10/14/2026
The Story of Blossom Kitchen | Chapter 12
What’s the hardest part of cooking Chinese food?
To me, it’s getting the heat right and using the right proportions of seasonings. Even with the same ingredients and similar steps, a small difference in timing or seasoning can make the finished dish taste completely different.
Egg drop soup may look simple, but there are a lot of little details. The richness of the chicken broth affects the flavor, and the timing of when you pour in the eggs determines how the egg ribbons turn out. Then there’s the final touch: getting the saltiness just right.
One day, a longtime customer came into the restaurant and ordered a bowl of egg drop soup. He told me that a few days earlier, he had tried making it at home with the same ingredients we use. It turned out so bad that he didn’t want to try again. Today, he was craving egg drop soup, but didn’t want to spend time going to the grocery store only to end up with another failed batch.
I often think that whether a dish tastes good comes down to whether it suits your own taste. When a dish or a bowl of soup we make brings a customer joy, it means our flavors have found a connection with them.
Some dishes don’t need to look fancy or elaborate. One sip can simply make you feel warm inside. That feeling is especially comforting on a cold day.
Of all the jobs in a restaurant, I personally think food prep is the hardest.
A whole case of chicken breasts has to be sliced by hand. Sometimes we use a meat grinder to make ground chicken. We also prepare different sauces and make dumplings, wontons, and cream cheese wontons. These jobs may not look like much, but they take a lot of time and care.
And the happiest job in the kitchen, in my opinion, is washing dishes.
The sound of the water, the scrubbing, and the dishwasher rumbling away all feel like music playing in the background. The more dishes we wash, the better business we had that day. After a busy day, those sounds somehow make me feel accomplished.
So why is our kitchen team small? The answer is simple: we haven’t found a skilled and reliable cook who consistently shows up on time and stays through the shift.
Running a restaurant comes with plenty of challenges. But every bowl of soup and every dish we serve carries the time and care we put in, day after day.
At the end of the day today, I saw a customer’s review: “Great food! Service was amazing!” They also gave us five stars, and I was truly touched. Running a restaurant can be busy, tiring, and full of challenges. But at the end of an exhausting day, encouragement like this can make me so happy that I tear up.
Thank you to everyone who takes the time to leave us a kind review and show us your support. Your words mean more to us than just a review—they give us the warmth and encouragement to keep going.
