Call Me Daddy

“Can we only order from these dishes?”

“The choices are so few. There are only four meat dishes, five vegetarian dishes, and two types of soup, but the prices are still acceptable.”

“This store has been like this since last month. If you choose a fixed combination of one meat dish, two vegetarian dishes, and one soup, or two meat dishes, two vegetarian dishes, and one soup, the total price will be a few yuan cheaper.”

The first wave of customers flooded into the small food shop, and the restaurant instantly became noisy with the sound of discussions.

Since there were a lot of customers ordering at the beginning, Su Tianyuan temporarily stayed in front to help with ordering along with the server. As for the kitchen, a lot of pre-cut ingredients had already been prepared.

“Hey, wait a minute. What’s with this limited soup, and why is it so much more expensive than usual?”

A regular customer noticed a special note on the menu board.

(Fish and Shrimp Ball Chicken Bone Soup (Limited to 50 servings) — 48 yuan/serving)

Limited servings aside, what’s with this price? It was clearly far beyond the usual pricing of this store. Today, the store was selling two types of soup; the other one, Tea Tree Mushroom and Old Duck Soup, was only 15 yuan per serving.

Regular customers knew that the portions of the soups were not large, just a standard single-serving soup pot. Usually, if it was a meat soup, there would be two to three pieces of meat and some vegetable ingredients. It was definitely enough for one person, and thus a price of around 10 yuan per serving was quite reasonable.

If it was a simple tomato and egg soup or seaweed and dried shrimp soup, the pricing would be even cheaper, generally around 4 to 6 yuan.

But this limited Fish and Shrimp Ball Chicken Bone Soup was obviously a bit expensive.

Were they planning to rip us off as easy targets?

“These fish and shrimp balls are made from fresh fish and shrimp meat, hand-crafted rather than machine-mixed like those sold outside. Because hand-crafting is laborious, the quantity isn’t large; only fifty servings. As for the soup base, it’s made from whole chicken boiled into fresh chicken broth, which is costly. The ingredients and labor costs are high, so we set this price,” Su Tianyuan explained loudly. Their shop wasn’t a shady place.

In fact, Su Tianyuan had some opinions about the pricing. This dish’s price was noticeably high for their store. But on second thought, similarly hand-crafted fish and shrimp balls in fancy restaurants would cost more than 48 yuan per serving.

Besides, his grandfather’s culinary skills were no worse than those of the top chefs in large restaurants. Actually, their store’s food prices should have been raised long ago.

However, his father was now the one cooking. Su Tianyuan felt a bit guilty seeing the price of the Fish and Shrimp Ball Chicken Bone Soup. He hoped the price would scare people away.

It shouldn’t taste bad, right?

Su Tianyuan thought about the pot of chicken soup that had been simmering since 6 in the morning. The kitchen was filled with the rich aroma of chicken broth. With such a base, how bad could the dish taste?

While Su Tianyuan had doubts about his father’s stir-frying skills, he had extreme confidence in his seasoning abilities. Simmering soup didn’t require high heat control but tested the seasoning and ingredient ratios, an area where his father’s golden tongue was advantageous.

“According to your explanation, it’s not too expensive.”

The customer who had just asked nodded. Nowadays, anything hand-made were costly. If these fish and shrimp balls were freshly hand-crafted and the soup base made from whole chicken, the price indeed wasn’t outrageous.

But the head chef had changed. Despite the grand claims, who knew what the actual taste would be?

“I’ll have a Fish and Shrimp Ball Chicken Bone Soup, a Pickled Pepper Soybean Sprout, a Double Pepper Sautéed Fresh Squid, and a bowl of rice.”

The customer thought this but honestly ordered the most expensive Fish and Shrimp Ball Chicken Bone Soup. He didn’t know if it would be good, but he was particularly interested in limited items.

Su Tianyuan’s explanation was heard by all the restaurant’s customers. Most of the diners today were young people who sought novelty and were not as shrewd with their spending as the elderly. Therefore, Su Tianyuan found that the Fish and Shrimp Ball Chicken Bone Soup, which he thought would sell the slowest, was actually the most frequently ordered dish.

***

He carried a thick stack of orders back to the kitchen. Su Aobai, already dressed and ready, took the orders from him and also started a live broadcast.

The first batch consisted of twenty-seven orders. Due to the limited selection of dishes, most orders had overlapping items that could be prepared together.

Su Aobai glanced at the orders and instantly had a clear plan in mind.

[2333]: Ah, the noob streamer is finally on camera. He looks pretty much like I imagined—a chubbier version of the young boss 20 years in the future!

Su Tianyuan often practiced his basic culinary skills on the live stream. Many viewers believed he would probably inherit his grandfather’s skills and eventually become the successor of this small food shop. Hence, they affectionately called him the young boss, bypassing the noob streamer in name.

Su Aobai indeed resembled Su Tianyuan somewhat. However, the original owner didn’t like to exercise, ate and slept excessively, and had a great fondness for junk food, leading to his irreversible weight gain.

But the Su family naturally couldn’t gain weight easily, so Su Aobai’s current chubbiness was only relative to his son, Su Tianyuan. His rounded cheeks lacked the clear, smooth lines of youth but added a touch of approachability.

Especially since he rarely went out, his skin was fairer than that of most meticulously whitened young girls, making him appear white and chubby, extremely endearing.

[Food Critic]: Is the streamer really the young boss’s father? I can’t tell. Did the streamer secretly use a filter to look better on camera?

[Excavator]: Suddenly noticing how good the streamer’s skin is. How does he usually take care of it?

The conversation drifted off-topic. Su Aobai glanced at the comments and then began preparing today’s dishes.

Many orders included Pickled Pepper Soybean Sprouts, which was technically an appetizer and relatively simple to prepare. Su Aobai decided to handle these orders first.

The dish’s preparation was straightforward. The trimmed soybean sprouts were washed and blanched in boiling water. This required the chef’s experience, as the blanching time varied depending on the quantity and size of the sprouts. Insufficient blanching left the sprouts too raw, while excessive blanching made them soft and deprived them of their crisp, sweet texture.

Su Aobai timed it perfectly, draining the blanched sprouts and placing them in a bowl of ice to cool them down and enhance their crunchiness.

After finishing these, he cut the cleaned scallions into long segments and took out the pickled red peppers he had marinated several days ago, slicing them into thin strips.

“Got it? Cut them like this later,” Su Aobai instructed.

He only cut one portion, leaving the rest for his son to handle.

Su Tianyuan was still drooling. He had seen his father fussing over several jars of pickles in the kitchen earlier, with various vegetables being marinated. However, no one in the family had tasted them yet, so they had no idea how they would turn out.

Just moments ago, when his father opened one of the jars containing green and red pickled peppers, a pungent aroma immediately filled Su Tianyuan’s nostrils, making his mouth water uncontrollably.

Although he hadn’t tasted it yet, Su Tianyuan instinctively felt that the pickles would be delicious.

He took the knife handed to him by his father, then picked up a whole red pepper and started slicing it. The pepper was very crisp, evidenced not only by the crisp sound it made while being cut but also by the tactile feedback from the knife blade as it made contact with the pepper.

Su Tianyuan’s salivation increased even more, and he couldn’t resist picking up a piece of trimming and popping it into his mouth.

[2333]: Oh no, the young boss is so hungry he’s snacking on trimmings!

[Food Lover]: I’m from Sichuan, and this reminds me of the various pickles my grandmother makes every year… pickled ginger, pickled green and red peppers, pickled radish, pickled cabbage… All so delicious, crispy, and tangy. Ah, my mouth is watering!

[MSG Expert]: This must be pickled by Grandpa. It must taste great.

Seeing Su Tianyuan stuff the piece of pickled red pepper into his mouth, the chat erupted with excitement.

No one criticized Su Tianyuan for his actions. After all, he was only eating a bit of trimming, not serving the eaten parts to the customers. Besides, it’s normal for a chef to taste the food they’re preparing.

Everyone was now eager to know how the pickled red pepper tasted.

The small piece of pickled red pepper entered Su Tianyuan’s mouth, and his first reaction was that it was very crisp. Then, as he chewed, a strong tangy flavor and a mild spiciness were released.

This colorful pepper was not particularly spicy to begin with, and the pickling process had diluted some of the heat. Now, the slight numbing spiciness served more as a stimulus, making the tangy and naturally sweet flavors of the pepper more prominent.

As an appetizer, this pickled red pepper was undoubtedly a success. Su Tianyuan felt he could easily eat two bowls of plain porridge with just these pickled peppers.

Unable to resist, he ate the trimmings of each red pepper he sliced, feeling increasingly hungry with each bite.

[Food Critic]: Is it good? Is it good? Young boss, say something!

[2333]: It must be delicious. Haven’t you noticed the trimmings are getting larger with each cut? With his knife skills, it shouldn’t be this bad.

[Chicken Pecking Rice]: Didn’t expect you to be this kind of young boss…

[Little Snow]: Didn’t expect you to be this kind of young boss…

The viewers all echoed the same comment in the chat.

Su Tianyuan hadn’t realized that his little habit had already been noticed by the sharp-eyed netizens.

***

Sun Ya, also known as the frequent commenter [Run Little Duck] on the livestream, was now sitting in the restaurant waiting for her order, while also watching the live stream of the kitchen.

Due to the difficulty of adjusting her vacation and having already booked her flight, she had finally come to Xijiang. Besides wanting to taste Grandpa Su’s culinary skills, Xijiang itself was a bustling metropolis, great for shopping and entertainment.

Since she was here, it didn’t make sense not to try the Golden Chicken’s cuisine. She had prepared herself for the food to be average, but seeing Su Tianyuan sneaking bites of the pickled red peppers gave her a bit of confidence.

She thought, the pickled peppers might have been made by Grandpa Su, so they should taste good.

Coincidentally, one of the dishes she had just ordered was the Pickled Pepper Soybean Sprouts, and now she eagerly anticipated its flavor.

Su Aobai placed the red pepper slices, soybean sprouts, and scallion segments that his son had prepared into a clean large bowl, adding simple seasonings like salt, MSG, and vinegar. He then mixed the seasonings with the pickled pepper soybean sprouts and transferred the dish to individual small plates.

“Take these two dishes out first.”

While Su Tianyuan was slicing the pickled red peppers, Su Aobai had already prepared the dozen or so orders of Fish and Shrimp Ball Chicken Bone Soup.

The simple white porcelain soup pots had lids, concealing the contents inside. However, that was not a problem, as some food bloggers had already arrived at the restaurant and ordered this limited dish. Anyone curious could just tune into one of the live streams to see.