pjbooks Chapter 1999 The Bullied Kitchen of the Grand Hotel
Chapter 1999 The Bullied Kitchen of the Grand Hotel
Chapter 1999 The Bullied Kitchen of the Grand Hotel
Inside the back of the Liberation truck, three 60mm mortars were placed side by side. Next to them was a large pine crate, which was full of guns.
Actually, guns and cannons are not rare these days.
Qu Xiaohong, who is 32 years old this year, participated in militia training before she was even tall enough to shoot a gun, and she is quite good at it.
However, someone who can run around the streets carrying guns and cannons is no ordinary person.
At this moment, Wang Meilan's face appeared in Qu Xiaohong's mind. Qu Xiaohong had seen all kinds of people over the years, but she had never seen Wang Meilan with such temperament before.
Especially when Wang Meilan slapped him, it gave Qu Xiaohong the feeling that she didn't value money.
Qu Xiaohong stood up, holding onto the car railing, and quickly walked towards the state-run grain store across the street.
Five minutes later, Qu Xiaohong hurriedly left the grain store, returned to the restaurant, went straight to the kitchen, and called out the head chef, Lin Dongxu.
"Master Lin," Qu Xiaohong said to Lin Dongxu, "we need to book a big job, fifteen tables, all with fancy dishes. After you're done, quickly make a menu, I need to show it to someone."
After saying this, Qu Xiaohong paused slightly, then added, "They've ordered four dishes now: one is turtle stewed in ginseng broth with snow frog oil; and another is monkey head stewed with pheasant..."
"Hey? Hey!" Lin Dongxu interrupted Qu Xiaohong upon hearing this, saying, "What is this stuff? Monkey head and snow frog oil. Where am I supposed to get it for her right now?"
"Don't make a sound." Qu Xiaohong glanced cautiously towards the private room, then tugged at Lin Dongxu, saying, "Ginseng, monkey head mushrooms, snow frog oil—people usually bring those from home, and then there's cucumber fragrance..."
"I think she looks like a cucumber!" Lin Dongxu, who has a bad temper, immediately retorted angrily, "Who brings their own food when they book a banquet at a restaurant? She might as well just bring some green beans and potatoes, and I'll stew them for her."
"Keep your voice down!" Qu Xiaohong said in a low voice, both anxious and scared. "Our boss said we have to do things the way they tell us to!"
That's right, those are the exact words of the owner of Ruyi Grand Restaurant.
These days, anyone who can open a restaurant like this must be someone important.
After listening to Qu Xiaohong's description, the shopkeeper first told her not to be afraid. Something that could run around the streets carrying guns and cannons couldn't possibly be armed with knives or guns.
But something that can do that is certainly not an ordinary cannon.
Although the identity of the other party is still unclear, the restaurant owner believes that since his business is open to the public, he must not offend such a person.
Therefore, the restaurant owner agreed to Wang Meilan's request to book the entire restaurant and told Qu Xiaohong to make sure to provide excellent service to Wang Meilan's party. He assured her that he would agree to any requests Wang Meilan made, as long as they weren't excessive.
Ten minutes later, the door to Wang Meilan's private room opened, and Yang Yufeng stood at the door and called out, "Give us five more bowls of rice."
Soon, Qu Xiaohong and Lin Dongxu personally carried in the rice.
By this time, Wang Meilan had finished eating. She wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and said to Qu Xiaohong, who had put down the rice, "The dishes are not bad."
"Yes." Qu Xiaohong responded with a smile, and then introduced the person next to her to Wang Meilan: "This is Chef Lin, the head chef of our restaurant. He prepared the dishes for today's meal."
Upon hearing this, Wang Meilan smiled and nodded to Lin Dongxu.
Lin Dongxu was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected that the powerful boss Qu Xiaohong had mentioned was actually a woman.
But Lin Dongxu quickly realized what was going on. He took out the prepared menu from his pocket and handed it to Wang Meilan, saying, "This is the menu that Manager Qu and I worked out. Boss, what do you think?"
Wang Meilan took the menu and saw that it listed four cold soups and four hot soups for lunch and dinner.
The four cold dishes for lunch included dried shrimp and cucumber salad ordered by Zhao Youcai, as well as home-style cold dishes, sesame sauce cold noodles, and braised beef.
The four hot dishes are crispy pork strips, steamed spare ribs, pan-fried meatballs, and braised venison strips.
The two soups are braised monkey head with pheasant and ginseng-infused turtle soup.
The ten dishes served in the evening included cold dishes such as shredded cucumber with deer antler, shredded daylily with ginger, shredded elm mushrooms with pepper oil, and a platter of braised pork intestines.
The hot dishes are stir-fried potatoes, eggplant, green peppers, and green peppers; braised pork knuckle; sweet and sour pork; and stir-fried cucumber. The two soups are Imperial Flying Dragon Wine Hot Pot and Rock Sugar Tremella Soup.
Wang Meilan frowned as she looked at the menu, which made Qu Xiaohong feel nervous.
A moment later, Wang Meilan put down the menu, then looked at Qu Xiaohong and Lin Dongxu and asked, "Who is this enough to eat?"
"This..." Qu Xiaohong was about to speak when Lin Dongxu interrupted her, "How many people are at your table? Our dishes are generously portioned."
“I’ve looked at it,” Wang Meilan said, glancing at the table before picking up the menu and telling the two men, “Four cold dishes will do, six hot dishes, and two soups.”
After saying that, Wang Meilan handed the menu to Zhao Youcai beside her and said, "What do you think?"
Zhao Youcai put down his chopsticks, took the menu, and frowned as well: "These four cold dishes for dinner are alright, but what about the home-style cold dishes and sesame sauce noodles for lunch? Who from the South would eat that?"
Hearing Zhao Youcai's words, Lin Dongxu's face darkened, and he said, "Then there are no other cold dishes."
After saying that, Lin Dongxu paused slightly, then asked Zhao Youcai, "This is a high-end meal, so wouldn't it be inappropriate to serve cucumber salad, sugar-coated persimmons, and stir-fried dried tofu strips?"
"Can't you do anything else?" Zhao Youcai's question made Lin Dongxu's face turn red instantly.
But then Zhao Youcai added, "The first dish served after the guests sit down at noon, the first cold dish, must be the Forest Peacock."
"What the hell?" Lin Dongxu was startled by Zhao Youcai's words: "A peacock? Where can we get one?"
"A floral arrangement," Zhao Youcai said. "Use cucumber, wild mountain vegetables, and carrots."
"Well..." Lin Dongxu said, forcing himself to speak, "How do we spell it? We don't know how!"
"No problem, I know how," Zhao Youcai said casually. "I'll come early the day after tomorrow, and then I'll teach you."
Lin Dongxu: "..."
After all, they were father and son. When Zhao Jun encountered a major crisis, Zhao Youcai did not hesitate to offer his full support.
Just then, Lin Dongxu was about to say something when Zhao Youcai asked, "Can't you get wild chickens and sand chickens?"
"We have pheasants, but not sand pheasants." Qu Xiaohong said this, and then she quietly tugged at Lin Dongxu.
"Prepare fifteen," Zhao Youcai said. "Move the pepper oil elm mushrooms from tonight to noon, and don't make the sesame sauce cold noodles. Replace the home-style cold dish with the forest peacock I just mentioned."
"Now we'll be missing a cold dish for dinner, won't we? I'll teach you how to make that 'Golden Rooster of the Forest' dish later."
Lin Dongxu: "..."
"Huh?" At this moment, Wang Meilan asked, "What are your 'Three Treasures of the Earth'?"
The question seemed a bit off. Qu Xiaohong and Lin Dongxu exchanged a glance, and Qu Xiaohong cautiously said, "The Three Delicacies of the Earth are..."
Just then, Zhao Youcai suddenly interrupted Qu Xiaohong, saying to Wang Meilan, "You don't even need to ask, their 'Three Treasures of the Earth' is definitely not the same as what we eat at home."
"No? Can the Three Treasures of the Earth be any other than this?" Lin Dongxu finally couldn't hold back anymore. He glared at Zhao Youcai and asked, "Please tell me what the Three Treasures of the Earth you eat is like, so I can learn something new."
Faced with Lin Dongxu's questioning, Zhao Youcai only glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, and then didn't utter a sound.
“Master Lin, let’s not get excited.” At this moment, Zhao Weipeng smiled and took over, saying, “The ‘Three Immortals’ we eat at home is the immortal’s immortal, made with venison, lynx meat and bear paw meat.”
Lin Dongxu: "..."
Qu Xiaohong: "..."
As Zhao Weipeng finished speaking, the room fell silent until Zhao Youcai spoke up: "Change this stir-fry dish. I saw that there was braised venison strips for lunch, so let's have braised venison tendons for dinner."
"No!" Lin Dongxu's tone was very stiff. The deer tendon used for roasting deer tendon must be the large tendon from the deer's leg.
“I have one,” Zhao Youcai replied without looking up, making Lin Dongxu blush again.
Then, Zhao Youcai continued, "Didn't we just say we'd add two more hot dishes for lunch and dinner? Anyway, we'll bring some monkey head from home, so we'll add a braised monkey head for lunch..."
At this point, Zhao Youcai looked at Qu Xiaohong and Lin Dongxu and said, "I'll give you a chance. Can you handle the mountain rabbit?"
"Yes, it's available every day in the market," Qu Xiaohong replied.
“Alright then.” Zhao Youcai nodded first, then seemed to remember something and looked up again, saying, “It has to be a mountain rabbit, domestic rabbits don’t taste good.”
"No problem," Qu Xiaohong said. "We can definitely buy this."
"That's fine then," Zhao Youcai said. "The day after tomorrow, I'll get some hazel mushrooms and pine mushrooms from home, and stew a wild rabbit with them for lunch. Then, for dinner, I'll stew some mushrooms with roast chicken, and then..."
Now all that's left is one dish, but Zhao Youcai doesn't know what to add.
"Big brother." Just then, Jin Xiaomei called out to Zhao Youcai, "Can they make that Tai Chi bear paw dish you made last time?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Youcai glanced at Lin Dongxu out of the corner of his eye and then said, "What can they do? Can they catch prawns?"
"We don't have any prawns right now," Qu Xiaohong said with a bitter face. "They're available in winter, but they can't be delivered right now."
"How about making a braised bear paw with pine nuts?" Zhao Youcai asked. "Can you buy bear paws?"
"This is really hard to find," Qu Xiaohong said. "We can get pheasants and rabbits here, but bear paws... are sometimes scarce. Besides, we have fifteen tables, so we need at least eight bear paws."
Hearing Qu Xiaohong say this, Wang Meilan turned to Zhao Youcai and said, "Dad, isn't it too late for us to go up the mountain and hunt two bears now?"
Qu Xiaohong and Lin Dongxu: "..."
Although Wang Meilan asked a question, her tone made it sound as if she could kill any bear in the mountains at will.
"Yeah, I guess." Zhao Youcai clicked his tongue and said, "It would have been better to prepare earlier."
That was a normal statement, but Zhao Youcai immediately added, "Who would have thought that such a big restaurant wouldn't have everything they wanted?"
Lin Dongxu: "..."
At that moment, Lin Dongxu really wanted to tell Zhao Youcai, "You didn't order from the menu either!"
"Dad, what do we do since we're missing a hot dish?" Wang Meilan asked. Zhao Youcai replied, "Add a 'Stars Surrounding the Moon' dish."
"What is that?" Lin Dongxu asked. Zhao Youcai glanced at him and said, "Stars Surrounding the Moon is a stir-fry dish in the Flying Dragon Banquet, also called Mountain Delicacies Assortment. It's made by stir-frying... diced venison, venison tendon segments, diced pheasant meat, diced small wild chicken breast meat, with monkey head mushrooms, elm mushrooms, hazel mushrooms, matsutake mushrooms, and pine nuts."
After saying this, Zhao Youcai added, "I'll keep the deer tendons, monkey head mushrooms, elm mushrooms, hazel mushrooms, matsutake mushrooms, and pine nuts at home. You can prepare the rest."
Lin Dongxu stopped talking, and Qu Xiaohong hurriedly said, "Master, please say it again, and I'll write it down in my notebook."
Zhao Youcai read out the ingredients needed for the mixed mountain delicacies again. Qu Xiaohong finished writing them down, then smiled at Wang Meilan and said, "Then we'll have twelve dishes for both lunch and dinner. The cold dishes for lunch are..."
Qu Xiaohong read the prepared menu aloud, and Wang Meilan nodded after listening, but then she looked at Zhao Youcai, an expert in this field.
"Dad, do you think this arrangement is okay?" Wang Meilan asked. Zhao Youcai looked at Qu Xiaohong and Lin Dongxu and said, "Southerners love sweets. For lunch, make a snow-white red bean paste dessert, and for the main course, four-delight shumai. For dinner, have red bean paste jelly for dessert, and for the main course, three-delicacy pastry box."
Upon hearing this, Qu Xiaohong looked at Lin Dongxu, who had already given up resisting and said to Zhao Youcai, "We don't know how to make Three Delicacies Pastry Boxes. You can teach us later."
“That’s fine.” Zhao Youcai nodded and said, “I’ll come early the day after tomorrow and bring all the materials over then.”
The menu for the two meals the day after tomorrow was temporarily set, and Qu Xiaohong and Lin Dongxu left the room.
As Qu Xiaohong closed the door, she heard Old Master Zhao's voice coming from inside: "You're rich, aren't you? When we go to a restaurant, we have to bring our own ingredients."
"So what can we do? The problem is he doesn't have anything he wants." Zhao Youcai laughed. "But that's true, we need these things, and even if you give him money, he can't find anywhere to buy them."
As Zhao Youcai finished speaking, the door had already been closed by Qu Xiaohong. Lin Dongxu walked away, complaining to Qu Xiaohong, "What kind of person is this? He ordered everything without even looking at the menu, and then blamed us for not having anything."
Qu Xiaohong glanced at Lin Dongxu, thinking to herself, "You're already unhappy about this? If you knew they said your cooking was just average, wouldn't you be furious?"
A dozen minutes later, Wang Meilan and her group came out of the private room, and Qu Xiaohong personally stepped forward to help Wang Meilan pay the bill.
Wang Meilan was quite polite. She not only paid for the meal, but also took out a wad of ten-yuan bills from her briefcase and handed it to Qu Xiaohong, saying, "This five hundred yuan is a deposit. After that, you can prepare the dishes."
Qu Xiaohong readily agreed. As she saw Wang Meilan out of the house, Qu Xiaohong asked, "What kind of wine did we drink that day?"
"I'll use your beer and soda," Wang Meilan said, pointing to a corner. "We'll stack them here in cases, and you can pay for whatever you drink."
After saying that, Wang Meilan left the Ruyi Grand Restaurant.
Everyone got into the car. Qu Xiaohong waved to Wang Meilan, who was sitting on the mortar barrel, and said, "Take care."
Watching the car drive away, Qu Xiaohong wiped the sweat from her forehead, thinking to herself that these people were not easy to deal with, and that she was likely to face two fierce battles the day after tomorrow.
The truck drove for more than twenty meters and then suddenly stopped. Wang Meilan got out of the truck, carrying a briefcase, and led Zhao Youcai, Zhao Weipeng, Liang Xuemei, and Jin Xiaomei into a guesthouse.
After entering the room, the staff behind the counter looked up and heard Wang Meilan say, "How much would it cost to book all these rooms for one day?"