Zheng Lin, owner and chef of Gourmet Maylin, was cooking for the lunch. Photo: Senhao Liu.

By Senhao Liu

Just before 9:30 on a Saturday night, employees at Brooklyn’s Gourmet Maylin restaurant bring dinner to the owner and chef Zheng Lin — made of boiled cabbage, stir-fried pork slices with asparagus, and soup. But after 15 hours’ work, Lin wants to catch his breath first before sitting down to dinner.

Lin came fromFu Zhou, on the southeastern coast of China, in 2004, and in 2009 opened the 30-seat diner on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn’s Chinatown. He has 22 employees — six on any given shift – 22 altogether – and on a busy day they churn out 3,500 balls made of mashed fish and eel, which are in a bowl of soup.

Lin started learning to cook in Fu Zhou after graduating from middle school. He learned everything a restaurant owner needs to know, from chopping vegetables to washing dishes to cooking. But the hardest part, he said, and the most important skill he learned, was to make handmade fish balls, which were what Lin lived on when he came to the United States. He and his wife, Xiaolan Lin, live three blocks from the restaurant with their 20-year-old daughter, Ada, and nine-year-old son, Kent Zhang. Lin also has an older daughter in China.

“I started learning to make fish balls since I was 15. Now I am 42.” Lin said, pouring about 200 freshly-made fish balls into boiling water in a huge pot. “Freshness is a vital part of our fish balls.”

Candy Zhang works in the basement kitchen peeling fish meat from bones so that it can be mixed into a smooth paste. She learned how to make them from her late husband — and while it seems easy, she says that experience is what allows her to make as many as 800 fish balls in a day, with just the right proportion of ingredients.

At 10:30, after Zhang pours the fish balls she made into the boiling pot, she goes upstairs and grabs her breakfast, a bowl of pork noodle soup with wonton and lettuce.  Lin provides his employees with three meals a day, another at  3:30 in the afternoon and a late dinner at  9:30.

Candy Zhang, worker at Gourmet Maylin, was making handmade fish balls on a Saturday morning. Photo: Senhao Liu.

It is early on Saturday, and workers all have a lot of work to do. They grab their breakfast and randomly sit at places in the dining room. They look down at the noodle and do not talk. At the moment, Lin grabs a quick nap, lying on a bench at the far corner of the dining room, snoring. Lin works seven days a week, and today he looks tired. Once he wakes up, he will spend the rest of the day, he will supervise the workers and lend a hand whenever they need help.

After about half an hour, he finds the energy to work, calling suppliers to bargain about prices and checking on his workers downstairs. Kent arrives with Ada after an after-school program, and the first question his father asks is whether he’s hungry.  It is time to make the staff lunch, which includes stir-fried spinach and duck mushroom soup. Right next to Lin is a huge pot with hundreds of fish balls for the rest of the day.  Lin puts five of them in a bowl with soup for his son.

“Eating fish balls is a part of our tradition in Fuzhou, ” Lin said. “It reminds me of the old times when I was little.” Lin grew up poor and only got to eat fish balls at special times, like eating dumplings at the Spring Festival. But Kent now can enjoy this bite of Fuzhou tradition every day.

Lin is a little hungry since he did not eat breakfast this morning, so he grabs a bowl for soup and a plate for some rice and spinach. He steps back to his table and calls the staff for lunch.

Lin provides his employees with a breakfast of meat and noodles with wonton and lettuce. Photo: Senhao Liu.

“I am even tired of eating the same thing every day, ” Ada laughed, referring to fish balls. “You have to know that I grow up with it.”

After quickly finishing their lunch at around 4 p.m., employees go back to prepare for dinner. Hours later, at around 9:30, they gather again for their dinner, but Lin wants to wait a little while he wraps up his work.

Workers were chatting, making more fish balls for the rest of the day. Photo: Senhao Liu.

Sitting next to Lin’s table, Ada and her mom, Xiaolan Lin, are making more fish balls for the next day, and chatting.

“This is the life we want, ” said Xiaolan, who also works as the restaurant’s cashier. “Simple but happy.” She and her husband will finally be done with work at midnight.

Senhao Liu