August Moon

When I need a really good sleep I use earplugs.  They are in short supply, disposables, so I don't use them often.  Even with the earplugs, as dawn crept through the curtains I heard drums, bells and chanting.  I united my heart with the prayers rising on the wind, and kept my weary bones in bed.

At last I heard the rapid paced chanting and drumming that I now know is the final prayer, so I got up and looked out the window.  I threw on a dress and grabbed the camera. I took a picture from my bedroom window before I got in the elevator, knowing it would all disappear quickly.

The red cushions were filled with bowing neighbors just moments before, the table resplendent with fruit offerings and candles. The tree (lower right) obscures the offering fire, and the picture of the Buddha.  At the center of it all is Guanyi, whom the Tibetans believe is Avalokitishvara or Chengrezig.

The monks have removed their saffron robes (they must be hot) and pass items down from the elaborately constructed altar.  Soon I see these tables carried back to the elevators and apartments.

Yesterday Shirley came by the bakery to pick up her order of 15 cinnamon buns to take to Shanghai Monday.  She arrived after six, much later than she said she would.  I should have gone home, I had been there twelve hours, but it was the dishwasher's day off so I was sweeping up the accumulation of crumbs, washing the floors, and such.  I asked her where she had been all day. She said she went to her husband's family home in the countryside to make offerings, because it was 'the day of the ghosts'.

I took note of the phase of the moon on August 26, and noticed it was a waxing half moon.

Whatever this auspicious time is in the Buddhist calendar, my neighbors are marking it with prayer and burnt offerings to the dead.

I have noticed for weeks now that the little old ladies who sit under the eaves of the building were folding these papers, accumulating sacks of them.  This wall is part of the stairwell on the ground floor.  There's also a service closet, near the elevator, loaded with them.

This kind of open fire would be unthinkable in the States.  In fact, while I was standing there a wind blew cinder to the tree and shrubs.  But there were enough glowing embers remaining for one slow poke to place her offering.

I see I also captured the three-wheeled bike.  Those blue bikes, some of which have electric motors, many of which are still powered by foot pedaling, are ubiquitous.  You can also see a bit of a monk's saffron robe at the right edge of the photo, and the Buddha picture in front of the garbage can.  This picture was just before the gust of wind scattered the embers into the bushes, chased by ladies with straw brooms.

It seemed to take only moments before the tables were lined up to be taken back on the elevators to their apartments.  The monks pitched right in with the lifting and carrying.  That is a monk in the middle of the picture.

Ah well, it's supposed to be my day off today, Monday.  I can catch up on the zzz's later, I guess.  I may as well go in to the bakery and worked on the ciabatta.  We have a standing order for three 12" ciabatta three times a week.  Yesterday Peter, then Peter and I made two attempts.  We didn't get it right, wasted a lot of expensive filling in the process.  I'd better take care of it myself, or lose the account.

Improvements on the business end

August 23

Finally beginning to get a handle on the business side of things.  We are making progress getting our records into the computer.  Rachel translated our Metro (wholesale outlet, like Costco) invoices into English.  Next, Tina converted the prices into per gram and per ounce, of ingredients we use regularly in the recipes.

Tina

Tina is a handful.  With her round face and big bones she is not of the long lythe type of Chinese woman.  She tends to carry in her hand a round paper fan on a stick.  When I notice this I think 'vapors'. We have the air conditioner on usually, it isn't that hot in the bakery.  It seems to be a habit.

She is either giggly (me:  I think we baked this a little too long.  Her:  giggle.  Me:  The focaccia seems to be selling better than the ciabatta.  Her:  giggle) or pouty.  She sashays to the work table, puts her fan down,  and sighs. Her English is atrocious.  She mumbles a noun or two.  A moment later I'll ask her where something is.  She'll say she just told me.

"You did?  What did you say?"

"I said 'It's the sugar'."

"Telling me something goes like this:  Satina, I put the new sugar over here.'"

Nod.

But she'll do it again.

Now that Peter is working with us, she feels she is the teacher.  I left him on his own to figure something out, after reviewing the basics with him first.  I caught her standing across the work bench with him talking in Chinese instructing him.  I told him I wanted a sponge.  She was telling him to add a blanket to it.  (A sponge is a pre-ferment.  If we add a blanket of the remainder of the recipe's dry ingredients, we have committed to that particular bread.  If we leave it overnight without a 'blanket', the next day we can divide it and make many different breads with the added dry ingredients).  In a neutral voice I asked her to leave the kitchen.  She returned to the front of the shop where XiaoLan was cleaning.

Peter and I then figured we'd have to increase the amount of sponge to compensate for the added flour.  Fortunately a sponge can rest in the fridge for a couple of days, we needn't use it all up the next day.

I then spoke to Tina.  She is not the instructor, I am.  Although we are all students, I am the senior one and hence the instructor.

Obviously, she feels threatened by Peter.

I need to have a further talk with her.  She needs to understand the uniqueness of her contribution, so that she will not feel in direct competition with Peter.  She is quite insecure.

On the other hand, she is increasingly thinking on her own without asking me.  She is making some excellent decisions, and taking care of things without burdening me.

Too many cooks..

We seem to be overstaffed.  We could really handle things well without Rachel and her mom, XiaoLan.  Rachel's main help has been to work with me to get the company business license application completed, so that we will have that before my visa expires.  She also helps with translations.  Xiao Lan does an excellent job of keeping the floors, windows and work space sparkling clean.  I love it.  However, we three bakers could do our own pot washing, and during those down times waiting for breads to ferment or bake we could be doing the other cleaning.  Since XiaoLan's name is on the business license, it is a delicate situation to tell her to stay home.  I wish she did not require a salary.  At first, months ago, Rachel said her mom wouldn't want a salary, would just want to help out. But when it came down to it, she asked for a salary.

So I watch my money fly out the window.  I've paid for the wine for the wine tasting, and bought cheeses, and now my bank balance has become dangerously low.  I keep hoping for the September turn around, as the foreign teachers arrive.  If it doesn't happen, we'll be in serious trouble by December.

Therefore, getting sorted out to determine the cost of product is crucial at this point.  At the moment, our prices are random.  I noticed that the price of white bread has sunk from 16 rmb to 12 rmb.  I don't know whose that decision was, because without firm data to back up my decision I just stay out of it.

When a new item comes out of the oven, Tina will lean over the work table on her elbows, look at it and ask:  How much is it?  I turn the question back to her.  How much do you think we should charge?  I always price things cheaper than she does, so now I leave it up to her.  Soon I will have actual data, though.  It will be interesting to see if there is a significant change in price as a result.

Commercial customers

I sent another sample up to Johnny at Jolly's last week.  I made the loaf of bread larger, as he asked.  I standardized the size of the hamburger bun, I sent him a few sample buns.

I asked Tina to call today to get his response.  He said the buns needed to be softer!!!  This is not possible without chemical dough conditioners, so he is obviously not really interested in my bread.  He is just all talk.  As for the loaf, he said again he wanted the multigrain (but not for sandwiches.  The sandwich bread needs to be soft)

Today I bought a large attractive basket through Taobao.  I will send it to his restaurant with some breads for sale.  We'll see if he comes through on that side of the business.

Meanwhile, Klaus upstairs at the German restaurant has put in a steady order of three 12 inch ciabatta every two days.  Well, three times a week.  He also called with a special order.  He has a catering job, for which he needs hot dog buns.  He asked if I could do it.  I said, 'Of course.'

The next day I experimented, and we both were pleased with the results.  I priced them too low.  He doubled the price he'll give me, and ordered 180 to be cooled and ready by 10 a.m. Saturday.  That's about the income of a normal weekday.  That's Tina's day off, and the day I expect foreigners to drop in.  It will be an interesting, long day.  Rachel is also not available, because Saturdays are busy at Web as well.
  

Creating buzz

Not being tied down to a teaching schedule allows me more flexibility to attend ex pat events.

OIC
Thursday night there was an event right upstairs from the bakery, at the German restaurant.  There is a chain of schools in China that are built on the British model, and called 'Oxford International College'.  This one is k-12, although sometimes they just focus on high school and A levels.

Through Facebook, some of the 15 foreign teachers had already found my place.  To my surprise and mild disappointment, they prefer my white bread over the whole grain.  Business is business, however, and I am just happy to make a sale.  They invited me to their promotional event, where they hoped to create some buzz for themselves. Theirs is a new school in Changzhou, setting up in temporary quarters until they can build their own campus just a mile or so from my bakery.

The event was very poorly organized.  Once orders started going into the kitchen, it seemed they would never come out.  This is not normal service at the German restaurant, and so I thought something was amiss. During the evening I told Klaus that we needed to talk.  He, too, had something he wanted to talk with me about.  The next day I sat down with Klaus and we discussed our interests.  I couldn't help but bring up the previous evening, with empathy.  He explained how many times in the past two weeks they had changed their minds, about venue, menu, size and just about every aspect of it.  In the end he understood that there would only be about 20 people, and they would not be eating but just having drinks.  He staffed accordingly.

About sixty people showed up, and after drinking a while, they decided to order dinner.

Last year Lori, the Rain Girl, was teaching at a similar local high school geared to a western curriculum.  That school contracted with outside agencies to staff their foreign teachers for science, math, history and English rhetoric and literature.  Lori taught the latter, also focusing on preparing them for their APs.  Through her I got a glimpse of the chaos that can arise when staffing is bi or multi cultural.  The Chinese have their way of doing things, and even if their curriculum is geared to the west, they will only minimally listen to the advice and suggestions of their western teachers.

So the OIC will have a long and painful learning curve as they try to integrate their staffs and present a unified face to the community.

The OIC team hoped the even would be a recruiting and sign up event, too.  But who were they recruiting?  They had told Klaus that he should talk up the event to his clients, and for each child signed up he'd get a bonus.  But Klaus's clientele are mostly bachelors!  The poor guys who have come from Germany and other European countries unaccompanied, and without domestic help.  They eat out frequently, and hang out at the bar to socialize with other guys.  Being new to the community, the OIC team had no feel about these matters.   They are groping about trying to get a hook into the ex pat community, to get their children signed up.  But few young families choose to live in Changzhou.  There were a few Chinese families at the event, no doubt friends of the Chinese staff.

During the evening I discovered that most of the foreign staff were already aware of the 'bread lady.'  A couple of them sat me down and went on about the school lunches.  They are not so open to the Chinese food, being greasy and full of MSG.  They long for sandwiches.  They proposed that I send out sandwiches to them each day.  They told me the man to talk to, to get it organized.

I did phone him, Desmond, the next day.  The ex pat staff pointed out this assistant head teacher as the mover and shaker among the Chinese staff.  He said I needed to send him a menu and a price list.  I did that.  Now we'll see how long it takes him to get back to me.

Meanwhile, since I don't want to get involved in baking meats, I spoke with Klaus about collaborating on this.  He said that they had approached him also on the same problem.  He could easily roast beef for me, and also chicken breasts.  I thought to offer tuna salad sandwiches, and a choice of either Edam or cheddar cheeses.  I have those two on hand already.  The suggested price was very high, at about 30 rmb per sandwich.  This was the price suggested to me by the ex pats, and Klaus agreed.  So we'll wait and see.

Klaus, for his part, wanted to talk with me about the change in his menu.  He asked me if I couldn't supply him with a long ciabatta, which he could slice up and serve.  I am not clear if this was to be something on the menu, or the free bread basket. I gave him a sample the next day, filled with sliced black olives, pesto sauce and a drizzle of olive oil, topped with a sprinkling of parmesan.  The dough was prepared with dried tomatoes baked right in.

Wine Tasting Party
Speaking of cheeses leads me to the second attempt at buzz-creating.  I have decided on doing a wine tasting party.  Rachel's dad is a wine distributor, so he has picked out three nice wines from France Oldenburg de Lafia.  I never heard of the winery, but that doesn't mean much.  I always buy the low-end wines. The distributor in Shanghai requires that I buy five cases!  I'm also buying a white Chinese wine (probably a Chardonnay) and a high-end Chinese wine of the same variety as the French wines, Cabernet.  I'm also buying Merlot for the sampling, from the same French winery.

For all this, tomorrow I must fork over 5,500 rmb to Rachel's father.  Now, I was hoping to invite 20 people to come, at 100 rmb per head.  That's only 2,000 rmb!  I went back to the Facebook page where I posted the event and raised the price per ticket to 150 rmb, and expanded the 'guest list' to 30 people.  If the weather cooperates, I should be able to have a small grouping of people outside as well.  I won't provide tables, but at least benches for seating.

The cheeses are pricey as well.  I'm planning on either an Edam or an Ementhaler, an Irish "Kerrygold" brand mild cheddar, and a tiny Camembert.  Then I'll have to bake up some breads to go with all of that.  Probably the lean, unenriched breads are the best.  Their simplicity should be a good backdrop for the other rich flavors of cheese and wine.  Should I also offer a sausage?  Please comment.  There is an abundance of what is called 'Taiwanese sausage' available in the supermarkets.  I could roast them in the oven and slice them alongside the cheeses.  I don't have a chaffing dish in which to keep them warm.  So should I bother at all?  And what about fruit.  Should I also have some grapes, sliced apples, and yellow mellons?

I don't want to go into debt for this, but I also want to make it elegant, a night to remember.  I'm hoping against hope that some of the people will want to walk away with some of these wines.  If I offer it at the price I'm buying it at (and I do hope I'm getting a better price than at a retail shop), they might be motivated to buy.  Then I have a better chance of breaking even.

He is gifting me with two cases of Australian wine.  I would love to savor them for myself, or save them for Christmas presents, but I suspect that I will have to find a way to sell them to earn back my investment in the evening.

The Monkey King
Just two nights after this, on Saturday, there was another ex pat dinner.  This group had met twice before over the past four or six months, though we are no formal group.  Again, a note is placed on Facebook, and we congregate.

AnnMarie came down from Xin Bei and asked if I could bring some bread for her.  So I did bring a bunch of bread, though the particular kind she wanted had sold out.  It is tacky to try to sell bread at an event like that.  I did it the last time, too, because the event was upstairs at the German place.  I'll have to refrain from doing it again.  This evening no one but AnnMarie bought.

This dinner was held at the new Italian restaurant.  Coincidentally, I met the head chef and the hostess at the police station when I went to renew my visa last time.  I saw that the chef, who is Italian from Sardinia, had a company business license.  Yet I would consider a restaurant to be the same category as a bakery!  So I asked them about it.  They gave me the phone number of an agency.  It is the same agency whose phone number I attained three weeks ago when I went to the appropriate government office myself.  Those people don't speak English, and so I had made no headway.

This time Rachel knuckled down and focused on helping me through the process.  Previously she had spoken to that agent on the phone and learned what I had to do, but never got around to sitting with me and going through it all.  Now we have all the wrinkles ironed out, and should be able to submit the application this week.  It will still take four to six weeks, which is longer than my visa.  The policeman told me that he wouldn't be able to renew my tourist visa again.  So around Sept. 9 things will come to a head again.

After the revelers left the Italian restaurant, I sat with Alex, the chef, and asked him what kind of visa he was able to get with his company license.  He was vague, and didn't remember exactly.  First he said it was a one-year business visa, then he called it a Z visa (work visa).  He makes his own breads for the table baskets, and of course, his own pizza dough.  The pizza is to die for.  I asked where he got his bread flour.  He said he buys it locally.  We compared prices.  My price, brought down from Shandong, is cheaper than his.  But is his flour really hard-wheat bread flour?  Well, the breads all tasted very good.  We'll have another discussion when we both have time, and find out more.  If I can buy 200 kgs and split the per kilo cost, shipping charges, and storage with him, it would be a bonus for us both.

His restaurant is called 'Monkey King'.  There has been a restaurant with that name in Xin Bei as long as I have been in Changzhou.  I am curious about the relationship between the two.

The cinnamon buns were a real hit; they sold out, all 13 of them.  Well, more like ten after we all sampled them.  I wanted to staff to know what they tasted like.  So I made them again Sunday, all in one day (the other batch sat in the fridge two days).  The dough came out very different!  There were only about seven.  I wonder if I somehow killed the yeast.  I don't know!  Never mind, not much foot traffic today, so they won't sell out.  What sold today is the carrot muffin, which I made a week ago and froze.

In the bakery this weekend
The focaccia was baked early in the day.  I should have waited, because that is usually a late afternoon item. Sitting on the counter all sliced up, they must be getting a little stale.  I should encourage the staff to offer to heat them up for the customer.  Our ovens stay warm enough to do this easily.

I tried making the miche again, but I believe I've lost my touch for the sourdough.  This batch died, and the dough never rose.  I use the whole grain flour for that, which is much more expensive than my usual flour, so it was a noticeable waste of money.  I shall have to get serious about sourdoughs again.  This is not something you can do slapdash, keeping a sourdough alive takes careful attention.  I still have a small amount alive, but I am starting another one now.  Tomorrow is the fourth day, after which it will be ready to build a barm.

Saturday is Tina's day off.  Peter (the new baker apprentice), Xiao Lan (the dishwasher, Rachel's mother, and the name on my business license) and I were here without an interpreter.  It was interesting.  Difficult.  Today I have begun building a vocabulary list, for all of us to study.  I need a printer!  Perhaps tomorrow I can do something about getting my printer fixed.  That will help a lot as we develop menus and check sheets and such.

new workers, new opportunities

I've been too busy to update my blog!  Working seven days a week, long days at that.  And for what?  These dog days of summer have brought us no customers.

I'm biding my time until September, when things will get lively again.  I've arranged the wine tasting evening, with three kinds of red french wines, a comparable Chinese wine, and a Chinese white wine.  Still looking for glasses to rent.

There's a new school in town, the Oxford International College. It is a K-12 school.  They had a networking evening last night, at Jagerwirt's upstairs.  A number of people told me that the food the school serves is unpleasant, loaded with oil and msg.  They would like sandwiches.  They invited me to dialog further with their leadership about it.  I don't do meats, so I will have to collaborate with Klaus to fill this contract.

I met a nice guy, I think his name is Richard, who is the Math teacher.  He wants bread that is not enriched.  He is a vegan, except that he eats fish.

They want white bread and white sourdough loaves.

Meanwhile, Peter started.  Zhuan Xi'an, I think his name is.  I hired him as a baker.  He worked for 85 degrees bakery.  Of course, they are a big chain, sending pre-mixed doughs to each shop.  But he has experience with the kitchen equipment, and has a work ethic (to die for).

Tina is still as cute as ever, but I think I value her bookkeeping skills more than her baking.  She is fey.  We grease our bowls before putting the dough in to rise, for example.  She sprays the oil in, and then brushes it like its a piece of cloth floating lazily in a stream.  I demonstrate for her...swish swish swish and its done.  She prefers her gentle way.  In other words, working efficiently is not her forte, and she does not catch on to the concept easily.

Rachel and her mother work every day.  Rachel works part time. She has been spending a lot of that time helping me get my application ready to become a Chinese company.  Her mother is invaluable.  She is industrious, and she keeps the place spotless.  She plows through a mountain of bowls and bench scrapers, mops the floor ten times a day, and keeps the windows and glass spotless.  She's wonderful!  We miss her on her days off.

Speaking of which, we've been closing Mondays just because there isn't that much business, and also because I don't trust my team yet to spend a day without me.  They need still a bit more training.

I bought a fabulous book, on the suggestion of Peter Reinhardt, called the Bakery Trade.  It tells me so much about every level of starting a small bakery.

My repertoire is expanding.  I've tried the miche that is on the cover of Peter's book, the bakers apprentice.  It is a fabulous sour dough made of 100% rough whole wheat.  Crusty, chewy, tangy.

I'm expanding my ryes.  I haven't found one I like yet.  They are hard, dense, not good rise.  But I do use sourdough with them, to give them great flavor.  They never taste like I expect rye to taste.

Closed on Mondays

I closed the shop to give everyone a day off, and to get caught up on errands.  Still chasing down a good legal status for myself.

I need a statement from my bank saying I have money and am changing $100 every day.  Ridiculous!  But that's the requirement for a tourist.  Got to the bank around 11:20.  It was closed for lunch.  Bummer.  Too far to go home, the bank is near my shop.  I decided to drop in on my neighbor.  They just opened a tea shop.  Fabulous huge wood table, wood from Africa.  Amazing, I'll just have to include a photo.  We sat and drank different teas for an hour.

When I first arrived in China in 2001 I lived in Guangdong province.  Tea culture is very big there.  That is where I learned to sit in a tea shop for hours just sampling one tea after another, and making conversation.  So this interlude was like a blast from the past.  They have great black teas, as well, not just the usual green teas.  Teas from Assam, Darjeeling, Ceylon.  And pu'er tea!  I never knew it could taste like that.  Pu'er may be like oolong that you may be familiar with.  Smokey flavor.  I usually steep it strong.  They steeped it weak, and I discovered new flavors.  They poured me a Ceylon tea mixed with mango, pineapple and I forget what other fruit.  A spectacular tea, quite pleasant on the tongue.

I went back to the bank at 1:00.  Nope, still closed, for another half hour at least.  Now, this is no small branch with three tellers.  This is a huge bank with back rooms for commercial accounts and international wires.  I went off and finally grabbed a bite for lunch, before returning.

I discovered that I had given my U.S. bank the wrong SWIFT code.  There's the Agricultural Bank of China, and the Agricultural Development Bank of China.  This wire was sent on July 25, and I'm only now getting around to checking on it.

So I am up at 2 a.m., calling Seattle to straighten out my mess.  They have to order a recall, and then resend the wire.  Good thing I'm not destitute, waiting on that money.  Had it arrived in a timely manner, however, I could easily have gotten a printout of my bank statement and taken it right back to the police station to process my visa.  The visa expires on Aug. 11, so I can't put it off anymore.  The bank I need to go to for the statement is a long bus ride away.  No local branch can give me a statement.  So I'll have to take more time off from the bakery.

My thinking is, the weekends are more important for the bakery business.  Mid week trade is just for the locals, and they like the sweet things that Tina does so well.  So if I spend Tuesday running around chasing a visa, no harm done.

I have a new worker starting Aug. 12.  He has experience at one of the better bakery chains, called 85 degrees.  I am eager to see what he knows, I suspect he can share a secret or two.  But of course, my way of baking is totally different, so there's a lot for him to learn.  His degree is in sports, he's currently wrapping up a job as swim instructor.  He is tall, whereas Tina and I are short.  He lives near enough so that, once he's trained, we can start opening the kitchen at 6 a.m., having bread on our shelves earlier in the day.  I just hope he melds quickly with our growing little family.  I suppose it takes a lot of luck to find a worker who actually stays.

Rye

I've not been pleased with the results from the rye flour.  I've got a good sourdough started, so on Sunday I began an experiment with a new recipe from Peter's book.

Did I mention that I emailed Peter for some advice, and that he answered me?  It was a thrill for me.  He seems very personable.

This recipe calls for mixing some rye flour into the sourdough starter, and then adding a lot of saute'd onions!  That mixture is still in the fridge, I should have used it yesterday but was too busy.  So today, Tuesday, I'll let it warm to room temperature and begin to make it. Can't wait to see how it will taste.

While at the police station, I ran into two people.  Usually when I go there, there is a foreigner and their Chinese helper.  I seem to be the only one to walk in there on my own.

This foreigner is Italian.  He had a certificate as a Foreign Owned Business.  Wow!  that's what I want.  I asked him what his business was.  He's opening an Italian restaurant downtown.  His helper speaks really good English, so I took her number.  I called her later, but she only referred me back to the agency whose number I already got three weeks ago.  They don't speak English.  Rachel has spoken with them for me, but so far I see no progress.  I want a form to fill out!  Instead I get a list of items, in Chinese, that I need.  Rachel hasn't translated the list yet.

I feel like I'm back to square one.  I think I need to call that woman again and see if I can't persuade her to help me more directly.

Dog Days of Summer

The edges of a typhoon system that passed through the South China Sea gave us a little relief with winds and the occasional shower.  But mostly, we are all slugs moving slowly in a sea of hot air.  Business is down all over.

I decided that, until we have more staff, we are closed Mondays.  It's just as well.  I need to renew my visa today, and check on a wire transfer of funds that is floating out in the electronic airwaves somewhere but after two weeks has not yet landed into my bank account here.  And of course, there are still things we lack in the kitchen.  There's a restaurant supply market at the east end of town, in an area called 'jiu long' or nine dragons.  It's a long bus ride, but I should be able to get everything there.  We need more towels, more bowls, larger plastic boxes.  I hope I remember everything, because I'd rather be sitting at home in an air conditioned room.  That is, I don't want to repeat this trip too often.

Strider, one of my former students at Changzhou University, has put an ad on the internet again to help me find more workers.  I found a guy who looks like a good candidate to learn to be a baker.  He starts Aug. 12.  He graduated from the Engineering college (equivalent to our AA) with a major in sports.  He's a swim coach.  He lives near enough so that I can ask him to open up at 6 am. each day, once he's trained, which will help enormously in our ability to crank out more items suitable to the Chinese lunch habits.

I've made a few trips up to visit Johnny at his restaurant, Jolly's, in Xin Bei.  He is very supportive, but although he doesn't want to admit it, in fact his business is way down too.  He keeps nit picking the things I bring him, but I think it is more that he just hasn't the customer traffic right now to support buying my bread.

I've cultivated a nice sour dough culture.  The taste is good.  Now I have to work on shape and presentation.  I suppose it all has to do with having the right equipment.  This kind of dough is very soft.  The only way to create a nice shape is to support it firmly in something like a mold, from hours of proofing all the way into the oven without ever removing the support.

I made a nice cheese-garlic round loaf.  This will be a nice addition to the menu, once I have regular western customers.

I have a few of my former Web students who make it a point to come in regularly and each time try something different.  I love their spirit!

Another best seller among the Chinese is the cinnamon raisin loaf.  The westerners also buy it, the few who come in.  It's easy to make, I enrich it with whole wheat and oats yet keep the white soft texture.  It bakes up into a nice tall loaf and looks attractive.  We've posted the pics at our web site.  I don't have them on this computer, but you can follow the link:  grandmasnook.com, and then click on the link there which will take you to our blog.

Tina is maintaining the blog. She is such a blessing!  I told her to take the day off today.  She asked if I'd mind her coming in anyway, because she is worried about discouraging the local customer base we're nurturing.

Saturday is her regular day off.  She has Japanese lessons in the afternoon.  I came into the shop that day before 8 bursting with energy and purpose.  The day before I had prepared a large dough base, enough for twenty loaves.  I also had other things on the back burner, like my rustic bread and also the sourdough.

With that huge base, which is made from 50% flour and 100% water fermented overnight with yeast, I was able to come up with a large variety of breads.  For example, 1/4 rye flour, 1/4 rough whole wheat.  Or another using oats, a special Canadian wheat that smells like chocolate, and again the rough whole wheat.  I was able to make three cinnamon loaves with that base as well.

It was a mad house in the kitchen, with all the equipment, doughs, flours and other ingredients spilling out across the work table.  I haven't a large enough plastic box for overnight proofing, so the dough always explodes and seeps out onto the under pan.  I had to keep that messy pan on the table for most of the afternoon, as I gradually dipped into the dough to concoct some other bread.  Xiao Lan is Rachel's mother, and it is her name on my business license.  She has taken the position of our kitchen slave (for a salary).  I kept her sink full the whole day!  When she wasn't washing and drying pots, scrapers, pans, she was mopping up the floor, cleaning surfaces as I moved from the big work table to the small work table and back again.

Some breads I baked the same day.  I good number of them I put in the refrigerator to be baked on Sunday morning.  On Sunday I augmented that start with another batch of a type of bread that doesn't need the overnight fermentation.  I figured that the weekend might bring us in a bit more traffic, so I wanted to have as much on the shelves as I thought would sell.

One hiccup.  On Saturday night I asked the night shift guy to put certain breads in the freezer.  I figured we'd have them for Tuesday, since we're closing Monday.  On Sunday when I came in, Tina had those loaves put back on the shelves already!  The guy had put them in the fridge, not the freezer, and Tina without thinking took everything out of the fridge.  It was frustrating.  At the end of the day I had to throw that stuff out.

Tina wanted to make cranberry butter cookies.  She was well on her way when I arrived at 9.  I was a little worried that she was getting bored with making scones everyday.  They are our best seller, so I don't want a day to go buy without them on the shelf.  We compromised.  After her cookies were done, she'd make scones.

I decided I also needed to make a focaccia.  Customers are coming in asking for that, too.  On Friday I made one that was pizza-like.  I added minced sun-dried tomato to the dough, then before baking I brushed it with garlic olive oil, added pepperoni, and then five minutes before it was fully baked I pulled it out of the oven and added grated cheddar.  That flew off the shelf.

Sunday's was a simpler one.  I soak chopped dry mushrooms, and add them to the dough along with a couple cloves of garlic.  Then I saute fresh mushrooms with five spices seasoning, and add that as a topping before the final proof, along with a layer of olive oil.  I need to find the name of that mushroom.  I love it!  It is all stem, and no head.  It is meaty, with a nice taste.  I chopped it fairly fine before cooking it.

Before I left on Sunday night, I prepared a large biga.  This is a pre-ferment that can sit in the fridge for up to three days.  When I come back to work on Tuesday I can immediately begin some new loaves and have them on the shelf pretty close to noon, when we open.

In our first five days of business we grossed about 1,400 rmb.  Not much, but by gosh it's a start.  It helps to figure out what the customer likes, as well, at least until the westerners start coming in September.

You may not have a sense of salaries.  I pay Tina 2,000 rmb a month; she asked for less.  The new guy will start at 1,800 on probation, and then in three months (sooner if he does well and business has increased) I'll move him up to 2,000.  The kitchen slave makes 1,800, as does the night counter man, who is only working during his summer vacation.

The rent for the shop is 25,000 rmb per year.

I am thinking about publicity.  One vendor came in and made an arrangement with us that he would offer his customers coupons to our shop.  I think it happens on the phone.  Technology beyond me.  For the coupon we offer I think it's 10% off a loaf of bread, and rolls 'buy three get one free'.  We'll see if people start coming in flashing their phone screens at us, asking to redeem the 'coupon'.

I would like to do a wine tasting party at the end of August.  I once ran into a distributor of the Greatwall brand of Chinese wine.  I hope I can find his card again, it's been probably a year since I bumped into him at a supermarket.  I'll have to invest in some good cheeses at Metro (our Costco equivalent), and carefully choose breads.  I'll sell tickets, limiting the number of guests.  This will bring in the westerners who are returning back from their vacations, and hopefully also reach some of the new arrivals.  I need to find the 'tipping point'.  I'm reading that book by Malcolm Gladwell.  Of course, I don't want to find it too soon!  It's important that I have a well-trained staff that can actually crank out volumes of breads, to satisfy the demand when it finally builds.

Opening Day

Anticlimactic might be the right word.

I was in the shop by 3 a.m., getting the doughs, which were started yesterday, on their way to baking.  But not using bread enhancers, all those chemical short cuts used by all other bakeries here, leaves me with a long slow process. By ten there was still no bread on the shelves, though at least one of the ovens was full.

The place looks empty, after all that baking. Yet at the end of the day I may still throw away bread, or try to flog it tomorrow morning as 'day-old'.

It's hard to keep motivated to get up every morning and come to the shop.  How long will it take to build up a customer base?  The summer is vacation time, so there aren't many ex pats around.

I'd like to hire and train two more bakers.  Don't see how I can actually build momentum without more workers, and it takes time to train them.

I have one worker who I think is very good.  She has a college degree, baking experience in a big factory, and some kind of training around running a bakery.  But she is a giggly flighty youngster, for all that.  It's hard for her to gain confidence enough to be decisive.  I seem to repeat myself an awful lot, on basic matters that I consider fundamental.  Even simple matters of hygiene.

I don't know what Tina's future will be, but we have instantly become fond of each other.  She is a dear girl, making the frustrations far more bearable.

Now it's the end of the day, 5:00.  The workers left, except one guy who'll hang out with me until 8, in case some customers notice us on their way to the German restaurant upstairs.

Tina left without starting any breads for tomorrow.  In all fairness, she asked me for tomorrow's 'menu', but I didn't know what to tell her  What's the point of baking when no one comes to buy?

So I'll have to get off my duff here, no rest for the wicked, and start thinking about tomorrow.