Hotpot Restaurant Chapter 9
A new day, a new beginning.
Meng Xiaoni awoke and the first thought she had when she opened her eyes was to look for the little parrot.
She turned to look where Guifeng was sleeping.
There was nothing there.
Startled, Meng Xiaoni sat up immediately and scanned her entire bedroom.
“How can human beings sleep so much?”
Standing on the cabinet by the window, Guifeng asked Meng Xiaoni, genuinely perplexed. It’s peach-pink feathers shone softly in the shaft of sunlight coming through the window, making quite the beautiful image.
Meng Xiaoni gazed at the small and lovely Guifeng as she replied subconsciously, “Cats and koalas sleep longer than humans do.”
Guifeng flapped its wings and flew to the top of Meng Xiaoni’s head. “Then why don’t you learn from other creatures? The kind that only sleeps for three or four hours a day.”
Meng Xiaoni felt her head get heavier. “…I was born as a human, sorry about that.”
Upon hearing this, Guifeng’s claws twitched slightly. “No need to be sorry. It means that you like humans.”
Meng Xiaoni got off her bed. In order to not disturb Guifeng, she moved slowly, keeping her head still. “I really do like people.”
Guifeng harumphed softly.
The clear, soft sound sounded rather like a childlike whine.
Though his tone was haughty as usual, it still made Meng Xiaoni’s heart happy to listen to him, and the corners of her lips rose unconsciously.
She moved to the bathroom, took her toothbrush, and began to brush her teeth in the mirror.
In the mirror, Meng Xiaoni was looking at Guifeng; Guifeng himself was also looking at himself.
He looked at himself, waved his wings, tilted his head, stood up and kicked its little feet.
The series of actions made Meng Xiaoni steeled her resolve to keep him.
One could always make more money. Such a lovable little Guifeng, there’s only one!
After washing her face, Meng Xiaoni returned to her room and looked at the itinerary she had originally planned the day.
Originally, I planned to continue working on designing and deciding on materials. Looking at the situation now, I can bring forward the research and testing of hot pot bases. Meng Xiaoni turned on her computer and started to modify her schedule.
She also added the matter of “raising Guifeng” to her schedule.
“Wait for Uncle Lu’s design.”
“Wait for the delivery of the stuff for Guifeng.”
“Wait for the response from the Forestry Bureau.”
Meng Xiaoni highlighted the new items, then selected the file, “Hot Pot Bases”
Usually, when the hot pot is served, one could only see a sea of chillis and peppercorns. It was natural for one to be completely distracted by the fragrant aroma, and focus on cooking and eating. Most people wouldn’t bother examining all the ingredients that were at the bottom of the pot.
Only those in the business knew how much work went into making a good hot pot base— it really was a tedious and complicated process.
A hot pot meal typically took about a couple of hours from start to end. The most basic requirement for a good spicy hot pot base was that the bright, intensely red hot pot base should not lose its colour when ingredients and additional soup were added to the pot over the long course of the meal.
In Meng Xiaoni’s small family hot pot eatery, there were two different types of hot pot bases.
One was homemade, and the other was the regular sort of hot pot base bought from manufacturers.
Today, Meng Xiaoni planned to create a brand-new hot pot base.
This was a secret recipe that she came up with reference their family’s homemade hot pot base as well as the many hot pot restaurants she’d dined at.
As for whether it tasted good or not, she had not actually tried it.
Making a hot pot base took an extremely long time, needed a lot of ingredients, and there were many equipment and kitchen requirements. As a student, Meng Xiaoni had to focus on her studies, so she never had the chance to attempt it.
As for when Meng Xiaoni was home…
Father Meng and Mother Meng had always thought: children should just study hard, why should they bother themselves with such hard work?
As a result, Meng Xiaoni had to wait till she had “graduated from school”, before having the opportunity to come back home and “bother herself with such hard work”.
She printed out the list of ingredients needed for the hot pot base and headed downstairs to start work.
Father Meng and Mother Meng ran the eatery rather casually.
They knew that Meng Xiaoni was very excited to start creating her new hot pot base today, so they left her to it and invited two of the townsfolk standing by the entrance for a game of mahjong.
While playing mahjong, the couple continued to talk about Meng Xiaoni and her recent actions.
“The little girl… all she had to do was focus on her studies.”
“Now that she has completed her studies, just let her do what she wants. She told us about it when she graduated.”
“She would need to look for a job anyway, and the salary may not even be higher than what she would earn by running the eatery. Let me tell you, have you heard about…”
The game of mahjong had turned into a gossip session again.
Outside, the adults were lively and in high spirits. In the kitchen, Meng Xiaoni had begun making the hot pot base very seriously.
She had left Guifeng upstairs; wearing a wide apron and a pristine new chef’s hat on her head, she looked quite professional.
The surrounding area was filled with all kinds of bags, and a long line of large bottles and jars. These bags, bottles and jars contained all the ingredients that Meng Xiaoni would be using for her hot pot base.
Every hot pot restaurant had their own hot pot base recipe, using different ingredients in varying quantities.
To really make a store good, one had to ensure the consistency of taste.
Pinpointing the precise ratio of the hot pot base’s ingredients was the key to ensuring the taste’s consistency.
Just like the two world-renowned fried chicken brands and the world-renowned beverage brands, the stores that have endured for a long time, and were opening more and more new branches, owed their successes largely to their ability to maintain the “consistency” of the taste of their food.
“Spices to prepare: white peony root, bay leaves, pepper, white pepper, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom…” Meng Xiaoni ticked them off one by one, weighed out the required amounts, and put them in the grinder in the approximate ratio.
Guifeng quietly entered the kitchen. Perched in a high and hidden corner, he looked down at the multitude of ingredients and his body shook as he was seized by the urge to sneeze.
He was now questioning himself, wondering why on earth he decided to sneak into the kitchen.
Meng Xiaoni continued to gather the ingredients, “Sichuan pepper, bean paste, hot sauce, dried chili, onion, ginger, garlic, rock sugar…”
These she measured, cut and arranged separately, setting them aside to be roasted in the wok later.
Next were the ingredients used to adjust flavour, “Shaoxing wine, white wine, rice wine…”
As Guifeng watched Meng Xiaoni prepare the ingredients, he felt that making a hot pot base was less like cooking and more like alchemy.
Wasn’t it just hot pot? Was it really necessary to use so many ingredients?
Meng Xiaoni hummed as she took out the oil, “Tallow and rapeseed oil!”
She looked around at the preparations that were more or less complete and relaxed a little. She turned and looked at her list, going through it once more to ensure that everything was ready. “Mm, all here.”
The ingredients were good to go, and the next step was to cook.
Heat the oil till it’s shiny, add the ingredients after appropriate cooling, stir and thoroughly mix the contents of pot, and mix in more oil and spices every three hours.
Meng Xiaoni spent the entire day just to make one batch of hot pot base.
Apart from using this new hot pot base in the eatery, she also planned to turn it into a product that could be sold in future.
At that moment, her forehead was slick with sweat, her face and body sporting food stains of various colours. The originally pristine apron and hat were becoming increasingly greasy and yellow.
Though she looked a terrible mess, the hot pot base looked rather successful.
Guifeng could smell the hot and spicy aroma wafting up from the large pot.
There was nothing in it that could be eaten, but it could still make one feel unbearably hungry.
The tallow brought out the flavour of the spices completely, and because of the large amount of wine used, it was even more fresh and fragrant.
Guifeng could even imagine that when the ingredients were added to this rich and luscious hot pot base, how it would cling onto and perfectly envelope every item, and bring such a deep and smooth flavour into every diner’s mouth. With a little chewing, the taste of the food will mix with that of the juicy oil, and along with the addition of some salty and spicy dipping sauce—an explosive experience for the taste buds.
There was the smell of ‘soul’ in the hot pot.1
Meng Xiaoni was not a gifted cook, but she was very special.
Guifeng stretched his feathers slightly.
There were fewer and fewer oversights between the human and ghost realms. The ghosts who still existed in the human realm were basically those who had refused to go get reincarnated— they were ordinary ghosts who couldn’t hurt the living.
This pot of hot pot base, apart from attracting Guifeng, also attracted hungry and harmless ghosts such as those.
Offerings of incense was needed to connect Yin and Yang.
Only when Yin and Yang were connected, could the food in the human realm be eaten by these ghosts.
Some ghosts could get to eat several large meals every year, while some had never even gotten one mouthful after they’d become ghosts.
No one could have expected that a person like Meng Xiaoni existed in the human realm.
She had actually never done much cooking in her life, and she had never been exposed by the ghosts who had discovered her abilities.
Guifeng retracted his wings and crouched back down; this was all none of his business anyway.
All the ten Yama Kings2 were stupid buffoons anyway.
Heh.
Meng Xiaoni didn’t know anything of the intricacies between and within the human and ghost realms.
Just then, she was only focused on making a good hot pot base, one that would propel the success of her family’s little eatery.
The Meng’s eatery had already established their own flavour. With her research and development, she would definitely bring it to the next level.
After the hot pot base was done cooking, it had to be cooled down.
As it was made with tallow, it will solidify when cooled. The final step was to cut it into pieces for storage. Then, when one wanted to eat hot pot, they could just simply add some pieces into the pot and boil it with soup.
When Meng Xiaoni finished making the batch of hot pot base, she felt that it was really too tiring to do this by hand.
No wonder those prominent restaurant chains all eventually mechanise their processes when they’ve made it big.
Clean, fast, and cost-effective, it’s far more efficient than going through the process of doing everything manually.
“It’s great to have money.” Meng Xiaoni stretched and sighed a little enviously. “With money, it’ll be much easier to do all these research, and we can proceed with mass-production much sooner.”
Unlike now, where she had barely enough money for the renovation and could only do a little bit at a time.
She washed her hands thoroughly, took out a piece of the hot pot base, and put it in the hot pot on the table.
Chock full of ingredients and seasoning, the piece of hot pot base looked very enticing.
“…Sigh, after smelling this the entire day, I actually don’t feel like eating it anymore.” Meng Xiaoni was a little bit distressed. “Should I just have some instant noodles tonight?”
Guifeng flew down to Meng Xiaoni’s head. “Prepare the hot pot, I want to eat it.”
After it spoke it, it gave Meng Xiaoni’s hat a peck.
Meng Xiaoni was surprised; it was only then did she realize that Guifeng had been in the kitchen. “Why are you in the kitchen? Not only will my hot pot base go to waste, but I’d also need to sterilize the place again!”
Ghost Phoenix, “…… I’m not diseased!!”
Claiming that you’re not diseased doesn’t mean that you really are not!
At the thought that her hard day’s work had all gotten to waste, Meng Xiaoni’s expression went bleak as she grimaced and fell silent.
Seeing that Meng Xiaoni wasn’t speaking or moving, Guifeng bowed and gave her a peck.
Meng Xiaoni let out a long sigh and started packing up.
At this long sigh, there was a short pause before Guifeng told his first lie since meeting Meng Xiaoni, “I… have been vaccinated.”
Meng Xiaoni paused in mid-action. “Really?”
Guifeng stared at the hot pot below him. “Really.”
Footnotes:
1 In the original Chinese text, it is written literally that there is ‘soul’ in the hot pot base Meng Xiaoni was preparing. Given the next part about incense, ghosts and food, I think the author is introducing us to one Meng Xiaoni’s abilities— that her food can be eaten by ghosts directly, without the need for incense (in other words, it could ‘connect Yin and Yang’ directly), and this was probably because she (unwittingly) imbued the food with ‘soul’
2 Yama Kings: In Chinese mythology, ‘Yama’ is the term for a king of the Underworld. The concept of the “Ten Courts of Hell” began after Chinese folk religion was influenced by Buddhism. Each of these courts was overseen by a different Yama King.
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