8 Food

Passing through the food market, Wang Ming realized how hungry he was. The smell coming from the different stalls and stores made his mouth water, but he thought about it, even though he still had over 1000 yuan there was no reason to squander it. The food here were a lot more expensive than other places, he would wait until he got out of this market before buying good.

Wang Ming also wanted to get home as fast as possible to rent or buy a wheelchair since he had been walking around with only 1 and 3/4 of a crutch.

He was feeling pain in his legs since the one crutch was lower than the other which meant that his wounded legs kept touching the ground. He tried to hold his arms stretched so his feet wouldn't hit the ground, but that became too tiring, especially with all the stuff he was carrying. He was carrying at least 50 kgs on his crutches. It surprised Wang Ming that the crutches still held up.

Soon Wang Ming arrived at a shop named Weng Meat Store that sold just what he needed, which was beef and pork. That was what he wanted to sell, barbequed/grilled pork and beef. He knew that beef is a lot harder to manage on the grill, so not as many sold it on the grill. Especially high-grade beef that's supposed to be consumed at medium-rare, even rare depending on the cut.

Wang Ming had read a lot about different meats in the past, he knew that, for example, Japanese beef. Is superior to that of Chinese beef and probably the entire world, and you always want to cook them, especially the premium Japanese steak to medium-rare at max to emphasize the taste of the beef and the fat in it. If you cook it more than that, then the steak is going to run dry.

Weng Ping had opened his shop for half a day now and barely had any customers. He just kept looking around the street and saw potential clients roamed around, but they just kept walking by his shop. Finally, seeing a man walking toward his shop. He was happy but then also a little bummed.

His 3rd customer of the day was a man walking with a broken crutch and looked like he was miserable. But he had seen many types of people in his life, so he knew better than judging a man by his looks. And as long as he had money, Weng Ping would not discriminate against anybody.

He still remembered the story of a car dealership employee. He was arrogant and only dealt with people he deemed well off, which was of course by how they dressed. He got almost beaten to death when he denied a Ferrari to an underworld boss who liked to wear simple clothes.

Since he always wanted to remember that he came from the slums. The boss didn't care about the employee at first. But got enraged when the employee cursed his mom and dad for wasting the salesperson's time, so the boss called his underlings and nearly killed the employee.

So the owner had a broad smile on his face when he saw Wang Ming coming towards his store and even opened the door for him since he saw that Wang Ming struggled with the door.

"Welcome to my humble store customer!"

When Wang Ming arrived at the front door of the shop, he struggled to open the door since he had to pull the door towards him, he wouldn't have too much problems normally but with a broken crutch plus the baggage it made it a lot harder. It reminded him even more that he needs to get a wheelchair.

"Thank you, are you the owner?"

He told the man while walking in the shop. It thrilled him seeing all the fresh cuts lying inside transparent freezing boxes right in front of the counter. Seeing the cuts being stored properly to minimize the chances of bacteria and to keep it fresh the longest made Wang Ming happy. It seemed like the owner had a lot of knowledge about meats and how to preserve them.

"Yes, I'm Weng Ping, and I'm the owner of Weng Meat Store. What is your name? May I ask Young Master?"

Young Master? Why would he call me that, especially in my outfit? Wang Ming thought.

No one had called him Young Master in a long time now, ever since his father gave away his business.

��My name's Wang Ming and don't call me Young Master, I'm not worthy. Could you please get me 10 pounds of flap steak, 5 pounds of pork belly and pork loin chops? I see that you have some Kobe beef there, Uncle Weng, is it authentic Japanese? If it is, please cut me 200 grams of it."

Wang Ming had a plan for all of his cuts. The flap steak is probably one of the best low-end cuts, in his opinion. Since they have a 'loose' texture it makes it great at soaking up marinade, and if you grill them to just about medium-rare, they get a tender and juicy texture to them.

Pork belly is probably one of the most popular cuts, and it's relatively inexpensive. He could make bacon out of it, but of course, the best choice would be to marinade and grill it. Since the pork belly has a proper distribution of both fat and meat, most people love it. He read in a book that in the west many westerners eat pork belly for Christmas. When you grill it to perfection and take a bite of it, it's tender and juicy coupled with a crispy skin which gives it a great texture.

Pork loin chops are a leaner piece with less fat, but the tenderness of the meat is not any worse than the other cuts. When you grill it, it shrinks, and as long as you don't overcook it, it will be so juicy and tender just like a girl's…

The Kobe, though, was not actually in his plan, but he wanted to buy a piece to take home and try it out. If people liked it, then it might bring him a lot of money. Kobe is an exquisite piece of meat, and the only thing it needs is salt, and as long as it's not overcooked, the meat will just melt in the mouth.

It shocked the owner that Wang Ming wanted to buy so many types of meats. How could he even carry all of it? With his broken crutch, but he didn't say too much and just went to get the meat. He was glad that this customer bought a decent amount, even though there weren't any expensive cuts except Kobe.

Any paying customer for Weng Ping is a good customer, even how much or little they buy. If no one buys from him, then he would ultimately throw them away, or feed them to the dogs, anyway. It took him roughly 10 minutes to get all the meats weighed, and he calculated it out to be around 840 yuan but charged Wang Ming 800. As the number 4 is an unlucky number.

After Wang Ming checked through everything and paid, he also asked if the owner could call a cab for him, since he'd done everything he had planned for the day, which meant it was time to go home.

"No problem Mr. Wang, my nephew, is a taxi driver, if you don't mind, he can drive you home."