Chapter 147 Shopping in a Department Store
The chef brought up a plate, took out a bowl from the plate with the mixed ingredients in it, and poured oil on the iron plate.
Yue Ning introduced to the camera: "Just now in the car, I introduced the history of Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is a mixture of ingredients, fried on an iron plate into a pancake."
The oil on the iron plate is hot, the chef puts a bowl of mixed ingredients on the iron plate and spreads the batter with a spatula.
"Okonomiyaki, looks simple..." Yue Ning paused.
Qiao Junxian looked up at her: "Is it actually difficult to do?"
“It’s not difficult at all, actually.”
"You..." Qiao Junxian laughed.
The chef is adding small seafood such as eye fish, shrimp and octopus legs. Yue Ning said: "Just like dry fried beef noodles, it is the most common food, but a good chef can make ordinary food into a superb delicacy."
Masako translated Yue Ning's words to the chef.
The chef smiled and said, "Yes, we Osaka people think that it is natural to make expensive ingredients delicious. But it is a chef's honor to make ordinary ingredients delicious."
"We had the same idea, so our first stop was Okonomiyaki, a street food like this," said Yue Ning.
"Understood." The chef placed strips of pork belly on the Okonomiyaki and poured a layer of flour paste on the pork belly.
The Okonomiyaki is turned over, and the pork belly is grilled on the iron plate, and the aroma wafts out. Brush it with sauce and drizzle with mayonnaise, and the Okonomiyaki is done.
The chef shoveled the okonomiyaki into the pan while he continued to make another one. Qiao Junxian picked up the shovel and wanted to cut the okonomiyaki in the middle, but Yue Ning stopped him immediately: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do. In Osaka, okonomiyaki should be cut into squares."
She took the spatula and cut the Okonomiyaki into nine squares. The chef was stunned and asked a question. Nakajima Masako translated: "He asked, how do you know how to cut Okonomiyaki?"
"Don't people in Kansai think that Okonomiyaki should be cut into squares? It is said that people in Kanto like to cut it like pizza." Yue Ning asked the chef.
This obviously made the chef happy, and he said, "I heard you guys are going to Tokyo to shoot again?"
After listening to the translation, Yue Ning said, "Yes."
"If you go to Tokyo to eat Okonomiyaki, make sure you cut it like this. Please tell the people in the port city that Okonomiyaki belongs to Osaka and must be cut like this." The chef said to Yue Ning.
Qiao Junxian was confused. Why were the Japanese so obsessed with how to cut a pie?
Yue Ning laughed: "The dispute between East and West is like whether soy milk should be sweet or salty."
Qiao Junxian was even more confused: "How can soy milk be salty?"
Yue Ning found that the more she talked, the more confused Qiao Junxian became. She said, "In short, this is a strange piece of knowledge."
"Please abide by this strange knowledge." The chef said to Yue Ning.
Yue Ning nodded: "OK."
Yue Ning picked up a piece of Okonomiyaki with chopsticks: "Salty and sweet taste, crispy but not burnt base, soft and moist inside, the cooking time is just right."
The Okonomiyaki tastes good when you first eat a few bites, but after mixing the salad dressing and Okonomiyaki sauce, it becomes salty after a few more bites.
Yue Ning saw the chef using batter to spread a thin pancake on the iron plate that looked like a Shandong pancake. She asked in surprise, "Are you making Hiroshima yaki?"
The chef paused while pouring the cabbage and asked, "Do you know the difference between Hiroshima-style grilled food and Osaka-style grilled food?"
Yue Ning nodded and said, "I learned a little before I came out. The difference between Okonomiyaki and Hiroshimayaki is that Okonomiyaki is made by mixing everything together and spreading it on a pancake, while Hiroshimayaki is made by spreading the batter on a pancake first, then adding vegetables, seafood, and udon noodles, in short, layer by layer. I hope this information is correct."
"Yes, you are really studying hard." The chef was very happy after hearing Masako's translation.
At this time, the chef added a handful of chopped green onions to the Hiroshima-yaki. Yue Ning looked at his hands intently, which frightened the chef and he asked, "What are you doing?"
"The difficulty of Hiroshima yaki is how to pile it up into a small hill and turn it over in one go without the whole Hiroshima yaki falling apart. Now it's time for you to show your skills!" Yue Ning looked at his hands seriously.
"You make me nervous when you say that, even though I've been making okonomiyaki for twelve years." The chef said this, but while he was speaking, he turned the Hiroshima-yaki over, making a complete, thick piece of Hiroshima-yaki.
Yue Ning clapped his hands: "Great!"
The chef was very happy to be praised. He was about to apply the sauce. Yue Ning said, "Half sauce, half mayonnaise."
"Why?" the chef asked in surprise.
"Our taste is lighter, and less sauce suits our taste better," Yue Ning explained.
Mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce were poured onto the okonomiyaki in regular shapes, and a handful of bonito flakes and some shredded seaweed were added. The chef bowed and said, "Please enjoy your meal."
Yue Ning cut the Hiroshima yaki with a spatula: "The feel is completely different. The Hiroshima yaki has a crispy texture."
Yue Ning ate a piece and said, "Unlike the soft inner layer of Okonomiyaki, Hiroshimayaki has more layers inside."
After eating one Okonomiyaki and one Hiroshimayaki, Yue Ning and Qiao Junxian stood up. Yue Ning said to the camera, "Whether Okonomiyaki or Hiroshimayaki tastes better, I hope you can find out for yourself. Today we saw that the difficulty of making Hiroshimayaki is flipping it over. So, do you know the difficulty of making Okonomiyaki?"
The group walked out of the store, and the recording was completed. Yue Ning suggested to Shen Wenqi: "Ms. Shen, let's add a prize-winning guessing session to the previous question. If you can answer my question, you will get a prize. If the sponsor is willing to pay for the prize, that would be the best. If they are not interested, Chef Ning can pay for it."
"Okay, I'll report it later." Shen Wenqi said.
The TV station's car took them to a hotel not far away. The TV station needed to communicate based on the filming just now. Yue Ning and Qiao Junxian took their rooms respectively and entered the elevator. They booked this hotel because it was in the commercial center of Osaka. Yue Ning entered the room and faced the huge advertisements of Swiss watches and French brands through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Walking to the floor-to-ceiling window, I saw department stores clustered one after another.
There are a lot of people down there. Today is Friday. Are people not working? Are they all out shopping?
Yue Ning was removing her makeup in the bathroom. When she heard a knock on the door, she went to open it.
Qiao Junxian saw her washing her face and said, "I'll come over later."
"Don't go back, sit here for a while, I'll be there soon." Yue Ning said.
She went into the bathroom to wash her face and said, "Not only are the Japanese rich, they also have free time. Today is Friday, and there are so many people in the department store."
"Yes, he is really rich. Do you know how much the average employee in Osaka earns?"
Yue Ning shook her head. She knew it should be very high. After all, it was the era when the bubble started rapidly. Qiao Junxian said, "More than 300,000 yen. You know the salary in Hong Kong."
Yue Ning certainly knew about the salary in Gangcheng. The salary of people in Baohua Building was already quite good in Gangcheng, and the basic employees only made around 1500 or 1600 yuan. According to the exchange rate, the salary of ordinary employees in Gangcheng was only one fifth of that of employees here.
"During the years I studied in the United States, bookstores were full of books about how Japan's economy was number one and that it was about to surpass the United States. They all summarized how powerful the Japanese model was," said Qiao Junxian. "Even though my grandfather and my aunt and uncle hated Japan, they kept coming to Japan and cooperating with Japanese companies just to know the trends of Japanese companies. The direction of Japan is the direction of the future."
Yue Ning washed her face, applied some skin care products and walked out: "Let's go! Let's go see Japan, the representative of fashion."
The two of them went downstairs together. As soon as they walked out of the hotel door and opened another door, there was a department store at the door. When they entered the department store, Yue Ning suddenly understood why his third aunt was anxious.
In the atrium on the ground floor of the department store, Japanese girls dressed in cool clothes are dancing to sexy songs.
Yue Ning seemed to have returned to his previous life, and the memories of shopping in Japanese department stores were exactly the same.
A poster was stuffed into her hand, and a service staff introduced the department store information to them in English with a strong Japanese accent.
Yue Ning thanked the other party.
"Let's go check out the home appliances first?" Qiao Junxian said.
"Okay!" Yue Ning followed Qiao Junxian and asked, "Aren't there any specialized electrical appliance stores in Japan? Like the ones that sell hardware and home appliances."
"Yes, you have to go to Tokyo." Qiao Junxian told Yue Ning about the agency situation of Japanese electrical appliances.
At this time, the model of centralized sales of home appliances had just begun. There were two ways to buy home appliances: one was to go to such department stores. Small appliances could also be bought at large supermarkets. The other was to go to the specialty stores of various brands, which were scattered on various streets. They were unfamiliar with the area, so they naturally looked for department stores.
Yue Ning saw the home appliance area. Is this area big enough to be a home appliance supermarket?
There were rows of rice cookers, ranging from cheap to expensive. Qiao Junxian looked at them one by one: "When not on sale, the price is lower than that in Hong Kong City. When on sale, it's probably only half of the price in Hong Kong City."
"The local market is the cheapest, isn't that basic? Who told Hong Kong City that it doesn't have its own brand to compete with them?" Yue Ning said. Without a brand of its own, it is destined to be ripped off.
In the first twenty years of reform and opening up in the past life, these foreign brands made a lot of money in China. Later, these brands were squeezed step by step by domestic manufacturers, and the lowest prices of major brands in the world are in China.
"But it's not easy to build your own brand. They have accumulated technology and such a large industrial cluster."
"You have the mainland as your backing, such a huge market. We understand the mainland market better than they do." Yue Ning said to him, "What are you afraid of?"
From rice cookers to washing machines, to freezers, you can see well-known European and American brands, but there are basically no people in front of these brands.
"The Japanese still support domestic products and basically don't buy European and American products. Unlike the people in Hong Kong, they still worship foreign things in their bones and think that all Western and Eastern things are good." Qiao Junxian couldn't help but sigh.
"People in Hong Kong like Eastern and Western goods, so why don't they buy goods from Southeast Asia?"
"Nanyang products?" Qiao Junxian was stunned. "There are no outstanding brands in Nanyang."
"Yes! That's why there is still no brand that people support." Yue Ning said, "We have to believe in ourselves. Today's Japan is tomorrow's China."
Thinking of what she said to Nakajima Masako during dinner, Qiao Junxian said, "Ningning, you are so optimistic. There are many factors that contributed to Japan's rapid development. China is too weak. It would be great if it could reach Hong Kong's current level. We love our country, but we can't aim too high."
Yue Ning looked at him seriously: "Just like I believe that Qiao Junxian will make Yimei Electric Appliances a world brand, I also believe that China will take off and fly very high. Do you believe me?"
"You have so much confidence in me?"
"Not only have confidence in you, but also in the Chinese people." Yue Ning looked at those Japanese brands, "Knock them down."
Qiao Junxian wanted to say that she was dreaming, but she was so serious that he couldn't bear to burst her dream. Her dream was also his dream. No matter what the future held, he would try his best to do it. He nodded: "Okay!"
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