Chapter 40

Chapter 40: This Lion’s Head Dish Seems to Have a…

Hearing Gao Shuxian’s suggestion, the customers looked at each other.

“I don’t really mind…”

“I’m mainly here to eat. As long as you’re not too loud singing, I’m fine with it.”

The eldest brother slapped his thigh: “What are you waiting for? Don’t worry, I do like to drink a bit, but my tolerance is low! If I get too drunk and go home, even our boss won’t open the door for me!”

Gao Shuxian also reassured them: “Our private rooms are spacious enough. Since you all came alone, I guess the main reason is to eat, right? If the three of you share a room and split the group-buy cost, it’ll be just over twenty yuan each. How about that?”

The customers were tempted.

In this way, what’s the difference from going to an ordinary snack shop?

Oh, there is one difference: ordinary snack shops don’t let you sing while you wait.

Shunzi smiled as he escorted the customers sharing the room inside, noted down their snack orders, and was about to leave when he heard the private room start singing “Beijing Welcomes You.”

He chuckled — this song is popular with all ages, fitting the age distribution in the room well.

As the Swan’s private rooms filled up, the kitchen got busier.

The most ordered dishes in each room were still the old-style fried chicken, followed by crispy fried crucian carp. The lion’s head meatballs, once a hit in the kindergarten days, still hadn’t been ordered much.

However, even just these two snacks were enough to impress the customers!

In the shared private room, Shunzi quickly served several snacks.

The smiling doll-faced young girl held a fried chicken leg contentedly, the well-dressed man in a suit politely bit off the meat and pulled out a chicken bone in just two bites.

The most easygoing middle-aged man nibbled on the small fried fish, slowly savoring a sip of alcohol.

“This little fish is really something! If I could come every day to have a plate with my drinks, I wonder how great that would be.”

Shunzi couldn’t help but agree: “Indeed, this kind of small fried fish is hard to get nowadays. You’ve got good taste. This is just perfect for pairing with drinks!”

Just then, a call came from another private room. Another server looked troubled as he went in, listened to the customer’s request, and explained with some difficulty, “Sorry, the crispy fried crucian carp is out of stock today. Our supply has been sold out.”

Although confident in the dish’s popularity, Gao Shuxian hadn’t expected the newly introduced crispy fried crucian carp to be so well-loved!

After all, fried chicken—flavor aside—can be roughly found at many places.

But small fried fish are really rare.

“…It’s already sold out?”

The customers in the private room had ordered one portion each of fried chicken and crispy fried crucian carp. They only intended to try it, but unexpectedly, the crispy and tasty small fish disappeared so quickly.

Wanting to order another plate, but it was gone just like that?

“Exactly,” the server smiled politely, “You know, these small crucian carps are hard to find in the market too. Our dishes are freshly made with morning purchases, and you can tell from the taste that these are fried the same day. Otherwise, would you like to try something else?”

“Alright,” although the small fried fish was gone, the three customers in the room had just gotten their appetites started. They glanced at each other and decided to each order a portion of lion’s head meatballs. “Do you have rice? If so, bring some too.”

The guest who ordered rice felt like laughing — it was her first time ordering plain white rice at a KTV.

However, looking at the bright lights in the room and the servers strictly wearing masks according to standards, she suddenly felt that treating this place like a restaurant didn’t seem so wrong after all.“Yes, please wait a moment, I’ll bring it right away.”

Normally, KTV waiters wouldn’t be too tired, but at the Swan now, several waiters were barely touching the ground with their feet.

“Make way! Make way!”

“Shunzi, the kitchen said there’s no more prepared fried chicken. The next batch will take ten minutes. Let the customers know.”

“No more rice! Send someone out to buy more!”

The Swan KTV now was as noisy as any regular KTV, except that ordinary KTVs were filled with customers’ loud singing and shouting, while the Swan was filled with waiters’ loud communication.

Gao Shuxian was a bit excited, working part-time at the front desk doing the accounts. She studied accounting in college, so tallying up was quick for her.

“Today’s turnover is estimated to be at least three thousand yuan!”

Three thousand yuan in one night’s turnover is not much for a regular KTV. But for the Swan, this was the best result Gao Shuxian had ever seen since taking over!

“Shuxian, what target turnover did you tell your family you wanted to achieve?”

“At least one month should exceed 150,000 yuan…”

When she first took over the KTV, she was optimistic, thinking turnover wasn’t profit—what couldn’t be achieved? Didn’t the other family-run KTVs have about this turnover?

But she hadn’t expected that such high turnover depended on nighttime drinking parties, and even some less-than-clean business.

Wang Jinghan, who had worked at the front desk for over a year, hesitated and said, “Do you think we can reach that?”

“We have to, no matter what!”

After finishing the accounts, Gao Shuxian went to the kitchen to see if she could help.

Before Chen Ran arrived, Gao Shuxian anxiously wasted energy every day watching over the empty KTV, thinking about the fiancé her family chose for her.

But today, she had gone grocery shopping in the morning, helped the aunt wash fish, and even surprisingly taken a nap before opening at noon.

Seeing Chen Ran standing there lifting a pot of freshly fried chicken legs, confidently draining the oil with strong arms, she suddenly felt a surge of confidence.

Things have to get done!

“Is there anything I can help with?”

Chen Ran was blunt, immediately sending the boss out to buy groceries: “No, there’s nothing you can help with. The aunt will do it. Gao, if you have time, go buy some carrots and green radishes, buy some northern tofu, I want to try a new dish.”

Just as Gao Shuxian finished checking out at the front desk, the system had unlocked a third snack dish for her!

True to the Chinese snack set, these three fried dishes were all filled with rich traditional flavor.

The first two, old-fashioned fried chicken legs and crispy fried crucian carp, were both meat dishes. The third was a vegetarian snack.

Vegetarian meatballs!

Perfect, because all the crispy fried crucian carp had already been made tonight. Even the scraps left on the plate had been scraped up by Shunzi and mixed into rice.

Chen Ran joked, “Can’t I leave you two more whole fish for tomorrow?”

“You don’t understand, Chef Chen! That’s the essence!”

The employee meals Chen Ran had cooked these past two days were almost completely eaten. The next day she deliberately made half more portions than the day before, and they were still finished clean by everyone.However, seeing even Gao Shuxian eating until she hiccupped, Chen Ran still felt the employee meals should be made in this portion and not increased.

After frying the last batch of chicken legs, feeling Wang Jinghan firmly kneading her shoulders, Chen Ran took a break just as Gao Shuxian returned with tofu and radishes.

Fried meatballs!

Gao Shuxian was a bit out of breath: “Ranran, look, are these radishes okay?”

Chen Ran took the radishes and nodded, then saw Gao Shuxian very conscientiously start washing them.

She chuckled silently and took the tofu to blanch it first.

“So you’re going to fry radish meatballs?”

The aunt nearby finally could stretch and came over to watch: “I can fry radish meatballs too, let me help! Flour or starch? Should the radishes be shredded with a grater?”

“No flour or starch, add tofu!”

Gao Shuxian had washed both kinds of radishes. Chen Ran directed the aunt to shred the radishes with a grater together with her.

The two kinds of shredded radishes were mixed in a 30:70 ratio, bright green and red, looking very appealing. Then a handful of salt was added and kneaded evenly to draw out water. As moisture was squeezed out, the color became more vivid.

“Yes, mushrooms need to be squeezed dry too, and cut the scallions finer.”

She was still a bit tired today, so she simply instructed the aunt to cut the side ingredients.

After squeezing out the radish water, Chen Ran put on another pair of gloves and began mixing in the tofu. She casually crumbled the tofu, added a little starch, kneading and seasoning as she went.

According to the recipe the system gave her, though the kneading looked casual, there were many precise points.

If seasoning was added too early, tofu would release water; too late, and it wouldn’t mix evenly.

Even the casual kneading had to consider the pressure applied.

The oil in the pan was heated to about 70% hot. Chen Ran held her hand over the oil to test the temperature, then skillfully squeezed a tofu meatball into the pan.

The oil, which had looked calm moments before, quickly started bubbling vigorously!

Watching, Gao Shuxian couldn’t help but salivate a little.

She already liked fried tofu, whether stinky tofu or ordinary northern tofu fried at home—it was all her favorite.

But she had never seen radish meatballs made by replacing flour with tofu like this.

Unlike flour-based fried meatballs, tofu meatballs fried to a golden color looked even more tempting and appetizing.

Following the recipe, Chen Ran purposely left the carrot shreds slightly coarse, and since tofu’s stickiness was less than flour’s, the radish shreds visibly stuck out of the meatballs.

But these irregularly shaped meatballs looked even more appetizing!

With tofu as the base, these meatballs naturally had a crispier layer than those made with flour. Within the golden crispiness, deep-fried dark orange carrot shreds poked out, while finer green radish shreds were well incorporated inside, showing a fresh green color.

Just from appearance alone, these meatballs deserved a perfect ten!

Compared to the two darker fried dishes earlier, these vegetarian meatballs were so beautiful that one couldn’t help but admire them first before daring to eat.

After waiting quite a while, Gao Shuxian blew on them several times, unable to hold back, and bit in.

Crisp!The third Chinese snack continued the theme of the first two fried dishes: crispiness.

But this crispiness was different from hard crisp or flaky crisp; the tofu’s crispness had a slightly soft resilience. Combined with the slightly chewy carrot shreds, the overall texture was crispy yet chewy, with a soft interior.

In flavor, the tofu had a slight lingering sweetness, the carrot brought a vegetable’s natural sweet fragrance, and inside the green radish and mushrooms added their fresh, natural aroma.

Layer upon layer of fresh sweetness gathered together, with finely chopped scallions subtly enhancing the fragrance, softening the meatball’s texture to the extreme!

The fresh sweetness of the vegetables, the savory mushrooms, the tofu’s crispy outside and tender inside, plus the crispy carrot shreds on the surface adding texture—the meatball was practically perfect!

Even Gao Shuxian, who usually did not eat carrots, had no criticism of this meatball.

She had tried the old-style fried chicken leg and the crispy fried crucian carp before. Back then, Gao Shuxian had suggested adding fried French fries alongside these two fried meats.

But now, she felt there was no better fit than these fried meatballs!

The rich aroma of the fried chicken leg, the fresh aroma of the crispy fried crucian carp, and the pure vegetable sweetness of these meatballs…

She could hardly imagine how perfect the texture would be when the three were paired together.

Gao Shuxian suddenly felt full of confidence in the 150,000-yuan revenue bet.

“How is it? Is it good?”

Chen Ran saw the boss eating a meatball as if stunned and couldn’t help but ask, “Not good?”

Though she couldn’t taste it herself, based on the recipe alone, she felt the meatballs should be quite perfect.

Surely not so bad that people wouldn’t have words for it?

“Delicious!” Gao Shuxian grabbed another meatball, breaking her heiress image as she chewed and slurred, “So delicious!”

Only then did Chen Ran relax, pointing at the meatballs: “This can go on the menu tomorrow. Crispy fried crucian carp can be limited, but these meatballs—order as many as you want, they’ll sell well.”

Crucian carp was hard to buy, but tofu and radishes? Why not buy as much as needed?

“As for lion’s head meatballs…”

At first, she had thought to use lion’s head meatballs to boost KTV sales, but she hadn’t expected the system’s snack set to be so effective.

Lion’s head meatballs were, after all, somewhat incompatible with KTV.

“Lion’s head meatballs won’t be sold anymore?”

Gao Shuxian was a little reluctant but agreed after considering sales comparison.

“Then sell the last few and remove them from the menu.”

“Okay, private room 102, four lion’s head meatballs!”

Shunzi came over efficiently carrying the last four lion’s head meatballs and two boxes of rice, serving them to room 102.

“Customer, here are your lion’s head meatballs.”

The few customers in room 102 looked a bit tired and weren’t singing; some collapsed on the sofa as soon as they entered.

“What are you eating lion’s head meatballs at a KTV for? Don’t worry, no matter where you go, you won’t find the taste of our old kindergarten…”

As he spoke, he watched the waiter lift the lid off the bowl, and a familiar rich aroma wafted out.No! This smell… isn’t this the lion’s head meatballs from the kindergarten?