Love letters are not allowed in the exorcism notebook!-Chapter 854 - 101: A Few Drinks at the Family Banquet

Discussion on how to easily make four substantial dishes in half an hour.

First, you need a maid for prepping ingredients, and then a pot of oil.

Blanch the tofu, gluten, and sweet potatoes.

Fry the tofu first, then the sweet potatoes.

The best-tasting version of Eight Treasures Tofu is actually the low-budget version. You just use the cheapest rehydrated squid, shrimp, sea cucumber, and snail meat that you can buy at the market, along with fish balls and crab sticks. Mix it all in a pot and enjoy that artificial flavor.

If you follow the high-end version as taught online by fancy restaurants, this dish is as good as ruined.

Not that it tastes bad, you just can’t say it has any character, unless you need an extra dish to fill the table; otherwise, there’s no need to order it.

Of course, there’s an even lower-budget version, given that nowadays you’re not even guaranteed to find rehydrated seafood at the market.

Dried shrimp and scallops with dried mushrooms, rehydrated in water, work just as well.

If you feel it lacks umami, you can add a spoonful of Tianmen’s local shrimp paste.

Coat the tofu in flour and deep-fry it until golden, then do the same with the sweet potatoes. This whole process takes about five to six minutes.

Next comes the thrilling and exciting cooking stage.

Pour seasoned oil into the pot, first stir-fry the shredded lean pork until half-cooked, then add eggs and sauces, and the first dish, pot-roasted pork tenderloin, is ready.

Don’t wash the pot after use, add gluten in with water and ingredients, thicken it and it’s done, the second local dish, braised gluten, is ready.

Still without washing the pot, put in tofu and dried shrimp mushrooms, add sauce and thicken, and the third dish, counterfeit Eight Treasures Tofu, is finished.

At this point, clean the pot, turn up the heat to boil sugar, add sweet potatoes, and the fourth dish, candied sweet potatoes, is done.

All done in one go.

If there’s time, you can conveniently make a seaweed egg soup.

The specific technical details aren’t worth discussing and can be learned independently. The most important thing is not to mess up this order.

If you make the candied sweet potatoes first, by the time the last dish is served, that stuff is already hardened.

If you make the Eight Treasures Tofu first, the pot will smell fishy.

Switching to other dishes requires additional prep, wasting more time.

There’s a lot of skill involved here. Wang Yunxiao even skillfully used analytical ability from the Scholarly Heresy to optimize the entire process.

But outwardly, it just looked like he casually whipped up four dishes with ease.

Li Mumu stood by watching in silence.

"So... are the first three dishes the same flavor?"

"Of course not, there are differences here."

Wang Yunxiao disdained to argue about it.

The stuff in a hot pot tastes the same too, why don’t you just order a whole table of wide noodles and cabbage?

"Why do I feel like you’re tricking me?"

"Definitely not."

Wang Yunxiao’s goal was quite clear.

I’m not trying to prove to your parents that I’m some kind of expert chef in the Chinese culinary world.

As long as they see that this young man has cooking skills, didn’t burn the food, and won’t starve their precious daughter, that’s enough.

Mu Yuming had already opened a bottle of wine in the living room, and when Wang Yunxiao brought the last dish over, Li Mumu hesitantly came along, and he waved her over, "Let Nanny Wu clean the kitchen, come sit over here and have a couple of drinks with me."

Wang Yunxiao humbly said, "Uncle, I’m not good with alcohol."

Mu Yuming laughed, "I usually don’t drink either, you see the wine others send me is never even opened. But if you say you can’t drink, I don’t believe it. I’ve heard about your reputation on the street, people say you and your buddies drink big bowls of alcohol and eat big chunks of meat every day, living it up."

"Those people listened to too many storybook tales, just babbling. In fact, how many actually know me? My buddies, if they’re not studying in school, they’re working at your construction site. You’ve seen them."

"I have seen them, truly all heroes."

"No, no, uncle you flatter us."

Wang Yunxiao raised his glass and offered a toast. Mu Yuming smiled faintly, raising his glass in return.

Li Mumu sat next to them, took a piece of the candied sweet potato, twirled it around her chopsticks, and dipped it in cold water.

The sugar coating is decent.

The skill is mainly in boiling the sugar for the candied sweet potatoes.

This skill is pretty good, not entirely exaggerated.

But it’s far from enough to win me over.

I, the distinguished eldest Miss Li, can’t be won over with just one plate of candied sweet potatoes, can I?

Not to mention this guy... tsk tsk, not exactly a straightforward person.

Hmm... the tofu is also nicely cooked.

By the time she snapped out of it, Wang Yunxiao and her father had already finished three rounds.

Each round with a small shot glass, about 50ml, and at 30-40% alcohol, they both took it in one gulp.

Putting down the glasses, they glanced at each other to assess each other’s expressions, and both Wang Yunxiao and Mu Yuming became alert.

They’d met a worthy opponent. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Scar Wang mixed in the Jianghu World back in the day, no need to elaborate on that front.

Mu the boss now deals in real estate, which comes with plenty of socializing.

Now they’re evenly matched.

"Eat up! Don’t be shy with us."

"Okay, uncle!"

Wang Yunxiao just put a piece of braised beef in his mouth when he heard Li Ya whispering to Li Mumu, "Being young is great, I remember when I went to the bar on a date with your dad, he was like a log, just gulping down drinks, even when drunk couldn’t muster the courage to say he liked me..."

Mu Yuming frowned and said, "Did that really happen?"

How I remember you feigned drunkenness to be harassed by a bunch of hobos, waiting for me to pass by and then throw yourself into my arms, then stubbornly clinging to me to take responsibility?

In front of the younger generation, he was too embarrassed to expose Li Ya’s past, so he could only respond vaguely.

Wang Yunxiao felt his head swell like a drum, squirming uncomfortably.

What kind of message was Aunt Li trying to send with this story?

Was she encouraging me to boldly confess, or dissatisfied that I wasn’t drinking enough?

At that moment, he noticed from the corner of his eye that Mu Yuming was about to pick up his glass, and quickly responded, "Uncle, let me toast you again!"

"Hmm, drink as much as you can handle, don’t push yourself."

Mu Yuming nodded, picked up his glass, and downed it in one go.

I’ve finished mine, you as you please.

"Drink slowly, what’s the rush? It’s not like you’re outside," Li Ya said with a grin as she picked up her teacup. "Eat more, with water as my stand-in for wine, let me have a drink with you..."

"Cough cough—"

Li Mumu coughed softly, covering her mouth nearby.

Are you two playing a double-handed couple tactic here? What do you mean by this?

Are you trying to get him drunk so he stays over tonight?

Are you ignoring my presence?

Watching Wang Yunxiao gulping down cup after cup like a fool, she couldn’t help but give his shin a gentle kick under the table.

That’s enough, why are you pretending to be an exemplary son-in-law here?

Wang Yunxiao actually thought it was enough too, having a few cups to show his attitude was fine. After all, it wouldn’t be good if he turned the future father-in-law into a warrior with an upset stomach.

But just then, Li Ya said, "Hubby, did you know that recently, even those visiting relatives, regardless of how close or distant they are to you, immediately ask about Mumu’s situation, as if matchmaking is the only topic they have, it’s driving me crazy..."