Chapter 432 - 368: Discussing the Rural Banquet (2)

Chapter 432: Chapter 368: Discussing the Rural Banquet (2)

"So you’re saying Xiaoyou helped you earn an extra 4,000 yuan. I gotta ask, Lao Liu, did you give Xiaoyou a cut to thank him?" a villager asked.

"I tried, but Xiaoyou wouldn’t take it," Liu Haibo said. "At first, when I had only sold one—before Xiaoyou had even taken a picture for the foodie group—I was already planning to give him the other one for free. Selling one for 3,000 felt like enough. But Xiaoyou refused and posted the picture anyway. After they both sold, I wanted to take just 5,000 and give him 1,000 as thanks, but he still absolutely refused to take anything."

Li Donghai and the others nodded. That was the right way to handle it.

Whether Xiaoyou accepted it or not, what mattered was the gesture.

"That kid, Xiaoyou, is just too polite," Li Donghai added. "It was the same when I sold my corn last time. At the end, I also wanted to give him some money to thank him, but he wouldn’t take a thing."

Liu Haibo nodded. "He really is very polite."

The men chatted for a while longer, then walked into the village and went their separate ways home.

Li Donghai and the others had been there mainly to wait for Liu Haibo’s return.

Now that Liu Haibo was back, it was time for them to head home as well.

It was getting dark, time to go home and eat.

And as they left, the news that Liu Haibo had sold two soft-shelled turtles for 6,000 yuan slowly spread throughout the entire village.

The villagers were all, once again, left sighing in admiration.

...

「Jiulong Gorge.」

Li You placed the soft-shelled turtle that Jiang Caidong had bought into the Spatial Fish Pond.

Putting it in the Spatial Fish Pond was the safest option.

As for the one Wang Ge Fei bought, he had already taken it with him.

Time slowly passed. At nine in the evening, Li You finished preparing the food and started eating, drinking, and watching TV with Ling Xiaoru.

...

「The next morning.」

After waking up early, Li You was in the kitchen doing prep work for the day’s business.

It was Saturday, so there would be more customers than usual. That meant more prep work was needed.

Ling Xiaoru hadn’t gotten up yet. Since it was Saturday, she planned to take the day off and not go to work.

So, she decided to get a good sleep in first.

At 9:30 in the morning, Luo Yunlin and Xie Wanxiang arrived. They were here to discuss the specifics of the village banquet.

They exchanged some pleasantries.

Afterward, Xie Wanxiang said, "Master Li, thank you so much for agreeing to cater this banquet. With you at the helm, this feast will definitely be the best-tasting our village has ever had."

Li You waved his hand. "Elder Xie, you’re too kind. I should be the one thanking you for trusting me. I’m also very happy that you invited me; it’s my honor. To be honest, you don’t look 79 at all. When Brother Luo told me yesterday, I was quite surprised. I said, ’Elder Xie looks like he’s only in his sixties, how can he be 79?’"

Xie Wanxiang laughed heartily, clearly pleased. He said, "My health is certainly holding up. This year, I planted corn, sweet potatoes, and peanuts on a plot nearly a tenth of an acre large. On top of that, almost all the vegetables I eat are homegrown."

Li You gave him a thumbs-up. "That’s amazing, Elder Xie. You’re in really great shape."

In cases like this, it wasn’t that Elder Xie had to farm to survive. He simply couldn’t stand being idle and wanted something to plant.

This was a common sight in the countryside.

As long as it wasn’t too strenuous, farming a little was a good thing. For one, it kept you healthy. For another, having crops to care for gave you something to look forward to.

After a bit more small talk, they got down to business.

When the time came, Li You would only be responsible for the head chef’s duties, and he would be provided with several assistants.

As for the menu, the three of them discussed it and tentatively decided on 18 dishes, including steamed dishes, cold appetizers, stir-fries, and braised dishes.

For the specific dishes, from Li You’s current restaurant menu, they wanted Steamed Pork with Preserved Greens, Steamed Perch, Braised Chicken, Braised Chicken Feet, Twice-Cooked Pork, Mapo Tofu, Crucian Carp with Agastache, and Wensi Tofu.

Xie Wanxiang and Luo Yunlin also really wanted two other dishes, Boiled Cabbage in Supreme Broth and Longjing Shrimp, but the cost of these two was a bit high, so they had to pass on them.

Besides these, Sweet Steamed Pork and Savory Bowl—two essential dishes for a village banquet—were also a must.

Sweet Steamed Pork, Savory Bowl, and Steamed Pork with Preserved Greens—these three could be called the absolute staples of any village banquet in Chuansheng Province.

They also needed a soft-shelled turtle soup, a steamed pork knuckle, and a whole steamed duck. That made three more dishes.

Finally, they would add two more braised dishes, two cold appetizers, and one vegetable dish.

And that would complete the 18-dish menu.

Even though Li You didn’t have system-provided recipes for these other dishes, his own current culinary skills were more than enough to make them incredibly delicious.

Thanks to practicing with all the various system recipes, Li You’s own cooking abilities were also rapidly improving.

His personal culinary skills were now on par with those of a highly accomplished senior chef.

This was also why he now had the confidence to take on a village banquet.

With the menu decided, the next issue was purchasing the ingredients.

Generally speaking, there were two ways to handle this.

First, the head chef could provide a list of necessary ingredients for the host family to buy themselves.

Second, the head chef could source the ingredients himself.

Xie Wanxiang and Luo Yunlin both hoped to go with the second option, having Li You source all the ingredients himself.

It wasn’t that they wanted to be lazy; it was because Li You knew how to pick out ingredients better than they did.

This suited Li You’s wishes perfectly. When the time came, he could use any ready-made ingredients from his Storage Pavilion, and for anything he didn’t have, he could just buy it at the market.

Besides, if he bought the ingredients himself, he could choose high-quality ones.

Otherwise, if he left it to Xie Wanxiang and Luo Yunlin to buy the ingredients, who knew how many subpar items they would end up with.