Chapter 607 - Fried Dumplings

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Shen Min usually came to help at around half an hour before the dinnertime ended. In other words, the arrival of Shen Min indicated that dinnertime would come to an end in half an hour. There wouldn’t be much time left after she came.

“Boss, welcome back. I’m leaving.” Zhou Jia faced Yuan Zhou and said goodbye earnestly.

“Um. Take care.” Yuan Zhou nodded the head.

“Goodbye, Jia Jia.” Yuan Zhou also said goodbye to Zhou Jia.

“Bye.” Zhou Jia waved her hand and then left with quick steps. Her evening class would start soon.

The rain had ceased without anyone knowing.

“Boss Yuan, I’m going to go to tidy up the second floor.” Shen Min looked at Yuan Zhou in a questioning manner.

“Um. Go ahead.” The towels that Yuan Zhou took out during the winter were always warm.

“Thank you, Boss Yuan.” Shen Min received the towel, nodded her head and then ran to the second floor of the pub in big strides, preparing to wipe the tables and chairs.

“Zhi”. Yuan Zhou thought for a while before opening the board separating the kitchen with the outside and walked out onto the street.

In the winter of Chengdu, nights always arrived earlier. It was already fully dark at around 8:00 p.m. At this time of day, the stores on the street were still open. However, there would be more restaurants open for business if Yuan Zhou provided BBQ today.

Because that meant more business. After all, only a few people would go to the pub for liquor. For the BBQ, however, things were different. Many people would come to eat it and therefore, other stores could also share some of the customers.

“It’s really very dark.” Yuan Zhou raised the head and looked around. Then, he said to himself.

Only after verifying with his own eyes did he know that. It was even darker than the nights in Yuan Zhou’s memory. There were only two streetlamps at the nearest crossroads and even those lamps belonged to the main street.

He measured the width of the street using his sight and found it was too narrow to set up street lamps on this side street.

Then, Yuan Zhou said again, “It seems now is the time for this prince charming to act.”

“Boss Yuan, you are waiting at the door personally today. Is there a new dish?” Chen Wei’s voice interrupted Yuan Zhou’s thought.

“No. It’s almost time.” On hearing that, Yuan Zhou became solemn again and said seriously.

He behaved as if he were standing there to see if the customers arrived yet. The reason was quite solid.

“I see. I thought you would serve a new dish that goes with the wine.” Chen Wei touched his head and revealed a regretful manner.

“Come in, please.” Yuan Zhou made way for them and let them in.

After that, Shen Min, that had come downstairs, started to greet the customers and led them to the second floor of the pub to drink their liquor.

Yuan Zhou sat in the kitchen alone and then took out his phone.

“Well, this is really good. He can send the goods to me on the same day if I can pay before 10:00 a.m.” When Yuan Zhou found a store that could make the fastest delivery, he tapped it open.

In order to conform to the surroundings of the restaurant, Yuan Zhou chose the simplest style. As usual, there were the lotus-flower patterns on the surface.

“This could reflect my good taste.” Yuan Zhou looked at the lanterns and felt quite satisfied.

Having done this, Yuan Zhou prepared to have a little rest leisurely before he started his daily training.

The next morning, Yuan Zhou came out again to have a look after breakfast time ended and he saw off the customers and Zhou Jia.

“If it hasn’t arrived by now, it will probably arrive in the afternoon.” Standing at the door, Yuan Zhou didn’t see any delivery person and couldn’t help muttering.

Normally, there were a lot of breakfast stalls at the door of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant. After so long time, these stalls had even fixed their positions.

“Boss Yuan. Hi, Boss Yuan.” Just as he was prepared to go back, Yuan Zhou was stopped.

The one that stopped him was a seemingly very young man dressed in a black jacket . He appeared to be only about 26 or 27 years old and was carrying a plate that was still giving off the steam in his hand

“What’s the matter?” Yuan Zhou turned around and asked lightly.

“I’m sorry, but I want to request you to taste my fried dumplings. Please.” While saying that, the person straightforwardly handed the plate to him.

In the plate were four white plump fried dumplings that were still giving off steam. The bottom of these dumplings had been fried into a brown color. Apart from that, there was also a pair of clean chopsticks.

“Why?” Yuan Zhou asked directly.

“It’s like this. You know, I have stayed here for half a year. My business couldn’t be better last time, but recently it became worse and worse. Even when you went to Japan and closed your restaurant, there were still many people that came to visit you. Your craftsmanship is that good, so can you taste it and give some advice? Please.” The young man lowered his head and said sincerely while saying that.

“Alright.” Yuan Zhou didn’t refuse him.

The reason why Yuan Zhou agreed with him was nevertheless very simple. One was that this person was very polite. Yuan Zhou was just reluctant to socialize with others. It didn’t mean he knew nothing about it. Under such circumstances, he found it inappropriate to refuse him.

Secondly, this person was always been well-behaved even though he looked young. After Yuan Zhou erected the wooden sign asking everyone to take away the trash left by themselves, he always cleaned up the surrounding areas of his stall before he left every time. Sometimes, he also helped the granny that sold steamed Mantou to clean the ground.

Yuan Zhou had already noticed that out of the corner of his eyes.

“Thank you, thank you so much. Sorry to bother you, Boss Yuan.” The young man was surprised and have his thanks immediately.

“Um.” Yuan Zhou took the chopsticks and straightforwardly picked up a fried dumpling.

A fried dumpling was no more than a finger’s length, thus he ate it up very quickly.

“How do you like it? The young man looked at Yuan Zhou with a quite nervous expression and waited for his comments.

“Please use this side and eat your fried dumplings.” Suddenly, Yuan Zhou handed the other end of the chopsticks to the young man.

“Ah?” The young man didn’t react right away and revealed a puzzled look.

“Eat them.” Yuan Zhou reminded.

“Okay.” Only then did the young man receive the chopsticks and then pick up the dumplings to eat.

The young man had carried a total of four fried dumplings over here. After Yuan Zhou ate one up, there were only three left. The young man ate two in one go, then he couldn’t help but ask.

“Boss Yuan, do you mean I should eat these dumplings and then think about the previous ones to make a comparison?” The young man raised his head and asked.

“Eat it up.” Yuan Zhou looked at the only fried dumpling left in the plate and said.

“Okay, all right.” The young man took up the chopsticks again and ate up that remaining dumpling in one go.

“I get it. Boss Yuan, you want me to try the taste by myself.” The young man seemed to become enlightened suddenly and understand Yuan Zhou’s purpose by doing so.

Therefore, he just kept saying, “I tasted it and I think there’s no difference. If there is any difference, I use more meat now than before and besides, the meat is also superior. Theoretically, the business should be better.” The young man swallowed the dumpling and couldn’t wait to speak his thoughts.

“No. The reason I let you eat is that I have eaten breakfast and can’t eat up four of them.” Yuan Zhou shook his head, indicating that he didn’t mean that.

“Er…” The young man choked and then he said, “I don’t think so. Previously, they also ate some of my dumplings once they smelled the fragrance even if they had eaten breakfast.” The young man almost contradicted him subconsciously at once.

“So, why aren’t they coming again now?” Yuan Zhou nodded his head and asked back bluntly.

“Why? Yeah, why aren’t they coming again?” The young man looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Yuan Zhou was looking at the young man’s stall. And the young man also followed his sight and looked at his own stall.

The stall wasn’t very big and only included a stove, a large frying pan and a dough-kneading machine at the side as well as a meat grinder and the stuffing that hadn’t been used up beside it.

At the very beginning, his stall only included a large frying pan and a stove. The dough-kneading machine and the meat grinder were purchased later when his business became better.

The two people fell silent for a while. It seemed that the young man suddenly realized the problem and thus bowed to Yuan Zhou to thank him.

“Thank you, Boss Yuan. I got it.” The young man turned around and left after saying that.

He had understood that it wasn’t the problem of his craftsmanship, but his wholeheartedness.

He didn’t have much money when he set up the stall at the beginning, so he only used the ordinary meat. However, he always went to the meat stall and selected the pork butt carefully before the daybreak. If there wasn’t the pork butt, he would go to other markets and not give up until he got it.

The pork butt was most suitable to make the stuffing of the fried dumplings. That also applied to the wheat flour. The flour was also very ordinary previously, but he kneaded the dough and prepared the stuffings with full spirit every day.

But now?

Speaking of which, the young man could really be considered a kind person. As Yuan Zhou’s restaurant became more popular and received more customers, his business also became better. So after that, he also upgraded the ingredients used by him.

For example, the pork. Previously, he only bought the ordinary pork butt at around 16 RMB while now, he bought organic pork at around 20 RMB. Apart from that, the flour used by him was also more superior than before. Though the profit fell, he was considering to make small profits but quick turnover.

Just because he made money, he gave the work of kneading dough and preparing the stuffing to the machine and thus made the work into an assembly line. When he went to buy the pork, he didn’t only insist on the pork butt anymore. If there wasn’t any, he just bought other parts of the pork randomly. After all, he was using expensive meat right now.

Although those ingredients were better, those kind of common breakfasts were not short supply. His fried dumplings had lost its advantage and competitiveness.

“You are welcome.” Yuan Zhou turned around and went back into his restaurant.

Cooking was quite fair. Depending on the attitude, that would be the taste of the food.

Delicious food wouldn’t tolerate negligence.

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