Chapter 518 (1/2)

The matter of Boss Tong leaving still had some influence on Yuan Zhou. For example, he preferred making sculptures of a family of three more when he sculpted now.

However, those were all cute mascots or animals that seem all charmingly innocent. As a result, Yuan Zhou’s restaurant was more welcomed by the kids.

“Mom, look! The small rabbit sculpted by this uncle today is so lovable.” A boy who had just received the sculpture raised the radishes in his hand and said happily.

“Did you say thank you to the uncle?” The young mother patted the head of her son gently and asked smilingly.

“Thank you, uncle.” The boy rolled his eyes and then immediately turned his head and thanked Yuan Zhou loudly.

“Don’t mention it.” Yuan Zhou felt a slight headache.

“I’m still young, you little brat.” Yuan Zhou sighed in the heart.

“Uncle, is this a bird?” A little girl with a pigtail pointed at a sculpture of A Young Swallow Returning To Its Nest on the shelf and asked.

“Yes.” Yuan Zhou nodded. Then he took it down and handed it to her.

“Elder brother.” Yuan Zhou suddenly said.

“Um?” The little girl tilted her head and looked at Yuan Zhou with a puzzled expression.

“Never mind. Here you are.” Yuan Zhou withdrew the words “elder brother” that were at the tip of his tongue secretly and then said.

“Thank you, uncle.” The little girl received the translucent radish sculpture and ran away happily.

In just a while, the sculptures on the shelf were all taken away by the children or females.

These kinds of situations basically happened every day as long as Yuan Zhou sculpted the radishes.

On the following day, however, Yuan Zhou started to grind the soybeans instead of sculpting after breakfast time ended. Of course, the soybeans had been soaked beforehand this time.

The inventor of tofu was Liu An, the Hua’nan King of the Western Han Dynasty. There was also a rumor that Yuan Mei in the Qing Dynasty even bowed three times in order to eat the tofu.

Jellied tofu was a half-completed product of tofu that existed in both the South and North. People in the South preferred the sweet taste while those in the south preferred the salty type.

What Yuan Zhou prepared to cook today was tofu pudding that was a little more hardened than the jellied tofu. In Beijing, it was also called hardened bean curd.

The tofu pudding from Leshan, located in the middle part of the Sichuan Province, was the most well-known. Not only the tofu pudding, but the dipping sauce was also very important.

Along with the sound of “Zhi Ya, Zhi Ya”, Yuan Zhou rotated the millstone slowly. While doing that at the same speed, he added an appropriate amount of liquid which was a mixture of spring water and dew inside at the same time. Even in this warm restaurant, the water emitted a cool air.

“The tofu pudding will surely be tasty if cooked with that water. It will not only taste tender but also smooth.” Yuan Zhou nodded satisfactorily.

After Yuan Zhou grounded the soybeans repeatedly and filtered the dregs out, he directly poured the remaining ingredients in the pot and started to boil them.

Yuan Zhou didn’t really like using other kinds of broth to boil the tofu. He merely poured a little dew from the lotus leaves in order to remove the beany flavor. He had never thought of boiling tofu with the chicken soup like other big restaurants usually did as the taste of the chicken soup would contrarily affect that of the tofu.

“Little Yuan, I am here to eat.” Boss Tong’s hearty laughter resounded at the door.

“Aunt Tong, come on in, right this way.” Yuan Zhou opened the countertop.

Yuan Zhou noticed that Boss Tong wasn’t wearing the clothes that she had worn in the morning now. She should have changed her clothes. After all, the place where they were going to eat this time was the kitchen.

“Ah, it’s the tofu pudding. This is really good.” Once Boss Tong got seated, she saw the dishes on the table and then nodded with satisfaction.

“Yeah. Tofu Pudding and Braised Tofu With Vegetables Soup as well as beef.” Yuan Zhou didn’t prepare too many dishes.

There was only a meat dish, a vegetarian dish and a soup for the two of them.

“Enough, that’s really enough. Even with the single tofu pudding, I could eat two bowls of plain white rice previously.” Boss Tong said smilingly.