Chapter 010 - Tea Eggs

"I'll peel it for you guys to eat!" Ye Xia took an egg and started peeling the shell, "Anyway, it's a boiled thing, it's definitely fine to eat it, it's just a matter of whether it tastes good or not."

After Ye Xia finished shelling and put it on his mother's plate, he also peeled one for his father.

Alina looked at the brown egg whites, not daring to take a bite, smiled at her husband and said, "Oh, Yerofey, taste it first and then tell me if it's good."

Yerofey looked at his wife, then at his son, and with his left hand he pressed a fork against the shelled egg, and with his right hand he carefully cut a small slice of the white with his knife, then he speared the piece of white with his fork and brought it to his mouth.

Both Yeesha and Alina stared silently at Yelofei's face, wanting to see what expression would appear on his face.

Papa Yerofei chewed gently a few times and swallowed, now with a confused expression. Yerofei proceeded to cut off a larger slice of egg white and brought it into his mouth. He chews it carefully for a few moments and swallows it with satisfaction, showing a smiling expression.

Alina looked anxious and urged, "Yelofei, hurry up and say, what's the flavor? Is it good?"

The smile on Yerofei's face grew wider as he cut a larger piece this time, including the half yolk wrapped around the egg white, and replied, "I can't tell at once, I'll have to keep tasting."

Ye Luo Fei finished chewing the third bite with a smile, swallowed it, nodded with a smile, then shook his head with a serious expression and said, "It's not good. I'll eat this one for you!" After saying that, Papa Yelofei grabbed the last egg on the plate onto his own plate.

Knowing that her husband had said the opposite, Alina tried to taste the "ugly egg" in three steps, from the smallest to the largest, just as her husband had done earlier.

Similarly, Alina's expression was puzzled, then smiled, then said with a big grin, "It's delicious! Son, didn't you cook a big pot? Bring me two more!"

"I'll take three!" Papa Yerofei solitaire.

Ye Xia had already tasted one when he first cooked it and was self-satisfied, so he wasn't worried about his parents not being satisfied.

Ye Xia smiled and carried the plate back to the table and set it down, there were eight eggs on the plate.

Next, Alina ate two more eggs, Yerofey ate three more, and Yersha ate three more.

After finishing the eggs, Old Mother Alina asked her son, "Yersha, is there a name or name for the eggs cooked this way?"

Ye Xia began to eat the rice and other dishes, and when he had swallowed his mouth, he replied, "An egg boiled like this is suitable for breakfast or a snack, it has a very plain name, called - Tea Leaf Egg!"

"Tea eggs, tea eggs ..." Alina and Yelofei whispered the word over and over again, and began to add to each other's words:

"Very common name, straightforward, easy to understand, new flavor, great!" (Yerofei)

"Yes, the name is Tea Eggs, and when you eat them, you can taste the tea flavor, and the flavor is not too salty, it's just right, unlike our usual boiled eggs in water, which have to be accompanied by a bit of soy sauce to make them taste good." (Alina)

...

Ye Xia made an excuse about going to the restroom.

Coming out of the toilet, Ye Xia went to wash his hands in the wash basin in the yard, then turned his back to his parents in the house and looked up at the bright moon in the sky, with hot tears in his eyes, and sighed in his heart, "10,000 years have passed, to be reborn as a human being, to taste Chinese snacks once again, and to be alive, it's so good to be alive!"

When the tears in his eyes poured back, Ye Xia swallowed a few times, not knowing whether it was tears or saliva that he swallowed, then he wiped his face a few times with his wet hands, went to the eaves of the house to get a towel and wiped it a few times, and walked back to the dining room, revealing a smiling face and continuing to eat with his parents.

Early the next morning, a family of three hurriedly ate breakfast, of course, each without a tea egg.

After breakfast, following Ye Xia's "arrangement", Father Yelofei set up a small stove by the roadside in front of his house and burned firewood. On the stove put a small pot, small pot of brown "soup" soaked in twenty tea eggs, small fire, warm slow cooking, to maintain the heat. Papa Yelofei walked around, taking straw to feed the cows, taking rice to feed the chickens, and doing housework while looking at the "stall" in front of the door.

Yersha and her mother traveled towards the town in a carriage. Ye Xia and Alina sat side by side in the front to drive the horses, and behind them sat a large pot with a hundred tea eggs soaking in it; a medium pot with fifty tea eggs soaking in it; and a small pot with thirty tea eggs soaking in it.

On the outside of the wagon wagon, a few bundles of firewood were tied there at the tailstock.

After entering the south gate of Tasco Town and arriving at the food market a street away, Alina went to the market steward to spend two coppers to buy a temporary stall ticket for the day, while Ye Xia began to set up the stove at the ground stall, burned firewood, set up the medium pot on it, and began to heat up the fifty tea eggs.

After his mother came to the stall to help, Ye Xia explained that his mother had opened the sale at the food market, then he urged the old horse and rushed in the direction of Andre's house.

Andre has just opened for business and is wiping down the tables and washing the tea set.

"Andre!"

Andrei was startled because it was the first time he had ever heard this voice call out to him early in the morning. The lanky figure turned to see his old friend coming toward him with a small pot, and Andrei asked, "Bringing me soup early in the morning, brother?"

"Soup your ass!" Yersha looked to the floor by the tea table, "Andrei, put that little stove over here by the door!"

Andrei was unsure, but complied sharply.

Ye Xia placed the small pot on the stove and then brought in firewood to start the fire.

Andrei didn't know what his best friend was up to, and he even wondered if Ye Xia was suffering from ADHD, so he asked, "Ye Xia, what kind of soup is this? And you're soaking eggs with cracked shells everywhere?"

Ye Xia was in the process of making the fire a little bit bigger and answered without looking up, "The water in the pot is still warm, but it's not for drinking, it's for soaking and boiling tea eggs. The eggs have long been cooked, you can taste one."

Andrei will doubtfully use a spoon to fish up a tea egg, peel the shell, try to eat, the more he eats the brighter his eyes, the more exaggerated the smile on his square face, after swallowing the last mouthful, he excitedly said, "Brothers, the tea leaves you bought on credit from me yesterday, used to cook such a delicious egg? I'll have another one!"

"Hey, stop!" Ye Xia pushed away the spoon in Andre's hand, "I'll tell you first, there are thirty tea eggs in this pot, you just ate one, it counts as free for you to taste to know the flavor. Later, as many as your parents want to eat, it's free, but you, you have to count one copper for eating one. I'm going to Tolya's place now, and you, you'll help me sell these tea eggs, the first three customers, each can taste one for free, and the others will all be sold for one copper plate each. You keep the money, if it's not enough to cover the money I paid for the tea on credit yesterday, you tell me again. I'm leaving, goodbye!" Ye Xia jumped onto the carriage and ran in the direction of Tolya's family's tavern ...

Wearing only a thin pair of midriff pants, the chubby Tolya lay wide awake, snoring like a baby, drooling from the corners of his mouth and wetting a corner of his pillowcase.

"Doo-doo-doo!" The door sounded.

"Who is it? What is it?" Tolya asked lazily, not bothering to open her eyes.

Outside the door, Uncle Bogdan shook his head helplessly, sighing in his heart, his own son is not as good as other people's sons, like the early bird to go "looking for worms to eat" it?

"Ye Xia is chatting with a dozen beautiful young girls on the first floor! Aren't you going to take a look?"

"I'll be right there!" Tolya sat up from the bed with surprising speed.