Chapter 111 Site Selection
Although Chef Jasmine baked good bread, the fillings provided on the table were really mediocre. There was only the infamous orange marmalade, a specialty of the Duchy of Huntington, which was hard to describe... Jiangyou felt that it was a complete waste of this well-baked black bread.
She looked around again and found that there were no cheese products on the table.
"Don't you eat cheese here?" Jiang You asked doubtfully.
Lolisa shook her head. "I rarely eat it. It's quite expensive! We do raise cattle, but the milk isn't enough for us to drink! Uncle Wolf makes some cheese and supplies it to the Lord of West Eston. We can only eat some during festivals."
Jiang You scratched her skull. She had thought that cheese-making technology in medieval Europe was already quite mature... Ugh, she was in another world now. She couldn't always think in terms of European history!
Among the three staple foods, roasted sweet potatoes are obviously the most delicious but also the hardest to get. They are the favorite and the white moonlight of all diners and are often swept away as soon as they are served on the table; the black bread itself has great potential, but the accompanying sauce is really poor, which greatly reduces its appeal; as for oatmeal porridge... although this thing is a nutritious and good thing, it tastes really tasteless and it is really boring to drink it every day.
Besides the three staples, hard-boiled eggs are also available daily. The rest of the menu is more random, switching back and forth between meat dishes like seared steak, pan-fried lamb chops, butter-seared duck breast, poached chicken thighs, and salt-cooked white shrimp. Vegetarian dishes are all made into salads, with all the vegetables chopped and seasoned with salt and pepper, resulting in a consistent taste.
The soups depend on the ingredients of the day, the most common ones are tomato and onion borscht, mussel/clam chowder...
It sounds good at first, but since it is stewed in a big pot and people serve themselves, it is easy to have the effect of making soup in the school cafeteria - you need to recite the formula silently, sink your energy into your dantian, face the terrifying and murderous look of the cook, and put the spoon into the bottom of the pot and slowly scoop it up... As for whether you can get a pot of soup base or a bowl of hot pot water, it depends on your luck.
"Also, because a lot of food needs to be cooked every day, Cook Jasmine is often too busy, so there is often a lot of mud and sand in the clam chowder, and no one likes it very much," said Lolisa.
Jiangyou nodded, not at all surprised. From Jasmine's favorite recipes, it was clear that she favored dishes with simple steps, easy and quick to make. If she could boil it, she would boil it; if not, she would fry it directly; it was simple, crude, and easy to make.
Overall, however, the food at the Witch Canteen wasn't as bad as Takumi had suspected. While the limited variety and simple cooking methods made it difficult to eat well, it wasn't difficult to fill your stomach. For a free canteen in such a culinary hotspot, the quality was quite reasonable.
However, the locals who have been eating the same dishes day after day for decades and have grown tired of it don’t think so. They are like college students who eat in the cafeteria every day, their eyes almost glowing green like wolves from eating so much.
People have different eating habits. Some people don’t mind repeated dishes, but some people will get bored and lose their appetite if they eat the same thing for three meals a day.
Compared to the lackluster dishes in the cafeteria, the villagers preferred the snacks brought by the numerous vendors during the Midsummer Carnival, such as Uncle Wolf Doro's impromptu barbecue, the shepherd's pie made by Hecheli Ho Lari from the neighboring town, and the mashed potato wraps made by Pingpi Ho Priss, a vegetable vendor from the Hav tribe in the next village...
"It's a pity these snacks are only sold during the Midsummer Carnival," Meili sighed. "On weekdays, at the morning and night markets, people are either buying candy, beer, or cloth. It's boring."
After all, the festival only comes once a year, and tourists from afar only come to visit during the festival. Merchants flock to these customers to make money, one thing after another, just like carnivorous hunters chasing migrating herbivores on the African continent.
On weekdays, those small markets were held by people nearby to exchange daily necessities, and they were not as lively as this. To eat these snacks on weekdays, the witches had to travel together, taking ox carts or horse carriages to nearby towns, which was very troublesome.
The Witch Forest cafeteria no longer meets the needs of the residents, whose increasingly comfortable living conditions have led to a craving for a variety of delicious and innovative fare. Of course, this doesn't mean the cafeteria is no longer necessary. No, low-end free meals remain a crucial means for this utopian village to provide assistance to those in need; people simply need more options.
"So, we want to open a branch here." Lolisa pulled Jiangyou to the other end of the cafeteria, where there was a back door and a small room.
"Ding ding ding ding! This is the store we're talking about!" Lolita pointed to the small room and said, "This was originally a storage room, but it didn't actually store anything. We can rent it! We just need to tear down half of this wall, make a counter, and then put the snack kiosk here! Ding ding! Our store can be opened!"
"And the cafeteria has ready-made tables and chairs!" Meili said excitedly, "We don't need to prepare separate tables, chairs, and dining space!"
This is just like the food court that Jiangyou visited in his previous life. As long as he occupies a table, he can try all the stalls in the square one by one... Well, it's a pretty good idea.
When villagers tire of Jasmine Chef's food but have to eat, they often find themselves at the brewery's small branch, where they can occasionally buy crayfish or smashed cucumbers for a change of pace without becoming a financial burden. Even a bottle of soy sauce can effectively enhance the flavor of Jasmine Chef's boiled and fried dishes and salads.
"That's a good idea indeed!" Jiang You praised. "But, opening a branch here won't steal the cafeteria's business and make Jasmine the cook angry?"
She had the impression that the cook, Jasmine, had a bad temper.
"Hahahaha! If someone else opened the shop, they would definitely be chased out by Chef Jasmine waving a rolling pin!" Lolita laughed. She patted Meili on the shoulder. "But if Meili is the head chef, there won't be a problem. Chef Jasmine loves her precious daughter the most! No one else can take over the shop here except Meili."
——Okay, the value of partners continues to increase.
Jiangyou did not make a decision too quickly. She still visited all five possible locations and even went to other places in the village. After collecting all the information, she also felt that the cafeteria was the best choice.
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