Preparation

Wang Ming and Louzheng put the meat in the refrigerator and got to work. Wang Ming got Louzheng to keep on practicing walking around with plates in his hand and simulating receiving orders. While Wang Ming went out to the last stop of the day, he had totally forgotten to buy some red firecrackers and a red ribbon.

This is a tradition for many shops and restaurants. On opening day, they would light some red firecrackers and cut a red ribbon to signal that it was the opening day to attract customers and for good luck.

Arriving at a shop that sold things fireworks, Wang Ming saw the perfect firecrackers. They were mostly red but also had golden edges. The gold color is the color of prestige and prosperity. After taking the firecrackers, he wanted to go with a tailor to see if he could find and buy a red ribbon.

But this fireworks shop had everything he needed it sold not only fireworks and firecrackers, but it also sold ribbons in different sizes and colors. Looking around, he found a big red pull bow that was red and also had a golden edge it was also the perfect size being over 5 meter long. Seeing it was the perfect one, Wang Ming snagged it instantly and went to pay.

Wang Ming arrived at the restaurant when he heard a loud sound coming from inside the restaurant. Opening the door, Wang Ming thought someone was here to make trouble and fought with Louzheng. But facepalmed when he saw it was just Louzheng who had tripped and fallen to the ground. Walking towards him, helping him up, Wang Ming couldn't help but tease Louzheng.

"Such a big and strong guy, but can't even walk straight while holding a plate. Maybe I should sack you right here."

Hearing his words, Louzheng's eyes widened and turned around to beg Wang Ming not to fire him. But when he saw that Wang Ming was smirking and laughing, he knew that Wang Ming was just playing with him.

"Don't scare me like that, boss! I don't know why, but the plates offset my balance, I feel like I need to be extra careful when holding one and it trips me up."

"I know, I'm just joking with you. Now lets resume the training. I think I know the reason for your clumsiness. You focus too much on how you are holding the plate, and you are too afraid of the plate falling or that food will slide off the plate. Just relax hold the plate with a steady hand doesn't focus too much about the plate but focus on where you walk and that you walk with steady legs. Let your body and eyes lead the way and you should be fine. So resume training."

Wang Ming had thought about Louzheng's problem and finally realized that it was because he tunnel-visioned on the plate of food in his hands, which made him forget about his surroundings.

While Louzheng was training, Wang Ming started preparing the food. Since he had roughly 100 pounds of meat, he needed to do all the prep work beforehand. It was a daunting task which was to blanch all the meat, which would take him at least an hour or two. Since he only had a pot big enough for roughly 20 pounds, which meant he had to do the process five times to finish the 100 pounds.

After blanching the meat, Wang Ming took a peek at how Louzheng was doing and saw that he was doing a lot better already. He walked a lot more steady but would forget what he was doing when he simulated a conversation.

"Good job, Louzheng remember just relax and concentrate."

Wang Ming then went back to his food preparation taking out a few towels, he dried the outside of all the meat and cut them into equal chunks. Every chunk was roughly one pound each. Every order would comprise one pound of meat, then one bowl of rice for each guest. Rice would be no problem for Wang Ming to serve more off since the kitchen had five big rice cookers.

After cutting the meat up, he then placed them in a small clay pot that could room roughly three pieces of meat each. He would do one piece for each clay pot if he could, but he didn't have enough clay pots, which would make neither did he have a big enough bamboo steamer.

Wang Ming changed up on how to cook the pork belly. Since last time he warmed the clay pot directly, but this time after cooking the clay pot directly for 1 hour, he would transfer the clay pot to the bamboo steamer. The bamboo steamer was perfect for him to steam and cook multiple clay pots at the same time. It would make the process a lot easier to control, as the steam would have a consistent temperature.

Wang Ming felt thankful for how big this kitchen was and how much equipment it had. He could cook roughly 12 clay pots at a time, which were roughly 36 pounds of meat. He could then transfer the clay pots to the bamboo steamer to start the tenderizing process. Luckily he had three bamboo steamers so he could start tenderizing the meat one batch after another instead of having to wait for one bamboo steamer to finish.

But he would not cook the meat yet, since the opening would be at 11AM. If he cooked the meat now, then it would not just a few hours old but half a day to a day old. That would deteriorate the quality too much. The clock was roughly 6.30pm now, so he would take a break and eat, then train with Louzheng to roughly 10 pm and send him home.

Then he would take an hour power nap before preparing the kitchen and start cooking through the night. He knew it would be hard, since it would mean that he would be awake for over 24 hours. But that would be a small sacrifice for what he could achieve tomorrow.

Louzheng was still working hard, which made Wang Ming appreciate him even more. It had been 8 hours already, but he still kept on working hard and practicing. Louzheng had finally surmounted the problem he had and now looked like a seasoned server, though he still didn't have the bearing and finesse of one.

But that didn't matter. Seeing how good Louzheng were already, Wang Ming didn't see any point in more training and sent Louzheng home to eat and get ready for the opening day.

Sending Louzheng home, Wang Ming also went out to buy a large take away order. Since he would be in the kitchen for the entire night, Wang Ming thought it would be a good idea to have some food ready to eat. Though it sounded comical, a chef buying food to eat in his own kitchen while he's making food.

But Wang Ming wanted to dedicate all his time tonight to make the food and prepare the whole restaurant. Since no one had cleaned up the restaurant ever since Wang Ming moved in. It wasn't dirty at all since they had had no customers. But there was some dust here and there he would have to clean up.

When Wang Ming was out on the street looking for food, he got hit by a nostalgic feeling. It wasn't more than some days ago he was also at this street selling food. But now he was about to open up his own restaurant.

Since he didn't have a lot of time, Wang Ming went into the first place he could buy food, which funnily enough sold his favorite food wonton. After buying three bowls of wonton, he went back to the restaurant. Wonton was also something Wang Ming wanted to sell in his restaurant later, since it was one of his favorite food ever since childhood. His mother used to make it to him.

After eating, Wang Ming felt delighted to get two hours of sleep before waking up at 9pm. It was time to ready up the restaurant and kitchen to cook the food. Cleaning the restaurant took Wang Ming more time than he thought. Since there were a lot of places that had gathered up more dust than he thought. It seemed like the people that had cleaned up before him hadn't done a thorough job and skipped the hard to reach places.

Using an hour and a half to clean up the restaurant from the outside to the inside. Wang Ming finally felt satisfied by how clean it was. Now his job was to dirty up the kitchen again. Looking at the clock, Wang Ming saw it was close to 11pm already. Seeing it was that late, Wang Ming warmed up the stoves and steamers. Taking out 12 wine bottles from the refrigerator out, he popped them all open and poured all the wine in 33cl cups.

After finishing the prep, Wang Ming put the 12 clay pots on the stove, then put the meat, spices and wine inside the pots, then hurriedly put the lids on. Cooking the food now would give him 3 batches of meat which would be ready at 8, 9 and 10am, which was perfect.

After cooking the 12 clay pots for an hour, Wang Ming hurriedly put them in a bamboo steamer that Wang Ming had put on another stove.

He repeated this process three times until all the 36 clay pots were now steaming in the bamboo steamers. Sadly, he couldn't check up on the meat because opening the clay pots now would make them lose a lot of heat, potentially destroying the dish. But Wang Ming felt confident since the last time the dish came out perfectly, it should come out perfectly this time too.

Seeing all three bamboo steamers now steaming, now having nothing to do, Wang Ming felt sleepy looking at the clock. He realized it was 4am already. One hour after the last batch started its steaming process. But since he had slept for two hours earlier, he could still hold on, though it was a battle of mental strength.

Wang Ming tried to wake his body and mind up this night was too crucial for him to sleep. Wang Ming kept doing small exercises to keep him awake, like push-ups, sit-ups and jogging around the kitchen. Though he never went too far from the bamboo steamers since he always had to monitor them.

He kept being paranoid and checked on them after a few minutes since he was afraid that the power would go out, or that he needed to fill the water, check temperatures, etc.

But then finally the alarm bell rang out. Wang Ming's body was drenched in sweat, since he had done almost a thousand push-ups, sit-ups and jogged around constantly. Wang Ming hurriedly took one bamboo steamer off the stove and then hurriedly found a wet towel to wipe his face, hair and body and changed his sweaty clothes. He didn't want any sweat close to the food in case of it contaminating the food.

Though how Wang Ming looked now was definitely any girl's wet dream. He looked so manly in his white t-shirt that was wet because Wang Ming's body was still wet from the wet wipes, making it see through, and clung to his body. Which woman didn't want to see a handsome man in a see through t-shirt with ripped abs?

Opening the bamboo steamer, Wang Ming carefully took one of the clay pots out and opened the lid. After opening the lid, a delightful aroma erupted in the kitchen, which made him realize how hungry he was. The aroma made his body crave what was inside the pot.

The craving was so strong that he decided he would eat the meat from the clay pot he had opened. It would serve as a test on how the meat tasted and how the texture is. If this batch wasn't satisfactory, then he still had time to adjust the other batches.

Cutting into the meat, Wang Ming felt nervous. The knife cut the meat easily, which was a sign that the meat's tender. Taking a fork, he stabbed into the meat and wiggled it in the air. The meat and fat looked tender but not mushy, which was a better sign.

Finally, putting the meat into his mouth and chewing it, made Wang Ming freeze for just a second. He couldn't believe it, but the meat tasted better, so much better this time than last time. It seemed like the slight adjustments he had done with the recipe really worked.

Not only this, but the texture was also better. The consistent temperature from the bamboo steamer made the fat even softer than last time, but the meat still had a chewy texture. It was perfect this time, Wang Ming felt so proud of himself he had nailed the dish.

This taste test made Wang Ming ooze confidence. He truly believed in the dish's potential now.

After putting the 11 clay pots inside the heating cabinet, Wang Ming finished the three pieces of meat. Then waited for the rest of the batches to finish, but this time he didn't feel as tired. The result of the first batch made him feel excited he could feel adrenaline pumping in his body constantly.

The clock then turned to 9am and 10am. Wang Ming had put all the 35 clay pots inside the heating cabinet. Finishing with everything, he had to make himself ready for greeting the few friends he had and doing the small opening ceremony for his restaurant.

After taking a shower and changing his clothes this time to a red traditional Chinese dress, he bought from Fu Ya. Wang Ming walked to wait for the guests that would soon arrive.