The Kingdom That Never Sleeps CH 023 The Young Will Surpass In Time Part 2
Tang Shen felt regretful that it was difficult for him to eat beef rolls anymore, but mutton rolls were also good. As for pork, it was a choice made due to the situation of the times.
"Aunt Yao, is the bone soup I asked you to make ready?"
"It's done. It simmered all afternoon. It's so fragrant!"
Tang Shen: "Okay, then put this pot of bone soup on the stove, and we can have hot pot."
Yao San asked: "Hot pot? Is this the boxiagong that little boss was talking about?"
Tang Shen was stunned: "Boxiagong?"
"Yes. Eh, little boss, didn't you want to eat boxiagong?"
Tang Shen was confused.
After Yao San’s explanation, Tang Shen realized that hot pot had already existed in ancient times! Just not called hot pot, but called boxiagong.
Yao San: "When I heard that you wanted the boiler, I thought little boss might want to eat boxiagong. Seeing that you asked my mother to wash the vegetables, I guessed that you definitely wanted to eat boxiagong. As for hot pot, I’ve never heard of it.”
Accountant Lin stroked his beard: "I know what the little boss meant. Look at the fire in this boiler, and then look at this iron pot. There is fire and pot, isn't it exactly a hot pot?"
Yao San: "It's exactly a hot pot! The word hot pot is more vivid."
Aunt Yao brought all the dishes, and everyone sat in a circle and began to cook the food in the hot pot and eat it.
Tang Shen originally thought that he was going to show everyone something new and eat hot pot like modern people. Unexpectedly, Aunt Yao knew as much as him. She went into the kitchen and brought a dish of prepared sauce for everyone. In it were garlic, green onions, soy sauce and other things in it for everyone to dip in and eat.
Tang Shen was greatly disappointed. At this time, Aunt Yao said: "I didn't expect that using bone soup to make the boxiagong would be so delicious. San'er and I also had the boxiagong when we were in Shanxi, but our boxiagong used boiled water and then dipped in sauce, which was far less tasty than the bone soup."
Tang Shen asked: "Just use water to cook?"
"Yes. I never thought that it could be cooked with other ingredients."
Tang Shen's eyes lit up. After finishing the hot pot, he called Accountant Lin into the house and said, "I want to open a restaurant specializing in hot pot, Accountant Lin, do you think it's feasible?"
Accountant Lin was startled: "This... this may not be impossible, but no one has thought of it before."
Tang Shen paced around the room twice, stopped and asked, "Did you think the hot pot was delicious?"
"It's delicious. The tastiness of the bone broth was seeped into the ingredients, it's so wonderful!"
"Exactly!"
The next day, Tang Shen asked Aunt Yao to prepare the boiler and iron pot. Aunt Yao thought he still wanted to eat the boxiagong, but Tang Shen only asked her to wash a portion of vegetables and slice a portion of mutton, but did not let her prepare any more. Tang Shen put the vegetables and mutton into the pot and patiently calculated their approximate cooking time.
"It's a bit long!”
The boiler was designed by tea connoisseurs of the previous dynasty as a tool specifically used for making tea. Making tea requires slowness and meticulousness. There were three holes at the bottom of the boiler, which could allow air to ignite the charcoal fire, but it also makes the fire less powerful. Using a boiler to eat hot pot was fine in the short term, but over time the diners would become impatient and the business would not be able to continue.
Tang Shen locked himself in his room, thought for a long time, and counted all the kinds of hot pots he had eaten in his previous life. Then he suddenly had an idea: "Old Beijing hot pot!"
The most famous hot pot in modern times was Sichuan hot pot, which was spicy and refreshing. In addition, there were many other kinds such as Cantonese hot pot, old Beijing hot pot and so on. Although Sichuan hot pot and Cantonese hot pot were spicy and fresh, they both cook the hot pot on a gas stove or an induction cooker.
The same was true for the boxiagong in this era, except that a boiler was used instead of an induction cooker.
But the old Beijing hot pot was different.
Old Beijing hot pot did not use an induction cooker, but used charcoal fire to heat the food! The pot used in old Beijing hot pot was a special copper pot with high legs below and a long cylindrical slot rising high in the center of the pot, in which the charcoal fire was placed. Around the long cylindrical trough was the place where the hot pot was cooked. This method makes the hot pot ingredients heat up very quickly, much faster than using an induction cooker.
In fact, before the invention of induction cookers and gas stoves, people had been using this kind of hot pot. But later on, only the old Beijing hotpot still used this special pot.
The drawing of a hot pot was not difficult to draw, and it was much simpler to make than a distiller. Tang Shen drew a drawing and gave it to Blacksmith Wang at the alley. He said, "I want to make a copper pot and an iron pot. When will it be ready?"
Blacksmith Wang looked at it and said: "This thing is odd looking, but it is also very simple. I can give it to you in three days."
After getting two hot pots, Tang Shen asked Aunt Yao to cook another pot of bone soup. He carefully poured the bone broth into the hot pot, took three red-hot coals, and put them into the long trough. After the bone soup boiled, Tang Shen picked some vegetables, put them both into the copper pot and the iron pot.
In about half a cup of tea’ time, the vegetables in the copper pot were fully cooked. After a while, the vegetables in the iron pot were cooked.
Tang Shen: "It's okay. It's acceptable at this time. It's fine to use the iron pot as well."
The specific heat capacity of copper was smaller than that of iron. In the same charcoal fire, the temperature of copper would rise faster than that of iron, and it would take less time to cook. But copper was more expensive than iron. In the previous dynasty, iron was still very expensive, but in this dynasty, iron could be seen everywhere.
After solving the problem of the pot, all that remained was the raw materials.
In the modern times, the three most important aspects of hot pot was the broth base, the dipping sauce, and the best fresh ingredients. Tang Shen was not worried about the first two. On the backs of thousands of years of experience in eating in the Chinese nation. It was only a matter of time before he could prepare delicious broth base and dipping sauce. But as for fresh ingredients, Tang Shen thought about it and then smiled slightly.
He was not worried either!
Tang's Logistics came in handy at this time.
In the entire Gusu City, no restaurant could claim to be able to deliver fresh ingredients from the west to the east of Gusu City within half an hour. But Tang's Logistics can! Tang Shen asked Accountant Lin to hire three cooks, requiring each to have come from different places and have different cooking skills and tastes.
Tang Shen and the three cooks experimented for half a month, and finally came up with four delicious broth bases and twelve different flavors of dipping sauces.
Everything was ready, now all that was left was the east wind.
Tang Shen called Yao San over, and the two went to the dormitory compound of Tang's Logistics. Tang's Logistics now employed more than 150 employees. Tang Shen set up a supervisor in each district to be in charge of the logistics business in the area. In addition, he established a strict supervision system among logistics employees.
If something happened, the employee and the supervisor would share the responsibility. This top-down regulatory system made Tang's Logistics' business safer. Tang's Logistics earned Tang Shen very little money every month, almost no profit, and Tang Shen even gave the workers a salary increase. But Tang Shen continued in this business because his goal from the beginning was not just logistics.
Tang Shen called all the supervisors together and said: "Next month, I will open a restaurant on Suijin Street. All supervisors, this restaurant is different from other restaurants. I need the freshest ingredients. Naturally, this business is yours, and I’ll leave it to you all. In addition, I hope that from tomorrow onwards, all the supervisors ask the workers under your supervision to do something for me in Gusu City. "
The supervisors said: "Little boss, there is no problem in transporting the ingredients. What else do you want us to do?"
Tang Shen smiled and said: "To spread the word and advertise. I need the guys from Tang's Logistics to advertise our newly opened restaurant throughout Gusu City!"
There were more than a hundred workers in all the streets in Gusu City, more than a hundred workers who were very familiar with the stall owners and residents in various parts of the city whom they had to deal with on a daily basis. These more than one hundred workers were not only the eyes of Tang Shen in Gusu City but also the best channel he could use to make advertisements!
The news that Tang Shen wanted to start a hot pot business reached Madam Tang's ears. She was quite surprised and asked Tang Shen: "Do you really want to do this business?"
Tang Shen: "Eldest Aunt also knows?"
Madam Tang: "How could I not know? Although we in the Tang family have servants and do not need to rely on Tang's Logistics, your workers have spread the news that you are going to open a restaurant specializing in boxiagong throughout the streets and alleys of Gusu. I never thought before that one could specialize in making boxiagong. As far as I know, you are the first. This business of boxiagong is not difficult to do, but the ingredients must be fresh enough, the quantity is also quite large." Just after finishing speaking, Madam Tang herself paused, she said: "I forgot, Shen'er, your Tang's Logistics is exactly a ready-made way to transport fresh ingredients!"
Only one day passed, when Tang Shen went to the Liang Manor to find his teacher to hand in his homework, and even Liang Song knew about it.
"I heard that you are going to open a restaurant specializing in boxiagong?"
Even Tang Shen was shocked by the efficiency of his logistics staff.
"Yes, sir."
The status of merchants in this era was not as high as that of scholars, but it was not as low as Tang Shen remembered. Although not many officials were engaged in commerce, it was not none. Most of the time, officials were busy with official duties and their family members were involved in commerce. Tang Shen was just a xiucai now, and he didn't even have the official status of a juren. No one thought it was wrong for him to open a restaurant.
Liang Song also said: "I haven't had boxiagong for a long time since I came to Gusu City. When you mention it like this, I miss it a little."
Tang Shen: "Sir, why don't you come to my house today? I have a special copper pot at home, which is very good for eating boxiagong."
Liang Song: "Okay, then I'll go to your house and have a look."
The largest restaurant in Gusu City was Qianqiu Tower, and there were many other restaurants on Suijin Street. Tang Shen asked the logistics guys to advertise, so he couldn't hide it from these restaurants. It was a coincidence that the restaurant bought by Accountant Lin on his behalf was diagonally opposite to Qianqiu Tower, and the distance between the two locations was only fifty meters.
At noon this day, there was an endless stream of diners in Qianqiu Tower. Manager Yao of Qianqiu Tower looked at the restaurant opposite that was being renovated from a distance and fiddled with the rosary beads in his hand. After a while, he called a waiter over: "Have you heard the name of that restaurant?"
The waiter shook his head: “No. Manager, that Tang sanyuan is also strange. He is a scholar and just passed the tongshi examination. Why doesn't the sanyuan continue studying? The xiangshi examination is held every three years. The nearest one will be in the coming year! There is only one year left, it’s really strange that he doesn’t prepare for the xiangshi examination, but instead opens a restaurant.”
"He is only fourteen. He is the youngest sanyuan candidate in the history of Gusu City. Even if he fails to pass the juren exam next year, it won't matter. He will only be fifteen by then. After three years of recuperating, if he passes the exam at eighteen, it will also be a good story!" Shopkeeper Yao thought for a moment and said, "That restaurant only does the business of boxiagong, so it doesn't have much to do with us."
The waiter said: "Our Qianqiu Tower is a time-honored brand in Gusu City. He dares to steal our business? Manager, then he will probably be disappointed!"
Manager Yao sneered: "Ignorant thing. Go back to work!"
Manager Yao looked at the workers who were busy in the restaurant opposite, fiddling with the rosary beads in his hands, making a clicking sound. He saw much further than that little waiter of his. When Tang Shen asked the logistics guys to advertise, he specifically said that this restaurant was only engaged in the boxiagong business. Firstly, he wanted the people of Gusu City to know what the restaurant specialized in. Secondly, it was actually a reassurance to these time-honored restaurants in Gusu City.
Tang Shen had only been in Gusu City for a year, and everything he did was surprising.
Ordinary people didn’t know, but Manager Yao had heard from his boss that the soaps, scented soaps, and essential oils sold in the Tang family's Zhenbao Pavilion were all invented by Tang sanyuan. Putting aside his unprofitable logistics business. Although he didn’t make any profit from it, he actually managed not to lose money either. This surprised many businessmen who were not optimistic about the logistics business at first.
In the past few days, Manager Yao realized that Tang Shen was not simply doing the logistics business, his aspiration was the entire Gusu City!
Who would have believed a year ago that someone could let hundreds of thousands of people in Gusu City know in one day that his family was going to open a restaurant. As the saying goes, one could pass on to ten, and ten could pass on to a hundred. Tang Shen's move was too brilliant and his ambition was hidden too deeply.
Manager Yao said with emotion: "The young will surpass us in time!"