Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

Chapter 100 New Year's Dinner

After finishing their work, the people in the kitchen started to eat.

After dinner, Du Shaojie called Xiao Liu aside and said, "Xiao Liu, you've worked hard during this period. The director asked you to report back to the field office tomorrow, so you don't need to come to the cafeteria to help out."

This was expected. Xiao Liu said something polite and helped everyone clean up the mess, and then they went off work.

That night, Du Shaojie slept very soundly, without even dreaming, and slept until early morning.

After getting up, I ran to the river as usual, then went outside the site to play on the parallel bars, went back to the house to wash up, and then went to the cafeteria to have breakfast.

The days seemed to have returned to the past. Occasionally, Chu Xiaowei and his wife would invite him to their home for a meal, and Zhao Dajun would also come to his place with a bottle of wine to "eat for free".

Wang Liwen would always "unreasonably" take her dirty clothes and wash them, and then openly ask him to come over to help cook on weekends.

Looking back, there are only a few days left in this year.

morning.

Zhao Dajun and relevant personnel from the field office held a meeting in the cafeteria with Du Shaojie and three others.

"Everyone is holding back their energy this year, hoping for a good harvest next year. This energy cannot be lost, so the farm decided to organize a good dinner with plenty of good wine and good meat.

Master Du, it's up to you now. Please consider the food arrangements for the banquet and submit a menu before you get off work this afternoon so that we can prepare in advance."

The development trend of the farm is very good this year. Winter wheat has been planted and the situation so far is very good.

The output of the vegetable greenhouse also reached the expected value. Except for the part that was handed over to the bureau, the rest not only improved the lives of the employees, but also exchanged for a lot of good things, such as meat, cooking oil, etc.

The employees were in high spirits, so Zhao Dajun decided to strike while the iron was hot and arrange a New Year's dinner.

Du Shaojie agreed with this deeply. He understood this. It was just like the annual meeting of the company in his previous life, where they would summarize the past and look forward to the future, and hold a lucky draw or something, but in the end, it all involved a big meal.

"Director, I have no problem with this. But you have to give me an overall budget so that I can arrange the meals within the framework of the budget, right?"

"Well, don't worry about the budget, just follow the standard of a wedding banquet. Master Du, I have only one request, we don't have those fancy dishes, we don't care about the pomp, we have to satisfy everyone's appetite!"

After Zhao Dajun finished speaking, he looked at Du Shaojie quietly, fearing that the other party did not understand his intentions.

How could Du Shaojie not understand? To put it bluntly, he didn’t require fancy dishes. He only wanted to satisfy his appetite, have enough oil and water, and have a strong flavor.

"I understand! I'll get the menu out during lunch break and give it to you as soon as I get to work this afternoon."

After Du Shaojie issued a military order, Zhao Dajun stopped talking and announced the adjournment of the meeting.

He made vegetarian sauerkraut noodles at noon, and after finishing his work, he went straight home. It is not difficult to make a menu, but it depends on the specific situation of the field.

"Let's prepare the pork elbow. This is the best thing to satisfy people's appetite. Let's not cook the whole chicken. Let's serve a large plate of chicken. I guarantee that they will be overwhelmed after eating it. Let's make the [Dry-fried Fish], this dish has a strong flavor and I think everyone will like it."

Du Shaojie made some modifications at home and soon prepared the menu.

The dishes on this menu have only one feature: they are affordable! Forget dishes like [Boiled Cabbage], what you want is big fish and meat.

[Dongpo pork elbow], [big plate chicken], [Daqian dry-fried fish], [beef stew], [hand-pulled lamb], [Mapo tofu], [braised spare ribs], and [braised pork intestines with sauerkraut].

There are eight hot dishes in total, and four cold dishes.

The four cold dishes are [Garlic Cucumber], [Cold Shredded Vegetables], [Beef with Braised Sauce], and [Fried Peanuts].

After preparing the menu, Du Shaojie ran to hand it to Zhao Dajun as soon as work started in the afternoon.

Zhao Dajun called the relevant people to discuss it together. He felt that there was no problem, so he said, "Master Du, you are really honest. These dishes are really satisfying."

Afterwards, he asked Chu Xiaowei, Li Guixiang and others to be responsible for purchasing, and temporarily arranged a few people to help in the kitchen.

The day before the banquet, which was the penultimate day of the year, all the requirements for the banquet were gathered. From the afternoon, Du Shaojie, Qin Xiaomei, Li Guixiang and the four people sent by the field office to help in the kitchen began to get busy.

Dinner only consisted of steamed buns, pickled vegetables and egg drop soup, and there would be no breakfast the next morning. Employees who had no place to eat could take one or two extra steamed buns home at night, so they would not starve.

"We have to make braised beef today. We started marinating the beef in the morning and can cook it in the evening. We have to be busy early tomorrow morning and have no time to make this."

Du Shaojie made overall arrangements and divided the team into two shifts to be responsible for this dish, [Beef in Braised Sauce].

After all, the preparation process of this dish takes a long time. After he completes the previous steps, someone still has to watch the fire.

He went to bed early that night and got up before dawn the next day. When he arrived at the cafeteria, the kitchen was brightly lit, and Qin Xiaomei and others had already started washing various ingredients.

Du Shaojie changed his clothes and started to deal with the pork elbow.

The skin of the elbow should be scalded with a red-hot iron and then brushed with a brush. The purpose of this step is mainly to remove the fishy smell on the surface of the elbow and some tiny pig hairs. The next step is to deal with the pig intestines. Cleaning pig intestines requires skills. The kitchen helpers can't do it, and Qin Xiaomei and Li Guixiang are busy with other things, so he can only do it himself.

The cafeteria is different from the big hotel. The division of labor in the big hotel is more detailed and there are more people. The cafeteria is not usually busy, but when it comes to a big event like today, it is normal for one person to play multiple roles.

After processing the pig's large intestine, Du Shaojie began to fry the elbow. He needed to fry the skin of the elbow until golden brown and then simmer it on low heat. This process takes about three hours.

All employees are attending the dinner today, and family members are not attending, which is also the custom.

Therefore, there were only fifteen tables in total, and one more table was prepared. Zhao Dajun invited his old leader, Wang Bin from the General Affairs Department, Sun Qiang from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Director Lu from the next-door regiment.

These people said that they would wait and see, as it was not certain whether they could come, so they should be prepared first.

Time flies quickly in the busy life.

Du Shaojie fried the sixteen fishes in advance, and all the preparations were ready. At this time, the elbows were already soft and tasty, and were still kept warm. They would be taken out later, poured with the cooked sauce, and served.

"Master Du, how are the preparations going?"

Near noon, Zhao Dajun and others hurried over and asked about the preparations for the dinner as soon as they entered the door.

Du Shaojie said that everything is ready and they can start working just by waiting for the order from the leaders!
"Okay, wait another fifteen minutes. If the invited guests haven't arrived yet, we'll start the feast. Master Du and the rest of you, thank you for your hard work! I'll give you two more days off later."

Zhao Dajun looked at the time and confirmed the start time of the meal.

At this time, the cafeteria was already crowded. There were ten people at each table, and everyone was crowded together drinking tea and eating sunflower seeds. It was very lively.

When the time came, only Director Lu came, and the other guests had not arrived yet.

At Zhao Dajun's command, Du Shaojie quickly completed the last step of preparing the four cold dishes and asked the person in charge of serving the dishes to start serving them.

Du Shaojie asked Li Guixiang and others to take out the cooked pork elbows and put them on a plate, while he poured out the broth from the pork elbows and started to make the broth.

The process is relatively simple, it is nothing more than seasoning, adding water starch, and thickening the soup.

Finally, pour the cooked soup on each plate of elbows, and a fragrant, fatty but not greasy [Dongpo Elbow] can be served.

Today he was the only chef, Qin Xiaomei was helping him, and the kitchen helpers were responsible for miscellaneous tasks.

Li Guixiang will go to make ramen later. Today's staple food is belt noodles. When everyone has drunk enough, they can pour the belt noodles into the big plate chicken bowl and eat them with the soup.

It is fragrant and spicy, and very satisfying to eat.

At this moment, the atmosphere at the dinner party was immediately heated up. Not only the men, but also some young wives and aunts raised their glasses.

Zhao Dajun's opening remarks were brief and powerful. Du Shaojie only heard one sentence in the kitchen: "I wish we will be better and better every year! Cheers!", and then a round of shouts of "Ura" were heard at the scene.

Almost everyone drank the first glass of wine, and Du Shaojie began to make the [Beef Stew]. The beef was of course stewed in advance, and other side dishes like cabbage, vermicelli and frozen tofu were also pre-processed, so the dish was ready very quickly.

This is how banquets are, most of the effort is spent on preparation. The saying "one minute on stage takes ten years of hard work off stage" is also applicable here, the principle is the same.

All dishes that need to be stewed must be prepared in advance. Pork elbows, beef, and mutton all have this process, but big plate chicken cannot be prepared in advance, otherwise it will affect the taste and flavor.

Therefore, when frying the big plate chicken, you can serve the stewed [Hand-Pulled Lamb] first.

At this time, Du Shaojie had already entered a very mysterious state. He seemed to be unhurried, but his hands moved very quickly. Various dishes were served on the table one after another at a fixed rhythm, and there was no dull moment.

Only after all the dishes were cooked did Du Shaojie come out of his previous state.

Really, even he himself could hardly believe that he, the only chef, could prepare 16 tables of banquet so smoothly.

A banquet was prepared and the dishes were served at the same time, otherwise no one would make them again.

"Aunt Qin, Sister Li, and all of you, let's go to the banquet first, and then come to clean up the kitchen after we're done. I have no other requirements, but you can't get drunk. If you're drunk, no one will work."

Du Shaojie waved his hand and walked out with all the kitchen staff.

"Master Du, come and sit over here. The rest of you can go to Chu Xiaowei's table. They haven't started eating yet, and they're waiting for you."

Zhao Dajun stood up and waved at Du Shaojie, calling him over.

Qin Xiaomei and others went to Chu Xiaowei's table. There were only Chu Xiaowei and a few people from the field office at that table, and all the dishes on the table had not been touched.

Du Shaojie walked to the table where Zhao Dajun and his friends were, greeted Zhao Dajun, Director Lu and the others, and sat down. He had been busy for so long that he was already hungry, so he started eating directly without even touching the wine glass.

(End of this chapter)