The lonely foodie

Mo Bai opened the paint he brought from Du Yang, found a small porcelain plate from the kitchen, moistened the tip of the pen with water, scooped out a little paint and spread it, and the thick ink color emerged.

Mo Bai has been learning Chinese painting since he was a child, and at this moment he roughly planned the layout in his mind, and then he picked up the pen and dropped it.

The big pen swung out of the courtyard of the deep house, the creek in front of the door, and the bamboo forest behind the house.

A small pen carefully outlines the character "Fu" on the wall, gourds, round fans, swords, lotus...

It is the mansion of the Qu family in the previous life.

The gate of the courtyard was wide open, and sitting on the threshold was a man wearing a coat and long trousers, he was too small to draw a face, Mo Bai knew in his heart that that man was Long Qi.

The painting is not three-dimensional, and the scenes in the courtyard wall cannot be drawn on the wall. Mo Bai draws it in his heart. His parents are still alive, his father is drinking tea in the main room, and his mother is making a small dress in the courtyard.

Xiaoyishang is the child of his younger brother Mo Yin. Mo Yin is married, and his sister-in-law is Miss Zhong, who sings big drum books in the tea garden. Mo Yin has always admired her, and the child she gave birth to is a daughter named Xiao Niuzi...

Ivan moved a small chair and sat at the door, blowing the cool lake breeze, looking at the ink and white paintings, the white walls and black paintings, and the smoke and fire in his eyes, he felt at ease and warm in his heart.

"Boss Qu still has this trick?" Someone behind him sighed.

Mo Bai turned his head and saw that it was Liu Ji Xiaochao's chef Da Niu.

Daniel shook the empty plate in his hand, "I'll return the plate, this chicken is really good, our two kids want to lick the bottom of the bowl clean."

Ivan got up to take the plate, and when he heard that the child had licked it, he wanted to throw the plate directly into the lake.

"It's been cleaned." Daniel said with a smile.

Mo Bai glanced at him, "I'm afraid of such a little thing, how will I open a store in the future?"

Ivan: "It's not my turn to wash the dishes when I open a shop, right? I'm the boss, the shopkeeper."

Mo Bai smiled without saying a word.

Daniel returned the plate without rushing away, sat down at the elm table, and asked Mo Bai with a smile, "If it's convenient, I'd like to ask Boss Qu how the chicken is cooked, the two children at home really like it, and the little one really likes it." Children don’t usually like to eat meat, so they want to cook it by themselves to supplement their nutrition.”

Lao Niu continued, "I assure Mr. Qu that learning this steamed chicken recipe will never be used for profit. It is really just for children."

Mo Bai couldn't change his habit of wearing a long gown, so he put down the brush, rolled it over his wrist, and made another movement of lifting the gown, before sitting down opposite the old cow.

Ivan has long been accustomed to his inexplicable movements of unknown origin, but Lao Niu was taken aback, thinking that he was performing a meeting ceremony somewhere, so he stood up, bowed and bowed for a while.

After sitting down, Mo Bai raised his hand to take the account book on the table, opened it from the back, and wrote in the book with the small brush that he just drew.

Three yellow chickens weighing one catty, gutted and washed, head and tail removed.

Add a pinch of salt and massage the chicken.

Marinate for half an hour, add sesame oil and white pepper, and massage the chicken body.

Marinate for half an hour, add light soy sauce and fermented rice, massage the chicken body, and marinate for two hours to taste.

Ivan came out after placing the porcelain plate, stood behind Mo Bai and watched, and laughed out loud when he saw this, "Three rounds of horse killing chicken."

Daniel followed suit and laughed.

Mo Bai didn't understand what horse killing chickens meant, so he wrote the word "electricity" on the paper, and then he seemed to forget what he said later, and turned his head to stare at Ivan.

"Rice cooker." Ivan said.

Mo Bai nodded, and continued writing:

Put ginger, green onion and peppercorns at the bottom of the rice cooker, put the marinated three-yellow chicken into the pot, simmer for half an hour, turn it over, and simmer for another half an hour.

Out of the pot, the dish is ready.

Mo Bai stopped writing, and waited for the ink to dry before tearing off the paper, folding it, and handing it to Daniel.

Daniu hurriedly took it with both hands, thanking him non-stop.

"It's okay." Mo Bai said, "If you want, you can add it to Liu Ji Xiaochao's menu. If someone likes it, I'm also very happy."

"This..." Da Liu was naturally willing in his heart, but he always felt that doing so was a bit too unethical.

"It's okay." Ivan also smiled and said to him, "We don't sell this chicken either, you can do it if you want, as a gift."

"This ceremony is too heavy." Daniel thanked again, and left with the menu.

There are still some details to be collected on the wall painting. After Daniel left, Mo Bai turned around and continued painting.

Ivan’s irritability when he met Yifei in the afternoon is gone, and his heart is quite calm. Watching Mobai cook, draw, and write, his heart is very peaceful. In the words of today’s young literary and artistic youths, it is "healing" and very healing.

There was a very hypocritical woman who told Ivan before that life would not continue to be bad, and would bounce back after hitting the bottom. It really wasn't a lie.

Mo Bai is...his trampoline?

I bought two chickens yesterday, one was steamed chicken, and the other was slowly boiled in a casserole with water, salt, star anise, a small piece of ginger and two green onions.

Before leaving the store at night, Mo Bai strained out the chicken soup, put it in a soup basin, covered it with a sealed lid, and put it in the freezer of the refrigerator.

After closing the refrigerator door, I praised the refrigerator again from the inside to the outside.

Standing at the door, Ivan just thought it was funny that Mo Bai, who is so mature and stable, has a special liking for electrical appliances.

It's not the refrigerator, it's the computer, the rice cooker, the electric steamer, the electric baking pan, and even the electric plugboard.

The electrical appliances at home are almost proud of him.

When I went back to the store the next morning, the chicken broth that had been put in the refrigerator last night had congealed into a beautiful jelly.

Peel the pork belly and chop it into meat fillings, add eggs, ginger paste, oyster sauce, white pepper, light soy sauce, sesame oil and a little sugar and mix thoroughly.

Put on the gloves, stir the minced meat vigorously in one direction, and add the chopped chicken jelly.

Roll the dough into the size of a small dish. The skin is very thin and translucent. Add the reconciled meat filling and pinch out 8 beautiful pleats. The soup dumpling is then shaped.

As soon as the buns were steamed, Du Yang and He Guang walked in. They were looking at Mo Bai's paintings and picked up brushes by the way. Unexpectedly, they happened to catch up with a delicious breakfast.

Du Yang asked Mo Bai where he learned painting.

Mo Bai smiled and didn't say a word. He learned it from his master in a private school more than 100 years ago, so I'm afraid to scare you if I say it.

Ivan got up a little later and arrived at the store at 9 o'clock. When he saw the small steamer that was empty in front of He Guang's table, he knew that Mobai had made steamed buns, and he was so regretful that he didn't know what to do.

He Guang belched contentedly, and gave Mobai a thumbs up, "It's delicious."

Du Yang is from Cantonese, and he is not used to the heavy oil and spicy food here. After eating the steamed stuffed buns, he was in a good mood, and even talked more.

"Is there any more buns?" Ivan asked unwillingly.

"Oh." He Guang suddenly remembered, "I think there are only two drawers in the cage. Brother Mobai probably made it for the two of you to eat, and we ate them all."

Ivan is so disappointed, there is a kind of resentment that you agreed to walk the world together with swords, but you gave up because you were too fat.

After He Guang and the others left, Mo Bai brought out a plate of soup buns from the back kitchen. The crystal clear little buns were lying on the lard porcelain plate, so cute that Ivan could see the dangling soup inside. juice.

"Isn't it gone?" Ivan exclaimed in surprise.

"Shh!" Mobai put his index finger on his mouth to signal silence, "I'll give it to you quietly, or you will really be eaten up by those two buckets."

"Nice job!" Ivan gave a thumbs up proudly.

"Eat slowly, the soup is hot."

"Hmm." Ivan nodded with his bun in his mouth, "Why are we going today?"

"Vegetable market." Mo Bai said, "Choose ingredients."

Ivan likes the vegetable market, and he often went shopping with Ivan Gang when he was a child.Looking at the lively chickens and ducks, the fish and shrimps trying to jump out of the pool, the green cucumbers, and the red peppers, the bustling and crowded, I feel very at ease.

When I was young, I didn't know why I liked the vegetable market.

When I was in middle school, I read the swordsman Tie Chuanjia in Gulong's book. When I was desperate, I stumbled into a vegetable market by mistake.

The book reads like this:

A woman with a child in her arms, an old woman with a cane, a greasy cook, all kinds of people crowded around him with vegetable baskets, and the village woman who sold vegetables and the butcher who sold butcher The face is red when fighting for a penny.Bright and vivid, his mood suddenly became clear.

Ivan suddenly understands this state of mind. His life is full of despair. The deformed family structure, the early death of his mother, and Yi Fei's dislike all make him feel desperate, and it is precisely the fireworks in the vegetable market that make him sprout some thoughts. Good feelings about life come.

When they arrived at the vegetable market, the two went straight to the seasoning area. Ivan knew the seasoning of the hot pot base, and Mo Bai stood aside with his hands down, letting him pick and bargain with the boss. He really had the air of a small shopkeeper.

When picking pepper, Mo Bai held Ivan and pointed to the other one next to him.

"Prickly prickly ash seeds should be heavy and plump. After boiling, the bottom material will sink to the bottom of the pot instead of floating on the pot surface, so that it will not affect diners' consumption."

Seeing that Ivan didn't seem to understand, Mo Bai explained with a smile.

"Hey! That's the kind you want, right?" The boss immediately pulled out the plastic bag and began to pack the peppercorns.

Standing in the shop was a young girl in a trench coat with short hair, a Burberry trench coat paired with a pair of skinny jeans, and a classic LV model in her hand. She didn't look like she would appear in a vegetable market.

Hearing what Mo Bai said just now, he glanced at them.

After buying the seasoning, I strolled to the stall selling fresh food, and the short-haired girl followed me not far or near.

Beef tripe is the most classic ingredient in Chongqing hot pot.

Chongqing hot pot originated in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, when the boatmen and trackers on the banks of the Jialing River and Chaotianmen Wharf put the ingredients such as hairy tripe and yellow throat into salty and spicy marinade and cooked them. It is called Maodu hot pot.

Ivan saw the hair belly of a stall was crystal clear, and thought it was beautiful, so he went up and poked it with his hand.

Mo Bai pulled him back, "The whitish and shiny hair belly is artificially processed, and the normal hair belly is not this color."

"When choosing a hair belly, you have to look at it, smell it twice, and pull it three times." Mo Bai continued, "A good hair belly has a natural color and no pungent smell. It will be elastic when you gently pull it with your hands, not just a little bit. Pull and break."

Ivan nodded, remembering what Mo Bai said in his heart.After walking around for a while, I forgot again, what happened when I saw it, heard it, and heard it?

Sure enough, a good memory is not as good as a bad pen. No wonder Mo Bai always carries a small notebook with him, and jots down everything he thinks of in it.

Ivan secretly made up his mind, I also... buy a recording pen.It's not that I don't want to write, the key is that the words are ugly.

Heping Hot Pot will open tomorrow. According to the plan, tonight is the first pot of hot pot for the neighbors to come and taste.

There are still many things to prepare in the afternoon. After buying the ingredients, the two of them stood on the side of the road with their hands full and took a taxi.

A taxi labeled "Empty" drove over, and the short-haired girl quickly chased after them and stopped them.