Chapter 15: Five-Diced Baozi (Seeking monthly votes!)

July 1st, sunny, temperature 26°C-33°C, air quality excellent, everything going smoothly, a great start to work.

4:00 AM, the sky hadn't even brightened yet, the crescent moon still hung at the treetops, and outside the window, it was completely silent—not even the sound of birds or cicadas. Qin Huai, who hadn't had to wake up early to steam baozi for a while, was jolted awake by his alarm, struggled to open his eyes, and rolled out of bed.

It was strange; clearly, both he and Qin Luo had the dream of earning enough money to turn their family breakfast shop into a dim sum shop, so they would never have to wake up early again and could sleep until they woke up naturally. Now that they had been blessed with a windfall, why were they waking up even earlier than before?

Qin Huai sat on the bed, contemplating life.

Suddenly, his phone began to vibrate violently. He took a look; it was a call from Qin Luo.

He answered, and Qin Luo's wailing came through the phone.

"Hey, Brother, are you up yet? I'm so miserable. Mom called me up at 3:30. She and Dad didn't sleep at all last night, and they wouldn't let me sleep either. I've wiped the stainless steel basins in the kitchen until I can use them as mirrors. The fillings have all been taken out of the freezer to thaw, and the meat filling has been minced so much that if I mince it any further, it'll turn into meat paste. Dad is so bored now he's about to start carving radishes. When are you coming?"

"What nonsense are you spouting? Your dad and I are just used to waking up early," Zhao Rong's voice came through.

"Huaihuai, don't listen to Luo Luo's nonsense. It's still early, don't rush, take your time. Your dad has already chopped the ingredients for you. It's still dark outside, so be careful when you walk, don't trip."

Qin Huai smiled helplessly: "Mom, there are lights everywhere in the residential complex, how could I trip? I'm heading over now, wait 10 minutes for me."

After the call ended, Qin Huai was fully awake. He quickly washed up, took a moment to "like" the social media posts Chen Huihong and Seeing Ouyang had made the night before, and then hurried out the door, heading toward the Cloud Canteen by the east gate of the complex.

The Cloud Canteen was already brightly lit.

Come to think of it, as the de facto proprietor of the Cloud Canteen and the only pastry chef in the first-floor dim sum area, Qin Huai had always been the person who visited the canteen the least. He had only come to take a look twice when he first took over, and hadn't been back since the renovation.

Qin Huai's impression of the canteen was that it was quite large. The renovation style followed the style of the fish hotpot restaurant Seeing Ouyang had previously opened, leaning towards a Chinese aesthetic.

As a super "big sucker" who lost 6.6 million in net losses in one year of running a shop, Seeing Ouyang had truly spent a fortune on the renovation. He had lost everything, but it ended up benefiting the person who took over later.

Qin Huai used facial recognition to enter through the inner door.

The Cloud Canteen had two doors, an inner and an outer one. The inner door was exclusively for the residents of the Cloud residential complex and could only be accessed via facial recognition. The outer door was the normal restaurant entrance, facing the road.

"Brother, you finally came. What are we eating for breakfast?" Qin Luo, who was sprawled on a table playing with her phone, instantly perked up when she saw Qin Huai.

"Baozi," Qin Huai said concisely.

After saying this, Qin Huai scanned the first floor. He felt something was a bit different and asked, "Did the tables on the first floor get changed?"

They were all retro-style wooden tables. Qin Huai remembered the original tables didn't look like this.

Qin Luo nodded: "Sister Hong said that since the first floor is going to sell dim sum, the original tables didn't match the style. She happened to have a batch that matched, so she changed them all for us for free. Didn't you know, Brother?"

Qin Huai nodded without saying anything, making a mental note of it. He went to the changing room to change his clothes and entered the kitchen to start working.

Qin Luo was too lazy to change her clothes and couldn't enter the kitchen, so she could only squat at the kitchen entrance, watching from afar.

Qin Congwen, who hadn't slept all night, had already prepared all the necessary raw materials. Various processed ingredients were sorted and placed in different basins and bowls. Even the flour and warm water were ready—it was truly very thoughtful.

The thoughtful Qin Congwen wasn't idle either; he pulled up a small stool and sat in front of the cooking station, wrapping baozi with Zhao Rong.

"Huaihuai, it's the first day of business. Will we be able to sell all these steamed buns?" Qin Congwen worried as he wrapped them, though his hands didn't slow down at all.

"We'll sell them all," Qin Huai said without hesitation.

With 200 popularity points for traffic, Qin Huai was confident in today's sales.

"Ouyang had people handing out flyers for several days. With a flyer, you get 30% off the steamed buns. We'll definitely sell out." "But Huaihuai, we're only selling fresh meat steamed buns and shiitake mushroom and vegetable steamed buns this morning. Isn't that a bit too monotonous? The convenience store across the street sells more varieties than us—curry beef steamed buns, fresh meat steamed buns, vermicelli steamed buns, red bean paste steamed buns—there are seven or eight kinds. Isn't it a bit too little to only sell two?"

"How about I let your dad wrap the baozi here, and I go wrap some wontons? If that doesn't work, frying some dough sticks would be good too." Just as Qin Congwen's worrying ended, Zhao Rong started worrying.

"Mom, don't worry, we're selling them cheaper than the convenience store across the street," Qin Huai said. "I have a few more things to make here; the variety isn't small."

The Cloud Canteen had no rent costs. If Qin Huai wanted to start a price war, he could crush every breakfast shop within a ten-mile radius.

Of course, he didn't intend to use such a "kill a thousand enemies and lose eight hundred of your own" tactic.

Starting a price war requires capital, and he had no money.

Qin Huai's strategy was: quality over quantity.

In the morning, sell two types of basic, cheap, and cost-effective baozi made by Qin Congwen, and 2-3 types of dim sum he made himself that were expensive but delicious and suitable for the morning.

Dim sum that required ovens and deep-frying, like crispy cakes, griddle cakes, crab shell yellow, and fried cakes, would be made in the morning.

Traditional pastries like donkey-rolling-donkey, pea cakes, victory cakes, and eight-treasure cakes would be launched in batches at appropriate times based on actual sales and circumstances.

After all, manpower was limited. Unless Qin Huai could grow eight arms like an octopus, it would be impossible for him alone to make that many pastries at once.

Qin Huai began kneading the dough.

Previously, to get more sleep, Qin Huai would prepare the dough the night before. As long as the steaming time and heat were controlled, the texture of the dough wouldn't be too bad the next day. But today was different; he was taking the boutique route, not the volume route, so naturally, freshly made tasted better.

After the dough was ready, Qin Huai began preparing the filling.

He heated the wok and added oil, stir-frying the diced pork until it changed color, then added the diced chicken, diced fresh shrimp, diced crispy bamboo shoots, and finely diced sea cucumber one by one. He poured in the chicken broth he had simmered the night before, brought it to a boil over high heat, then turned it to low heat to simmer until cooked. In an instant, the entire kitchen was filled with the aroma of meat broth.

Qin Luo's voice trembled with excitement at the entrance.

"Five... Five-Diced Baozi!"

It was no wonder Qin Luo was so excited. If there was anything precious that could only be obtained during the New Year these days, then in the Qin family, besides red envelopes, it was Five-Diced Baozi.

Five-Diced Baozi, the official imperial meal designated by Emperor Qianlong during his southern tour.

Unlike the 3.5-yuan preserved vegetable cakes or 2.5-yuan meat biscuits sold on the street that also claimed to be the same "Qianlong southern tour" delicacies, Five-Diced Baozi was a true imperial meal.

Legend has it that when Qianlong toured the south, local officials asked what should be prepared for breakfast. Qianlong said: "Nourishing but not overly tonic, delicious but not overly fresh, oily and fragrant but not overly greasy, crispy but not overly hard, tender but not overly soft." The Guangling dim sum master pondered and finally had an epiphany: sea cucumber is nourishing, use a little and it won't be overly tonic; chicken is delicious, use a little and it won't be overly fresh; pork is oily and fragrant, use a little and it won't be overly greasy; winter bamboo shoots are crispy, use a little and they won't be overly hard; shrimp is tender, use a little and it won't be overly soft. So, he used these five ingredients diced as filling, and thus, Five-Diced Baozi was born.

One could tell from the fact that making the filling required heating the wok, stir-frying, stewing, and preparing broth in advance that making Five-Diced Baozi was very troublesome.

After the ingredients in the wok were simmered, water starch had to be added to thicken the sauce, and it had to be refrigerated for a period of time.

Qin Huai had always felt that if you skipped that last step and served it directly, it could probably be a dish on its own.

When Qin Huai first tried making Five-Diced Baozi at home, Qin Congwen thought his son had developed an interest in cooking and decided to challenge a high-difficulty dish starting with broth-based cooking.

As for how Qin Huai knew how to make such a high-difficulty imperial meal...

Qin Huai could only say that the most correct thing he did in elementary school was spending one yuan at a flea market to buy that "Complete Book of Dim Sum."

The "Complete Book of Dim Sum" was truly complete.

Begging for food: Dear readers, have mercy, please give some monthly votes!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 16 =====