1984: Starting from a bankrupt Sichuan restaurant

Chapter 40 The Corner of the Factory Canteen: Dig!
Zhang Shufen drinks twice a day, eats meat every day, has filial children and grandchildren, and a harmonious daughter-in-law. She lives the life that the old ladies of Zhoucun envy the most.

But she also has her troubles.

Her youngest son was born the year her husband sacrificed his life. She named him Weiguo (meaning "defending the country") so that her children would remember why their father died.

Zhou Weiguo was smart and athletic from a young age. He always brought home a stack of certificates at the school sports meet. Many girls liked him, and his schoolbag often contained love letters with childlike handwriting.

He enlisted in the army at the age of eighteen. His certificates of merit turned into notices of merit and awards. He participated in rescue operations and won competitions almost every year. He rose all the way to the rank of company commander, the same level as his father back then.

She sent most of her military allowance back home and kept it.

Until that year, a telegram came back from the town. When they saw him again, he had lost an arm and was lame.

County leaders came, and villagers lined the streets to welcome the war hero back home. People from all around came to see him.

The scene made her feel a little dazed; it was just as lively when the old man returned to his hometown that year.

She wanted to cry, but in the end she smiled.

Her son was a hero just like his father, but this time, he came back alive.

The organization attaches great importance to this and is going to arrange a job for him, and provide him with the monthly disability allowance.

But Zhou Weiguo was too stubborn to resist, saying he didn't want to be a burden on the country and wanted to go home to farm.

Four years have passed in the blink of an eye.

He actually managed to cultivate his small vegetable garden quite well with just one hand, and the vegetables grew better than those of other people.

In the past two years, they have arranged blind dates for him, but when the girls came to his door, they saw that he was missing an arm and had a limp, had a frightening scar on his face, and did not have a proper job, so they immediately ran away.

Zhou Weiguo became the subject of ridicule in the village, who said he was stubborn, refused to take an official position, and was a hothead.

At thirty-four, he'd be considered an old bachelor in the countryside.

The old lady was very worried. She had tried everything, from kind words to harsh ones, and the organization visited him every year during holidays to try and persuade him, but nothing worked.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yan actually managed to persuade him today.

"How come I never noticed before? This kid is quite the talker," the old lady muttered to herself, but her face was full of satisfaction.

Before Zhou Momo was born, Zhou Yan was the youngest among the grandchildren. When he was little, his mother and father were busy, so they liked to come to her house for a free meal.

She didn't care whether Zhou Weiguo became an official or not; as long as he could make a living and live a meaningful life, she would be content.

Besides, if a girl is interested in him after he starts working, he won't have to worry anymore.

Zhou Yan and Zhou Weiguo chatted at the door for a while. He gave a brief description of the future world, packaging it as knowledge he had read in a book, which made Zhou Weiguo's eyes light up.

“What difference is there between a great man who does nothing and a rotten tree or decaying grass?” Zhou Weiguo slammed his hand on the persimmon tree, his gaze resolute: “Alright, I’ll go to the personnel bureau tomorrow.”

At this moment, Zhou Yan saw the shadow of the eighteen-year-old boy in him again.

No, it has become even taller.

“Then I’ll go with my uncle tomorrow, and I’ll pick you up,” Zhou Yan said, standing up.

“No need, I’ll borrow a bicycle and go by myself.” Zhou Weiguo also stood up, smiled and patted his shoulder: “If you need someone to accompany you for such a small thing, what else can I do? You just take care of the restaurant, I might even have lunch at your restaurant.”

“Okay.” Zhou Yan nodded, took out a wad of ten-yuan notes from his pocket, and handed them to Zhou Weiguo: “Uncle, this is the hundred yuan I borrowed from you before. Here you go.”

Zhou Weiguo smiled and took it, then put it in his pocket without counting it, saying to him, "Come to me when you need money, I'll keep this for you."

"Then I won't stand on ceremony," Zhou Yan said with a smile.

Zhou Yan sat for a while longer before saying he had to go back to the shop.

"Aren't you going back after dinner? I was thinking of killing a chicken for dinner." The old lady came out of the chicken coop next to her, carrying a big rooster with glossy feathers in her hand.

"I need to go back and work on a new menu, so we can save it for next time," Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"Okay." The old lady tossed the rooster back into the henhouse, turned around and went into the main room to bring out half a bag of oranges.

"Here you go. This is a list of spices and bones needed for making the braising liquid. Come pick me up whenever you have them ready." The old lady handed Zhou Yan a piece of paper filled with various spices and their quantities, more than twenty kinds in total.

"Okay." Zhou Yan carefully folded the orange and put it in his pocket, then took the orange. "I'll come and treat you when I'm ready."

"Go ahead, let Momo play here. After she has dinner, Weiguo can take her back," the old lady said with a smile.

"Okay," Zhou Yan replied, got on his bike, and rode away.

He went home first.

Old Zhou was in the yard making fishhooks from embroidery needles when he looked up at Zhou Yan and then at the doorway. "Where's Momo?"

"After having dinner at Grandma's, my uncle brought her back."

Zhou Yan leaned closer and watched as he carefully heated the needles until they were red-hot before bending them. Two finished products were already on the ground, and there were several others that had been broken.

"Old man, aren't you afraid my mom will beat you if she sees this? She'll break a whole box of needles for you." Zhou Yan laughed, knowing he wouldn't dare do anything that would get him beaten by his mother.

"Why would she dare?" Old Zhou continued breaking the needles, nonchalantly saying, "This is a new box I bought; she has no idea." "Where's my mother?" Zhou Yan looked around; the main room was quiet.

Their house was a single-story building with a small courtyard enclosed by a fence. The ground was paved with stones that Old Zhou had picked up from the river. There was a grape vine planted in front of the door, and the leaves had already started to fall off.

There was a main room, two bedrooms, and an outhouse in the corner. The mud walls were covered with mottled marks, but they were kept very clean. There wasn't even a dead leaf in the yard.

“She’s playing mahjong for a penny next door. She only gets one day off a week, so she needs to relax too,” Zhou Miao replied.

"Okay, then I'll go back to the shop first." Zhou Yan put the oranges on the stool and turned to leave.

"Aren't you eating at home tonight?"

"I'm not eating. I plan to start selling braised and stir-fried dishes next week. I'll go back today and put together the menu and get everything ready. I'll be super busy tomorrow." Zhou Yan replied and went straight out.

"Stir-fry? Cook?" Old Zhou looked up, but Zhou Yan had already ridden away on his bicycle.

On the way back, Zhou Yan's mind was filled with thoughts of how to price the dishes.

A serving of braised beef with dried bamboo shoots requires three ounces of beef. One pound of beef costs one and a half yuan, which is the cost price his father gave him.

Braised pork ribs and minced beef also require three ounces of meat, with pork ribs costing even more, at one yuan and eighty cents per pound.

The cost of meat alone for a single dish is between 45 and 54 cents.

Side dishes, oil, seasonings, firewood, as well as wear and tear on various utensils, labor, etc., will cost an additional two or three cents.

Roughly calculated, the cost of braised beef and minced beef with green and red peppers is about 65 cents, while braised pork ribs can cost 75 cents.

The price of crucian carp is 45 cents per pound. A serving of crucian carp with mint requires two crucian carp weighing about 8 ounces each. Cooking the fish requires oil and seasonings, which cost about 30 cents each, so the total cost is about one dollar.

周砚想到了店里原来那份菜单：蒜泥白肉3角5分、咸烧白4角5分、回锅肉6角、东坡肘子1块2角……

There was a reason why Comrade Xiao Zhou managed to bankrupt the restaurant.

This menu is modeled after the factory canteen.

It seems fine at first glance, but it's actually full of pitfalls.

The factory canteen can get the best and freshest ingredients from the supply and marketing cooperative, and the price is almost half off with the coupons.

The canteen can get a piece of pork belly that weighs one pound, but Zhou Yan would have to spend one and a half or even two pieces.

Moreover, the factory canteen also provides meal tickets to the workers, which are cheaper than those of state-run and privately-owned restaurants.

If they insist on comparing prices to the factory canteen, or even offering them at a lower price, they'd be making a killing.

Braised beef with dried bamboo shoots and minced beef with double peppers are priced at 1 yuan per serving, while braised pork ribs are priced at 1.2 yuan per serving.

The preparation of this dish, Braised Crucian Carp with Patchouli, is complicated, and the waste of crucian carp must also be taken into account, so it is priced at two yuan per serving.

There are no cucumbers this season, otherwise smashed cucumbers could be added to the menu to make up the numbers.

This price is one-third more expensive than the stir-fries in the factory canteen. For example, the braised crucian carp in the factory canteen costs one yuan and fifty cents per serving.

There was no other way; Zhou Yan needed to make money by opening a restaurant, so there had to be a profit margin.

Moreover, if low prices could retain customers, Xiao Zhou wouldn't have been running an empty shop every day.

Taste is a factor that adds value to a dish and is recognized by diners.

Zhou Yan was quite confident about this.

The Sichuan Fine Arts Institute students have generated a lot of buzz for Zhou Erwa's restaurant. Zhou Yan estimates that many workers will come to join the fun tomorrow and see what magic this little restaurant has.

He certainly couldn't miss out on such a massive influx of traffic.

Moreover, during this period, many customers urged him to hurry up and serve the stir-fried and braised dishes, or even just a few noodle toppings, as some people really don't like noodles.

He had just learned how to make crucian carp with mint, and with the addition of braised beef, the menu now had four dishes and a soup.

The target group is the core customers of the factory canteen's stir-fries.

He was incredibly motivated to dig into the corner of the factory canteen wall.

Let's get started tomorrow!
Zhou Yan rode his bike back to the restaurant and found someone standing at the entrance.

"Uncle Lin, why are you standing here?" Zhou Yan squeezed the brake and looked at Lin Zhiqiang with some surprise.

"I was wondering why you weren't here." Lin Zhiqiang looked at Zhou Yan and smiled. "Little Zhou, I'm planning to treat some people to a meal at your shop tomorrow. Besides noodles, do you have any other signature dishes?"

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(End of this chapter)