"Fifty yuan? Will that be enough?"
Gong Mingxia was worried that deducting fifty yuan each month might not be enough, considering there was meat in every meal and eggs to provide nutrition. Wouldn't fifty yuan be a little insufficient?
"Why are you being so foolish? Fifty yuan will be sufficient. Your total salary is only around six hundred yuan (in 1997, the average salary in the Capital was 918 yuan), and paying fifty yuan for living expenses for just one child, how much can they eat?"
"Relax, just focus on your work. In the future, this won't be our only project. Later, you can move with the construction sites. Once you're capable of managing the kitchen yourself, your salary will increase. You've just started, and for the first three months, it's definitely only six hundred yuan. If you work longer, your salary will go up."
In that era, having six hundred yuan with food and accommodations provided was already quite difficult.
Then, Wang Hao handed Gong Mingxia two eggs. "Eat, these are leftovers. The weather is hot, and it'd be a waste not to eat them, wouldn't it? Your child is growing, just eat, no worries!"
Upon seeing this, Gong Mingxia did not refuse. Everyone knew that the kitchen was a place with many perks. If she were too honest and took no advantages, it would make it difficult for the cook. After all, he also wanted his share of perks. If you were too straightforward, how could others make their moves?
Perhaps the original owner hadn't treated the child to any fine foods; the child, having already eaten and upon the mother's cue, still ate the eggs, since they couldn't be taken outside, they had to eat the supplement in the kitchen.
After eating and cleaning up, it was almost nine o'clock. Then, the two of them got busy preparing the noon meal.
The dough left from steaming buns in the morning was used to make more steamed buns. As some workers preferred flour to rice, they usually prepared two trays of steamed buns and two trays of rice at noon. They also kept leftover buns and eggs.
So, the noon meal was a big mixture, made with care to avoid waste.
"Xiao Gong, keep an eye on things here, I'm going to drive to buy some more vegetables. There's meat already in the freezer. Starting lunch at twelve o'clock is fine. I'll try to come back early to help. We have sixty-five people for lunch, slightly fewer than in the morning. If it gets too busy, find someone to help you."
After Master Wang left, Gong Mingxia went to check the kitchen. The meat was minced, machine-processed and mixed, making it cheaper.
At this point, she didn't care which type of meat it was. As long as it provided some nourishment for the workers, that was good management.
So, she took a basket of eggs, brought over the meat, and peeled four large cabbage heads.
Since she was cooking for fifty to sixty people by herself, naturally, she had to choose simpler dishes.
She washed the cabbage, chopped it, which took about half an hour.
She washed chilis, and chopped scallion strips, ginger strips, and minced garlic in preparation.
Coriander and tofu were also chopped and set aside.
She broke eggs into a bowl, added salt and water for seasoning, and poured the seasoned egg mixture into a prepared steaming tray, then placed it in the steamer, alongside rice, steamed buns, and tea eggs from the morning.
Close to eleven o'clock, she set a large iron pot on the stove, poured in oil, and fried peanuts. After frying, she placed the peanuts in a dish to cool, then added scallion, ginger, garlic, and chili into the oil until fragrant. Next, she added the minced meat, seasoned it with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and thirteen spices. After the minced meat was ready, she set it aside in a bowl.
She then cleaned the pot, poured in oil, added chili for fragrance, put in chopped cabbage stalks to fry until cooked through, then added cabbage leaves. Once they were cooked, she added white vinegar, salt, and sugar for flavor, cooked it for a few minutes, then poured in prepared starch. With that, the vinegar fried cabbage was ready. Official source is novel(ꜰ)ire.net
In a stone mortar, she crushed the fried peanuts and set them aside in a dish.
After the rice was done steaming, she took out the two trays of egg custard, drizzled the freshly cooked minced meat sauce over them, evenly spread it, then sprinkled a layer of crushed peanuts on top, finishing with scallion and coriander.
Lastly, she made tofu soup to complete the meal.
Around eleven fifty, the meal for sixty to seventy people was finally ready. However, without a moment to catch her breath, workers were already peeking at the door with bowls in hand, and she hurried over, smiling and waving at them.
"Everyone, come on in. The meal is ready."