The van slowly parked in the parking space on the roadside in front of Daolin's BBQ.
The driver's cab and passenger seat doors opened one after another, and Ge Lianghua and Xu Tongdao got out of the car.
The two of them walked into the store one after another.
Xu Tonglin, Xi Dongyang and others were walking in the hall. When they heard footsteps, several people looked over one after another and saw it was Xu Tongdao and Ge Lianghua.
All smiled.
Xu Tonglin stood up, took some tissue paper from the tissue box on the table, wiped his hands, "Here you come? I'll pour you tea!"
Comrade Xu smiled and did not refuse.
He and Ge Lianghua came here often recently, about once every two days on average.
Every time they come, Xu Tonglin is always the first to get up and pour tea.
The weather was very hot in September, and the air conditioner in the van they drove was not as effective as an electric fan, so he was really thirsty.
He didn't say anything. He and Ge Lianghua behind him looked towards the kitchen and asked, "Where is Chef Li? Is he still working in the kitchen?"
The Chef Li he spoke of was Li Xiaoshan, the head chef that Comrade Xu poached from Wudu.
Li Xiaoshan has been studying hot pot base ingredients, dipping sauces, spicy oil and other recipes here for more than a month. When they came last time, Li Xiaoshan said that they were almost done with the research.
They agreed that day that when they come back today, Li Xiaoshan will officially make hot pot for them to taste.
A very formal taste test.
Although every time they came here before, they could often try the hot pot base, dipping sauce, or spicy oil newly developed by Li Xiaoshan.
But every taste test before was done individually.
For example, try the newly developed hot pot base alone.
Or the newly developed dipping sauce.
Or maybe chili oil.
What does the official hot pot taste like when these two are combined together? Ge Lianghua has never tried it, and neither has Xu Tongdao.
"Well, early this morning he went to the vegetable market in person to pick out pork leg bones, beef leg bones, chicken rack bones, fresh large crucian carp and other things. When he came back, he said they were all used for soup stock. At this time, it seemed
Prepare some dipping sauce in the kitchen…”
He was still playing Dongyang in his hands, and answered Ge Lianghua unhurriedly.
When he said these words, Tongdao Xu had already walked into the kitchen with some anticipation.
Li Xiaoshan, who is thin and wearing a white chef's uniform and a black cloth apron, is chopping garlic at the chopping board.
Li Xiaoshan patiently sliced the garlic seeds, which were not much bigger than peanuts. When he heard the footsteps, he turned to look at Xu Tongdao.
He gave me a smile, nodded, and said hello, then looked away and continued to chop the garlic under his hand.
Comrade Xu looked on with a smile.
Li Xiaoshan cut each piece of garlic into thin slices as thick as a fingernail, cut a small pile, closed it with the edge of the knife, and patiently cut the slices into shreds.
This time the cuts were a little different in thickness.
But this is normal. If it can be cut into evenly sized filaments, it would be abnormal.
After cutting into shreds, his knife skills became frantic. After a while, he chopped horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, and then chopped the small pile of shredded garlic on the chopping board into minced garlic.
Xu Tongdao, who was standing by the kitchen door with a smile on his face, saw this and asked with a smile: "Are you all ready?"
The reason why I asked this was because he was so patient in chopping garlic from Li Xiaoshan and did such a trick, which showed that Li Xiaoshan must be quite free.
If you are busy, who has the time to chop garlic like this? Should you slice it first and then shred it?
Li Xiaoshan took a white disc and shoveled the minced garlic that had just been chopped on the chopping board into the plate. While cleaning up the chopping board, he smiled and nodded, "Well, that's almost it. Let's cut some more millet peppers."
That’s it. Do you want to serve the pot and scald the vegetables now?”
Comrade Xu's smile did not change, "Well, let's go! In order to be more accurate, I didn't eat a bite of food at noon today. I just ate an apple. I'm already very hungry."
"Okay! Just wait a moment!"
As Li Xiaoshan said this, he quickly took some spicy millet and put it on the chopping board. After a while, he cut them all into small circles.
…
When he was making hot pot soup base, Tongdao Xu did not leave the kitchen, but stood not far away and watched with a smile.
Watch him put ginger slices, garlic granules, green onion slices, shallot segments, red dates, wolfberries, angelica root, pickled cabbage, rock sugar, newly developed hot pot base ingredients, MSG, pickled peppers, etc. into the copper hot pot that he had prepared long ago.
Then he opened the lid of a half-meter-deep stainless steel vat and scooped out milky white spoonfuls of broth.
When the stainless steel bucket lid was opened, Mr. Xu sniffed his nose and smelled the strong aroma of bone broth.
Very pure!
Based on his experience as a chef in those years, as soon as he smelled the aroma of this bone broth, he knew that this bone broth was really a broth made from various bones, rather than a fake soup made from various additives that many hot pot restaurants like to use.
goods.
When Li Xiaoshan brought the bottom of the pot out of the kitchen, Comrade Xu walked over out of curiosity and fished it out in the stainless steel soup bucket with a long-handled spoon.
He found a lot of bones at the bottom of the barrel.
There are pork bones, thick beef leg bones, chicken rack bones, and three large crucian carp wrapped in white gauze.
He can also make soup stock.
Ordinary small restaurants do not have the process of making soup stock.
Because small restaurants follow the route of high quality and low price, if soup stock is used, the cost will skyrocket, and the pricing of dishes cannot be maintained at a low price.
Otherwise, you will definitely lose money.
But larger restaurants, restaurants that pay attention to reputation, generally like to use stock to season their dishes.
To put it a bit further back - in the past, when there was no MSG and chicken essence, the main means for chefs to season dishes was various secret stocks and sauces.
Of course, hotpot restaurants use the most soup stock.
But the favorite place to cheat in the broth is also a hot pot restaurant.
There is no way, most hotpot restaurants are on the affordable or low-price route. If they really use real soup stock, the profits will be thin and there is a high possibility of losses.
Tongdao Xu... If it weren't for his Ximen Yipin hot pot restaurant that was being renovated in the most popular Datong Food Street in Shuiniao City, and if it wasn't for the abundant customers there every day, he wouldn't have dared to go to his hot pot restaurant.
Use genuine stock.
This thing is really expensive.
…
Li Xiaoshan prepared two hot pot soup bases for everyone.
One portion is the bottom of the red soup pot, and the other is the bottom of the clear soup pot.
In addition, he also prepared more than a dozen kinds of hot dishes, such as chicken wings, ham sausages, mutton rolls, beef rolls, tofu skin, etc.
In addition, he also personally asked everyone about their taste and personally helped everyone prepare a flavor dish that suits everyone's taste.
By the time he had mixed all the sauces, the soup base in the two large copper pots was boiling over the charcoal fire.
Ge Lianghua had already prepared liquor and drinks for everyone.
Li Xiaoshan stood aside and extended his hand to signal, "Everyone, please!"