Chapter 114 Tom Yum Udon
"With this type of franchise business model, traveling merchants typically only work with local lords or local specialty stores. They bear greater risk, but the advantage is that within the same city and along the same trade route, no two merchants will engage in price wars on the same product. Pricing power is essentially in their hands."
"Once you sign the franchise authorization agreement, other merchants cannot sell your goods privately along this route. If anyone does, the caravan can take the franchise license to the Kingdom Knights and demand a ban. In your case, even if some travelers travel to West Eston City on their own to buy soy sauce, the volume won't be large. At most, they'll share among friends and family, which won't affect the merchants' business.
"If you want to control all businesses in various places, cooperating with traveling merchants is the best option."
After listening to Heidi's introduction, Jiang You tilted his head in confusion. "If I don't sign a franchise agreement with the traveling merchants, then all merchants can buy my goods and sell them everywhere... But if I sign a franchise agreement with the traveling merchants, the Kingdom Knights will ban other merchants. Why?"
"Because of the commercial tax," Andrei answered. "Traveling merchants would take their authorization contracts to the cities they passed through to apply for a franchise license, which required a fee. After that, merchants would have their merchandise counted when entering and leaving the city, and pay a transaction tax based on the counted amount upon leaving. The more merchandise they sold or stored in the city, the higher the tax. But overall, paying the price for the protection they received was a good deal."
"Products that utilize this business model must be of excellent quality and have a sufficient customer base. Taking into account travel costs and commercial taxes, the prices will be significantly higher than in local markets, but without competition, the money can still be earned back. Pixie and the others are experts in pricing, and their prices generally don't deviate too much. After all, if they were to charge exorbitant prices, the products would be difficult to sell."
——Wow, there are so many ways to do business in another world!
Jiang You didn't expect that she could meet a big traveling merchant while shopping, but when she thought about it carefully, if he wasn't a big traveling merchant, he wouldn't be selling her soy sauce in the royal capital... Wow, his vision in choosing goods is amazing.
After listening to Heidi's introduction, Jiangyou gained a lot of understanding about the traveling trade: "But, Heidi, you know a lot..."
"Well, after all, I'm a graduate of Lanton Business School," Heidi smiled. "These are all basics. Besides, my family has a long-term partnership with the Pixi caravan, so I naturally understand some of the ins and outs behind it."
The two chatted for a while, and Andre wrote the agreement. He asked Heidi and Jiangyou to read the agreement, and then handed it to Annina.
Having Annina sign the agreement with Heidi on behalf of the Dresden family was a plan Andre, Takumi, and Annina had previously discussed privately. The capital was a turbulent place, and Andre was worried that Takumi's dishes would be too popular, and his title of viscount wouldn't be enough to control the situation. So he decided to go all out and ask Annina to step in.
During the cooperation period, the Dresden family will provide Dream Garden Restaurant with 12 signature dishes every year in exchange for 50% of the shares of Dream Garden Restaurant, thus achieving joint operation with the Losa family. The profits will be distributed according to the shares, that is, 50-50 between the two families.
Annina is only a nominal shareholder. In fact, after getting the profits, she will transfer them to Jiangyou without any reduction.
The agreement was signed, and the matter was settled. Takuya would go to Heidi's Dream Garden restaurant tomorrow to train her chefs. This month, they would serve three new dishes: the curry beef brisket omelet rice they had just enjoyed tonight, curry king prawns, and a new dish: Tom Yum Goong udon noodles.
In Thai, "Tom Yum Goong" means "spicy and sour shrimp". As the name suggests, Tom Yum Goong is a spicy and sour shrimp soup. The spices in it, such as lemongrass, galangal, and lemon leaves, are not only a source of deliciousness, but also appetizing and rich in a variety of vitamins and nutrients needed by the human body. They also have the effects of promoting digestion, enhancing immunity, and replenishing electrolytes and trace elements. If the spiciness is reduced, it is also suitable for Heidi to eat.
While any noodle dish would be delicious with this hot and sour seafood broth, Takuyu opted for udon, considering both the texture and the cooking method. Udon has a texture that's a cross between noodles and rice vermicelli, with a springy, chewy texture. It's delicious with both hot and cold broth, and naturally pairs well with tom yum soup.
The most authentic udon noodles can be made by repeatedly fermenting and kneading wheat flour and salt. If you want a modified version of the taste similar to rice noodles, you need to add some tapioca starch. Fortunately, tapioca is also sold in the market in the royal capital. Jiangyou saw it in the afternoon and it was sold together with those South Asian spices.
All the spices needed for Tom Yum Goong soup were readily available in the capital, but the fish sauce required fermentation. With her Occasion Crucible in hand and a deep understanding of the art of fermentation, Takumi planned to buy some small fish from the market tomorrow morning and then use the crucible to fast-forward six months to complete the fermentation of the fish sauce.
Although the cost of these spices and ingredients is not low, Mengyuan Restaurant itself is a high-end restaurant that caters to aristocratic guests. Following the recent curry craze in the royal capital, it has introduced exotic South Asian dishes that no one in the Principality of Huntington has ever tasted. It is not difficult to capture the hearts of the guests.
Just by looking at the shiny plates with not a speck of curry left after dinner tonight, Jiangyou could imagine how crowded the Mengyuan Restaurant would be in a few days.
"Then I'll come pick you up tomorrow morning." Heidi said with a smile, "If you can let me have breakfast, that would be even better~"
Jiang You had seen through her desire to eat for free, but she didn't care. She just asked, "What do you want to eat?"
"Porridge." Heidi licked the corner of her mouth and said.
"How about seafood porridge?" It just so happened that she was going to buy fish tomorrow morning, so she bought some seafood and made Chaoshan seafood porridge... Hey, it's delicious!
"Of course! I'll have seafood delivered tomorrow morning," Heidi added. "What do you need? Shrimp? Crab? Or fish?"
"I want both." The seafood the nobles in the capital could get was definitely better than what Jiang You could buy on his own, not to mention it saved him money. The stingy skeleton smiled broadly, "I also want to buy some rice, ginger, mushrooms, cilantro, and celery..."
Heidi's chef took out a pen and paper and quickly wrote it down. He also carefully asked Jiangyou about his requirements for various ingredients. Jiangyou did not hide anything and told him everything according to the highest quality requirements.
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