After reading this post, she had no interest in checking the boycott threads written about her on Banan Star. She didn’t want to ruin her good mood today, so she decided to just focus on making some delicious food.
Since she had promised Gulu yesterday that she would make something shiny, colorful, and delicious, the first thing that came to her mind was crystal zongzi. They could be made in a variety of colors, looked stunning, and tasted fantastic.
Mainly, she was just craving zongzi. While making the crystal zongzi, she could conveniently make some meat zongzi on the side. She really missed the taste.
She also thought of starry sky-themed desserts, which were truly high in aesthetic appeal—sparkling and beautiful. However, she decided to start with a simple starry sky yokan and a starry sky beverage. There were simply too many starry sky desserts to choose from, and she had plenty of time to make them in the future.
Actions spoke louder than words! Gan Lan opened her Light Brain and headed straight for the online ingredient shops. The fruits needed for Crystal Zongzi were easy to find, and the variety was absolutely vast!
The ingredients for the meat zongzi were even easier to buy. Once she had those two sets of ingredients sorted, she began searching for the materials to make the starry sky yokan and beverage.
Butterfly pea flowers were easy to find, and there was an abundance of edible glitter. She had to admit that Banan Star had plenty of these items, making her material gathering go very smoothly.
Initially, Gan Lan had worried that the ingredient shops on Banan Star might blacklist her. She had even planned to buy from Mingyang Star if she couldn’t get what she needed locally. Buying across planets only meant waiting an extra half hour, which she could afford. Clearly, she had been overthinking.
Gan Lan mentally reviewed the ingredients she had purchased. Had she forgotten something? She finally realized she hadn’t bought the most important item: the zongzi leaves!
She typed "Ruo Bamboo Leaf" into the ingredient shop’s search bar but found nothing. The only results were other ingredients containing the word "Ruo."
Gan Lan stared at the light screen and pondered for a moment. She figured that since no one likely used Ruo Bamboo Leaf as food, she was searching in the wrong direction.
Zongzi leaves were typically either Ruo Bamboo Leaf or reed leaves. Compared to the latter, she preferred wrapping with the former.
If the ingredient shops didn’t have them, the bonsai stores surely would. Even if they didn’t, she could always find a substitute.
She browsed over to a shop specializing in bonsai. The various vibrant green plants were especially refreshing! At a glance, there were all sorts of weird and wonderful plants, making for an eye-opening experience.
She noticed some bamboo bonsai among them, so they should have what she needed. Since there were too many varieties, it was better to directly message the store owner.
Come and have some barbecue!: [Excuse me, do you sell bamboo leaves from Ruo bamboo?]
Fearing that Ruo bamboo didn’t exist in this world or had been renamed, Gan Lan specifically sent the morphological characteristics of the plant to the bonsai store owner. At the end, she even drew a simple sketch of it and sent it over.
Bonsai Store Owner: [You want the leaves of this plant? This Ruo bamboo is too common, so we don’t display it in our store. If you need it, I can list it for you.]
Come and have some barbecue!: [I only want the leaves. I need mature Ruo Bamboo Leaf. Give me ten thousand leaves to start with, and no torn ones.]
Bonsai Store Owner: [What did you say!? Ten thousand leaves? Are you sure? If you’re sure, I’ll go pick them for you right now.]
Come and have some barbecue!: [I’m sure. Thanks!]
After placing her order, Gan Lan was just about to exit the shop when she saw another message from the owner.
Bonsai Store Owner: [Um, I wanted to ask, what are you doing with so many Ruo Bamboo Leaves? If it’s private, just pretend I didn’t ask. Hehe, I’m just curious.]
Come and have some barbecue!: [I’m using them to wrap zongzi. If you’re interested, you can check out my live stream later! Just click on my name. You’ll probably need to prepare even more Ruo Bamboo Leaves soon! You can pick some extra now as a backup, haha!]
Bonsai Store Owner: [Really? Then I’ll go pick them right now. If they really become a huge hit, I’ll provide all the Ruo Bamboo Leaves from my store to you for free from now on! Hehe.]
Gan Lan smiled. If her zongzi became highly popular, this owner’s Ruo Bamboo Leaves probably wouldn’t even be enough to meet the demand. The shop might even transition into selling Ruo Bamboo Leaves exclusively.
The traditional Chinese medicine shops where she previously bought ingredients had now opened branch stores specifically to sell the items she had purchased. This was especially true for the creeping fig seeds used to make Chinese Herbal Jelly, which were extremely well-loved by the audience in her live stream. That medicine shop owner had even transferred her an advertising fee and came to her live stream to send gifts.
Gan Lan’s unintentional actions had brought substantial profits to the medicine shop. The originally struggling store had become popular because of the spices she needed for braising and the Chinese Herbal Jelly.
Whenever Gan Lan thought of this, she felt delighted because she had indeed received multiple advertising fees recently, significantly increasing her income.
Of course, not every ingredient shop she bought from gave her advertising fees, but she didn’t mind. She hadn’t been aiming for advertising fees in the first place.
In such a good mood, Gan Lan opened her live stream, put on a gentle smile, and asked her routine daily question. "Good morning, everyone. Have you eaten today?"
Although she had expected a lot of people to visit her live stream today, she didn’t expect this many! She couldn’t even count how many digits were in the viewer count.
There were truly so many people in the interstellar era—an unimaginable amount. Back in her original world, Huaxia’s 1.3 billion was already considered a massive population. Yet, upon coming here, she discovered that a single city on a planet could have hundreds of millions of people, and prosperous cities could even exceed a billion. It was simply inconceivable.
Feiran: [I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. You’re finally here. I was a bit worried.]
Fiery Phoenix: [My poor goddess, are you okay? I was worried to death! Seeing you standing before us with a face full of smiles, asking if we’ve eaten, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief! Without seeing you, I have no appetite.]
Elderly Handsome Man: [You have a good mindset, little girl. After encountering so many things in one day, you can still happily live stream the next day. Truly impressive!]
...
Gan Lan watched the live chat, noting that most people were expressing concern for her. Naturally, there were also some unpleasant comments, but she chose to ignore them.
The corners of her mouth curled up into a bright smile. "Thank you for your concern. I’m doing very well, so don’t worry."
"I also see a lot of new viewers. Hello to you all. Nice to meet you, and please take care of me." Gan Lan waved her hand. "I see that many of you haven’t had breakfast, so it’s a perfect time to learn how to cook with me. Today, we’ll be making four types of delicacies: the zongzi series and the starry sky series."
Gan Lan showed the necessary ingredients to the audience for a moment. "If you’re interested, you can go buy the ingredients now. I can wait for you. Today’s food is simple, delicious, and incredibly gorgeous, so don’t miss out."
She specifically picked up a Ruo Bamboo Leaf and held it in front of the camera. "This is a Ruo Bamboo Leaf. Both types of zongzi we’re making later will use this. You can purchase them at the Qingshan Bonsai Store. Of course, you can also buy them at other bonsai shops. This isn’t an advertisement; it’s just the store I bought mine from, so I’m introducing it to you all."
Gan Lan first soaked the glutinous rice and peeled mung beans that she would use later. She was looking forward to the meat zongzi the most, making her seem a little impatient to start.
For meat zongzi, she preferred a lighter flavor and didn’t like adding too many extra ingredients. Therefore, she only prepared three items: mung beans, pork belly, and glutinous rice.
She took the freshly washed zongzi leaves, trimmed off a bit of the two small pointed ends at the base, and placed them into a pot of rolling boiling water. After blanching them for a few minutes until the leaves slightly softened and turned yellow, she scooped them out and set them aside to drain.
She then cut the half-fat, half-lean pork belly into small cubes, ensuring that each piece had a good balance of fat and meat. Next, she poured in an appropriate amount of cooking wine, ginger, and a pinch of salt, mixing everything evenly to marinate.