(Yicai Global) June 8 -- One of the more surprising, subtle ways that the Covid-19 pandemic is changing people's lives involves their eating habits in the Chinese city that had to face the epidemic first.

YiMagazine has interviewed Wuhan residents in an attempt to get a grip on how they move on with their lives after the city's lockdown. This is the fifth article in the series. And it's all about food.

Dongyiwei was one of Wuhan's restaurants that kept its doors open to provide medical staff with free meals during the epidemic. By the time that the city ended its over two-month-long lockdown, the restaurant, located opposite the Central Hospital of Wuhan, had given away more than 10,000 bowls of beef noodles.

Restaurant owner Sun Lian says that beef noodles are Dongyiwei's signature dish. Priced at CNY15 (USD2.10), the dish is a casual everyday lunch option for locals. Besides this outlet, only one among the dozen or so branches of the restaurant chain resumed operations by April 18.

The outlet, helmed by Sun, has daily expenses of about CNY2,500 (USD354) while it made about CNY8,000 each day before the epidemic. Now, it can hope to earn about CNY1,000 a day, Sun told Yicai Global. During the Labor Day holiday, the restaurant's single-day revenue climbed to CNY2,800 but quickly dropped after that.

Such cuts made their way to the company's finances. Sun had to notify employees of salary cuts. Moreover, he realized that he had to adapt to the changing demand. To his regret, Sun noticed that clients, who used to come for beef noodles, started going next door to buy hot-dry noodles for CNY5. Soon, Sun added the simple street food staple to the menu.

But some would rather stay in and save their five renminbi. People's eating habits are changing as many are trying to save money by bringing their meals to work instead of going out for lunch, according to Sun.

One person who could confirm that theory is Qian Jin. The marketing officer at an educational institution used to never cook by himself and had to resort to heating up frozen dumplings during the epidemic. But things are different now.

Qian wakes up at 7 a.m. every workday to prepare his lunch -- not because he loves cooking but because of food safety. He just "cannot trust takeaway and catering outlets." And he is not the only one. The school has bought five microwave ovens for him and his colleagues to warm up their meals, he told Yicai Global.

Editor: Emmi Laine