"Uncle Lin, you've come at just the right time. I was planning to change the menu tomorrow. We won't be selling noodles for lunch and dinner anymore, but stir-fried and braised dishes instead."
Zhou Yan said with a smile. "We'll have braised pork ribs and braised beef with bamboo shoots, stir-fried minced beef with double peppers, and also a dish of crucian carp with perilla leaves. The cross-legged beef can be served as a soup or a dish. That's four dishes and one soup. If there aren't too many people, it should be enough."
The three noodle toppings and stew tasted good, and could easily be served as separate dishes. The cross-legged beef was also delicious. Lin Zhiqiang pondered, "Little Zhou, is this crucian carp with perilla leaves a new dish you've learned? How does it taste?"
"Don't worry about that. As long as you're used to the taste of perilla leaves, you'll be satisfied with this fish." Zhou Yan said confidently.
"Okay, I believe you. There are seven of us, so we'll order these five dishes." Lin Zhiqiang said with a smile. "Tomorrow evening after work, I'll pick up the two children and come over for dinner."
"Alright, I'll prepare the dishes for you tomorrow." Zhou Yan nodded, watching Lin Zhiqiang leave, a smile appearing on his face.
The menu hadn't even been changed yet, but he'd already opened for business. Uncle Lin was truly his real uncle!
Back in the shop, Zhou Yan found a ten centimeter wide strip of wood, borrowed some tools from the security office next door, and then sawed the long strip of wood into twenty centimeter long wooden plaques. He drilled a hole in each, attached a string, and then wrote the dish names and prices on each plaque.
He tore down the old menu, nailed a row of nails to the wall, hung the three noodle dishes together, and the other dishes in a separate row.
When writing the prices, Zhou Yan pondered for a while.
Braised beef with dried bamboo shoots and stir-fried beef with double peppers were priced at 1 yuan, but three taels of braised pork ribs seemed a bit too little. This was a pure meat dish, while the dried bamboo shoots in the braised beef with dried bamboo shoots accounted for more than half of the dish.
Finally, he increased the amount of pork ribs in one serving to half per jin, and the price of the braised pork ribs also increased to 1.6 yuan, with the cost accounting for 1.1 yuan.
Zhou Yan couldn't help but sigh at this pricing; it was too conscientious.
This is a limitation of the times. Such delicious braised pork ribs, if it was in later times, he could dare to sell it at double or even triple the cost, selling it expensively but well.
Suji is an important economic town in Jiazhou, and the Jiazhou Textile Factory is the leading enterprise in the silk industry of southern Sichuan, generating over ten million US dollars in foreign exchange annually. It's profitable and expanding rapidly, employing many workers who receive high wages.
Many workers even commute from Jiazhou everyday to work at the factory.
In an ordinary small town, it would be impossible to open a Sichuan restaurant at this time.
Farmers simply wouldn't have the money to buy your 60 cents bowl of noodles.
Crucian carp with perilla leaves is 2 yuan per serving, and the cross-legged beef is still sold at 0.6 yuan per serving.
The plaque was hung on the wall, with the red lettering being eye-catching and attractive.
The fixed menu was replaced with wooden boards; this was Zhou Yan's preparation for adding new dishes tomorrow.
To minimize waste and ensure that all ingredients prepared each day are sold, he controls the quantity of ingredients purchased in advance.
When a dish is sold out, he removes the plaque for that dish and places it in the "sold out" section, allowing customers to order from the remaining dishes.
This makes ordering easier for customers and avoids the hassle of repeated confirmations between the front desk and the kitchen.
Without a refrigerator, and needing to ensure the freshness of the ingredients, this is the best method.
Once the business stabilizes and the daily consumption of various dishes becomes consistent, he will gradually increase the quantities until a balance is reached.
Ingredient waste affects the restaurant's profits, and Zhou Yan wouldn't think of eating the unsold food himself; that would be unprofessional.
"Little Zhou, what are you doing with all that ding ding dong dong?" Luo Weidong, the head of the security department, poked his head in the doorway and asked with a smile.
"Chief Luo, I'm changing the menu. I'm going to start selling braised and stir-fried dishes tomorrow." Zhou Yan replied with a smile, putting away some tools.
"You had added some new dishes." Luo Weidong said, entering the restaurant and looking at the wooden sign on the wall. "There aren't many options, though. You're being quite cautious this time."
Zhou Yan's gift of a bowl of cross-legged beef had improved his relationship with the security department, and Luo Weidong had also eaten noodles there once, which tasted really good.
However, when Zhou Yan's restaurant first opened, Luo Weidong had also eaten there once, and the food was truly terrible.
There were dozens of dishes on the menu, and no one said any of them were delicious.
But this time, he's learned his lesson. He's changed from serving toppings to cooking dishes, and from minced meat to stir-fried dishes, aiming for consistency and reliability.
As for the price, it's not cheap.
The braised beef in the canteen costs 80 cents with a food coupon, twenty cents cheaper than in Zhou Yan's restaurant.
Last time he ate the beef with bamboo shoot noodles, and the taste was excellent, definitely better than the canteen's. Paying twenty extra cents was acceptable.
"I'll take the tools back with me. I'll try your fish next time." Luo Weidong said, taking the tools from Zhou Yan.
"Thank you, Section Chief Luo." Zhou Yan said with a smile, seeing Luo Weidong out the door.
After sweeping the floor, Zhou Yan went out and found a reliable fish stall, arranging for twenty crucian carp to be delivered to the restaurant tomorrow at noon.
He wanted crucian carp weighing eight ounces each, good quality farmed fish. This size of crucian carp was perfect for making crucian carp with perilla leaves.
Zhou Yan then wrote a notice and posted it on the wooden board, stating from tomorrow, Zhou Erwa Restaurant would only serve noodles in the morning.
All the preparations were done, and the sun was already setting.
Zhou Yan lay down on the lounge chair by the door to rest. The textile factory wasn't working today, so there were no stalls outside, and it was deserted.
Only the newly moved-in stall opposite, where Zhou Liangliang and his wife were busy wiping down the tables and chairs, caught Zhou Yan's attention.
Zhou Yan curled his lips into a mocking smile. This guy was really quick; he came to check things out yesterday and moved his stall over today.
Zhou Liangliang also saw Zhou Yan sitting at the entrance of the restaurant and said with a smile, "Zhou Yan, we've moved our stall here. We're relatives, you shouldn't mind, right?"
"What would I mind? It's the textile factory's area. If you want to set up a stall, go ahead. Can I stop you?" Zhou Yan laughed.
He certainly didn't have this kind of hypocritical relative.
Zhou Yan glanced at the sign hanging on the stall: Soup Pot + Noodles. This guy wanted to do both; he was really ambitious.
However, the more he saw this, the less optimistic Zhou Yan was about him.
This guy couldn't even sell soup next to Zhou Jie and Zhou Hai's stalls, and he thinks moving to the textile factory entrance will make him successful?
Besides, he hadn't seen him selling noodles before; he probably added it temporarily after seeing his noodle business doing well.
This was within Zhou Yan's expectations. Even if it wasn't Zhou Liangliang, there would be Zhou Mingming or Zhou Tiantian. That's how it always is with setting up stalls.
Zhou Yan enjoyed the breeze for a while, then went inside to cook dinner.
"I don't see Zhou Yan looking nervous at all. Will selling soup pot here really be better business than at the dock?" Zhou Liangliang's wife, Wu Guihua, whispered.
"Don't worry, Zhou Yan sells it for sixty cents a bowl. We'll sell the same soup pot and noodles for fifty cents, ten cents cheaper than him. Business will definitely be good!" Zhou Liangliang said confidently.
They finished the preparations today and contacted the noodle factory. They would deliver the noodles to him tomorrow morning.
For the first day of selling, he didn't order much, just thirty jin of fresh noodles, enough for a hundred bowls.
...
The next morning, at the crack of dawn, Comrade Little Zhou rode his bicycle out to buy groceries.
Today, they only prepared enough noodles and toppings for eighty servings. Whatever wasn't sold in the morning would be their staff meal.
He ordered three jin extra for each of beef brisket and beef sirloin, enough for ten servings of braised beef with bamboo shoots and double pepper beef.
He ordered four extra pounds of pork ribs, enough for eight servings.
Braised pork ribs are delicious, but most people prefer the fragrant and oily twice-cooked pork. The bones are mostly superfluous, and they're expensive, so it's not cost-effective.
On the first day, he was quite conservative; selling all the prepared dishes would be considered a success.
Anyway, there were still 100 servings of cross-legged beef as a back up, so customers would always have something to order.
Auntie Zhao had no objections to the new menu and fully supported Zhou Yan's plan.
However, when she arrived at the restaurant on the back of a bicycle and saw Zhou Liangliang and Wu Guihua, the couple who were simmering bone broth across the street, she frowned: "When did they move here? They're so envious of others' success! They want to jump off a cliff and spread their wings! Aren't they afraid of falling?"