The Northern Stories of Chef Lao Tan

Chapter 163
The fact that Aqiao Dumpling House is going to invite Northeast restaurants to hold a cooking competition soon spreads in the Hohhot dining circle.

What Minister Zhao said that day was the actual situation. It is true that there has been no culinary competition for several years.Although it was not held, but this time it was held by a small dumpling restaurant and it was not favored by anyone.

Some said: "Look at the insolence of his family, isn't it because the business is better, and there are also cooking competitions? Humph!" Obviously showing contempt and doubt.

Some said: "His food is really good, and the dumplings are also good, but it's a bit too much to hold a cooking competition. I think it's for advertising and expanding the influence. Why didn't we think of this method."

Few really knew the inside story, and no one explained it.

After receiving the invitation letter sent by President Lang on behalf of the Catering Association, five restaurants including Dadongbei, Xiaobeibei and Dongbeiweiwei expressed their willingness to participate.As craftsmen, they all have the mentality of not admitting defeat. If someone puts down the ring, they will face it, and they will see the truth.

The competition only cooks two dishes.

A must-cook dish is an optional dish, and the must-cook dish is "sliced ​​pork section".

Stir-fried pork section is a representative traditional Northeast dish, and the chef cooks this dish when he is researching.It is characterized by being crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, salty and delicious, rich in meat and golden in color.

The pork tenderloin has been around for hundreds of years, and people in the Northeast like it very much. In the Northeast, no matter the big hotel or the snack bar, there is this dish, and it is an indispensable main dish at the wedding banquet.

The pork tenderloin section looks simple, and not many are done well.

There are many parts of pork meat, the back mound is the first choice for the meat slice, and the bottom part is the best.

Knife craftsmanship pays attention to the three-centimeter-long hob block, which is irregular.Hang the gouache paste, deep-fry in [-]% oil to set the shape and mature, then take it out, when the oil temperature rises to [-]% heat, put it into the pan and deep-fry until the skin is crispy.

Then add the sauce, adjust the taste, add the fried meat, stir fry quickly, pour sesame oil, minced garlic, and seasoning oil out of the spoon.

Easier said than done, the main thing is the heat, which cannot be achieved by language.

There is no Northeast cuisine cook who can't make meat slices, and it has almost become the standard for whether he can be a master.The quality of the pork tenderloin section often represents the level of a cook's cooking skills.

The standard of self-selected dishes must be Northeast dishes, which can be traditional or innovative.The choice of materials can be de-Northeastized, and southern ingredients can also be used, but the cooking techniques must be from the Northeast.

The other five restaurants have selected participating chefs, and all the head chefs personally participated. It seems that they are going to fight to the death.

Everyone didn’t pay much attention to the pork tenderloin. They thought it was nothing to do. They did it every day, at least ten dishes a day, and they could do it well with their eyes closed, so they ignored it.Concentrate on the a la carte dishes, prepare to surprise everyone and take this opportunity to become a blockbuster.

Other Northeast cuisine restaurants also want to participate. After all, they are competing with Northeast cuisine, and they all want to show off their skills.I heard that there are still TV recordings, so I think about it even more.

However, the place of the dumpling restaurant is limited, and it is impossible to hold too many people at once, and President Lang politely refused.

If you can't participate in the competition, you can visit it, but if you can't make gestures with your own hands, you can just watch the game and see how skilled the chefs of these six restaurants are.

Compared with the five restaurants in Dadongbei and Xiaodongbei, Aqiao Dumpling House is a new store, or an outsider.Most of the employees are from the provincial capital, there are not many local people, and they have little contact with the outside world.The other five stores are local snakes.

If it is described, it should be a river dragon, and the other five stores are local snakes.

As the saying goes, a strong dragon can't beat a local snake.

This culinary competition is more or less like five old restaurants fighting against a new one.

Yang Zhijun has been in Hohhot for two years. Although he seldom goes out, he has a good understanding of the catering situation in Hohhot and has tasted the dishes of the other five restaurants. In his opinion, as long as he performs normally, it is still possible to win the championship.

Now that he has come down from the stove, Master Liu has taken his place.Although he didn't say it clearly, Master Liu himself and the kitchen staff all knew that he was going to be transferred to the central kitchen store as the head chef. They looked at him with envy and expectation. What they envy is Gao Sheng, and what they look forward to is that they can have this day too.

"Chef Yang, is Boss feeling better?" Master Liu asked Yang Zhijun about Lao Tan's situation.

"Well, it will take some time to stop vomiting blood." Yang Zhijun said.

Master Liu said: "He's too tired, it's time to rest." Then he asked: "By the way, is there still a shortage of cooks?"

"Lack, do you have it?" Yang Zhijun asked.

"I have a classmate who is a chef and has been working in Harbin. I called two days ago and said that I want to come out after the New Year." Master Liu said.

"Oh, come on, try it out for a while, if you can do it, you can stay. You know what our family is like, tell them clearly, if you can, you will be reimbursed the travel expenses, if you can't, you can only blame yourself for not being good at learning." Yang Zhijun said.

"Sure, it takes longer than me to cook. People are thieves, so there's nothing bad about them."

"I believe in this, but you can't introduce it if you can't."

Master Liu smiled, and the topic shifted to the dishes. "This batch of Cordyceps chicken is a bit big. I tasted it and it tastes okay, but it needs to be stewed for 8 minutes, otherwise it won't taste good."

"Well, it's a bit big. When I came here, I thought it wasn't a Cordyceps chicken. It's okay if they are all this big, and the dishes are plump." Yang Zhijun said.

"Yeah." Master Liu nodded, thought for a while and said, "Chef Yang, our little stupid chicken stewed with mushrooms is really delicious, mainly because the chicken is good, but the mushrooms are not as good. The mushrooms in my hometown are better than this, and I go up the mountain by myself. Picked, it tastes better than meat. I will give it a try after thinking about it.”

"Okay, let's post some. If it's good, we'll change it. The mushrooms we're using now aren't very good." Yang Zhijun said, and then asked: "Ask me before posting, can I supply it for a long time, don't give up halfway." .Our mushroom is not good enough, but it can be used for sneaking up, or else we won’t choose it.”

Since the last time Lao Tan went to Wuchuan to find the source of cordyceps chicken, the little stupid chicken stewed with mushrooms has become popular, and it is almost a must-order.

There is no secret to the fact that the dishes can be sold well. To put it bluntly, they are delicious.Delicious food has three elements: first, the ingredients are good; second, go back to the basics and get back to the basics; third, forget that you are a cook, forget those high-end seasonings, pay attention to the heat, and apply the kung fu to the original flavor.

In order to make a good stewed chicken with mushrooms, Lao Tan specially bought a small black cast iron pot and made a wooden lid. It looks the same as the big iron pot on the clay stove at home, but it is a little smaller.

Restaurants do not have the same conditions as at home. They build a stove with an Koukou pot, and burn wood to stew vegetables underneath. Restaurants can only stew on clay pots.

The whole production process and craftsmanship of the little stupid chicken are exactly the same as the chicken stewed by the mother at home. It is impossible to turn the firewood into gas, which is the only fly in the ointment.

During the meal time, ten pots of small stupid chickens are stewed on the clay pot, and the house is full of fragrance.There is almost no need for the waiter to introduce it. Customers want to order after smelling the taste. When they lift the wooden pot cover and see a pot full of bubbling chicken, the order is placed.

Little Stupid Chicken is delicious and sells well, so other restaurants will naturally come to taste and learn from it.After tasting it, I felt that there was nothing to do, and I could make it, so I started to make it by imitating it.The result can be imagined, the stew can not taste this.

After inquiring, it turned out that the chicken was wrong, and I was about to buy the Cordyceps chicken, but when I asked about the price, I gave up my enthusiasm.The small stupid chicken stewed with mushrooms sells for 88, and a Cordyceps chicken costs 58, plus mushrooms, potatoes, seasonings, labor, and pyrotechnics.

Does Aqiao's little stupid chicken make money?To be honest, I don’t make much money. Although the purchase price of the chicken is cheaper, 48 yuan, but all in all, I can earn 20 yuan, a profit of 20.00% three, which can’t be lower.

Lao Tan's goal is not to make money with it, as long as it tastes good and attracts guests.

When the guests come, you can't just order a little stupid chicken stewed mushrooms.

A thought that made him laugh suddenly came to Yang Zhijun's mind - it doesn't take much effort to choose a la carte, just stew a little stupid chicken, you have to agree, and it must be the first.

Of course, this is just an idea, it is impossible to compete with the little stupid chicken stewed mushrooms.

His optional dishes have been thought up for a long time, and they are being perfected in the past two days.

In the community clinic, Lao Tan was lying on the bed and playing the bottle, with Gu Yi sitting next to him.

"Brother, how many more days do we have to play?" Gu Yi asked anxiously, obviously wanting Lao Tan to get well soon so that he could drink with him.

"Five more days." Old Tan said.

"That's just right, accompany me to Jining and do something." Gu Yi said.

"What's the matter?" Old Tan asked.

"Didn't Jining build a fur city in the first few years? The government invested, and the scale is quite large. The whole is better than Tongerbao in our province. It wants to build the largest fur wholesale and retail base in western China. Hey, to put it bluntly, it is about political achievements. You haven't been to Jining, have you?" Gu Yi asked.

"No, passing by by train, it doesn't seem to be very big." Lao Tan said, and at the same time remembered the advertisements he saw on TV in the first few years, it seemed that there was a fur city.

"It's not big, but it's bigger than Wuchuan. When the fur city was being built, the leader approached Mr. Sun and asked him to bring some merchants from Tongerbao. He promised that there would be no charge for the first two years. Fees start in the third year.

At that time, I told Boss Sun not to worry about this matter, that place is not good at all, and it can't be done.If it is okay in Hohhot, it is also the capital, with many rich people and a large number of passengers.Besides, fur is so expensive, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to take out one piece. Jining is only a small place, and there are many rich people. Who will sell it?

The location is still remote, can outsiders go?Boss Sun didn't listen to me and attracted many merchants.The government is satisfied, but what if the merchants come and don’t make money?They are all fellow villagers, and it is obvious that they are cheating fellow villagers.

People are also strange, they all love to take advantage.Those merchants came to take a look around, and they were entertained and promised many preferential policies.To put it bluntly, it is all empty promises, as long as you come, you can get the market in order first, and no one can guarantee what will happen in the future. "

Old Tan asked: "How is the business?"

"How to say, it was okay when it first opened. People from Hohhot, Ordos, Baotou, and Chifeng all went there to buy fur. Especially during the Chinese New Year, there were many buyers and it made a lot of money. At that time, only the Jining Fur City was mentioned. Famous if you don’t know anything.” Gu Yi said.

"What about after that?" Lao Tan continued to ask.

"It's only been popular for half a year, and then it's nothing. Especially now, some people can't even sell a single item in a month. There is no cost, but labor is not counted? There is also cost? Fur is not like In addition, if you can’t sell it for a long time, you have to maintain it—it’s damaged by those merchants. Let’s put it this way, the minimum investment for a merchant is one million or so, and if it’s five or six million more, it’s now nothing.”

(End of this chapter)