Food: Senior year internship, you take over the university cafeteria

Not long after.

After tidying up the operating room, Wang Sheng locked the glass door of window number 07.

Several sticky notes left by students were also posted outside the door:

"Boss, reserve five cages for me tomorrow! I'm bringing my roommate!" — Li, a junior in the School of Finance

"The God of Xiao Long Bao! I'll be there promptly at 7 AM tomorrow! —A Veterinary Medicine Freshman"

"Looking forward to the sugar taro! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧"

Wang Sheng carefully put away the sticky note, feeling a warm glow inside. This feeling of being recognized and expected of was even more addictive than making money.

My phone started vibrating non-stop as soon as I stepped out of the cafeteria.

First, there's the dormitory group chat, with over 99 messages.

Boss: "@Wang Sheng Holy crap! Old Wang! You've taken over the cafeteria food stall?!"

Second Brother: "??? I was just slacking off during my internship when I saw several people posting pictures of 'divine steamed buns from the cafeteria' on my WeChat Moments. The hand holding the bun in the picture looks so much like yours! [Screenshot]"

Third Brother: "Brother Sheng! You've been hiding your talent! Why didn't you say so sooner? I need some good food to comfort me before my civil service interview!"

The eldest brother said, "No wonder I asked about the venture capital fund the other day! Did it really work out? And were they really selling xiaolongbao? The kind that's twelve yuan a basket?"

Second brother: "Look at this queue! You're going to make a fortune, kid! Don't forget me when you're rich and powerful!"

The third brother: "Tomorrow! I'm going back to school tomorrow! Brother Sheng, save me ten baskets! No, twenty baskets!"

Wang Sheng looked at the messages scrolling across the screen, feeling both amused and a little smug. He typed back: "Keep it down, keep it down. Just getting started. Come tomorrow, as much as you can."

I had just finished replying when my counselor called.

"Wang Sheng, I heard you... set up a food stall in the cafeteria? And made quite a splash?" Counselor Zhang's voice was filled with concern and curiosity. "Principal Gu just mentioned it to me, saying he didn't expect you to actually do it, and asked me to keep an eye on it. How was it? Did the first day go smoothly? Any difficulties?"

"Thank you for your concern, Teacher Zhang! It went very smoothly, but I didn't expect so many people; we didn't have enough ingredients to sell," Wang Sheng answered honestly, feeling a little surprised and nervous about Principal Gu's attention. She was going to come and try it herself tomorrow.

"Young people have ideas and are willing to take risks, that's great! The school supports them! But they also need to pay attention to hygiene and safety, and follow the procedures. If there's anything that needs coordination, just let me know," Old Zhang said a few words of advice before hanging up the phone.

Immediately afterwards, I received two more WeChat messages.

A message came from a quiet female classmate: "Wang Sheng, did you make those steamed buns in your WeChat Moments? They look so delicious! [blushing]"

Wang Sheng replied to each message, put down his phone, and looked at the lush trees and students coming and going on campus, feeling full of energy.

This first step has allowed them to gain a foothold.

The next step is to move forward more steadily and better!

The next day, at 4:30 a.m.

The sky was still dark blue, with a few remaining stars hanging on the horizon, and the streetlights casting a dim yellow glow.

Wang Sheng had already arrived at Xiaguan Market, the largest fresh produce wholesale market in Nanjing, riding a small tricycle he had bought from a second-hand market.

The place was already bustling with activity and brightly lit. Large trucks carrying vegetables and aquatic products came and went, and the shouts of vendors, the sounds of bargaining, the clucking of chickens, ducks and geese, and the splashing of fish in basins mingled together, creating a raw and vibrant atmosphere of everyday life.

The air was filled with a complex mix of smells from soil, vegetables, seafood, and meat.

Wang Sheng took a deep breath of the air belonging to the Dawn Market and opened his [Eye of Ingredients].

The world became somewhat different in his eyes.

Faint rating text and prompts, visible only to him, began to appear on the various ingredients.

He pushed his tricycle straight to the pork section.

"Boss, how much is the pork shoulder?" Wang Sheng stopped in front of a stall. The stall owner was a burly, bald man who was deftly slicing half a pork shoulder.

Pork foreleg (4 parts fat, 6 parts lean)

Freshness: Fair (approximately 12 hours after slaughter)

Meat quality rating: Poor (due to feed-induced growth, loose meat texture, and uneven fat distribution)

Recommendation: Not recommended.

Wang Sheng shook his head and turned to the next shop.

He visited four or five stalls in a row, and most of them were rated as "average" or "poor". Occasionally there were "good" ones, but they still did not meet his requirements for "improving quality".

Until he walked to a relatively inconspicuous corner of the market, to a small stall.

The stall owner was a taciturn old man. There wasn't much pork on his stall, but it was bright red in color, with white fat and distinct marbling.

Wang Sheng's gaze fell on a piece of high-quality foreleg meat.

Taihu Black Pig Foreleg (30% fat, 70% lean)

Freshness: Excellent (killed in the early morning, delivered at low temperature throughout)

[Meat Quality Rating: Premium (Free-range black pig, ample exercise, abundant intramuscular fat, firm and elastic meat, rich aroma)]

[Special Mark: Contains trace amounts of 'natural flavor factors' (formed from long-term consumption of natural feed)]

[Recommendation: An excellent choice for making minced meat, it can greatly enhance the sweetness of the broth and the texture of the minced meat. The price is approximately 2-3 times that of regular pork.]

That's it!

Wang Sheng, barely suppressing his excitement, pointed to the piece of meat:

"Uncle, I'll take this whole piece of pork shoulder! And do you have any pork skin? I need it clean and fresh."

The old man looked up at him, seemingly surprised that the young man was heading straight for the best goods. He nodded and said in a deep voice:

"We have meat and pork skin, all from our own slaughtered pigs, guaranteed good quality. It's not cheap."

"No problem!" Wang Sheng readily agreed. With his eye for ingredients, he wasn't afraid of paying too much; his only fear was not being able to buy good quality ones.

We acquired this batch of top-grade black pork and fine pork skin at a price far higher than yesterday.

Guided by his "eye for ingredients," Wang Sheng navigated the market.

For the flour, he found a long-established grain store that had its own specially made flour for xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), which was between high-gluten and medium-gluten and was rated as "superior".

Yesterday's soy sauce was only rated "good," but today, at a stall specializing in regional specialties, he discovered a small jar of "first-pressed soy sauce," supposedly brewed and brought from the owner's hometown in Zhenjiang and aged for five years. The rating was a shockingly "rare"!

Its color is bright red like amber, and when you get close, you can smell an extremely complex and mellow soy sauce aroma and a faint caramel scent.

The price was painful, but Wang Sheng bought a small jar without hesitation.

The raw sugar was replaced with a more rustic block-shaped brown sugar that retains the original flavor of sugarcane.

There was no better crab roe powder, but Wang Sheng found a stall selling dried goods, including freshly sun-dried, high-quality dried shrimp and scallops.

The powder made from these ingredients might have a more natural and richer umami flavor than artificially flavored crab roe sauce? He bought some, intending to try it out when he got home.

As for the main ingredient in taro soup—taro.

Wang Sheng searched almost the entire vegetable section before finally finding a small pile of taro in an old woman's bamboo basket. The taro was uniform in size, with a purplish-brown skin covered in mud and dense rootlets.

Taihu Red-stemmed Taro (harvested before the first frost)

Freshness: Excellent (freshly dug this morning)

[Quality Rating: Excellent (Grown in sandy soil, fine texture, extremely glutinous, moderately sweet)]

[Recommendation: An excellent ingredient for making sweet taro.]

Wang Sheng bought everything. He also bought top-quality yellow rock sugar, homemade brown sugar, and a small jar of fragrant dried osmanthus flowers.

By the time he finished shopping, his tricycle was piled high with goods. The eastern sky was beginning to lighten with the first light of dawn.

This trip cost far more than yesterday, almost consuming a large portion of the profits from the first day.

But Wang Sheng felt no pity whatsoever.

To do a good job, one must first have the right tools. To satisfy one's appetite, one must first select the right materials.

He has systematic skills and an eye for ingredients. If he were to use top-quality ingredients, how delicious would the food he made be?

He himself was incredibly excited.

I returned to window number 07 in the cafeteria; it was not yet six o'clock.

Wang Sheng moved the fresh ingredients into the kitchen and began the busy preparations.

He carefully scraped off any remaining fat from the pig skin, blanched it, and then simmered it again to make aspic. This time, he tried adding a small handful of dried scallops to enhance the flavor.

The pork was carefully prepared, with tendons and membranes removed, and then hand-cut into small pieces the size of pomegranate seeds. The aroma of the high-quality black pork was indeed much richer.

Flour, water temperature, kneading, proofing... every step is done with the aim of being more precise than yesterday.

The newly purchased five-year-aged first-press soy sauce was slowly poured into the minced meat. Its deep reddish-brown color and tantalizing aroma invigorated Wang Sheng. The raw sugar was replaced with hand-crushed, traditionally made brown sugar, resulting in a more mellow sweetness.

He roasted dried shrimp and scallops over low heat until fragrant, then ground them into a very fine powder, replacing some of the crab roe sauce, and mixed it with the powder and sprinkled it on the surface of the filling.

On the other side, the taro was washed and steamed with the skin on. In his spare time, he started making syrup. Yellow rock sugar and brown sugar were mixed in a specific ratio, a small amount of water was added, and it was simmered over low heat until the syrup became thick and coated on a spoon, with a golden and translucent color.

The steamed taro is peeled off while still hot, revealing its snow-white and powdery flesh. While still hot, it is placed into the prepared sugar syrup, so that each taro is evenly coated with an amber-colored sugar coating and slowly simmered.

Finally, sprinkle with dried osmanthus flowers, letting the residual heat release their fragrance.

6:20 a.m.

The interior and exterior of window number 07 are completely different from yesterday.

Inside the kitchen, hundreds of steamed buns were neatly stacked, each topped with a faint golden sheen (from a mixture of dried shrimp powder and dried scallop powder).

The ones I just made were also freshly made and steamed.

There's also a bunch of dough that's been proofed, ready to be made on the spot anytime.

In the insulated pot next to it, the bright red and crystal-clear taro trembled slightly in the syrup, the sweet fragrance of osmanthus intertwined with the warm and glutinous aroma of the taro.

Outside the window...

Wang Sheng opened the glass window and was startled.

A sea of ​​heads!

At least forty or fifty people were already waiting at the door!

The line stretched from the window all the way to the pillars in the cafeteria hall!

The group included returning customers who had tried it yesterday, new students who were recommended to come, curious senior students who were observing, and even a few people who looked like teachers...