Chapter 50: Discussing the Banquet
At this moment, there were a lot of food in the Jia family's house, such as a piece of pork weighing about five or six pounds, more than ten cabbages, seven or eight pounds of vermicelli, half a bag of flour, half a bag of soybeans, a dozen large radishes, more than twenty potatoes, a bundle of leeks, a large plate of dried tofu, etc.

These are the ingredients prepared by the Jia family for tomorrow's banquet.

It’s pretty good to be able to come up with these things in this day and age.

However, many of them were prepared with the help of Yi Zhonghai.

After all, Jia Dongxu is not only his apprentice, but also the first person he chose to take care of him in his old age, so he pays special attention to him.

"Dongxu, how many dishes do you plan to prepare for each table?"

Wang Jianye looked around at the prepared ingredients. He had to first know how many dishes there were on each table, and then he could list out the dishes to be made based on these ingredients.

Jia Dongxu had already discussed it with Yi Zhonghai and the others: "I plan to make six dishes for one table. Take a look at these ingredients, can they make six dishes?"

"Of course I can. After buying so many vegetables and spending so much money, how can I not make six dishes?"

Jia Zhang said.

Qin Huairu poured hot water into their cups without saying a word.

She had just gotten married and had almost no say in the Jia family.

Wang Jianye thought for a while, "I think we can make vinegar-fried cabbage, pork stewed with cabbage and vermicelli, soybean stewed radish, hot and sour potato shreds, leek and dried tofu, and braised potatoes. What do you think of these six dishes?"

Wang Jianye can cook all these dishes.

Among them, the quality of the two dishes, hot and sour shredded potatoes and leek and dried tofu, has reached the level of the top chefs.

The other four dishes were not difficult to prepare. With Wang Jianye's current talent for cooking, he could cook them very well, which was enough for the banquet in the courtyard.

Yi Zhonghai frowned, "Just one meat dish?"

"If you think that there is only one meat dish and it's a little insufficient, then add some meat to the stewed radish with soybeans and the braised potatoes."

Wang Jianye gave his own suggestions for improvement.

Jia Dongxu thought it was great: "This way we will have three meat dishes, which makes our family look more generous."

"Oh, why are you so generous? Don't you see how poor our family is?"

Jia Zhang didn't care about those things. Anyway, the total amount of meat in the dishes was the same, so she felt there was no difference.

It’s not like if you put more meat in a few dishes, there will be more meat in the dish.

Yi Zhonghai shook his head: "A wedding banquet is just like an engagement banquet. There are rules to follow. You can't have an odd number. Old Yan knows this better than I do. Dongxu, go to the front yard and call Old Yan over."

After hearing Yi Zhonghai's instructions, Jia Dongxu quickly went to the front yard and was called over by Yan Fugui.

When Yan Fugui heard that they were hesitant, he said, "Old Yi is right. The dishes at the wedding banquet must be in pairs. Not only the total number of dishes must be in pairs, but also the number of meat dishes, vegetarian dishes, cold dishes, and soup dishes must be in pairs."

Jia Dongxu worriedly said, "But if that's the case, the food we prepared won't be enough."

"Let me take a look."

Yan Fugui looked at the food that the Jia family had prepared during the day and nodded, "It's indeed not enough, but now the higher-ups are calling for wedding banquets to be simple. Since we don't have enough, we can't pretend to be rich and have to prepare a few meat dishes, a few vegetables, a few cold dishes, and a few soup dishes. That would be uneconomical."

Yan Fugui's words were exactly what Jia Zhang was thinking.

She also felt that these dishes were enough and the more money they could save, the better.

After all, most of these dishes were going to be eaten by the guests, so Jia Zhang was reluctant.

"What the old sister-in-law said makes sense. In this case, I suggest that we don't care about the details and just keep it simple. For this wedding banquet, we can add meat to the three dishes that Wang Jianye mentioned."

After Yi Zhonghai finished speaking, he looked at Jia Dongxu: "Dongxu, what do you think?"

Jia Dongxu didn't have a strong opinion. "I'm fine with any dish. It doesn't matter if it has meat." Seeing that Jia Dongxu didn't have any opinion, Yi Zhonghai said to Wang Jianye, "Then let's do what we just said."

Wang Jianye nodded: "Okay, I'll make a table for you now and let you taste my cooking skills."

"Hey, okay."

Yan Fugui was very happy because he could have a meal for free.

Even though the food Wang Jianye cooked this time was not tasty, there was meat in the dish after all, so he was reluctant to leave.

Wang Jianye picked up a cabbage from the ground, tore off the outermost layer of yellow leaves, then separated the head from the front and the roots from the bottom, and cut a knife in the middle.

He plans to use the upper and lower parts of the cabbage hearts to make pork stewed with cabbage and vermicelli, and the remaining cabbage stalks in the lower part to make pickled cabbage.

"Someone come and help me, otherwise I will be busy alone and I am afraid you won't be able to eat until eight or nine o'clock in the evening."

Wang Jianye shouted.

Yan Fugui was very proactive and was the first to respond and come over to help.

Then Jia Dongxu was unwilling to move, so he asked Qin Huairu to go over and help cook.

Yan Fugui picked up the slightly yellowed cabbage leaves that Wang Jianye had torn off, frowned, and put it down.

Originally, he was planning to look for some unused ingredients that he could take home.

But the cabbage leaves were so yellow and dry that even he couldn't eat it, so he had to give up.

Seeing Yan Fugui put down the withered cabbage leaves in his hand with regret, Wang Jianye instructed him to take the potatoes to the sink outside to wash them.

Yan Fugui responded and did as he was told.

Then Wang Jianye said to Qin Huairu while cutting cabbage: "Go and soak the vermicelli. Don't soak too much. It's enough for our dinner tonight."

"okay."

Qin Huairu found a yellow enamel basin from the cupboard. It was originally used to store lard. She now put a handful of vermicelli into it.

Just when I was about to put some clean water in it.

Wang Jianye stopped her and said, "We'll be eating soon, so use hot water. Hot water will make it quicker."

Qin Huairu nodded, picked up the thermos on the ground, and poured some hot water into the enamel basin, covering all the vermicelli in the basin.

"Pick the leeks, cut off the withered and yellow parts, and then wash them clean."

Wang Jianye continued to give instructions.

Qin Huairu immediately obeyed and did as she was told.

After a while, Qin Huairu washed the leeks in her hand in the cold tap water outside, and the fingers of both hands were red.

This is the tap water in winter, it is especially cold.

If the water used was freshly pumped well water, it would not be as cold as the water from the tap, and her hands would not be so red from the cold.

Wang Jianye then told her to peel the onions and garlic, and then wash the dried chilies.

Qin Huairu quickly prepared it for him and put all the side dishes in the bowl.

It is said that when men and women work together, the work will not be tiring.

Although Qin Huairu is Jia Dongxu's wife, Wang Jianye finds it quite easy to use her.

(End of this chapter)