I see I have woefully neglected this blog. I have three or so documents I've drafted, to be uploaded here, but haven't had time to focus on editing them and uploading. I'll try to do that soon.
In May I was anticipating that this summer would see foot traffic drop drastically, because of the hot weather. It seemed last year that business in the summer was poor, not just for me (it was my first month open, after all), but also for the German restaurant. I had asked Peter to try to find summer jobs as a swim instructor, so I could lay him off or cut back his hours.
I needed some time off. Haven't had a vacation for two years.
XiaoLan strongly advised me not to close for the summer. She said I'd lose customers. I have a couple of retail customers, and they too worried about who would supply them if I closed.
My fears were unfounded, it seems. I'm not saying sales are great, but they are much better than I anticipated.
I decided that I would, indeed, take time off, and leave XiaoLan and Peter to run the place. Fortunately, we have a volunteer to lend a hand, filling in on the others' days off. He is a college student in Nanjing. He is very bright, and has learned how to make our staple recipes. He's very good with customers, as well.
I call him Xiao Zhu. That's like 'Mr. Zhu' modulated for his age. A more mature person would be 'Lao Zhu'.
There are a couple other volunteers, less dedicated than XiaoZhu, but also helpful.
I am finally getting my vacation. Before I could make my travel plans to visit Angela and Rinpoche in the mountains of E. Tibet, a Chinese professor friend of mine called. She is taking a trip to Sichuan, organized by her publisher. Apparently a small group of writers from all over China will attend. Since I am listed as co-author on one of her books, we decided to travel together. She is a traditional Chinese, not at all comfortable with traveling alone by train. She called to ask my advice on what mode of transportation to take to Sichuan. I suggested train. She said that would work only if I accompanied her. So I am finally getting my first experience traveling by soft sleeper, after all these years of train travel.
Fortunately, there is a train ticketing office not far from the bakery. I booked our tickets.
Her English name is also Angela.
Our tour is to two sacred Buddhist sites. One is Emei Shan. This is the home town of my dear friend Mao Wei Mullin. She and Tenzin were there two summers ago, as Tenzin used that site as a topic for his Master's program in New Zealand. We met, and I got to see their little Tara, already three years old then.
On that trip I traveled to the top of Emei Shan, by myself. It was a wonderful experience. I am looking forward to doing it again, this time as a tourist rather than a pilgrim.
We will also go to LeShan, the site of a very large sitting buddha on the edge of a river. I've seen so many pictures of that site that I have no curiosity about it anymore. I had crossed it off my to-see list. However, I will go with the group and I am sure it will be worthwhile. I'll finally get MY picture taken dwarfed by the ear of the giant Buddha.
I was in a bit of a panic at the thought of sharing hotel space. My 'lingerie' is a bit worn and tatty, having brought everything from the States almost three years ago. I tried a shop next to the bakery, but the price was extravagant and the bras tacky-ugly and uncomfortable. Not to mention too small.
Marks & Spencer is a British department store. In my mind it was an upscale store. Some months ago I was Skyping with a friend, and I mentioned that there was a new one opened locally. She, being British, would appreciate that. When she lived in Changzhou M&S outlets had not yet opened.
She tipped me off that it is a good place to shop for 'our' size underwear. Sure enough, I had a successful shopping adventure this evening. I need not blush when climbing into my jammies with my Chinese friend, Angela.
After days of unsuccessfully searching for apricots, I finally went ahead with a new muffin recipe. I substituted Japanese plums for the apricots. It is called 'fruitburst' muffin. It includes fresh blueberries, dried raisins, cranberries and apricots. It turned out very well, and I felt justified by raising the price for that special item from 4 rmb to 5 rmb. I made an extremely small batch of them, and froze six. I don't want them sitting on the shelf growing stale for a few days. I expect them to sell out this evening. A 'special' should indeed be special, available only briefly.
I've been experimenting with different German breads, and also German Bretzels. The Germans are passionate about bread, and there is a fairly large German population in this city. Many of them frequent the German restaurant upstairs from me (which gets its bread from Shanghai). After the summer doldrums, I will get serious about targeting that market. Right now, I'm experimenting with new rye and sourdough bread recipes I got off the internet.
Our sandwich trade is picking up. .It may not sound like a large number to you, but we are selling between 5 and 7 sandwiches daily. Enough to go through a special pullman sandwich loaf each day.
A friend gave me the idea of buying a cart and setting up at the night market in a local strip mall, in University City. Selling only sandwiches, to the college kids there. This could be profitable, so I have asked Peter to take over that project. So far I haven't seen results (the place to begin is to find carts, develop a strategy for delivering it and picking it up). School starts again in five short weeks, not too soon at all to be planning such a new venture.
Economically, I just laid down a huge chunk of savings to pay for yearly rent on the shop and apartment, and internet for a year. Not to mention insurance and, soon, taxes on the house in Florida. That has dangerously depleted my account. The shop is still not self-sufficient. My brain is whirring with ideas on how to bring in a jolt of cash flow for August's bills. I offered one set of baking classes in July. It would be logical to offering more in August. But baking what? I am mulling this over now.
The first class was a series of three lessons, spread over three weeks, a two-hour lesson once a week. We learned to make scones, muffins and bread. As a time filler, I made a lemon ice-box pie. I'm thinking about doing more pies, but making a pie crust is an intimidating idea, with 8 novice bakers.
Any suggestions? BTW, does the 'comment' link work?
Ciao, y'all.
In May I was anticipating that this summer would see foot traffic drop drastically, because of the hot weather. It seemed last year that business in the summer was poor, not just for me (it was my first month open, after all), but also for the German restaurant. I had asked Peter to try to find summer jobs as a swim instructor, so I could lay him off or cut back his hours.
I needed some time off. Haven't had a vacation for two years.
XiaoLan strongly advised me not to close for the summer. She said I'd lose customers. I have a couple of retail customers, and they too worried about who would supply them if I closed.
My fears were unfounded, it seems. I'm not saying sales are great, but they are much better than I anticipated.
I decided that I would, indeed, take time off, and leave XiaoLan and Peter to run the place. Fortunately, we have a volunteer to lend a hand, filling in on the others' days off. He is a college student in Nanjing. He is very bright, and has learned how to make our staple recipes. He's very good with customers, as well.
I call him Xiao Zhu. That's like 'Mr. Zhu' modulated for his age. A more mature person would be 'Lao Zhu'.
There are a couple other volunteers, less dedicated than XiaoZhu, but also helpful.
I am finally getting my vacation. Before I could make my travel plans to visit Angela and Rinpoche in the mountains of E. Tibet, a Chinese professor friend of mine called. She is taking a trip to Sichuan, organized by her publisher. Apparently a small group of writers from all over China will attend. Since I am listed as co-author on one of her books, we decided to travel together. She is a traditional Chinese, not at all comfortable with traveling alone by train. She called to ask my advice on what mode of transportation to take to Sichuan. I suggested train. She said that would work only if I accompanied her. So I am finally getting my first experience traveling by soft sleeper, after all these years of train travel.
Fortunately, there is a train ticketing office not far from the bakery. I booked our tickets.
Her English name is also Angela.
Our tour is to two sacred Buddhist sites. One is Emei Shan. This is the home town of my dear friend Mao Wei Mullin. She and Tenzin were there two summers ago, as Tenzin used that site as a topic for his Master's program in New Zealand. We met, and I got to see their little Tara, already three years old then.
On that trip I traveled to the top of Emei Shan, by myself. It was a wonderful experience. I am looking forward to doing it again, this time as a tourist rather than a pilgrim.
We will also go to LeShan, the site of a very large sitting buddha on the edge of a river. I've seen so many pictures of that site that I have no curiosity about it anymore. I had crossed it off my to-see list. However, I will go with the group and I am sure it will be worthwhile. I'll finally get MY picture taken dwarfed by the ear of the giant Buddha.
I was in a bit of a panic at the thought of sharing hotel space. My 'lingerie' is a bit worn and tatty, having brought everything from the States almost three years ago. I tried a shop next to the bakery, but the price was extravagant and the bras tacky-ugly and uncomfortable. Not to mention too small.
Marks & Spencer is a British department store. In my mind it was an upscale store. Some months ago I was Skyping with a friend, and I mentioned that there was a new one opened locally. She, being British, would appreciate that. When she lived in Changzhou M&S outlets had not yet opened.
She tipped me off that it is a good place to shop for 'our' size underwear. Sure enough, I had a successful shopping adventure this evening. I need not blush when climbing into my jammies with my Chinese friend, Angela.
After days of unsuccessfully searching for apricots, I finally went ahead with a new muffin recipe. I substituted Japanese plums for the apricots. It is called 'fruitburst' muffin. It includes fresh blueberries, dried raisins, cranberries and apricots. It turned out very well, and I felt justified by raising the price for that special item from 4 rmb to 5 rmb. I made an extremely small batch of them, and froze six. I don't want them sitting on the shelf growing stale for a few days. I expect them to sell out this evening. A 'special' should indeed be special, available only briefly.
I've been experimenting with different German breads, and also German Bretzels. The Germans are passionate about bread, and there is a fairly large German population in this city. Many of them frequent the German restaurant upstairs from me (which gets its bread from Shanghai). After the summer doldrums, I will get serious about targeting that market. Right now, I'm experimenting with new rye and sourdough bread recipes I got off the internet.
Our sandwich trade is picking up. .It may not sound like a large number to you, but we are selling between 5 and 7 sandwiches daily. Enough to go through a special pullman sandwich loaf each day.
A friend gave me the idea of buying a cart and setting up at the night market in a local strip mall, in University City. Selling only sandwiches, to the college kids there. This could be profitable, so I have asked Peter to take over that project. So far I haven't seen results (the place to begin is to find carts, develop a strategy for delivering it and picking it up). School starts again in five short weeks, not too soon at all to be planning such a new venture.
Economically, I just laid down a huge chunk of savings to pay for yearly rent on the shop and apartment, and internet for a year. Not to mention insurance and, soon, taxes on the house in Florida. That has dangerously depleted my account. The shop is still not self-sufficient. My brain is whirring with ideas on how to bring in a jolt of cash flow for August's bills. I offered one set of baking classes in July. It would be logical to offering more in August. But baking what? I am mulling this over now.
The first class was a series of three lessons, spread over three weeks, a two-hour lesson once a week. We learned to make scones, muffins and bread. As a time filler, I made a lemon ice-box pie. I'm thinking about doing more pies, but making a pie crust is an intimidating idea, with 8 novice bakers.
Any suggestions? BTW, does the 'comment' link work?
Ciao, y'all.
