Chapter 152 Plum Sauce (Part 1)
"Two more servings of barbecued pork!"
"Wow, this glutinous rice with barbecued pork is so delicious!"
"Wow! This stir-fried beef is so tender! Ahhh, I love this sweet rose wine!"
The noble lady seemed to have turned her frustration into appetite, as dishes were brought in one after another, and empty plates were sent out in piles. While Jiang You happily watched the soaring profits in the account, he couldn't help but wonder how the seemingly petite and frail noble lady could eat so much food... Could it be that she also had the bloodline of some magical creature?
However, since the noble lady had brought her maids and guards with her, Jiang You had no concerns about his dishes going to waste. According to Jericho, any food left over from the masters was often given to the servants. Even though the guards, to avoid food poisoning and drowsiness, generally refrained from consuming outside food while protecting their masters, they considered it a sign of care and honor. They would pack up the meals and enjoy them slowly back in the safety of the manor.
Takumi: Even the nobles who spend money lavishly have a frugal side... After all, no one's money comes from the wind.
Vivian stayed in Jiangyou's shop for most of the day and tried almost all the signature dishes on the menu. Only then did she let the guards carry jars of sauces, plum sauce, sweet soy sauce, and even a jar of rose rice wine, into the carriage with satisfaction. These were all things Winston had paid for. Jiangyou also made a whole tin can of crispy handmade sesame egg rolls for the young lady as a snack.
The method of making egg rolls is also very simple: mix eggs, sugar, butter and flour into a batter, then sprinkle in roasted black sesame seeds, then scoop a spoonful of batter into a frying pan, spread it into a thin layer, and bake it on the stove until it reaches a beautiful golden color. You can then roll it up with chopsticks while it is hot. After cooling, it will become a super crispy and sweet egg roll.
Because she was cooking for the nobility, Jiangyou had extravagantly used a lot of the sugar left by the landlord today. Although it was a bit painful, she still made enough money. After trying an egg roll, Vivian generously rewarded Jiangyou with three gold coins, which made the skeleton very happy.
Even after Vivian's carriage had driven away, Jiang You couldn't stop herself from occasionally chuckling. She laughed so much that her jaw almost couldn't close.
——There’s nothing she can do, she’s just too happy.
Winston had given her seven gold coins before, and with Vivian's reward, after deducting the cost, Jiangyou earned enough to pay off the debt for a refrigerator in that day.
Of course, Jiang You didn't intend to pay off the debt all at once. After all, it didn't bear interest, and paying it off a few months early wouldn't save him any money. The main store had just opened, and there were still many things and staff that needed to be purchased, so there was a lot of money to be spent.
"It's still easier to make money from the nobility!" she murmured. "Although I was incredibly busy today preparing special dishes for the noble lady, considering the generous profits, I can definitely come a few more times!"
Although it was possible, Jiangyou still carefully wrote a job recruitment notice and posted it on the wall outside the courtyard.
With more and more customers, the staff is still a little short. Jiangyou plans to hire at least one more cook and one more waiter so that the restaurant can have more staff.
Now, Auntie Wolf and Jericho, two experienced workers, have to keep their ears to the ground and their eyes to the ground, taking care of the yard, the store, the kitchen, the takeout window, and Raven Takeout. They are really too busy. If one of them is tripped up by one or two difficult customers, the other will inevitably be a little scrambled.
Not to mention that she had to complete the private chef mission in a few days. If she didn't find a chef, the main store would have to close for a few days. But thinking about how she could earn ten gold coins just by cooking a dish for a customer, which was equivalent to the store's sales for several days, Jiangyou felt it was a good deal.
...Well, today's good thing where two nobles spend money lavishly can only be regarded as a special case that happens occasionally.
The best way to have the best of both worlds is to quickly train a reliable cook in just a few days. It doesn't matter if you can't cook other dishes, as long as you can make rice noodle rolls. It's easy to learn. As long as you learn to mix the batter in the right proportions, prepare the fillings, and steam it at the right time, the final taste will be pretty good.
Selling soy sauce is Jiangyou's main business. The store's standard rice noodle rolls are served with the sweet soy sauce available on the shelf. Only when discerning (and wealthy) customers arrive does Jiangyou prepare the sauce on the spot. After all, when it comes to rice noodle roll sauce, there's no limit to how much you can add: the most basic ingredient is naturally soy sauce. For a more sophisticated approach, you might stir-fry sugar color, add a little oyster sauce for a hint of flavor, or even sauté scallions, ginger, and garlic until fragrant.
If that's still not enough, then shallots, onions, dried scallops, oyster sauce, XO seafood sauce, mushrooms—anything can be added, and the price will naturally rise with the added cost. However, at this stage, whether the customer can still taste the subtle flavor differences in the sauce is a matter of personal preference.
Naturally, a new chef wouldn't be in a rush to learn these things; the sweet soy sauce flavor of the shop was enough to satisfy most customers in this world. After learning to make rice noodle rolls, Jiangyou could also teach him or her some simple dishes, like shredded chicken, vegetable salad, and blanched vegetables... These alone would be enough to keep the customers entertained for a few days, enough to last until Jiangyou returned.
In this way, not only can the private chef's ten gold coins be safely pocketed, but the main store can also earn a lot of daily income. Although the labor cost has increased, it is still a huge profit overall.
As the peak dining period gradually passed, the brewery gradually quieted down. Jiangyou stretched lazily, took out a basket of fresh green plums that Holly had sent today, and began to make a new batch of plum jam.
This plum jam was originally just a sauce that Jiangyou made with green plums to go with roast meats. Unexpectedly, with the popularity of roast meats, this plum jam also became popular. Recently, there have been many customers who come to buy plum jam just for the sake of buying it. Unfortunately, Jiangyou did not have enough sugar on hand before, so he could not produce it in large quantities for a while.
Plum jam requires a large amount of sugar. For the finished jam to taste good, the ratio of green plums to sugar must be almost 1:1. Fortunately, Jiangyou knows how to make malt sugar himself. The wheat and millet required can be purchased very cheaply from the witches. Lolisa sends a raven delivery every morning. This way, while adding a sugar-making step, it significantly reduces costs.
In the past few days, Jiangyou has fermented the malt and can start making malt sugar.
A jar of plum jam weighing one kilogram could be sold to the nobles for a gold coin, yet the cost was less than a silver coin. Jiang You had originally planned to use the green plums to make plum wine and green plum vinegar, but now he had changed his mind and was going to use all of it to make plum jam.
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