Chapter 266 A Bowl of Egg Fried Rice
The wind stopped and the rain stopped overnight, and the sky was bright blue.

Not long after breakfast, Zhang Yunqi heard the school broadcast that the blocked mountain road in Shilingang had been cleared, and at half past ten, all students gathered together to return to the city.

Before leaving, Zhang Yunqi thought that it was not easy for the old couple Xu Guochun to provide them with food and drink, so he took out all the money in his pocket and counted it, a total of 36 yuan. After smoothing it out, he put it under the pillow in the room where he first met and slept last night.

When they were leaving, Xu Guochun sent them to the gate of the courtyard. His wife was afraid that the kids would be hungry on the way, so she steamed some sweet potatoes, put them in a plastic bag and asked Wang Xiaokai to carry it and eat it when he was hungry on the way, and told him to come and visit often when he had free time in the future.

When the group of seven walked to the main road at the foot of the valley, they saw the rural couple waving at them.

The bus arrived in the city around 2pm.

It happened to be the weekend, so there were no classes. When the car arrived at the No. 1 Middle School, everyone went home to their mothers. Zhang Yunqi invited several classmates from his class to have lunch at Zhangji Qifengdu Fish Noodle Shop opposite the school.

When crossing the street outside the school gate, Xiao Xuemei suddenly pointed at a banner hung on the telephone pole across the street and said loudly: "Hey, Yufei! Isn't this the advertisement for your Longjingyuan? Great, it's even across from our school. Look, there's a poster of your canned food pasted on the door of the small restaurant next to it."

Li Yufei was stunned for a moment, then looked at the banner on the telephone pole and subconsciously read the slogan: "Let the big pot dishes also have the taste of home - Longjingyuan canned black beans."

Then she looked at Zhang Yunqi with a smile.

Zhang Yunqi smiled and shook his head.

This slogan was not his idea, but it did capture the pain point of the school boarding students. I don't know which employee of the marketing department of Liansheng came up with it. I'm glad.

Lin Xueqing next to her said, "I've never eaten this can of fermented black beans before. It must be a new product. It looks good."

"Not just good, but very good." Wang Xiaokai, who knew the truth, pounded his chest and boasted: "I've eaten this canned black bean chili sauce, and it tastes really good! You can buy one or two bottles and try it later, and you'll know. The food in the school cafeteria is really bad, but if you mix this canned black bean sauce with rice, I guarantee it's absolutely good! And it's much cheaper than their previous canned Longjingyuan Chunjiang fish."

Lin Xueqing rolled her eyes: "Do you need to tell me this? Of course we will support the new canned food from Yufei's factory."

Wang Xiaokai was not happy to hear this: "Auntie, let's be fair, a factory that big opened its doors to do business, relying on product quality, taste, and affordability. If it relied on personal feelings, it would have failed long ago."

"Sorry, I'm just being personal. I'm not a boarding student. I eat at home every day. I buy canned black bean curd for nothing. Am I full?"

"Hey, if you say so, then I have to argue with you. This series of canned black bean chili sauce from Renlong Jingyuan is completely different from the previous canned Chunjiang fish. The canned Chunjiang fish is a finished product and can be eaten directly, but this canned black bean chili sauce can not only be eaten as a side dish with rice for boarders like us and white-collar workers who don't like to cook, but its more important role is to be used as a condiment in the kitchen and can be mixed with noodles, fried noodles, fried rice, and other dishes. Lin Xueqing, I remember you said that you like to eat roast chicken and spicy pig's trotters. Brother tells you, next time your mother makes spicy pig's trotters, ask her to warm tea oil, add this black bean chili sauce and stir-fry until fragrant, then add star anise, cinnamon and pig's trotters and stir-fry together, and finally add a bottle of beer and simmer on medium heat for 40 minutes. Believe me, you don't even need to add Fangyuan pepper, the taste is absolutely domineering!"

"Hey, Kaizi, you seem to be talking so much, why are you working so hard?"

"Because he's tried it before and thought it was good." Zhang Yunqi listened to the two arguing heatedly and said with a smile: "How about this, everyone is hungry, how about we have Longjingyuan black bean chili sauce fried rice for lunch today?"

"Then I'll look forward to the feast, let's go!" Zhang Yunqi's number one flatterer Wang Xiaokai agreed with both hands.

Zhang Yunqi led everyone to his family’s fish meal shop.

It was the weekend, and it was past lunchtime. There were only two or three customers in the store. My mother was not at home, having gone to the market to buy vegetables. Chunlan and Chujian's mother Jiang Feng were the ones guarding the store. Zhang Yunqi called home to tell his family about being trapped in Jinping Mine yesterday. Chunlan also knew about it, and after asking him a lot of questions, she took out some drinks and popsicles from the refrigerator to entertain Chujian, Li Yufei, and the other girls. Zhang Yunqi made Longjingyuan black bean chili sauce fried rice. The ingredients were simple: leftover rice from the previous night, eggs, Longjingyuan black bean chili sauce, and green onions.

Leftover rice and eggs are of course available, and there are more canned products of Longjingyuan's new black bean chili sauce. When Longjingyuan canning factory promotes new products, Zhang Ma, as the chairman's biological mother, is more concerned than Zhang Yunqi. The promotion of Liansheng has just begun, and Zhang Yunqi has not even learned about the offline carpet-style promotion activities carried out by the marketing department's field promotion team in major universities in the city, but Zhang Ma has already started to work hard on this matter. There are posters on the wall of the fish meal shop, banners on the door, and several large boxes of canned food are bought and placed in the fish meal shop. When people come to eat fish meal, they are given black bean chili sauce as a side dish.

Longjingyuan's black bean chili sauce fried rice looks simple, but it actually shows a lot of cooking skills. After Zhang Yunqi got some dry leftover rice, he beat the eggs thoroughly, heated the pan, added lard, turned on medium-low heat, and then poured the eggs in. At the same time, he took a spatula in his other hand and quickly spun the eggs in the pan to fry them. The speed was very fast because it could prevent the eggs from clumping, so that the eggs could be scrambled into egg flowers, which would completely stimulate the fragrance of the eggs. In addition, the eggs would be easier to evenly coat the rice.

After frying, the timing of pouring in the rice is particularly important. Because the aroma of the eggs becomes stronger as they are fried, if you pour the rice in too early, the eggs will not be fragrant enough, but if you pour it in too late, the eggs will become old and burnt, affecting the taste. The best way to judge when to pour in the rice is to look at the color. When the color of the eggs changes from light yellow to dark yellow, Zhang Yunqi pours the rice into the pot. At this time, the eggs are particularly fragrant.

After pouring the rice in, Zhang Yunqi turned on a low heat and crushed the rice with a spatula. Then he added Longjingyuan's black bean chili sauce and stir-fried it thoroughly until hot. He evenly mixed the rice, chopped eggs and black beans, added chopped green onions, and then served it on a plate and placed it on the dining table. He called Wang Xiaokai and Li Yufei, who were watching "I Love My Family" and eating popsicles under the TV, to come over for dinner.

Everyone gathered around. The egg fried rice was out of the pot at this time. The eggs had already broken into small golden brown pieces. The edges of the rice grains were slightly hard. The heat mixed with the aroma of Fangyuan pepper and fermented black beans came out from the cracks between the rice grains, and the rich aroma was everywhere. Everyone hadn't eaten all morning and was starving. They took their spoons and bowls and started eating directly. Even Chunlan couldn't help but take a bite with a spoon after hearing everyone say it was delicious. After eating, she was very unhappy: "Second brother, I say you are really too lazy to show up! You cook so deliciously, but you always ask me to make fried rice for you after school!"

The girls were all smiling, and they ate in a very polite manner.

Wang Xiaokai was very tough. He took an iron basin and gobbled it up in a flash. He ate too fast and choked to death. He drank a glass of water and burped twice before touching his stomach and said slowly, "Boss Zhang, I think you can buy the store next door and open a Longjingyuan fried egg restaurant."

Zhang Yunqi washed the pot and sat over: "Doesn't that mean I'll have to give you free food and drink for half a month?"

Wang Xiaokai chuckled, "How come you, the son of a landlord, have no sympathy for a poor peasant like me? You are so inhumane."

Zhang Yunqi stuffed a mouthful of fried rice into his mouth and said, "I guess if China had poor and lower-middle peasants like you, our great modernization drive would be in vain."

At this time, Xiao Xuemei interrupted and said, "Yunqi, how do you make this Longjingyuan black bean chili sauce fried rice?"

Zhang Yunqi was happy: "You want to learn?"

"Yes, how about you share some experience with me? Every day after school, my parents are not home yet, so I make fried rice when I'm hungry. Next time, I'll buy a few bottles of this Longjingyuan black bean chili sauce and stir-fry it."

Xiao Xuemei's situation was very common in that era. Students were growing up and were easily hungry. But in the 1990s, the living standard was not high and snacks were not affordable. When parents were not around after school, they would make fried rice with eggs by themselves, adding some soy sauce and lard to the leftover rice. It tasted really good. But for Zhang Yunqi, the days of squatting on the threshold of the courtyard door in tattered clothes, wiping his nose and eating the leftover rice he fried with a little lard and soy sauce are only in his memory. After going out to study and work, he has traveled to many places and eaten countless kinds of fried rice with eggs, sometimes in street stalls late at night, and sometimes as a staple food after meals in luxury hotels, but he just can't find the taste of his childhood, the taste of his childhood.

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said to Xiao Xuemei: "My method is not standard yet. Let's wait and see how the great chefs on TV do it."

Xiao Xuemei was a little surprised: "This, is it on TV?"

Zhang Yunqi nodded: "In a while, the TV stations in our province and city will launch a new food program, and this egg fried rice will be included in it."

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Sorry for the slow update.

(End of this chapter)