«A pleasant surprise»
Li Lanlan put on a pair of snug-fitting food-grade gloves and began cooking. It is still winter, so the kitchen here has even provided rubber gloves.
I’ve just asked: for lunch, they usually prepare noodles, and for dinner, some congee and side dishes. Apart from having an extra meal compared to at home, the eating habits are much the same.
Li Lanlan is preparing a bowl of noodles with minced pork topping; Wang Caixia had already simmered the mince earlier.
First, she kneaded the dough. Li Lanlan has always been strong, and she usually kneads the dough to be very firm, but considering the elderly residents, she knew that dough that was too hard would be difficult for them to chew.
So she kneaded the dough to a medium-soft consistency. This way, the noodles wouldn’t be too hard; with a few extra kneads, they would have a firm yet tender texture that was easy to bite into.
After placing the kneaded dough in a bowl to rest, she began preparing the accompaniments. The portion of minced meat for the noodles shouldn’t be too large; the amount in the kitchen was just right.
She took a small piece of tofu and a small potato, diced them into small cubes, chopped the Chinese chives and wood ear mushrooms finely, and washed the coriander—leaving it unchopped for now to be sliced just before serving, as chopping it too early would diminish its fragrance. She also cracked two eggs.
Earlier that morning, she’d also bought some braised meats; she chopped these up as well and mixed a small dish of dipping sauce to serve with the meal.
Everything was pretty much ready. The dough had been resting for a while, so Li Lanlan kneaded it a little more before letting it rest again.
For dough-based dishes to taste good, the dough must be properly rested and thoroughly kneaded.
There was a large clock in the living room. Li Lanlan went out to check it; it was just past eleven o’clock.
In the living room, Wang Caixia had already dozed off, leaning against the sofa. Li Lanlan didn’t wake her, but sat down to rest for a while herself. When it was nearly half past eleven, she went into the kitchen to cook.
She boiled water on the left hob and stir-fried the vegetables on the right.
In ordinary households, when making stir-fried noodles, people usually start by stir-frying the side dishes like potatoes and tofu first, but Li Lanlan had a tastier method.
She first scooped out a spoonful of the meat sauce, which was already coated in oil, and added it directly to the hot pan with cold oil. Once the oil had melted and soaked into the meat sauce, she added the potatoes and tofu and stir-fried them over a high heat a few times. Then she added the seasoning and stir-fried again, but not too many times, otherwise the tofu would break up.
Next, she adds wood ear mushrooms and Chinese chives, stir-frying over a high heat.
The entire process must not take more than a minute, otherwise the ingredients will become overcooked.
She pours in hot water, adding enough in one go. As the potatoes, Chinese chives and wood ear mushrooms have already been stir-fried over a high heat, they are mostly cooked through; once the water comes to the boil, simmering for ten minutes is sufficient.
Whilst this is cooking, Li Lanlan rolls out the dough to a thickness of about one millimetre.
She arranged the dough, cut it with a knife, and laid out the strands one by one. She prepared four strands in total. Given the capacity of the bowl the Wang family used for noodles, one strand was enough for about three bowls. As the pot could cook two strands at a time, the noodles would be ready in two batches.
Li Lanlan was intrigued to see that the tap water here was safe to drink straight from the tap.
Although she could have rinsed the noodles directly with this water, Li Lanlan still boiled a kettle of water and poured it into a basin. After all, the Wang family were all elderly; whilst young people might not mind cold noodles, in this weather the elderly needed to take a little care. She would rinse the noodles once the water had cooled slightly—it would be refreshing and gentle on the stomach.
The water boiled before twelve o’clock. Li Lanlan went out to check; the elders hadn’t returned yet, so she decided not to cook the noodles just yet.
Noodles must be eaten freshly cooked; that’s when they taste best.
Wang Caixia was still dozing off. The clock read 11:45. Li Lanlan picked up Wang Caixia’s mobile phone and played Tetris.
There was also a Snake game, but Li Lanlan had never been very good at it in her previous life, so this time she decided to give it a miss and stick to Tetris.
Just as Li Lanlan was playing, she heard the door opening. She quickly tucked the mobile away.
She gave Wang Caixia a gentle nudge, and Wang Caixia jolted awake.
Wang Caixia took Li Lanlan to the door to greet them.
The Wang couple walked in and, seeing Wang Caixia with a young girl they didn’t recognise, realised she was the girl they’d been told about who was coming to stay for a while.
“Is that Lanlan? How are you getting on?”
“Aunt Wang, I’m settling in nicely. Would you like to have a bite to eat now? If so, I’ll go and cook some noodles!”
“Let’s eat. We’d love to try your cooking!”
With that, the couple went upstairs to change. Watching them, Li Lanlan couldn’t help but think to herself: judging by their bearing, they were indeed high-ranking officials; their presence was simply different. Her own parents were slightly younger than them, yet they already bore the marks of time.
The side dishes had already been laid out on the table. Wang Caixia was clearing away the bowls and chopsticks, whilst Li Lanlan shook the cornmeal off the noodles and dropped them into the boiling water.
After the water had boiled twice, and on the third boil, she turned off the heat, ladled out the noodles, poured in the prepared broth, and carried the bowl out to place on the table. Then, using a small bowl from the kitchen, she served everyone a bowl of noodle soup—the original broth complementing the original dish—and placed a few cloves of garlic on a plate in the centre of the table.
Being from Ningzhou, a bowl of noodles simply wouldn’t be complete without a bite of garlic.
They had just come downstairs. The dining room had a round table; the hosts sat together, whilst the orderly wasn’t eating with them today.
Li Lanlan and Wang Caixia sat together on the side nearest the kitchen.
Aunt Wang took a bite of the noodles, slurping up a large mouthful, then took a sip of the broth. Praise immediately followed: “This meal was made by Little Li, wasn’t it? These noodles are authentic and delicious.”
Although Uncle Wang didn’t say a word, the fact that he kept his head down and ate meant he was satisfied too!
The others were too busy eating to speak; they just tucked in. Auntie Wang and her husband each ate three bowls of noodles—two bowls of soup noodles and one bowl of dry noodles.
Seeing how heartily they were eating, Li Lanlan knew that her decision to stay here was a sure thing!
Aunt Wang put down her bowl and chopsticks, then burped. “I’ve been staying with the eldest son’s family for a few days recently. It’s been rice and stir-fried vegetables every day—I’ve had my fill of it. These noodles from our hometown are much more comforting.”
“You’re absolutely right. I’ve been feeling so uncomfortable from the food these past few days. Next time they bring the children over, I’m not going there myself—I can’t even eat properly over there.”
Uncle Wang said, sipping his noodle broth.
Although they’d all eaten their fill today, there were still some leftovers—a handful of noodles remained. Auntie Wang asked for them to be wrapped up and put in the fridge to be cooked for dinner.
“Caixia, Lanlan really is something, isn’t she? Her culinary skills are solid as a rock. Our Ningzhou truly lives up to its reputation as the most talented and blessed place in the Yangzhou region.”
“Not at all, Auntie Wang, you’re too kind. But my little sister has always been a hard-working, honest soul since she was a child. She tackles everything with such diligence—otherwise, I wouldn’t still be thinking of her even after I’ve moved on to work here!”
“That’s certainly true! The moment I picked up the chopsticks and lifted a strand of noodles just now, I knew they weren’t machine-cut. Just look at the springiness and transparency of those noodles—it’s clear Lanlan’s cooking skills are truly impressive.”
Li Lanlan noticed that Auntie Wang had changed the way she addressed her; she was no longer ‘Little Li’ but ‘Lanlan’. That was good news, wasn’t it?
After a brief chat, Uncle Wang and Auntie Wang went out for a stroll. Li Lanlan took the bowls and chopsticks to the kitchen to wash them up, whilst Wang Caixia cleared the table.
It wasn’t even one o’clock yet. Before Aunt Wang had left, she’d said that for dinner they’d have some dumpling soup, warm steamed buns, and the leftover noodles from lunch reheated, served with a couple of cold dishes.
That meant there was no need to knead the dough in advance. If dinner was at six o’clock, she’d still have time to go shopping at five.
They’d had a quick look around the market area earlier, and as they now had some time to spare, Wang Caixia took Li Lanlan for a stroll around the neighbourhood.
“I had the noodles you made today. Your cooking skills are almost as good as your mum’s. I remember when I used to visit your home; you’d already finished secondary school but couldn’t cook a thing!”
“Well, I’ve got married now, haven’t I? You can’t get by without knowing how to cook. We’re not like those city folk who can just buy their meals; in our village, if you don’t plan ahead, you simply can’t make ends meet.”
“That’s exactly right. It’s the same for everyone. Look at me—I was so envious of you back then. You didn’t have to do any housework, and my uncle and aunt were always buying you all sorts of lovely treats.”
When Wang Caixia brought this up, Li Lanlan remembered too. As a child, with such a capable mother at home, she’d hardly ever done any housework—at most, she’d wash her own clothes.
Take the skill of slicing potatoes into matchsticks, something most women in the Northwest can do—she was terrible at it. Wang Dashan often teased her, saying her potato strips looked like ‘roof beams’.
In truth, she still wasn’t very good at it now, but it was a world of difference from those first attempts. Nowadays, there was such a thing as a grater. Ever since Li Lanlan had discovered this gadget, its significance to her was no less than Columbus’s discovery of the New World!
Wang Caixia took her on a tour of the whole area, and she had a pretty good idea of where they were – the Science and Technology District. This was a prime location, after all, home to numerous tech companies thanks to its proximity to the universities.
These were the very places her eldest son used to take them when they lived in Beijing. The flat he’d bought was near two metro lines, one of which ran straight to this area.
The military district is just across a main road from the Technology District—quite close, really.
Li Lanlan had come to Beijing simply to see what opportunities might be available; money is easier to earn in a big city. She had a vague idea of what she might do, but as it was only her first day, it wasn’t the right time to make any drastic moves. She’d wait and see.
On the way back, she bought her groceries at the Military Service Centre. It was that transitional period in the countryside where the harvest was running low, whereas in the city, greenhouse vegetables were already being supplied steadily.
With her grocery budget, Li Lanlan bought two jin of apples, a large white radish, a bunch of Chinese cabbage, some braised pork and pickled vegetables, an onion and two cucumbers.
She also bought some staple foods, mainly steamed buns. The problem with steamed buns is that if you steam too many, you can’t finish them and they go off; if you steam too few, there aren’t enough to eat. Wang Caixia had told her there was no need to steam them herself—she could just buy them directly at the market.
Li Lanlan gave them a taste; the steamed buns sold here were quite dense, not like the flimsy ones of later times that could be flattened into a thin layer with a single punch. She bought two yuan’s worth of buns; at the moment, they were still five for a yuan. Even if they didn’t finish them for dinner, they could be reheated for breakfast the next morning.
Back at the small house, Li Lanlan went straight into the kitchen to get to work. First, she set two pots on the stove to boil water. Although the steamed buns had been warm when she bought them, they had gone cold by the time she carried them home, so she would need to reheat them later.
She used the other pot of water to make dumpling soup, and began by washing and preparing the vegetables.