Chapter 1 Yunmengju

Author: Tang Yasong

Chapter 1 Yunmengju

Lihua Lane, Yingdu, Chu State.

Enthusiastic residents nearby discovered that a restaurant called Yunmengju opened in Lihua Lane at some time.

There are thousands of restaurants in Yingdu, and there are four or five restaurants near Lihua Lane. Yunmengju, which opened in a low-key manner, originally did not attract much attention from people.

But why is Yunmengju so weird?

Other restaurants are made of mud bricks and wooden beams, or the lobby is open to welcome customers, and there are a few wooden tables and spoons placed outside for travelers passing by to rest and replenish their energy.

In Ke Yunmengju, the walls are made of stone, the tables are made of green bamboo, and even the couches are "dwarfs" made of a few balls of cloth on a bamboo mat, unlike other restaurants that use futons.

What’s even more strange is that in order to attract more customers, other restaurants and wine shops have colorful flags flying, their shop signs are not ostentatious, and the interior and exterior of the house are also filled with couches, tables or dishes, hoping to attract all the customers from all over the world.

There are no colorful flags in Yunmengju, and there are no full tables and tables. There are only five or six sets of bamboo tables, tables and couches. Even the shop sign is only carved on the stone wall outside.

If you are not an acquaintance, you will not know that this is a place to eat, and will only think of it as a residential courtyard for rich people!

But for some unknown reason, people still know about the strange Yunmengju, and it has become famous in the streets and alleys next door.

For a time, there was an endless stream of people coming to the door out of curiosity. But there were only a few desks, and there were too many curious people. For five or six days in a row, there was a long queue at Yunmeng Juwai from morning to night.

People queuing up in a long queue originally just came to watch and eat as a token of appreciation.

But who knew that this strange-looking restaurant, like a rich man’s yard, would make such delicious food!

The key point is that the price is not expensive. For fifty dollars[1] you can order half a cup of exclusively brewed wine or syrup, plus three or two dishes.

Such a delicious restaurant changes dishes every day, but it is only supported by a proprietress and a child!

In just a few days, everyone in the surrounding streets and alleys knew that the food at Yunmengju on Lihua Lane was delicious.

Their syrup is more fragrant and tastier than others; their dishes have a more unique texture than others. Even ordinary vegetables such as okra or asparagus are better than those cooked by rich people in large cauldrons.

It tastes delicious when cooked.

The group that originally watched out of curiosity turned into a queue because they wanted to eat Yunmengju's food. As time went by, the folks in the countryside who were suffering from queuing all suggested to the proprietress of Yunmengju to add tables, tables and couches.

To these suggestions, the landlady just smiled and responded: We really can’t add more desks, but we will find ways to solve the queuing problem.

Seven days later, the landlady announced her solution in the lobby of Yunmengju:

Regular customers of Yunmengju only need to pay 30 copper cloth coins [2] every month to become regular diners. Yunmengju will provide two meals a day with a 20% discount on each meal; regular diners can hold banquets at

Booking at Yunmengju.

Looking at these strange terms and methods, the neighbors in the surrounding streets were puzzled. After their doubts passed, they quickly settled the account - although it is a little more expensive than cooking by yourself, it is more convenient and enjoyable, and it is more enjoyable.

The people of Yingdu are already wealthy, and soon 20 or 30 people paid and made their reservations; those who were not well off or just wanted fresh food gave up and still came to queue occasionally - the queue was already much shorter than before.

.

But after so many waves of momentum, Yunmengju's reputation spread throughout the streets and alleys of Yingdu.

Gradually, many wealthy households in the city became regular customers and paid deposits to use Yunmengju as their own small dining hall.

The money in the hands of the proprietress Chu Yunmeng has increased, and she has more than a thousand ghost money. To reduce the burden, she bought two slaves, one male and one female. The female slave A Yue helps with the kitchen, and the male slave A Tian helps with the cooking. Planting vegetables for the future garden.

As for the ten-year-old boy Wu Gu, Yunmeng felt that he was very talented and could inherit his mantle. He had been training him as an apprentice and had no intention of becoming a handyman.

After dividing the affairs, Chu Yunmeng began to design and build elegant rooms, exploring easier ways to make money.

Yunmengju has only been open for three months, and Chu Yunmeng already has a lot of money in his hands. In the eyes of others, this may be a very easy and profitable business, and they are happy to be content with the status quo.

But she doesn't want to keep repeating the same dish day after day, day and night. Being a cook is not her dream, but being a gourmet is. The former is a craftsman, and the latter is a master. Mechanical repetition does not fit in with her idea of ​​what to do. A gourmet's self-requirements.

After gaining a lot of knowledge that was not available in this era from that long dream, she did not want to make hard money by repeating work, which would not last long. This was the understanding she gained in that era in the dream, and it was also her understanding of today's world. understanding of the times.

In today's era, a hundred schools of thought are contending and a hundred flowers are blooming. Although knowledge is not as advanced as that era in the dream, it is full of vitality, full of innovation, and super learning ability. If you sleep on the wisdom of future generations, you will soon be slapped to death on the beach.

Although she has gained a head start by relying on stir-frying, a cooking method that does not exist at the moment, she believes that imitators will appear soon. She had predicted this when she came back from buying Ah Yue.

She tried her best to keep herself and the owner of the grains in charge, letting Ah Yue only be responsible for chores such as washing vegetables, and strictly ordered Ah Yue to keep what she saw and heard secret. Big mouth, similar cooking method, I believe it will become popular in Yingdu within two months.

The key to maintaining an advantage for a long time lies in the development of new dishes, which is inseparable from the introduction of new ingredients and the development of new seasonings. These were very common in the era of dreams, but in this era there are no ready-made ones. These needs Let her develop it.

Of course, as a gourmet who is responsible for her mouth, she has greater ambitions and wants to develop some new dishes herself. But this requires more time.

So she purchased a large fruit and vegetable garden, where she grows various vegetables and develops various seasonings.

In addition to okra, asparagus and other common vegetables of this era, she dug up wild yams, yams, wild peppers and other wild vegetables in the wild for batch planting; she also bought back a large amount of soybeans to develop the first seasoning - soy sauce. .

Once she has soy sauce, Chu Yunmeng believes that even if Yingdu Restaurant has found a cooking method similar to stir-fry, her Yunmeng Ju will be able to maintain its advantage for a long time and provide a steady stream of resources for what she wants to do in the future. Continuous funding.

[1] Ghost Face Money, a coin popular in the Chu region in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.

[2] In the middle and late Warring States Period, the currency of Chu State was mainly made of gold and copper. Gold coins were mainly in the shape of gold cakes or turtle plates, also known as gold plates; before the early Warring States Period, copper coins were mainly ant-nosed coins. In the later period, grimace money was the main currency. Influenced by the culture of the Central Plains, silver cloth coins and copper cloth coins were produced. Due to the complex shape and conversion, the following rules are used for conversion in this article: one gold cake or gold plate is equal to one thousand ant nose coins or grimace coins. One silver cloth coin is equal to one hundred ant-nosed coins or grimace coins, and one copper cloth coin is equivalent to ten ant-nosed coins or grimace coins.

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Chapter completed!