SFS Chapter 298: Can you provide a private banquet?
Chapter 298: Can you provide a private banquet?
For several days in a row, Zhao Xiaojing followed Su Yuchen to visit various families to pay New Year's greetings during the day, eating and drinking for free. When she returned home at night, she played cards and mahjong with Su's father and mother, and relived the intermittent Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve due to the chaos in Dong Mei's house. Before going to bed, she listened to Su Yuchen's mumblings and the legendary stories he met with relatives during the day. Before going to bed, she resisted the strong sleepiness and got into the virtual space to practice 5 minutes, which was 7.5 hours of cooking skills on a wood stove in the virtual space. Her life was so fulfilling.
We play like this until the fifth day, when it is time to welcome the God of Wealth.
The village started setting off firecrackers early in the morning. The two woke up early and were yelled at by Su's mother to open all the doors and windows of the house. They lit a string of firecrackers in the yard and watched the firecrackers explode from the yard to outside the gate. After a while of crackling, they began to clean from upstairs to downstairs under Su's mother's command until the whole yard was clean and all the garbage was thrown away. Only then did Su's mother start to make breakfast.
This is the "po wu" that every household in the village does. It is the homonym of "Po wu" (breaking the fifth day of the fifth lunar month), which means cleaning, throwing away sewage, dumping garbage, and getting rid of bad luck.
Breakfast was Yuanbao dumplings that had been wrapped long ago and frozen in the refrigerator. Su's mother shouted that everyone should eat a bowl, which represented welcoming the Yuanbao from the God of Wealth and receiving good fortune.
Although Zhao Xiaojing had heard of similar customs and had symbolically forwarded pictures of the God of Wealth on WeChat Moments at home before, this was the first time she had celebrated it with such a sense of ritual. She couldn't help but laugh while eating.
In the morning, Su's father was sent to work in the fields again. Less than half an hour after he left, he hurried back and stood at the door with three people, calling Su's mother.
Su's mother ran to the door. After they talked for a while, she opened her mouth and shouted at Su Yuchen who was watching TV in the main room.
"What's the matter?" As soon as Su Yuchen went out, he saw his parents and the two sons and one grandson of the 9-year-old grandmother in the village standing at the door. Five pairs of eyes were staring at him, and he asked in confusion.
"Well, can Xiaojing prepare the banquet?" Su's mother sounded a little nervous.
"Of course! She's been invited to host wedding banquets at big restaurants. Why?"
"Then call Xiaojing out for a moment." Several people looked at each other and Father Su spoke.
"You Calabash Brothers are here to save grandpa, and you're still shouting one by one!" Su Yuchen curled his lips at the mysterious look on his parents' faces, turned around and shouted Zhao Xiaojing into the house.
There is a tradition in the village that one should not visit other people's homes on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. Others open their doors to welcome the God of Wealth, and if you go to someone else's home you are stealing their wealth. Therefore, none of them had any intention of entering the house, but instead called people out one by one.
After Zhao Xiaojing responded and went out, seven people stood together at the gate of the yard. Finally, there was no one left in the house. Su Yuchen burst out laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" Father Su asked curiously.
"There are exactly seven, and the last one is Calabash Brothers!" Su Yuchen pointed at Zhao Xiaojing.
Su's father and mother laughed out loud, Zhao Xiaojing looked confused, and the other three looked at the person who came out and then looked at each other.
"Will this work?" The grandson among the three, who looked to be in his thirties or forties, couldn't help but ask.
Father Su looked at him helplessly, hesitantly turning to look at Zhao Xiaojing, "Xiaojing, can you cook for the banquet?"
"What kind of banquet, how many tables, how many people per table, what are the standards?" Zhao Xiaojing asked carefully without rushing to answer.
The eldest son of the three was about the same age as Su's father. When Zhao Xiaojing asked him this, his expression eased a little, and he hurriedly took another step forward. "For a 90-year-old birthday banquet, we need to prepare 45 tables of food. The exact number of tables depends on tomorrow's situation. There will be about 12 people at each table, divided into three rounds, with about 10 tables per round. Can you do it?"
"Forty-five tables for tomorrow's birthday banquet?" Zhao Xiaojing frowned. "I can definitely make it, but time is a bit tight. I'm afraid I won't be able to prepare all the ingredients. Is there a market in the village today? Have you decided on the menu?"
"Are you sure you can do it? Little girl, we have a birthday banquet with 45 tables. Ninetieth birthday is a big birthday. This is not the time to play around and show off!" The grandson, who felt Zhao Xiaojing was unreliable as soon as he saw her, questioned again.
"Hongliang!" The eldest son turned around and scolded his grandson, then tried to soften his expression and looked at Zhao Xiaojing, "They have prepared all the ingredients, and the menu has been decided before. Now the most urgent thing is to find a chef to take charge of the cooking. Don't worry about anything else."
"It's like this, Xiaojing." Father Su saw that the others hadn't come up with a name for a long time, and was afraid that Zhao Xiaojing still didn't understand the situation, so he turned around and explained, "Their birthday banquet was booked a long time ago. Originally, it was booked for Chef Xie's team in town and a relative from Fujian Province.
The relatives were just auxiliary, and they only prepared two or three special hometown dishes for each table to make the old lady happy.
Chef Xie’s team is the main force. They are the ones who specialize in buffets in the town. All the ingredients, such as the chefs who cut the vegetables and prepare the side dishes, are provided directly by them.
Originally they had prepared all the ingredients, manpower, and tableware, but Chef Xie's mother suddenly passed away in the middle of the night yesterday, and she called to say she couldn't come. Everyone was anxious, but it was a matter of life and death, and there was nothing they could do.
Chef Xie has also looked for other chefs to help, but during the New Year holidays, most people either took no work or went out for family reunions, so Lao Wei and the others had to ask their own chef relatives for help. As for the ingredients and manpower, Chef Xie and his team had already prepared them and could continue to provide them.
In their team, Chef Xie is the head chef, and Chef Huang is the assistant chef. If their relatives were to replace them, the two chefs would be barely enough. But the problem is that Chef Huang is not the main chef, and the relatives came to celebrate the old lady's birthday, so it is not good to use him as a chef, and he will not accept the money. Moreover, the dishes there are slightly different from ours. The boss also tried to send the menu to ask, and the relatives said that he is not very good at the dishes of Chef Xie's team, but now the dishes are ready, and it is too late to change.
They came to me for help, and I thought, since you run a restaurant, I asked you."
Zhao Xiaojing nodded. After Father Su's explanation, she finally understood. Now she didn't have to worry about the ingredients or manpower. She only needed to worry about cooking.
"Can I see the menu?" After Su's father said so much, the three of them looked anxious. Zhao Xiaojing looked directly at her eldest son and asked.
"Hongliang, call it out quickly!" The second son waved his hand hurriedly.
The grandson took out his cell phone from his arms, played the photo of the menu, stared at Zhao Xiaojing with a frown, and handed the phone over.
Zhao Xiaojing glanced at him calmly, then lowered her head to look at the menu carefully.