Wen Lingling had heard that Xu's Restaurant had been open for about half a month, but she had no plans to go there either. One reason was that she was used to eating at Donglai Ju, and even if she went to other restaurants and hotels, they were basically all on East Street, and she only went to the West Street market occasionally. Plus, she heard that it was just a small restaurant, so she had no plans to go and try the food at Xu's Restaurant.
She was a girl, and the place where she sat was covered by a screen, but it was also in the living room, not a private room, so she could still hear the conversations next door.
The diners next door were talking.
"Have you ever had breakfast and dinner at Xu's Restaurant?"
"I haven't been there yet, what's the matter? But I've heard about this newly opened restaurant, and it's said to be delicious. But I'm used to eating at Donglaiju, and I can't eat at that kind of small restaurant. How good can the food at a small restaurant taste?"
The man's tone was dismissive of Xu's Restaurant, and it was obvious that he looked down on the small eatery.
It is true. The food prepared by most small restaurants is just average in taste. How can it be compared with that in larger restaurants?
"Brother Zuo, you really shouldn't have this prejudice. If you want to believe me, why not go to Xu's Restaurant and have a meal there? The butter is especially good. It can be used to mix rice and noodles. The taste is so delicious that you can't stop eating. Also, the hand-pulled lamb chops are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. They don't smell stinky at all. The fish with fatty intestines is spicy and appetizing. In short, even if they are not the signature dishes, they are still delicious. Oh, now that I talk about them, I feel like drooling."
The man called Brother Zuo couldn't help asking, "Since you are so fascinated by the place, why didn't you go there for breakfast today?"
The man touched his nose and said, "Brother Zuo, do you think I don't want to go? It's because I've been busy too late these days. Even if the breakfast was sold out in the past, there would be a queue for both breakfast and dinner. My shop has been so busy these past two days that it would have been sold out if I went there at this time. I went there at this time a few days ago and they had already closed their stalls. I usually have to work until the end of the evening, when their dinner was sold out. After I finish my work in a few days, I will definitely go to Xu's Restaurant to have a good meal for a few days."
Brother Zuo was a little skeptical, "Is this little restaurant really that popular? Is the food delicious too?"
"Why would I lie to you?" the man continued, "Brother Zuo, you might as well trust me for once. Remember to go early for breakfast and dinner, otherwise you won't be able to get a seat and will have to queue. I also heard that the chef of Xu's Restaurant is kind-hearted. He used to make fish balls, fish heads, and braised fish and sold them cheaply to the neighbors. Now that he has opened a restaurant, he still cares about the neighbors who can't afford to eat fishy food, so he still sells those fish dishes at the original price in the restaurant as usual."
Brother Zuo snorted, "What's so delicious about fish?"
The man smiled and said, "I had the same idea as Brother Zuo at first, and then I bought some fish balls. They were chewy and delicious, just as good as the other dishes in the restaurant."
Brother Zuo was half-believing and half-doubting, and decided to go over and take a look at night at dinner time.
When Wen Ling heard this, she frowned a little, but still felt lucky.
At first, she didn't think of the name Xu Ji as the fourth sister-in-law of the Pei family. It wasn't until the diners next door mentioned fish balls and fish heads that she remembered that Xu Qinyu had sold these in Guihua Lane. She also asked Cheng Ge'er, who said that it was just fish food, so what kind of taste could it have, at most it didn't smell fishy, and those neighbors were all poor people, so they treated it as a delicious dish.
Now it seems that Cheng Ge'er was simply deceiving her!
Wen Lingling was so angry that she couldn't even eat breakfast. She dropped her money and went to West Street to look for Xu's Restaurant.
The location of Xu's Restaurant was easy to find, but when she went there she found it closed. She went next door to inquire and found out that the restaurant was closed that day.
This was the first time she heard that restaurants could have closed hours.
Wen Lingling inquired with the owner of the rouge and powder shop next door and learned that the owner of Xu's Restaurant was really a young lady of fifteen or sixteen, who should be the fourth sister-in-law of the Pei family. She went back angrily.
After returning home, she complained to Yue Shi, her eyes reddened. "Even if Cheng Ge'er is from the third room, he is still surnamed Wen, and he is my brother. Why would he help an outsider? He really hurts my heart. When I asked him, he must have known how the food cooked by the fourth sister-in-law tasted, and he lied to me that it was just so-so. I missed the fourth sister-in-law like this. If I knew that the fourth sister-in-law was a great cook, I would have discussed the matter of opening a restaurant with her a long time ago."
Yue advised, "She's only fifteen or sixteen years old. Do you really believe that she's a great cook? I've also heard of that damn Xu's Restaurant. I'm afraid they're just using some tricks. Otherwise, how could a ten-year-old girl be better than the chef at Donglaiju? I heard that the food at Xu's Restaurant is even more delicious than that at Donglaiju. Do you think that's possible, Ling'er?"
Wen Ling then stopped talking.
After a while, she couldn't help but say, "I'm afraid that Aunt Gui's departure was also planned by them."
Yue didn't care about this at all. "If Aunt Gui left, she left. Why should she stay in the Wen family? Besides, the two doctors diagnosed her with tuberculosis, so it must be right. Even if she recovers, it has nothing to do with our family. Doesn't Ling'er want to open a restaurant? Mother heard that there is a great chef in Raozhou City. We can go to Raozhou City to ask him someday."
According to her, she should have settled down in Raozhou City that day so that it would be easier to do business. However, her father-in-law felt that he did not have enough money and wanted to live in the town.
Wen Ling's face lit up with joy, and she decided to go to Xu's Restaurant again tomorrow to try the food there.
If it's really delicious, talk to the host.
If the negotiation fails, then go to Raozhou City to find a chef. She has already opened this restaurant!
However, Yue still found it funny. She really didn't believe in the cooking skills of a 15 or 16-year-old cook.
…
The next day, Wen Lingling went to Xu's Restaurant early on purpose.
Just as the diner at Donglaiju said, people started lining up at 3:45 p.m.
After a while, the door of the restaurant opened. It was a woman in her thirties whom she did not recognize.
The restaurant opened and customers came in one after another. Wen Lingling arrived early and was among the first group of diners, but she had to share a table with others. She frowned but didn't say anything. When she entered the restaurant, she saw her second aunt Wen standing behind the counter.
This time I completely believe that the cook at Xu's Restaurant is my fourth sister-in-law.
When Mrs. Wen saw Wen Lingling, the smile on her lips disappeared immediately, but she did not kick her out.
Yu Niang had told her before that since they had opened a restaurant, the Wen family would surely find out slowly, and the matter could not be kept secret. As long as the Wen family members were not causing trouble and were dining normally, she should ignore them and just treat them as ordinary customers.
So Wen asked calmly, "What would the guest like to eat?"
Wen Lingling smiled obediently, "Aunt, just help me order, I trust you."
Wen nodded and ordered a custard bun and a bowl of rolled fish porridge for Wen Lingling.
The fish porridge made by Yu Niang is delicious and warming to the stomach, and many people order it for breakfast.
Now Yu Niang uses seven or eight small stoves to cook fish porridge at the same time. Now she has eight servings of fish porridge ready to eat.
After Wen Pingling paid the money, she went to find a seat and sat down. The person sharing the table with her was a woman who was neatly dressed. Wen Pingling glanced at her but didn't say anything. If it was at Donglai Ju, no one would be willing to share a table with her. It was indeed a small restaurant, not worthy of being presented.
Soon, the custard buns and raw rolled fish congee were served.
Wen Lingling picked up a custard bun nonchalantly and was stunned when she took a bite.
Delicious...
Like the other diners in the restaurant, she could no longer think of anything else and focused on eating.
She finished two custard buns in one gulp and started to drink the porridge.
The porridge is also thick and delicious, the fish slices are very tender, and there is no fishy smell at all.
Wen Lingling usually doesn't have a big appetite, but after finishing a whole pot of fish porridge, he felt a little full.
She sat in her seat in a daze for a while.
After a while, Wen Lingling went to find Wen, "Aunt, can I meet my fourth sister-in-law?"
Wen said calmly, "Mrs. Yu is very busy and has no time to see you. Don't disturb her. Come back as soon as you finish eating. I still have other guests to entertain."
Wen Ling pursed her lips, but was not annoyed, and turned away.
She returned to the Wen family, still a little dazed, and said to Yue, "Mother, the food cooked by Fourth Sister-in-law is indeed delicious. The food at Donglaiju cannot be compared with that cooked by Fourth Sister-in-law. It is even more delicious than the food at Jixianglou in the capital." It was the most delicious food she had ever tasted.
Wen Lingling knew clearly that Donglaiju's customer flow was not greatly affected at present. That was because Xu Ji Restaurant was a small restaurant and could only receive a limited number of customers. Therefore, Donglaiju's customer flow was not particularly affected, but there was still some loss of customers.
Affected are Jinyuan Restaurant and Ping'an Restaurant in West Street Market.
Yue was surprised and asked, "Is it really that delicious?"
Wen Lingling nodded.
No, she must talk to her fourth sister-in-law.
In the evening, Wen Lingling went to Xu's Restaurant for dinner.
She ordered the basil butter rice and hand-pulled lamb chops.
It tastes better than breakfast.
After dinner, Wen Ling knew that she would not be able to see her fourth sister-in-law if she stayed here, so she went to Pei's house in Guihua Lane, intending to wait for her fourth sister-in-law to come back and talk to her in detail.
She really wanted to open a restaurant and make a lot of money.
In fact, she knew what her grandparents were thinking. They wanted her to return to the capital, perhaps so that she could become the new emperor's concubine.
She would also like to enter the palace and enjoy wealth and glory, but when she thinks about it carefully, there is no possibility for the Wen family to return to Beijing. She thinks that since she can't return to Beijing, it would be nice to stay in the border town to earn more money and become a wealthy country lady.
Only then did he want to find a chef to open a restaurant.
Wen Ling came to Pei's house in Guihua Lane and knocked on the door. Soon someone came to open the door. It was Aunt Gui.
Wen Ling was startled, but she saw that Aunt Gui looked very well, with a rosy complexion and her hair was not so white anymore. She did not look like a tuberculosis patient at all.
"Aunt Gui..." Wen Ling called out subconsciously.
Gui asked calmly, "Why is Sister Ling here?"
"Has Aunt Gui's tuberculosis been cured?" Wen Ling frowned. She still felt that something was not right about Aunt Gui having tuberculosis.
Gui said, "Maybe it's because I live here and eat well that my illness has healed, or maybe those two doctors made a mistake in their diagnosis. I am now really fine and in good health."
Wen Lingling was a little angry, but she had come to ask for something today, so she couldn't give him a cold shoulder. She said, "Auntie Gui, I have something to ask Fourth Sister-in-law. Can you let me in and wait for her?"
Gui did not refuse and let Wen Lingling in.
This is also what Yu Niang had told me before.
He said that if the Wen family came to visit, they could come in as long as their attitude was acceptable.
If the attitude is bad, just chase them away.
Wen Lingling entered the yard and found Ning Jie'er there too.
Pei Jianing didn't like Wen Lingling, but her fourth sister-in-law said that when you come to the house, you are a guest. She suppressed her dislike for Wen Lingling and even made tea for him.
Wen Lingling didn't expect Ning Jie'er to be so nice to her, and she couldn't help but say thank you.
Ning Jie'er ignored Wen Ling and went back to her room.
Wen Lingling waited for more than an hour before seeing Xu Qinyu coming back.
Only Xu Qinyu was here. She must have come back after preparing dinner. Seeing the sweat on her forehead, it must be very hard to be a chef.
Xu Qinyu was not surprised to see Wen Lingling, as she had already heard from Cheng Ge'er that she wanted to open a restaurant.
"What's the matter?" Xu Qinyu asked.
Wen Lingling got straight to the point and said, "I do have something to ask you, Sister-in-law. Don't you think your current restaurant is a little too small? If you are willing, I can open a restaurant that is bigger than Donglaiju, just like the Jixianglou in the capital. You can be the chef. I know you are a great cook, so I won't pay you a salary. How about giving you 10% of the profit from the restaurant?"
A restaurant as big as Jixianglou, even if it only makes 10% of its profit every month, would still be worth hundreds or even thousands of taels of silver. It is definitely better than a small restaurant like this.
She knew in her heart that if she really followed the salary of other shopkeepers, twenty or thirty taels of silver a month, it would definitely not be able to attract Fourth Sister-in-law.
Knowing that Fourth Sister-in-law was a good cook, she also offered her chips sincerely.
Xu Qinyu smiled and said, "Do you want to compete with Donglaiju?"
Donglaiju is currently the largest restaurant in Yuanbao Town. Even if she earns enough money to open a restaurant in the future, she will open one in Raozhou City. There are many restaurants in Raozhou City that are similar in size to Donglaiju.
But this kind of restaurant is the only one in Yuanbao Town.
Then why has Donglaiju been able to stand firm in Yuanbao Town for so long, with no other restaurant being able to shake its position?
That must be because Donglaiju is the local boss of Yuanbao Town.
As long as no one comes to compete with it, Donglai Ju won't care about anything.
Even though Xu's restaurant is doing good business, Donglaiju has no plans to do anything about it, because in Donglaiju's view, a small restaurant like Xu's restaurant is nothing. At most, the number of customers at Donglaiju will decrease a little, which will not have much impact.
Wen Ling frowned, "What does my opening of a wine shop have to do with it? We all rely on our own abilities."
Xu Qinyu said, "I'm sorry, I don't agree. I think my own small restaurant is fine, and I don't plan to open a big restaurant for the time being."
She couldn't become fat by eating all at once. Her small restaurant would be envied by others. She had to be on guard every day, fearing that someone would come and cause trouble. Fortunately, Xu Kongmu came to have dinner a few days ago, and no one dared to cause trouble for the time being.
You know, even in modern restaurants, it is common for two store owners to fight with each other.
Or it could be one of those street food stalls where two stalls are trying to overthrow each other. To put it bluntly, whoever does good business will inevitably be envied, and this is true no matter what kind of business you do.
Wen Lingling was furious, "Are you stupid? You have a big restaurant but you want to open a small restaurant instead. It's a waste of your talent."
"No need." Xu Qinyu still shook her head, "Miss Wen, please go back. I will not be a chef in your restaurant. I just want to guard my own Xu's Restaurant."
I want to open branches of Xu's Restaurant all over the country in the future.
Wen Ling was so angry that she refused to listen and wanted to make a sarcastic remark, but she saw the black leopard Zheng squatting on the ground not far away, looking at her deeply, as if it was going to pounce on her if she made any movement.
Wen Xuan was so excited that he finally had to turn away and leave.
Leaving a sentence, "I have never seen such a fool!"
In Xu Qinyu's eyes, Wen Lingling was not only domineering and arrogant, but also very stupid.
If you actually think of challenging Donglaiju, you will probably lose miserably.
After Wen Ling returned, he talked about it with Yue.
Yue said, "She has no knowledge and doesn't want to open a big restaurant. Just ignore her. Since Lingjie wants to open a restaurant, let's go to Raozhou City and invite that famous chef. Lingjie can open the restaurant herself. Mother has some private money, which is enough for you to use." Otherwise, with the stingy look of her father-in-law, he would definitely not be willing to give money to help Lingjie open a restaurant.
As for Aunt Gui, neither of them took it seriously and didn't take it to heart.
Wen Lingling originally thought that if Aunt Gui was still in the Wen family, she could still use Aunt Gui to pressure her fourth sister-in-law. Now that Aunt Gui is no longer in the Wen family, she really has no way out.
All she wanted was a chef. Since her mother said there was a famous chef in Raozhou City, she would go to Raozhou City in a few days to take a look and invite the chef to be the chef in her restaurant.
——————
By the beginning of June, the weather was getting warmer and the snails cooked in sauce became popular in restaurants.
In addition to snails in sauce, Xu Qinyu also had prawns in sauce.
The big river shrimps used are the kind that are specially used to make shrimp dumplings. They are cooked whole and marinated in the prepared sauce for half an hour before they can be eaten.
The seasoning for julienned prawns is different from that for julienned snails, and the taste is also slightly different.
Xu Qinyu doesn't like to make ingredients that are eaten the same taste the same. To her, snails have the chewiness of snails, and prawns have the elasticity and freshness of prawns. Their different flavors deserve different sauces.
This dish of shrimp in sauce is as popular as snails in sauce and is a must-order for almost every table.
As the weather gets a little warmer, fewer customers order the hand-pulled lamb chops. Even though they give away green bean soup, it's still very hot to eat it in hot weather.
As the weather gets hotter, Xu Qinyu cooks a pot of sour plum soup every day in addition to soy milk tea and mung bean soup.
It is boiled with black plums, hawthorn slices, dried grass, tangerine peel and rock sugar.
The cooked sour plum soup is reddish in color, sweet and sour, refreshing, with a particularly rich flavor, and is very appetizing to drink.
Because the weather was not particularly hot yet, no ice was added to the sour plum soup. After it was cooked, it was hung directly in the well with a rope for an hour. It tasted cool and comfortable to drink.
This sour plum soup is also sold at eight cents a bowl. Because the ingredients are real and the black plums are candied, the price is not cheap.
Even though the drink was sold for eight cents, there were still many customers ordering drinks at dusk. Sometimes Xu Qinyu didn't even have enough to leave some for the people in her own restaurant.
Xu's Restaurant not only has julienned prawns and sour plum soup, but also offers a meat bun for breakfast. It is the meat bun that Xu Qinyu used to sell at the stall at the pier, with fried eggs, salted pork intestines, radishes, and hot and sour cabbage in it.
However, this breakfast was prepared by Cheng Ge'er, and it was still sold for eight cents each.
It is sold at the entrance of restaurants every morning, making it convenient for customers who don’t have much time to sit in the store for breakfast. They can take it away in a wrapper wrapped in oil paper and pair it with a bottle of soy milk, and it is a very comfortable meal.
You can also pour the soy milk directly into the water bag and take it away, which is quite convenient.
Nowadays, you don’t need to add ice to drinks, but in the hottest seasons of July and August, you will definitely need to add ice. At that time, the price of drinks will increase, after all, edible ice is not cheap.
After a few days, the number of customers in the restaurant suddenly decreased.
Xu Qinyu didn't know what was going on.
She knew that Wen Lingling was instigating the tavern.
After hearing Cheng Ge'er say that the location had been chosen, Wen Lingling went to Raozhou City specifically to find a famous chef to open a restaurant. The restaurant is near the East Street Market, but it is still under renovation. It will take at least one or two months to open for business. It is a three-story restaurant, and it is not easy to renovate and decorate it. It will take at least two months before it can open for business.
So it's impossible that Wen Lingling's restaurant has taken away her business.
Fortunately, Xu Qinyu soon found out what was going on.
That day, just after breakfast, when she had time to rest, Wen came over and the chef said worriedly, "Yu Niang, I just heard from the diners in the living room that many people outside said that there is a family member with tuberculosis in our family, but we didn't send her to the hospital for treatment. They said that if she continued to eat in our restaurant, she would be careful not to get tuberculosis. They must be talking about your grandmother Gui, but how would outsiders know about this? Besides, your grandmother didn't really have tuberculosis. Do you think Lingjie ran into your grandmother when she went to Guihua Lane to look for you that day? But she had seen your grandmother's appearance and she didn't look like she had tuberculosis at all. Why did they spread the news? Could it be that they wanted to target our business?"
Xu Qinyu frowned, "It's not Wen Lingling."