Chapter 72 Food is becoming increasingly tight
Lin Jiageng and Lin Zhenzhen are on summer vacation. Before Lin Sanqi officially went to work, he became a "temporary nursery school teacher."
The teacher has to wait until half a month later when he starts working and Lin's mother retires, then the roles of the two will be reversed.
Early in the morning, when everyone else in the family went to work, Teacher Lin took his nephew and niece to have breakfast.
It was still the Red Star Hotel at the entrance of the alley, and it was still the same Chef Zhao, who waved when he saw Lin Sanqi coming from a distance:
"Comrade, are you here for breakfast again?"
Lin Sanqi pointed at the two little guys: "Master Zhao, good morning, noisy. The two kids wanted to come out to eat, so I had to bring them over."
"What do you want to eat? Just order it, haha."
After Master Zhao said hello, he said softly:
"Eat quickly, our hotel won't provide breakfast soon, and you won't be able to eat even if you want to."
Lin Sanqi was a little strange and asked in a low voice:
"Why? Your restaurant is the only one in the alleys around here. If you close it, where will we go to eat?"
Master Zhao sighed heavily:
"There's nothing we can do. Look at the weather. It didn't rain at all from last year to this year. I heard that the Guanting Reservoir is about to dry up. How can we grow crops without water? If the harvest is not good this year, it seems like there will be trouble. A big disaster.
No, we have received an internal notice that all small restaurants like ours will be closed down. Little brother, if your family has connections, you can stock up on more food now. It seems that the situation will not get better in the next few years. ”
Lin Sanqi is a time traveler, so he naturally knows the destructive power of "three years".
But Lin Sanqi didn't expect that a chef in a small restaurant at the entrance of an alley could infer the future food supply situation through a few trivial things. It has to be said that there are experts among the people.
Lin Sanqi's mouth was a little bitter, thinking that the four and nine cities were like this, how did the people in other areas live their lives...
Lin Sanqi was still worried about the country and the people, so the two children quit and started arguing:
"Uncle, I want to eat big buns~~~"
"Uncle, I want to eat sesame cakes~~~"
"Okay, okay, this is the order, but we agreed to eat as much as we can, don't waste it, okay? Also, Master Zhao, give me three bowls of tofu puffs, don't add any seasonings."
Master Zhao was surprised when he heard it:
"Hey, you just eat tofu without seasoning? It's so tasteless. Listen to me, at least get some soy sauce."
Lin Sanqi waved her hand: "We southerners don't eat salty tofu. Look, I brought my own sugar. I'll just add it in later."
When the waitresses nearby heard Lin Sanqi's words, they frowned in disgust:
"Whose unlucky child is this? This sugar is so precious, why do you use it to add tofu?"
"That's right, how nice it would be to exchange this sugar for me. I really don't know how expensive firewood and rice are when I'm not a rich man!"
"If it were my son, I would make it so that even his grandma wouldn't recognize him."
Master Zhao waved his hand: "Okay, okay, I guess he is some big boy from the courtyard. He was the one who changed the brown sugar last time. It shows that he is not short of candy, how is he like us."
A few people were murmuring there, but Lin Sanqi, uncle and nephew were enjoying their meal quite happily.
Flatbread, deep-fried dough sticks and tofu curd were considered top-notch breakfast options in 1959, but the good days were clearly over.
When they were almost done eating, Lin Sanqi stood up and went to pay the bill. He was supposed to give the money first and then eat, but who said that Lin Sanqi was a "big courtyard boy" and had face.
"Master Zhao, how much is it?" "One pound and two taels of food stamps, and another 40 cents."
"Okay, thank you, see you later."
Coming out of the restaurant, the two children were burping happily, while Lin Sanqi was a little worried. Why? His food stamps are getting less and less.
I used to have 5 kilograms of food stamps and after two breakfasts, now I only have more than 2 kilograms left.
With Lin Sanqi's extravagant spending skills, the food stamps obviously wouldn't last long. If he went to a big hotel, he would probably lose his money in one meal.
But where to get food stamps is a headache.
Lin Sanqi has already observed on the black market, and there are not many people who actually use food stamps and meat stamps to trade. Eating is the most important thing now.
On the contrary, there were quite a lot of bicycle tickets, watch tickets, and radio tickets, but they were not willing to change the money. They only agreed to change them for food stamps or grain, mainly just for a bite to eat.
Lin Sanqi is not short of food. The food in the time and space gate is enough for his whole village to hold a banquet.
He was greedy because he knew from watching documentaries that 1959 was the last glorious era of traditional catering, because at that time there was still public-private partnership, and the skills of those masters had not been lost.
In fact, traditional catering is the same as traditional Chinese medicine, and its inheritance is divided into generations.
Traditional cooking is very particular about being led by a master. As a little chef, you learn by yourself from books. How many skills can you learn?
For example, a little salt, how much is a little salt?
Another example is frying until 7 minutes done. What does 7 minutes mean?
These true skills that can only be understood but cannot be expressed in words are the experience gained by masters over decades of enlightenment. They cannot be learned by reading books for a few days.
So Lin Sanqi planned to seize the time and quickly go to eat, such as Lao BJ's famous Eight Buildings, Eight Halls, Eight Halls and Eight Great Zhais.
The "eight major halls" are: Huifeng Hall, Juxian Hall, Fushou Hall, Yunfu Hall, Huixian Hall, Fuqing Hall, Qinghe Hall, and Tonghe Hall.
The "eight buildings" are: Dongxing Building, Zhengyang Building, Hongxing Building, Taifeng Building, Zhimei Building, Xinfeng Building, Anfu Building and Chunhua Building.
The "eight major residences" are: Shaguo Ju, Tianxing Ju, Dinghe Ju, Guanghe Ju, Yisheng Ju, Tonghe Ju, Tiantian Ju and Huixian Ju.
The "eight major springs" are: Shanglin Spring, Luming Spring, Qinglin Spring, Huaiyang Spring, Xinlu Spring, Dalu Spring, Tongchun Garden, and Chun Garden.
It is a pity that so many time-honored traditional restaurants have disappeared in the long river of history.
Take the Eighth Building for example. In 2023, only Dongxing Building, Taifeng Building and Zhimei Building will be left.
Others, such as Hongxing Tower, famous for its dumplings, Zhengyang Tower, which was as famous as Dong Laishun for its mutton-boiled mutton, and Chunhua Tower, the only Jiangsu and Zhejiang restaurant among the eight buildings, have all disappeared.
Don't wait until you lose it to appreciate it. You must eat it all now when you have the opportunity.
Just when Lin Sanqi was thinking about how to get food stamps, the two children started waving their hands again:
"Uncle, look there is a soda shop over there..."
Lin Sanqi took a closer look and saw a row of sodas at the door of the street supply and marketing cooperative. The orange color was particularly eye-catching. It was Arctic soda, a luxury snack of this era.
Lin Sanqi didn’t take it seriously, “Would you like a soda?”
The two children nodded repeatedly: "I think~~~"
"If you want to drink away, my uncle will buy it for you. If you don't drink it, you probably won't be able to drink it. What a thief."
(End of chapter)