In the Ming Dynasty 1498, my restaurant connects two worlds.

Shopping as he walked, Song Xiaoyi became the most stylish person on the street. The staff and porters behind him whispered among themselves, "Where did this incredibly wealthy shopkeeper come from?"

"He bought so much, will he be able to use it all? If he can't sell it all, will he sell the rotten stuff to his customers?"

!!!

Song Xiaoyi had good hearing, and upon hearing this, he thought, "Damn it, I was careless again!"

They only considered that they had a freezer and space, forgetting that this was the Ming Dynasty, which had no refrigeration facilities, and it was hot weather!

The best approach is to maintain a steady, long-term supply, ensuring regular deliveries to each collapsed building. Even with money, one shouldn't become arrogant.

When Song Xiaoyi arrived at this point, he saw that there was no goods ahead, so he wanted to turn back.

Just as he turned around, Song Xiaoyi smelled a strong aroma of shiitake mushrooms! Shiitake mushrooms, known as "xiangxun" in the Ming Dynasty, were not yet cultivated, and wild ones were scarce. Following the scent, Song Xiaoyi indeed found shiitake mushrooms, all of them dried!

"How much are these mushrooms?"

"15 coins per pound".

"Our restaurant specializes in mushroom and chicken noodles. We're running low on mushrooms, so these dried ones are perfect for me to take home, chop up, and use. I'll take them all."

12 catties of dried shiitake mushrooms cost only 189 coins, which is a treasure in modern times.

When Song Xiaoyi returned to the poultry section, they had already started slaughtering chickens and ducks in large quantities. After all, it was inconvenient to slaughter chickens in front of the restaurant, and it didn't matter who they sold to, so they might as well sell them all and close up shop as soon as possible.

"We've just run out of poultry, so this mushroom stewed chicken is all set."

Having just passed the poultry section, Song Xiaoyi suddenly realized something was wrong! Wait a minute! "You're killing ducks and just flushing the blood into the river? What a waste!"

Is Nanjing duck blood vermicelli soup not yet available at this time?

They can sell duck blood vermicelli soup?! Why would I need instant noodles?!

"Don't move, wait a moment, whatever you do, don't kill them!" Amidst the puzzled looks of the crowd, Song Xiaoyi ran back to the restaurant, grabbed a few bowls, put an appropriate amount of salt in each bowl, and carried a pot of cold water back to the collapsed house. He then taught them on the spot how to collect duck blood and how to coagulate it into blocks.

"I'll buy chicken and duck blood regularly from now on, but they have to be sold separately. Four bowls for one coin!" Song Xiaoyi said earnestly to the staff in the poultry section. "But I need it to be clean; the water must be purified with alum."

For those who slaughter chickens and ducks in the collapsed house, this is all extra income. Slaughtering hundreds a day, wouldn't that be over a hundred coins? Three or four strings of cash a month! This business is lucrative! He was about to agree, but then he thought again, wait a minute! "Shopkeeper Song, the water is easy to find, the alum is readily available, but the salt..."

We forgot about salt again.

"Alright, I can provide the salt. Two hundred bowls can be exchanged for an extra pound of salt at my shop." Song Xiaoyi thought about it and decided to leave it at that for now. The salt problem was indeed a big one. In modern times, a bag of salt can be bought for as little as one yuan, but in this Ming Dynasty, salt is rationed. It's unreasonable to use it without buying more.

Back at the restaurant, all the goods delivered by Li Fu were piled up in the lobby on the first floor. Song Xiaoyi put up a door panel, closed the door, and first put all the rice, noodles, vegetables, and meat into his space. He put the fish into his space in a bucket, so that the meat would stay fresh and not rot, and the fish would stay alive.

This makes the three cubic meters of space too compact and insufficient.

The shiitake mushrooms were taken up to the attic and spread on the roof to continue drying.

Song Xiaoyi didn't go downstairs immediately. Looking at the mushrooms drying in the sun, he was thinking. Although he now had ingredients from Da Ming, his own shop was far from having enough manpower. Da Ming had only been open for a few days and was already too busy selling steamed buns and instant noodles. Once various dishes were launched, it would be even busier.

Perhaps, using these limited ancient ingredients, we could create the kind of home-cooked meals that are popular now, targeting the high-end market at most. We can take it slow, since we have the system space and the ingredients won't spoil inside.

The space is just too small, but we can't rush to expand it.

After much deliberation, Song Xiaoyi decided that the nineteen "Chicken Pecking Rice" paintings still couldn't be released. He would wait a few more days, then persuade those foodies to draw some other drafts, which he would then sell to Xun Gu Zhai in the capital along with Zhu Zhishan's cursive calligraphy.

Back in the kitchen, Song Xiaoyi took out the duck's internal organs, cleaned them, and braised them all at once for later use; then, using a secret recipe, she simmered a large pot of old duck soup over low heat for later use.

It's hard to find rice noodles in Da Ming, so I can only temporarily go to the Modern Market to pick out a batch of authentic sweet potato vermicelli. At the same time, the store is focusing on mushroom and chicken noodle soup these days, so I bought 20 bags of dried mushrooms and went to the market to have a few slaughtered old hens delivered.

They actually complained that I made mushroom and chicken noodle soup but couldn't see any mushrooms or chicken. Let me show you how I made it in a big pot: a pot of chicken on the left and a pot of duck on the right.

With duck blood and vermicelli soup, you naturally need the standard "braised eggs" and "tea eggs".

Song Xiaoyi learned how to make braised eggs from the old sergeant in the army. As long as the bucket is big enough, he can braise hundreds or thousands of eggs at once.

The next day, "Song's Eatery" opened for breakfast, and three more items appeared on the menu: duck blood vermicelli soup for seven coins, braised eggs for one coin, and tea eggs for one coin.

"Duck blood vermicelli soup" was indeed a novel food in the Ming Dynasty. Song Xiaoyi managed to persuade Zhu Zhishan and Tang Bohu's group of four to give up the Suzhou crab roe noodles and each order a "duck blood vermicelli soup", and each person also ordered a braised egg as a standard.

With these four people acting as "mukbang" hosts, the diners who came later started to try it in twos and threes.

Another morning passed in a flurry of activity, but there were still half-full buckets of duck blood soup and mushroom stewed chicken soup left.

What should we make for lunch?

With half a carcass of Ming Dynasty pork, Song Xiaoyi decided to launch the Song family's traditional dishes ahead of schedule. The Song family has dozens of ways to cook pork, but Song Xiaoyi's specialty is "Song Family Hand-Pounded Pork," which is also one of the signature dishes of the Song family. The method is simple: debone the boiled pork, add some braising liquid and knead it together to form a meat paste. Then add peppercorn salt water, place it in a square container, cover it with plastic wrap, refrigerate it, and after it cools and freezes, it can be cut into thick pieces for sale.

The first choice is "Songfu Handmade Meat" because the meat prepared in this way can be stored for a long time. If all else fails, it can be cut into large pieces and vacuum-sealed like Zhenjiang Xiaorou, making it convenient for gifting or personal storage.

The preparation and shape of "Songfu Hand-Pickled Meat" are indeed somewhat similar to "Zhenjiang Xiaorou," but "Songfu Hand-Pickled Meat" includes Sichuan peppercorn water, and this Sichuan peppercorn is the essence. Modern Sichuan peppercorns are divided into red Sichuan peppercorns and green Sichuan peppercorns. Fresh green Sichuan peppercorns are what are commonly known as rattan peppercorns. Each of the three types of Sichuan peppercorn water has its own flavor. Song Xiaoyi decided to give the people of the Ming Dynasty a one-stop solution. On a hot day, serving a large piece of cold Sichuan peppercorn-flavored meat jelly is truly a feast for the taste buds.

Just thinking about it made Song Xiaoyi's mouth water. His grandfather's cooking was simply delicious!

Locking the door, I headed straight to the market to buy Sichuan peppercorns from a familiar neighbor. "Grandpa Chen, give me two jin each of these Hanyuan red Sichuan peppercorns and Jiangjin green Sichuan peppercorns. Do you have any rattan peppercorns from Jiangjin? Give me two jin of those too." Of course, there are also considerations when choosing ingredients. The first choice for red Sichuan peppercorns is from Hanyuan, and the first choice for green Sichuan peppercorns is from Jiangjin.