Niu Xiaoli followed Niu Ben with some suspicion and found a place to sit down. Traditional Western food will have an appetizer, and soy sauce Western food is no exception. Generally, the appetizer of Western food is vegetable salad, while the appetizer of Shanghai-style soy sauce Western food is potato salad.

Speaking of the birth of potato salad is wonderful, although the Huaihai people at the beginning of the last century ate Western food, they generally could not accept to eat bloody steak and raw vegetables. Many people think that this is no different from Ru Mao drinking blood.

And the Huaihai chef made a potato salad with ingenuity. Peel fresh potatoes, steam/cook them and cut them into small pieces. Blanch the diced peas and carrots and mix together. Add the large red sausage cut into small cubes and stir well with mayonnaise.

It is a dish that hardly exists with any cooking skills and difficulty. But it's inexplicably delicious!

The potatoes are sandy, the peas are sweet and soft, the carrots are crispy, and the red sausage is springy and meaty. In addition, there is mayonnaise, which is rich in fat but has a refreshing taste. It's a very simple combination of ingredients, but it forms a wonderful combination.

This salad is very popular in Huaihai City and has spread widely. It was even named Huaihai salad.

And this method of salad has now become a unique sentiment in Huaihai City. If you go all over the world, you may not find a certain kind of salad sold in lo-mei shops.

In Huaihai, this kind of potato salad is generally sold by the pound in the lo-mei shop deli shop. Therefore, many Huaihai people no longer think that potato salad is a Western meal at all, but already think that it is a Huaihai dish.

So when Zhang Tong brought two Huaihai salads to Niu Xiaoli and Niu Ben, Niu Xiaoli was a little confused, she said: "Xiao Zhang, this is also Western food?

Zhang Tong smiled: "It is guaranteed to be Western food, and there is salad dressing and mayonnaise in Chinese food." And I made it myself, not from a lo-mei shop like the vegetable market. Potatoes are steamed and have a better taste than boiled. Mayonnaise is also made by yourself, so let's try it. ”

Niu Xiaoli hadn't started to eat yet, and Niu Ben had already unceremoniously started eating with chopsticks. This is another feature of soy sauce Western cuisine, where guests are provided with knives and forks, but chopsticks are also provided.

"It's delicious!" Niu Ben couldn't help but give Zhang Tong a thumbs up after eating several bites. He originally liked to eat potato salad, but the potato salad sold in the market generally has a "fake" feeling.

This sensation comes mainly from the salad dressing and mayonnaise that accompany the potatoes. Merchants are reluctant to buy expensive salad dressings and mayonnaise for dressing. And Zhang Tong made his own mayonnaise.

Without any additives, beat up six egg yolks, add a small amount of olive oil, salt, sugar, white vinegar and pepper. There are no show-off skills worth writing about, and there are no special ingredients that catch the eye.

Only pay attention to the degree of egg yolk whipping when blending, and pay attention to the freshness of eggs when choosing eggs, everything is just that. There is no showmanship, only authenticity.

Therefore, Niu Ben eats this potato salad with a sense of reality that other potato salads sold in the market do not have.

Niu Xiaoli also took a bite, but the taste was the same as what Zhang Tong said. It's completely different from the potato salad sold in the market, the ingredients are fresh, and the mayonnaise is particularly refreshing. You can also feel the faint aroma of egg yolk.

After the appetizer, the soup and main course are served in the soy sauce Western food.

In Shanghai-style Western food, the soup is generally Huaihai borscht, and the main dish is generally fried ribs. Just like the potato salad that was improved for the taste of Huaihai people, Huaihai borscht is also very different from the original borscht.

There is no beet that will not be used in Huaihai borscht, and red sausage is added to reduce beet, and there is no cream added, and the amount of cheese is used in small quantities. At the same time, parsley is also abandoned because some people can't accept its taste.

Zhang Tong's Huaihai borscht is an old-fashioned method of stir-frying onions and potatoes until soft, mixed with beef and simmered with peeled tomatoes. Add the shredded red sausage and grated cheese before cooking. Finally, I used the western thickening technique of butter and flour to make a thickening.

Huaihai borscht is not as sour as the original borscht, nor is it heavy and greasy as the original borscht. It can be said to be a sweet and sour dish, and it tends to have a refreshing taste.

And the main dish that goes well with this refreshing taste is the Huaihai fried ribs.

Zhang Tong was more puzzled, he had been back in modern times for a while. I've been to some places and eaten at some restaurants, but he can't figure out why tonkatsu has become an Oriental dish.

Isn't this the representative of Huaihai Western food? How did it become a representative of Oriental food? If anything, Oriental tonkatsu should also be learned from Huaihai.

The tonkatsu is a hard dish, and the four or two large pork rows are loosened with a meat hammer on the cutting board. Prepare egg mixture, dry starch and breadcrumbs to pass the three levels. That is, the large ribs are first dipped in egg liquid, then dipped in starch, then dipped in egg wash again, and finally decorated with breadcrumbs.

This tonkatsu technique is influenced by Western cuisine. Before Westerners came to Huaihai, not many people in Huaihai had ever seen such a thing as breadcrumbs.

However, fried steaks have a very long history in Huaihai, and the first thing to do was to drag the noodles. Later, when he came into contact with the practice of watercress, only the chef improved the practice of tonkatsu.

Modern techniques such as tonkatsu and chicken cutlets are almost entirely derived from this practice.

The oil temperature is 60% hot, put the pork chops in the pan, and fry them over medium heat until golden brown. Cut the pot into small pieces on the cutting board, clicking, and each knife makes a crisp sound.

Because of the outer coat of the ribs, the whole ribs are not in direct contact with the hot oil, which keeps the meat still juicy.

The fried golden pork chops are served on a white porcelain plate. Drizzled with Worcester's spicy soy sauce, a traditional Huaihai fried steak is completed.

Zhang Tong finished the meal with a dessert with Huaihai characteristics: chestnut cake.

It's not a chestnut-flavored cake, but a chestnut cake. In the early years, white flour was expensive, as were eggs and milk. The cost of making a cake is too high, and many civilians cannot afford it.

In order to allow more people to enjoy the sweet happiness brought by the cake, a Huaihai chef came up with the idea of using chestnuts instead of cake embryos.

Fresh chestnuts are boiled, mixed with some sugar, whipped into chestnut puree, and then the chestnut puree is loaded into a prototype mold to set. Finally, the cream shape is topped and a chestnut cake is complete.

Chestnut cake reduced the cost of cake making, and many people tasted the sweetness of cake in the old days when everyone was not wealthy. Today, chestnut cakes are only made by a few time-honored Huaihai pastry shops.

Time has passed, and the last time Niu Xiaoli ate chestnut cake was more than ten years ago, when Niu Ben was not born.

The first date she went to with Niu Ben's father was a chestnut cake and cream stuffed with Ruby. Later, there were fewer and fewer chestnut cake shops. Because of the rough taste of chestnuts, many people are not very acceptable to living conditions now.

Niu Xiaoli was a little surprised today, because she thought that Niu Ben would take her to a serious Western restaurant to eat Western food or something. Because I usually don't want to take him to a very expensive restaurant to eat those things.

And now he is bringing himself to eat the "pidgin" Western food made by Zhang Tong. However, Niu Xiaoli does have to admit that the dishes made by Zhang Tong are more in line with her appetite. Eating bloody steak or something in authentic Western food, Niu Xiaoli is still relatively unacceptable.

And Niu Ben is also very happy to eat today, and he seems to be in a much better mood. Niu Xiaoli cleared her throat and prepared to take advantage of this time to talk to Niu Ben about the time to go to the United States. At this time, Niu Ben asked one step ahead of her: "Mom, do you think today's Western food is delicious?"

Niu Ben's eyes flickered. Zhang Tong stood behind the semi-open kitchen and looked at the mother and son, with a smile on his lips. Niu Xiaopang Ding is about to start working.

PS Pidgin: Refers to not authentic.