Siheyuan: Big City, Small Love

"He Yuzhu, wait for me, I'll go learn how to do it."

When Xu Damao saw Sha Zhu going to cook, he hurriedly followed him.

He Lai was stunned for a moment, but soon felt relieved. Xu Damao was a good cook in his previous life, but Lou Xiao'e couldn't cook, so he was the one who cooked. It was normal for her to want to learn some cooking skills now.

He Lai looked at the remaining Yu Shui and Chun Er, who were playing with the little ones, and also went into the kitchen.

Seeing Sha Zhu and Xu Damao arguing, Sha Zhu insisted that Xu Damao call him master, otherwise he would not teach him. Xu Damao of course refused to call him master, and said that he would just watch from the side to see if He Yuzhu dared not to do it.

"Brother Zhuzi, Brother Damao, that's enough. How about I make you something delicious?"

He Lai stopped the two from arguing with a smile.

"Xiao Laizi, your salad of bean sprouts or mushrooms, forget it. Let's eat it in the summer."

Sha Zhu laughed, he knew He Lai was not very good at cooking.

"Brother Damao, I will teach you. I guarantee that this will taste good!" He Lai became unhappy when he saw Sha Zhu mocking him, and said directly to Xu Damao.

"Okay, Xiao Laizi, you go ahead and let Brother Damao help you."

Xu Damao smiled. Helai had many new dishes, and any one of them would be delicious.

He Lai took out two pounds of flour from the flour jar and said to Brother Damao.

"Brother Damao, I'll leave it to you. Knead it into dough and let it rest for another twenty minutes."

"Uh, Xiao Laizi, are you going to make steamed buns? I'll go get some old dough. But you still have steamed buns!"

Xu Damao was a little confused, afraid that He Lai had remembered it wrong.

"No, no, just do as you are told."

"Ok."

Seeing that He Lai looked confident, Xu Damao started working without asking any questions.

"Tsk, this flour can be kneaded into a ball, except for steamed buns or noodles, what else can it be made into!"

Sha Zhu then prepared his wild boar and goose meat.

Xu Damao finished kneading the dough quickly, put it aside, covered it and started it to rise.

"Let's go, come back in twenty minutes." He Lai called Xu Damao, leaving Sha Zhu alone to cook.

After He Lai came out, he went back to his room, wrote a prescription and put it in his pocket.

During this time, Sha Zhu had already prepared the dish and also brought over two steamed buns.

While He Lai was eating, Sha Zhu kept testing He Lai, wanting to know what He Lai wanted to do.

He Lai couldn't persuade him, and finally gave the recipe to Sha Zhu.

"Liangpi, Xiaolaizi, how come you can make this? Usually only some old masters can make it!"

When Shazhu saw that it was the recipe for cold noodles, he was also shocked.

"Hey, I got this by chance. How is it? It's a delicacy, right?"

He Lai said with a smile.

"Not bad, not bad, this thing is good. I have always wanted to know how this cold noodle is made. I asked the craftsmen, but they kept it secret and were unwilling to tell me."

"He Yuzhu, are you stupid? You definitely don't want to tell me. This is their livelihood. If I tell you, they will not be able to do business anymore."

Xu Damao interrupted.

"We in the city basically eat fried dough sticks with soybean juice, noodles with soybean paste, braised donkey meat and the like. This cold noodle dish is from Shaanxi and is quite rare, but it tastes pretty good, so I brought it out for you to try making."

He Lai explained.

"But after waking up twice, it takes more than four hours to settle down. Isn't that too long? It's already eleven o'clock."

Sha Zhu looked at the recipe and said.

"Then just make it tomorrow morning. There's no rush to eat it!"

"I can do it. My wife needs to breastfeed at night, so I can get up and make a midnight snack."

When Xu Damao thought about this, he could just cook it for Qin Yuru in the evening, and he immediately became happy.

"Okay, I'll leave it overnight and cook it tomorrow morning."

"Brother Zhuzi, please send us two bowls tomorrow morning." He Lai reminded.

"No problem, leave it to me." Sha Zhu said with a smile.

"Brother Zhuzi, you can promote this method in the steel mill. After all, one pound of flour can produce four or five pounds of cold noodles, which is much more cost-effective than steamed buns. One pound of flour can only make about one and a half pounds of steamed buns.

But the cold noodles may need a certain amount of oil, chili peppers, and some ingredients, which is very similar to our noodles with soybean paste, but the cold noodles don’t need vegetables, maybe the workers will like it.”

He Lai gave Sha Zhu some advice, maybe he could get promoted because of it.

"Is that so? I think it's okay. I'll ask Director Li to recommend it to me when the time comes."

"He Yuzhu, let's do it together. I'll say it from the side. If you do it, we will definitely be able to make further progress."

Xu Damao thought that if this idea was adopted by the steel mill, he would be able to move up a level!

"Okay, your mouth is the only thing you can use."

"Hey, He Yuzhu, aren't you just a little stronger? You're showing off..."

"Stop!" He Lai interrupted the two of them with a long tone. He didn't want to listen to them quarreling anymore.

"Okay, it's almost done. Brother Zhuzi, Brother Damao, go back and finish it. We are going to sleep."

When Sha Zhu and the other man heard He Lai say this, they stopped bickering. Sha Zhu took his children back to make cold noodles, and Xu Damao also left with the fermented dough.

Why did He Lai feel like he was short of a pound of flour? He shook his head, said something to Yu Shui, and went to take a shower.

……

Sure enough, the next day, Sha Zhu and Xu Damao prepared a cold noodle set meal for Li Huaide in the morning.

Liangpi is something that takes a little time to make and doesn’t require much operation.

When Li Huaide heard that one pound of flour could produce four or five pounds of cold noodles, he agreed to let Sha Zhu give it a try and see the workers' reactions.

"He Yuzhu, do your best. I'll arrange for some people to come over at noon to try this cold noodle."

"Okay, but Director Li, it might be a little late. It takes more than four hours for the cold noodles to settle."

"Oh, it's half past eight now, so you can come over at two o'clock in the afternoon, right?"

Li Huaide looked at his watch and spoke out.

"No problem." Sha Zhu promised.

In the afternoon, Li Huaide led a group of leaders to eat the cold noodles. After they finished eating, they all said that the cold noodles tasted good.

"He Yuzhu, can this be made with corn flour?" Li Huaide suddenly asked.

“Uh…this…this…” He Yuzhu couldn’t answer for a moment.

"You go back and try it. I'm leaving now. Let's start making some cold noodles at noon tomorrow to give the workers more choices."

"Okay, I see."

Sha Zhu watched Li Huaide leave and went to He Lai.

"Xiao Laizi, can that cornmeal be used to make cold noodles?"

"Corn noodles? That should be OK. Go back and try it."

He Lai thought that cornmeal was the same as corn flour, but the corn flour of that era was ground manually, not finely enough, and mixed with corn cobs, but it could still be made into cold noodles.

"Okay, with your words, I will do it with confidence."

When Sha Zhu heard He say it was okay, he immediately went to prepare to do it.

He Lai just remembered that he could make a corn grinder in this era. After all, this thing is not difficult to make.

In fact, cornmeal in later generations is still quite delicious. This coarse grain is very popular. After all, the nutritional content of cornmeal is much higher than that of flour. Cornmeal in later generations is not mixed with corn cobs, and can be ground very finely.

He Lai quickly took action, relying on his memories of later life and his current knowledge of mechanics to slowly conceive the idea.