Chapter 31: You're Told to Open a Food Shop, But You Operate at 3 AM

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Protagonist:

Lu Feng

On Thursday morning, Lu Feng unusually didn't sleep in; he got up at seven o'clock.

To be precise, he was woken up by hunger.

After finishing watching Xiao Feilong's short videos yesterday, for some reason the platform started crazily pushing food videos to him.

Even the pretty-girl videos he watched most often weren't recommended to him much anymore.

He swiped unwillingly for a long time and finally saw a pretty girl, but that pretty girl was eating red bean paste buns.

Seeing that pretty girl eat so deliciously, Lu Feng also wanted to have a taste.

Don't misunderstand; what Lu Feng wanted to taste was the red bean paste bun in the pretty girl's hand.

When he slept at night he even had a dream; in the dream he opened his mouth, and red bean paste buns, like little dough balls, jumped into his mouth one by one.

He just lay there on the ground eating them one mouthful at a time, yet could never eat his fill.

These past few days he'd been eating salty buns all along, so today was perfect for a change of flavor.

Today's new xiaolongbao flavor — he might as well make a red bean paste filling version.

To make red bean paste xiaolongbao, the beans need to be soaked in advance; after washing up, Lu Feng headed straight for the shop.

The restaurants around Lu Feng's shop basically still hadn't opened their doors, and those stall-setting figures were nowhere to be seen at the entrances.

Most shops on this side of Food Street do lunch and dinner, so it's a bit deserted at this hour.

But that's just as well; no one notices Lu Feng coming to the shop in the morning.

Lu Feng walked into the shop, closed the door, and opened the System Mall.

To make red bean paste buns, the most crucial thing is the red bean paste filling.

To make delicious red bean paste filling, the choice of beans is especially important.

Lu Feng took out the beans he'd bought from the System Mall from the Storage Room, grabbed a handful, and held them in his hand observing carefully.

The beans weren't particularly large in size; their skins had two colors, red and white; they were plump and smooth, and up close a faint bean fragrance could be smelled.

Just from appearance, they were top-grade beans.

This kind of bean is called Flower Bean; in ancient times it was a tribute to the imperial court, so it's also called "Emperor Bean".

Some red beans look very bright in color, but their skins are thick, not easy to cook soft, and the red bean paste made from them isn't that delicate either.

But this bean won't have that problem; Flower Bean skins are very thin, and after cooking soft and mashing into paste, they can have a delicate texture even without filtering out the bean skins.

Moreover, this bean itself tastes slightly sweet, and eating it isn't greasy at all, very suitable as red bean paste bun filling.

Lu Feng rinsed the beans a few times, then put them in a basin to soak.

Calculating the time, by evening they'd be about soaked soft.

After soaking the beans, Lu Feng didn't leave the shop immediately.

He took out some of the fresh meat filling he'd secretly kept from yesterday's closing, and Lu Feng made five steamers of xiaolongbao for himself.

He planned to take these back to the Rental House for lunch.

After the xiaolongbao were steamed, Lu Feng quickly packed them in takeout boxes, and taking advantage of no one around, quietly left Food Street.

A few pedestrians passed by Lu Feng's shop entrance and caught a whiff of the faint xiaolongbao fragrance in the air.

"How come I seem to smell the xiaolongbao Boss Lu makes?" one of them said.

"You're crazy, Boss Lu never operates during the day; where would the fragrance come from?" his companion replied with a laugh.

"True enough; looks like I've been missing Boss Lu so much I've gone into qi deviation; I'll come over early tonight."

…

Here Lu Feng returned to the Rental House and wrapped the packed xiaolongbao in insulation cotton.

This Rental House of his had never been cooked in, and there wasn't a microwave or anything at home either, so he could only try to keep the xiaolongbao warm.

When he took the xiaolongbao out at noon, they were still warm to the touch.

Although the texture couldn't compare to fresh-out-of-the-steamer, the flavor was still extremely delicious.

This was far stronger than those takeouts he'd eaten before.

After eating the xiaolongbao, Lu Feng took a nap.

Don't know if it was because he got up too early in the morning, but he slept straight through until after three in the afternoon before waking up.

Lu Feng got up and freshened up a bit, feeling clear-headed and refreshed.

Even though it was already afternoon, it was still a day full of vigor.

Not long after Lu Feng arrived at Food Street, Hu Daye arrived carrying a full basket of vegetables.

He bought some leeks and green onions from Hu Daye again, and after seeing Hu Daye off, Lu Feng started preparing the fillings.

To let the beans soak a bit longer, Lu Feng first mixed the three fillings — fresh meat, shrimp, and leeks — and put them in the refrigerator to keep fresh.

After all preparation work was done, the beans were also about done soaking.

He poured the soaked beans into a pot, added clear water and boiled over high heat; when only a little water was left in the pot, they were about done cooking.

Lu Feng picked up a bean with his hand and gently pinched it with his fingers; the bean immediately burst open, turning into bean paste.

He scooped the cooked beans from the pot into a large basin; after letting them cool a bit, Lu Feng found a large spoon and started mashing the red bean paste.

Although using a blender to puree the beans is more convenient, the texture can't compare to hand-mashed.

During the mashing process, Lu Feng added some white sugar; this way, during the crushing process, the red bean paste's flavor could become even.

When the beans in the basin were mashed soft, and turning them over a few times revealed no whole beans, the red bean paste filling was successfully completed.

Lu Feng used his chopsticks to pick up a little, put it into his mouth to taste it, then nodded with satisfaction.

The sweetness of the red bean paste was just right, not cloying at all; the red bean paste was fragrant, sweet, soft, and very delicious.

If he hadn't had to sell it to those customers later, Lu Feng really would have just taken this whole basin of red bean paste as his dinner.

Taking out the dough that had been proofed in advance, he skillfully rolled out the wrappers, then began wrapping the red bean paste buns first.

The wrapped red bean paste buns looked different from other steamed buns, with no pleats on top.

They looked round and plump, very cute.

Lu Feng wrapped himself a steamer basket of red bean paste buns, and also got one steamer basket each of shrimp and leek meat filling buns.

While the steamed buns he was eating were being put into the steamer to steam, Lu Feng took advantage of this time to start wrapping the steamed buns to be sold tonight.

As the heat rose, the steamer baskets on the steamer began to give off a fragrant, sweet aroma.

Smelling this scent, Lu Feng suddenly felt his stomach growling with hunger, and his movements wrapping the steamed buns slowed down.

The fragrant, sweet taste of the red bean paste steamed buns made Lu Feng, who was not particularly fond of sweets, unable to help but look forward to being able to take a bite soon.

Finally waiting until the steamed buns were steamed through, Lu Feng glanced at the time; there was not much time left before opening at nine.

Suppressing the saliva that was almost dripping from his mouth, Lu Feng sped up his movements, first wrapping the red bean paste filling for the first pot to be sold, placing it on the steamer to begin steaming.

With the preparation finished, Lu Feng then sat down at the dining table with peace of mind and opened his dinner for tonight.

The first impression the steamed red bean paste buns gave was that they were round.

That kind of round and plump roundness looked very cute.

The skin of the steamed buns had a sheen, white and plump, looking like small steamed buns.

Lu Feng pressed it with his chopsticks, and several marks were pressed onto the smooth skin; when he withdrew his chopsticks, the wrapper bounced back and became round and plump again.

Lu Feng found it quite amusing; these steamed buns were like stress-relief toys.

Full of anticipation, he picked one up with his chopsticks, put it into his mouth, and took a bite.

Full of red bean paste, carrying a rich, sweet fragrance, it flowed out; as his mouth began to chew, the deliciousness of the red bean paste bun began to bloom in his mouth.