July 1st, clear, temperature 26°C-33°C, good air quality, everything is going smoothly, a great start to the day.
At 4 a.m., the sky was still dark, the crescent moon hanging on the treetops, and there was silence outside, not even the sound of birds or cicadas. Qin Huai, who hadn't gotten up early to steam buns for a while, was jolted awake by the alarm clock, struggling to open his eyes, and rolled out of bed.
Strangely, obviously both he and Qin Luo dread of making money to transform their family breakfast shop into a snack shop, so they could sleep in without a worry. Now that luck has struck, why are they waking up even earlier than before?
Qin Huai sat on the bed, pondering life.
Suddenly, the phone started vibrating violently. It was Qin Luo calling.
He picked up, and Qin Luo's wailing ca through the phone.
"Hey, brother, are you up yet? I'm so miserable. Mom woke up at 3:30. She and dad didn't sleep last night, and they wouldn't let sleep either. I've polished the stainless steel bowls in the kitchen so much they can be used as mirrors. The fillings are taken out from the freezer to thaw, and the at fillings are minced to a pulp. Dad's so idle that he's about to start carving radishes. When are you coming?"
"What are you talking about? Your dad and I are just used to getting up early," Zhao Rong's voice ca through.
"Huaihuai, don't listen to Luoluo. It's still early now, so take your ti and be careful not to trip in the dark," Zhao Rong advised.
Qin Huai chuckled helplessly, "Mom, the district is full of lights. How could I trip? I'm on my way now. Give 10 minutes."
After the call ended, Qin Huai was fully awake. He quickly washed up, liked Chen Huihong and Ouyang's WeChat posts from last night, and rushed out the door, heading to Yunzhong Restaurant by the east gate of the district.
The lights at Yunzhong Restaurant were already bright.
Speaking of which, Qin Huai, as the de facto boss of Yunzhong Restaurant and the only pastry chef in the snack area on the first floor, had visited the restaurant the least. He only ca by twice when he first took over and hadn't been back since the renovation.
Qin Huai always had the impression that the restaurant was quite large, with a renovation style that followed the design Ouyang used for his fish hot pot restaurant, favoring a Chinese style.
As a super foolish investor who lost 6.6 million in a year of running a shop, Ouyang spent a fortune on renovation, and those who took over later benefited from his loss.
Qin Huai entered through the inner door with facial recognition.
Yunzhong Restaurant has two doors — the inner door is for the residents of Yunzhong District, accessible only by facial recognition, while the outer door faces the street as the main entrance to the restaurant.
"Brother, you're finally here. What are we having for breakfast?" Qin Luo, who was slouched over the table playing on his phone, perked up imdiately when he saw Qin Huai arrive.
"Buns." Qin Huai replied succinctly.
After speaking, Qin Huai glanced around the first floor, feeling sothing was different, and asked, "Were the tables on the first floor replaced?"
All the tables were retro-style wooden tables, but Qin Huai recalled the previous tables weren't this style.
Qin Luo nodded, "Sister Hong said that since we're going to sell snacks on the first floor, the original tables didn't match the style, so she happened to have a batch that matched, and she just replaced them all for us for free. Didn't you know, brother?"
Qin Huai nodded and noted it in his mind without saying anything, heading to the locker room to change clothes and start working in the kitchen.
Qin Luo was too lazy to change clothes and couldn't enter the kitchen, so he could only squat at the kitchen door, watching longingly from afar.
Qin Congwen, who hadn't slept all night, had already prepared all the necessary raw materials, categorically placing the prepped ingredients in different bowls, even having the flour and warm water ready, being extrely considerate.
The considerate Qin Congwen wasn't idle either, sitting on a small stool in front of the cooking station, making buns with Zhao Rong.
"Huaihuai, on our first day of business, can we sell so many buns?" Qin Congwen worried as he made buns, not slowing his hands in the least.
"We can sell them all," Qin Huai said without hesitation.
With 200 popular promotions as a base, Qin Huai was confident about today's sales.
"Ouyang had people hand out flyers for several days, offering a 30% discount on buns with a flyer. We'll definitely sell them all."
"But Huaihuai, we're only selling fresh at buns and mushroom vegetable buns in the morning. Isn't that too plain? The convenience store across the street has more variety, with curry beef buns, fresh at buns, vermicelli buns, red bean paste buns — they have seven or eight types. Isn't selling just two types too few for us?"
"Why not let your dad make buns here, and I'll wrap so wontons, or if not, fry so fried dough sticks," Zhao Rong's concern followed as soon as Qin Congwen finished worrying.
"Mom, there's no need to worry, we sell cheaper than the convenience store across the street," Qin Huai said, "I have a few more things to make here, so there won't be a shortage of variety."
Yunzhong Restaurant has no rent costs, so if Qin Huai wanted to initiate a price war, he could put every breakfast shop within a ten-mile radius out of business.
However, he had no intention of using such a tactic that would harm others as well as himself.
Price wars require capital, and he didn't have the money.
Qin Huai's strategy was quality over quantity.
In the morning, sell two affordable and cost-effective basic buns made by Qin Congwen, along with 2-3 more expensive but delicious snacks suitable for breakfast that he made himself.
Flaky pastries, pancakes, crab shell cakes, and fried cakes, which require ovens and oil woks, will be made in the morning.
Fried dough sticks, pea cakes, Dingsheng cakes, and Eight Treasure Cakes, which are traditional types of snacks, will be launched in batches as needed based on sales and circumstances.
After all, manpower is limited; unless Qin Huai could grow eight arms like an octopus, it would be impossible for him alone to make so many snacks at the sa ti.
Qin Huai began kneading the dough.
Previously, to sleep a little longer, Qin Huai would prepare the dough the night before and let it sit. As long as the steaming ti and heat control were managed well, the overnight dough's taste wouldn't differ too much. But today's not like the past; now that he's going for a premium route instead of quantity, fresh-made dough naturally tastes better.
After preparing the dough, Qin Huai started prepping the filling.
He heated the pan, added oil, and stir-fried the diced pork until it changed color, then successively added diced chicken, fresh shrimp, diced bamboo shoots, and finely diced sea cucumber, stirring until well mixed, before pouring in the chicken broth that had been simred the night before, bringing it to a boil over high heat, and then simring on low heat until cooked. The whole kitchen was filled with the aroma of at soup.
Qin Luo's voice trembled with excitent at the door.
"F-Five Fillings Bun!"
You could hardly bla Qin Luo for being so excited. If there's anything still considered a rare treasure one could only get during the New Year nowadays, then at the Qin Family, other than New Year money, it's the Five Fillings Bun.
Five Fillings Bun, the official designated dish for Qianlong's Jiangnan tour.
Unlike the street-sold, allegedly Jiangnan tour replicas of Qianlong, with 3.5 yuan pickled mustard leaf pancakes and 2.5 yuan at pancakes, the Five Fillings Bun is a true imperial dish.
It's said that during Qianlong's tour of Jiangnan, local officials asked what kind of breakfast was needed, and Qianlong said, nourishing but not over-supplenting, flavorful but not overly savory, oily but not greasy, crisp but not hard, tender but not too soft. The Guangling pastry chef thought long and hard, finally attaining satori: sea cucumber for nourishnt, in moderation but not over-supplenting; chicken for flavor, in moderation but not overly savory; pork for oiliness, in moderation but not greasy; bamboo shoots for crispness, in moderation but not hard; shrimp for tenderness, in moderation but not too soft. Hence, these five ingredients were diced and used as filling, thus creating the Five Fillings Bun.
From preparing the filling, which required heating oil, stir-frying, and simring, as well as preparing broth in advance, it was evident that making the Five Fillings Bun was quite troubleso.
After simring the ingredients in the pot, you also had to add so cornstarch slurry, then put it in the fridge to chill for a while.
Qin Huai always thought that if you skipped the final chilling step and served it directly, it would probably still make for a decent dish.
When Qin Huai first tried making the Five Fillings Bun at ho, Qin Congwen even thought his son was interested in cooking and decided to challenge himself with the difficult task of making a broth dish first.
As for how Qin Huai knew how to make such a difficult imperial dish...
Qin Huai could only say that the smartest thing he did in elentary school was spending one yuan at a flea market to buy that Snack Encyclopedia.
The Snack Encyclopedia really was comprehensive.
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