Chapter 137 - 111: Dr. Etoli
Chapter 137: Chapter 111: Dr. Etoli
That day, the ingredients delivered by the partner vendors were quite a mixed bag, so Ning He decided to get creative. Using mung bean, pea, and sweet potato starch, she made all sorts of starch jellies.
There was a hot and sour mung bean starch jelly, cut into small cubes, mixed with a scallion-ginger-garlic water and minced pickled mustard greens, then seasoned with sugar, vinegar, and chili oil.
Another version was *da la pi*, with the jelly cut into wide strips and served on a large platter with julienned cucumber, carrot, thin bean sprouts, and shredded tofu skin. This was then drizzled with a dressing made from sesame paste, chili oil, Sichuan peppercorn oil, vinegar, minced garlic, sugar, salt, and soy sauce.
She also made a translucent pea starch jelly by mixing in various vegetable juices. It was shaved into fine threads and drizzled with brown sugar syrup, creating a colorful dessert version.
Using a similar method, she made *liangxia*, small, tadpole-shaped jellies that looked like countless colorful little fish. Customers could top them with their choice of salty, sweet, spicy, or sour sauce, and they were a huge hit with the kids.
There was even a hot version, stir-fried with green peppers and onions. All of these dishes were incredibly popular.
Leitel once again put his imagination to work, stuffing the spicy chili oil starch jelly into a pocket-like flatbread. A few of his old buddies raved about it, and word quickly spread among the day’s diners, turning his creation into an instant classic.
Mr. Rochester came by as well. After tasting a small portion of the *da la pi*, he directly asked a server for a whole, uncut sheet of the starch jelly. He then instructed Youzhen to prepare it like a savory crepe—brushing it with sauce, rolling it up with various side dishes, and slicing it into finger-length segments. He arranged them elegantly on a plate and savored them slowly.
After getting permission from the two creators, Connie made promotional posters of these new ways to eat the jelly and posted them on the wall. They sparked a craze. The starch jelly-themed dinner buffet ran for five consecutive days, and Cindy even filmed a special episode about it for her food channel.
That evening, Gates tried every single type of starch jelly. Unsurprisingly, he went back to his own restaurant and threw a fit. His assistant stood by, feigning sympathy while secretly thinking, ’I have to bring my wife and son here to try this tomorrow.’
Between Ning He’s endless stream of ideas and the food videos that occasionally aired on TV, almost everyone in Beiluo City knew about Heqi Chinese Restaurant. The restaurant’s popularity remained sky-high, and it was fully booked every single day.
Ning He’s own fame began to spread, the best evidence being her reputation value reaching 2000 in the system. More importantly, all this publicity laid the groundwork for the advertising campaign for the upcoming Gourmet Challenge.
Three days after Ning He finished filming, the final cut of the commercial was approved by Macken. It was scheduled to air officially once the current primetime ad slot expired.
The free promotion originally arranged for Ning He was for a non-primetime slot. However, after Editor-in-Chief Liang Hui carefully reviewed Cindy and Karen’s proposal, she saw immense potential for the show on the Alliance platform and proactively upgraded their slot.
With a few days left before the broadcast, Ning He decided to finalize the location for her new company.
Ning He had been ready to bite the bullet and buy the factory Li Ou worked at. But when Julie called, she discovered that someone had beaten them to the punch. Another buyer had already put up the full five hundred thousand and purchased it, so she had regrettably missed her chance.
In the end, Ning He decided to choose between a wheat-growing company and a shell company.
Based on another detailed comparison prepared by Julie, Ning He finally settled on the wheat-growing company.
Although the asking price was much higher, its equipment and business licenses were all in order, meaning she could start operations immediately after the acquisition. This was also the fastest way to legitimize the "black mud" she possessed. ’Growing wheat is a high-risk business, but that’s a problem for another day,’ she thought.
However, less than half a day after Julie submitted their offer, she received a reply: the owner had decided to make further investments and was no longer selling.
Ning He was left speechless. She had no choice but to ask Julie to inquire about the shell company.
Fortunately, there were no surprises this time; the other party readily agreed. Ning He quickly scraped together one hundred thousand original coins for the contract payment and another ten thousand original coins for the processing fees, giving them to Julie to handle the paperwork as quickly as possible.
Luckily, Ning He’s cash flow was still healthy. The restaurant and the cafeteria had earned her nearly fifty thousand this month. Even after this expenditure, she would still have thirty to forty thousand left over, which was enough to move on to the next phase.
Namely, personnel and equipment.
Just then, there was finally news from the skinny old man. He scheduled a meeting for noon and brought someone to meet with Ning He.
The visitor was a stern, unsmiling, middle-aged man who wore glasses. Standing next to him, even the skinny old man—who usually looked quite fierce—seemed almost benevolent by comparison.
"This is from my very first graduating class of students, Dr. Etoli," the skinny old man said, looking quite pleased with himself. "He’s my star pupil! It wasn’t easy for me to get him to come here. If you have him managing your company, you’ll absolutely be rolling in it!"