After returning, Jiang Yanyi asked Yang Xiu to buy a pot from the antique soup shop opened by Lai Fu Restaurant.
Yang Xiu and Bing Shao were arranged by Chu Changping to come here after Jiang Yanyi closed the store. Not many people have seen them, so they would not arouse suspicion.
While waiting for Yang Xiu to come back, Jiang Yanyi took Qiu Kui and Bing Shaoxian to process the meat they bought. Every country family would slaughter a fat pig during the New Year, and smoking bacon was a skill that every household knew, but the smoking techniques varied slightly from region to region.
Jiang Yanyi used the old method her father used in her previous life to make bacon, using bamboo sticks to poke small holes in the meat to make it easier for the smoke to penetrate. She fried the raw Sichuan peppercorns in a pan, then added coarse salt and continued to stir-fry. When the salt was hot, the fragrance of the Sichuan peppercorns melted into the salt. The smoked meat would be more fragrant when rubbed with this salt.
Applying salt is a technical job. Too much salt will make the bacon too salty to eat, and too little salt will make it worse, as the meat will rot. It was freezing cold, and the coarse salt would hurt the hands, so Bing Shao took on the job of applying salt, and only asked Jiang Yanyi to check whether the amount of salt was appropriate.
Evenly spread salt on the meat pieces and put them skin side down into a large stone jar. Turn them over every few days. After marinating for more than ten days, smoke them with fruit charcoal and pine and cypress branches to make bacon.
After Bing Shao rubbed a few pieces of pork, he was able to control the amount of salt, and Jiang Yanyi went to chop the meat for the sausage. She and Qiu Kui each had a chopping board, and each of them held two kitchen knives and chopped for a while. It didn't take much time to prepare a pot of meat.
Jiang Yanyi plans to make three flavors of sausages: spiced, spicy and sweet.
The five-spice dish has less cornel powder than the spicy one. In the days when there were no blenders, the only way to grind spices like aniseed, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, dill, and peppercorns into powder was to use a mortar.
Jiang Yanyi had just divided the meat filling into three bowls and mixed the seasonings, and before he had time to deal with the sausage casings, Yang Xiu came back.
The pot he bought was placed on the table outside. The soup in the copper pot was still boiling, and the packed fresh meat and vegetables were all in the food box, ready to be eaten at any time.
Although the weather was cold, Yang Xiu was still sweating after walking such a distance with the food box and the copper pot. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve and said, "The new store under the name of Lai Fu Restaurant is called Lai Fu Antique Soup. It opened with a big show today. People were invited to perform lion dance at the door of the store. Many people went there to eat the pot. It took a long time for the pot I ordered to be made."
Jiang Yanyi thought that the owner of Lai Fu Restaurant was really smart. She had put a lot of effort into making Gudong Soup famous in Xizhou. Now that her restaurant wasn't open, and many people wanted to eat hotpot, if the other party opened a store specializing in hotpots, wouldn't that attract all the customers
Because Yang Xiu took the food away in a package, the various ingredients were naturally served in Lai Fu Antique Soup bowls and plates. After eating, the bowls, plates and pots were returned to the owner. This is an unwritten rule but everyone knows it.
Jiang Yanyi took a look at the bowls and plates and laughed angrily.
The molds for the bowls and plates in her shop were made by her herself, and they were not available on the market. Lai Fu Restaurant, on the other hand, made them directly according to the molds of the bowls and plates in her shop, but relying on their wealth, they fired flower and bird glazes on the outer wall of the bowls when firing the porcelain, and glazed the edges of the bowls with gold rims, which made them look much more refined than the bowls and plates in her shop.
The two words "Jiang Ji" on the emblem were also changed to "Lai Fu".
It's like just painting the dishes in her store!
Even Qiu Kui pointed at the bowls and plates in Lai Fu Antique Soup Shop and said, "Hua Hua, these bowls and plates look like the ones in our shop."
Jiang Yanyi could only sigh: "If a person has no shame, he will be invincible in the world."
She wouldn't think anything of it if the other party learned her marketing techniques, but if you opened a store and even made the styles of bowls and plates according to her store, Jiang Yanyi would feel very complicated.
She took a deep breath and asked Yang Xiu: "Did you see how his store is arranged?"
Yang Xiu said: "Just like us, there are screens between the tables, but they are made of wood." It is also more exquisite.
Jiang Yanyi no longer wanted to talk, and she turned her gaze to the copper pot beside her.
When cooking a pot, the skill lies in the soup base. She took a small bowl to scoop up the soup and drink it, wanting to see how good the other person was at making the soup. If the pot itself doesn't taste good, then it would be useless no matter how many fancy things are added.
The moment the soup enters your mouth, your first feeling is that it is too fresh, as if you were tasting melted chicken essence.
There is a saying that goes, "Too much is as bad as too little."
Jiang Yanyi quickly drank two sips of tea to calm down, then ate another piece of mutton.
Because the soup is so delicious, eating the hot pot meat is not as stimulating to the taste buds as drinking the soup directly, but the texture feels good.
Jiang Yanyi put down his chopsticks and said pertinently: "The chef who made this soup has good skills."
When eating a clear soup pot, you can drink the soup before adding the meat.
The soup is so delicious that it is obvious that they don't intend for the diners to drink it. All the focus is on the taste of the meat.
When Yang Xiu heard Jiang Yanyi's comment, he said, "It is said that the chef who makes the soup over there came from the capital. He used to work in Xiangyun Tower. His ancestors worked as imperial chefs in the palace. This method of making soup is used in the palace."
Xiangyunlou is a famous restaurant in the capital, and those who dine there are either rich or noble.
Jiang Yanyi said: "As expected of a businessman, the owner of Lai Fu Restaurant is really extremely shrewd."
Apart from anything else, just the fact that the chef in the other restaurant had a "Imperial Chef" signboard was very eye-catching. Even if some diners were not interested in his antique soup, when they heard that the emperor and concubines also ate the same, how could they not be tempted to try it
The most important thing is that with such a recruitment, it is impossible to slander the other party based on the taste. Even if it is true, they can just say "this is how the imperial kitchen does it" to refute everything.
Jiang Yanyi really wished she had 1,800 acres of peppers so she could make a red soup hotpot to show them what a killer dish is, but the problem was that the peppers she cultivated were still small seedlings.
Jiang Yanyi had been in seclusion for the entire day. Yang Xiu and the others were a little worried about her and were considering whether to tell Chu Changping about this. But when Jiang Yanyi woke up the next morning, she seemed to have regained her spirits and was full of energy to do everything.
They also made a pot of sweet sausage rice with the sausages that had been smoked yesterday. The rice crusts at the bottom of the casserole were quickly eaten by Qiu Kui, Yang Xiu and Bing Shao.
Jiang Yanyi was worried for a long time before going to bed last night. On the one hand, he was angry that Lai Fu Antique Soup copied the things in his store, and on the other hand, he urgently wanted to defeat the other party and win back his own customer base.
Perhaps she dreamed at night what she thought about during the day. She had never dreamed of her relatives from her previous life since she came to this strange world, but last night she dreamed of her grandfather who had passed away long ago.
The dream was of her grandfather teaching her how to make hot pot for the first time. The banyan tree outside the old house had green and yellow leaves, and the sun shone through the gaps between the leaves, casting golden dots of light into the house through the old carved wooden windows. The old man taught her how to stir-fry the ingredients for the red soup and how to make the bottom of the clear soup. His wrinkled face was calm and peaceful.
"Ayi, when a chef cooks, he must pay attention to the harmony of the five flavors. Everything has a limit. If you can grasp the right balance when using ingredients, the dish will be delicious. It's the same with being a person. Life is full of flavors. If you can control them well, you can live a fulfilling life. When cooking and being a person, you must calm down."
When he woke up, it was already daybreak. Jiang Yanyi cried for a while before he calmed down.
It is her nature to use the sky as a blanket even if it falls. Jiang Yanyi also felt that she might have been a little restless recently because she was worried about the difference in status between her and Feng Shuo, and was eager to make a career.
She had never been upset when she had just gone through such difficulties. Now, someone just opened a store exactly the same as hers. There was no need to be upset. There were so many unique features of the hot pot restaurant she could create!
When Jiang Yanyi went to deliver the medicinal food to Feng Shuo, Feng Shuo had probably heard people talking about Lai Fu's antique soup. Seeing her red eyes, he frowned immediately and asked, "Have you cried?"
Jiang Yanyi was afraid of being laughed at by him, so he glared and said, "No, it was caused by the smoke when I was smoking the sausages!"
In addition to the medicinal food today, Jiang Yanyi also cut a plate of sausages and sent it over. There were five-spice, spicy, and sweet flavors. Because they were smoked with fruit wood charcoal, they had a hint of fruit wood sweetness in the mouth.
Feng Shuo didn't expose her lie, he just said: "I've tried Lai Fu's pot of antique soup, it's not as delicious as yours."
The first taste is indeed amazing, but it always maintains that freshness. After a few more bites, the taste buds will feel tired, and you can't taste anything afterwards. Unlike the pots in Jiang Yanyi's store, the taste is always kept at a just right degree, which can keep the taste buds sensitive.
Jiang Yanyi said, "I don't mind if they open a shop to sell pots, but they just copy everything from my shop. How can they be so shameless?"
After she finished speaking, she was afraid that Feng Shuo might misunderstand something, so she said, "I'm just telling you this. You are not allowed to interfere in this matter. I can handle it myself."
The man opened a legitimate shop and hadn't done anything wrong. If Feng Shuo directly ordered people to seal up the shop, it would only bring discredit upon himself.
Feng Shuo asked her: "How do you want to solve it?"
Jiang Yanyi raised his eyebrows and said, "I have my own way."
Seeing Feng Shuo finished the medicinal meal, Jiang Yanyi packed up the food box and was about to leave, but Feng Shuo suddenly stopped her: "Don't leave in a hurry, I have something for you."
Jiang Yanyi turned around in confusion and saw Feng Shuo dragging out a large wooden box from the side. "Open it and take a look."
Jiang Yanyi walked forward suspiciously, opened the lid of the wooden box, and saw a box full of various antifreeze skin care ointments. He couldn't help but twitch his lips.
This way of giving gifts... is like that of a nouveau riche.
Feng Shuo didn't notice anything wrong and said, "I saw your lips were dry and cracked at Han's house the other day. I heard that using some lip balm can prevent cracking. I don't know what kind you like, so I asked someone to collect these. You can take them back and use the ones you like."
In Xizhou, only wealthy families could afford antifreeze skin care products. Ordinary people usually cut a ball of sheep fat and rub it on the frozen cracked areas as medicine.
Therefore, this box full of skin care ointments was made extremely delicately. You could smell the fragrance inside before you opened it. It was obviously very expensive.
Jiang Yanyi said: "I think... I'm afraid I can't use up all of this."
Feng Shuo thought she was trying to refuse, so he said directly: "You can throw it away if you can't use it up. Anyway, I've given it to you, and you can't return it."
Finally, the box of skin care cream was delivered to Jiang Yanyi's home by the servant of Feng Mansion.
Qiu Kui squatted beside the box and sniffed: "Hua Hua, it smells so good."
It was not the smell of food, but the smell of cosmetics, but it was much better than the cheap cosmetics she had smelled in brothels before.
Jiang Yanyi thought that even if she and Qiu Kui used these skin care creams together, they would not be used up within a few years. But she was afraid that they would go bad if kept for too long, which would be a real pity.
How about...she launches an activity where young girls or ladies can eat hotpot in the store during the winter and receive free skin care
Author has something to say: Jiang Yanyi: Today is also a day when I am "touched" by my boyfriend
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