The Northern Stories of Chef Lao Tan

Chapter 226 Harvest
At the end of the booth, there is a completely open farmhouse stove. A man about fifty years old and dressed in homespun clothes is adding firewood to the stove. The cauldron is uncovered, and there is glutinous rice porridge that is about to be boiled inside, gurgling. Breathing out bubbles, it exudes a strong rice fragrance.

"This is the biggest highlight of our family. Guests drink rice soup for free," Wang Zheng said.

"Rice soup? Isn't this porridge?" Zhang Li asked curiously.

"Yes, it is indeed porridge, but it is called rice soup in our country. Especially in the countryside, every family cooks a pot for the whole family to drink. It is very particular to cook this porridge, and it is tasteless to cook it with a rice cooker or a gas fire. Son, only firewood can be boiled in a cauldron, and there is a drinker.

People in the city live in high-rise buildings, they don't have a big pot, and they can't burn firewood. They don't have time to go back to the countryside. If they want to drink, they come to our house.One meal is one pot, and you can pour it down after drinking it.We people like to drink rice soup, just like you Northeast people like to drink millet porridge. We grew up drinking this. " Wang Zheng explained.

"Isn't that why your family is called Rice Soup?" Old Tan asked with a smile.

"Yes, down-to-earth, it sounds warm and brings memories." Wang Zheng said.

"Okay, that's great." Lao Tan nodded and praised: "You have put in a lot of hard work. Looking at the soil, you are actually refined, cultural and connotative, full of human touch, like a mother, good!"

"Boss Tan praised you."

After seeing the first floor in general, Wang Zheng led him up to the second floor.

The second floor is full of private rooms, and Wang Zheng leads into one.

This is a medium bag of 16 people, the style is more like the Republic of China, and it has the atmosphere of a water town.There is a calligraphy and painting hanging on the wall, and beside the calligraphy and painting are a few old photos with frames, all of which are local rural scenes, and the pastoral scenery flows in the elegant.

There was a small door next to the window, and Wang Zheng opened it. Inside was a small family kitchen. A sister-in-law in home clothes and an apron was busy, and saw three people smiling and saying hello.

"This is a small kitchen. It's the same as the one at home, and the seasoning is also the same. The sister-in-law is not a cook, but a housewife who can cook. Now people are tired of eating restaurant food, and they like to eat home-cooked dishes. Our kitchen sister-in-law cooks eight dishes. , to serve a room. All home-cooked dishes, home-cooked, the guests like it very much. Private rooms have to be booked in advance, so you can’t be sure if it’s late.” Wang Zheng said.

"Okay, this is a good idea." Old Tan praised.

"It tastes like a private restaurant, but it's different." Zhang Li said.

"Are all private rooms like this?" Old Tan asked.

"There are five larger private rooms like this. Small bags are not available, and there is no kitchen wife." Wang Zheng replied.

"The kitchen wife is in charge of the hot dishes, and the cold dishes are served downstairs?" Old Tan asked.

"Yes, the wife in charge of the kitchen is only responsible for the dishes at home, and the chef will cook the hot dishes downstairs when guests order them." Wang Zheng said.

"Okay, it's really good." Old Tan said.

Wang Zheng led him to look at the two private rooms again, and it was already eleven o'clock.It’s not good to trouble Wang Zheng to accompany him all the time. He is the general manager and there are many things to do. Lao Tan told him to go and visit slowly by himself and Zhang Li.

Wang Zheng also had something to do, so he went to the store after telling Lao Tan and Zhang Li to the store manager.

Lao Tan and Zhang Li went back to the first floor, found a small table to sit down, and rested for a while.

"The form of his family must be popular. Let's see, at most one year, the provincial capital must have it." Old Tan said.

"Almost." Zhang Li agreed, and then asked: "Can our family be changed to this?"

"It's possible, but the project is too big—" Old Tan said.

"Isn't it just to renovate the kitchen? Our house is now a bright stall, and we only need an exhibition stall, and the hot dishes are moved out."

"You're thinking simply. It's okay to spend money on kitchen remodeling. That's not a problem. It's mainly a matter of concept. It's not uncommon for restaurants in the provincial capital to use real food stalls, even ice stalls. What's wrong? It's been fresh for a few years, isn't it? Replaced by electronic photos and dish models?
We northerners want to save trouble as much as possible, and we are afraid of trouble.I just returned to the photo from setting up the file, and if you set up the file again, the kitchen staff will run away. "Old Tan said.

"I think it doesn't take much trouble for people to set up stalls."

"People are used to it, the foundation is good, and the employees recognize it."

"I think this form is very good, we should fix it." Zhang Li insisted on her opinion.

"It should be fixed, otherwise why do you come to investigate? Stay here for a few days and visit all four of his stores. This is just an overview, and I haven't looked at the details yet."

"That is."

At [-]:[-], the first table of guests came in.

Lao Tan and Zhang Li got up and followed behind the guests, observing them while watching them order.

The focus of the two is different, Lao Tan is on the kitchen, Zhang Li is on the service.

The guests first came to the cold dish stall.

"Hello, welcome to the taste of rice soup. This is our cold dish. This dish is our specialty. It is very refreshing and the best seller. You can try it." Wearing a clean and tidy overalls with a mouth screen in the booth The master enthusiastically introduced to the guests.

This scene surprised Lao Tan, it was the first time he saw the chef introduce the dishes to the guests in person.

Not only was he surprised, Zhang Li was also surprised.In her cognition, it is the waiter's job to introduce the dishes to the guests, and the master doesn't care about these at all.Now the previous cognition has been broken, in addition to surprise and appreciation.

After listening to the chef's introduction, the guests looked at the dishes on display and immediately ordered a plate.

Keep watching, a female customer came to the pot stall.

"Hi beauty, welcome to the taste of rice soup. This is our special casserole vermicelli. It is salty, fresh, slightly spicy, fragrant but not greasy. It is most suitable for ladies. I made it myself. You can taste it."

The casserole chef introduced enthusiastically, and the female guest smiled and ordered one.After ordering, I didn't leave, but stood there watching the master making on-site, and took pictures with my mobile phone at the same time.

The casserole master's two chopsticks flew up and down, and the vermicelli fell together, exuding fragrance and luster.

After 2 minutes, the vermicelli is cooked.The master cooks the prepared sauce quickly, and the casserole immediately emits an attractive aroma, followed by a cloud of white mist.When the white mist dissipates, sprinkle chopped shallots and cover with a lid.

Then the master lifted the casserole with a casserole fork, put it on the casserole holder on the booth, picked up the gong hammer and hit it on the gong.

The gong sounded, and a waiter came over immediately, took the casserole, smiled and led the female guests to the table.The female guest smiled at the casserole master before turning around and said, "Thank you for your hard work!"

This scene touched Lao Tan, and he knew that this investigation was the right one.

Such scenes happen in the steamed vegetable stalls, noodle stalls, and hot vegetable stalls in sequence. The chef introduces the dishes to the guests warmly and thoughtfully, and the waiters who follow behind the guests hardly need to open their mouths, just take a la carte treasure to write down.

This way of ordering dishes greatly shortens the ordering time of the guests—compared with the dishes recommended by the waiters, the guests trust the introductions of the chefs more.What's more, the dishes are placed there, and the ingredients inside are clear at a glance, and they are genuine.You can also see how it is made, it cannot be adulterated or adjusted, it is clean and hygienic, can you not be happy?
Having said that, the chef introduces the dishes himself, and he puts his heart into making them. The quality is definitely guaranteed, and at the same time, the occurrence of good and bad phenomena is also reduced.

This is a good form. Restaurants rely on selling vegetables to make money, so they have to put the money on display for people to see.Another thing is to let the master speak and recommend his own dishes to the guests, which is more effective than the waiter's recommendation.As Lao Tan thought to himself, he felt more and more that the investigation was correct.

Soon, as a large number of customers entered the store, the entire order area and the hall became lively and full of voices.

At twelve o'clock, all the customers are full, and the phenomenon of waiting for seats begins.

At this time, there was already a long queue in front of the rice soup cauldron. Those who filled the rice soup were all smiling, and those who hadn't filled it waited patiently.Some customers just stood there and drank it. It seemed that they wanted to have a second bowl after drinking it.

Zhang Li and Lao Tan stood not far away and watched.

"Old Tan, do you think it's okay for our family to give our guests free millet porridge?" Zhang Li asked.

"Okay." Old Tan nodded.

"I think it's okay."

"In our dumpling restaurant, many people don't order food but only order dumplings, and leave after eating. It would be even better if they have a bowl of millet porridge."

"What do you mean? You mean no way."

"It's not impossible, you have to think about it before you serve it." Lao Tan said: "You can try it in the Hohhot store first. Millet porridge is attractive to Hohhot people."

"People in the provincial capital also like to drink."

"People in the provincial capital like to drink in the morning, not at noon and at night." Old Tan corrected.

Zhang Li thought about it, felt that this was the case, and said, "It's still you who can observe clearly."

At this time, two very high-end luxury cars stopped outside the store, and four fashionable, graceful, elegant and temperamental middle-aged women got out of the cars.

Four women opened the door and entered the store, and under the leadership of a woman in cheongsam, they went straight to the stall of Chef No. [-]. They first said hello to the chef, and then said to the three girlfriends: "My old Zhao likes to eat fried yellow beef. It’s oily and oily, this chef is good at frying, I’ve come to learn it three times, but I still haven’t got the taste, I’m going to study hard today.”

The chef inside said: "Sister, I will fry slowly today, if you don't understand anything, just ask me."

"Master, tell me, why is my fried beef so hard?" the cheongsam woman asked.

"The beef you bought is not good, it's not the small yellow beef that was born in the past." The master said.

"Oh, how did you find out if it was from that year?"

"There were very few tenders in the market back then. My family bought them at a high price in the countryside, and they slaughtered them now. I will leave you a few catties when my family slaughters cattle next time."

The woman was very happy, and she took out a business card and handed it to the master, saying: "That's great, call me when the cow is slaughtered, thank you in advance."

The master started to make small fried yellow beef and oil residue. The women and girlfriends watched outside and asked questions from time to time, and the master answered them one by one.

After the two dishes were fried, the woman took the dishes and said thank you with a smile on her face, and began to look for vacant seats.

The three girlfriends who came together said that this place is good, not only can you eat, but also learn, and I will come here often for the sake of my husband's stomach.

(End of this chapter)