The Game of Life-Chapter 625 - 623 Spring Limited Edition

Chapter 625: Chapter 623 Spring Limited Edition

Before they knew it, April had arrived.

Everything came back to life, and spring flowers bloomed as ingredients unique to spring gradually hit the market, heralding a new round of menu updates at Taifeng Building.

Spring dishes featuring bamboo shoots and Chinese toon were about to make their debut in Taifeng Building’s menu. Snails, too, would awaken from hibernation around Qingming Festival, fresh and plump. Dong Shi and Dong Li were already itching to show off a thousand ways to cook snails to the folks at Taifeng.

Master Huang returned to Gusu at the end of March. He said he missed his son and grandson, having been away from home for so long, and that was why he hurried back. But according to Dong Shi, it was because Master Huang’s health insurance was registered in Gusu, and it was too inconvenient to receive medical treatment in Beiping.

Jiang Weiming’s health was on the upswing, and his main doctor told Jiang Feng that if all went well, Jiang Weiming could be discharged next week.

...

Once Jiang Weiming was out of the hospital, Jiang Feng’s practice with clear soup and stock would be back on the schedule. When they were last at the hospital, Jiang Weiming had asked Jiang Feng if he wanted to learn, and naturally, Jiang Feng’s answer hwas that he did.

Stock and clear soup are tremendously important in top-tier dishes, especially for someone like Jiang Feng, whose recipes include several dishes calling for stock or clear soup. Whether it is lobster baked in superior stock, Jiang-style ginseng soup, chicken and bean curd, or the newly obtained recipe for Buddhas Jumping Over the Wall, stock and clear soup are indispensable.

If one wants to run, they must first learn to walk, and Jiang Feng could walk now, but the problem was he didn’t want to run; he wanted to fly.

Without wings, the least he could do was buy a plane ticket, and Jiang Feng was all about saving for that ticket now.

Leaving aside the matter of buying a plane ticket, the events at the end of March were nothing short of surprising.

It was like a beautiful poem, where the winter snow melts, the earth revives, and as life reawakens, everything starts to get better.

If only the revenue could start getting better too.

Mrs. Wang Xiulian was a bit troubled recently.

Being the only one in the Jiang Family who worried about Taifeng’s debts, she sincerely prayed every night before bed that the restaurant on the top floor of the building next door would close down quickly due to poor management. Even if it wasn’t because of poor management, it didn’t matter; she just wanted it closed.

Taifeng’s revenue for March really wasn’t pretty.

Although it was still profitable, the profit margin had significantly decreased compared to the previous months. Wang Xiulian felt that at this rate, by the time her good-for-nothing son got married and had children, and her adorable grandson grew up, the family might still be burdened with debts.

Her grandson wasn’t even born yet, and how could he inherit debts from his good-for-nothing father and grandfather?

Every time she thought of this, Wang Xiulian felt like withholding all the wages of Jiang Feng and Jiang Jiankang to make Taifeng’s books look a little better.

“Mom, try this Chinese toon omelet,” Jiang Feng said as he brought a plate of freshly made Chinese toon omelet to Mrs. Wang Xiulian.

Wang Xiulian took the chopsticks from Jiang Feng, folded the omelet on the plate, picked it all up with one chopstick, and stuffed it into her mouth. After chewing a couple of times, her expression changed drastically.

“Did your grandfather make this?” Wang Xiulian swallowed the omelet.

Jiang Feng nodded, “What do you think of the taste?”

“Of course it’s delicious if your grandfather made it!” Wang Xiulian said earnestly, “Is your grandfather testing dishes for the new menu?”

Jiang Feng nodded again.

Since business was not booming, Fan Mei suggested they introduce a spring limited set menu using the freshest and most tender ingredients unique to spring. The specifics of the dishes didn’t matter as much as the allure of the “spring limited” label.

Who, after all, could resist the temptation of something “limited edition”?

In principle, such a task would not fall to Jiang Weiguo, but Sir had been exceedingly bored these days.

With Jiang Weiming in the hospital and Mrs. Jiang off playing mahjong with Chen Suhua every day, Jiang Weiguo suddenly found himself without his younger brother to chat with. Even going to the teahouse for tea felt dull, and berating his grandson or teaching him culinary skills lost its appeal.

After all, it wasn’t like the old days when Jiang Weiguo, at his peak, could scold four grandsons at once. Now with only one grandson to scold, it just wasn’t as satisfying.

“Have you decided on a few dishes yet?” asked Wang Xiulian. She needed to know what dishes would be on the menu to set the prices.

“There are so many ingredients that could be used for the spring menu, but not a single dish has been finalized,” Jiang Feng said. “Just the fish selection includes mandarin fish, pomfret, yellow croaker, whitefish, yellowhead catfish, hairtail, phoenix-tail fish, butterfish, and white pigeon fish, and there are still a bunch of others waiting to be chosen.”

“Guiyu fish are the fattest and most delicious in March and April, and the best time to eat pomfret is around the Small Full Grain period when the plums turn yellow. But fish in March and yellow croaker in April, the yellow croaker in April is even fresher, and the best way to serve it is steamed, it makes a great dish just steamed together with fish roe.”

“Alternate between expensive and cheap options, choose some that look good when cooked,” Wang Xiulian said. “Butterfish, that’s lionfish, right? That thing is only found in the southeast coast, and it dies out of water, so forget that one.”

Jiang Feng thought that was no problem; they hadn’t really considered it anyway.

“Toona sinensis omelette could be considered,” Mrs. Wang Xiulian suggested. “That restaurant next door, with their what-do-you-call-it broken eggs, is just an egg served on ham and bread, and the ham is just a thin little slice, all they do is drizzle some sauce on it, and they dare to charge tens or even a hundred bucks for it. We can’t lose to them; we’ll also sell eggs, but ours will be toona sinensis omelettes.”

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“Benedict Eggs?”

“Yeah, those eggs.” Mrs. Wang Xiulian confirmed with certainty. “They’re too expensive, just two eggs for 88.”

In reality, Benedict Eggs are just a very simple American breakfast dish, quite common, and very easy to make. It just sounds expensive, which is why top-tier restaurants can get away with selling them for 88.

If Benedict Eggs were called Pancake Omelette, Bread Omelette, or Pancake and Ham Omelette, they’d probably only sell for 28 or 38.

If you think about it, if toona sinensis omelette were called Toona Benedict Eggs, maybe it could sell for 88 too.

“Mom, when did you go to that top-tier restaurant and have Benedict Eggs?” Jiang Feng immediately caught the main point.

Mrs. Wang Xiulian: …

With an air of feigned anger, Mrs. Wang Xiulian slammed her hand on the table, her face full of fury: “It’s all your dad’s fault, he insisted on trying out the taste of the restaurant next door, I only accompanied him because of that. My main reason wasn’t to eat, but to study their dishes and their prices, just to understand why their business is so good.”

“Why?” Jiang Feng asked.

“Their dishes really are pretty tasty.”

Jiang Feng: …

“Although those Benedict Eggs are a bit pricey, don’t even get me started on how good the presentation is. The eggs are cooked just to the right softness, and that sauce inside and on top is quite delicious, the runny egg yolk looks so appealing, it’s so good spread on the bread below,” she continued.

“It’s just that there’s too little ham, only two slices!”

Jiang Feng: ?

Mrs. Wang Xiulian, you seem to have done quite the thorough job at aiding the enemy.

“Let’s not talk about that anymore, it just gets me angry. If you had only learned properly from your grandpa, you wouldn’t even struggle with making an omelette. If our restaurant could make eggs like that, even if not for 88, we could easily sell them for at least 18,” Mrs. Wang Xiulian stated emphatically.

Jiang Feng: ???

“Oh.”

“By the way, isn’t Granduncle Weiming due to be discharged from the hospital? When is he getting out?” Mrs. Wang Xiulian cleverly changed the subject.

“He should be able to leave the hospital next week. The doctor wants granduncle to stay for a few more days for observation, otherwise, he could have been discharged this week,” Jiang Feng said. “As for Uncle Jiang Yong, he’s leaving in a couple of days. Something urgent came up at his magazine, and they need him there. Now that granduncle’s health has almost fully recovered, uncle’s idea is that once he leaves this time, he won’t be coming back. After all, he’s been on leave for such a long time, there’s probably a pile of work waiting for him back at the magazine.”

“When he goes back, see him off and take him a couple of jars of pickled vegetables. Ji Yue’s mom just sent over a new batch a few days ago, the winter bamboo shoots have been pickled, and I’ve tried them for you all, whether it’s stir-fried pickled vegetables or sour vegetables, or cooking pickled winter bamboo shoots stewed beef, they’re all great.”

“Speaking of which, Ji Yue’s mom said that this batch of winter bamboo shoots was especially plentiful. Why not add pickled winter bamboo shoots to the spring limited set menu? I’ll have some small bottles custom made, and anyone who buys the set menu gets a jar free, which would allow us to raise the set menu price a bit,” Mrs. Wang Xiulian was getting more excited about her idea, and she left Jiang Feng to go discuss the matter with Fan Mei.

Jiang Feng: ?

Adding winter bamboo shoots to the spring limited set menu.

Brilliant.