Chapter 172 - 169: Preparing to Launch Braised Dishes
「The next day.」
After breakfast, Li You chose a conspicuous spot in his restaurant and hung up the painting Ling Xiaoru had given him the day before.
With this magnificent and majestic ink wash landscape painting, the entire restaurant seemed to gain an air of grandeur.
’It really is a great painting!’
Next, Li You got on his motorcycle. He planned to make a trip to the town market.
It was market day in town, so he was going to buy all the ingredients needed for his brine recipe.
This included star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, dried tangerine peel, cao guo, and more.
He would make the brine when he got back and prepare to launch his new braised dishes.
He started his motorcycle and set off.
Ten minutes later, he arrived at the town market.
In the market, there was a spice shop that sold all kinds of seasonings. The owner was named Liu Yiquan, and he was a regular at Li You’s restaurant.
Li You decided to check out Liu Yiquan’s spice shop first.
When he arrived at Liu Yiquan’s shop, Liu Yiquan was delighted to see him and laughed heartily. "Boss Li, welcome! Are you here to buy some seasonings?"
Li You nodded with a smile. "Yes, I need a few things. I thought I’d come see what Boss Liu has first."
Liu Yiquan said, "Great, great. Please, Boss Li, take a look around. I have a pretty complete selection here."
Li You nodded.
He had just glanced around and already spotted several of the ingredients he needed: star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, dried tangerine peel, cao guo, fennel seeds, and more.
The selection was indeed quite complete. The key now was the quality.
For these kinds of ingredients, the market was often flooded with inferior, shoddy products passed off as high-quality goods, which were difficult for the average person to identify.
But Li You had his system, so he could identify them easily.
"Ingredient (Spice): Star Anise."
"Quality: Inferior."
Star anise is one of the most famous, common, and widely used spices.
It’s also one of the most important spices in a brine.
However, there are a lot of fakes on the market.
Some unscrupulous merchants sell things that look very similar to star anise, like Illicium lanceolatum, red anise, or difengpi, passing them off as the real thing.
Not only are these fakes ineffective, they are also poisonous.
So, one must be extra careful when buying star anise.
The star anise here was indeed genuine.
But it was only of inferior quality. Li You wasn’t going to consider it.
"Boss Liu, do you have any better star anise?" Li You asked.
Liu Yiquan replied regretfully, "I’m sorry, Boss Li. All the star anise I have right now is from the same batch."
Li You nodded. "I’ll take a look at your other spices then."
"Sure!"
Liu Yiquan was disappointed that Li You didn’t want the star anise, but he wasn’t surprised.
He knew that Li You had very high standards for his ingredients.
So, his standards for spices must be just as high.
And his star anise really wasn’t the best.
It was perfectly normal that Li You wasn’t interested.
’I hope he finds some of my other spices acceptable.’
"Ingredient (Spice): Cinnamon."
"Quality: Inferior."
"..."
"Ingredient (Spice): Bay Leaf."
"Quality: Medium."
After checking several types of spices in a row, he finally found one of medium quality.
Li You’s eyes lit up. He said, "Boss Liu, these bay leaves are quite good. I’ll take ten catties."
Of course, he wouldn’t use nearly that much for a single batch of brine.
But since he’d found some of medium quality, he figured he should buy extra and use it over time.
After all, the next time he came, they might only have the inferior quality stuff.
Seeing that Li You had finally found something he liked, Liu Yiquan let out a long sigh of relief.
He was genuinely afraid that Li You would look through everything and find nothing acceptable.
It wasn’t about missing out on the sale, but because it would mean Li You would be very disappointed in his shop.
That was something he didn’t want to see.
Now, he could finally relax a bit.
Liu Yiquan smiled. "Great. I’ll weigh them out for you right now, Boss Li."
Li You said, "Thanks, Boss Liu."
Liu Yiquan replied, "Not at all, not at all. You’re too polite, Boss Li."
Then, he grabbed a bag and personally weighed the spices for Li You.
Li You continued to look at the other ingredients.
He then discovered two more medium-quality spices: cloves and fennel seeds.
This made Li You happy again.
To find three types in a single shop was quite good.
He asked for ten catties each of the cloves and fennel seeds as well.
Liu Yiquan readily agreed, overjoyed.
This put him even more at ease.
After he finished weighing all three spices, he asked, "By the way, Boss Li, you’re buying all these spices. Are you planning to launch a new dish?"
Li You nodded. "I’m planning to make some brine and introduce a few braised dishes."
Liu Yiquan’s eyes lit up. ’Braised dishes are fantastic!’
Braised chicken feet, braised pig’s head skin, braised chicken, braised duck... they’re all delicious.
And Boss Li’s braised dishes would surely be much, much tastier.
’This is something to look forward to!’
Liu Yiquan laughed heartily. "Boss Li’s braised dishes will definitely be the best of the best. I’m really looking forward to them! I hope I can try them soon."
Li You smiled. "I’ll launch them as soon as I can. I hope you won’t be disappointed, Boss Liu."
Liu Yiquan said, "There’s absolutely no way I’ll be disappointed."
Li You added, "I hope so."
After chatting for a few more moments, Li You paid and left with the three spices: bay leaves, cloves, and fennel seeds.
Now he had to continue shopping for the other ingredients.
’I wonder if I can get everything I need today?’
’I hope I can.’
Not long after Li You left Liu Yiquan’s shop, the news that he was preparing to launch braised dishes spread among many of the other shop owners throughout the market.
Bosses who were familiar with Li You, like Deng Luping, Zhao Yu, and Xie Hai, all heard about it one after another.
They were all just as surprised and excited!
Just then, Li You happened to be passing by Deng Luping’s shop.
Deng Luping saw him, called out a greeting, and said, "Boss Li, I hear you’re going to be offering braised dishes. Is that right?"
Li You was a bit surprised.
He knew the news would spread among these shop owners, and even throughout the whole market.
But he didn’t expect it to travel so fast.
Though surprised, he still smiled and said, "I am indeed preparing for it. I hope you’ll come and try them, Boss Deng."
Deng Luping said, "Boss Li’s braised dishes will surely be the best of the best. I’ll definitely be there to eat them. You’d better make a lot every day, Boss Li! Otherwise, you’ll definitely sell out."
Li You smiled again. "I’ll do my best."
After chatting a bit more with Deng Luping, Li You took his leave and continued his search for the needed ingredients.
After another loop around the market, he managed to buy Sichuan peppercorns, dried chilies, and rock sugar.
In the end, however, he was still missing several ingredients, including star anise, cinnamon, dried tangerine peel, and cao guo.
Wenxian Town was just a small town, after all. Finding medium-quality or better versions of every ingredient was proving to be difficult.
To find them all, he would probably have to go to the county seat.
Li You hesitated for a moment, then decided to make a trip to the county seat.
Right now.
The only problem was, if he did that, he would have to suspend business for lunch today.
There was no other way.
The fifty bowls of Steamed Pork with Preserved Greens he had made yesterday morning were all sold out.
Otherwise, he could have stayed open as usual and just sold that one dish.
Because if they were only selling that, Da Bai and Xiaohai could handle it themselves without Li You needing to be in the kitchen.
That way, the restaurant could have remained open even if Li You wasn’t there.
But the Steamed Pork with Preserved Greens was sold out, so that wasn’t an option.
He had no choice but to close for lunch today.
Li You used his special sensory connection with Da Bai and Xiaohai to inform them that he was going to the county seat to buy ingredients and that they would be closed for lunch today.
He told them to explain this to any customers who arrived.
"Okay, Boss, we understand," Da Bai and Xiaohai responded in unison.
Li You was satisfied.
Then, he got back on his motorcycle and set off again.
Heading for the county seat.
...