After nearly an hour of preparation, Su Ji's kitchen was basically ready and the lobby on the first floor had also been decorated.
Feng Yifan gathered everyone together again and said seriously, "Okay, tonight will be the day when our Su Ji restaurant will become truly famous. We must use our cooking skills to prove to everyone that Su Ji is more than just that bowl of noodles."
Everyone looked serious and nodded in agreement.
Feng Yifan added: "Let us work together to offer truly thoughtful food and service to every diner, so that they can smile while enjoying the food. Come on, everyone."
Everyone immediately responded: "Come on."
The three little girls, Feng Ruoruo, Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei, also raised their fists and shouted along with the adults: "Come on!"
Feng Yifan was very satisfied. With a smile on his face, he walked out of the kitchen, walked to the door of Su Ji, grabbed the inner door of Su Ji with both hands, and opened the front door of Su Ji.
There were already many people gathered in front of the door on the ancient street outside.
Everyone comes here for Su Ji and wants to taste Su Ji’s dishes in the evening.
Feng Yifan walked out and saluted the crowd outside again.
“Thank you all for coming. It is a blessing for Su Ji to be recognized and supported by you all. I would like to thank every friend who came to support Su Ji.
Tonight is the official opening of Su Ji's cooking show. We have prepared the evening dishes, but as the space in the shop is really limited, we may still have to wait in line. We sincerely ask for your understanding.
Finally, please rest assured that Su Ji's dishes will always maintain the same standard, so that everyone can enjoy the happiness that food brings to everyone."
After hearing Feng Yifan's words, the crowd in front of the door burst into thunderous applause.
Then Feng Yifan asked the two tables of guests who had booked a private room on the second floor to enter first.
Then, let the other people in front of the door line up, and let the guests into Su Ji one table at a time.
The three little girls, Feng Ruoruo, Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei, were led by Su Liancheng and Fang Lin, guiding everyone outside to line up.
"Please line up properly and don't cross hooks."
"Please line up properly. Good children should line up properly."
"Yes, good children will line up properly, and adults should line up even more properly. Don't worry, Father Feng will definitely let everyone get a meal."
The evening is naturally different from the morning. Most of the people who come for dinner are at least a family of three, or three or two friends.
After all, Su Ji has a serious banquet in the evening, which is very different from the noodles and fried rice at noon.
So although there may seem to be a lot of people in front of the door at night, there aren't actually that many people queuing.
Many people come here at night, mostly to take a look, take photos, and check in.
Of course, there are also some people who want to wait for the diners who have entered to come out and ask whether it is worth ordering food at Su Ji for dinner.
After the first batch of customers entered the restaurant, the door was temporarily blocked to prevent the rest of the people from entering.
Chen Xu and Luo Yu quickly brought out the snacks and asked the three little girls Feng Ruoruo, Yang Xiaoxi and Chen Yaofei to distribute them to the guests queuing behind.
The guests who had already entered Su Ji and sat down saw this scene, and they couldn't help but feel a little regretful.
"Oh, if I had known I should have lined up so I could lead the small bosses in distributing snacks."
"Really? I forgot about this and was only thinking about getting through the door first."
"Hahaha, okay, don't try to take everything. Let's prepare the dishes first. We are lucky to be able to taste Su Ji's dishes first."
When the first group of customers sat down and started ordering food, the careful customers looked towards the kitchen and found that Feng Yifan was no longer there.
Because Feng Yifan was in the restaurant next door at that time, and the evening guests had already arrived.
While people were ordering food next door, Feng Yifan would come over here to greet them first.
"Welcome to Ruo Restaurant. We still have two set menus tonight, and we will also have some snails from Burgundy. If you need any, you can tell the waiter to add more when you order."
When they heard that the restaurant actually had snails, some diners who were more knowledgeable about Western cuisine began to look forward to it.
The diners here also started to place orders one after another, and Feng Yifan went to take a look at Su Ji next door.
A table had already ordered their dishes. He quickly glanced at the menu and saw that they had ordered the classic squirrel mandarin fish and fried eel paste. They also ordered two servings of crab meat lion's head. It was obvious that these were probably two people.
After taking a quick glance at the menu, Feng Yifan asked the waiter in charge of taking orders to ask the other party about his taste preferences.
The waiter also asked and quickly gave feedback to Feng Yifan.
This is a couple. The man has a stronger taste, while the woman prefers a lighter taste, but the woman prefers sweeter taste.
After listening to this, Feng Yifan had an idea and started to prepare two dishes in the kitchen.
Normally, in order to ensure the speed of serving squirrel mandarin fish, many restaurants may fry the fish in advance.
But at Su Ji, the fish must be fresh and will be killed and processed immediately after the customer places the order.
This not only requires the chef's speed, but also tests the chef's knife skills.
Therefore, Feng Yifan decided to do the first one himself.
The process of killing the fish is extremely efficient, it can be said to be clean and neat, the slaughtering and cleaning of the fish is almost done in one go.
Not to mention that Lin Ruifeng, Ma Xiaolong and Ning Cheng were a little surprised.
Even Shi Jiahui and his three senior brothers were shocked.
After cleaning, Feng Yifan first cuts off the fish head, and then cuts off the gills for later use.
Then the middle bone of the fish is removed, but the tail part cannot be cut off.
This is also a test of knife skills.
If the technique is not mature, a lot of space will be left at the tail of the fish to prevent it from breaking later, which would make it look unsightly when served on the plate.
But if the chef has good knife skills, he may just disconnect a little bit at the tail.
Feng Yifan is naturally the chef with good knife skills.
He quickly removed the fish bones, revealing two pieces of perfect fish meat attached to the tail.
The next step is to cut the fish meat.
This is also a technical job, because both pieces of fish need to be cut, and it is necessary to ensure that the cutting directions on both sides are different, but the cutting parts are basically the same to ensure beauty.
Feng Yifan once again demonstrated his knife skills to everyone.
Because he was under the watchful eyes of the public, his cutting speed was extremely fast.
And he didn't hurt the fish skin at all. Before anyone could react, he had already completed the cutting of the fish meat.
The next step was to cut the other side, also very quickly, into two pieces of fish meat.
After finishing the carving, put the fish meat in egg white, scallion, ginger and wine, and add salt to marinate.
You also need to slightly massage the gaps in the fish meat to allow the egg white, onion, ginger and wine to marinate deeply, so as to keep the fish meat tender and smooth.
While Feng Yifan was notifying the public about the pickling process, Lin Ruifeng had already prepared the oil pan.
Wait until the oil in the pan is about 60% hot, then take out the marinated fish and sprinkle dry starch on the surface. You also need to sprinkle flour on the gaps between the cuts.
Similarly, coat the fish head and chin with flour, then deep-fry the fish meat and chin first.
Then wait for the fish head and chin to take shape, lift up the fish meat, shake off some dry starch, and fry it in the same pan.
Watching the frying process, Feng Yifan asked Lin Ruifeng to watch the heat.
He himself quickly began to prepare the sweet and sour sauce.
Sugar, vinegar, and salt. Su Ji uses traditional cooking methods, so they don't use ketchup or tomato sauce. They simply stir-fry the sugar color first, then add vinegar and salt for seasoning. Feng Yifan also added a little plum sauce to increase the overall taste.
Cook the sauce until it becomes thick, then thicken it slightly. The sweet and sour sauce is ready, so serve it out first.
The fish had already been fried and was quickly served on a plate.
Afterwards, Feng Yifan personally went out to serve this dish.
First, the fish is served.
At this time, everyone in the restaurant was a little surprised, because this fish was clearly not finished? How could people eat a fried fish without any ingredients
But then, Feng Yifan picked up the hot sweet and sour sauce and poured it on the freshly fried fish body in front of the guests.
Squeak.
In an instant, a sound like a squirrel's cry was heard.
Everyone looked at the semi-finished dish, which quickly turned into a very beautiful dish after Feng Yifan poured hot sweet and sour sauce on it.
Especially the process of pouring sauce on the fish, the "squeaking" sound, and watching the fish turn from golden yellow to a gorgeous red, really gives people a visual and auditory enjoyment.
Feng Yifan finished pouring the sauce and said with a smile, "Okay, please enjoy your squirrel mandarin fish first. The other dishes will be here soon."
There was a brief silence in the restaurant, and when Feng Yifan turned and walked towards the kitchen, there was a sudden burst of applause.
Everyone was so surprised and surprised. They didn't expect to enjoy such delicious food at Su Ji.
Many people only knew that squirrel mandarin fish was a red fish that was fried in oil and then topped with sauce, but they never thought that it would be served on the table in this way.
Not only does it look like a squirrel, it also makes sounds similar to a squirrel's call.
It can be said that the first dish served by Su Ji after its reopening has shocked everyone.
Some people who came in specifically to shoot videos recorded the scene just now.
By the time the lucky couple started tasting the dish, the video of their squirrel mandarin fish being served had already been posted on the Internet.
Some people who watched the serving process of this dish were very puzzled at first and didn't understand why it was served in this way
"Is this intentional? Is Chef Feng simply trying to put on a show?"
"It doesn't look anything special, does it? It's just drizzled with some sauce."
"Yes, why would Chef Feng do this?"
…
When some people raised questions, someone quickly gave a very professional explanation on the Internet.
"You don't understand this, right? In fact, the squirrel mandarin fish and the fried eel paste used to be dishes that you have to listen to. Squirrel mandarin fish is now thought to be named because of its squirrel-like shape, but in fact, it is also the 'squeak' sound it makes when it is served and poured with the sauce.
This is also because it sounds like a squirrel, so it is named squirrel mandarin fish.
However, most restaurants nowadays do not have the step of pouring sauce on the dish before serving, so Chef Feng’s method is the true restoration.”
Then, some people explained online why the sauce was not poured on the table before serving
This is mainly because the squirrel mandarin fish in most restaurants is fried in advance.
When a customer orders it, we fry a sweet and sour sauce, heat the fish in the sauce, and then serve it to the customer.
This approach is to save time in serving the dish, so there is naturally no need to pour sauce on it.
After the squirrel mandarin fish, Shi Jiahui personally served the fried eel paste to the couple, and naturally poured oil on it after it was served.
The noise of the oil making a noise made the young couple a little scared.
Shi Jiahui smiled and said, "Don't worry, I will be careful to block you."
These two dishes really opened the eyes of many people.
It instantly conquered many people and made everyone understand the uniqueness of Su Ji and the true power of Su Ji.
Su Ji really knows how to present old dishes in a very traditional way.
When the young couple was eating, they were very pleasantly surprised to find that the dishes they ordered were very much to their liking.
Squirrel mandarin fish is not very sweet, but it tastes sweet and sour.
The girl couldn't help but exclaim: "This fish is so delicious, I feel like I'm eating fruit."
The boys were also able to accept it: "I thought it would be very sweet, but it turned out not to be that sweet. I don't really eat sweets, but I actually thought it was very delicious."
As for the fried eel paste, the girls also ate a lot of it.
"Wow, this is really delicious, not that salty, and even has a little bit of sweetness."
Not long after the young couple finished tasting these two dishes, the crab meat lion head they ordered was also served.
Ning Cheng brought it over and placed a small cup for each person in front of them.
Then he opened the lid and said, "Crab meat and lion's head, your dishes are all served, please enjoy. If you need other dishes or staple food, you can tell the waiter. I hope you two can enjoy your meal."
The young couple was also surprised when they saw the white and tender lion's head fish in the clear soup in the small bowl in front of them.
At the same time, almost subconsciously, the two of them said "thank you" to Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng smiled and bowed slightly before stepping back, then turned around and carried the lid of the small cup back to the kitchen.
Just like that, all the dishes for the first table of guests at Su Ji were served, and Su Ji’s dinner business just kicked off. Each of the first three dishes was full of surprises.
The video of the three dishes being served has gone viral online, with many people reposting it.
It can be said that the dishes served to the first table of guests immediately shut up those who were about to speak up.