The Northern Stories of Chef Lao Tan

Chapter 34 Coming to Inner Mongolia
Ganqika, belonging to Horqin Zuoyihou Banner, Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is located in the west of Horqin Zuoyi Late Stage, bordering Jiergalang Town, Changsheng Town, and Menggendaba Ranch in the east, and adjacent to Zhangwu County, Liaoning Province in the south. It borders Kulun Banner in the west, and connects with Chaolutu Town, Nugustai Town and Agula Town in the north.

Ganqika is the hometown of horse kings in China. The horse racing conference is held every year, and the horse racing champions in the Asian Games go out from here.

Tan Yan came here by train for four hours with excitement.When I walked out of the platform, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. I didn't see the prairie I imagined. The train station in the 60s well retained the heaviness of the times.There is a relatively wide street in front of the station, which is still Huangtu Road. There are restaurants, small hotels, shops, and shops selling souvenirs on the small second floor on both sides of the street.

Standing on the street and looking forward, there is a feeling of returning to my hometown.

I couldn't help but smiled wryly, and said in my heart that the more I worked, the more I turned around, and I came from the city to the countryside.Now that I'm here, I have to see what the place of work is like, and I can't just go back like this.

I called Sister Yuan, and Sister Yuan told him to stay still and drive over immediately.

After 10 minutes, Sister Yuan arrived in a car, got in the car, and drove to the center of the street.

In the car, Sister Yuan smiled and asked, "Is this your first visit to Ganqika?"

Old Tan said, "It's the first time."

Sister Yuan said, "Let me show you. The station is in the old city, backward. Ganqika is still quite prosperous, but it's a bit smaller."

While talking, the car got on an asphalt road and walked forward for 3 minutes. Rows of buildings appeared on both sides of the street, which looked like a city.After walking forward for a while, turn left and enter a relatively bustling street.

Sister Yuan said: "This street is the center, the most prosperous place. It's a bit like Santaizi, but not as big as Santaizi. It's a town after all. It's not big, with more than [-] people, which is pretty good."

Through the car window, Lao Tan saw the buildings on both sides. There were several large shopping malls and many restaurants, and the scale was not small.There are all kinds of people on the street, including fashionable young men and women, no different from those on the streets of the provincial capital.Those who wear national costumes should be Mongolians.There are also farmers who have entered the city, and there are not a few among the crowd.If it weren't for the high-rise buildings on both sides, it would be more like a rural gathering.

"Let's go to the company cafeteria for dinner first, and then go to the industrial park after dinner," Sister Yuan said.

"Okay, I'll follow your arrangement." Old Tan said.

The car drove out of the street, passed a bridge hole, and drove forward for a while, and arrived at the gate of the company.

Jinxing Copper Industry is built on the side of the national highway, and it looks like a giant beast from a distance. It should be the largest enterprise in Ganqika.Lao Tan knows a little bit about Jinxing Copper Industry. After all, it is a star enterprise in his hometown province. He doesn't need to pay special attention to it. He can also know something by watching TV news reports.The head office is in Liaozhong, which was attracted by investment from Inner Mongolia. Ganqika sold the land, and the head office paid for the establishment of a branch factory. At the same time, they set up an industrial park to build the largest copper product trading market in Northeast China.

During dinner, Sister Yuan said that the industrial park is on the north side of the National Highway, covering an area of ​​[-] mu. The infrastructure construction has been completed, and now two companies have settled in.The scale is not bad, but the location is a bit biased, few people know about it, and it will develop in the future.

After dinner, the two drove to the industrial park.

Lao Tan's first impression was desolation.

The huge industrial park is located alone in the wilderness, with low forests on the left and right sides, undulating barren sand dunes in the back, and the national highway connecting Inner Mongolia and Liaoning in front. If you don’t look carefully, you may think it is a service area on the expressway.

The first is a wide parking lot, the size of two football fields.Behind it is a three-story main building with a length of 50 meters and [-] meters, which is composed of east and west parts.The west is the office area of ​​the park, and the east is the commercial building, which is the part that Yuan Jie is in charge of developing.In the middle is the gate, which is very grand, with the words "Northeast Jinxing Copper Industrial Park" written on it.

The first and second floors of the commercial building in the east are storefronts. There are [-] stores in total, and three of them are rented out.The remaining sister Yuan plans to use five for hotels, three for supermarkets, and the rest to be rented out as usual.The entire third floor is used as guest rooms, a total of fifty rooms.

After seeing all the three floors, Sister Yuan said to Lao Tan: "Brother Tan, I have never done hotel renovations, this time it is all up to you, you understand, you do it."

Old Tan said: "Sister Yuan, there is nothing wrong with the whole thing, what is the main standard for the whole thing?"

Sister Yuan said: "The guest rooms can be arranged according to the standard of an express hotel. Now the engineering department is doing the plumbing and toilets, and the door has been booked. It will arrive in a few days. The hotel is designed according to the mid-to-high end, mainly for reception. The leaders of the head office will come , to receive the leaders of Qili and the city. It is impossible for individual tourists to come, we are far away from the street, unless we want to be quiet."

Old Tan asked: "Should we do the decoration ourselves or the company's engineering team?"

Sister Yuan said: "The company has special decoration, and they are in charge."

"How long are you going to finish?" Old Tan asked.

"The Naadam will open at the racecourse in mid-October, and it must open at the end of September." Sister Yuan said.

Old Tan thought for a while and said: "Three months is enough, it depends on the progress of the engineering team. It's hard to say inside the company. They all go to and from get off work at normal times, unlike individuals who work overtime to make money."

Sister Yuan said, "It's fine. If there's any delay, I'll go to the big boss."

Old Tan said, "Okay, I'll make a budget first."

"The budget can be made a little more. Don't ask for money when the money is not enough. It's troublesome. Brother Tan, you live on the third floor, and you have already cleared out a room. I live on the third floor too."

"it is good."

Lao Tan lived here and started to make the overall budget.

Let me talk about the living environment first, the conditions are good, there is a single room, there is a separate bathroom and a desk, and a computer is also equipped.Eat in the canteen of the park and eat with the office staff.

The fly in the ointment is that this place is too remote, two kilometers away from Ganqika Street, and there is nothing in front of it except the national highway.The nearest villages on the left and right were also six miles away.

It is remote and quiet, and there are only three people living on the third floor, he, sister Yuan, and a waiter in the cafeteria.After six o'clock in the evening, when the park got off work, there was no one there except for a watchman in the security room at the gate, and the whole park fell into a dead silence.

To be honest, it is more rural than the countryside. At night, every house lights up in the countryside and there is a smell of fireworks, but there is no such thing here. From time to time, there are a few night owls screaming from the surrounding wild fields, which can be heard.

Just arrived on the first day, Lao Tan didn’t do anything. After dinner, he called Lin Yan to report his safety. After strolling outside the park for a while, Sister Yuan didn’t live on the third floor, saying that there were a few colleagues in the company gathering. , went to the street.The cafeteria waiter was in her thirties, and she came from Kulunqi. Her husband was a small contractor who contracted the landscaping of a community in the street. She was introduced by someone.

She told Lao Tan that the park used to be a cemetery. When it was built two years ago, the government mobilized the people to move the graves and gave a lot of compensation, at least 5000 yuan.Old Tan is a bit strange, the one with the least is the one with the most, how can this grave be divided into three or six or nine ranks?The waiter smiled and said that some are ancestral graves, which have been here for several generations, so naturally there are more, and some are alone, so there are fewer.There are still many unowned ones. Human bones were dug out and put into small boxes. Mr. Yin Yang arranged for them to be buried in the wild behind the park.

Old Tan Xin said that this place is more yin, and it depends on whether the yang of Jinxing Copper is prosperous or not.

It took three days to complete the overall budget, and Sister Yuan took it to the factory to report to the leader.

Old Tan had nothing to do, so he strolled around the street.

Come to the most prosperous street, there are two large shopping malls, four relatively large restaurants, one of which is a chain enterprise in Inner Mongolia, called Haoxiang Catering, it should be the largest in the street, with [-] square meters, with guest rooms .

Shopping malls are no different from big cities, the only difference is the language. There are many Mongolian people here, and most of them speak Mongolian, especially the waiters who sell goods. Not only speak Mongolian, but also wear Mongolian clothes, which attract people's attention.

It is easy to distinguish the Han people from the Mongolian people here. Those who look yellow and have a few bloodshots on their faces are almost all Mongolians, and most of the white-faced people are Han people.

After passing the shopping mall and walking forward, there is a turntable square. There are many elderly people sitting on the benches in the circle, enjoying the caress of the sun quietly.There were fewer young people, and some children ran happily, not because of the shouts of grandparents.

A relatively large specialty shop on the west side of the square is eye-catching. There is a saddle and a matouqin at the door. Lao Tan felt the novelty and walked over.I glanced at the saddle at the door, the store door was pushed open from the inside, and a middle-aged woman in her thirties came out. She greeted Lao Tan in not-so-fluent Chinese, meaning that she wanted to buy something and went to the store to see what was inside. Complete.

Entering the store, there are many things inside, including saddles, whips, bridles, bridle accessories, and various matouqin and Mongolian knives.

The Mongolian knives are very delicate, not big, and they all have scabbards, which feel good in the hand.Lao Tan wanted to buy one, but thought that he might not be allowed to bring it on the train when he passed the security check, so he gave up.

Next to the Mongolian knife are all kinds of pipe pots, most of which are copper and jade.The pipe stems were all very handsome, with silver ornaments on them.Lao Tan picked up a jujube wood stem and copper pipe with silver decorations and asked how much it was. The boss said one thousand and four.

There is a comb made of ox horn bone on the counter, which looks good, and there is a ox bone scraping board beside the comb. Lao Tan also chose one, spent 30 yuan, and then came out of the shop.

Before I came here, I heard that the beef jerky here is famous, so I wanted to buy some to try, and take some back for my son.

Hotels and guesthouses in the park will not be able to open for a while. To renovate the hotel, you have to go back to the provincial capital to buy kitchen equipment and tableware, as well as tables, chairs and benches, and various lamps.

There are quite a few stores selling beef jerky. After walking through a few, I chose a good one and bought two catties, and bought two boxes of toffee by the way.I didn't buy kumiss, and it didn't taste good after drinking it once.

Lao Tan has been around for two hours, a little tired, and it was time for lunch, so he found a Mongolian restaurant and went in, thinking that he must eat a Mongolian meal when he came to Inner Mongolia.

To be honest, the hygiene of the restaurant is really not flattering. If the food and drug bureau in the provincial capital had already sealed it, it is estimated that this is a town and the management is not strict.

Looking at the recipe, the meat on the top is 68 a catty, and Lao Tan told the boss to ask for half a catty.The boss shook his head, saying that he couldn't do half a catty, but at least one catty would do.Lao Tan said that one person can't eat those, and you can order a few other dishes for half a catty.The boss is very stubborn and insists on not giving half a catty.Lao Tan had no choice but to order a catty of hand meat, a fried haggis, a bowl of buckwheat noodles, and half a catty of white wine.

What should I do, the meat is really good, especially when dipped in wild leek flowers, it has a unique flavor.Stir-fried haggis is also okay, according to Lao Tan’s standards, it’s a little undercooked, but the haggis is definitely boiled, unlike the provincial capital where it’s all alkaline, and it smells like urea.The buckwheat noodles are also very good, but they are not noodles. Lao Tan is too lazy to care about it. He thinks that the Mongolian people who are affordable have learned to fool people. The boss is probably not Mongolian.

The loose baijiu is okay, it's easy to drink, and it's pure and small.The Mongolian people love to drink, and the boss dare not deal with fake wine.

After eating and drinking, Sister Yuan also called, telling him to go back.

I took a taxi, and the driver asked me where to go after getting in the car?Old Tan said to go to the industrial park.

The driver smiled and asked, "Isn't it a local?"

Old Tan said, "No, I just came here."

The driver was very talkative, chatted with Lao Tan, took out a business card to Lao Tan when he got off the bus, said that it was difficult to get a taxi here, wanted to call him on the street, he came to pick it up, and added two yuan for round trips Money will do.

Lao Tan took the business card and said thank you, and the driver drove away.

Back on the third floor, Sister Yuan was waiting in the room. When she saw Lao Tan, she said happily that the leader had approved it, and praised Lao Tan greatly, saying that the budget was too detailed, as big as a stove, as small as a The quantity and price of the dishes are clearly marked, which is clear at a glance, and the leader approves very much, saying that Sister Yuan has found a powerful person.

Old Tan asked, "When are we going back to the provincial capital?"

Sister Yuan said: "As soon as possible, you go back first, I will have a meeting at the head office tomorrow, and then I will discuss this matter with the finance manager. It will take no more than five days at the latest, and then I will call you and start purchasing."

"Okay, I'll go back tomorrow." Old Tan said.

Sister Yuan said: "Brother, you will be paid for the next few days when you go home. At home, calculate the wages of the people we need here, how much they are paid, how to manage, how to operate, and do it. It is best to make a copy. I'll show the leader."

Old Tan said, "Okay, leave this to me."

Sister Yuan said: "I rely on you to come, otherwise I don't understand anything, it's all up to you."

"It's okay, I'm also doing this to make money." Old Tan laughed after speaking.

Sister Yuan was straightforward and generous, and reported Lao Tan's lunch money, including the round-trip fare.Lao Tan was very emotional, and said in his heart that it is better to be a big company, because it has money.

The next day, Old Tan went straight back to the provincial capital.

(End of this chapter)