Food: The super chef just wants to set up a stall leisurely

If you don’t calculate, you wouldn’t know. Some people set up their stalls and sell out quickly in an hour, and spend 8 hours preparing the ingredients. After working hard all day, they actually lose 150 yuan!

I still worked for two full days and lost a total of 150 yuan!

What happened to the monthly income of over 23 yuan? Zhao Xiaojing felt aggrieved like a -year-old child.

After doing the math and looking at the accounts carefully, I found that although the turnover seemed considerable, the oil, various food boxes, lunch bags, skewers, take-away boxes, seasoning trays, tongs, strainers, etc. were all newly purchased and were all costs.

Even if we put aside these hardware equipment, the cost of purchasing fresh vegetables and meat every day is not low. The fried skewers recipe given by the system recommends the use of fresh ingredients, so Zhao Xiaojing buys new ingredients every day and does not use those semi-finished products that can be seen as mass-produced in the factory. This is also one of the reasons why her fried skewers are delicious.

Out of conscience, she couldn't bear to sell meat with mixed oil and problematic appearance to students who were still growing and developing. After all, she was a student once.

But she is not setting up a stall for sentimental reasons. She is a person living in real life. If she can't make money, what is the point of setting up a stall for her?

There are two ways to make money. Either you increase revenue, which means increasing sales. To increase sales, you can either increase the price of fried skewers or sell more skewers. Or you can cut costs, which means reducing the cost of fried skewers, mainly by reducing the cost of daily consumables.

Zhao Xiaojing fell into deep thought.

It is not possible to sell more skewers. One person cannot handle it. More than 600 skewers are already close to the limit. No matter how hard I try, I can't wear more, and it won't solve any problems.

Raising the price is something we can consider, but we have already sold it for two days and it is not easy to raise the price of the existing varieties, so we have to switch to new varieties.

This is easy to say. Things like large chicken legs, large duck legs, and whole chicken wings are all new categories that can be added and the prices increased.

If you want to save costs, you can also reduce the unit price of ingredients, but if the variety is too diverse, it won’t be reduced much...

How about trying to streamline the variety tomorrow? Simplify the skewers that are relatively less popular and only sell the ones that are popular. With fewer varieties, you can buy more of the same ingredient, which makes it easier to bargain, and it also saves time to prepare the ingredients.

After initially finalizing the ideas, Zhao Xiaojing felt relaxed.

On the river bank, more and more people were taking a walk after dinner. Zhao Xiaojing stretched and stood up, following the crowd in a stop-and-go exercise.

After killing time until 9:30, Zhao Xiaojing sneaked back to the downstairs of the rental house. She stood there and listened for a while, and when she found nothing unusual, she dared to walk upstairs slowly.

"Hey Xiao Zhao, why did you just come back?"

As soon as I went up to the second floor, I heard the familiar voice of the landlord behind me.

"Your aunt or your uncle just came and knocked on the door for a long time! She said she couldn't find you and her phone was turned off."

The landlord lives on the second floor. The whole building belongs to her. She is always the first to know if there is any movement. Zhao Xiaojing smiled embarrassedly.

"Aunt Li, I went out for a walk and my phone ran out of battery. Are you still awake?"

"Yes, my grandson just made a scene. Remember to call your aunt or uncle back. She looks very angry."

"Okay, Auntie, I'm going up."

Dong Mei really came. Zhao Xiaojing's mood became low again. Guilt and the feeling of having escaped a disaster mixed together, making her not want to face it.

She should earn money and pay it back as soon as possible. Although she knew that Dong Mei was not forcing her to pay it back, she always owed people a lot of money, which made it difficult for her to even say no.

I couldn't sleep until two o'clock again.

But at six o'clock the next day, Zhao Xiaojing still got up quickly on time with the sunshine.

She checked last night and found out that there is a poultry wholesale market in the factory area four kilometers away from here, which can be reached in about twenty minutes by tricycle.

The three-wheeled vehicle provided by the system is very good. It charges quickly, can store things, and is easy to ride. It has now become Zhao Xiaojing’s main means of transportation.

Last night, when she checked, she found that the slaughter of live poultry was no longer allowed in larger cities. Only in small towns like theirs could there be wholesale markets that mainly sold live poultry. Chickens, ducks, and geese for the catering industry in many surrounding large cities were also centrally supplied here.

She only now remembered to take advantage of such convenient and affordable conditions.

When I arrived, I found that there were quite a lot of people in the wholesale market. Many people were buying live poultry and processed poultry meat, and they seemed to be buying in large quantities.

The prices of different parts of meat are different, and the prices of different sizes also vary.

Zhao Xiaojing asked several chicken and duck stalls, and the wholesale prices were all similar. Finally, she chose the one whose boss was the most patient.

This place is indeed much cheaper than the usual vegetable market, and you can get even better discounts if you buy in bulk, but the small refrigerator in Zhao Xiaojing's rental apartment can't accommodate it.

Zhao Xiaojing hesitated for a while, wondering whether to buy a little to test the waters first or to buy a large amount and replace most of the fried skewers.

Finally, I gritted my teeth and decided to buy a new set of fried skewers today. I bought two boxes of large duck legs, two boxes of large chicken legs, and two boxes of medium-sized chicken racks.

There are enough ingredients for today. There are still some potatoes and lotus roots at home, and rice cakes and pork tenderloins in the refrigerator. These can be stored for a long time, so she buys more at one time.

On the way, I bought the seasoning needed for frying duck legs. The previous seasoning only had chicken legs, so I had to change to a different flavor for duck legs.

After arriving home, she carried the materials upstairs several times. She was so hot that her whole body was soaked with sweat. It would be great if the system three-wheeler could drive up the stairs.

Without taking a rest as soon as he entered the door, he turned on the fan, put on an apron and started to prepare the ingredients. He put the chicken legs, duck legs and chicken racks in a large steel basin to soak them in bloody water.

While soaking in the blood water, peel the potatoes and lotus roots, cut them into thin slices, and string them on skewers. Then soak them in a large barrel to prevent oxidation.

Then pour out the blood in the steel basin and give it a simple clean.

The surface of chicken and duck legs should be cut, both front and back. Chicken legs should be cut more than duck legs. The cuts should be as deep as possible, but not through the legs.

The next step is marinating, which is very important. The method and time of marinating determine whether the chicken and duck meat is flavorful after frying and whether the saltiness is appropriate.

The recipe provided by the system contains very detailed marinating methods, including how long to marinate, the ratio of seasonings, and what seasoning to use and when.

There were even a few spices that were not available on the market. Zhao Xiaojing had to go to a Chinese medicine pharmacy to buy them and then asked the pharmacy to grind them into powder using a machine.

The marinades for chicken legs, chicken racks and duck legs are slightly different, so apply the different marinades evenly on the surface.

The marinating time is at least one hour. Zhao Xiaojing then takes out the pork tenderloin from the refrigerator, processes it and puts it on the skewers.

It took an hour and a half to thread about three hundred skewers of tenderloin.

At this time, take out the marinated chicken legs, duck legs and chicken racks and put them on skewers one by one. Chicken legs and duck legs are relatively large, so you need to put two skewers on each one. Put one skewer on each chicken rack.

After the strips are put on, it is time to start coating with flour. If you want to fry chicken, duck and other meat products well, coating with flour is the second most important thing. The quality of the coating determines the taste after it is out of the pan. The perfect coating will form a protective layer on the surface of the meat, so that after the meat products are exposed to high temperatures, the surface will be crispy while locking in the juice inside, making them tender and crispy on the outside.

After everything was ready, Zhao Xiaojing herself was drooling over the new fried skewers and couldn't wait to fry a duck leg to try it.

The duck legs are rich in fat, and the skin is fried until it is greasy right out of the pan. Combined with the additional layer of honey sauce she applied, the richness of the meat and fat is infinitely magnified, and it is so delicious that you'll lick your fingers after taking a bite.

After eating it, Zhao Xiaojing became more confident and was very satisfied with the new variety.

I checked the system page and saw the task progress: 1131/3500. That means a total of 631 strings were sold yesterday.

Although I have been dealing with chickens and ducks today, the overall preparation time is two hours less than yesterday, including the time for selection at the wholesale market.

It’s still early, just one o’clock. I just finished eating duck legs and don’t feel like eating.

Put all these ingredients into the refrigerator. If there is not enough space, put them in insulated lunch bags and ice bags to keep them fresh. The vegetables can still be soaked in the bucket.

Then I lay down on the bed to rest after a long time. Moderate relaxation is beneficial to longer-term efforts.

As soon as she had some free time, Zhao Xiaojing thought of Dong Mei again. She hesitated for a while and turned off the flight mode which had been on since yesterday.

Many text messages popped up at once, including a notification about the arrival of cash as a system reward for completing a task yesterday, a dozen questioning messages from Dong Mei, and two from Su Yuchen.

Zhao Xiaojing knew exactly what Dong Mei would say, and was not surprised when she clicked on it.

There is moral kidnapping: "I didn't sleep all night because of you. How can I face your mother after you let me go? Who can you be worthy of?"

Some people advised kindly: "I just asked you to come and have a meal and meet some people, not to do anything else. If you can get along with me, then go ahead. If not, forget it. I won't force you."

Some people were furious: "If you don't get married, you are unfaithful, unfilial, and unrighteous! Why should the country support a child like you?!"

There are a lot of them.

After thinking about it, although they couldn't understand each other, Dong Mei really took taking care of her as her responsibility. She could never help but be grateful to Dong Mei for running around and lending them money during the most difficult times.

Zhao Xiaojing replied seriously with a long text message.

The other two were messages from Su Yuchen. She began to feel happy when she saw his name. Su Yuchen was her only friend from junior high school till now.

"Why don't you reply to me? What are you doing?"

"Hand over the address of the dessert shop quickly, don't force me to kill you and beg you!"

What sweet soup shop? Zhao Xiaojing was confused.

It wasn't until I opened WeChat that I realized what was going on.

It turned out to be a chain reaction from yesterday’s circle of friends. Zhao Xiaojing had very few friends, only a few dozen in total, most of whom were classmates she had added in school, but under that circle of friends, almost half of the people commented, asking what the sugar water in the picture was and where they could buy it.

There were also a few impatient classmates who she had never contacted before who sent her private messages, asking for the address of the store where the bowl of sweet soup was sold in the circle of friends.

Zhao Xiaojing couldn't help laughing and replied in the comment section: "This is Qingbuliang, I made it. Proud expression/"

Then she replied to the foodie Su Yuchen who had sent her several private messages: Do you want to eat? My exclusive cooking skills will not be passed on to others unless you call me sister.