Chapter 90: The pros and cons of each cuisine
But after the boss's improvement, the crispy balls were filled with chilled mashed potatoes and fruit pieces, and the dipping sauce was changed to yogurt. It tastes very refreshing and refreshing.
"You don't know until you eat out. Restaurants nowadays are so creative and the dishes they serve are so imaginative. It seems that you really can't be limited to just one place or learn one kind of cooking."
Zhao Xiaojing sighed at the moment.
“Indeed, now that the economy has developed, people’s pursuit of food has become more refined, and fusion restaurants have emerged.
This kind of restaurant focuses on cuisine without borders. If you want to eat shredded pork with fish flavor or stir-fried kidney with green onions, they don’t have it. If you want to eat pure steak, they don’t have pasta either.
But if you want to eat some hot pot-flavored pizza, fish-flavored pork shredded pasta, or steak with mixed flavors, you can come here. It has a little bit of everything, but nothing is purely original.
So the reviews are quite polarized. Some people think it’s a good fusion and creative, while others think the dishes are weird and unremarkable, and that everything is just a trick.”
Guo Gaoang poured drinks for the two classmates, and the three of them drank and chatted.
"In the past two years, fusion restaurants have opened up like a gust of wind, but all of them have collapsed after the hype faded. Only this one has persisted the longest because it is quite unique. It's not just a random mix of things. The owner really has his own ideas and the combinations are relatively reasonable."
"Indeed. Take this Indian Crispy Ball for example. Although I haven't tried the original version, I think it tastes great.
The crispy, potato-chip-like shell is paired with chilled mashed potatoes inside. The mashed potatoes seem to have been seasoned, giving them a salty taste. The fruit pieces on top add a sweet and sour flavor, and the dipping sauce is yogurt. These ingredients might seem completely unrelated, but the combination is surprisingly harmonious, with a refreshing sweet and sour taste. The hint of salt in the mashed potatoes doesn't seem to be abrupt, but rather adds a freshness.
After hearing what Guo Gaoang said, Zhao Xiaojing also started to analyze it with divergent thinking.
"You two are here to show me what professionalism means! I just think this is delicious, and that is delicious too. If you ask me why they are delicious, I will say it is because they are made in a restaurant!"
Su Yuchen made some jokes and the three of them laughed together again.
"In fact, fusion cuisine is not only a fusion of Chinese and Western cuisines. There are so many cuisines in our own country, and we also have fusion cuisine. I went to a restaurant in Jiangcheng before, and that restaurant combined Cantonese cuisine and Hubei cuisine, and it was quite good." Guo Gaoang introduced with great enthusiasm.
"Why is it good? Tell me more about it."
Zhao Xiaojing asked with great interest. Although Su Yuchen on the side was not interested in cooking, he listened with great interest as if it were a science lesson.
Seeing this, Guo Gaoang also became interested in chatting and started talking in a sharp manner.
It turns out that this restaurant was one that Guo Gaoang had made a special trip to eat at before, and what he was talking about was the restaurant's signature dish, ice skin chicken.
This restaurant was originally an authentic Cantonese restaurant. The owner himself is an authentic Cantonese chef, and from the beginning he took the route of an authentic Cantonese restaurant.
Business was good when it first opened, and we promoted it vigorously. There were always people coming to try new things and taste the authentic Cantonese cuisine.
But after a period of time, the Cantonese restaurant began to fail to adapt to the local environment in Jiangcheng.
Jiangcheng people have strong tastes and can accept all kinds of flavors, especially spicy ones. However, Cantonese cuisine emphasizes the original flavor and savoring the freshness of the ingredients.
The first thing that comes to mind is the boss’s specialty, white-cut chicken, which is also a famous Cantonese dish.
There is a saying in Guangdong Province, "No chicken, no feast." This white-cut chicken is not only a delicacy, but also a long-standing cultural heritage.
The ingredients of white-cut chicken are carefully selected. No seasoning is added when it is boiled in water. What you eat is the fragrance and tender taste of the chicken itself. The cooking time is just right. The chicken should be cooked until it is cooked through and there is blood in the bones. One more or less will not do.
But after arriving in Jiangcheng, the locals couldn't get used to the chicken, finding it bland and undercooked. After trying it once, they wouldn't eat it again. So the owner tried to adapt to local customs, cooking the white-cut chicken to a level of doneness acceptable to the locals and adding more toppings. But then problems began to arise: the restaurant's few loyal Cantonese fans began to complain that the white-cut chicken wasn't authentic, that it was too overcooked, and that the flavor was too strong...
Neither persistence nor change goes smoothly, so the boss is caught in a dilemma.
The owner stumbled upon a lesser-known Guangdong recipe for white-cut chicken, which involves boiling it before rinsing it in ice water. This sparked inspiration, and after meticulous research, he finally created the dish, Snow Skin Chicken, tailored to the tastes of both Guangdong and Jiangcheng residents, effectively resolving the issue.
This ice-skin chicken is cooked the same way as white-cut chicken, but the skin becomes crispy and the meat firmer after being chilled. The chilling also solidifies the blood in the bones. This makes the dish more palatable and visually appealing to Jiangcheng residents, and even those who enjoy authentic Cantonese cuisine won't find it too old-fashioned.
After being soaked in two broths, the chicken tastes more fragrant. People in Jiangcheng no longer find it bland, and people in Guangdong province also find the chicken more tender and smooth.
Since then, this fusion restaurant has become famous, and more and more fusion dishes have been innovated...
"I've really broadened my horizons today. The field of cooking is vast. Everything you can imagine and even the unimaginable has already been done by others. It's true that knowledge gained through books is always shallow. Comb, when we go to Jiangcheng, let's visit restaurants often, once a month or once every two weeks? How about that?" Zhao Xiaojing listened to the pros and cons of various restaurants all night, and her face was now full of longing.
"Okay, if you want to go, let's go." Su Yuchen agreed readily.
"Mr. Zhao, different restaurants do have different expertise in cooking, but take the fried skewers for example. The taste of yours is definitely the best I've ever had. You could actually consider saving money and opening a restaurant.
Oh, and your milk ice and today's drink are absolutely amazing too.
After you open a shop, you can standardize some processes, hire people to do the work, and take charge of the important parts yourself. That way, even if more and more people come to buy, you won’t be in short supply like you are doing now with a stall.”
Guo Gaoang gave suggestions.
"It is indeed more feasible." Zhao Xiaojing nodded and thought about it seriously.
After paying off your debts, you can start thinking about your own affairs.
I'll save money first, and then I'll consider opening a small shop, hiring one or two people, and continue to expand the business...
[Ding~Main quest dispatched]
[Main Mission: Take root in Jiangcheng and open your own restaurant.]
As soon as my thoughts started to spread, the system immediately assigned me a task, which turned out to be another main task.
Zhao Xiaojing took it with a smile, and sighed in her heart that the system was really a worm in her stomach.
However, she still hadn't paid off her 80,000 yuan debt, so opening a shop was still a long way off. Not to mention the huge sums of money needed for rent, utilities, and renovations, Jiangcheng was still a foreign city to her, and it would take some time to get to know her...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
