Return To 1998

For three consecutive mornings, Tongdao Xu drove the old van around the city.

On the first morning, he came near the Naval University.

The next morning, he came to the vicinity of Shorebird University.

On the morning of the third day, he came to the vicinity of Shuizhao Agricultural University.

These three universities are the most famous universities in Shuidiao City in Xu Tongdao's impression.

In addition, there are second-class ones, such as Waterfowl Engineering University, Waterfowl Teachers College (Waterfowl Teachers College), and so on.

Water Bird City is generally not rich, but the emphasis on education is unmatched by many places.

These three mornings, Xu Tongdao has been looking for suitable storefronts near these three universities, mainly to find places and ask for rent.

He wasn't in a hurry to decide where to rent.

He has no plans to go to other universities.

Anyway, with his current funds, he can only afford to open a small Internet cafe in the near future, and there is no point in running too many places.

After three mornings, he must have gained something.

For example, he has already inquired clearly, at present, both the Naval University and the Waterbird University have set up computer majors.

However, there is no computer major at the Waterfowl Agricultural University.

Therefore, he first ruled out opening his first Internet cafe near the Water Bird Agricultural University, and only considered the Water Bird University and the Water Bird University.

After some on-the-spot investigation and comparison, he is more inclined to open his first Internet cafe on the Ximen Street of Naval University.

The main reason is that in the original time and space, he worked in the canteen of the Naval University for half a year. In contrast, he was more familiar with the Naval University.

Moreover, the commercial atmosphere on the west gate of Naval University is really good. Although there are no big stores, it is very popular there. Many students of Naval University usually like to go to that street for consumption.

Just when he decided to go to that street tomorrow morning to find a suitable store and rent it as soon as possible, Ge Liangcai brought a chef named Li Jin to Xu Tongdao's barbecue restaurant.

Li Jin, about twenty seven or eight years old.

He was not tall, about 1.6 meters tall. He was white and clean. He had an inch of hair trimmed. His clothes and shoes were all clean. He looked like a college student.

Not at all like a chef.

His appearance caused Tongdao Xu to flash a word in his mind when Ge Liangcai introduced this person: Huskies mixed in with wolves.

Anyway, from the outside, Xu Tongdao couldn't see that Li Jin looked like a chef.

But when my cousin Ge Liangcai introduced him, he said he was.

Moreover, he had worked with Ge Liangcai before, and Ge Liangcai said with a smile that what Li Jin is best at is home cooking.

Xu Tongdao didn't say much. He shook hands with Li Jin and exchanged a few words. Then he discussed with Li Jin, can we make two dishes first?

Chefs looking for jobs generally have to try dishes, unless they are apprentices.

Li Jin agreed happily, and Xu Tongdao led him into the kitchen and watched him serve and cook.

Li Jin asked what to cook?

Tongdao Xu gave him a menu from the store, and asked him to choose three courses of tea on the menu himself.

On this menu, in addition to barbecue and whole sheep feast, it is home-cooked.

Li Jin glanced at the menu and chose three simple dishes.

A shredded potato with green peppers, a scrambled egg with tomatoes, and a braised crucian carp.

In fact, home cooking is not complicated.

Otherwise, how can it be called home cooking?

But Xu Tongdao knew that home cooking was easy to learn but difficult to master.

There are many people who can cook home-cooked food, but there are not many people who can really cook home-cooked food well.

Sometimes, the simpler a dish is, the more it will test a chef's skills.

Because the simpler the dish, the more people will be able to cook it. If you often cook it and others often cook it, then if you want to cook it obviously better than others, it won't be easy.

Such as the very common green pepper potato shreds.

Is this dish simple enough?

But how can you make such a simple dish to surpass what your peers do?

Knife work, the time for blanching, the time for stir-frying, seasoning, and cooking, etc., must be well controlled in order to be able to do well.

Li Jin showed his good knife skills in front of Xu Tongdao.

When stir-frying, the techniques of turning the pot and pushing the spoon are also very skilled, seasoning... Tongdao Xu nodded slightly when he saw it, that is, the time for the pot to come out was a little earlier than when he made it himself.

Then, the shredded green peppers and potatoes after they are out of the pot are a bit more beautiful than what Xu Tongdao made by himself.

On the clean white plate, each orange shredded potato is very refreshing, mixed with green green pepper shreds, piled on the plate, like a pile of firewood that has shrunk many times.

The placement effect is really good.

But Tongdao Xu frowned slightly.

Because he felt it was not the right way to cook home-cooked food.

Only a large restaurant would do this with shredded green peppers and potatoes. He, Tongdao Xu, was also used to doing this before.

But the real home cooking should not shorten the time in the pot for the appearance of the dish after it is out of the pot.

In a small shop like him, the appearance of the dishes is never the first, the taste and the weight of a dish should be the first consideration.

In life, many people have a feeling that although the food in the big hotel looks good, it seems that it is generally not as good as the food in the small roadside shops.

Is this because the chefs in the big hotels are not as skilled as the small shops along the road?

of course not!

The problem is that the appearance and taste of a dish are actually contradictory.

If you want to look good, the heat should not be burnt properly, and the time of the dishes in the pot should not be too long.

Otherwise, the dish will be burnt, taste good, and delicious, but it will be soft and sloppy, and it will not look good on a plate.

And the dishes of the big hotel ... generally require the first appearance.

Whether it's delicious or not, don't worry about it, let's make it look good first.

Li Jin's shredded green peppers and potatoes obviously have such a common problem.

It looks good, but Xu Tongdao doesn't think this dish will be delicious.

Fortunately, this problem is not big, he believes that when he reminds himself, Li Jin can overcome this problem.

...

After the three dishes were finished, Li Jin motioned to Xu Tongdao to try the taste.

Tongdao Xu didn't save his face. He tried every dish. Li Jin's three dishes were all pretty good, but the taste of each dish was as expected by Tongdao. The taste is also a little worse.

Xu Tongdao nodded.

Master Li, you shouldn't have done it in a shop as small as mine before, right?

This question was obviously unexpected to Li Jin.

He was stunned and nodded slightly, Yes! I haven't done it before, what's wrong?

Ge Liangcai on the side also looked at Xu Tongdao curiously.

Tongdao Xu smiled and took out a cigarette case to give them a cigarette. Smoking could ease the atmosphere.

Then he pointed out the problem, Master Li, your craftsmanship is good! This is my sincerity, but you haven't done it in a small shop like mine, so you may not know how to make home-cooked dishes in small shops. How to say it? If you do this, there is no problem in a big hotel, that's right! But in a small shop like mine, customers don't have such high requirements for the appearance of the dishes, but they have higher requirements for the taste of the dishes. Cook these dishes a little longer and there will be no problem.