Chapter 51: Fish Head Soup Pancake

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan, excited at the prospect of eating at a restaurant, were surprised when the car drove straight to the department store.

The two children had never been to the store before and were amazed by the array of goods.

“Is this where you buy the butterfly cakes?” Wen Xuan asked, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the familiar iron box in the window.

Wen Jiajia pinched her cheek and said, “Yes, I don’t know how many butter cookies you’ve eaten.”

Wen Xuan smiled and asked, “So we’re here to buy butterfly cakes today?”

No way! Wen Jiajia headed to the second floor.

She walked ahead with Wen Chun and Wen Xuan following behind, while Wei Dai stayed at the back to keep an eye on the girls.

“Sister Huang, isn’t Mr. Yu working today?” Wen Jiajia asked the salesperson when they reached the second floor.

Since she frequented the store, she was familiar with several sales clerks and knew their schedules.

Sister Huang, who was knitting a sweater, looked up and said, “Oh, Old Yu’s wife gave birth today, so I’m covering for him for two days. Look at her belly; it’s twins again. Tsk tsk, it was the same last time. His family now has five children. Old Yu is almost worried to death.”

Wen Jiajia was surprised. “Although everyone calls him Old Yu, he should be less than 30 years old.”

Sister Huang laughed and said, “Of course not; he’s only 28.”

Wen Jiajia realized that he was actually 27 or 26, as people often count age based on lunar years.

She sighed, “But I really can’t handle having another child.”

Two out of three births were twins; it was a significant burden on the mother. It was clear she had the twin gene, so she might have twins again.

Huang continued knitting and whispered, “I’m telling you this in confidence, so don’t spread it around.”

“I won’t say a word!” Wen Jiajia leaned in to listen.

Sister Huang said, “How can someone as stingy as Old Yu be willing to take two days off to go to the hospital? The hospital is only ten minutes away from our store. When his wife gave birth to their first two babies, he didn’t take any leave.”

“Why’s that?”

Sister Huang lowered her voice: “Because he went to get sterilized.”

Wen Jiajia suddenly understood. “No wonder he needed to take leave.”

Sister Huang laughed and said, “Don’t tell anyone. Old Yu never mentioned it. I only found out from my sister-in-law, who works at the hospital. Old Yu went there while his wife was giving birth, so he definitely didn’t want anyone to know.”

Wen Jiajia nodded, promising to keep it a secret.

“By the way, what are you looking to buy today?” Sister Huang asked. “It’s rare to see you with your husband. I haven’t seen him for a long time. Are these two girls your nieces?”

“Yes,” Wen Jiajia smiled. “I’m here to buy a radio, the Red Flag radio I was eyeing before.”

Sister Huang led her to the radio counter and said, “You haven’t bought it since you first looked at it at the beginning of last month. I thought you had changed your mind about getting it.”

“Of course not. I’ve been saving money for it.”

Sister Huang chuckled, “You’re kidding. You come here frequently to buy butterfly cakes, milk candies, fried dough twists, and so on, yet you still need to save money?”

Sister Huang had worked there for several years and rarely saw someone who visited the department store as often as Wen Jiajia. It showed that Wen Jiajia had everything she needed but was not short of money.

Wen Chun, with his good hearing, perked up at the word “radio” and asked Wei Dai in surprise, “Uncle-in-law, are we here to buy a radio?”

“Yes. Are you excited?”

“Excited!” Wen Chun beamed, “I love listening to the radio.”

Her enthusiasm for the radio was undiminished, although she always felt slightly uncomfortable listening to it at Xie’s house.

Sister Huang said, “You came at the right time. The radio you were interested in last month was sold. This one was just brought in from Shanghai yesterday. It’s the same Hongqi 307, a 7-transistor, 3-band radio. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? It even reflects light when placed in the sun. It’s newer than the previous one.”

Wen Jiajia, along with the two children and Wei Dai, examined the radio.

Sister Huang continued, “In addition to the Hongqi model, we also received two other brands this time: Feilo, Haiyan, and Mudan. Feilo is from Shanghai Factory No. 2, Haiyan is from Shanghai Factory No. 1, and Mudan is from the capital. I heard it sells very well. Oh, the supply and marketing cooperative on Qiaotou Road also sells Seagull brand radios. My brother and sister-in-law’s family owns Seagull brand radios, which are also quite good.”

Wen Jiajia listened to all three radios, and perhaps because of her preconceived notions, she still thought the Red Flag brand was the best looking.

“So it’s still the Red Flag brand?” She turned to ask Wei Dai.

Wei Dai nodded. He felt they were all about the same.

Wen Jiajia then asked Wen Chun and Wen Xuan.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan didn’t know much, so since their aunt said the Red Flag brand was good, they also pointed at the Red Flag brand and said it was okay.

“Okay!” Wen Jiajia took out the money and said, “Sister Huang, I want this Red Flag radio.”

Sister Huang sighed. In just half a year, people had bought radios, bicycles, and watches from her.

All that was needed now was a sewing machine to complete the “three-turns and one-sound”^[1]metaphorically represents achieving multiple significant milestones smoothly and effortlessly. system.

Don’t listen to those who say they want “three turns and one sound” when they get married. In fact, if you can get two of them, you are already impressive. How can people not envy someone like Wen Jiajia who bought all three within half a year?

When going downstairs, Wen Jiajia was walking in front again.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan followed behind her, with their heads held high and their chests puffed out, looking very dignified.

At the end, Wei Dai held the radio and felt like he was holding a bomb.

This thing can’t stand being dropped. If it drops, you’ll lose fifty dollars out of this nearly two-hundred-dollar item.

When Wen Jiajia reached the first floor, she saw two pairs of children’s sneakers. She looked at the soles and found them relatively soft, so she bought them for the two children.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan are so hard on shoes that it is difficult for a pair of cloth shoes to last more than three months on their feet.

“Do you want to buy anything else?” she asked Wei Dai.

Wei Dai looked around and saw some wool. He asked her, “Do you want some wool? You can knit a scarf.”

Wen Jiajia shook her head: “I like white.”

The wool in the cupboard was green.

But after thinking about it, she decided to buy some wool for Wei Dai. She noticed that Wei Dai only had a military coat for winter. Oh, now he has two.

So Wen Jiajia went over and bought three kilograms of wool, using up all the wool purchase certificates in her hand.

After buying the wool, she went out and stopped when she passed the vegetable market.

Wei Dai was watching over the radio, and the two children were worried. They overcame their curiosity about the vegetable market and stayed beside the radio with Wei Dai.

“If there’s a robbery, my uncle-in-law will go after the radio and we’ll just watch the bicycle,” Wen Chun said.

She thinks bicycles are also very important.

Wen Jiajia: “…Nonsense, no one would rob in broad daylight.” She was speechless, and then she ignored them and walked into the vegetable market.

At this time, all the good meat had been sold out. Wen Jiajia walked around the butcher shop and finally bought two shanks, preparing to take them back to make winter melon bone soup.

The meat is really fragrant at this time, and the bones are cheap. You don’t need a ticket for two ribs; you can take them away for only 1.2 cents.

Besides, there is still meat on the ribs. The butcher shop always takes into account people who like to eat meat and chew bones, so they will not remove all the bones to the point that flies will slip if they stand on them.

After buying the pork shanks, she bought another fish.

Everyone in the family likes to eat fish, whether it is boiled or braised.

Wen Jiajia looked around but didn’t see any silver carp. She wanted to eat chopped pepper fish head, but unfortunately, she couldn’t find any.

“Uncle, do you have silver carp?” Wen Jiajia asked.

This old man always sat next to the fish stall, and Wen Jiajia often saw him.

“Bighead carp?” asked the old man.

“Yes…it’s also called bighead carp.”

There are many different names for fish, and they are called differently in different places.

Silver carp is also called bighead carp, fathead fish, and male fish. Wen Jiajia often ate it in her previous life. Wash and marinate it, then put chili on it and steam it in a pot. It only takes more than ten minutes to steam it. It is very good with rice or noodles. It is a quick dish.

“Bighead carp is long gone, but if you want to buy a bighead carp head, we still have it,” the old man said. Unlike other fish, bighead carp can be sold separately from the head and body.

Wen Jiajia was surprised: “What I want is the fish head.”

The old man pointed to the stall next to him and said, “This one has it.”

Wen Jiajia went to buy it immediately. As expected, when she asked about the bighead carp head, the fish seller took out two fish heads from under the fish stall and said, “There are only two left. Which one do you want? They were just killed this morning. You can tell by looking at the eyes that they are very fresh!”

“Thank you, comrade. I want a big one.”

“The big one weighs almost six kilograms!”

Wen Jiajia insisted, “I want a big one.”

At that time, half of it will be chopped pepper and the other half will be braised and soaked in pancakes.

“Okay!” said the stall owner.

Wen Jiajia also asked him to help chop off the fish head, then paid him and left with the fish head.

Wei Dai waited for a long time: “What did you buy?”

“Bones and fish heads.” She hung the rope tied to the fish head and the cloth bag containing the bones on both sides of the bicycle handlebars, then got on the bike and hugged Wei Dai’s waist tightly: “Let’s go!”

Wei Dai smiled and rode his bike out of the city.

The clock struck eleven, the sun was at its brightest, and the shadows on the ground gradually became shorter.

When they got home, it was too late to eat the winter melon bone soup, but the fish head and pancake were still okay.

Wen Jiajia sent Wei Dai to wash the fish while she steamed rice and kneaded dough in the kitchen.

After the rice is cooked, it is steamed in a wooden barrel, and the noodles are almost fermented.

The cake she wanted to make was a thousand-layer cake^[2]refers to a type of cake known for its many thin layers., which was simple to make and easy to soak.

The thousand-layer cake is fried in oil, and Wen Jiajia also adds chopped green onions to enhance the flavor.

Green onions are wild onions. They will grow again after being cut. They will grow very fast when it rains, so there is no need to plant onions at home.

The freshly baked pancakes were golden and crispy, and the fragrance could be smelled a hundred meters away. Wen Jiajia couldn’t help but take a couple of bites first.

After making the pancakes, she started to stir-fry the vegetables when the rice was almost done steaming.

Stir-fry the vegetables first. Wen Jiajia likes eggplant, so she picked a few to eat.

But she had eaten too much fried eggplant, so today she planned to try a different way of eating it and cook it into mashed eggplant.

Rotten eggplants have to be green eggplants. Decades later, the streets are full of purple eggplants. Rotten eggplants made from purple eggplants are not delicious.

If you want to make soft eggplant, you must first peel the eggplant, remove the stem, and steam it in a pot.

After steaming, pour oil into the pot, sauté the minced garlic until fragrant, then add the eggplant into the pot and stir-fry.

During the frying process, the eggplant becomes mashed. Wrap the fried minced garlic in the eggplant mash.

Because the fire was too strong, Wen Jiajia didn’t dare to delay any longer and quickly added salt and soy sauce to the pot. She could remove the eggplant from the pot when it had a slight soy sauce color.

After making the mashed eggplant, she fried a hibiscus omelette^[3]is a unique and flavorful twist on the traditional omelette, incorporating hibiscus flowers into the mix..

The hibiscus was given to her by Teacher Shen this morning. Her family had jujube trees and osmanthus trees, and the Xie family next door also had persimmon trees and hibiscus trees.

This is the flowering period of hibiscus, which is quite long. However, once it blooms, the flowers wilt within a few days. They are also easy to attract bees and ants, so they need to be picked and eaten immediately.

These past few days, Wen Jiajia received hibiscus from Teacher Shen every day, and she cooked soup with it together with green leafy vegetables.

The soup is smooth and very similar to amaranth soup.