Mr. Qian chuckled and continued to explain, “Brother, look at my place. We mainly serve small seafood. Tuna is used for sashimi or pan-fried fish. My chefs don’t know how to make it, and customers who want that kind of food wouldn’t come to our restaurant.”
After hearing what Mr. Qian said, Ye Cheng understood.
Tuna is more of a Western dish, while other seafood like grouper, shellfish, and sea cucumber are more of a small seafood dish, so there are some differences.
Ye Cheng frowned slightly as he thought of a question.
He brought over the snakeskin bag containing the sea urchins, opened it, and showed it to Boss Qian. "So, what about these sea urchins? Are you going to take them?"
A bitter look appeared on Mr. Qian's face, and Ye Cheng immediately understood that Mr. Qian's sales of this product were also not good.
"It's alright, you can decide what to collect, I'll figure out the rest myself."
"Brother, I'm really sorry, I can accept a little sea urchin, but not much, because not many people order it. You have too much, I can't eat it all," Mr. Qian explained, feeling a little embarrassed that he had refused to accept two items in a row.
Ye Cheng patted President Qian on the shoulder, "It's alright, I'll figure something out myself."
"You need to find Japanese restaurants, Western restaurants, or larger hotels; only then will they be able to accept your order."
"Well, take a look at the others and see if you'd accept these."
Ye Cheng then began to take out other things.
"These are butter crabs, there are only two, and they are both quite plump."
"Butter crab?" Mr. Qian immediately became interested upon hearing this. He took the crab from Ye Cheng and examined it carefully, nodding repeatedly. "Good stuff! How about 300 for one?"
"Okay, and then there are two geoduck clams. You can make those, right?" Ye Chengdu was a little unsure.
"Of course, quite a lot of people eat this. It's served in two ways, making it a great deal for group meals."
Mr. Qian picked up two geoduck clams and examined them. "150 each."
After looking at these two that are a bit more expensive, the prices of the others are easy to calculate.
The swimming crabs weighed 2.5 jin (1.25 kg) and cost 100 yuan.
Cat's eye snail: 10 yuan per jin (500g), 32 jin (16kg) for 320 yuan.
Ribbonfish: less than 4 jin in total, 180 yuan.
The total comes to 1500 yuan.
As Ye Cheng left Mr. Qian's place, looking at the 1500 in his hand, he was a little dazed. It was the first time he had received so little.
Damn it, buddy, I usually make five, six, seven, eight thousand, or even over ten thousand. How come I only have this little today?
Looking at the remaining two bags of sea urchins and the large tuna, Ye Cheng was a little confused. Where should he sell them?
With no other options, Ye Cheng could only go to the market to take a look.
Old Wang wasn't here today; his spot had been taken by another vegetable vendor, and Ye Cheng couldn't find a place to sit after looking around.
With no other option, he decided to try a different approach and went to the entrance of the residential area to sell his wares.
It was already 2002, and Donghai City had developed some new residential buildings with elevators. In those days, only wealthy people could afford to buy apartments with elevators.
Ye Cheng planned to try his luck at the entrances of these residential communities.
Riding his motorcycle, Ye Cheng headed towards the city center. No matter the era, the city center is always the most expensive area.
Dragon Palace No. 1.
Ye Cheng was stunned by the eye-catching name of the residential area. Damn, they dared to use such a name. Isn't that a bit too awesome?
However, judging from the quality of this community, it is indeed quite good for this day and age.
With over twenty floors, elevators, and a small green pond, this development is considered top-tier, especially considering that low-rise and stacked villas haven't yet been developed.
Most importantly, the security guards of this era were just security guards, not the kind of people who are hated by gods and ghosts in later generations. After glancing at Ye Cheng at the door and confirming that he was a fishmonger, they ignored him.
It's 8 a.m., right when people are going to work. There are people coming and going, and a group of old ladies have just come back from grabbing eggs.
As soon as Ye Cheng set up his stall, it attracted a crowd of onlookers.
"Hey, what are you selling here?"
"Sea urchins, and they're quite big."
"And this fish is so big, I've never seen one like it before."
"Auntie, this is tuna," Ye Cheng quickly explained.
"Oh, tuna, I've heard that foreigners love to eat this."
"Yes, yes." Ye Cheng nodded repeatedly. Yes, it was foreign devils.
To save himself some trouble, Ye Cheng had prepared a sign beforehand:
Large sea urchins are priced at 40, small ones at 30.
Tuna, whole, 3000 yen, not sold individually.
"3000? This fish is too expensive." Several middle-aged women gathered around Ye Cheng's tuna and started discussing it. They weren't buying it, but they just wanted to see who would buy it and who would be the sucker.
Ye Cheng felt it should fetch that price; the fish was a meter long and weighed several dozen kilograms, and he had preserved it so well.
"Young man, you're selling these sea urchins for 40 yuan each? That's not cheap."
"That's right, I just came back from the market, and they were only 10 yuan each."
"Can you give us a discount? We'll buy a few more."
Several middle-aged women started bargaining.
This haggling effectively reduced the price by three-quarters, but Ye Cheng wasn't bothered. He took a pair of scissors from his motorcycle and casually picked out a sea urchin.
"Ladies, please take a look at the quality of this."
As he spoke, he quickly cut the surrounding spines short, made a slit in the sea urchin, and poured out the black stuff inside, revealing the golden sea urchin roe. There were five segments in total, each one very full and looked extremely tempting.
"This quality, this color, 40 yuan is not expensive at all, really, there might even be people scrambling to buy it later," Ye Cheng said confidently.
It must be said that the sea urchin Ye Cheng opened was indeed quite good; it was large, and the roe inside was plump and beautifully colored.
This made the older women too embarrassed to haggle. When faced with a young man who called them "beautiful," they all became reserved.
"Here, give me two, my son loves them."
"Then I'll have a few too. My wife is going home for dinner tonight."
"Give me the big one, I want the 40 one."
Several middle-aged women each bought several, and then recommended them to the onlookers, saying, "These sea urchins are so good, 40 yuan each is a great deal."
"Use this to steam eggs, it's so fresh it'll make your eyebrows fall off, it's incredibly delicious."
"Look at this color, golden yellow, how beautiful!"
That's how it is when you buy things; there's a herd mentality. When you see so many people buying things, the onlookers also start buying things.
One for you, two for me, and Ye Cheng's sea urchins were quickly sold out. The last few smaller sea urchins were given to several beautiful middle-aged women. If it weren't for them, he probably wouldn't have been able to sell them all so quickly.
Now all that's left is this tuna. This kind of thing is rarely eaten, and even rarer to see.
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