Zhou Erlang's preparations were much more thorough than Zhou Wulang's. Manbao went to rummage through the backpack brought by his second brother and found a basin of chopped pork bones with meat in it.
There were two pieces of pork belly that were almost the same size, and one piece of fat meat.
Manbao drooled over them.
Zhou Erlang was afraid that Manbao's saliva would drip onto the meat, so he quickly pulled him away and coaxed him, "I'll give you meat at noon."
Manbao nodded with drooling eyes.
Thinking about food, she was reluctant to leave, so she squatted in front of the stove to help light the fire. In fact, she just took a look at the fire, and when she saw that the fire was getting small, she would tell her brothers, and then someone would come up and add more firewood.
Bai Shanbao squatted with her for a while, but felt that watching the fire was not fun, so he went out to play with Bai Erlang. They went to play in the dug ditch.
Daji followed them closely, and Zhou Erlang was no longer worried after taking a look at him.
He also put the cleaned bones with meat into the pot. Since he knew that stewing soup could make money, and a lot of money, he must make the soup better, at least with more oil and water, right?
Zhou Erlang put the lid on and then cut the cabbage and radish.
Today they also brought a smaller cauldron and a large pot.
Estimating that the time was about right, he put the fat and radish into the large pot. After stewing for less than quarter of an hour, he lit a fire on the stove he had set up nearby and cooked the radish and meat.
The soup in the pot is used.
This way, even fuel is saved.
After the radish stew was ready, he poured all the vegetables into a pot, kept it warm by the fire, and then started to cook the cabbage stew with meat.
When the officials rang the gong for dinner, the officials who came to deliver the food could not help but look over here again and again, and then asked their colleagues, "Why does it smell better than yesterday?"
The two officers had walked over earlier and knew that the Zhou brothers had brought a lot of meat today and were planning to cook meat dishes.
Just a glance at their colleagues, the two officers looked at each other and smiled nonchalantly: "I have asked, they use a lot of meat, the whole family is devoted to it, but it's hard-earned money."
The two men were also afraid that the officials would chase them away, because Zhou Erlang had hinted this morning that if his business could continue, the tribute at every meal would not be less.
what does that mean?
It means they can eat and drink for free.
The messenger who brought the food took a look at the group of people surrounding the cauldron and saw that they included both young men and children. He did not think much about it and handed the food to them and said, "Okay, lunch is here. I will go back first."
"good."
After everyone got their steamed buns, they subconsciously went to Zhou's stove. Smelling the aroma, everyone asked Zhou Wulang, who had gotten to know each other a little better yesterday, "What smells so good today?"
Zhou Wulang smiled and said, "My second brother bought some extra meat today, and said he would cook a dish for everyone to add flavor. It costs five cents per spoonful. If you brothers want to eat some, tell me and I will make it for you."
Zhou Erlang took over the conversation and said with a smile, "Thank you brothers for your support yesterday. It's just that it's freezing cold, and people will get sick easily if they only drink soup without vegetables. My sister came home yesterday and said that she felt sorry for her third brother who could only eat dry food in the fields without vegetables, so we prepared a few vegetables today, but not much. If you want to change your taste, buy some."
"Oh, right," Zhou Erlang said with a smile, "We'll do the same thing as yesterday this afternoon, boil a pot of hot water for everyone to soak their steamed buns in."
As he spoke, Zhou Erlang opened the lid of the jar containing stewed radish and meat, and then opened the lid of the jar containing stewed cabbage and meat that was being heated over charcoal.
Everyone could clearly see the slices of meat wrapped in the radish and cabbage, and many of the people swallowed their saliva subconsciously.
Speaking of which, they haven't eaten vegetables for a long, long time.
The aroma wafted into the air. Zhou Erlang's cooking skills might be average, but he used bone broth and added a suitable amount of salt, and there was pork belly in the dish. Even if his cooking skills were poor, with good ingredients, the dish wouldn't be too bad, not to mention that his cooking skills were not that bad.
But the price is very expensive, only five cents.
Although they knew that five cents was not expensive if there were both vegetables and meat, anyone who had been to the county town for dinner knew that such dishes would cost at least ten cents in the county town.
Many people just looked at the dishes and salivated, but did not dare to pay for them. Most people still lined up to buy soup.
Then they found that today's soup was quite oily and better than yesterday's, so they were happy.
The dozen or so people in front all wanted soup, and no one wanted any vegetables. Zhou Erlang was not in a hurry, as he had already planned for the worst case scenario. At worst, he would not be able to sell any of them. He would then leave some for the third brother and take the rest back for his family to eat.
They have such a big family, they can definitely eat it all.
Taking this into consideration, Zhou Erlang did not cook much.
There were only about ten servings of cabbage and radish.
Manbao was in charge of collecting money. Zhou Erlang brought an extra big spoon today, and he and Lao Wu each took one side, so they were much faster.
Zhou Sanlang quickly came over with the steamed bun, and Zhou Erlang asked him to wait for a while. He found a big bowl from the basket beside him, filled it with two dishes, and asked him to squat and eat.
Many Laoding looked at the dishes in his bowl. Some of them were from better-off families and discussed with Zhou Erlang, "I don't want to buy only one dish, but it's too much of a loss to spend ten cents. How about I pay five cents and you give me half a spoonful of each dish?"
Zhou Erlang thought for a moment and nodded, "Okay."
The man immediately took out five cents. He happened to be standing in front of Manbao, so he gave the money to Manbao.
When the people behind him saw that he had bought some vegetables, they also started to think about it and started to discuss with Zhou Erlang, "Brother, how about I just want half a spoonful, and you give me a little less, and charge me two cents?"
Zhou Erlang: "...This, this is hard to calculate."
This breaks the rules. How can we do business in the future?
Moreover, one spoonful is easy to calculate. No matter if there is more meat stewed with radish or cabbage, it only takes one spoonful to add one piece. It is for the guests to eat, so most of them will not have any objections.
But what if he feels this half spoon is not enough?
Zhou Erlang was thinking about what to say, but Manbao thought it was a good idea, but she changed the concept, "Yes, yes, this way everyone can save money, big brother, you can find someone to partner with you, each of you pay half the money, buy a spoonful of stewed radish and meat and stewed cabbage and meat, this way you can eat two dishes with half the money."
Now the other party was excited and asked, "But how do you calculate these two and a half cents?"
"Isn't this easy? My brothers come here every day. You can find a good friend. You pay three cents this time, and next time you want to buy food, it will be his turn to pay three cents, right?"
Laodin thought this was a good idea , so he turned around and went to find his cousin.
Two people quickly squeezed in, each bought a bowl of soup, and then bought a spoonful of vegetables together.
With their demonstration, others followed suit.
Nowadays, people from one village are gathered together during military service. Firstly, they can take care of each other when something happens, and secondly, it is to comfort the soldiers and make management easier. Therefore, it is easy to find familiar people.
Either they are relatives, cousins, clan brothers, or neighbors from the same village. So it is easy to find partners, and the food is decreasing at a visible speed.