Siheyuan: Big City, Small Love

Soon, Old Lady Zhou brought Old Man Xu's family over.

Afterwards, Sha Zhu took Old Lady Zhou and Mr. Xu's wife to the kitchen to prepare the braised bear paw, a royal dish.

The production process of braised bear paw is very complicated and lengthy, and it really tests the chef's skills.

In order to facilitate the subsequent cooking, the chef will blanch the fresh bear paws in hot water and then remove the hair and skin.

The bear paw fur can be easily torn off after being heated.

The steaming process requires great attention. The bear paw needs to be cooked to about 70% done before the skin and hair can be removed. The process of cooking the bear paw is very critical. The heat and time need to be controlled to ensure that the texture of the bear paw becomes tough and easy to process.

After that, the chef needs to carefully scrape off the remaining fur between the nails of the bear paw, and then a fresh, tender and plump bear paw comes into view.

Next, because bear paws have a gamey smell, they need to be mixed with onions, ginger, chicken, duck and other condiments to remove the smell.

After several hours of steaming, the bear paws became plump and chewy, completely different from their initial scary black appearance.

When making bear paws, you need to prepare a lot of auxiliary ingredients, such as chicken, duck, meat, onion, ginger, etc., and cook them together with the bear paws. These auxiliary ingredients can add flavor and also bring out the soup, making the bear paws more delicious.

During this process, the auxiliary ingredients and the bear paw are cooked together. After the flavor is brought out, the auxiliary ingredients will have completed their mission, and what is left is a cooked and tasty bear paw, which lays a solid foundation for subsequent production.

After being cooked for a long time and multiple times, the meat of the bear paw becomes soft and chewy. Then the bear paw needs to be taken out and deboned. After deboning, it needs to be cut into thin slices.

There are requirements for the thickness of the slices; they must be 2 centimeters thick and 5 centimeters wide.

This step is extremely challenging for the chef's knife skills. If the slices are cut too thick or too thin, the final taste will be affected.

The cut bear paws are put into the steamer again and steamed in water. This is done to make the bear paws softer.

After a long period of steaming, the bear paws are finally ready.

After taking it out of the pot, sandwich the delicious mushrooms and bamboo shoots between the bear paw slices, and finally pour the thick broth on it. The palace-style braised bear paw is ready.

Sha Zhu also put in his best effort to deal with it. After all, this was his first time to make braised bear paws. He had seen Master Liao make it at Fengze Garden before, but he had never tried his hand at it.

People in the kitchen were busy making bear paws, while people outside were playing chess and eating fruit.

"Grandpa Zhou, Grandpa Xu, why are you playing Go?"

He Lai asked doubtfully.

"Hey, brat, didn't you say you wanted to play Go last time? I even went to learn a little bit, so you don't know how to play it?"

Mr. Zhou cursed.

"Uh...did I say that? Why don't I remember? I just wanted to play Gobang. Grandpa Zhou, Grandpa Xu, I'm really good at Gobang. You guys definitely can't beat me!"

He Lai boasted!

"You yawning toad, you are so arrogant. Come on, let me see how strong you are. How dare you brag in front of me? Old Zhou, please give way to me. I will teach this brat a lesson!"

Mr. Xu immediately became dissatisfied.

"Okay, then you guys play. I'm too lazy to play Go. It makes me dizzy!"

Mr. Zhou agreed immediately and took Ke'er to watch He Lai and Mr. Xu play Gobang.

He Lai often played Gobang in his previous life. He knew all kinds of formations, such as the Qinglong formation, the T-formation, etc.

Mr. Xu obviously didn't expect He Lai to have so many tricks, and he quickly lost a few games.

"Hehe, Grandpa Xu, are you convinced?" He Lai challenged after winning again.

"You're great, kid! Come again, come again!" Old Master Xu sighed and continued.

But an old hand is an old hand. Mr. Xu quickly found a way to crack the problem. It became increasingly difficult for He Lai to win. Later on, more and more bets were placed and no one could beat anyone.

"Okay, okay, Grandpa Xu, let's take a break, drink some tea, and refresh ourselves." He Lai suggested.

"Okay, you can do it, I didn't expect you could play Gobang so well."

Old Master Xu nodded, took a sip of tea, and continued, "Xiao Laizi, I remember you said you would give me tea last time. Where's the tea?"

"Uh..." He Lai looked at Mr. Zhou. What happened? I remember I gave the tea to Mrs. Zhou.

But after hearing this, Mr. Zhou didn't react at all. He didn't even look at He Lai, and continued to hold Ke'er and teach Ye Jun how to play chess.

When Mr. Xu saw He Lai's actions, he knew that his tea must have been swallowed by Mr. Zhou. No wonder the tea in his family is so good!

"Bring it to me next time and take it to my house, got it!"

Old Master Xu didn't care about anything else and just went to ask He Lai for it.

"Oh, okay." He Lai had no choice but to accept the debt.

More than an hour passed, and it was almost five o'clock. Sha Zhu had already been working for three hours!

"Xiao Laizi, go and see how the pillar is doing. Tell him it's almost done. It's been several hours. We are just rough guys and can't tell the difference."

Mr. Zhou asked with concern.

"Yes, yes, don't get tired, this is good enough, we won't be picky."

Mr. Xu echoed.

“Oh, Grandpa Zhou, Grandpa Xu, don’t worry, my brother Zhuzi is a great chef, and it won’t be a problem for him to cook for a few hours.

When he worked at Fengze Garden, he was busy from noon to night without any rest. It was just a matter of cooking a few dishes.

They are chefs, but they don’t just do it casually. If they do something, they have to do it to the best of their ability.”

He Lai retorted.

"Hey, you can't cook at all, but you know a lot!"

Mr. Zhou was speechless.

"Xiao Laizi is right. Let Zhuzi do it. Yushui, sister-in-law and my husband are all here. They shouldn't be too tired."

Mr. Xu also agreed.

Just as they finished talking, Mr. Xu's son Xu Yang came running over.

"You little rascal, you just run outside all day long! Look at your dirty clothes, have you been fighting again?" Old Master Xu glared at Xu Yang and cursed.

Xu Yang ignored Mr. Xu's scolding and instead started talking to He: "Brother Lai, can you do me a favor?"

"If I don't help you, you guys won't do your job and will just fight every day."

He Lai refused directly, he really looked down on it.

"No, Brother Lai, this time is different. There are a few street urchins who want to pick a fight, and we don't have enough manpower! We need your help."

Xu Yang said.

"Fuck you, you don't do your job all day, believe it or not, I'll beat you with a belt!"

Mr. Xu immediately wanted to untie his belt and beat Xu Yang.

"Grandpa Xu, I think we should send Xu Yang to the army. If he continues to mess around, he will really become a troublemaker in this city."

He Lai said with a smile.

"That's right. I originally wanted him to finish high school, but now I think it's better for him to join the army so he doesn't cause trouble for me!"

Old Master Xu sighed and said that he was reluctant to let his son go in his old age, but now that he thought about it, it would be better for him to join the army.

"I'm not going to join the army. Humph, I'll go find my mother." Seeing that Old Man Xu wanted him to join the army, Xu Yang immediately sought his mother's protection.

"Haha, Old Xu, why does your son seem half useless? Look at how well behaved Ke'er and Xiaojun are!"

Mr. Zhou said with a smile.

"And me, and me." He Lai immediately raised his hand and said.

"Forget about it, you're too naughty, and you don't even have the character of a good boy."

Mr. Zhou looked at He Lai with disdain and said.