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Nineteenth Meow
When Huo Zheng knocked on He Yunzhou’s door the next day, it was much earlier than He Yunzhou had expected.
“Huh? You’re not working today?”
He Yunzhou watched with some surprise as Huo Zheng strode into the room. He subconsciously took the jacket that Huo Zheng took off, and hung it on the coat rack in the entrance.
“The company’s business has been completed for today,” Huo Zheng said calmly.
He went to the sofa where Nangua was spreading itself into a furry round blanket, occupying most of the sofa on all fours with its feet facing the sky, sleeping in the dark.
Huo Zheng glanced at Nangua, then sat down his butt, completely unperturbed.
“Meow wu—”
The cat that was still sleeping before let out an unusually dissatisfied cry, grabbed the other end of the sofa with its paws, and forcibly squeezed itself out from under Huo Zheng’s butt, then it quickly scurried to the cat climbing frame.
“Hiss—”
Nangua immediately locked in on the culprit who woke him up, then cocked its tail, and howled at Huo Zheng.
Meanwhile, Huo Zheng raised his eyebrow and stared at Nangua, letting out a mean taunt, “It’s you who occupied too much, fatty.”
“……”
He Yunzhou, who was standing on the side, watched the scene and sized up Huo Zheng with some slight degree of anxiety.
In fact, Huo Zheng behaved exactly the same as before. But He Yunzhou still felt that the man sitting calmly on the sofa, had an indescribable ultra-low pressure.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be childish enough to bully a sleeping cat.
“Ah, I ordered something for you in France before—just treat it as a reward for eating at your house.”
Huo Zheng was oblivious to He Yunzhou’s worries.
As if he really just remembered, he took out a small glass bottle from his briefcase and put it on the coffee table.
As soon as He Yunzhou heard that Huo Zheng had ordered something from abroad again, he remembered the super expensive matsutake he ate last night, and his eyelids suddenly twitched.
“It’s just some home-cooked small dishes, you really don’t need to send me anything.”
He Yunzhou was a little guilty.
After all, the food given to the cat at home was very particular, but the food given to people will inevitably sometimes use some scraps of cat food.
It’s better to specifically prepare some ingredients for him in the future ba…
He Yunzhou noted from the bottom of his heart.
“What I gave you are just a few small things,” Huo Zheng said.
He Yunzhou picked up the bottle on the table, fixedly look at it, and his whole person froze.
“Ah, this is…”
“Fleur de sel,” Huo Zheng’s tone rose and he said softly, “Flower of Salt, I remember you said before that you like sea salt very much.”[1]Costs $30 per 0.5lbs
Huo Zheng carefully observed He Yunzhou’s expression with the corner of his eyes. When he saw the man’s unstoppable happiness at the corner of the person’s eyes and the tip of his brows, most of the gloom and dullness that had been lingering in his heart from last night to today suddenly disappeared.
Sure enough, I always involuntarily want to stay by this man’s side, and it’s precisely for this reason ba.
The thoughts are always easy to guess, although the thing you want is a bit strange… but as long as you receive it, there is no way to hide the pure joy anyway.
Just like his deep love.
Huo Zheng sighed at the bottom of his heart.
“I did say that, but the sea salt is too different from the Flower of Salt…”
He Yunzhou held the small bottle of snow-white salt in his hand, his whole person didn’t know what to do.
The production of this top-notch, high-grade sea salt is extremely low. It’s rare that the bottle that Huo Zheng casually placed on the coffee table still maintains that beautiful snowflake-like crystals that look like precious stones after a long journey.
He Yunzhou even couldn’t help raise the small glass bottle and shone it against the light.
Although he had thought about rejecting the too-expensive things from Huo Zheng before, people who like cooking would inevitably still be happy to see this kind of high-end seasoning.
“The Flower of Salt is also a sea salt ba.”
Huo Zheng looked at He Yunzhou helplessly, a little confused by the other party’s happiness.
It’s just a bottle of salt, you can be so happy like this…
It turns out that there really are people in this world who are easy to coax.
As for He Yunzhou, who once again heard the rich man speak, after hearing Huo Zheng’s doubts, he could only rub the bridge of his nose and sigh, not knowing what to say.
“It’s a very expensive sea salt,” He Yunzhou emphasized.
But even so, Huo Zheng still looked dazed.
“Very… expensive?” The man repeated somewhat hesitantly. “Well, you like it anyway.”
“Forget it…”
Meeting Huo Zheng’s face, He Yunzhou could only mutter helplessly.
However, in the next second, his mood became uncontrollably high, “It just so happens I made a handmade ice cream today. I planned to boil a little chocolate syrup and nuts together with the ice cream before, but with this, we can make salt ice cream by sprinkling at least a little bit.”
“Handmade ice cream?”
“That’s right, specifically made for you.” He Yunzhou said with a smile.
After all, you can’t always eat Nangua’s yogurt ah.
He Yunzhou didn’t dare to say this sentence.
Of course, on the other hand, it was also a return gift for Huo Zheng’s expensive matsutake. That’s why he made handmade ice cream as an after-dinner dessert despite the trouble.
“… Today’s fruit is honeydew melon in coconut milk[2]Pictures belowwhich also happens to be perfect for sprinkling with a pinch of salt. But in this case, in addition to the covered fried salted shrimp with egg yolk, I always feel like I need something else to go with it…”
Huo Zheng gazed intently at He Yunzhou, who was looking at the salt shaker next to him, thinking about the recipe with joy.
“Meow? Meow…”
Immediately after, it was Nangua who had been observing on this side.
Probably because it thought that He Yunzhou was holding something in his hand that it could eat, Nangua jumped to the coffee table rather quickly and stretched its neck, and kept howling.
“You can’t eat this oh.” He Yunzhou patted Nangua’s head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry then said.
Under the glare of the light, there was a soft golden glow on the silhouette of the delicate and pretty man, and even the chubby meatball under his hand became a little cuter.
There was an aroma of soup and the whimpering of a cat floating in the small living room, and the tenderness in He Yunzhou’s eyes seemed to warm the surrounding air.
Huo Zheng quietly looked at the person and cat in front of him, and the last bit of shadow in his heart also seemed to have been melted, slowly flowing away.
……
He Yunzhou, who got the Flower of Salt as a gift, naturally cooked a more sumptuous meal this evening.
A large plate of golden radiant fried shrimp was the main dish, placed on the center of the table.[3]Pictures below A plate of crispy pork pancetta,[4]pictures below with a rather beautiful reddish-brown color, was neatly placed next to a large stack of crispy lettuce.
The wild artemisia quinoa was stir-fried with black bean sauce and chili pepper, it was dark green and crisp, with a tangy aroma.[5]Pictures below
The shrimp heads taken from the stir-fried were used by He Yunzhou to stir-fry shrimp oil, sprinkled with lots of minced garlic and chopped scallions, and shredded ham with salad dressing and snow-white and crystal-clear cabbage stalks.[6]Pictures below
There was also a small bowl of stewed tofu, using the chicken soup from last night as the soup base with a handful of shrimp roe sprinkled on top to add extra freshness.[7]Pictures below
Lastly was the broth. The ingredients are newly marketed tender peas and asparagus soup made from asparagus with a little bonito flakes.[8]Sorry, can’t find a picture for this :<
And when Huo Zheng sat down, He Yunzhou suddenly slapped his forehead and muttered, “I almost forgot.”
Then he quickly walked to the kitchen and brought out a small black earthen pot.
“A friend sent me some new bamboo shoots, so I also made bamboo shoot rice in a casserole.”[9]Pictures belowHe Yunzhou smiled.
The lid of the earthen pot was lifted, accompanied by the water vapor, there is also a rich fresh and salty aroma.
The rice, which was slightly mixed and put into a bowl, contained not only milky white tender bamboo shoots cut in chunks, but there is also diced light brown salt-cured meat with beautiful grease.
As He Yunzhou said, today’s dinner was indeed just some home-cooked dishes, but it is undeniable that whether it’s the simple-looking cooked rice with meat and bamboo shoots or those dishes, there was a strange sense of magnificence.
“Try it, I hope you’ll like it.” He Yunzhou said as he extended his chopsticks and gave Huo Zheng a shrimp.
For him, this was just something he did in passing.
However, Huo Zheng’s movements slightly stiffened for a moment because of this act.
“Good.”
Huo Zheng lowered his head and quickly put the golden and crispy shrimp into his mouth.
“Oh…”
The moment he bit down on the shrimp meat, Huo Zheng couldn’t help but widen his eyes.
Very delicious…
The salted egg yolk fried shrimp that He Yunzhou could bring up in front of Huo Zheng three or four times, did have a delicious taste that was beyond Huo Zheng’s expectations.
The rich salted egg was attached to the shell of the shrimp, and that salty taste is perfectly blended with the slightly sweet and meat shrimp.
In order to maintain the crispy shrimp, ordinary fried shrimp need to be re-fried several times. An average-level chef will accidentally make slightly dry and hard shrimps.
However, He Yunzhou will put the freshly peeled salted egg yolk into the oven and bake it, then wrap the shrimp with the salted egg yolk puree and some starch before frying them.
In this way, the shell of the shrimp can easily become crispy and delicious while the inner meat inside can maintain a juicy and crisp fresh taste under the protection of the salted egg yolk.
As an important ingredient for the covered stir-fried shrimp—those bread crumbs fried with a lot of minced garlic will also incorporate a lot of salted egg yolk crumbs peeled off from the shell of the shrimp. It tastes far more delicious than ordinary bread crumbs.
It’s just that after adding salted egg yolks, whether it’s the fried shrimp or fried bread crumbs, the requirements for the fire are very high—He Yunzhou said to Huo Zheng that “I don’t cook it for most people” is not just to coax Huo Zheng to talk nonsense.
Because it’s really too troublesome; He Yunzhou really rarely makes this dish.
On the contrary, the pork pancetta next to the covered fried shrimp is made more often.
Honeydew melon in coconut milk:
Golden radiant fried shrimp:
Crispy pork pancetta:
Artemisia quinoa with black bean sauce and chili pepper:
Salad: (It was hard to find accurate picture)
Stewed tofu:
Bamboo shoot rice in a casserole:
