When Li Minyao returned home, she saw a large bag of put chai ko and coconut milk layer cake sitting on the table. Zhao Yiping excitedly opened the bag.
“Look what I bought!”
She froze. “You bought these outside your school?”
“I’m telling you, this put chai ko is absolutely delicious. If I hadn’t wanted to save some for you, I could’ve eaten it all by myself.”
Seeing Zhao Yiping’s animated expression, Li Minyao couldn’t help shaking her head.
“Forget it. No matter how delicious it is, could it really be better than the one I bought last time?”
Originally, she hadn’t been particularly obsessed with put chai ko. It was just that the one from that particular stall had been so delicious that the longer she went without eating it, the more she missed it. So she really had no interest whatsoever in put chai ko sold by anyone else.
Zhao Yiping insisted, “Trust me. The one I bought is really delicious. It’s absolutely no worse than yours!”
At the school gate, he’d only bought it intending to try something that would fill his stomach. He hadn’t expected that once he started eating, he simply wouldn’t be able to stop.
Li Minyao still wasn’t particularly interested, so Zhao Yiping simply said, “Then try this one. This coconut milk layer cake is especially delicious too.”
Seeing how insistent he was, Li Minyao opened a box of pandan-flavored coconut milk layer cake and used a fork to pick up a small piece and put it into her mouth.
The next moment, surprise appeared on her face.
“Wow, this layer cake is so springy! It’s incredibly tender!”
It was practically like a piece of soft tofu. Even the slightest poke with a bamboo skewer made it tremble gently. Its green-and-white layers were also extremely pleasing to the eye. Not only was the texture wonderful, it looked beautiful as well.
Most importantly, the pandan flavor was absolutely delicious. Combined with the coconut milk, it was wonderfully refreshing and cool. Unlike some pandan-flavored products, it didn’t have that strange grassy taste.
And after eating it, there was no sticky, glue-like sensation left in her mouth. Instead, it felt exceptionally clean and refreshing.
Zhao Yiping smiled.
“Isn’t it delicious? I’m telling you, I immediately turned around and bought two boxes after trying it.”
Li Minyao’s mood instantly brightened. She hurriedly picked up one of the put chai ko Zhao Yiping had bought and tasted it.
After having the coconut milk layer cake first, her expectations for the put chai ko had also risen considerably.
The moment she took a bite, she was stunned.
This flavor, this texture…
This was what delicious put chai ko was supposed to taste like!
And the more she ate, the more familiar it seemed.
An idea suddenly popped into her head. She grabbed Zhao Yiping and asked urgently, “Where did you buy this? What did the owner look like?”
He carefully described the little stall outside the school, and Li Minyao was overjoyed.
“Yes! Yes! It must be her!”
There was no way she could mistake put chai ko this delicious.
Then she couldn’t help complaining to Zhao Yiping.
“If you’d bought it a little earlier, I wouldn’t have spent all these days searching for her!”
Zhao Yiping pursed his lips. He hadn’t expected it either. Who would’ve thought that something sold at a tiny street stall could actually be this delicious?
Tomorrow was Saturday, and Li Minyao planned to go to the food plaza to see whether the owner would be there.
She opened the foodies’ group chat.
“Good news! I finally found that owner!”
“She was setting up her stall at Huacheng Railway No. 3 Middle School a few days ago. I don’t know whether she’ll return to the food plaza tomorrow.”
After a while, people gradually began replying in the group. Quite a few said they would stop by the food plaza tomorrow and take a look.
Meanwhile, Xia Yongen was walking back to Rongxing House.
After the middle school teacher left, she sold quite a few more items. In the end, there were two pieces of put chai ko left, which Auntie Feng bought up entirely.
After several days of hard work, she had finally completed the system’s mission.
She opened the system panel. The system’s tasks had been refreshed.
【Congratulations, Host, on completing the mission! The recipes for “White Sugar Cake” and “Malay Cake” have been unlocked.】
【Stage Mission Updated: Sell 200 servings each of White Sugar Cake and Malay Cake by next Monday.】
The put chai ko and coconut milk layer cake in the Dessert Compendium had both reached Grade A, while the entries for white sugar cake and Malay cake had now lit up as well.
White sugar cake, also known as Lun Jiao Cake, originated in Foshan. The cake itself was white and translucent, and after cooling and being cut open, beautiful fish-fin-like patterns could still be seen along the sides.
Compared with white sugar cake, Malay cake was best eaten while hot. Freshly steamed Malay cake was incredibly soft and fluffy, with a slight moistness to it.
Once it cooled, however, the cake became chewy and tough. If it was steamed again to reheat it, the steam would easily make the cake soggy and unpleasant.
Apart from the Malay cake, the other three desserts could all be prepared in advance and sold later. To preserve the flavor of the Malay cake as much as possible, Xia Yongen decided to steam it fresh on the spot.
She rummaged through the storage room at Rongxing House and finally found five or six small steamers that could still be used, as well as a mobile dessert cart. There was a stove inside the cart for heating. As long as she stacked the steamers on top, she could steam delicious desserts right there.
A few days earlier, she’d only tidied up Auntie Fang Ping’s little room. These past few days, she’d been busy setting up her stall, and after returning to the teahouse, she’d simply prepared the ingredients for the next day before collapsing into bed. She hadn’t had time to check the other areas.
An idea suddenly struck her.
Perhaps there were still ingredients left in the teahouse that she could use. Wouldn’t that save her some money?
After searching thoroughly, she found ten packs of Chinese sausage, five bags of cured duck, two bags of dried bean curd sticks, three bags of preserved mustard greens, as well as various seasonings such as soy sauce, Chu Hou sauce, fish sauce, fermented black beans, and olive vegetable.
Most importantly, she found several unopened bags of rice, cake flour, wheat starch, cornstarch, glutinous rice flour, water chestnut starch, and rice flour.
Xia Yongen was overjoyed to have found such treasures and hurriedly moved all the useful ingredients into the room where she lived. Her room was actually one of the private rooms in the teahouse. Inside were a folding military cot, a chair, a kettle for boiling water, and a rice cooker.
After putting away all her precious finds, she decided to treat herself to a better meal that evening!
She poured rice into the rice cooker, then cut up two Chinese sausages and added a small piece of cured duck.
The rice wasn’t even done yet when a mouthwatering savory aroma unique to cured meats began filling the room.
After waiting forty minutes, she eagerly lifted the lid.
During the steaming process, all the fat from the Chinese sausage and cured duck had seeped into the rice. The rice was soft and fluffy yet slightly moist, and even eaten plain, it had an incredibly rich, savory flavor.
And because of the natural sweetness of the sausage and cured duck, the rice tasted even sweeter and more fragrant.
Not to mention the fresh, savory cured duck with its satisfyingly chewy texture, and the Chinese sausage that burst with juice the moment she bit into it.
It was absolutely heavenly!
Xia Yongen ate the entire pot of rice. Rubbing her round, stuffed belly, she went to the kitchen and began preparing the ingredients she would need for the next day.
Early the following morning, Xia Yongen arrived at the food plaza.
The couple who sold Tujia-style savory pancakes greeted her with their usual smiles. But when the barbecue skewer vendor saw Xia Yongen smiling brightly, a spark of irritation immediately flared in his heart.
Why was this woman back again?!
During the five days Xia Yongen had been away, business at his barbecue stall had improved considerably. But now that her little stall was open again, would anyone still buy his skewers?
In truth, his barbecue skewers weren’t really in competition with put chai ko at all. Yet, for some reason, eight or nine out of ten customers who were lured over by the aroma of his grilled food would end up wandering over to the stall opposite him.
Xia Yongen had no idea about all the thoughts running through his mind. She simply took her time setting up her stall.
Because she now had a new dessert—Malay cake—a few wisps of white steam rose from her stall. Before long, a sweet, fragrant aroma spread throughout the area.
Li Minyao dragged Zhao Yiping to the food plaza. They hadn’t even walked very far when she couldn’t help exclaiming,
“My goodness! What smells so good?”
Following the aroma, the two of them arrived in front of a stall.
Li Minyao looked up, and her eyes immediately widened.
Wasn’t this the little stall she’d been desperately searching for all these days?!
Xia Yongen recognized Zhao Yiping at once.
Wasn’t this the teacher who had bought from her yesterday?
She then looked at Li Minyao and found her somewhat familiar as well.
Li Minyao said happily, “I was wondering what could possibly smell so good. Turns out it was coming from your stall!”
She told Xia Yongen about her search for delicious food over the past few days. Only then did Xia Yongen realize that someone had actually been thinking about and searching for her little stall so persistently.
She was delighted.
“The white sugar cake and Malay cake are new today. Would you like to try them?”
Xia Yongen cut the white sugar cake into small pieces, arranged them on little plates, and stuck toothpicks into each piece for passersby to sample.
Li Minyao had already noticed the white sugar cake displayed at the stall from a distance. Through the cut surface, she could see numerous tiny air pockets inside, making it look extremely tempting. Just from its appearance, she could tell that the white sugar cake was bound to be delicious.
And sure enough, the white sugar cake was soft on the outside yet pleasantly chewy within. The cake itself had a springy, substantial texture, while the glossy layer of rice skin on the outside was exceptionally tender.
It wasn’t particularly sweet either. Instead, it carried a faint sourness reminiscent of fermented rice wine. After chewing a few more times, a wonderfully distinctive, delicate fragrance emerged.
On a hot summer day, enjoying a piece of white sugar cake was truly a delightful treat!
Li Minyao immediately spent six yuan to buy three pieces of white sugar cake. She carried the bag over to the side of the stall, where she and Zhao Yiping shared them.
At this point, put chai ko and coconut milk layer cake could all step aside.
White sugar cake was the true god in her heart.
After all, no one could resist the temptation of sugar!
As she ate, she sent messages in the foodies’ group chat.
“New intel! The owner has a new item—white sugar cake. It’s seriously delicious! And you get a huge piece for only two yuan. It’s such a great deal.”
“Coming right now! Is it crowded?”
“Whoa! That looks delicious just from the picture! I’m practically drooling!”
“Does the owner set up at the food plaza every weekend? Where does she set up on weekdays?”
The delicious and attractive white sugar cake quickly drew many passersby over to the stall. And while waiting in line, it was difficult not to be drawn to the Malay cakes steaming inside the bamboo steamers.
It wasn’t just the people standing in front of the stall. Even pedestrians a hundred meters away were attracted by the aroma of the Malay cake.
Because the Malay cake smelled absolutely incredible.
The aroma Li Minyao had smelled from a distance earlier was precisely the rich sweetness of the Malay cake, infused with the fragrance of caramel.
Xia Yongen deliberately steamed the Malay cake fresh on-site, not only to preserve its best possible texture and flavor, but also to attract passing pedestrians.
Wanting to be among the first to taste the Malay cake, many people simply stood right beside the stall and ate it there.
Some passersby who had no idea what was going on saw the large crowd gathered around Xia Yongen’s stall and came over to take a look. Before they knew it, they had joined the line.
In the blink of an eye, all the freshly steamed Malay cake had sold out. Xia Yongen had no choice but to put another batch of prepared dough into the steamer.
“This batch will take fifteen minutes. Please wait a little while, everyone!”
While everyone waited for the Malay cake to finish steaming, the sounds of payments continued ringing out without pause. As time passed, the aroma of the Malay cake began wafting out again, and even more people gathered in front of the stall. Before long, the line stretched all the way to the barbecue skewer stall.
The more people smelled the aroma of the Malay cake, the more they craved it. Yet they couldn’t see what it actually looked like. All they could see were six bamboo steamers stacked on top of one another, with steam rising from them.
Their appetites were thoroughly teased.
A few impatient passersby simply ordered some food from the barbecue stall instead. Seeing that he finally had customers, the barbecue guy instantly became full of energy and quickly brushed sauce over the skewers.
But while grilling squid, he couldn’t help craning his neck and secretly peeking at what was happening at the stall opposite.
He’d been smelling that aroma all morning.
He was practically going crazy.
What on earth was inside those steamers?
How could it possibly smell that good?!
Author’s Note:
When I was in Ningbo, I tried the local Shuǐtǎ Cake, and its flavor was about eighty percent similar to Lun Jiao Cake. However, Shuǐtǎ Cake tasted like pure sweetness to me, and its outer skin was soft.
Lun Jiao Cake has a slight sourness to it, and the outer skin is slightly firm. It becomes even firmer after cooling, but it’s not the kind of hard texture that hurts your teeth. Rather, it has a pleasantly chewy, resilient quality.
Compared with Shuǐtǎ Cake, I prefer Huīzhī Tuán even more. Its alkaline flavor is especially strong. Friends who enjoy alkaline-water zongzi absolutely have to give it a try!