Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 1107 - 536: Addicted to Making Snacks
Thanks to Qin Huai's breakthrough, Qin Luo had a few splendid days, succeeding in taking more than he could eat every morning. He would pack up two large bags of breakfast and hand out snacks to classmates he was friendly with, making him the most popular person in the class, with no exceptions.
This situation led to a direct consequence: the originally quiet early morning hours at 6 suddenly became busy with many people ordering deliveries. Qin Luo's classmates, who were mostly well-off, had never known Yunzhong Restaurant's snacks were so delicious. Now that they did, they obviously had to order delivery to enjoy them daily.
Because of this, Zhao Cheng'an curiously asked Qin Luo, now a sophomore, whether her classmates knew what Qin Luo's family did for a living.
Qin Luo replied that her classmates knew, but reality isn't as exaggerated as what's shown in dramas.
Yunzhong Restaurant is indeed relatively famous as a community cafeteria in Shan City, but it's merely a community cafeteria. In this age of widespread marketing, people neither live nearby nor work close enough to eat there regularly and aren't likely to deliberately visit a community cafeteria to buy breakfast or snacks.
If someone never tasted the food, naturally, they wouldn't think the snacks from a community cafeteria could be that delicious. Even if raved online and in friends' social media posts, everyone treats it as typical online sharing. After all, the internet is filled with people boasting straight-A credentials and million-dollar salaries. Even if the food is exceptionally good, like a 360-degree spinning leap, it's treated as ordinary descriptive language.
Qin Luo's classmates living near Yunzhong Restaurant quietly enjoy their meals every day without telling others—Qin Huai's breakfasts and snacks are normally hard to get, so no point in recommending them and increasing competition.
Those who don't live nearby aren't able to eat there.
Yunzhong Restaurant has had good business from the beginning, but most customers are from nearby apartments and office buildings.
Most delivery orders stem from the hospital where Qu Jing works, and that's because Qin Huai delivered snacks to Qu Jing multiple times, and Qu Jing kindly shared them with her colleagues and patients. Through word of mouth among doctors, nurses, and patients, the hospital where Qu Jing works became one of Yunzhong Restaurant's most loyal customer bases.
That's the limited scope of Yunzhong Restaurant's reach.
Qin Huai often complains about Yunzhong Restaurant's business being too good because he never engages in marketing, even keeping his identity hidden so readers of "Taste" didn't know that the mysterious Master Qin who makes guo'er secretly manages a community cafeteria in Shan City, claiming that Master Qin is actually a chef at Huang Ji.
What? You said Master Qin was at Huang Ji briefly for a few months before disappearing from the human world.
Don't ask; that's Master Qin's style, he enjoys disappearing.
With such a business philosophy, Qin Huai doesn't buy any promotions, doesn't even want to be listed on review sites, and surely doesn't offer group-buy deals. When the cafeteria first opened, Qin Huai had Huang Xi manage some package deals and monthly passes, which have now been canceled. The focus is on running it like a breakfast shop.
So what's the mindset of running a breakfast shop?
It's having no mindset, running a breakfast shop is all about opening. Just open every day, wait for customers to arrive, sell out the prepared breakfast, and then close and rest.
Because there's no marketing, Yunzhong Restaurant's promotion and recommendations come from the diners themselves. This kind of marketing is highly credible yet weak in spreading power, and not very attractive to local diners. Only tourists from outside will come across related posts online and, with the mindset that they're here anyway, travel miles to Yunzhong Restaurant to buy some snacks and have breakfast.
Then they are astonished, leaving a post online saying this community cafeteria is indeed a hidden gem, and leave Shan City.
As for local people…
When Qin Huai lived in Qiu County, he also heard about many old brands hidden in the alleys. Unless those brands were within a 3-kilometer radius of his home, he certainly wouldn't make a special trip there to eat.
To question is to answer that locals never visit the attractions on their doorstep.
In short, Qin Luo's behavior of taking more than he could eat increased the breakfast competition difficulty at Yunzhong Restaurant. Originally, the elderly men and women could leisurely enjoy their early breakfast, but not anymore. Nonetheless, they couldn't blame their dear Luoluo. After all, their darling Luoluo is Master Qin's little sister from another mister! 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
The elderly men and women can only silently wake up earlier, attack Yunzhong Restaurant at 6 o'clock sharp, and think of some ingenious ways to capture Master Qin's heart, striving to become the second Wang Gen Sheng, eating his way into the kitchen.
These subtle changes did not go unnoticed by Qin Huai.
But Qin Huai didn't care.
Qin Huai is now deeply enamored with making locust flower buns, unable to extricate himself.
Locust flower buns were Qin Huai's first snack that he invested time in and sought outside help to study at Yunzhong Restaurant. It was taxing while making, but through Wang Gen Sheng, he met Zheng Da and Zheng Siyuan, leading to later interactions with Huang Ji.
Locust flower buns were Qin Huai's first seriously-studied snack but he didn't finish studying them back then, due to the high difficulty level. He barely got started and then had to tap out.
Now, comparing Qin Huai at that time, he has made great strides in all aspects; saying things have changed significantly wouldn't be an exaggeration. Returning to study locust flower buns now, he could confidently say to the buns, "Back then when I was unskilled, you calling me Xiao Qin was alright, but what should you call me now?"
