Chapter 100: Small Idea (Additional chapter for Yunqi's 50,000 recommended votes)
Zhou Erlang's preparations were much more thorough than Zhou Wulang's. Manbao went to look through the backpack brought by his second brother and found a basin of chopped pork bones with meat in it.
There were two pieces of pork belly that were almost the same size, and one piece of fat meat.
Manbao drooled over them.
Zhou Erlang was afraid that Manbao's saliva would drip onto the meat, so he quickly pulled him away and coaxed him, "Wait until noon and I'll give you meat."
Manbao nodded with drool.
Thinking about food, she was reluctant to leave, so she squatted in front of the stove to help light the fire. In fact, she just took a look at the fire, and when she saw that the fire was getting small, she would tell her brothers, and then someone would come up to add firewood.
Bai Shanbao squatted with her for a while, but he felt that watching the fire was not fun, so he went out to play with Bai Erlang. They went to play in the dug ditch.
Daji followed them closely, and Zhou Erlang stopped worrying after taking one look at him.
He also put the cleaned bones with meat into the pot. Since he knew that stewing soup could make money, and a lot of money, he must make the soup better, at least with more oil and water, right?
Zhou Erlang closed the lid and then cut the cabbage and radish.
Today they also brought a smaller cauldron and a large pot.
When he thought the time was almost up, he put the fat and radish into the big pot. After stewing for less than two quarters of an hour, he lit a fire on the stove he had set up nearby and cooked the radish and meat stew.
The soup in the pot is used.
This way, even fuel is saved.
After the radish stewed with meat was ready, he poured all the vegetables into a pot, placed it by the fire to heat it, and then started to cook the cabbage stewed with meat.
When the officials struck the gong for dinner, the officials delivering the food could not help but look over here again and again, and then asked their colleagues, "Why does it smell better than yesterday?"
The two officers had gone over earlier and knew that the Zhou brothers had brought a lot of meat today and were planning to make meat dishes.
Just a glance at their colleagues, the two officers looked at each other and smiled nonchalantly: "I've asked, they use a lot of meat, the whole family is devoted to it, but it's just hard-earned money."
The two men were also afraid that the officials would chase them away, because Zhou Erlang had hinted this morning that if his business could continue, the tribute at every meal would not be less.
what does that mean?
It means they can eat and drink for free.
The messenger who brought the food took a look at the group of people gathered around the cauldron. Seeing that they included both young men and children, he gave them the food and said, "Okay, lunch is here. I'll go back now."
"good."
After receiving their steamed buns, everyone subconsciously headed towards the Zhou family's stove. Smelling the aroma, everyone asked Zhou Wulang, who had become a bit familiar with them yesterday, "What smells so good today?"
Zhou Wulang smiled and said, "My second brother bought some extra meat today and said he would cook a dish for everyone to add some flavor. It's five cents a spoonful. If you brothers want some, just tell me and I'll make it for you."
Zhou Erlang took over the conversation and said with a smile, "Thank you brothers for your support yesterday. It's freezing cold out here, and it's easy to get sick if you only drink soup without vegetables. My sister came home yesterday and said she felt sorry for her third brother who had to eat only dry food in the fields. That's why we prepared a few vegetables today, but not much. If you want to change your taste, please buy some."
"Oh, right," Zhou Erlang said with a smile, "We'll do the same thing this afternoon as yesterday, boiling a pot of hot water for everyone to soak their steamed buns in."
As he spoke, Zhou Erlang opened the lid of the jar containing stewed radish and meat, and then opened the lid of the jar containing stewed cabbage and meat that was being heated over charcoal.
Everyone could clearly see the meat slices wrapped in the radish and cabbage, and many Laoding swallowed subconsciously.
Speaking of which, they haven't eaten vegetables for a long time.
The aroma filled the air. Zhou Erlang's cooking skills might be average, but he used bone broth and added a suitable amount of salt. There was also pork belly in the dish. Even if the cooking skills were not good, with good ingredients, the food would not be too bad, not to mention that his cooking skills were not that bad.
But the price is also very expensive, only five cents.
Although they knew that five cents was not expensive if one had vegetables and meat, anyone who had eaten in the county town knew that such dishes would cost at least ten cents in the county town.
Many people just looked at the dishes and drooled, but did not dare to pay for them. Most people still lined up to buy soup.
Then they found that today's soup was quite oily and better than yesterday's, so they were happy.
The first dozen or so people all wanted soup, and no one wanted any vegetables. Zhou Erlang was not in a hurry. He had already calculated the worst case scenario. At worst, he would not be able to sell any of them. He would then leave some for the third brother and take the rest back for his family to eat.
They have such a big family, they can definitely finish it.
Taking this into consideration, Zhou Erlang did not cook much.
There were only about ten servings of cabbage and radish.
Manbao was in charge of collecting money. Zhou Erlang brought an extra big spoon today, and he and Lao Wu each took one side, which made things much faster.
Zhou Erlang quickly came over with the steamed bun, and asked him to wait for a while. He found a big bowl from the basket next to him, filled it with two dishes, and asked him to squat down and eat.
Many Laoding looked at the dishes in his bowl. Some of them were better off and discussed with Zhou Erlang, "I don't want to buy just one dish, but spending ten cents is too much of a loss. How about I pay five cents and you give me half a spoonful of each dish?"
Zhou Erlang thought for a moment and nodded, "Okay."
The man immediately took out five cents. He happened to be standing in front of Manbao, so he gave the money to Manbao.
When the people behind him saw that he had bought some vegetables, they also started to think about it and started to discuss with Zhou Erlang, "Brother, how about I just take half a spoonful and you give me a little less and charge me two cents?"
Zhou Erlang: "...This, this is hard to calculate."
This breaks the rules. How can we do business in the future?
And one spoonful is easy to calculate. No matter if there is more meat stewed with radish or cabbage, it only takes one spoonful to add one piece. It is eaten by the guests, so most of them will not have any objections.
But what if he feels this half spoonful is not enough?
Zhou Erlang was thinking about his words, but Manbao thought it was a good idea. However, she changed the concept, "Yes, yes, this way everyone can save money. Big brother, why don't you find someone to partner with you? Each of you can pay half the price and buy a spoonful of stewed radish and meat and cabbage stewed meat. This way, you can eat two dishes with half the money."
Now the other party was excited and asked, "But how do you calculate these two and a half cents?"
"Isn't that easy? My brothers come here every day. Just find someone you know well and pay three cents this time. Next time you want to buy food, it's his turn to pay three cents, right?"
Laodin thought this was a good idea and turned to look for his cousin.
The two of them quickly squeezed in, each bought a bowl of soup, and then bought a spoonful of vegetables together.
With their demonstration, others followed suit.
Nowadays, people from different villages are gathered together to serve. One reason is that they can take care of each other when something happens, and the other is to comfort the soldiers and make management easier. Therefore, it is easy to find familiar people.
They were either relatives, cousins, or even neighbors from the same village. So it was easy to find partners, and the food supply was dwindling at a noticeable rate.
(End of this chapter)
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