1984: Starting from a bankrupt Sichuan restaurant

Chapter 353 Wow! I'm so happy~~ (555)

“Yes, red bean paste is made by stir-frying cooked red beans with sugar.” Zhou Yan nodded with a smile, knowing that the little guy had no resistance to this kind of dessert.

"After I finish this, can I have another one?" Zhou Momo looked at him expectantly.

"No, you can only have one today. It's made of glutinous rice flour. Eating too many will cause indigestion and food stagnation." Before Zhou Yan could even speak, Aunt Zhao's decree had already arrived.

Zhou Momo pouted and looked at Zhou Yan for help, saying in a coquettish tone, "Guoguo~~ Look at Mommy, you should talk about her."

“I think Mom is right.” Zhou Yan can still tell the difference between the two kings and the little one. He can’t be swayed by the little one. When it comes to eating, he definitely has to listen to his mother.

"Hmph!" Zhou Momo snorted and turned her gaze to Xia Yao.

Xia Yao was smiling as she watched her act coquettishly, but when she saw Xia Yao looking at her, she quickly looked down at the comic book, turning page after page, and suddenly became a little busy.

"dad……"

Comrade Zhou turned to leave, saying as he did so, "Zhou Yan, should we kill this chicken now or later? Should we collect the chicken blood?"

Zhou Yan said, "Kill two first, collect the chicken blood and make a spicy chicken blood dish later. Don't chop them after you kill them, I have other uses for today's chicken legs."

He had already digested the Kung Pao Chicken recipe last night.

He made a last-minute decision to add Kung Pao Chicken to the 30-yuan banquet menu, without making any replacements.

Kung Pao Chicken uses chicken thigh meat.

To make Snowflake Chicken Soup, you need to use fresh chicken breast, so you still have to buy and kill chickens. Previously, chicken meat was needed for cold chicken salad, but recently, as the weather has turned cold, cold chicken salad has become unsaleable, and all the excess chicken meat has become food.

Snowflake chicken soup requires chicken breast, and Kung Pao chicken requires chicken thigh meat, leaving only chicken feet, wings, neck, thighs, and carcass.

Is it familiar?

The ingredients for braised chicken are ready!

But the quantity is not enough; four chickens a day are not enough to feed our own family.

Previously, it was used to make taro and chicken stew, which was very popular as a work lunch.

I bought some taro today and plan to make a less meaty version of taro and chicken stew for lunch.

Zhou Yan went out and helped Old Zhou out. Soon, he brought in a basin of chicken blood and processed it first.

"I'll take care of the chicken giblets. I'll get some pickled peppers and stir-fry some pickled pepper chicken giblets; that would be pretty good," Zeng Anrong volunteered.

"Okay, then this dish is yours." Zhou Yan nodded, adding another dish is a good idea.

Ah Wei kept going in and out, unable to get a word in edgewise, and hesitated before saying, "How about I perform a handstand while drinking a Coke for everyone?"

"Okay, okay!" Zhou Momo clapped her hands. "I want to see!"

"Stop joking around and get ready to prepare the dishes. The menu for lunch has already been drawn up," Zhou Yan said with a smile.

“Okay.” Ah Wei replied and turned to go into the kitchen. “Master Zhou, I think our counter is a bit too empty. Shouldn’t we put some alcoholic beverages on it? Not all customers bring their own drinks.”

“We can’t just sell drinks indiscriminately, or we might get arrested,” Zhou Yan said leisurely. “Our restaurant’s business license doesn’t include a permit for selling drinks. We need to check with the Industry and Commerce Bureau to see if we can sell them. If something goes wrong, it’ll be a huge loss.”

"There are so many tricks to this?" Awei was somewhat surprised; he really hadn't expected it.

“Opening a shop isn’t difficult, but to run a business legally and compliantly and make money, you have to be very careful,” Zhou Yan said.

Ah Wei nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

As soon as the braised meat was ready, Huang Bing arrived first on his motorcycle. Wearing a black hoodie, he came in, greeted Aunt Zhao and the others, and then looked back at Xia Yao, who was sitting with Zhou Momo, as he walked to the kitchen door.

“Staring at our boss’s paws?” Ah Wei slapped him.

"Boss lady?" Huang Bing entered the kitchen, pulled his hat up, and looked at Zhou Yan, saying, "Brother Yan, you two are really talking?"

"What, you object?" Zhou Yan looked at him and smiled.

“Brother, they’re a perfect match, why should we object?” Ah Wei sighed.

“We definitely can’t object, but…” Huang Bing’s expression was complicated: “We’re all brothers, and it’s a little hard for us to feel bad that you’re eating so well.”

“I understand. As brothers, we all understand in our hearts.” Ah Wei empathized deeply.

"Get the hell out of here," Zhou Yan laughed, pointing to two baskets beside him: "They've packed them up for you."

"Here, pay the bill." Huang Bing handed the money to Zhou Yan, a smile returning to his face. "I'm only serving lunch today. Tonight, my whole family and my uncle's family will come for a banquet and try Brother Yan's braised rock carp."

"It's New Year's Day today. You old man, aren't you going to mind the shop? Are you really going to come to Suji for a meal?"

Huang Bing said, "You don't know, my old man took it very seriously when he heard that you were going to do catering. He immediately decided to come and try it himself. Anyway, there are cashiers and a lobby manager in the store. They usually just act as supervisors in the store, so they are quite free when they come out occasionally."

Zhou Yan laughed and said, "Then I should add twenty to your table. You're here to spy on the enemy."

"Go ahead and add it, it's not like I'm paying for it anyway." Huang Bing said nonchalantly, pulling down his hat and carrying the braised meat away.

Then Zhou Jie and Zhou Hongwei arrived together.

Seeing Xia Yao sitting in the shop, Zhou Hongwei was a little surprised. He went into the kitchen and whispered, "Zhou Yan, what's going on?"

"Ask a hammer, call her sister-in-law!" Zhou Jie laughed.

"Holy crap! Where did you find such a beautiful woman?!" Zhou Hongwei was shocked when he heard this. He wasn't in the village the day before yesterday. He had heard that Zhou Yan had brought a beautiful woman back, but no one had said she was this beautiful.

"There's nothing I can do about it, he's handsome and has a good life," Zhou Yan said casually as he packed braised meat for the two of them.

"Tsk!"

"Huh!" The three of them clicked their tongues at the same time, their fists clenched.

"Hongwei, your braised meat is selling well! You've already sold twenty jin (10 kg)." Zhou Yan handed the basket filled with braised meat to Zhou Hongwei.

Zhou Hongwei said with a smile, "I call this taking a gamble. Yesterday, I thought it would be easy to sell ten catties. Today is a holiday, and someone even pre-ordered three catties from me. I want to see if I can sell twenty catties."

Zhou Jie looked at him and said, "You are indeed very bold. It took me half a month to slowly increase my weight from ten pounds to twenty pounds."

"I'm confident I can sell out! I've already made a good reputation for Zhou Yan's braised pig's head, it's perfect with drinks! I'm off, I need to get to my stall!" Zhou Hongwei carried the braised meat away.

Zhou Jie laughed and said, "This kid is really eager to make money. If he can sell ten or so catties of braised meat a day, he will earn much more than he did as a porter."

"Making money is still more reassuring," Zhou Yan nodded with a smile.

Selling ten catties of braised pig's head meat a day can earn five yuan. After deducting a little for tasting and scraps, earning more than four yuan a day is easy.

Zhou Hongwei works like a porter, toiling away all day but only earning two yuan.

With all that, how could he not be full of enthusiasm?

Zhou Jie also left with the braised meat. Their business has been booming lately, and they've built up a good reputation at the dock.

He also brought Zhou Yan a piece of news: the people selling hot pot at the dock in Zhoucun have been intentionally or unintentionally learning how to make braised beef with ribs.

Blanch it, skim off the foam, and simmer it over low heat for a whole morning.

Although there is no recipe, the quality of the soup pots at the docks is visibly improving rapidly.

When talking about this, Zhou Jie seemed a little worried.

Zhou Yan was quite pleased, as this was exactly the kind of improvement in the hot pot industry that Mayor Huang Chen had been hoping for.

In Zhoucun, the soup vendors all sold about the same amount of soup, selling twenty or thirty bowls a day and earning two or three yuan.

Zhou Yan and Zhou Jie suddenly emerged, selling braised beef for six cents a bowl, and at that price they could still sell more than a hundred bowls a day.

How much money would that make?
Everyone who sees this will be envious.

Zhou Liangliang has already tried changing his name, and he has already learned his lesson from the iron fist of socialism.

There's no other way but to learn how to make the soup pot taste good.

People generally thought it was normal for beef offal soup to have a slightly gamey smell.

But Zhou Yan and Zhou Jie set an example, proving that even soup made with beef intestines and tendons could be delicious and flavorful without any gamey taste.

Some went to ask the chef how to make soup, while others directly learned from Zhou Jie, following along and doing it themselves.

Open-air stalls are impossible to guard against.

Zhou Yan advised him to relax, saying that the core competitiveness still lies in the formula.

The pattern opens.

The overall improvement in the quality of Zhoucun hot pot is not a bad thing for the development of Qiaojiao Beef. On the contrary, it has the opportunity to make Qiaojiao Beef a calling card of Suji, attracting more people to come and eat it.

Only by making the pie bigger can you earn more money.

Otherwise, even if Su Ji and Zhou Jie worked their way up, they could only sell a little over a hundred bowls of braised beef a day.

Once we've built up our reputation, we can open several more Qiaojiao Beef restaurants in Suji City, and we're sure to sell a lot every day.

While other dishes are difficult to standardize, Aunt Zhao already has the ability to manage a restaurant on her own when it comes to the "Qiaojiao Beef".

In Zhoucun, there are more than a hundred households of cattle butchers, all of whom are related. It would be a good thing if everyone could make some money.

With the dishes prepared one after another, Zhou Yan planned out her lunch.

Taro and chicken stew is already cooking in the pot. Zeng Anrong volunteered to stir-fry a pickled pepper chicken giblet, and Zhou Yan will stir-fry a spicy chicken blood.

Not to be outdone, Ah Wei decided to stir-fry some pork cracklings with cabbage.

With all the dishes served one after another, Zhou Yan also prepared a plate of Xia Yao's favorite braised pork ribs, and lunch was complete.

Zhou Yan placed the braised pork ribs in front of Xia Yao and Zhou Momo, and Zhou Momo sat between them.

There's no other way; Zhou Erwa Restaurant is getting more and more staff, so we have to squeeze in.

"Wow! I'm so happy~~ Guoguo put meat on my plate and Yaoyao put vegetables on my plate, I'm so happy!" Zhou Momo didn't feel crowded at all, shaking her little head, she was extremely happy.

"Here, have a piece of braised pork ribs." Zhou Yan smiled and picked out a piece of pork ribs for her.

"Then I'll pick up a piece of cabbage for you. Remember to eat more vegetables too." Xia Yao placed a piece of cabbage on her plate.

"Mmm~~" Zhou Momo responded and began to eat her rice, taking bites of rice and vegetables, and also enjoying the cabbage.

Although the little one loves to eat meat, she is not picky. As long as the food is not too spicy, she will eat it obediently.

When it comes to eating, she's an absolute angel.

Zhou Yan's gaze fell on the pickled pepper chicken giblets that Zeng Anrong had stir-fried. Every piece of chicken gizzard, heart, and liver was coated in red oil, glistening with an enticing sheen.

A decent serving of pickled pepper chicken giblets

Zhou Yan picked up a piece of food with his chopsticks and put it in the bowl. He took a bite, and his eyes lit up.

The chicken giblets were cooked to perfection; the thinly sliced ​​gizzards were crisp yet tender, the chicken hearts were firm and chewy, and the chicken livers were delicate and smooth. Paired with the sour and spicy flavor of pickled peppers, the taste was outstanding and it was absolutely delicious with rice.

(End of this chapter)