1996: Starting from a bankrupt farmhouse restaurant

Whether it's large trucks traveling from North China to Qinghai and Tibet, or private cars taking self-driving tours along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, they almost all have to take National Highway 109.

In 1996, truck drivers were highly sought after; they had plenty of work, high incomes, and were very generous when it came to meals.

Those who can afford to drive themselves are definitely wealthy and have plenty of free time; they're nothing like the losers who, 20 years from now, would dare to hitchhike with a tattered bag next door.

To do business with these people, there's absolutely no need to put conventional dishes on the menu.

Why stop at a farmhouse restaurant on the side of a national highway in northern China to eat these dishes, since people can eat them anywhere?

Therefore, Lu Yuan's restaurant must incorporate the characteristics of the local products of the northern frontier, focusing on beef and mutton, and highlighting the bold and uninhibited characteristics of the people of Northwest China.

So, the restaurant's menu became:

Stir-fried lamb 25 yuan

Hand-pulled mutton 20 yuan

Braised mutton 18 yuan

Stir-fried pork 18 yuan

Lamb neck 18 yuan

Considering that he was the only one working at the moment, Lu Yuan changed the original menu of more than 20 dishes to 5 dishes.

However, each of these five dishes is very representative and covers all parts of the lamb, so there will be no waste.

Stir-fried lamb and braised meat are spicy dishes with a distinctive northern flavor. The dishes are reddish in color, fragrant and spicy but not pungent, and go very well with rice.

Hand-pulled mutton and braised mutton are both prepared by stewing, which perfectly showcases the freshness and lack of gamey taste of mutton from northern China.

The reason Lu Yuan was able to run such a successful fusion restaurant in his previous life was partly because he incorporated ingredients and techniques from the northern frontier.

This niche cuisine has distinctive characteristics; it is not complicated at all and has a strong impact, making diners linger.

But these five dishes have another characteristic: they are expensive, and each one is a high-end dish.

If you're preparing food every day, you need at least 50 jin (2 catties) of mutton as a base, which is equivalent to two lambs.

1996年，高品质羊羔肉的价格是10元一斤，即使大量採购的折扣价也要8元1斤，50斤就需要400块。

But after searching the entire shop and the back room, plus the money he had on him, he only had 78 yuan left.

"This won't even buy a few pounds of meat..." Lu Yuan sat on the square table, somewhat helpless.

He went to check the kitchen again and found that besides some vegetables and eggs, there was only a leg of lamb left.

Hand-pulled mutton and braised meat, which are clear stews, have one characteristic: they are seasoned very little.

A skilled chef can make delicious and flavorful mutton with just a handful of salt.

However, this cooking technique has a prerequisite: it only becomes fragrant when the quantity is large. Only a large amount of oil and lamb bones can bring out the aroma.

Spicy dishes don't need to be stewed in large quantities beforehand; they can simply be stir-fried on the spot according to the customer's order.

Thinking of this, Lu Yuan's stomach growled a few times.

It's already noon, and he hasn't eaten anything all day.

"Why not warm your hands with that leg of lamb and get familiar with this earthen stove?"

Lu Yuan took the lamb leg out of the freezer and set it aside to thaw. Then he went to the yard, found two pieces of firewood, and started lighting the earthen stove.

This type of earthen stove has a strong but not intense fire, which is something that urban stoves with powerful flames lack.

When a large iron wok is placed in the stove, the heat will be very even, and the stir-fried dishes will look 3 points better.

More than 20 years later, earthen stoves have become a rarity, and some people even use them specifically to cook firewood chicken, making it a selling point.

However, the problem facing Lu Yuan was how to get the earthen stove lit.

He hadn't used this kind of earthen stove in 30 years, and since he didn't smoke, it took him ages to find a match.

They finally managed to light the firewood with paper, but they couldn't coordinate the rhythm when using the blower to light the coal.

It took me ages to get the stove lit, and then I realized my face was covered in soot.

"How pathetic!" Lu Yuan found himself a little funny. He quickly washed his hands and face and began preparing the dishes.

Stir-fried lamb is not a traditional dish from northern China, but rather a dish that has been gradually modified based on the traditional method of stir-frying lamb to suit the tastes of travelers from all over the country along the national highway.

Even though some restaurants are now making this dish, the quality is not consistent enough and cannot match the final result in later generations.

Lu Yuan's presentation of this dish now feels like a game-changer.

This dish requires two finger-knuckle-sized pieces of lamb.

At the same time, it is required that the meat be mainly lean, with some meat close to the bone, and only a small amount of fat is allowed to be retained.

This method results in significant waste of the lamb, and the technique of dissecting the lamb requires a high level of skill from the chef, which is why the price of stir-fried lamb remains consistently high.

This is one of the reasons why Lu Yuan chose this dish as his signature dish, as it can increase the average order value.

Lu Yuan had done this countless times in his previous life; with a few swift strokes of his knife, the mutton was transformed into evenly sized pieces.

For the side ingredients, Lu Yuan prepared scallion segments, ginger slices, dried chili segments, pickled chili peppers, vermicelli, green pepper segments, and garlic sprout segments.

After preparing the ingredients and heating the pot, Lu Yuan poured in the sesame oil and turned on the exhaust fan, immediately releasing the rich aroma of the sesame oil.

After the oil is hot, first stir-fry the lamb chunks.

In northern China, meat is never marinated in advance, and it almost never relies on cooking wine to remove the fishy smell; it is always stir-fried raw.

Such explosive cooking techniques are entirely due to the high quality of the ingredients.

After the oil in the pan changes from clear to cloudy and then back to clear, quickly add scallion segments, ginger slices, and dried chili segments to stir-fry.

Once the aromatics have slightly changed color, add chili powder, seasoning powder (similar to homemade thirteen-spice powder), and pickled chili peppers, and stir-fry quickly until well combined.

Add a little soy sauce to enhance the complex flavor.

After stir-frying evenly, Lu Yuan added water to the same level as the mutton, and seasoned it with salt.

After the mutton has been stewed until tender, add glass noodles, green bell pepper pieces, and garlic sprout pieces. Once the broth has thickened, it's ready to serve.

With a perfect backflip, Lu Yuan finished plating the stir-fried lamb.

This dish may seem simple, but it actually requires extremely precise control of the heat.

The mutton is bright in color, the vermicelli is soaked with broth and each strand is plump, and there is a thin ring of red chili oil at the bottom of the plate. The hot steam carries the strong aroma of meat straight to the nose, fresh but not bland, full of the flavor of smoky home cooking!

Wang Facai, the owner of the restaurant next door, was smoking against the wall when he suddenly smelled an enticing aroma and became instantly wary.

During the few days that Lu Yuan's restaurant was closed, his business was booming.

He thought Lu Yuan was going to close down the business, but he never expected that Lu Yuan would secretly develop a secret weapon behind closed doors.

So he crept up to the window of Lu Yuan's restaurant and secretly peeked inside.

Suddenly, Wang Facai felt a sharp slap on his buttocks and cried out in surprise, clutching his bottom.

"That son of a bitch Wang Facai, how dare he climb through my window?"

Lu Yuan's mother, Wei Yinghong, was carrying a shovel and standing behind Wang Facai, staring fiercely at her.

When Wang Facai realized that Wei Yinghong had hit him, he didn't dare to say anything and could only cover his buttocks and slip away along the wall.

She muttered under her breath, "What a shrew!"

Seeing that he was still muttering to himself, Wei Yinghong picked up her shovel again and chased after him, scaring Wang Facai so much that he ran back to the shop and even closed the door.

Wei Yinghong's fiery temper is well-known in Luwangtan Village. These past few days, rumors have been circulating everywhere that her restaurant is going to go out of business, which is driving her crazy. Everyone who runs into her has to give her a wide berth to avoid getting into trouble.

Seeing his wife getting angry again, Lu Changming immediately pulled her aside: "Alright, let's go to the shop and see. I guess Xiao Yuan is up to something again."

Mentioning Lu Yuan reignited Wei Yinghong's anger, and she immediately turned the shovel around and charged into her own shop.

"Hmph! I'd like to see what tricks this kid has up his sleeve this time!"

(Stir-fried lamb)