling mill? I made an appointment with Shazhu to celebrate together. I will cook and he will cook."

After a pause, he then said, "How about you have two drinks together later?"

As soon as he heard this, the third uncle became excited: "Okay, okay, I have a bottle of Xifeng. I'll bring it over later, and we can have two drinks together."

"That's not necessary. I've bought some good wine now. Just come." Li Weiguo shook his head and pointed at the Red Star Erguotou in the vegetable basket.

Just kidding, is Third Uncle’s wine so delicious? He is a stingy person who mixes wine with water, so he doesn't dare to drink his wine.

You don't have to pay anything, and you can get a free whoring. The third uncle will be so happy: "Okay, I'll come back to you later."

After dealing with the third uncle, Li Weiguo went straight to Shazhu's house in the middle courtyard.

The Silly Pillar House happened to be open, so I walked in through the door.

At this time, the Shazhu brothers and sisters were all in the house, and Yuyu was helping to clean the house.

Li Weiguo: "Brother Zhu, I've bought the vegetables, and I'll leave the rest to you. Oh, the rain is here too, let's have lunch together later."

"Okay, let me see what's there first." He Yuzhu answered as he took the vegetable basket.

15-year-old He Yuyu is in the third grade of junior high school, and Xiao He has just revealed his sharp horns, but he is quite tall, meters tall.

When He Yuyu saw Li Weiguo coming in carrying something, he playfully called Brother Wei Guo and stretched his neck to look at the items in the vegetable basket curiously.

"Hey, Weiguo, you're having a hard time buying so many bones and vegetables."

"I have no choice. I went out too late, and the pigeon market was closed. I didn't buy any chicken. I didn't have many meat tickets, so I only bought 5 taels of meat. I had to buy some big bones and pork ribs. The vegetables were just for quantity. , just watch and do it." Li Weiguo said helplessly.

"Okay, no problem, whatever you have to do, just look after you."

After saying that, Shazhu took the vegetable basket and placed it on the chopping board next to him, rolled up his sleeves and started to prepare.

Although Shazhu people are slovenly, the kitchen in the house is clean and tidy, with all kinds of utensils and seasonings available.

"Oh, by the way, I bought some white flour and brought the rainwater to help make steamed buns. This will save everyone having to bring their own rations for dinner later." Li Weiguo thought of this and got up and went back to the house to get food.

These days, everyone's rations are rationed. Adults generally only get about thirty kilograms per month. If there is any difference, it will be increased or decreased depending on the severity of the specific work.

Therefore, most people will not easily use rations to treat others to a meal. Even if they do, the host will prepare the dishes and the guests will bring their own rations.

After all, each person only has so much food, and if you eat someone else’s food, it will be gone.

When I got home, I took out a used flour bag and put 4 kilograms of white flour out of the space. I estimated that I could make thirty or forty steamed buns, so I took the bag back to Shazhu's house.

He handed the bag to Yuyu: "Here, Yuyu, I leave it to you."

He Yuyu took the bag and nodded with a smile: "Okay, brother Wei Guo, just sit down and I'll do the rest."

Rain exclaimed as soon as he opened the bag.

"Wow, Brother Weiguo, this is too extravagant. You actually use Fuqiang powder." He Yuyu looked like he wanted to do it but was reluctant to do so.

Li Weiguo: "It's okay, let's make them into steamed buns. I'll just have some extravagance today, and I'll still eat glutinous rice in the future."

"Okay, Brother Wei Guo, you have to live more frugally in the future."

After that, Yu Yu started adding water to knead the noodles.

To be honest, it is not easy to write a chronology. You need to check a lot of information and distinguish between true and false. If there are any common sense mistakes, please correct them in time. Fanshu will definitely learn from it.

In addition, because it was written at the beginning of 59, it is difficult to write clearly about many subsequent things. I was worried about being harmonized, so I had to briefly mention it. Please forgive me.

Finally, I would also like to ask you all to give me some recommendation votes. I don’t insist on monthly votes, just give me some support, hehe.