The courtyard was renovated, and all kinds of equipment were in place, so the cooked food production was immediately underway.
Lin Chuxia personally led Su Wensong, Pang Yongli, and the couple Ma Yingzi in this work.
Initially, their cooked dishes mainly featured pork, including pig’s head meat, liver, lungs, heart, large intestines, and stuffed intestines, as well as braised pig’s trotters.
These only required purchasing offal from the pork shop for processing, which had low cost, substantial profit, and were easy to get started with.
The most critical task here was the cleaning.
Lin Chuxia had already explained the process to several people in advance. Su Wensong had seen how Lin Chuxia prepared cooked dishes, so he had a good idea of what to do, while Pang Yongli and Ma Yingzi were a bit apprehensive.
Looking at the piles of offal, they were unsure where to start.
In their rural area, almost no one was willing to handle these things. Could Boss Lin really make a business out of this?
Then they saw their boss, whose skin was even fairer and prettier than city folk, personally get to work cleaning the large and small intestines, flushing out the pig’s lungs with water, all without any hesitation.
And those dirty looking offal, after being cleaned by the boss with a special method, looked pink and white, clearly giving a sense of achievement.
“I’ll wash this one, boss. Let me know if the way I handle it is alright,” Ma Yingzi said as she took some offal and started cleaning it as taught by Lin Chuxia.
In the few days since Ma Yingzi arrived, Lin Chuxia had inquired about her with Sun Lanlan. She was quick and efficient at work and also very observant. Now, looking at her work, she indeed had a knack for it.
It can be said that the rural folks, as long as they are down-to-earth in their daily lives, are beyond reproach in their work.
Ma Yingzi was meticulous in her cleaning, and Lin Chuxia could hardly find fault. She simply assigned tasks to everyone: Su Wensong took care of the pig’s head and trotters, while the couple Pang Yongli and Ma Yingzi handled the rest, and she herself prepared the ingredients for stuffing intestines and seasonings for stewing meat.
For stuffing intestines, the main ingredients were minced meat, starch, green onions, ginger, and other seasonings.
The Bun Shop was already using a large amount of minced meat; with the additional sausage-stuffing task, the consumption of minced meat further increased. Lin Chuxia increasingly missed the meat grinders from later times.
Once the meat was all cleaned, what remained was stewing.
In the large pot, bubbles gurgled, containing various seasonings and Lin Chuxia’s secret spice pack. Soon, the whole courtyard was filled with the aroma of meat.
Ma Yingzi and the others couldn’t help but inhale deeply; they had never smelled such enticing stewed meat fragrance.
Lin Chuxia asked Su Wensong to watch over the pot of meat, and she took Ma Yingzi with part of the cleaned raw meat to the Bun Shop.
Ma Yingzi was puzzled, “Boss, I think we could add a lot more meat into that pot. Why not stew it all together?”
Today being the first day of cooking the dishes, Lin Chuxia was controlling the quantity.
Lin Chuxia lifted her chin, “What do you think of the stewed meat’s aroma?”
“It smells great,” Ma Yingzi replied without hesitating, just the smell alone could make one salivate.
“How far do you think that aroma can spread? Can it drift to our Bun Shop?”
Ma Yingzi’s eyes lit up, “Boss is clever.”
Their cooked dishes were to be sold together with buns at the Bun Shop. Even the most delicious cooked dishes didn’t have their aroma spread as far as while the meat was stewing.
That was Lin Chuxia’s point. When they reached the back kitchen of the Bun Shop, they threw the meat into the pot to stew, added the seasonings, and by the time the aroma of the meat wafted out, it was just about mealtime.
The Bun Shop was already bustling around mealtime, and now with that overpowering fragrance in the air, everyone couldn’t help but look around for the source.
“What’s that smell? It’s so good.”
“The scent is coming from the bun shop, but it doesn’t smell like meat buns. I’ve never smelled this before.”
“Xiao Sun, does your bun shop have some new delicacy?”
Some clever customers have already started asking Sun Lanlan.
Sun Lanlan had received instructions from Lin Chuxia to bring a large tray of freshly cooked dishes to the window, straight from the pot stewed on the other side of the courtyard.
“This is our bun shop’s new product, a secret cooked dish. Today is the first day it’s available, and you can not only try it for free but also purchase it at a 20% discount.”
Speaking of this cooked dish, generally, it’s eaten cold, but honestly, the flavor when it’s fresh out of the pot is truly exceptional.
Steaming hot, tender and succulent, just one bite fills your mouth with the fragrance of meat.
Lin Chuxia had also instructed Ma Yingzi to keep the pot of cooked food simmering on low heat in the store, to ensure it stayed fragrant.
The old lady queueing up at the window for buns couldn’t resist asking, “Can we really try it?”
“Yes, you can try it,” Sun Lanlan brought out a plate full of various sliced cooked dishes, with toothpicks on the side.
The old lady grabbed a toothpick to poke a piece of pork head meat but failed to pick it up on her first try, it was that tender.
She managed to pick it up after trying a couple of times and put it in her mouth, her eyes widened as she said, “Mmm, delicious, fragrant and tender, not greasy at all, give me half a pound of this.”
When selling products, ten words from the seller are not as convincing as one word from a customer.
This old lady was a regular customer living nearby. Seeing her buy it, people queued up behind her asked, “Aunt Li, is it really that tasty? You’re not shilling for them, are you?”
“What are you talking about? Haven’t you ever had a bun from Qin’s? With their reputation, do you think I need to shill? Don’t believe me, try for yourself.”
Lin Chuxia came over as well, “Yes, the aunts and uncles, ladies and gentlemen in line, you can all have a taste. It’s okay if you don’t buy any. Just try it and give us more suggestions.”
Many customers who had known Lin Chuxia since the time she set up her stall chuckled, “To give Boss Lin suggestions, that would just mean making more delicious dishes.”
“That’s right, with Boss Lin’s cooking skills, she’d be more than capable of running a restaurant.”
With older customers giving praise, Lin Chuxia greeting them, the small shop was busier than ever, whether it was folks lining up at the window to buy buns or those dining inside, everyone couldn’t resist trying some of the cooked dishes.
A 20% discount was a big deal; if you didn’t buy today, you’d miss out on this bargain later.
And the prices were truly affordable: stuffed intestines for one yuan, pork head meat and trotters for one yuan and twenty cents, pork heart, liver, and intestines for one yuan and fifty cents; even if that seemed expensive, pork lungs were sixty cents per half kilo, cheaper than eating meat.
In the shop, you could have a mixed platter; one platter of cooked dishes including different kinds, fifty cents a plate, enough to satisfy any craving.
Sun Lanlan usually worked alone at the window selling buns, but now she was too busy to cope, so Ma Yingzi went over to help weigh the cooked food, while Granny Sun and Sun Bingnan attended to the customers inside. The small shop was thriving like never before.
Everyone was busy until two in the afternoon; the buns had sold out almost completely, and the cooked food had been sold out half an hour before.
Not completely sold out, though, as there was still a small pot stewing in the back kitchen, but the fire had been put out now.
The staff hadn’t had lunch, so Lin Chuxia had Pang Yongli stir-fry two hot dishes and scooped out some of the cooked food from the pot to slice it, complemented by some unsold cold dishes and porridge. Everyone just grabbed whatever they wanted to eat, including buns to their liking, gathered around a table for a meal.
Sun Lanlan grabbed a slice of the cooked food, “Hmm, delicious, Chuxia, I knew you were good at cooking, but I didn’t realize you were this good. You’ve been hiding your skills for so many years.”
Sun Lanlan was her close friend and knew her well. Lin Chuxia didn’t bother to explain, just said, “If it’s tasty, eat more. The cooked food is better when it’s cooked on high heat.”
The pot in the store had been on for too long, and the dishes were so tender they almost fell apart. While delicious, this kind of cooked food couldn’t be sold at a high price.