The Days Written in Weizi Shangpin Hotpot City

At that time, I was a weak young man, bookish, never cooked since I was a child, and my hands-on ability was extremely poor. Fate put me on the road to cooking.

1in the summer of 993, 18 years old, I was confused about the future and frustrated with my first love. I walked into a strange provincial capital at a loss. Doing odd jobs at night market stalls is also the first time to contact "hot pot".

In fact, in my hometown, I studied in a relative's small restaurant for three or four months. The hot pot in town, at least the hot pot in the shop I helped, is cooked food. Add more soup and cook it on the alcohol stove. I clearly remember the eel hot pot that sold well at that time. The method of making eel is to fry in a pot, add water, cook, adjust the taste, add twist, vegetables and the like, and serve.

The provincial capital is the provincial capital after all, hehe, the stalls are different. I remember that the chef who cooked at that time was a Sichuan master. When the boss asked him to launch the hot pot, his operation process was mysterious and secretive. Looking back now, his main methods are: heating salad oil, adding some butter, frying Chili powder and pepper, and then adding watercress, ginger and so on. Stir-fry until fragrant, add some spices such as star anise and cinnamon, then add water to boil, add monosodium glutamate (I really forgot whether there is chicken essence at that time) and salt as the bottom material of hot pot.

When the guests come, they put them in the pot, rinse some hairy tripe, venetian blinds, water-made bullwhip, water-made rabbit ears (it was the first time to see these novel things), and potatoes and vegetables. This is the first impression of hot pot.

The guests in the booth often drink all the soup. I haven't been busy for a few days and haven't found the bottom of the recycling pot yet.

I was really eager to learn at that time. At that time, I felt that this thing was not available in our hometown (it is estimated that there is. I stayed in a small shop for several months and didn't go out. How can I find it? ), I want to learn to take it back and "carry it forward", but unfortunately the master resigned before I saw the steps clearly.

Not long after, on the eve of New Year's Day in 1994, a large food city opened opposite. I signed up to learn more. Indeed, a large food city is much more magnificent. Entering the kitchen is like grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden. The first time I saw a diesel stove, a vertical freezer and a stainless steel counter, I also saw it for the first time and secretly tasted the legendary cashew nuts. Hehe, that's beside the point

At that time, my job was to play lotus. Of course, I also rushed to do things like matching and full-court sanitation, because at that time I only knew silly thinking that only if you were diligent, the master would like you and teach you things. Maybe my diligence is still in someone's eyes. Not long after, the food city set up a hot pot room and transferred me.

The master is also from Sichuan, surnamed Hu, and is very kind to me. Of course, I am also very active at work.

After all, I have been in contact with catering for a long time, and I remember my own hot pot practice more clearly. What he did was: heat the oil, add butter, stir-fry Chili peppers, stir-fry the oil until it turns red, add watercress and Jiang Mo, stir-fry until fragrant, then add seasoning that I couldn't name at that time, stir-fry for a while, add beef bones, pig bones and whole chicken soup, cook hard on the fire, and finally drain the residue. The seasoning is the bottom material of hot pot.

Master Hu's practice is different from that of the first master he met: the Chili he used was not Chili powder, but red dried Chili was soaked in boiling water, then cooled and mashed with a blender, so the fried color was really beautiful, except that boiling water was poured into the red dried Chili, and now he was afraid of the hot air rushing up. Of course, this matter is my job. What's more, fresh soup is added instead of boiled water. There is still a difference between a stall and a food city, hehe. Then there is slag discharge, and a pot of bottom material is served, which is still much more refreshing.

At that time, I really knew that the bottom of hot pot was to be recycled. Every time the waiter takes it back to the bottom of the pot, the residue is leaking out. After the soup is precipitated, the upper layer is left, and the fresh bottom is used in the pot, so it can be recycled. Now it seems really unsanitary.

Maybe Master Hu wants to keep the mystery of his craft. Although I usually operate the steps, every time I want to cook the bottom material, he always gives me an excuse when mixing the seasoning.

This can't beat me! I sneaked into the street and bought a small spring scale. I weighed all the spices (cooked in a few days) when Master Hu was away. When he mixed the seasoning again, I went out as if nothing had happened. Then, everyone should know, hehe, so I mastered the first so-called "recipe" of hot pot from my experience in the kitchen.

By the way, from my professional point of view, hot pot is actually spicy, but the ingredients are better. The formula is also a general spice, and the proportion is not well organized. In order to avoid misleading people, I won't write it here.

At best, it's just fragrant, not bitter (I've seen many people make their own hot pot for the first time, and the bottom of the pot is often bitter when they learn to cook it, especially when they cook it later, but they just don't understand the functions and characteristics of various seasonings). It is definitely not disrespectful to Master Hu! I am grateful to him until now! Just talk about the situation at that time purely objectively, and you don't have to say that I didn't appreciate the evaluation of hot pot at that time.

Business in the food city was sluggish, and before long, Master Hu also left. I'll take care of the hot pot room alone. According to Master Hu's method, we should deal with the scattered tables of guests flatly every day.

Although the business is bleak, occasionally, even for a few days, it is as unstable as a nerve, so in the process of preparing the pot, there is trouble slowly.

For example, today, I fried the bottom material and cooked a big bucket of spicy soup (white soup doesn't matter, just make fresh soup), which tastes good. Today's business is very suitable, just sold out. Of course, everyone is happy. Business is bad, we can't sell a few pots, and the rest are boiled for nothing. Tomorrow, business is not good, and it will boil again. After cooking for several times, the taste will become extremely unpleasant, and I am embarrassed to take out the pot. If business is excellent and the soup is used up, then I can see that something is wrong. I can only make do with the soup, and the taste at the bottom of the pot becomes weak. Of course, there is still plenty of time.

In fact, this problem also occurred when Master Hu was here, but it was just opened at that time, and the business was very stable, regardless of good or bad. Now business is poor and unstable, and I am the only one to worry about it, which is getting more and more annoying. I am a perfectionist myself, so I have been thinking about how to solve this problem: when business is good, I should have enough soup, and when business is bad, I should preserve it to keep the taste of the bottom of the pot unchanged to the greatest extent.

Later, after I fried the bottom material, I had to cook less soup first. It used to be a full bucket, but now it's half a bucket. The white soup is very good. Seeing that the business momentum was wrong and it looked very prosperous, I quickly got angry and cooked the soup. But sometimes the business suddenly closes down, leaving many problems, but it is better than before. As for the base material, separate the fried base material from the red oil (they used to be cooked together in a bucket), only cook the base material when cooking, and add the red oil when the bottom of the pot is served, which will make it much more convenient to change the pot.

In fact, I believe many of my friends seem to be pediatricians. It's hard to imagine that at that time, in a food city that was half dead just after its opening, an apprentice could only think for himself (business was bad, people had dispersed, and the chef didn't care).

1995 Shortly before New Year's Day, the food city finally closed. The last time I paid my salary, the manager accidentally mentioned that a famous hot pot chain store in Chongqing was going to take over our store. Hot pot chain store? I was shocked at that time, and I had the idea of staying anyway, even if I didn't pay a penny, doing the hardest and most tiring work.