The breakfast Xu Qinyu prepared for Yang Zhizhi was shrimp dumplings made with mixed-grain noodles. Even though she used mixed-grain noodles, she was still able to roll the dough as thin as a cicada's wing. Although it was not as crystal clear as white noodles, you could still see the beautiful color of the shrimp inside. There was no difference in the taste either, because it was mixed-grain noodles, the dough tasted a bit tangy.
In addition to shrimp dumplings, there is also a bowl of milk. Naturally, there is no sugar added to the milk, but almonds are added. It tastes rich and mellow with a hint of sweetness, which is the sweetness of the milk itself.
The greens are cold celery shreds, which taste sour, spicy and crispy.
Mixed grain noodle shrimp dumplings are very filling, so Yang Zhizhi also ate with an open appetite.
Others can eat anything.
Wei ordered custard buns. She had eaten them once at Pei's house and couldn't forget them. Today, she ordered two baskets of them, two servings of shrimp dumplings, and a cup of milk tea.
Wei's eldest daughter-in-law also came along. However, the two sons of the family did not come. They also brought food boxes and would go back later to bring some breakfast back to their families.
As for the Xu family, except Xu Kongmu who went to the yamen, everyone else, including Xu Yunlan's brother, sister-in-law and nephew, came.
They all knew Xu Qinyu's cooking skills, and unlike other guests, they not only ordered their own food, but also ordered and paid for the breakfast they wanted to take home.
Other customers who had never tasted Xu Qinyu's cooking were still hesitating at the counter, "Why is it so expensive?"
"They're using offal for breakfast and charging ten cents for it? Why don't we go and rob it?"
"They dare to sell a bowl of fish porridge for eight cents, while Donglaiju's meat porridge is only twelve cents. There's meat in it, but they dare to sell something as cheap as fish for eight cents?"
"That's right. The breakfast price here is about the same as that of the Jinyuan Restaurant above, but the portions are bigger. Look at this breakfast. There are only two in one serving."
Jinyuan Restaurant is a small restaurant at the front of the market. It usually has many customers, many of whom are regulars.
“The quantity is indeed a little less…”
The customer thought it was expensive, but the food was delicious and all the other customers in the store were concentrating on eating and not talking, so he finally decided to order it to try.
Then, like all the other guests, he didn't say a word, just ate with his head full, and occasionally said, "Delicious!"
When the guests behind were still grumbling and complaining.
Chen called out, "Shopkeeper, there's not much breakfast left in the kitchen. It's almost sold out. We still have five shrimp dumplings, three custard buns, five steamed wheat buns, and some steamed buns. Everything else is gone. However, we still have fish porridge and fried noodles. These are all freshly made food."
When the guests heard this, they realized that many of them were gone.
I didn't care about anything else and started ordering breakfast.
In the end, all that was left was the raw fish fillet porridge and fried noodles.
Because it was the first day, Xu Qinyu didn't quite know how much customers would demand for the raw fish porridge. She could cook five servings of the porridge in advance tomorrow so that customers could eat it faster.
The breakfast is gone by the end of the Si hour.
When the guests who came later heard that there were only fish porridge and fried noodles, some were willing to stay to try what kind of fish porridge was priced at eight cents, while some thought it was too expensive and left directly.
However, all the diners who stayed to eat the fish porridge and fried noodles praised them highly.
After the Chen and Yuan families cleaned up the pots, bowls, and utensils as well as the front living room, they could go to the back to rest.
Xu Qinyu basically had nothing to do. Cheng Ge'er had already prepared the fish balls that were to be cooked in the afternoon, so she could just cook them when the time came.
At dusk, the aroma of braised fish balls attracted many people.
Even the neighbors from Guihua Lane came to line up early before dinner time, for fear that they would not be able to buy fish later.
The shop owners in the surrounding area were all dumbfounded.
"Why is this new restaurant doing so well? There are people lining up. Aren't there seats inside? Why don't you go in and eat?"
"That's right, could it be a gimmick put up by the boss? Could it be that they hired someone? This is the first time I've seen this."
The neighbors in the queue turned around and said, "Don't talk nonsense. The owner of the restaurant didn't ask us to fool you. He is kind-hearted and started selling fish balls, braised fish and fish heads to us a few months ago. They are cheap and delicious. Now he has opened a restaurant and still sells them to us at the same price. A small braised fish is five cents a piece and a large one is eight cents a piece. Fish balls are five cents a portion. The fish head and tofu pot is also based on the size. There are five cents a portion, ten cents and fifteen cents a portion. They are all cheap, large and delicious."
“How delicious can fish be?”
The neighbors asked, "Can't you smell the fragrance? Can the fragrance be faked? If it didn't taste good, would people like us buy it every day?"
"Then why don't you go in and eat?"
"The owner said that we can only buy such cheap food and take it home, and not keep it in the restaurant. If we eat it in the restaurant, how can the owner entertain other customers? We must not let him down. The owner is kind-hearted, and we must not hurt his feelings."
Soon, fish heads, fish balls, braised fish and so on were all carried out, and Cheng Ge'er and Gong Ge'er were buying fish at the door.
Xu Qinyu was preparing evening meal in the back.
She has about thirty dishes for dinner.
The signature dishes are fatty fish, charcoal-grilled lamb chops, fried eel shreds, stir-fried shrimps, and butter noodles and rice. The butter is made from river crabs, and the crab meat and crab roe are also prepared by Cheng Ge'er and his friends, and the butter is made by Xu Qinyu.
There are also pea sprouts for soup. There are peas here. The pea sprouts were also grown by Xu Qinyu in advance using pea seeds in a clean, oil-free wooden basin. The quantity is relatively small, and the price is needless to say. A serving of pea sprouts for soup costs eighty-eight cents.
Another signature dish is the snails in sauce.
The snails are specially selected from the largest ones. No one eats snails here, so some of the snails are particularly large, almost the same size as flower snails, and they are also delicious when used to make juice.
Among these signature dishes, the charcoal-grilled hand-pulled lamb chops are the most expensive. A three-pound portion of charcoal-grilled hand-pulled lamb chops costs half a silver dollar, or five hundred coins.
Another thing is the butter noodles. A bowl of butter noodles or rice costs two hundred coins.
After breakfast, the shopkeeper Fan of Rouge and Powder Shop began to look forward to dinner at Xu's Restaurant.
When it was time for dinner, she came over immediately and said, "Hello, shopkeeper, I'd like to order two dinner dishes. Just like breakfast, please send them to the rouge and powder shop next door."
There were so many dishes for dinner that Manager Fan was dazzled. She knew the ingredients of all these dishes, but she had never heard of any way to eat them.
After hesitating for a while, Manager Fan ordered the signature fried eel shreds and stir-fried bamboo shoots.
She originally wanted to order bean sprout soup, after all, she had never heard of bean sprouts and it was the only ingredient she was unfamiliar with. It turned out to cost eighty-eight cents. A vegetable was so expensive that she was a little reluctant, so she ordered stir-fried spring bamboo shoots.
The price of the fried eel is one hundred and twenty coins.
The price of fish intestines is also the same.
Stir-fried bamboo shoots 15 cents.
Except for the signature dishes which are more expensive, the prices of other vegetarian dishes are mostly around ten cents, and the prices of other pickled vegetables are also several dozen cents.
Xu Qinyu was cooking snails in the back kitchen. It was almost May now, and although the weather had not yet gotten hot, everyone had already changed into thin clothes and could eat some refreshing dishes.
The snails had been spitting out sand for two days, their shells had been scrubbed clean, and the tips of their tails had been knocked off.
It is not difficult to prepare the snail sauce. Boil large snails in boiling water with ginger slices, Huadiao wine and green onions for a quarter of an hour.
While cooking the snails, she began to prepare the sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar, then added ginger juice, a little minced garlic, five-spice powder, and the powdered mushrooms she had dried.
This mushroom powder is a mixture of wild mushrooms that she specially found in the mountains, and it is used to enhance the freshness and flavor.
She had no plans to cook wild mushroom dishes in the restaurant because she was afraid that someone would follow her example and go to the mountains to dig wild mushrooms and cook them at home.
Because only she herself can distinguish whether wild mushrooms are poisonous or not. Sometimes, even the same wild mushrooms may be poisonous or not depending on the growing environment and location. In addition, many poisonous and non-toxic wild mushrooms look almost the same, making it even more difficult for ordinary people to distinguish them. If you rashly dig them up and eat them, you may easily get poisoned and die.
This is not like modern society, where medical technology is advanced and most people can be rescued even if they are poisoned by eating wild mushrooms.
Even in modern times, not everyone can be rescued from poisoning caused by eating wild mushrooms.
So whenever she has time, she would pick these wild mushrooms and bring them back for her family to eat.
Later, when I wanted to open a restaurant, I dried the wild mushrooms and ground them into powder to use as seasoning.
Add the prepared sauce to the boiled water, and finally pour in the cooked snails. Sprinkle a handful of chopped coriander and green onions. Put coriander aside and marinate for 15 minutes before eating.
Put the marinated snails into your mouth, suck the juice from the snails, and finally roll and suck the snail meat with your tongue, then spit out the snail shell. The snail meat tastes refreshing and salty, with a sweet aftertaste.
If you have other seafood, you can use it to make seafood in sauce, which will taste even better.
Unfortunately, this is not by the sea, so you can't eat fresh seafood.
After ordering the dishes, Shopkeeper Fan also asked for a bowl of glutinous rice.
A bowl of glutinous rice costs two cents.
In less than a quarter of an hour, two dishes and a bowl of rice were delivered to the rouge and powder shop.
Shopkeeper Fan first took a bite of the fried eel with chopsticks. The eel was tender, smooth and delicious. After eating it, the fragrance lingered on her lips and teeth. She couldn't help but take another bite. After several bites, Shopkeeper Fan stopped. Before the fragrance in her mouth dissipated, she murmured, "How can it be so delicious?"
She took another bite of the stir-fried spring bamboo shoots.
Even a simple stir-fried spring bamboo shoots is full of flavor, and has the sweet and crispy taste of spring bamboo shoots.
You can taste the most original flavor of spring bamboo shoots. Not much salt is added, and the taste is light, but it still makes people unable to stop eating.
There is no sour taste at all.
Even the glutinous rice at Xu's Restaurant is particularly fragrant, with each grain distinct and full, and the rice aroma is rich and chewy, bursting out in your mouth.
"How can even a bowl of glutinous rice be so delicious?"
Shopkeeper Fan felt like crying while eating. With such delicious food, she was afraid she would want to stay in Xu's Restaurant every day to eat breakfast and dinner.
Breakfast is not too bad, you can eat it with only twenty or thirty coins at most, but dinner costs almost two hundred coins.
She hadn't ordered the charcoal grilled lamb chops yet, but the shopkeeper said there were only three servings of them and they would be gone once they were sold out.
But since one serving cost five hundred coins, she couldn't bear to eat it.
It costs more than two hundred coins to eat at Xu's Restaurant every day. Even if you eat cheaper in the evening, it will still cost dozens of coins. It will cost more than three taels of silver a month. This is not to mention that you don't eat the signature dishes. If you want to eat the signature dishes, you will need six taels of silver a month.
Even Shopkeeper Fan couldn't help but feel a little distressed.
Finally, after giving it some thought, I decided to eat as much as I wanted at Xu's Restaurant for the first month, and then go there occasionally to satisfy my cravings.
As dinner time approached at Xu's Restaurant, many customers started to arrive.
Needless to say, they all came here to have breakfast in the morning. Since they had breakfast and were very satisfied, they would definitely come here to try the evening meal as well.
When they arrived, there were already customers in the restaurant.
They are the Xia family, the Yang family and the Xu family.
They also ordered the only three charcoal-grilled lamb chops available in the restaurant.
Why are there only three servings of charcoal-grilled lamb chops? That’s because these three servings were ordered by the Xia, Yang and Xu families before the business opened.
Although there were several stoves that could cook several dishes at the same time, Xu Qinyu couldn't concentrate on grilling lamb chops.
So grill the lamb chops in advance.
When she was grilling lamb chops, she also taught Cheng Ge how to grill them.
Xia Yuanzhi from the Xia family saw that the shop had little business, so he closed it early and came over to have dinner.
As for the Yang and Xu families, since Xu Kongmu and Yang County Magistrate had not left the government office and therefore did not come, a small portion of the lamb chops was left for them, and the rest was eaten by the family members themselves.
Yang Zhizhi's lamb chops were specially selected and marinated by Xu Qinyu.
The leanest lamb chops are selected, and different seasonings are used when marinating them. The taste is mainly lighter, but you can't eat too much, so only two are prepared.
Because Yang Zhizhi couldn't forget the mixed-grain noodle shrimp dumplings she had in the morning, she asked Xu Qinyu if she could eat them in the evening. Xu Qinyu smiled and said, "Of course you can." So in the evening, she gave Yang Zhizhi two baskets of shrimp dumplings and a bowl of bean sprout soup.
Yang Zhizhi’s way of cooking bean sprout soup is different from others.
The soup base of the bean sprout soup that others eat is made from pork bones, while Yangzhizhi uses fish bones.
The bean sprouts cooked in the soup made with pork shanks are fragrant, while the soup made with fish bones is fresh.
When other diners arrived and smelled the strange aroma, they couldn't help but ask, "Boss, what kind of food is this aroma? It's too overbearing."
Wen smiled and said, "This is charcoal grilled hand-pulled lamb chops, only three servings, which were ordered by customers before we opened, so we don't have this dish today. If customers want to eat it, they have to order it tomorrow. This serving of charcoal grilled hand-pulled lamb chops is three pounds and costs half a cent."
Half a penny is still quite expensive.
These diners were hesitant, but some wealthy diners, seeing the lamb chops on the three tables they were eating, which looked crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, were very appetizing and tempting, so they made reservations for the lamb chops for tomorrow.
Even if it was just a reservation, you had to pay two hundred coins in advance, just in case someone else messed up and ordered lamb chops that you didn't want in the end.
Other diners thought it was too expensive and refused.
These diners ordered dishes calmly at dinner time. They didn't complain about the food or the high prices, and they certainly didn't think the fish and pig intestines were cheap.
Most of the guests who come to eat dinner in the evening have eaten breakfast.
I just thought the food tasted good for breakfast, but the dishes for dinner were all fresh and new to me.
The whole restaurant was filled with loud conversations, with people praising the delicious dishes, the fragrant glutinous rice, and some saying that they were too rude in the morning.
"This smells so good, how are they made?"
"The chef must be a famous chef from somewhere. His cooking skills are worth double the price!"
"I just think the breakfast is much better than other restaurants, but the dinner is really unique."
In short, by the end of the You hour, there were very few prepared ingredients left.
Fortunately, there were not many diners at the hour of You.
Cheng Ge'er prepared the employee meal in the evening.
Wen and Ning Jie'er, who were used to eating food cooked by Xu Qinyu, were actually not used to food cooked by Cheng Ge'er, but neither of them said anything, and they were reluctant to let Xu Qinyu cook for them in the evening. Seeing Xu Qinyu just coming out of the kitchen, untying the cloth wrapped around her head, with her hair on her forehead sticking to her cheeks with sweat, and her face flushed, Wen's heart sank with distress.
In Wen's eyes, it would be better to say that she treated Yu Niang as her daughter rather than her daughter-in-law. She knew that there was no marital relationship between Yu Niang and her son, and they did not live in the same house, so she did not force anything.
He simply loved Yu Niang as his own daughter.
Ning Jie'er also began to feel uncomfortable.
The two of them asked Xu Qinyu to go back to Guihua Lane to wash up and rest, and she didn't need to worry about anything else.
Xu Qinyu has been with the Pei family for so long, so of course she knows the personalities of Wen and Ning Jie'er, so she feels at ease having them looking after her.
Plus, the restaurant was closed, so everyone could go home after finishing their evening meal and packing up everything.
Xu Qinyu nodded and went back.
Mrs. Gui and her two children had already eaten.
Xu Qinyu cooked a little more food and also made some steamed meat with soda, which she put in a food box and asked Gongger to send back. The two children and the old lady couldn't go hungry.
When they returned to Guihua Lane, Gui saw Xu Qinyu's appearance and felt a little distressed. She helped her boil some hot water for her to wash up first.
After washing and changing into clean clothes, Xu Qinyu lay on the bed for half an hour and finally recovered.
We still have to hire a few helpers in the kitchen, otherwise it will be very tiring.
After a while, Wen's sister Ning, Cheng'er and Gong'er also came back.
The three waitresses including Mrs. Chen also went home to sleep.
Mrs. Wen and Sister Ning returned with a wooden box in their arms.
They brought the cash box back with them, fearing that it would be stolen if left in the restaurant. After all, there was no one guarding the restaurant at night.
The wooden box contains today's sales amount.
When Xu Qinyu heard the wonderful sound of money colliding, she didn't feel so tired anymore and smiled with her eyebrows curved.
When Mrs. Wen saw Yu Niang's look, she felt helpless.
The whole family waited in the kitchen to calculate how much they had earned that day.
After sending the people back, Cheng Ge'er and Gong Ge'er also returned to the Wen family.
As the manager of the store, Wen Shi naturally also kept the accounts, which facilitated the monthly reconciliation.
Xu Qinyu counted all the silver in the wooden box, which was about thirty-five taels of silver.
Wen murmured, "Did you earn thirty-five taels of silver today?"
Ning Jie'er said quickly, "Mother, there is no such thing as thirty-five taels. We have to deduct the cost of food to make money."
Xu Qinyu calculated that the food used today cost about eight or nine taels of silver.
But the remaining twenty-six or twenty-seven taels is not pure profit; the gross profit must also be calculated.
Gross profit is the cost minus the cost of rent, labor and other expenses.
Since Wen was helping to manage the store and do the accounting, Xu Qinyu planned to pay her five taels of silver a month.
Cheng'er still earned one or two taels, while Gong'er always did odd jobs, such as delivering things for her. Xu Qinyu gave him five hundred coins every month.
The eight hundred coins for three waiters is more than two taels of silver a month.
In addition to the rent of four taels a month, the price of seasonings is not low. Today, the seasonings alone cost almost two taels of silver, and the seasoning money for a month is sixty taels of silver, and there are also future commercial taxes and other miscellaneous expenses.
After some calculations, the actual gross profit she could get was about 20 taels of silver, which meant a net profit of 500 to 600 taels of silver a month.
It’s still relatively high.
But it is indeed very hard.
Five or six hundred taels of silver a month is indeed something that ordinary people cannot earn in their lifetime, but Wen Shi realized how hard it was for her daughter-in-law to earn money. She felt sorry for Yu Niang, and when she learned that Yu Niang was going to pay her five taels of silver a month, she refused. There was no use for her to have the money, so it was better to leave it all to Yu Niang.
She knew that Yu Niang wanted to open a big restaurant.
After counting the money and hiding the wooden box under the bed, Xu Qinyu decided to go to bed.
Bai Yu was sleeping under the bed. Xu Qinyu squatted beside the bed, patted the wooden box, and told Bai Yu, "Bai Yu, remember to keep the money for me. When we make a lot of money in the future, we will buy a big house with a garden. Then you can roam around in the garden and don't have to sleep under the bed anymore."
Bai Yu didn't know whether she understood or not, but she stood up and sat on the wooden box.
Xu Qinyu smiled and touched Bai Yu's smooth head.
In fact, Baiyu doesn't stay under the bed all day. Occasionally, he goes to the mountains to hunt.
But I never gave her anything in return.
It was late at night and the whole family had gone to bed.
Xu Qinyu looked at the not-so-full moon outside the window and thought of her fourth brother who had been away from home for three months.
It's been three months, Xu Qinyu sighed, and she didn't know how her fourth brother was doing with the caravan outside. She hoped that her fourth brother was safe and could come back soon.
Wen was lying on the bed, thinking of his son.
She thought that Yu Niang and her family were doing well, and hoped that Xuan Ge'er was taking care of himself while he was away.
After wiping his eyes, Wen closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Early the next morning, the family got up and started busying themselves with making a living.
In just half a month, Xu's Restaurant's reputation spread more and more on West Street.
Also because of Xu Ji Restaurant, the business of two relatively large restaurants and a small restaurant on West Street were affected and became much quieter. Most diners went to Xu Ji Restaurant.
However, Xu's Restaurant has limited breakfast and evening meals, and most diners cannot queue up, so they can only go back to other restaurants and taverns to eat.
Indeed, within half a month, diners at Xu's Restaurant who wanted to have breakfast and dinner here had to line up like the neighbors who bought fish.
Fortunately, Xu Qinyu knew exactly how much of the food she prepared was, and she would ask the three waiters to inform the people at the right place in the queue so that the people behind her would not have to queue.
This also caused many diners to complain and ask the chef why they didn't make more.
Mrs. Chen, the waitress, could only say, "No wonder our boss wanted to hire assistants, but they ran away when they heard that our boss was a young lady. Without assistants, our young lady has to cook all the meals, and there is only enough food for dozens of people. There is really nothing we can do."
There was indeed a notice on the door recruiting chefs.
But in just one town, the assistant chefs have been in charge for several years at least. There are only a few assistant chefs who are idle. I have asked Xu Qinyu before. Xu Ji Restaurant has only been open for half a month. These assistant chefs must have heard about it. I wonder if they felt that it was too much to leave before and are too embarrassed to come back.
Xu Qinyu was thinking that if she couldn't recruit any more helpers, she would have to find a few apprentices and teach from scratch.
Otherwise, one brother won't be enough.
The other two restaurants and hotels were also anxious, feeling that their business was being taken away, but they could do nothing about it, because the owners and chefs of the two restaurants had also bought food from Xu's Restaurant and tasted it, and found it to be very delicious. The chefs of the two restaurants were very impressed with the cooking skills, and even told the owners directly, "The cooking skills of the chefs at Xu's Restaurant are so good that we can't compare to them even if we cook for another few decades. We can't take away their business."
If they were not all chefs, if they were just ordinary helpers, they would all want to go to Xu's Restaurant to be apprentices.
…
Xu Qinyu's business was going smoothly, and far away in the sea thousands of miles away, on the sea, a large ship with huge sails was sailing forward against the sea breeze.
There were several people standing on the board, led by Pei Weixuan.