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

While his friends might be unreliable, Song Xiaoyi was only joking; he wouldn't actually send Zhu Zhishan to sell steamed buns.

Let's think about lunch first.

What kind of wine should we drink? That's not what Song Xiaoyi was thinking. You guys have already made tens of millions, it would be a bit beneath you to only give you "Brave the World" wine!

What should I offer them for drinks?

My head is throbbing from thinking about it.

"Hey shopkeeper, don't just stand there! Bring me a basket of Yangzhou-style noodles."

"Alright, please wait a moment, sir!"

Although the instant noodles at Song's Restaurant smelled delicious, the people of the Ming Dynasty weren't fools. They found them to be just so-so, and a set meal of instant noodles costing ten coins wasn't even enough to fill them up.

Not only is there neither mushroom nor chicken in the braised chicken with mushrooms, but there's also no Suzhou-style crab roe noodles or crab roe in the Suzhou crab roe noodles. As for the tomato and secret meat noodles, not only is there no tomato, but where's the secret meat? That little ding-ding, tell me that's the secret meat?

The instant noodle business at the shop has declined significantly, but the steamed bun business is booming.

Many diners prefer to order a basket of steamed buns, enjoy the free tea in the shop, and even take two leftovers home after they've eaten their fill, since it's buy ten get two free, costing only five coins.

Song Xiaoyi steamed nearly a hundred baskets of buns in one morning to appease the noisy diners.

Customers who came specifically for the mushroom and chicken noodle soup, but had never tried the original version, were drawn in by its aroma and ordered a set meal. After eating, they thought the taste was pretty good. "It's not as bad as they say. It tastes good, with chicken and mushrooms."

At 10 o'clock sharp, Song Xiaoyi closed the shop. The Yangzhou buns in the freezer only lasted for half a day, and were sold out this morning. After tidying up the kitchen, she went back upstairs to Zhu'er's supermarket and the nearby market to continue stocking up.

Song Xiaoyi planned to explore the Daming Market again in the afternoon to see if he could buy Daming vinegar and soy sauce, and also to check out other condiments and get a feel for their prices.

After lunch service, I locked the doors and went out shopping as planned.

Although modern times offer a wide variety of oils, salts, soy sauces, vinegars, and sugars, salt is the first essential commodity that cannot be avoided if one plans to open a shop in the Ming Dynasty long-term. Besides, the interaction between the ingredients from both sides needs to be counted.

During the Ming Dynasty, the buying and selling of salt had to comply with the "Salt Certificate System," which limited the amount of salt that could be purchased by shops of different levels.

If Song's restaurant had not used salt permits to buy salt for a long time, it would easily attract the attention of the Salt Tax Bureau and the Inspection Bureau, and it was very likely that it would attract the attention of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Song Xiaoyi decided to abide by the rules, receive his monthly salt quota, and regularly purchase the full amount of official salt. As for whether to use it or how to use it, that was not something the ancients could worry about.

The official salt price in Yingtian Prefecture during the Ming Dynasty was 70 wen per jin (600 grams), which is equivalent to 350 yuan per jin in today's currency. It was really outrageous.

Song's Restaurant was the lowest-level restaurant that had just opened. According to the regulations, it could only buy five catties of salt per month. Song Xiaoyi took out a small silver ingot, got back most of the copper coins, took the five catties of salt wrapped in oil paper, tied it up, carried it in his hand, and continued to browse the market. He soon found the "Oil Shop" that officially sold soy sauce and vinegar.

Unexpectedly, soy sauce and vinegar were also in limited supply. Given the status of Song's Restaurant, they could only buy half a small jar of soy sauce and vinegar each. Song Xiaoyi didn't bring any jars, and after much pleading, they finally managed to buy one jar of each after paying an additional 10% tax.

This time, we can switch to modern tableware and packaging. We can store the soy sauce and vinegar from the Ming Dynasty in the system space and use them when hosting family banquets in the modern era. The daily necessities in Song's Restaurant can be replaced with supermarket goods from Hengshun.

Next, Song Xiaoyi bought some other expensive seasonings. On his way back, he bought two bushels of high-quality new glutinous rice and had a porter deliver it to the shop.

Japonica rice is stored in the system space, and the daily necessities in the restaurant are replaced with a mixture of northern Jiangsu rice and brown rice.

After buying the seasonings and other supplies, Song Xiaoyi returned to the shop entrance and saw Zhu Zhishan standing at the door with a girl of about ten years old. It seemed that the guy had finally found the hanger-on he had promised to hire. People still need to be pushed a little.

"Brother Xiao Yi, you're finally back! I've been waiting for you for so long."

"Long time my foot! I was just out for a little while."

After entering the shop, Song Xiaoyi led the two to seats and poured two glasses of water. Zhu Zhishan spoke first: "Brother, this is a friend's sister. She shouldn't be showing her face in public, but her family suddenly suffered a misfortune and lost their source of income. I've been trying to persuade her for three days, and she finally agreed to let me bring her here to give it a try."

"No wonder there's been no movement these past two days. So that's why. Brother Zhishan, you've had a hard time." Song Xiaoyi looked at the young girl he had brought. He hadn't paid much attention to her at the door, but upon closer inspection, her hands were delicate and she was definitely not suited for hard labor. Although she didn't look like a lady from a wealthy family, she did have the appearance of a girl from a modest family. She was much more pretty than Zhu'er. When she saw Song Xiaoyi observing her, she lowered her head shyly.

"Since Brother Zhishan recommends me, I naturally trust him. Um... Brother Zhishan, how should I address him?"

"Young Master Yi, my younger sister's surname is Chang, and her given name is Miaolan."

"Zhang Miaolan, what a nice name." Song Xiaoyi felt that if he looked at her any longer, the girl would run away, so he said directly, "As you know, Brother Zhishan, there's not much heavy work at my restaurant. I open it every day to sell Yangzhou-style noodles and pastries, and I clean the tables and chairs in my spare time. I can rest after lunch."

"Since we're all on our own, we won't register with the brokerage firm. They'd just rip us off for nothing. We'll set the daily wage at ten coins, with more for those who do more. What do you think? If there are no problems, you can start work tomorrow morning. I'll explain everything to you in detail tomorrow."

"good."

The little girl seems alright, but her voice is like a mosquito's buzz.

This was a fruitful day, at least. We found a helper, and we also finished purchasing ingredients and seasonings for the Ming Dynasty. Next, we'll go back to the modern era to shop at a large supermarket and buy some wine.

At the supermarket's liquor shelf, Song Xiaoyi picked up low-alcohol osmanthus wine, plum wine, low-alcohol baijiu, Great Wall dry red wine, dry white wine, and 20-year-old Shaoxing Nu'er Hong wine. He also bought a batch of Hengshun soy sauce, vinegar, oil, salt, and other seasonings, as well as various utensils and northern Jiangsu rice. The supermarket staff kindly helped him load everything into his car.

Back at the Taoye Ferry parking lot, Song Xiaoyi quietly packed all the supplies into his spatial storage and returned home empty-handed.

Since the plan is to only host high-end family banquets in the modern era, the space on the second floor needs to be renovated. In addition to enlarging the freezer and refrigerator in the main hall, sturdy shelves need to be installed in the other rooms to serve as warehouses for storing supplies.

After testing, modern Osmanthus Wine, Plum Wine, Dry Red Wine, Dry White Wine, Shaoxing Nu'er Hong Wine, and low-alcohol Feitian Yanghe original bottles could not pass the kitchen's "security gate." Song Xiaoyi had no choice but to go to the market again to purchase a batch of specially made unmarked sealed containers and wine glasses, and repackage the various wines according to their characteristics.