Phi-Fic Chapter 4: First opening, delicious
Chapter 4: First opening, delicious
After eating Anqiao's food, the masons worked harder. Anqiao also arranged for Qitao to go out and buy some vegetable seeds. Today, he went to the morning market and found a lot of fresh vegetables, but he also needed to buy them every day. In addition, Anqiao planned to start with various snacks for breakfast and buy some pig offal in the evening, so there was not much demand for fresh vegetables.
An Qiao flipped the cakes with her fingers, and one after another exquisite pancakes were made, including soybean-flavored pancakes, buckwheat pancakes, glutinous rice pancakes, steamed corn bread, and pot cakes, as well as fried dough sticks and soy milk. An Qiao planned to sell these starting tomorrow.
It happened that Qi Tao had just returned to the restaurant after shopping. As soon as he entered the door, he smelled the unique aroma of various rice and flour. His eyes lit up instantly, and he put down the seeds and ran to the kitchen.
Without even having time to pick up the chopsticks, he picked up a large piece of glutinous rice cake with his hands and stuffed it into his mouth. He didn't care that his face was red from the heat, and he kept inhaling, but was too anxious to spit it out. It was also too hot to speak, so he just kept giving the thumbs up.
An Qiao laughed out loud at the silly look of the girl. Qi Tao was indeed too cute. She pinched Qi Tao's face, handed half of the pancake to the neighbors and the masons who had finished their work, and told the neighbors that the Kyoto restaurant would open tomorrow and everyone was welcome to come and support it.
In the evening, the golden light made the shop warm. An Qiao and Qi Tao put up a sign at the door. Looking at the small shop that the bricklayers had hurriedly repaired today, she felt warm in her heart.
This will be their home from now on.
The next morning, An Qiao and Qi Tao opened the shop just after the hour of Mao. It was still early and there were few people on the street. Kyoto Restaurant opened in this quiet morning. Fireworks were not allowed in the city, so An Qiao just hung two red lanterns to indicate a good start to the business.
Back in the house, An Qiao taught Qi Tao how to knead dough. Qi Tao imitated An Qiao and soon learned how to do it well.
An Qiao was stirring the batter, and soon put the dough sticks made by Qi Tao into the frying pan, and poured the batter on the pan. Qi Tao was stunned, she was obviously multitasking, but why was the young lady not in a hurry? Her calm demeanor showed that today's breakfast must be delicious.
Seeing that the entrance was getting busy, and An Qiao was thinking about the big opening sale today, she wrote down a 20% discount on everything and also offered a Grand Slam set menu at only 30% off.
Everyone passing by was very curious. After all, it was just breakfast, so it didn't matter what you ate. How expensive could it be?
Qi Tao served food to the guests in an orderly manner and collected money. Those who wanted to take the food away were wrapped in oil paper and those who wanted to eat it here were served with a small plate of pickles. Soon more and more people gathered.
The clerks at the Dali Temple remembered that the shop had not been opened when they returned home yesterday. They also remembered what was cooked in the shop yesterday that smelled so fragrant, so many of them decided to come in and try it.
You wouldn't know until you try it. The pancakes are obviously tasteless, but I don't know why this restaurant makes them so delicious. The aroma of the flour is brought out to the fullest, and the pancakes have different flavors. The lady in the restaurant said that if you get one of each, it's called a grand slam, and you can get a 30% discount. Many people were attracted.
The sticky and fragrant glutinous rice cakes were sprinkled with a little white sugar, fried to a crispy outside and tender inside, and extremely delicious. Just when I felt a little greasy, the sauce-flavored cakes with a slightly spicy taste instantly took away the previous sweetness. The rich and fragrant sauce was sprinkled with a little green chopped green onion, and everyone felt that it was so delicious that it was hard to describe.
I don’t know what’s wrapped in the buckwheat pancake, but it’s crispy when chewed, and it’s refreshing and makes you want to eat it one bite after another. In fact, it’s a few side dishes that An Qiao made with fresh vegetables yesterday, and they are the best for refreshing when wrapped in the pancake.
Originally, they were pancakes with some side dishes stuffed inside. This one, called Guokui, was different from buckwheat pancakes. An Qiao used the pot of stew left over from yesterday to cook some mushrooms and dried bamboo shoots in the Guokui. The Guokui was cut open and a little soup and the side dishes cooked with the stew were added. Naturally, it was different from the pancakes that were more like cold vegetable wraps.
Everyone couldn't stop smacking their lips as they ate the food, and then drank a big bowl of soy milk. Life is so wonderful.
Of course, there are customers who can't finish the grand slam and buy a few other dishes. There are also customers who are keen on fried dough sticks and soy milk. Speaking of soy milk, for some reason, the soy milk in this shop doesn't have that bean smell even without sugar. It is full of mellow fragrance, and even people who don't like to drink soy milk on weekdays praise it.
But no matter how you eat it, this plump breakfast for just a dozen copper coins is really satisfying. However, all the prepared breakfast was sold out after two hours of business.
Qi Tao looked at the pile of copper coins in front of her and realized for the first time how powerful the young lady was. She had no confidence in herself at first, but who knew that so many people would come today and eat up all the food in the shop? She felt so proud.
An Qiao didn't know what the little girl was thinking, so she patted Qi Tao on the shoulder and said, "Let's go buy some pig offal for dinner, and take the bag of copper coins with you."
Qi Tao nodded quickly and said, "Take it. Of course I'll take it. From now on, whatever the young lady says will be my final decision!"
The two of them arrived at the shop where they had been sold pig offal yesterday. They looked at the shopkeeper who was sitting in the back with a gloomy face and asked, "Shopkeeper, do you still have pig offal?"
Old Zhu's family has been butchers here for generations. People in the surrounding area who have unsold pigs and pork like to sell them to Old Zhu. Yesterday, An Qiao casually asked around and found out that Old Zhu has the potential to be the most suitable person to be a restaurant supplier.
In this era, those who ate pork were inferior people, and those who ate pig offal were even lower class. It was not because of class discrimination, but because the ancients did not know how to cook. The first time An Qiao made braised pork in the palace, she was almost killed by the eunuch's harshness. However, the meat was served at the banquet and received a lot of praise. An Qiao was even rewarded with thirty taels of silver.
"Boss, do you still have pork offal for sale today?" An Qiao asked.
The shopkeeper's eyes suddenly lit up, "Yes, how much do you want to buy today, young lady?"
"I want them all." An Qiao said.
At this point, Qi Tao and Old Zhu were both stunned. One was thinking, can the young lady finish her shopping? The other was thinking, is this young lady here to amuse him?
Old Zhu was a little angry and put two large buckets of pig offal at the door. "There are so many. Most of the pig offal on this street is here. I won't lie to you, young lady. My family has been slaughtering pigs for generations. The offal that the villagers can't sell or eat are all given to me. If I can't sell them, I dry them and eat them myself. The old and young in my family are very scared. In the past few years, the years were not good, so we could still sell them. These years are good, and no one buys them. We eat them every day." Maybe Old Zhu was depressed for too long, and he talked incessantly when he saw someone around.