Rebirth: Starting from the Cafeteria

The next day.

Du Shaojie went to the market and bought 10 white-striped chickens. He chose the three-yellow chickens produced in the province as the ingredients. The meat of this kind of chicken is firmer and tastes more delicious.

At the same time, he also bought some other dishes, which were prepared for Xiaomei and himself.

Back at the stall, he began to prepare the white-striped chicken and then marinated it. There are many ways to cook white-cut chicken, but he chose the authentic "Guangfu cuisine" method.

After the chicken was marinated, he started preparing lunch.

The yam and pork ribs soup needs a little longer to cook, but the other two stir-fried dishes are not urgent and can be prepared after Xiaomei arrives. He had already told his sister during dinner yesterday that he would trouble Wang Yan and others to send her over.

After working all morning, we finished preparing the poached chicken before noon and started business.

There were many people passing by, and occasionally someone asked, but by the time Wang Yan and Jiang Xiaoling pushed Du Xiaomei to the store, they had only sold half a chicken.

Du Shaojie was not in a hurry. He greeted them with a smile: "Why didn't Liu come? Xiaomei, greet your classmates first. I'll go cook."

"Chu Hong has something to do at noon, so ask her to send Xiaomei off in the evening."

Jiang Xiaoling looked at the food stall with a smile, then she and Wang Yan helped Du Xiaomei sit down.

She knew that Du Xiaomei's brother was a chef, but she had no idea how good he was.

Sitting there, she felt a little excited for some reason.

Du Shaojie fried a plate of [Stir-fried Pork Liver], a plate of [Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin], a portion of [Fish-flavored Eggplant Pot], a plate of [Stir-fried Vegetables], and added [Yam and Pork Rib Soup], which was exactly four dishes and one soup.

"It's time to eat."

After a while, Du Shaojie prepared lunch and invited everyone to eat.

It was the first time for Xiaomei’s two roommates to eat the food he cooked. After taking a bite, they couldn’t stop eating.

Jiang Xiaoling's family is well off, and she has eaten food from big restaurants before, but she was still amazed by Xiaomei's brother's cooking skills today.

It was so delicious, it was beyond her imagination.

It was the first time for Wang Yan to eat such delicious dishes, and every dish left her with an endless aftertaste. The pork rib soup was also very delicious, especially the pork ribs, which were soft and tasty, and she wanted to eat more.

After a while, Jiang Xiaoling and Wang Yan realized that their eating habits did not look very good.

Both of them felt a little embarrassed, and Jiang Xiaoling quickly said, "Brother, the dishes you cook are simply delicious. Please don't laugh at us for being unsophisticated."

Jiang Xiaoling's appearance and figure are second only to Du Xiaomei, and both of them are very popular in school.

She usually pays attention to her image, but she didn't expect to lose her composure in front of Xiaomei's brother, and she felt a little upset.

"Just enjoy your meal and don't worry about the details."

Du Shaojie laughed, having lived two lives, he didn't care much about superficial things, he just wanted to follow his heart.

Xiaomei laughed secretly on the side. Her brother only made a few home-cooked dishes today. If he had made some serious dishes, wouldn't they have swallowed their tongues into their stomachs?

As her family's financial situation improved and she was admitted to university, Du Xiaomei's mentality had already changed.

"Ajie, what about eating? Give me a boiled chicken."

At this time, Uncle Chai staggered in from outside.

"Uncle Chai, sit down and eat together."

Du Shaojie greeted the landlord warmly and asked him to sit down and eat.

Uncle Chai glanced at Xiaomei's two classmates, smiled and shook his head: "The meal is ready at home, I'll buy a [boiled chicken] to eat back."

"We just opened today, I'll treat you."

Du Shaojie didn't care about a chicken. Uncle Chai was a very generous person, so he certainly wouldn't be stingy.

"I want you to treat me? Stop talking nonsense. Just charge me the right amount. Don't charge less. But, Ajie, Uncle Chai appreciates your kindness. Hurry up, I have to go back to eat."

Uncle Chai laughed, took out a handful of money from his pocket and stuffed it into Du Shaojie's pocket.

Du Shaojie couldn't help but smile. There was no need to argue about this matter. Just collect the money according to the selling price. He knew that Uncle Chai was an overseas Chinese and foreign exchange was sent to him every month.

Uncle Chai owns several properties, including three storefronts, so he is not short of money.

The poached chicken was cut and packed, and the dipping sauce was placed in a small box, which was then handed to Uncle Chai. Uncle Chai swallowed a few times, took the poached chicken and ran back.

Du Shaojie glanced at the plates in front of Xiaomei and the others, smiled, cut half a chicken and brought it over.

To be honest, the fighting power of the four of them was really strong. In the end, they finished all four dishes and one soup, and not even half of the [boiled chicken] was left.

Du Shaojie was very happy. Since there was not much business, he chatted with Wang Yan and Jiang Xiaoling for a while.

Wang Yan and Jiang Xiaoling wanted to help clean up the mess, but he waved his hand and asked them to push Xiaomei back to rest. They could take a nap at noon, so they didn't need to help in the kitchen.

Not long after Xiaomei and the others left, a group of people arrived.

They are Uncle Chai's friends, and they often drink morning tea and watch Cantonese opera together. I just went to Uncle Chai's place and happened to taste the [Boiled Chicken] made by Du Shaojie.

These people are also old diners and can tell the difference just by taking a bite.

After asking Uncle Chai, I found out that it was a chef from another place who opened a shop temporarily. He would only open it for about a month and return to his hometown after he finished his work.

Several people hurried over and bought a chicken each without saying a word. Du Shaojie had sold half a chicken before, and he and his friends ate half of it. Uncle Chai bought one, and these people bought five. After a while, there were only three chickens left.

It's so strange, there's no one here.

As soon as the five of them left, several customers came and the remaining three chickens were sold.

Du Shaojie packed up everything inside and out, closed the stall and went home to sleep. He didn't plan to continue making [Boiled Chicken] in the afternoon. At most, he would buy more ingredients tomorrow, and that was it for today.

He calculated that the profit from one chicken was about 1 yuan, so he would not lose money on the first day of business.

Liu Chuhong sent Du Xiaomei over in the evening. Du Shaojie cooked two dishes, and Liu Chuhong was sure that Jiang Xiaoling and Wang Yan had not fooled her. Anyway, the three of them agreed that they would take turns to send Xiaomei over in the future. They couldn't just go there as a group every time, right?

It’s better to take turns to eat.

the next day.

Du Shaojie had 20 white-striped chickens delivered in the morning. After they were prepared in batches, they were all sold out before dinner.

Within a few days, the boiled chicken he made became famous in the area.

There was actually a queue at noon today. Anyway, he only makes 40 chickens a day at most, and he will sell them all.

This caused many customers to feel resentful.

"Sorry, it's sold out. Please come early tomorrow."

Du Shaojie said this sentence very fluently. Even Xiaomei laughed at him for having money but not making it.

He opened this shop temporarily out of sheer urgency. His main mission was to ensure that his sister had good food and drink and recovered as soon as possible.

Secondly, he needed professional kitchen training, so Du Xiaomei ate different dishes every day.

Time flies.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a month passed and Du Shaojie became a "celebrity" on this street.

Neighbors and business owners nearby would greet him when they passed by. He even learned a few words of Cantonese, which, although not very standard, could be used for simple conversations.

Xiaomei's injuries were gradually healing, but she gained a lot of weight, at least 10 kilograms during this period.

Calculating that the time was almost up, Du Shaojie took his sister to see Dr. Lin for a follow-up examination. The results of the follow-up examination were very good, but Dr. Lin also said that she had to rest well for a period of time in the future and not be careless.

Du Shaojie has been out for quite a long time, and he calls Wang Yuxiu and Xiaoya every weekend.

This was agreed upon before he left home. Every weekend after Xiaoya got out of school, Wang Yuxiu would take her to a private restaurant and wait for a call in Du Shaojie's office.

Communication was so inconvenient these days. The total number of switches in any city was small, and there was no basic condition for popularizing telephones.

"Uncle Chai, don't cook tonight. I'll treat you, Auntie, and Uncle Zhang to dinner."

In the morning, Du Shaojie knocked on the landlord's door.

The temporary storefront he rented was about to expire after a month, and he was ready to go back.

Before leaving, he still had a lot of things to do, one of which was to treat Uncle Chai and his wife, as well as several good neighbors, to dinner.

These people not only often took care of his business, but also helped him in other ways.

If Du Shaojie didn't leave and opened a proper restaurant, the business would be booming.

Cantonese people love to eat and know how to eat, so as long as the restaurant is of good quality, the business will not be bad. Moreover, his cooking skills have been perfected now, and it is much better to develop in the south than in the remote northwestern cities.

"I knew you were leaving. I will definitely go there tonight."

Uncle Chai did not refuse. To be honest, he was reluctant to leave Ajie.

night.

Jiang Xiaoling came with Xiaomei, and including the two of them, there were a total of 8 guests.

Du Shaojie tried his best to cook a table of authentic Cantonese cuisine, which surprised Uncle Chai and others.

It is not uncommon to be able to cook one or two Cantonese dishes, such as the [Boiled Chicken] that Du Shaojie made before, which is very authentic. But being able to cook a table of authentic Cantonese dishes is not easy.

After all, the taste in the northwest is completely different from here.

Today's dishes include [Boiled Chicken], [Sweet and Sour Pork], [Baked Lobster in Superior Broth], [Steamed Grouper], [Braised Pigeon], [Eight Treasure Winter Melon Soup], [Hakka Stir-fried Tofu], and [Vegetarian Choy Sum].

Of course, Cantonese people always serve soup first when eating, and traditional hot soup is indispensable.

Jiang Xiaoling was shocked again. Looking at the table full of dishes in front of her, she found that although she had overestimated Du Shaojie, she still underestimated his level.

Even local people like Uncle Chai were amazed by the dishes on the table.

In a narrow sense, Cantonese cuisine refers to Cantonese cuisine, and most of today's dishes can be said to be the soul of Cantonese cuisine. The key is that they are well cooked. In the words of Uncle Zhang, this level is comparable to that of Cantonese restaurants.

Cantonese Restaurant is a very famous local restaurant, and many people regard it as the benchmark of Cantonese cuisine.

Du Shaojie was very satisfied with his performance today. It was worth his hard work in practicing Cantonese cuisine for a month, which took more than 3000 hours.

The guests and the host had a great time during the meal. (End of this chapter)