But Hua Country people have always held a deep fixation on celebrating the new year, so even though she felt regret, there was nothing to be done.
Since there were only about ten days left, there was no need to prepare full-course meals anymore. Given the cold weather, maybe it was time to try something different?
Xiao Yu thought of spicy seafood grilled skewers—a twist on the hot pot offerings, replacing vegetables with seafood, which was abundant in their region after all.
Especially now that the weather had turned colder, and according to Uncle Zhang, there might be just one last batch of ship arrivals before the new year.
Seizing this opportunity could prove to be just as profitable as serving full meals.
With this realization, she abruptly rejected all her previous ideas—teaching cooking, setting price lists, distributing flyers, and so on. These were all preparations for a new store opening, but with new year’s fast approaching, they became unnecessary. It might be better to save those efforts to promote after the celebrations.
During these ten days, she could focus on selling excitement and gaining popularity, and in the process, promote the specialty dishes advertised on the wall. Wouldn’t there be plenty of customer traffic by then?
The more Xiao Yu pondered, the more feasible it seemed. The question was, what to sell?
Oysters? Various types of snails, shellfish, abalone, octopus, cuttlefish—all of these could be made into skewers. But it would be difficult to do the same with fish. So what should she make?
She thought of fish balls. However, without starch, fish balls would fall apart. Starch was not easy to produce in large quantities, leaving only one option...
She could buy the ingredients from the Space Supermarket, make the actual product, and then swap it out as proof of the item’s practicality—if the product could be made, it would be okay.
Starch, pepper powder, and other spices could be bought ready-made from the Space Supermarket and then disguised as her own creations to sell to the shopkeeper.
But making fish balls was not an easy task. In principle, any fish could be used for fish balls, including shellfish and snails, but the prerequisite was having the right tools to mince the meats and mix them with spices to form the fish balls.
Just fish balls would be too monotonous, so it was best to add some vegetables. However, by the sea during this season, there were only cabbages, radishes, at worst potatoes and spinach—to increase the variety. After all, who living by the sea gave a damn about fish?
The more comprehensive the variety prepared, the better the business might be.
With her plan in mind, she went to see the Shopkeeper, shared her idea, and then asked, "Do you have a meat grinder?"
To her surprise, the Shopkeeper confirmed they had one. She even went to check it out and, although it wasn’t as useful as the manual meat grinders of later generations, it was sufficient for handling fish.
"We all know how to make fish balls since we have a signature Fish Ball Soup here! Whatever kind of fish balls you plan to make, just let us know, and we’ll start preparing in the next few days."
Xiao Yu thought for a moment, "I’ll write up a recipe at home and bring some spices over tomorrow. It’s cold enough that they won’t spoil once we start preparing them. But Shopkeeper, I have another request. I noticed there was a small window near the entrance of the Yingbin Building. Was anything sold there before?" The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novel·fire·net
The Shopkeeper’s eyes flickered, "Aye, you’ve taken a fancy to that spot and want to set up some small business?"
Xiao Yu shook her head, "Not for me," and then she explained Yaya’s family situation to him.
"I was thinking, since that space is idle anyway, why not rent it to the kid and her Grandma? They could take advantage of your location to sell some snacks, saving them from being exposed to the elements. If you agree, all our house’s spices will be provided for free until I leave. How does that sound?"