Back to the 1970s: Building My Fortune Through Time Trading

Chapter 200: The Meaning of Opening the Cafeteria

"Our cooking competition scores are divided into two parts: one for dish flavor, and the other for cost control."

"As everyone knows, the reason our department store wants to run its own cafeteria is to provide convenience for employees, allowing them to eat well and affordably."

As he spoke, Yan Guohua moved a bit aside to let everyone see the dishes on the table.

There are quite a few meat dishes here that people usually can’t bear to eat.

Things like sweet and sour pork, braised beef, sweet and sour ribs, etc., making those who lack oil and water in their stomachs drool uncontrollably.

"Notice any issues?"

"These meat dishes are ones that people usually can’t bear to eat and can’t afford; they require money and tickets. Who can afford to eat so well every day? Even if it’s just once a week, many people can’t bear to spend. In the end, everyone can’t afford it, so what’s the point of opening this cafeteria?"

The words fell and the surroundings instantly became silent.

Indeed, even if these meals appeared in the cafeteria, most wouldn’t be willing to buy them.

The main thing people look for when eating at the cafeteria is convenience and affordability; if the price is too high, it’s better to bring food from home.

Yan Guohua pointed to the dishes from Liu Cuilan’s group: "Everyone, take a look at this."

On the table were two plates, one with cabbage simmered with tofu and the other with shredded potatoes stir-fried with meat.

Very simple homemade dishes, yet they were full of color, aroma, and taste.

They didn’t appear overly luxurious nor too shabby; both the dish appearance and price were within everyone’s acceptable range.

Yan Guohua raised his voice: "Does anyone have any objections to this outcome? If not, let’s move on to the next group."

When the words fell, no one objected this time.

The following groups quickly finished, and finally two tied for first place: one was Liu Cuilan’s group, and the other surprisingly was Zhang Dongmei’s chef brother-in-law Wang Jianmin.

Yan Guohua looked at the two; if discussing culinary skills, Wang Jianmin was better, but to contract the department store’s cafeteria, besides dish flavor, the most important thing was cost control.

After some discussion among the judges, they finally decided to let the two compete in one more round, but this round was about buying ingredients rather than cooking.

Yan Guohua gave each of them a handful of thin money tickets, asking them to use these tickets to buy enough food for ten people, requiring vegetables, meat, and soup.

Wang Jianmin looked incredulously at the one dollar he had in his hand: "General Manager, with one dollar to cook for ten people, requiring vegetables, meat, and soup, are you serious?"

Yan Guohua cleared his throat and spoke: "If you can’t do it, you can choose to forfeit now."

Upon hearing this, Wang Jianmin gripped the money in his hand tightly, not willing to give up after putting in this much effort; if he forfeited now, wouldn’t he be doing those two country bumpkins a favor?

Thinking this, he took the money from Yan Guohua’s hand: "General Manager, I have no problem."

In his heart, he figured that if he couldn’t do it, those two might not be able to either, so it obviously wasn’t a favor for the opposition.

With this thought, he regained confidence.

Yan Guohua glanced at his watch and said: "There’s a market nearby, both of you can go buy ingredients now."

As soon as the words fell, Wang Jianmin couldn’t wait to leave with Zhang Dongmei.

Su Xiaoxiao feared they wouldn’t know where the market was, so she followed to buy ingredients as well.

Fortunately, the place wasn’t far, and it took less than ten minutes to walk there.

Upon arrival, they saw Wang Jianmin already holding a piece of pork belly, seemingly weighing at least a pound.

A pound of meat cost seventy cents, and he spent over half just like that, quite a hefty spending.

Zhang Dongmei smugly waved the potatoes and a small bunch of greens in her hand at them, saying: "See, this was given by my brother-in-law’s friend, no cost needed."

"If this continues, we won’t even need to use the entire dollar to buy everything we need."

Wang Jianmin, being a chef at a state-run restaurant, was acquainted in the market, and many were willing to gift him vegetables, so though he bought a pound of meat lavishly, he barely spent on vegetables.

Su Xiaoxiao was uninterested in dealing with them, pulled Liu Cuilan and Xu Zhaodi straight to the meat stall.

Liu Cuilan said: "For ten people, we actually only need to buy half a pound of meat, get fatter pork belly, we can render oil from the fat parts and stir-fry the lean parts."

Su Xiaoxiao felt her mom’s suggestion was very reasonable; rendered fat could be used directly for frying, equally flavorful.

While speaking, the three had arrived at the pork stall.

Just as Su Xiaoxiao was about to speak, the stall owner recognized her and greeted, smiling: "Comrade Su, you’ve come."

The meat seller was a middle-aged man around forty, stubble that made his chin look slightly dark, and when he smiled, his dark face exposed a bright set of white teeth, appearing very sincere and enthusiastic.

Su Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered this man was the market pork stall clerk that Liang Guofu had introduced to her before.

She quickly smiled and nodded at him: "Hello, I’d like half a pound of fattier pork belly."

The middle-aged man heard this, picked up a knife, and compared back and forth on a piece of meat: "How about this piece? It’s got thick fat, quite good."

Su Xiaoxiao tugged Liu Cuilan, seeing she was very satisfied, then spoke: "Could you please weigh it for us?"

The middle-aged man gave her another toothy grin: "No problem."

While speaking, he skillfully weighed it, precisely half a pound.

The middle-aged man held the scale rod for the three to see, and while tying up the meat, he added a fist-sized piece of fat directly and handed it over together.

"This fat is a gift for you, no charge, and you don’t need meat tickets."

While speaking, he returned the meat tickets to Su Xiaoxiao and bent over to find change in the drawer.

Liu Cuilan was a little bewildered; taking advantage of the time he was looking for change, she whispered to Su Xiaoxiao: "Sending such a big piece of fat just like that? And these don’t need tickets, is this person a fraud?"

Just then, the middle-aged man finished finding change, happened to hear the last sentence and puzzledly asked: "Fraud? Where is there a fraud?"

All the while speaking, he looked around with a look of searching for a faker.

"There’s no fraud, you misheard."

She placed the meat tickets back: "But this time, we’re buying meat for the unit, so we must pay the market price tickets to you."

Saying this, she picked up the meat, pulled Liu Cuilan and Xu Zhaodi to give thanks and leave.

When they had gotten some distance from the stall, Su Xiaoxiao explained the whole situation to the two.

"Does that mean in the future we don’t need meat tickets to buy meat?"

In this era, meat was a rare item, a family couldn’t have it several times a year, meat tickets were too tight.

Su Xiaoxiao nodded: "That’s correct."

Liu Cuilan was excited to the point of jumping up, but thought with so many people watching, she should maintain a bit of composure for now.

Forcibly suppressing the excitement inside her.

She excitedly whispered: "Third child, you are really something, someday I’ll give your father offerings."