Chapter 26 – Stall Opening
There are people coming and going on the wharf street in the morning market. There are people who go to the wharf to buy wholesale goods early, people who live in the wharf business district, and some business travelers and workers who have not yet sailed into the wharf to eat.
The location of Wei Cheng’s stall is very conspicuous. The crowd can see his stall at a glance- the stall is large, with several folding tables neatly arranged, and the stall is clean and tidy.
There is a small semi-separated place for their own use. There are a lot of ingredients and tools placed in it. There are the ingredients for the morning markets and afternoon markets. For breakfast, they serve soy milk, bean dregs pancake, thick white porridge, egg pancakes, as well as dried radish and pickles, all of which are prepared in advance and brought from home.
They put some food on the shelves for display so that passers-by can see what the stall is selling at a glance.
Rice rolls need to be served on the spot so in order to let the customers know, Wei Cheng made several portions, including egg rolls and vegetarian rolls, poured with rich sauce. The rolls are thin and nearly transparent, delicate and smooth, with sauce, the surface is shiny because of the oil, the sauce is rich and fresh, and the aroma is attractive.
There are a lot of small bowls and chopsticks, 200 bowls, and 150 plates. The plates are used to hold cakes and rice rolls, and custom-made oil paper is placed on top of them so that the plates do not need to be cleaned frequently.
There are 200 spare bowls, this is because the bowls need to be washed frequently, and the chopsticks also need to be frequently cleaned. Although it is backed by residential buildings, he was afraid that they will not even have time to wash the dishes when they get busy, so he bought more. Anyway, he can put them in storage.
Chopsticks are considered disposable, which made them convenient to use.
Whether it was the novelty or attractive aroma of the food displayed at the stall of Wei Cheng’s stall, people who pass by are attracted.
They couldn’t help but look around and ask.
“Boss, what is this white water slurry, how much is a bowl?”
“This is soybean milk with added sugar. It’s delicious and filling. It costs a wen for a bowl.” The cooking of soy milk is very simple, and the amount of sugar added is small. A little sweet taste was rare in ancient times, and a wen was the right cost for it.
In addition to a few bowls on the table, there were also two large barrels inside. He didn’t bother to measure when he ground the beans so he made too much, and the soy milk couldn’t be stored, so he had to sell them all.
customers heard that soy milk only costs one wen, which is very cheap, and those who want to drink are willing to pay for a bowl.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“What kind of bread is this? With eggs, how much?”
“This is an egg pancake. It’s made of eggs and flour. It costs two wen a piece.” The eggs are mixed with a little chopped green onion and flour, and seasonings are added. They are fried in a pan and then cut into ten small pieces. Their prices are not high, which also allows customers to choose more.
“This is bean dregs pancakes, two wen each, a big bowl of white porridge for three wens, and a small portion of side dishes for one wen.”
“Porridge is so expensive!”
“My white porridge is boiled to make rice milk. The rice has a strong aroma, unlike clear water, it is full of rice grains. How expensive is white rice? This bowl is really not expensive.”
There is not much white rice in his rice porridge but it is enough. The white rice absorbs water and becomes larger so the rice porridge is not only thick but also has an attractive rice aroma.
Selling it for three wen and earning a lot of money is the true nature of a businessman.
He is not afraid that customers will not buy it. If he can afford it, he will also buy this if he wants to eat. This bowl of thick rice porridge is a perfect match for breakfast when paired with side dishes.
Customers who disliked the price didn’t buy it, so they bought soy milk and bean dregs pancakes. Those who could afford it crowded over, “Boss, I want a bowl of porridge with the side dishes, and an egg pancake.”
“Honored customer, please sit first, and we will send them over later.”
The customer who ordered the porridge before said loudly, “Boss, your dried radish and pickles are delicious. I have never eaten such delicious dried radishes and pickles. It goes perfectly with this bowl of porridge. Give me some more.”
“I’ll also have the side dishes, I didn’t drink the soy milk, so I’ll have a bowl too.”
“Okay!” Zhou Yuan responded and took care of the customers’ orders while Wei Lei was responsible for sending them over.
Wei Cheng was busy greeting customers who were asking about the price of rice rolls, “Dear customer, a piece of vegetarian rice roll costs three wen, and a piece of rice rolls with egg and minced meat costs eight wen.”
The customers were all amazed that there was such a big difference.
There are minced meat, eggs, and thick sauce added but the price was still a bit high.
The customers were tempted by the sauce in the rice rolls, so they still bought vegetarian sausages, but the price of the wen was very expensive for them. Wei Cheng didn’t care about this and served the rice rolls to the customers.
The customers immediately fell in love with it and wanted to eat it again, but some wanted to eat something else, thinking that since the vegetarian rice rolls are so delicious then the one with eggs and minced meat must be more delicious.
In the end, they ate something else, and they planned to eat the eight-wen rice rolls tomorrow.
Most customers do not order expensive rice rolls, but some people do.
The business at the stall got busy quickly, the six tables were full of customers, and there was an endless stream of customers coming from smelling the fragrance. This was the earliest group of customers, and most of them were part-timers at the dock.
Later, when the merchant ships dock at the pier, and the residents of the county and the people from the inn come over, it will be the peak time.
Those who go to the wholesale store to buy goods would be shopkeepers with their servants or the owner of the small shop with their servants. Looking at the stall surrounded by the crowd, with the fragrance drifting by- they are all attracted by it. Seeing the clean and tidy environment of the stall and the novelty foods, they do not go to the small restaurants to eat but one after another they found a place to sit down.
If there are few people, they can just order what they like but if there are many people, just order one of each to try.
A group of customers just left so there were new empty tables.
The new customers are all those who are not short of money. They all ordered egg rice rolls with minced meat and ate the food delivered by Wei Lei. They all said it was delicious and that they had never tried it.
The table is once again full. Since there are too many customers who don’t have a seat, they can only take their food away, or order a portion here, and then take it to another stall to eat something else. If they take the dishes away, they’ll have to leave a deposit, and they will be refunded when they come back. As for the deposit, some customers don’t care about it.
Some customers regret not ordering some things and then come back later.
Soymilk sells the fastest, two large buckets are immediately sold, and since they were served in bowls, they had to be washed in large batches. Fortunately, there is spare water, which is enough to wash them.
“Boss, give me another two servings of egg and minced meat rice rolls.”
“I want a bowl of white porridge and vegetarian rice rolls.”
Such an extravagant way of eating? How about the side dishes?
Several customers followed suit.
“Boss, your radishes are dry, crispy, and delicious, and the pickles are just salty. They are all delicious. How did you do this? The dried radishes and pickles I used to eat can’t compare to this.”
“Boss, do you sell your dried radishes and pickles? It will definitely be good to eat with rice and noodles.”
“Brother, you are so smart. It must be delicious. If you can sell it, I will buy some.”
“This soy milk is also delicious. I plan to buy a few bowls to bring home after eating.”
“If you buy it back, what will you use to pack it? Are you going to take the boss’s bowl back?” The customer next to him smiled as he ate the dishes with his back to the stall.
“You didn’t see what the boss did. He packed in oiled paper bags- this oiled paper bag can still be carried so it’s very convenient to take it back.”
In ancient times, there were no plastic bags, but oiled paper bags were used, and this oiled paper bag was also made to order.
“Oh, it’s true, I’ll buy it and take it home later.”
Thanks for the chapter!
So much yummy food 🤩🤩
Thanks for the chapter 💖💖💖
Thanks for all the chapters!
Thank you for the chapters! Gotta live a food novel, everything sounded tasty.
+1 I’m gonna starve myself while reading this😭
I’ll be honest here. I’ve never eaten nor drank any of the foods that Wei Cheng made😭 Idk if it’s because I’m not chinese or I’m not just a person who likes exploring different foods because I don’t have the budget for that. I really want to taste all of them😔🤤
Thank You for the new chapter ♡(ӦｖӦ｡)