NFBE Chapter 230: Are you considering opening a hot pot restaurant?
Chapter 230: Are you considering opening a hot pot restaurant?
Su Yuchen was stunned for a moment, shook his head and chuckled, his mood suddenly became complicated.
She had said this to Zhao Xiaojing before.
At that time, Zhao Xiaojing's mother had been ill for some time. Zhao Xiaojing dropped out of school and had been taking care of her in Yangcheng, while she went to college in another province. The two could only see each other when she went home during the holidays.
Su Yuchen would almost always treat Zhao Xiaojing to a meal whenever they met, and every time she would drag Zhao Xiaojing to eat hotpot and order a bunch of their favorite foods.
Because hotpot is the only thing that two people can eat, you can try a variety of different types of food, and different dipping sauces can give you different flavors of food.
Although she was still a student at that time, her family was well off and her living expenses were relatively ample. In addition, she felt sorry for Zhao Xiaojing, so she always ordered the most ingredients within the range that the two of them could eat, and they always enjoyed the meal to their heart's content.
But when Zhao Xiaojing felt embarrassed to treat her back, she was afraid that Zhao Xiaojing had no money, so she dragged Zhao Xiaojing to eat spicy hot pot at the school gate.
At that time, she often said this: It's just hot pot, spicy hot pot with butter.
Unexpectedly, so many years have passed, and the life trajectories of the two people began to overlap again when they were drifting apart. Thanks to Zhao Xiaojing, she lived a life she had never thought of before. In just a few months, her life goals began to become clear, and she began to do what she really wanted to do.
When she looked back again, she realized that she had walked such a long way, and Zhao Xiaojing still remembered this little thing on the road.
"Yes! Spicy hot pot with butter!" Su Yuchen's eyes were slightly sore, and he raised his head and drank from the wine glass in big gulps.
Zhao Xiaojing also drank the wine in the glass at this time, glanced at Su Yuchen, and raised her lips slightly.
Su Yuchen didn't know how rare this moment was.
No matter how luxurious the hotpot is, if close friends no longer share the same thoughts and goals, what is the point of sitting together for a meal?
After getting married in her previous life, Zhao Xiaojing became more financially well-off, and she had sat together with Su Yuchen to eat hotpot again.
It's just that at that time, their paces, views, and attitudes towards life had become very different. No matter how many dishes Zhao Xiaojing ordered, there was an unignorable gap and unfamiliarity between the two of them. They even had fewer and fewer common topics, and no matter how much hotpot they ate, it was still tasteless.
It’s nothing like now, where two people not only have a common career, but can also pursue what they like at the same time, and have a group of like-minded partners around them.
"The beef is ready, come on, take it all!" The beef on the colander had already rolled several times in the boiling red oil. Zhao Xiaojing exhaled to interrupt her thoughts, picked up the colander and flipped it with the serving chopsticks. The color had evenly changed.
The eight people each used a chopstick, and the colander was immediately empty. Zhao Xiaojing put new food into the colander and continued cooking. Lu Hongwen also put the beef rolls and luncheon meat in front of him into the pot.
"Delicious! It smells delicious even without dipping sauce! Sister Jingzi, what did you add to the base sauce? Did you adjust it yourself?" Lu Hongwen took a bite and nodded repeatedly.
"I added some spices and oil and fried it. When I bought beef in the afternoon, I got two beef bones as a gift. I made a broth with it." Zhao Xiaojing ate a piece of the soup without dipping it in the sauce and was very satisfied with the taste of the base sauce.
There was no shuangxiang hotpot in the store, so she took the largest pot that could be used on a battery stove. Although it looked red, in fact, in order to cater to the different levels of spicy tolerance of everyone, she only made it slightly spicy. In the taste of the base, fragrance is the main thing, and spiciness is secondary.
"This dipping sauce is really spicy and delicious!" Su Yuchen scooped the spicy dipping sauce, dipped it in, and his originally complicated mood instantly became excited.
"Xiao Zhao's cooking skills have improved again. The sesame paste dipping sauce is very fragrant and not greasy at all." Geng Mingyan said in surprise.
She and Hou Guihua couldn't eat spicy food, so they both scooped up non-spicy dipping sauce, which didn't affect the taste at all. Some sesame pastes are too fragrant to eat too much, especially for hot pot, but Zhao Xiaojing didn't know how to make it so rich in flavor and well matched with hot pot.
When the red oil rolled, the beef rolls and the beef in the colander changed color at the same time.
"Okay, okay." Zhao Xiaojing lifted the colander, and everyone actively stretched out their chopsticks. The fat beef and beef were immediately cleared out, and they did not forget to put the most meat in Zhao Xiaojing's bowl.
"By the way, Xiao Wu, put the marinated beef in the dish into the pot. It needs to be cooked for a while." Zhao Xiaojing said, pointing at the dish. Wu Kaile took action immediately and put half of the spicy beef into the pot. The pot, which was originally boiling, immediately calmed down.
Because the spicy beef needs to be marinated, Zhao Xiaojing cuts it into relatively thick slices, while the other parts that are eaten directly are small thin slices.
"This beef roll is okay, but why do I feel like it's not as delicious as the beef I cut myself?" Su Yuchen wondered as he ate.
"Because this beef roll is not synthetic and contains fewer additives, it is frozen right after being cut, and we don't know how long it has been frozen. Therefore, the taste is bland and the texture of the meat is a little worse. Of course, it is not as good as the fresh beef we bought today." Zhao Xiaojing explained at the right time.
"I don't think that's the reason." Yun Yongyuan shook his head. "The main reason is that this wasn't cut by you, Junior Sister. If you had cut it, Comb Sister would have thought it was delicious too!"
"Don't say! Now that I've heard about what Sister Jing made, I've already started drooling and feeling so happy, even though I haven't even eaten it and don't even know what it is!" Ouyang Yidan laughed.
"You guys are using the chef filter!" Lv Hongwen said disdainfully, "Unlike me, as long as Sister Mirror is watching me cook this dish, I will also think it will be delicious!"
"The spicy beef is ready, and the shrimp and duck blood are cooked too." A group of people laughed. Zhao Xiaojing picked up the beef at the bottom of the pot and poked it, greeting everyone.
"With Xiao Zhao's cooking skills, he can make a lot of money by opening a hotpot restaurant!" Hou Guihua praised the spicy beef while drinking a sip of wine.
The marinated beef is tender and tasty, with just the right amount of spiciness and the aroma of peppercorns. One bite makes you feel slightly sweaty, and it makes you feel refreshed from the throat to the stomach.
"Yes, Sister Jingzi, have you considered opening a hot pot restaurant? Come to think of it, it's not a bad idea. It saves time. Once the hot pot base is made, you just need to hire employees and you're done." Lu Hongwen asked.
"Not considering it at the moment. Hotpot restaurants rely mainly on ingredients. The main job every day might be to cook the base. It's more of a test of management, but it doesn't hone my cooking skills." Zhao Xiaojing scooped out the shrimp paste and luncheon meat that had been floating in the pot for a while and shared them with everyone, while inspiration suddenly came to her mind as Lu Hongwen spoke.
After Lu Hongwen graduates and joins them, you can actually consider partnering with him to open a hot pot restaurant that strictly controls the quality of dishes but requires few cooking skills. Even the method of cooking the base ingredients can be precisely controlled, and you can ask others to prepare it step by step according to her method.