Hearing her say that, the man couldn’t help but laugh a few times, his tone carrying a hint of belittlement, "Young lady, I won’t say my cooking is the best in Licheng, but there aren’t many restaurants that can make food tastier than my family’s. Just look at my business and you’ll know. What makes you think, the fish dish you teach me to cook, will be a big hit?"
Those fish, are there not just a few methods of cooking them?
He had also visited other cities, but never saw any particularly novel ways of eating fish.
This young girl was talking big without having found her place.
As for his reaction, Shen Mianmian was not at all surprised. It truly was not easy for a teenage girl to be taken seriously when she said such things, but since she had spoken, she was certainly confident that she could make a delicious fish dish.
She asked calmly, "Boss, do you know how to make pickled cabbage fish?"
"Pickled cabbage fish?" The boss was startled. It was his first time hearing this name and, with some skepticism, he asked, "Can you cook it?"
Could it be that the young girl had made it up on the spot? He had never heard of this way of eating fish.
Shen Mianmian nodded and casually mentioned two other dishes, "Fish head with chopped chili, stir-fried fish in hot oil."
The boss’s expression changed. Putting aside whether these three dishes were her fabrication, just by hearing their names, they sounded quite upscale. If this young girl really knew how to make them, wouldn’t the business in his store get even better?
Looking at her composed face again, she seemed to have really seen the wide world and did not appear to be lying.
The boss’s expression became serious, "Young lady, can you really cook these fish dishes and are willing to teach me?"
He felt as if this were as unlikely as winning a big prize. Initially, to learn cooking, he had put in a lot of effort and given many gifts to his mentor before he was willing to teach him.
"Uncle, I’m not running a restaurant. Teaching you to cook fish won’t take away my family’s business. On the contrary, if your business does well and you buy vegetables from me, it will be beneficial for me too, so there’s nothing that I can’t teach." Shen Mianmian didn’t use the term ’boss’ anymore since, if the negotiations went well, they would undoubtedly be in frequent contact. Simply based on age, it was appropriate for her to call him ’uncle’.
"But your store doesn’t sell fish."
"I can bring wild fish from the countryside for you. The fish from the countryside are cheap and of excellent quality. You won’t be at a loss." Restaurants have refrigerators. Bringing fresh fish here and putting them directly into the refrigerator won’t spoil them at all.
In this era, when it comes to eating fish, people don’t necessarily insist on live fish, since both the economic level and equipment aren’t up to that standard yet.
This time, the boss understood. It wasn’t him negotiating with the young girl; it was this young girl offering him an olive branch. Changing his previous mindset, he began to treat Shen Mianmian as an adult.
"Young lady, I see you’re a straightforward person, and I’m straightforward too. Tell me directly what you’re thinking. Share your thoughts with me and I’ll see if I can accept them."
"Uncle, since you’ve put it that way, then I’ll speak frankly," Shen Mianmian smiled briefly, yet her expression was very serious, like a shrewd and slick businessperson. "I’ll teach you to cook fish, and in the future, all the fish and vegetables you sell will have to be purchased from my family. Of course, I won’t offer my skills for free, but I won’t make any excessive demands either. I won’t give you any discount on the fish and vegetables; you can just buy them at the normal price in my shop. How does that sound?"