Chapter 3 2. Oscar time

"Cheng Danqing!" As soon as I stepped into the restaurant, someone called out my nickname in high school, and this person was Wu Yali. I took a closer look at Wu Yali. It's been ten years. Wu Yali's words of "Eighteen Changes in Women's University" are really not convincing. Her face is still so dark and mellow, and her eyes are still so swollen and round. The old classmates also arrived, sitting around a table, everyone had tears in their eyes, including me and Wu Yali. "Danqinger, look how foreign you have become, you look like a person from a big city." Wu Yali said while touching my clothes.

I also held Wu Yali's hand: "What is foreign style? Life in Beijing is stressful. You see, I have bags under my eyes. You are better. It has been ten years and nothing has changed." Wu Yali smiled happily. With a smile, her eyes became even more invisible, and there were only two squeezed out folds hanging on her face. The old classmate next to her said: "Wu Yali, don't care about her being called egg white! She is famous now. The gourmet columnist who writes articles, cultural people, the name has been changed a long time ago, called Yumeng, Cheng Yumeng, if you return the egg whites, the soil turtle is dead."

I was called Cheng Danqing, more than half of the reason is because of Wu Yali, which is also the reason why she still remembers my name so vividly. In high school, girls have already started to love smug beauty. Headed by Wu Yali, there is a group of girls who, every day We exchange beauty tips between classes. I’m actually curious, but I don’t want to go up and listen. When I was in high school, I took the route of loneliness and aloofness, rather than losing weight and removing acne. One day, I heard it from a distance. Wu Yali said: "Egg white is for acne. Applying a layer on the face is really effective..."

I didn't understand what I heard, touched the layer of pack on my face at that time, and felt like giving it a try, but I didn't hear all the words at the time, and I didn't understand the principle of using the mask. I really thought that after washing my face in the morning, apply it It was enough to go up one level, but when I arrived at school, the egg white on my face began to harden and fell off layer by layer, which made my classmates laugh. Since then, Wu Yali has started calling me Cheng Danqinger. Before serving the main course, I had already inquired about Wu Yali's recent situation. After graduating from high school, she repeated a year, but her grades were not as good as the previous year. The family planned to let her repeat it again. Wu Yali told her father directly She said that if she repeated her studies for another year, there might be one less person on the household registration book, and the family didn't force her any more. They found her an ordinary job, and later found a normal partner, and then got married. The next time I came to Beijing for tourism, I didn’t spend my honeymoon when I got married. This time, both of us happened to be on vacation, so I came to Beijing to make up for it. After listening to Wu Yali’s recent situation, I suddenly didn’t intend to tell her about her in my yearbook. The sentence left behind is that compared to her rural life, I am much more advanced.

The old classmates expressed their opinions one after another: "Yali, let us arrange it? Where do you want to go? Tell me!" Wu Yali smiled and waved her hands: "No, no, no..." "You're welcome, play, you find us, eat, you find egg whites, she must know which restaurant is the most authentic..." I met everyone's eyes, and finally waited for such a moment to say what I wanted to show off at this class reunion. "Yali, you see this is not a coincidence. It is said that when you come to Beijing, I have to entertain you comfortably. The roast duck has Da Dong on the top and Duan Fang on the bottom. The taste is authentic, each with its own flavor. Well, if you eat boiled mutton, I can also take you to the best restaurant in old Beijing. The master used to be from Shiyuefang. The hand-cut mutton is called thin. I am familiar with these places. I will take you there. It must be the best greeting, but you see, unfortunately, I will go abroad the day after tomorrow, and our magazine arranged for me to go to Tuscany, where I can gather and eat local specialties. The main reason is to go out for fun with public funds. , I want to know that you are coming, I will..."

"No, fuck you, such a good opportunity, Tuscany, right? Tuscany is..." Wu Yali looked confused, probably the first time she heard such a place name. “It’s a region in Italy, the hometown of gourmet food, pasta—oh, it’s what we call pasta in Beijing, it’s very famous for making it, go now, just as the local fruits are coming down, it’s a good season to eat cherries and red berries Woolen cloth." Wu Yali became more and more confused the more she listened, especially after I changed the foreign names of cherry and strawberry. "Just listen to it. Look at you egg whites. You go to such a foreign place as soon as you go. If you don't mention Italy, I would think Tuscany is a country."

I smiled lightly: "Haven't you watched "Under the Tuscan Sun"? That movie is very beautiful, with blue sky and white clouds, trees and grass, all very green. I hope I can catch up with it this time." If the weather is good, let’s actually go abroad to play, just to change the environment, Beijing’s pollution is too serious, and the food is not fresh.” Wu Yali smiled embarrassingly: "Look, you are all running out, and I am still squeezing into Beijing. This person is really different from other people." "Don't say that, I still think that if I have time, I will go back to Datong and spend a good time. A small city is better than a small city. There is no pressure. Life is more ordinary, but ordinary is a blessing."

Wu Yali stared at the knife and fork in front of her without saying a word. At this time, the main course was served. Everyone looked away, staring at what was on the plate in front of them. A male classmate said with a troubled expression: "For foreigners, it is troublesome to eat. Look at the dishes that are served plate by plate. The plates are huge. There are only so few things, which are not enough for the side dishes that we send in the restaurant." It's a lot." "Yes, for the dish just now, there is only one shrimp on a plate as big as a washbasin, and if the shrimp is stuck between the teeth, it is not easy to pick it out, and it is too small." Another male classmate followed suit. complain.

I looked at the two male classmates with hungry faces, and gently picked up the knife and fork: "The one just now is an appetizer, it is for appetizers, and the shrimp is New Zealand sea shrimp, soaked in olive oil, the taste is actually not bad Well, the ingredients in this store are all airlifted in on the same day, and the quality is still guaranteed." "I really haven't tasted it." The male student said, "It's gone before I taste it. If it's really this good, and I don't say to give two more, then what are we eating now?" "Smoked semi-dry sausage with saffron pasta, in fact, it is quite risky to order pasta in a French restaurant, but the chef of this restaurant has worked in a Michelin restaurant, the taste should be guaranteed, and the combination of saffron and pasta is quite delicious It's new, but whether it's delicious or not, I have to come back from my pasta hometown like Tuscany before I have a say."

While talking, I have already skillfully cut the sausage in front of me, just enough to fit into my mouth. There was silence around me, and no one said anything. I just picked up the knife and fork and started cutting. Sausages, surrounded by the screech of knives across plates. "Hey, look at this, this noodle, does it look like the kind of pimples we have in Datong?" Wu Yali picked up a piece of butterfly noodle with a fork, and broke the silence with a loud voice. "Really!" The students all looked up and echoed. "Oh, as soon as you said pimples, I remembered the one in front of our school. I remember, wow, they also sell noodles, and the pimples are delicious." Classmate Lao Zhou looked yearning.

"The marinade is also good, and the pepper fried in sesame oil is delicious." Under the leadership of Wu Yali, my old classmates who had been in Beijing for ten years began to speak their hometown dialect with mouth watering. "Hey, I knew you were greedy for our food in Datong. I couldn't bring you the noodle noodles. I brought you some sesame oil. You go home and buy some dried chilies, fry them in oil, mix them Eat the noodles, at least it has a taste of home." After Wu Yali said this, the faces of all the classmates lit up, and they kept thanking Wu Yali. When they were making a lot of noise, I took a bite of the sausage, raised my hand, and called the waiter to come over. A waiter dressed in black with an expression like a funeral practitioner came in and leaned slightly towards me. I pushed the plate in front of me: "Please ask the chef to come here." The waiter was taken aback for a moment, then nodded and walked away. Wu Yali asked me: "What's wrong? Who are you looking for? Call them the boss?" "In this kind of place, it's useless to call it the boss. You have to call the chef, that is, the chef." "Why did you call the chef? Have you grown hair from eating? It shouldn't be. Wow, this kind of place looks pretty clean." Old Zhou said. "Hey, not necessarily now. Some places look clean. You have to go to the back kitchen to have a look. It scares you to death. Hey, once I ate in Zhou's garden. The place is expensive enough. Guess what? What did you eat? A piece of fake nails came out, do you think it's disgusting!" When everyone was chattering, the chef came, and he was a Chinese. "How can I help you?" the chef asked blankly. I pick up a piece of smoked sausage with a fork and lift it in the air. "Today's main course is smoked sausage with saffron pasta, isn't it?" The chef nodded. "Then try today's sausage, is it half dry? It's completely dry." The chef frowned, reluctantly took the fork, put the sausage in his mouth, and chewed. "It's like this, miss. The degree of dryness of the sausage varies from person to person. You may think it's a bit too dry, but I think it's okay." The chef said in a neutral tone. "You feel all right?" I was also afraid that he would not fight with me. "In this dish, saffron and sausage are put together to let the semi-dry sausage absorb some of the saffron flavor. You put a whole dry smoked sausage and a whole raw white radish on this plate Here, the meaning is the same, and you have already sat in the chef's seat, you should know better than me, the calories of whole dry sausage are 372 calories, but only 285 calories of semi-dry sausage, and now a low-calorie diet is advocated, You charge us such expensive money, and let us risk getting fat like eating McDonald's?" The chef froze in place, with the expression of wanting to say something, but he just couldn't make a sound. "Also, let's not talk about the sausage, let's just talk about the noodles. I know this is a French restaurant. Ordering pasta is risky, but look at this plate of pasta. The oil is oil and noodles. It's divorced from the pasta. It seems that it was brought up in a mess. A good plate of spaghetti has two most important points: 1. The oil surface cannot be separated, and 2. When serving it, the plate should be warm. Neither did." The tip of the chef's nose was greasy, and he didn't have the glamorous temperament of the male model on the catwalk just now. I pushed the plate forward: "When you make such a plate of food, it is your signboard that is smashed, but it is my people who lose it. It is rare for my old classmates to get together, so you let us sit next to this kind of thing." Eat and chat?" Wu Yali secretly tugged at me: "I think it's delicious, forget it..." I gently pushed Wu Yali away, it's delicious because you haven't eaten it, how can I get a discount if I don't continue to make trouble? "It was my mistake, your opinion is very professional, I will improve it." The chef held back for a long time, and finally spit out such a sentence. "But I'm not here to teach you, I'm here to consume, to eat." "I'll give you a discount on all your meals, do you think it's okay?" Waiting is this. I've said everything before, I'll set the place, and I'll invite you for the meal, but there's no discount at all, it's more than five thousand yuan anyway, it's really distressing. "Do you think it's okay?" I was noncommittal, and looked up at the chandelier not far away. "Since I'm here to treat you to dinner, why do I care about your discounted money? What we eat is the atmosphere and the quality of the dishes. Oh, speaking of atmosphere..." I pointed to the chandelier, "Your restaurant has opened so much. For a long time, have you never felt that there is a problem with this lamp?" The chef shook his head blankly. "I have been feeling uncomfortable since I sat down. After a meal, I finally found out where the problem is. This chandelier has eleven bulbs. Please remove the bulb closest to the dining table." The chef greeted a waiter, stepped on a stool and unscrewed the light bulb. I pointed to the tabletop: "Did you see it? What's missing on the table?" The chef and my classmates stared at the table for a while. I pointed to the edge of the plate: "The light spot reflected on the plate by the light bulb just now is missing." A group of people raised their heads and looked at me blankly. "Every time I lower my head to eat, this light spot will be reflected into my eyes. It flickers for a while, which really affects the continuity of my tasting action. Is your restaurant two Michelin stars? Just such a small light spot, It can all prove that you are in vain." After the chef offered to give away a bottle of wine and get a 30% discount on the entire bill, I knew that my performance time was over and I could take a proud curtain call. I also knew that in the eyes of this chef, I was a troublemaker The thing is, in the eyes of the guests at the next table, I may look like a lively clown, but now I have learned to automatically block irrelevant eyes. I just want Wu Yali to see me. The meal was very quiet, no one cried, no one felt nostalgic, under the influence of the surrounding atmosphere, everyone didn't even have the courage to speak loudly, we just held up the cups, occasionally touched each other politely, and took a sip of the restaurant Asti sparkling wine as a gift, listen to me tell them the difference between sparkling wine and champagne, how long has the champagne naming rights lawsuit been fought, and a kind of water called "Acqua panda" from Tuscany is most suitable for aging with oak barrel white wine Drink together, and once a woman is over 30, she should only drink Contrex mineral water every day, which can not only lose weight, but also protect the kidneys... I said it rotely, and everyone listened in a daze. Wu Yali was so envious that she understood it like. If I use the Oscar as an example, I think what I got today is the Lifetime Achievement Award. After eating dessert, everyone said they wanted to go home. "Are you ready to eat? Don't be polite to me, Yali." I signed the bill while looking at Wu Yali. "It's really good, it's really good. Oh, I've eaten it before. My eyes are opened. My old man can't come here. Look, let him regret going." We walked out of the gate, and I turned to look at everyone: "How are you all going?" "Shall I take a taxi? Let's take Yali back. How do you get there?" A silver-gray Buick GL8 parked beside me, and the electric door slowly opened. "Our magazine has allocated a car for me, Ya Li, shall I take you off? Which hotel are you staying in?" Everyone looked at the Buick behind me. Lao Zhou had a very subtle expression: "Okay, you, the magazine has sent out the car so soon? Who said that scholars don't make money? Look at us Chengda writers, delicious food and drink , I have a car, next time we have a classmate reunion, shall we go to your big villa?" "Don't squeeze me, let's go, I have a lot of people in this car, get in the car, if we don't have a good time, I'll take you to a club, let's sit down and have a drink, there's a very good single malt whisky." A few classmates glanced at each other with unnatural expressions, and then Lao Zhou said: "Forget it, everyone is on the way, and it's getting late, you should go back quickly, we are responsible for sending Yali back." "Really don't need me to send it?" "I really don't need it." Everyone shook their heads determinedly. I got into the car, rolled down the glass, and waved to everyone: "Yali, it's fun in Beijing! Be careful and take care of your husband." "Okay! Egg White, go to Boskaya by yourself and be careful!" When the car window was slowly rolled up, I just heard Lao Zhou make fun of Wu Yali: "What Boscaya, it's Tuscany! Hey, it's okay if we can't go there, we can't even name it right." I sat in the airtight compartment and smiled slowly. This smile hung on my face for a long time, until the driver turned his head and said to me: "Hey big sister, big sister?" "Ok?" "You booked my car for an hour, right? It's going to be over now. I waited for you at the door of the restaurant for half an hour just now. What do you think we should do? It's you who pay for another hour. Shall I deliver it to your door, or do you get off at the o'clock? Anyway, it's only ten minutes now, and I'm sure I can't drive you to your house. This is only the third ring road, and your house is outside the fifth ring road. " I thought about it, and took out five one-hundred sheets from my bag, and put them on the co-pilot seat: "Five hundred an hour, right? You can count it later, drive for another five minutes, and then find a subway station ahead." , put me down."