Sorry!! I published chapter 200 as chapter 199 yesterday!!

Whether Third Miss Yuan did it on purpose had nothing to do with Wen Mingtang. Lin Fei, Liu Yuan, and others would come to negotiate with the Yuan brothers and sisters.

Wen Mingtang looked down at the hot oil bubbling slightly in the pot, pinched the crab legs, and put half of the crab body coated with starch into the pot and fried it.

The aroma of crabs was instantly aroused by the hot oil, and the smell of freshness that permeated was so rich and amazing that people could not help but swallow their saliva.

Beside her were Ah Bing and Tangyuan, who were preparing dishes skillfully. Ah Bing cut the cleaned crab into two with a flick of the knife; Tangyuan and a few servants were busy preparing other dishes.

Trim the nails of the chicken feet, open the shrimp’s back and remove the shrimp thread, cut the potatoes into strips, slice the lotus root, and prepare the rest of the green onions, ginger, onions, and other auxiliary ingredients.

When the side dishes were almost prepared, Wen Mingtang’s crabs were also fried.

After everything was prepared, Wen Mingtang heated up the pan, poured oil into it, put the shrimp in, fried them briefly, and then took them out.

Next, she used the fried shrimp oil to pour in various auxiliary ingredients such as green onions, ginger, onions, and special bean paste, added the crabs and blanched chicken feet, and then poured in the soup from the blanched chicken feet and simmered.

While making the ròu xièbāo, Wen Mingtang explained the purpose of each step to Ah Bing and Tangyuan beside him: “The shrimp oil from frying shrimp is especially fresh, and it has its own fresh flavor when cooking… Use a bamboo colander to filter the water used to blanch the chicken feet to remove the floating residue. Compared with ordinary plain water, it has a more fresh taste of chicken soup…”

Every step was done with attention, so the ròu xièbāo was naturally fresh and delicious.

After simmering for about a cup of tea, Wen Mingtang opened the lid, poured in potatoes and lotus roots, and started simmering again.

The taste of each side dish varied with the cooking time, so they were naturally not poured in at the same time. After half a cup of tea, Wen Mingtang finally poured in the most important “soul” of the crab pot – cut rice cake strips.

After another half a cup of tea of ​​simmering time, the ròu xièbāo was almost done.

The salty and fragrant smell of crab slowly diffused into the air during the cooking process after the lid was opened, and even overflowed into the yard of the public kitchen.

Yu Jijiu and his group arrived early, and before they even reached the public kitchen, they smelled the rich and tempting aroma as soon as they reached the square in the center of the Dali Temple.

“Wonderful!” One of the míngshì couldn’t help but take a deep breath and exclaimed at the rich and fresh fragrance, “How can it be so fragrant?”

Yu Jijiu, a regular customer of the public kitchen, disagreed: “The food in the public kitchen of Dali Temple smells so good every time we eat!”

After the Lishan Banquet and a box of Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes, Yu Jijiu successfully “brought” several very picky old friends to the Dali Temple public kitchen to have three meals a day.

“I heard that crabs are being cooked today. Although the accountant of this public kitchen is good at calculating, he has a good eye for purchasing ingredients. The crabs must be good!” Yu Jijiu said this, sniffed the crab aroma in the air, and said, “The kid next to me just came over to ask, and I heard that the lunch dish is called ròu xièbāo.”

As they were talking, they had already stepped into the public kitchen’s yard. The closer they got, the stronger the tempting aroma became. By the time they arrived at the public kitchen, it was as if the crabs were running rampant under their noses.

They quickened their pace, and when they stepped into the public kitchen, they saw Wen Mingtang and others putting the crab meat from the big pot into clay pots.

Shrimps, crabs, chicken feet split in half, potatoes, lotus roots, rice cakes, and other items covered in yellow sauce were scooped in with a spoon, then poured with a spoonful of rich and sticky sauce, and two crab shells that were also covered in sauce were placed on top, and finally sprinkled with a pinch of fresh and green chopped green onions.

Looking at the casserole filled with sauce and shiny crab meat, everyone felt as if the saliva in their mouths was overflowing uncontrollably.

The fresh and fishy smell went straight into their mouth.

Ji Caimai, who had just sat down at the takeaway stall, started clicking the beads on the abacus in his hand, which finally attracted the attention of several people.

“It’s almost noon, and the public kitchen is about to start serving food. Would you like to eat the ròu xièbāo?” Ji Caimai said with a smile.

“Nonsense!” Yu Jijiu said with a straight face, coughed lightly, and acted serious, “Otherwise did we come to see your old face?”

They came to see the crab’s “red face”.

While they were exchanging pleasantries, the noon bell rang, and Yu Jijiu and others naturally became the first group of diners for the public kitchen’s lunch that day.

By the time the people from the Dali Temple who had smelled the food hurried to the public kitchen, Yu Jijiu and others had already found a seat and sat down, each of them starting to eat with their chopsticks in front of a clay pot.

Looking at the long queue and the glances from people in the queue looking at them from time to time, they didn’t know whether it was because Master Wen’s craftsmanship was just good or it was human nature but bathed in the envious gazes of everyone, they always felt that the crab meat in the casserole seemed to be more fragrant.

Xun Zhou, who was sitting opposite Wang He and another person who had received a portion of ròu xièbāo, picked up half a crab coated with batter by picking up the crab legs with chopsticks.

The batter was not thick, but a thin layer, and although it was used to wrap the crab meat, after frying, the taste of the batter mixed with the deliciousness of the crab meat was surprisingly unique.

The sauce had a wonderful taste, salty with a hint of spiciness, and the crab was mixed with a special aroma of batter. It was mixed with the tender crab meat and you couldn’t stop eating it after just one suck.

After eating the meat on the crab, it was time to eat the crab legs. This was when you started eating them.

“Crabs are wonderful, but a little troublesome to eat!” Although Wang He said “troublesome”, his body movements were extremely honest. His hands, which usually “stay away from the kitchen” and “like cleanliness”, grabbed the crab legs covered with the sauce without hesitation, and then opened his mouth and bit off the head and tail, and used his mouth to bite out the crab meat in the crab legs inch by inch.

The crab legs were tender and delicious, but difficult to eat. However, this difficulty also brought some fun, making one feel comfortable.

The gourmet Yu Jijiu was the best at eating crabs. Although they sat down together to eat the ròu xièbāo, he finished half a crab before everyone else, and then hurriedly picked up his chopsticks to pick up the side dishes.

The first thing he encountered was a shrimp. After the back was opened and the shrimp thread was removed, the shrimp meat was firm and tasted extremely tender when dipped in sauce; the chicken feet, which had their nails trimmed and cut, were even softer and tastier, and the meat and bones could be separated with a light bite; the potatoes were fragrant and glutinous, and the lotus root slices were crisp and delicious… But what surprised him most was the rice cake strips that looked so inconspicuous normally!

The rice cake strips, which were as thick as fingers and covered with a rich sauce, were cooked to the perfect temperature, soft but not mushy, and cooked to the point where they could be picked up the whole. When you took a bite, you could feel the softness mixed with a subtle toughness, and you could pull out a long “thread” with every bite.

Yu Jijiu really loved the wonderful taste of the rice cakes. After eating several of them, he was about to ask everyone to stop eating crabs and try the rice cakes. At this time, Lin Fei brought Liu Yuan and others into the public kitchen.

(End of this chapter)

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Most similar recipe, used vermicelli instead of rice cake