Wang Xing, in a good mood, carried the steamed buns from the Imperial Academy back to the academy.
When the students saw him carrying back a basket of steamed buns, they swarmed around him. "These steamed buns are good! These steamed buns are auspicious!"
Because the highest institution of learning in this dynasty is called the Imperial Academy! You have to eat one of these steamed buns before the exam.
It's like eating the same food as the people in the Imperial Academy, so maybe you'll be just as talented in writing as them during the exams? Anyway, all this talk about good fortune is just a roundabout way of saying it.
The academy doesn't cook, but it does have a kitchen, so it's not a problem to make tea or heat up meals.
The woman who buys food takes this steamed bun away, and when evening comes, she heats it up before going out to buy them dinner.
With the Taixue steamed buns, one would naturally want to have a bowl of mutton soup with rice in the evening.
Tonight we'll just have soup and steamed buns. The two old women are looking around for a suitable big pot, and they'll bring it back with them.
It also saves us from having to make two trips to the outside. You know, with so many people, we would have to bring back two pots of soup if we used a small pot.
The steamed buns from the Imperial Academy were filled with shredded pork, which was cut into strips and mixed with seasonings such as Sichuan peppercorns and salt.
Then, when wrapping the bun, use leavened dough, fill it with fresh meat filling, and toss it between your left and right hands a couple of times to shape it into a smooth and flawless round bun.
Steam for 45 minutes, then pick one up while it's still piping hot. Take a bite of the fluffy, soft bun and your mouth will be filled with its tender and savory flavor.
The rich fat in the pork, combined with the rising heat, soaks into the skin of the steamed bun, creating a wonderful combination of wheat and meat aromas. This steamed bun is absolutely delicious.
After eating two steamed buns, they had a bowl of mutton soup with rice. Everyone in the academy ate a fairly full dinner.
Wang Xing brought back quite a lot of steamed buns today; when Wang Ying went to buy them, he bought out three trays of buns from the shop.
Aunt Wang gave the order, but after buying it, she couldn't get it back. The shop owner had to send a servant to help carry it back.
……………………………………………………
That day, Wang Yan and Fatty Wang moved a small table and brought a pot of tea.
Sitting on the shore enjoying the breeze, the two were discussing how they had been trying to book the meal for over ten days, but only the two of them had made the reservation.
This can't go on; the ice and snow are melting and spring is coming.
Logically, the number of customers should be increasing, but almost no one is booking a table. In fact, we're selling fewer dishes than we are selling mapo tofu.
There are more boats on the river now, and just yesterday Uncle Chuan took a look at their banquet dishes.
Then I suggested that they sell their vegetables individually, otherwise the whole meal wouldn't be enjoyable.
If they were sold individually, they could go next door and order two bowls of large bowls of meat noodles, and then buy some boiled sliced meat and shredded chicken skewers from this shop to eat together.
Otherwise, his lily soup, cakes, and the like would be pretty useless for people who don't like sweets.
Upon hearing this, Fatty Wang and Wang Yan exchanged a thoughtful glance.
However, to be honest, they don't think it's worth selling them separately. Firstly, they would control costs when making a single banquet dish.
Earning 700 coins is easy, and the banquet needs to be booked in advance. The ingredients for the number of tables to be booked for the next day must be prepared in advance.
If you want to sell them separately, it's like ordering food; how much ingredients do you need to prepare each day?
And preparing the ingredients isn't the problem; the problem is how exhausting and tiring it is. You have to be on standby all the time. When someone comes, you cook one dish; when someone comes, you cook another.
These dishes are exhausting to prepare. Putting everything else aside, just making those skewered vegetables is incredibly troublesome.
Costs are also difficult to control. Isn't that obvious? You have a whole table of dishes, a mix of meat and vegetables, it looks like a lot.
Therefore, the price is naturally high, one or two taels of silver. But you can't sell a single dish of boiled pork slices for 200 coins, can you?
A bowl of mutton offal soup costs only 15 coins. A bowl of vegetarian noodles costs 12 coins.
If you say you're going to sell too little, Wang Yan and the others also feel it's not worth it; it's tiring and not profitable.
But what Uncle Chuan said makes sense. Even if you sell a whole table of food, you won't make a name for yourself, and nobody will recognize you.
No matter how well you cook a simple dish, people won't be willing to spend a tael of silver to try and make a mistake on an important day.
Therefore, if you want to do other businesses, selling individual vegetables is actually a good option.
Considering their desire to gain recognition, selling this dish is necessary, at least for now.
But how do I control the costs? And the dishes need to be simple and not too greasy. Ideally, everything should be cooked in one big pot, and then a portion can be scooped out for each person who comes to eat.
Wang Pangzi and Wang Yan used their teacups as wine glasses, clinked them together, and gulped them down.
"Hey Dad, let's sell fried chicken strips!"
"Hmm? But aren't these chicken strips supposed to be fried fresh?"
Wang Yan knew that, of course. "But we just blew out a whole bucket of it... sigh."
Fried chicken strips are definitely tastier when they're freshly fried, but you also need to build your store's reputation.
Wang Yan couldn't think of any other good dishes for the time being. There were very few that met both requirements. It was also related to her not wanting to use her brain.
Fatty Wang comforted his daughter, "It's alright, it's alright. If this doesn't work, we can try this first. Who knows, it might just be the solution?"
Without further ado, the two of them stood up and went to the stall selling chicken giblets, buying up half of the chicken breast meat.
I came back, sliced the chicken strips, coated them in flour, and fried them. I fried a whole bucketful!
The first customer was Aunt Lu from next door. She brought a bowl of sour-filled steamed buns in exchange, and Wang Yan loved her steamed buns.
One bowl after another, Wang Yan filled Aunt Lu's bowl to the brim, piling it high.
If you fry them all at once, this dish is quite quick to make; you can finish everything from cutting and marinating to frying in an hour.
Then he didn't go out again. He sat down at the shop entrance, brewed a pot of orange tea, and waited for people to come and buy lunch while drinking it.
Chicken strips are selling like hotcakes, even more popular than mapo tofu.
When selling chicken strips, Wang Yan sprinkled chili powder on them, and Fatty Wang wouldn't let her use less.
"If we use less, it would be considered cutting corners. Let's stick to this amount for now."
"That's hard to say. Some people like spicy food, and if your sauce isn't flavorful enough, they won't remember it and won't come back a second time."
Wang Yan too, okay then, sprinkle more.
Fatty Wang was right; his chicken strips sold out instantly.
Moreover, the number of people buying chicken strips doubled on the second and third days, and of course, the quantity also doubled.
This is such a pleasant surprise!
The reason, they say, is that their chicken strips are spicy enough that people like Uncle Chuan don't eat them all at once. They eat one every now and then.
It's more satisfying to eat than snacks like tarts.
Hearing this, Wang Yan felt quite regretful, thinking that they couldn't openly sell spicy strips outside.
Otherwise, her business would be booming! Just as she was feeling regretful, she heard someone calling her.
Turning around, I saw Fuling Chunye coming over; this time, Chunye was the one leading the team.
Spring leaves, spring rain, spring morning, spring magpies, and Poria cocos arrived.
None of the first and second class maids came. When Wang Yan saw Fuling, she was overjoyed. Suddenly, she remembered that there was still a share of the profits. The profits were coming again!
My friends arrived around noon. Since everyone had a day off, they went home to rest and have lunch before coming over.
The small restaurant was busy at the moment, so Chunye and the others rolled up their sleeves and helped Aunt Wang serve the dishes.
Fu Ling was used to working in the mansion's kitchen and was very familiar with weighing, so she came over to help Wang Yan weigh the chicken strips.
Fu Ling has a special skill: for a serving of chicken strips that costs 10 qian (approximately 5 grams), as long as she knows the exact weight, she doesn't need to weigh it. As soon as she puts it out, the amount is almost exactly the same.
Wang Yan took a look and couldn't help but give a thumbs up. "Even Fatty Wang can do this."
As for Wang Yan herself, she just used a trick. Because the things that Fatty Wang cut were so uniform, she estimated how many strips to pack based on how many grams each strip weighed.
This period of practice really made Wang Yan realize that Chinese cuisine is not so easy to learn, even though she has many menus in her head.
Putting everything else aside, just the skills of starting a fire, cooking, and basic knife work alone would be enough for Wang Yan to practice for a while.
She knows the skills, but she's not very skilled. By Fatty Wang's standards, Wang Yan might need another year to graduate, and that's only if she practices every day for several hours straight.
Fortunately, Wang Yan was quite diligent and had some basic skills. When she was in the mansion, Aunt Sun had trained her for several years.
Moreover, she didn't intend to be like some of the current female cooks who only did the same things, either only picking rice or only choosing vegetables.
She wants to learn how to cook red dishes! Upon learning of her idea, Uncle Lu couldn't help but applaud her!
Now Uncle Lu and Fatty Wang are teaching her together. Given time, Wang Yan will definitely graduate.
Getting back to the point, after she finished her work, she took Fuling and the others to the shore to set up a table and laid out a feast.
Lamb tongue skewers, shredded chicken skewers, fried chicken strips, and sweet candies that Wang Ying specially bought back.
This is a large box divided into small compartments.
Each small box contains different sweets, such as honey paste, sugar candy, and candied fruit.
Wang Yan chatted with everyone while eating, "Why didn't Sister Qingqian and the others come this time?"
Chunye exclaimed, "Hey! Our Third Young Master is in trouble again!"
Throughout the entire courtyard, apart from us third-class maids who have some free time, everyone from the second-class maids upwards has been busy non-stop these past few days.
Upon hearing this, Wang Yanke perked up. "What's wrong? What happened again? Weren't you just dismissed from your post a while ago?"
Chunye leaned closer to her, head to head, and whispered, "I overheard a little something from Zhixue, but I wouldn't dare go around telling anyone. I wouldn't dare."
Not only Wang Yan had concerns, but Chun Chao and the others also nodded repeatedly. They had placed a silencing order in the mansion and dared not discuss it at all.
Chunye then spoke again, "Our Second Mistress has been poisoned!"
"Second Madam! From the second branch of the family?!"
"Otherwise, I heard she was poisoned."
Zheng Jin has been poisoned! Wang Yan really thinks it's unbelievable! The Second Madam seems like a very shrewd person, how could she be poisoned?
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