Xiao Moxi thoroughly enjoyed the large bowl of spicy noodles. "Ah, this big bowl of noodles is so delicious and inexpensive, much better than the noodles at the hotel. The portion is also generous; the plate is so big, but there's only a tiny bit of noodles, not even enough to fill a tooth gap."
"No wonder Lan Yin called you a country bumpkin," Su Xiaonuan said with a smile.
"Sister-in-law, why are you laughing at me too?"
"Have you eaten enough? If you're full, then come with me. Didn't you want to go to the department store to buy clothes? I'll take you there first, and you can take a bus back after you've bought your clothes. I have things to do."
Su Xiaonuan is a person of her word; once she says something, she has to do it. She decided to go and give guidance to the two shops on the east side of the food street in the afternoon, and also teach them one of their signature dishes.
"Sister-in-law, the meal we just had at the hotel doesn't count. You still have to treat me to a big meal somewhere else," Moxi said, wiping her mouth after finishing her noodles.
“Okay, I’ll take you to a branch of Jiuya Restaurant tomorrow.” Su Xiaonuan checked the time.
"That's more like it!" Xiao Moxi finally got up and walked out of the noodle shop with her.
At the east end of the food street, there are two shops facing each other: Lao Mei Restaurant on the left and Lang Xian Food Shop on the right.
She stood in the middle of the food street, looking at the sign for Lao Mei Restaurant on her left and the sign for Lang Xian Food Shop on her right.
A policewoman as capable as Su Xiaonuan can tell where the owner is from just by looking at the shop name. The "Old Sister Restaurant" on the left is obviously run by people from Northeast China, and the "Waves and Dangers" on the right, after a moment of thought, she remembered that it means "powerful" in Chaozhou dialect.
So, she could guess where the owners of the two stores were from before she even entered the store.
Both shop owners spotted Su Xiaonuan and came out of their shops to greet her. The shop owner on the left grabbed her arm and tried to pull her away. "Shop owner, come on in, let's sit down in my shop."
"Hey sis, I spotted the proprietress first. We have to follow the first-come, first-served rule. You have to go to my restaurant first." The proprietress on the right said in broken Mandarin.
"So what if you saw it first? I got here first."
"You're being completely unreasonable!"
"So what if I'm unreasonable?" The woman's tall figure took a step closer, displaying her power.
Guangdong women are petite, and appear even more delicate and frail next to the tall women of Northeast China.
"Stop arguing, you two!" Xiao Nuan said. "Do as I say, from east to west, from left to right, without distinction. Anyway, this afternoon, I will provide guidance and instruction to both of your stores."
The woman from Northeast China snorted through her nose, as if to say to the woman from the South, "Hmph, you'd better go to my house first."
After Su Xiaonuan followed the woman from Northeast China into Lao Mei Restaurant, the woman from Langxian Food Shop snorted and muttered under her breath, "Gossip."
Of course, she was cursing that gossipy woman from Northeast China, not Su Xiaonuan.
The proprietress of Lao Mei Restaurant welcomed Su Xiaonuan into the restaurant and personally brewed her some fine tea.
Su Xiaonuan sipped her tea while flipping through the menu, her brows furrowing repeatedly.
"Boss lady, is there something wrong with our menu?" the straightforward boss lady asked. "We learned this from big hotels. I noticed your restaurant doesn't have a menu; you just write the dishes on a small blackboard. Do you want to do the same to attract customers?"
"No." Su Xiaonuan didn't even look up.
“Actually, we used to do the same thing as you, writing it directly on a small blackboard. Customers would just look at the blackboard and order. My husband came up with this improvement after eating at a big hotel, but business still wasn’t good.”
“It’s not a problem with the menu.” Su Xiaonuan placed the menu on the table, took a sip of tea, and continued, “The problem lies with your dishes. Look at these dishes, they’re really a mixed bag, including Sichuan, Cantonese, Hunan, and Northeastern cuisines.”
"Young lady, don't underestimate these dishes; they are all the most famous dishes from various regions."
“You two are from Northeast China, and your restaurant is called Lao Mei Restaurant. You can’t just blindly pursue famous dishes from all over the country. You need to create the unique characteristics of your Northeast cuisine. As long as you do it well, you will have a stable customer base. That’s the way out for your restaurant.”
“We used to specialize in Northeastern cuisine, but the provincial capital has a large floating population, and people from all over the country come here. If we only serve Northeastern cuisine, we can't satisfy the tastes of our customers. So we made some improvements.”
"That's because you didn't capture the unique characteristics of Northeastern cuisine."
The boss came out and respectfully asked, "Could the boss's wife offer us some guidance?"
"Then you should change your menu and only serve Northeastern Chinese cuisine," Su Xiaonuan said, bringing up the same old point again.
"But we tried doing that, and it didn't work out. Maybe it's because Northeastern cuisine isn't popular."
"Are you from Northeast China?" Su Xiaonuan asked with dissatisfaction. "When you're away from home, who doesn't say their hometown is the best? The Northeast is rich in resources and has a wide variety of cooking ingredients. People say that the North has granaries, the South has fish soup, the West has livestock, and the East has orchards. You have no worries about food all year round. How can you complain that Northeast cuisine is not popular?"
"That's quite insightful!" the owner said. "Besides noodles, our Northeastern cuisine really lacks in variety in terms of dishes."
“That’s because you don’t know enough about Northeastern cuisine,” Su Xiaonuan sighed. “Northeastern cuisine has absorbed the essence of Shandong, Sichuan, and Cantonese cuisines, while also incorporating the traditional techniques of Manchu, Korean, and Mongolian court cuisines. Countless famous dishes, snacks, and banquets are based on these. How can you say the food isn’t good?”
The chefs from the restaurant arrived uninvited; they were all captivated by Su Xiaonuan's words.
"Boss lady, your words are more valuable than ten years of study." The two chefs gave her a thumbs up. "Why don't you teach us? We're willing to learn from you. We'll learn anything you say."
The two discerning chefs immediately ignored the owner and his wife and began talking to Su Xiaonuan face to face.
"Show me your skills first," Su Xiaonuan waved her hand. "Come on, let's go to the kitchen and see how you cook."
I randomly ordered two dishes and asked the two chefs to cook them.
She stood in the kitchen the whole time, instructing them, "You'll have to cut and prepare these vegetables yourselves."
Watching their skillful knife work, he nodded repeatedly. "Hmm, not bad, the knife work is exquisite and meticulous, and the ingredients are all correct."
Encouraged, the two chefs worked even harder to cook.
After the finished product was ready, Su Xiaonuan and the shop owner and his wife all picked up their chopsticks and tasted the dishes.
"It tastes a bit better than usual," the owner and his wife said at the same time.
"This is because a master gave us guidance, and the timing of the heat was just right." The two masters didn't hide anything and told the truth directly.
"Hmm, not bad," Su Xiaonuan commented. "However, you are indeed lacking in terms of heat control. Your knife skills are excellent, but your cooking techniques need improvement. The dishes you make must be tender but not raw, thoroughly cooked but not overcooked, tender but not mushy, or have characteristics such as crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, or crispy on the outside and tender on the inside."
"Thank you for your guidance." The two of them were overjoyed, as if they had suddenly had an epiphany. They already knew how to cook, and they only needed someone to give them pointers to get the hang of it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com