Cute Wife Gourmet

Chapter 107 Want it all

Early in the morning, Ye Jiayao went to Tianshangju and found that Manager Li had arrived earlier than her. He was standing in the lobby in a daze and got no response when she greeted him.

Xiao Lu quietly told her that when he got up early in the morning to open the door, the shopkeeper was standing at the door of the restaurant in a daze, and later he was standing in the yard in a daze.

Ye Jiayao was puzzled. Was this a sign of Alzheimer's disease? No way. He was only in his fifties! In modern times, he would be considered young and vigorous.

Regardless of him, Ye Jiayao went to find Zhong Xiang and tried to make ice cream mooncakes today.

The ingredients used are glutinous rice flour, sticky rice flour, corn starch, powdered sugar, milk, amaranth juice, etc. If you want it to be more chewy, you can also add a little agar.

First, fry the glutinous rice flour in a pan, mix the milk, sugar and oil, then add the fried flour and stir into a paste. Steam it in a steamer and let it cool before wrapping it with ice cream filling.

There is no problem with the previous procedures, but the final step of closing the mouth requires skill. The mouth should be round and the thickness should be uniform, otherwise the thickness will be uneven when pressed into the mold, and the ice skin will be easy to break and look ugly.

Fortunately, Zhong Xiang’s craftsmanship is excellent. Each one is closed neatly. If you don’t look carefully, you can’t tell where the end is. The chewy dough is wrapped with the ice cream made last night. Ye Jiayao took out the mold and pressed it lightly, and the small and exquisite snow skin ice cream mooncake was completed.

"It's so exquisite, I can't bear to eat it because it looks so good." Deng Haichuan smacked his lips. The lavender ice skin was shiny and as clear as crystal. The patterns on the mold were three-dimensional and beautiful, small and cute, which really whetted people's appetite.

Ye Jiayao smiled and said, "Today is just a test, and it will be better by then."

“It’s exquisite, but is it too small?” Zhong Xiang was a little worried. Most mooncakes are big in size with plenty of fillings, and one is enough to fill you up.

Ye Jiayao said, "This is exactly the effect we want. Mooncakes are food that fits the occasion, but how many people really think mooncakes are delicious? The mooncakes we make are not only beautiful but also delicious. They are small, but they leave you wanting more. This is how people feel that they are precious. If they were big, they would be sick of them. Color, aroma, and taste, no matter what kind of food, presentation is the most important. People think it tastes good when they look at it, and they think it tastes good after eating it. Only then can it be considered a delicacy."

Zhong Xiang nodded and smiled: "That's right."

"Can I try one?" Cui Dongpeng was drooling and couldn't wait to try one.

"Not yet. They have to be frozen before eating, so they taste better." Ye Jiayao put away the mooncakes and froze them in an ice container.

Only six were made this time. In the afternoon, Ye Jiayao took them out, cut them into small pieces with a knife, and gave them to everyone to taste.

Everyone ate with their eyes wide open.

"Brother Yao, this is amazing. I can't even describe it. It's so delicious." Deng Haichuan exclaimed.

Cui Dongpeng also gave a thumbs up.

Wang Mingde said: "It is delicious, but it is very different from ordinary mooncakes. It can be said to be a completely different kind of pastry. Can people accept it?"

"Although it is different from traditional mooncakes, the dough is soft, glutinous and flexible, cool and refreshing, and the ice cream inside is even more delicate and melts in the mouth. It is so delicious and I believe everyone can accept it." Although Zhong Xiang said this, there was a hint of unconfidence in his tone.

Ye Jiayao smiled and said, "So, this birthday banquet is a very good opportunity. The Helian Palace said that this is a mooncake, so it must be a mooncake, and it will definitely be sought after. So, now I have to go to the palace to convince the princess."

Ye Jiayao put the remaining five mooncakes back into the ice container, picked up the container and headed straight for Prince Helian's mansion.

This is the perfect time to choose. The weather is hot and humid in the afternoon, and eating an ice cream mooncake is the most refreshing and cool thing.

However, Ye Jiayao did not expect that she had chosen a very good timing. The eldest princess was receiving several ladies who came to give gifts. When she heard that the mooncakes had been delivered, Ye Jiayao took the mooncakes to meet her.

The princess found the copper box in her hand strange and asked, "What kind of box is this?"

Ye Jiayao said, "This is a portable ice container that I came up with to store ice cream mooncakes."

"What kind of mooncakes are frozen? They even need to be put in an ice container?" a lady asked curiously.

Ye Jiayao said: "It's ice cream mooncake, a delicacy that came from overseas."

Someone chuckled and said, "Do those conservative barbarians also have Mid-Autumn Festival customs?"

Ye Jiayao thought to herself, how arrogant and closed-minded. Although Chinese civilization has a long history, Western civilization should not be underestimated. In another time and space, when the first industrial revolution took place in the West, the Qing Dynasty in the East was still a self-sufficient natural economy. The consequence of being complacent was the collapse of the dynasty and the trampling of dignity.

Of course, these are all for later.

"Madam, we can't underestimate those barbarians. This world is huge and there are many barbarians. Some of their things are much more advanced than ours. For example, while you ladies are still using incense, they already have refined and concentrated perfumes. Once you spray them on your body, the fragrance will not dissipate for a long time. Also, we are still using paper and gauze to cover the windows, but they have already used bright glass, which can keep out wind and rain..." Ye Jiayao said. "What's so magical? Have you seen it?" The ladies were skeptical.

Ye Jiayao smiled in her heart: Of course I have seen it, but these are just trivial matters. If you knew that people in later generations could go to the moon and travel in space on spaceships, and knew that there is no nine-story palace in the sky, and that Chang'e and Wu Gang are just myths and legends, and that there is nothing on the moon except potholes, I wonder if you would be so shocked that your eyes would fall out.

Yide heard from Xiaojing that Li Yao had traveled a lot and was very knowledgeable, so he thought what he said was not fabricated. So he said, "Bring your ice cream mooncakes here for everyone to taste."

"Yes." Ye Jiayao happily opened the ice container, took out a plate of snow skin ice cream mooncakes, and showed them to the eldest princess and the ladies first to let them see how they looked.

Sure enough, everyone's attention was attracted.

The thinking of noble ladies is different from that of ordinary people. What they care about is not the size, but whether it is beautiful and noble enough, and whether it matches their status.

There is no doubt that this appearance is very pleasing.

Ye Jiayao saw that they were already showing interest in their eyes. Then she took out a knife, cut a corner of each mooncake, and put it on a plate and served it.

Because the mooncakes were just taken out of the ice container, the temperature outside was relatively high and white steam was still coming out of them.

The ladies very elegantly used small spoons to scoop out a piece to taste.

Ye Jiayao was introducing the benefits of this snow skin ice cream mooncake.

"Traditional mooncakes are sweet and greasy. The Su-style mooncakes here are sweet but not greasy, but the surface is crispy. You often end up with crumbs in your mouth and on your clothes, which is not very pretty. However, this kind of snowy ice cream mooncake is low in sugar and fat, so you won't get fat after eating it. It is very good for your health, and it is refreshing and perfect for eating after meals. If you have an ice cream jar at home, you can keep it for many days without cracking or spoiling. The only downside is that this kind of mooncake is very expensive to make, so it is not cheap, and most people can't afford it."

"As long as the things are really good, the price is not an issue." said a lady.

It would be meaningless to let them eat what everyone else eats. What they want is to eat what ordinary people cannot afford so that they can show off their identity and status.

"Is it true that eating this won't make you fat?" A lady had almost finished her mooncake.

Ye Jiayao smiled and said, "It's definitely a healthy food."

"Yes, it's the first time I eat something so fresh. It has a delicate and beautiful appearance and tastes cool and delicate. Little chef, where can I buy this mooncake? I'll ask someone to buy it later." asked another lady.

Ye Jiayao smiled and said, "I am the chef of Tianshangju, whose surname is Li Mingyao. This mooncake is a kind of food I learned from overseas, specially developed for the old princess' birthday banquet. The ladies are tasting the first batch of finished products today. If they are not used for the birthday banquet, Tianshangju will sell them tomorrow."

Princess Yi De hurriedly said, "Of course it will be used at the birthday banquet. Go find the butler later and ask how many guests there are in total to make sure that all the guests can enjoy it."

If everyone has eaten it, it won’t be a big deal.

The other ladies couldn't help but reveal regretful looks. They had originally wanted to buy some to try, but now they had to wait until the old princess' birthday banquet was over before they could be sold.

Ye Jiayao was secretly delighted and said, "Yes, I will make sure every guest can have a taste of it."

A lady asked curiously: "I wonder how much this mooncake costs?"

Ye Jiayao looked at Princess Yi De, who said lightly, "It's not that expensive. There are only a few hundred guests, so it's only a few thousand taels of silver."

Uh... several ladies gasped. The mooncakes alone cost several thousand taels of silver. And they said it was not expensive? They were not ordinary people, but they were reluctant to spend several thousand taels of silver on a dessert. After all, it was the Helian Palace, and they were very rich!

Everyone knew that after the old princess' birthday banquet, this kind of mooncake would become popular among the Jinling aristocracy, and the price would naturally go up. However, they came at the right time today, and they were the first to taste this kind of mooncake, and they could brag about it to others when they went out.

Ye Jiayao achieved her goal and bowed to leave.

He went to find the housekeeper and asked about the specific number of people. A total of 126 invitations were sent out. Including the families, it was estimated that there would be more than 300 people coming. Because on such occasions, many people would bring their wives or children to show up. Finally, it was decided to give away 400 mooncakes. The original price was five taels of silver, but Ye Jiayao gave a 20% discount and charged four taels each, for a total of 1,600 taels of silver.

Ye Jiayao first paid 500 taels as a deposit and material costs, and the rest would be settled after the banquet.

On the way back, Ye Jiayao calculated carefully. The salary for preparing the banquet was 300 taels of silver, which was the same price as hiring chef Zheng Fugui, which was considered very high. After deducting the commissions for the helpers and the restaurant, she would keep 160 taels for herself, which was just a small amount. The big part was the ice cream and mooncakes. After preparing this banquet, she could earn at least a thousand taels of silver. It was considered to be a sudden wealth overnight. The more Ye Jiayao thought about it, the better it was. If she continued like this, she would be close to her goal of opening a restaurant.

(End of this chapter)