Chapter Twenty-One: Selling Milk Tea at a Stall
Li Yan smiled and said, "But if I don't accept money from my aunts and sisters-in-law, it won't be considered taking on private work for profit, and it won't be considered a breach of contract." In this way, she won't be sued by Yuanbao Restaurant, and the neighbors won't feel comfortable coming to her too often since she's helping out for free.
Helping out once or twice is just a matter of convenience.
But if this happens frequently, or every day, Li Yan can't stand it.
"Well, we can't accept that." The women felt bad that the man made a living with his skills and helped them make roast pork without charging them.
"It's nothing," Li Yan said. "It's my honor that my aunts and sisters-in-law think highly of me."
"Then, I'll go buy meat tomorrow, and I'll cut off a pound of meat for you to cook."
“I’ll go too, I’ll cut a pound of them.”
"Then I'll go tomorrow too."
Li Yan: "If the aunts and sisters-in-law can cook the meat together at the same time, that would be the best. That way, I can cook it all in one pot and everyone can share it equally."
And so, everyone happily went home. As they left, Li Yan overheard them discussing when to go buy meat the next day.
The next day, the group arranged to buy meat together and then went to find Li Yan. Li Yan helped them make braised pork belly from the pork belly that each family had a pound of, and then used the bowls they had brought to serve it.
She cut each piece of meat into roughly the same size chunks; about thirty chunks were cut from one pound of meat. Now, when serving, she simply scooped out the chunks, making it easy to portion and preventing any disputes about having too much or too little meat.
Everyone was happy after receiving their share of meat.
Seeing their happiness, Li Yan took the opportunity to say, "In a few days, I will set up a stall on the back street to sell some food. However, I will not sell this braised pork, but something else. When that time comes, I hope you aunts and sisters-in-law can come and support me. Of course, if you aunts and sisters-in-law come, I will not charge you for the first time. Consider it as asking you to help me taste the food. If there is anything wrong, please point it out and I can make changes."
It's a pity that she has such good cooking skills but doesn't open her own restaurant. It's not easy to eat meat cooked by her.
But now, when they heard that she was going to set up a food stall, their eyes immediately lit up.
With such good cooking skills, her braised pork tastes so good, her braised fish and shrimp must also be delicious.
"Madam Li, please let us know when you set up your stall. We'll support you financially if we have money, and even if we don't have any, we'll still show our support by showing our presence. In short, we'll definitely be there."
One person said this, and the others echoed his sentiment.
Li Yan immediately expressed her gratitude: "Then I'll thank you here in advance, Aunt and sisters-in-law."
"Don't be so polite with us, we haven't even thanked you yet."
Li Yan: "I won't keep my aunts and sisters-in-law busy. This meat should be eaten while it's hot; it won't taste good if it gets cold."
After everyone bid farewell, Li Yan turned and headed towards the main room.
Right now, Aunt Xue is sitting in the main room doing needlework. Autumn is gradually approaching, and the weather is getting cooler. In a while, the weather will be completely cool.
Having recovered the eight taels of silver they had lost, Aunt Xue now had more money in hand, so she thought of making autumn clothes for each member of her family.
Although Aunt Xue was sitting in the main room, she could see everything happening in the courtyard.
Having just heard her daughter-in-law mention setting up a stall on the back street, she asked as soon as she saw her daughter-in-law enter, "Are you going to set up a stall?" Aunt Xue felt that life was already excellent. As long as she could maintain her partnership with Yuanbaolou, she could steadily earn several taels of silver a month.
After deducting all expenses such as food, rent, etc., you can still save a considerable amount each month.
Setting up a stall again would be too tiring.
Li Yan told Aunt Xue her idea: "Now I only need to cook a few pots of meat every evening. After that, the rest of the time is free. I'm just idling around at home, which is boring. So I want to use this time to think about other businesses." Li Yan is full of energy now and wants to take advantage of the opportunity and good fortune to make a name for herself and earn more money.
She's actually quite career-driven and not content with her current life. Whether in the 21st century or now, she wants to earn more money to buy a house.
Ideally, I could open my own shop.
Once the business grows big, it's not too late to think about enjoying life and having fun.
Moreover, she didn't feel bitter; she only felt that if things continued on this trend, life would be very promising.
She doesn't aspire to be a high-class person in the future, but she certainly doesn't want to be someone struggling to make ends meet.
Being a beast of burden in the 21st century is not easy; life was even harder at the bottom of feudal society.
Aunt Xue stopped what she was doing and said seriously to Li Yan, "But there are no mulberries in the city. Besides, the mulberry season is over. Even if we go to the countryside to pick them every day, there's nowhere left to pick them."
Seeing that her mother-in-law thought she was still going to make mulberry drinks, Li Yan couldn't help but laugh: "Mother, I just made those drinks on the spot and sold them. I know that mulberries are gone after the season, so I didn't plan to sell them for long."
"If you're not going to sell this, what will you sell at your stall?"
My daughter-in-law is indeed a very good cook. Her noodles are chewy and delicious, and her fish soup is completely free of any fishy smell and is extremely flavorful. But these are not the kinds of dishes that I would sell at a street stall.
Noodles taste best when they are freshly made and put into the pot; they don't taste good once they are dried by the wind.
The same goes for fish soup; it tastes best when it's freshly made, and it doesn't taste good when it gets cold.
These past two days, whenever Li Yan had a spare moment, she would think about what to sell at her stall.
In her past life, when she was a video blogger, she was skilled at making several signature dishes. Besides braised pork, she was also an expert at making various braised dishes and braised duck products.
Actually, setting up a stall to sell braised duck products is a good idea, but in this era, there's a lack of many kinds of seasonings.
Even if you're missing one or two seasonings, you can still make a fairly similar flavor. But if you're missing too many, the flavor will be completely different.
Therefore, she's not considering braised dishes for now. She can try making braised dishes later if she can find all the necessary seasonings.
Moreover, braised food is also suitable for summer.
In autumn, it's natural to make some hot food.
Li Yan is also very good at making drinks, so after much thought and deliberation, she decided to try making milk tea first.
In this era, all kinds of drinks and desserts are popular, but milk tea is still extremely rare.
If you can capture this untapped market segment in one go, and then take the opportunity to open your own milk tea shop and build your brand... then you'll never have to worry about making money in the future.
“I sell tea drinks. To be precise, I sell milk tea drinks,” Li Yan told Aunt Xue.
There was tea in this era. Although Aunt Xue had always lived in the countryside, she had heard of it, but she had never seen it or drunk it.
I've heard that only wealthy people in the city can afford these drinks.
"So you're selling this to rich people?" Aunt Xue asked, both curious and slightly worried. "But if you set up a stall, will people buy it?" Rich people wouldn't eat food from a roadside stall; they frequent fancy restaurants.
Li Yan: "I sell to whoever pays me, and I sell to whoever likes to drink it. I don't just sell to rich people."
Li Yan's goal is not just to do business with the rich; she wants to pave the way so that ordinary people can also drink it if they want to in the future.
In the past two days, when people from Yuanbaolou came to pick up goods, she subtly inquired about their business. Yuanbaolou sells various drinks and cold beverages, but they are not sold individually. You need to go in and eat, and spend a certain amount before they will be sold to you.
In other words, only the wealthy can afford to eat it.
If an ordinary person has a craving for food, they have to spend a lot of money to book a large meal first.
Who can afford this?
What she needs to do now is to separate drinks from meals, so that ordinary people can occasionally satisfy their appetites for just ten or eight coins.
"Will this... will this work?" Aunt Xue asked with some concern.
"Let's give it a try. How will we know if it will work or not if we don't try?" Li Yan seemed quite confident.
.
To make milk tea, you naturally need milk and tea. Tea leaves are easy to find; tea shops can be found everywhere on the street.
But this milk... is not commonly found in ordinary markets.
However, through Li Yan's tireless efforts and inquiries, she found a family in a village near Huating County who raised several cows specifically for milk production. This family also raised a few sheep, which also produced milk.
After finding the place, Li Yan bought one jin each of cow's milk and sheep's milk.
The two catties of milk cost a total of thirty-eight coins. The farmer gave Li Yan extra money since it was her first time buying milk.
Raw milk cannot be consumed directly. It must be boiled and cooled to kill bacteria before consumption to prevent diarrhea.
Li Yan has done some research on how to boil milk in a way that ensures sufficient sterilization without destroying its nutrients.
In the 21st century, in order to film a video on how to successfully boil raw milk, she went to the market and bought several kilograms of milk to slowly try it out.
With experience, it's much simpler to operate now.
Cow's milk and goat's milk were packaged separately and boiled on two separate stoves.
Fortunately, there is more than one stove in this kitchen, which is very convenient to use now.
There's a trick to boiling milk: it can't be overcooked, otherwise the nutrients will evaporate with the heat. But it also can't be undercooked, otherwise the bacteria in the raw milk won't be completely killed, and you'll get diarrhea if you eat it.
Li Yan would see the milk start to bubble in the pot, and immediately move the pot away from the stove. Then, she would put it back on the stove until she saw another bubble appear, and then immediately move it away again. She would repeat this process four or five times, and that would be about right.
After the milk was cooked, Li Yan took the earthenware pot containing the milk off the stove and placed it in the kitchen to cool.
Then, Li Yan took the tea leaves she had bought beforehand, added an appropriate amount of rock sugar and water, and stirred them together over low heat. She continued stirring until the sugar caramelized and she could smell a caramelized aroma. Then she poured the cooked milk into the pot, added more water, and brought it to a boil. Finally, she strained out the tea leaves and sugar residue using cheesecloth. And just like that, the simplest milk tea was made.
Li Yan plans to make the simplest version of milk tea today and try selling it to see how it goes. Later, she'll think about adding some tapioca pearls or taro balls.
Li Yan first boiled the milk, and after the cow's milk tea was ready, she made the goat's milk tea in the same way.
When she lived in the countryside, Li Yan had spent some time researching ceramic ice chests and even made a simplified version herself. Later, after Yuanbaolou started sending meat to Qingshan Town with dedicated personnel and special insulation equipment, Li Yan's simplified ice chest became useless.
Today is perfect, I'll use it to hold milk tea.
Li Yan put the goat milk tea into an insulated ice chest and the cow milk tea into an ordinary earthenware jar. After that, she hurried off to make braised pork.
By the time the braised pork was ready, the milk tea had cooled down a bit.
Li Yan brought out small bowls and filled one bowl with each of the two flavors to drink.
In comparison, milk tea made with cow's milk is more to my liking.
Ultimately, the outcome depends on the market. What customers deem good is what matters.
"Mom, I'm going to sell milk tea with my cart."
A note from the author:
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That method of cooking raw milk was found online, so it's definitely not very accurate.
20 more red envelopes will be dropping!
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