Believe it or not, ever since that day, Wang Yan's family has been receiving more and more banquets.
In a month, we can usually get about ten tables, some of which are for five or ten taels of silver, and they usually make up about six or seven tables.
Everyone felt it was worth it, but it wasn't just because their food was good.
This is only a small part of the reason. The key is that many people have heard rumors and know that Fatty Wang is a chef who retired from the Marquis's mansion.
Humans are naturally curious, so what would the food prepared by the cook serving the Marquis taste like?
This was truly amazing, incredibly delicious! Word of mouth spread like wildfire.
Wang Yan's family has already hosted more than ten banquets before the month is even over.
"Dad, more and more people are ordering banquets from our house."
"It's not all because of my cooking skills. I was held back in the Marquis's household! Sigh!"
"If I had started working at a young age, I'd probably be a renowned chef by now."
Wang Yan chuckled, "So I'm still mostly in charge of cooking now."
Fatty Wang made a cold dish, almond tofu, and then boiled sliced meat with seasonings.
However, he was right about one thing: being in the Marquis's residence did indeed cause him some trouble.
Because no one there was willing to give him the time to patiently identify his problems and train him.
After Wang Yan's training over this period of time, he is much less nervous when cooking and no longer gets distracted by being overly focused.
So when it comes to fancy or hot dishes, Fatty Wang can still cook one.
The vegetables he chopped, the flowers he carved, and the plates he arranged all added a lot of color to the meal.
So when she heard her father boasting so proudly, Wang Yan didn't bother to refute him.
She was still waiting for Fatty Wang to teach her how to carve. She couldn't afford to offend him like this.
………………………………………………………………
That day, after frying two buckets of chicken strips and stir-frying noodles, Fatty Wang was preparing to carry them onto the boat to go to the Bian River.
Two young men dressed as servants came into the shop. "I heard your shop makes that spicy sliced meat? The kind that looks so red?"
"Oh, what's wrong? We ordered a banquet, and this boiled pork slices were on the menu."
"The banquet? How much does it cost?"
"One tael, three taels, five taels, and ten taels all include the vegetables you mentioned. What price range would you like?"
The two servants hesitated. Since their master had only ordered this one dish, they thought, "Why don't I just choose the cheaper one?"
"One or two taels of silver will do. Hurry up and finish it so we can take it with us."
Upon hearing this, Wang Yanke was somewhat troubled. "No, sir, you need to book your banquet a day in advance so we can prepare it. Otherwise, we won't be able to buy many of the ingredients."
What? Why is it so complicated? It's just cooking a few dishes, right? The two of them looked bewildered as well.
What to do now? The young master was by the river listening to people talking about a new and exotic dish that looked so red.
There was a commotion right then and there, and the old lady specially made the boat leave an hour later so that they could come and buy it.
Anyway, we chartered the boat ourselves, so it won't make a difference if we leave a little later.
If they really stop for an hour and can't get the vegetables back, the young master will make a fuss, and these two might get a beating!
Seeing the panic on their faces, Wang Yan, having once been a servant herself, immediately guessed the reason.
"However, I can still make boiled sliced pork now, but I haven't bought the ingredients for several other dishes."
Please take a look, both of you. Is this okay? I'll give you a sign.
Then next time you have time, please let me know in advance, and I'll bring back the vegetables I forgot to take today.
Upon hearing this, the two servants immediately went from worried to happy. "Yes, yes, as long as we have this spicy pork slices."
Wang Yan immediately went in to make them boiled pork slices, and it was ready in just a quarter of an hour.
They also gave us an extra serving of Mapo Tofu and a serving of Braised Tofu.
"These two servings of tofu are complimentary; one is sweet and the other is spicy. Take them both home and try them."
The two were extremely grateful. "Okay, thank you, sister."
Wang Yan waved her hand and then put the food into the food box they had brought.
After taking the food box, the two of them ran away without stopping.
Wang Yan went back to make tea without thinking much of it. She really didn't expect that a master of such high status would come to their little shop to eat.
It seems our reputation has truly spread far and wide; we won't have to worry about customers anymore.
At this moment, Wang Yan was happy because she had only sold one serving of boiled pork slices, and excited that a wealthy family was willing to come and eat her food.
She never expected the explosive growth in customer traffic just half a month later. Moreover, the banquets that people came to book were the ones she had been longing to sell for ten taels of silver per table.
The story begins with the slices of meat that the two servants brought back that day. The old lady of the house originally had a cook.
If it weren't for the grandson crying so hard, and the news reported by the servants that the cook was a retired official from the Marquis's mansion, then things would have been different.
The old lady from that family would never normally buy from them, but due to various factors, she ended up buying one.
The old lady was about to get angry because her grandson had eaten too much spicy food, but somehow she ended up picking up a piece and eating it herself.
Once she tasted it, she couldn't stop. She ate half a bowl of boiled pork slices all by herself.
They set sail this time to visit the old lady's daughter who had married into Jinzhou.
The journey by large ship takes only a day, but after staying at her daughter's house for almost half a month, the old lady couldn't stand it anymore.
She was leading a large group of people back to the capital, which puzzled her daughter greatly. What was wrong with her mother? She usually stayed here for a month or two.
What's wrong? Nothing much, I'm just craving something delicious!
The old lady can't sleep well now; the thought of boiled pork slices makes her feel very uneasy.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I thought, "No, no, I have to go back and try it again."
And so, a large feast was served at Wang Yan's house, costing ten taels of silver.
When Wang Yan heard the old woman ask what dishes were included in the ten taels of silver, her mind went blank, and she made up sixteen dishes on the spot.
"This doesn't even include wine, yet a table of food costs ten taels?" The old woman frowned, still dissatisfied.
"We have a wide variety of dishes, 16 in total."
"Hey, speaking of which, when I heard you name those dishes, if I'm not mistaken, does your family have a lot of spicy dishes?"
"Of course, that's just our family's specialty."
The old nanny's face fell, and she became unhappy again. "That won't do. Our old lady has always preferred light food."
"Can you reduce the amount of spicy food and keep it milder?"
Sure, why not? But the portions of one ounce, three ounces, and five ounces are all fixed.
When Uncle Jiang asked, he only lowered the price, changed a few dishes, and made a new menu for the birthday banquet.
From now on, when we hold a birthday banquet, we'll order the same dishes for every three ounces, without changing them, unless it's due to seasonal reasons.
But with ten taels already, Wang Yan really didn't want to let it go.
However, the old woman did speak rather arrogantly. Wang Yan might look like a child, but we're all in this for the money.
“We can change the dishes, but it will cost five taels of silver each time we change them. We need to create a new menu and arrange for the dishes to be tested again, which will all incur costs.”
Hearing that they would also be going to taste the dishes, the old woman's disdain subsided slightly.
That's quite particular! I looked at the girl again; her clothes and appearance were very clean, and her nails were also neatly trimmed and very short.
Looking around the shop again, it was very clean and tidy.
Once the old woman calmed down and took a closer look at the other person's surroundings, her attitude changed, and she couldn't help but smile.
"Sure, I'll add another ten taels for you. The dishes must be clean, and there must be both spicy and mild dishes."
Our matriarch likes dishes that look pretty and clean, like snow-white soup. You should try to make something like that too.
Wang Yan: "...Okay, okay! This way please, sir."
As he was speaking, he politely ushered the old woman out. As he passed by his own fried chicken strip stall, he winked at Yingjie, signaling her to pack up a bag of chicken strips.
"These are all homemade snacks, they're clean, please take them home and try them."
The old woman nodded in satisfaction, picked up the fried chicken strips, and went back.
Then an hour later, her family sent over a servant, saying, "We're here to tell the old lady that tomorrow's banquet must include fried chicken strips among the 16 dishes."
Wang Yan: ...You've really gotten addicted to this! Of course I'll agree, fried chicken strips are so easy to make.
Their fried chicken strips for dinner hadn't even started yet, and the lunch batch was already sold out. The waiter looked at the empty basket with regret, then turned and left.
Wang Yan was so excited when she received the ten taels of silver for the banquet that she started figuring out the menu on her own before Wang Pangzi even returned.
The snow-white soup looked beautiful, with white and red colors. Home-cooked meals should also be presentable.
If someone can eat Xuexia soup, they can definitely eat tofu too. Besides, I didn't hear the old nanny mention any dietary restrictions their matriarch had.
Furthermore, even if you were given ten taels of silver, you couldn't use it all to make modern and novel dishes; you had to split it in half.
Then use that to determine the menu, that's it!
The original ten dishes costing five taels of silver remain the same, but we'll add one more dish: scallops with embroidered balls, one tofu lion's head meatball, one duck with peach kernels, one ham and wild mushroom rice, one rice porridge, and one caramel pudding.
As for the fried chicken strips the old lady requested, let's send two extra packs before the meal.
Add more varieties of desserts and porridge, because we're considering they have young children at home, some of whom will definitely prefer sweeter flavors.
If the old lady doesn't like lily soup anymore, then make her a seafood porridge (river porridge) to try.
The fish used in river porridge is not river fish, but sea fish.
The fish is gutted, cleaned, and coated with sea salt before being dried. Dried fish is called dried fish.
Then put the rice into the pot and simmer it into rice porridge.
On the other hand, the dried fish that was bought was cut in half and soaked in water for 15 minutes.
Fifteen minutes later, cut off the fins and head of the fish, rinse it several times and dry it, then cut the headless dried fish into thin strips and put it into the pot.
Cook it with rice, then add salt, soy sauce, and pepper. You can also add some vegetables if desired.
The dish was fresh, fragrant, and smooth. Wang Yan enjoyed it so much that she ate three bowls in a row.
They had prepared 16 dishes, but Wang Yan had no appetite for the other main dishes and only focused on drinking the bowl of porridge.
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