Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

Cam’s hands froze, his eyes swirling as he suddenly said.

"In this hot weather, I’m afraid it’ll melt! Look, the surface is already slightly melted. This is a dessert made by a Michelin chef himself, so we should eat it before it melts, right? It would be such a waste otherwise."

"That seems to make sense?"

The customers who initially wanted to wait to eat the fried ice with the teppanyaki skewers were suddenly convinced by his words.

The chef made it in this form, so it must mean that it tastes better this way. If it melts, it’ll just turn into a puddle of juice, won’t it?

Seeing everyone starting to eat their fried ice, Cam secretly breathed a sigh of relief, once again scooping up two slices to ease his tongue that was already numbed by the spice.

Although spicy, there was an urge to keep eating it.

"Spice is a kind of pain sensation; you just have to get used to it. I guess I haven’t gotten used to it yet!"

Convincing himself like this, he once again pulled out the half-eaten squid skewer, this time scooping up more onions and scallions to eat together.

Whether cooled down by the fried ice or due to the sweet-sourness of the bayberry, this time it didn’t feel as spicy as before, and he quickly finished off the half skewer of squid.

"Could it be that the squid has a large surface area, so it picks up more chili powder and is spicier? Maybe other skewers will be better?"

With this thought in mind, he tried the beef skewer, beef tendon skewer, chicken skin skewer, pork skin skewer, and so on, and indeed found that each skewer had slightly different levels of spiciness.

Especially the pork skin and chicken skin, which you wouldn’t normally find sold separately in restaurants.

You can see chicken skin on chicken legs, but pork skin is really rare.

He originally thought animal skins would be greasy, but after cooking, the texture of both completely exceeded his expectations.

The chicken skin was folded and grilled, the surface wrinkles crispy and crunchy, while the middle folded part was soft, sticky, and sweet. Although it wouldn’t burst with juice when bitten, it would completely melt, full of fragrant oil.

In comparison, the pork skin’s texture was even more wonderful, like a thicker version of chicken skin. It gently burst with juice like jelly when bitten, the intense aroma of pork fat mixed with crushed chili and two types of scallions, not greasy at all in the mouth, just full of rich fatty flavor.

"Pork skin is surprisingly delicious??"

He suddenly regretted why he only took one skewer, which had only three pieces and was gone in one bite.

Why has no restaurant ever sold something so delicious?

Apart from pig trotters, the beef tendon he just had also amazed him, after all, it’s a part you don’t usually see in restaurants.

Having tasted the meat skewers, he also grew intensely curious about the remaining vegetarian skewers in the bucket.

If chosen by the chef to sell, there must be nothing that tastes bad!

Picking and choosing, he finally went for the most familiar vegetable skewer first.

Green beans.

Foreign supermarkets usually call them green beans, the green ones.

Many Western dishes and curries include these beans, they’re sweet, and surely wouldn’t be very spicy.

After eating so many skewers, he felt he had adapted to this level of spiciness, no longer sweating profusely after just two bites like in the beginning.

Just as he thought, the crisp green beans burst with juice when bitten.

Not just the bean’s own juices but also plenty of sauce that had seeped in, bursting forth at the moment.

Since they were cooked with meat skewers, the sauce was soaked with meat juices, surprisingly more aromatic than the meat skewers themselves. Enveloped by the bean pod and merged with the sweet taste of the green beans themselves, it created a broth-like umami that made him widen his eyes in disbelief.

Without much hesitation, he randomly grabbed a skewer that looked like cabbage leaves from the bucket.

"Crunch——"

The cabbage stem had a very crisp and tender texture, emitting a crisp sound, and as he chewed, sweet juices similarly gushed out.

"Delicious, so delicious, the vegetables are actually better than the meat!"

Mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, cauliflower, chives...

Each vegetable had its unique characteristics, but they all shared one common trait: they were delicious.

Seeing the few people devouring food here, the others queuing were initially hesitant about what to choose, but quickly made up their minds.

Definitely won’t go wrong buying more; if they can’t finish it, they can take it home!

Lin Chen over here was preparing the second batch of crayfish, just after putting the shrimp into the pot, ready to slice the dough.

[Ding...]

The familiar system prompt sounded in his mind.

He paused for a moment, clicked to view it with his mind, and was surprised to find it was the settlement of yesterday’s chicken fillet challenge task.

Someone actually just ate the chicken fillet now??

No wonder I felt like something was missing this morning, turns out the task hadn’t been settled.

Skipped through the middle and glanced at the rewards, unsurprisingly, got what I should and didn’t get what I shouldn’t.

A Food Truck Upgrade Card plus a Recipe Exchange Voucher, clearly didn’t trigger the 100% approval mechanism.

At this point, I’m too lazy to hope for a 100% double reward, getting the normal reward is enough. The days are long, no rush.

I’m too busy right now to care about rewards, just getting them is fine. Anyway, I’m off tomorrow, so dealing with the food truck upgrade can wait.

After the rewards popped up, there was another notification sound, I didn’t check, figured it’s a new snack challenge task.

Right now, it’s more important to get the noodles cut. I’m not very proficient yet, need to fully concentrate, or mistakes, even injuries, could happen.

As the order count increased, the three of us became noticeably more efficient than before, especially on the teppanyaki skewers side, almost consistently producing an order every three minutes, perfectly in sync with Lin Chen’s crawfish.

Due to its unique preparation method, the fruit ice stir-fry couldn’t be made in order, but everyone understood. Anyway, desserts are meant to be eaten individually, doesn’t matter if they come first or last.

Some in the queue hadn’t gotten their teppanyaki skewers yet, but since they saw a flavor of stir-fried ice they liked and no one else wanted it, they were delighted when it happened to be their turn.

In such hot weather, being able to enjoy icy cold fruit ice while queuing made everything feel a lot better.

The group worked like precise machines, repeating the same procedures without feeling the passage of time.

More familiar faces showed up today than yesterday, Jade and Amber brought their friend Lina and her boyfriend, Marian’s family was also still around, Dreya and Anna obviously stayed, bringing their agent to buy food.

Then there was Lunard’s boss, Elise from the night shift, Mr. John who came to deliver goods... even some girl group members in disguise mingling with the crowd like ordinary food enthusiasts.

If I didn’t know Yuqi’s brother’s group’s appearance, I probably wouldn’t have recognized them.

Along with the girls were Jiang Shuqi and Wang Ziqin, must’ve been President Wang treating everyone to dinner last night.

"Spicy crayfish? Or garlic ones! Great, great, I like it!"

Yuqi’s brother almost drooled at the sight, having had to control his diet during the event, he wasn’t allowed to eat many things, but crayfish wasn’t a problem.

Crawfish barely have any fat, it’s all quality protein, as long as you don’t drink the soup or use it to mix rice or noodles, it’s fine.

But at their level, they don’t really have to heed the company’s rules, as long as they manage themselves well.

It’s rare to find such authentic crayfish abroad, who cares about having some noodles with it?

"Make it extra spicy for us, just like back home!"

"Sure thing, no problem!"

Of course, I’ll fulfill requests from my own people, adding half a block more butter base to each pot and doubling the amount of dried chili and peppercorns, going for an intense flavor punch.

The girls and President Wang alone bought over fifty pounds of crayfish. Luckily, they only bought for themselves, the staff purchased theirs separately, so fans didn’t recognize them.

The dining area was filled with locals eating crayfish with gloves, faces flushed red and sweating profusely, yet they clung to their shrimp tails unwilling to stop.

Almost no one knew how to eat crayfish, but luckily these were all pre-split, so you just peel off the back shell and eat the meat, it’s quite convenient.

The crayfish were quite large, with firm, elastic meat absorbing the flavorful spices because they were split open, the buttery, spicy aroma completely infused into the shrimp meat, making it irresistible after just one bite.

The garlic sauce sprinkled on top, although added later, didn’t affect the garlic flavor seeping into the shrimp, even the garlic sauce itself was incredibly tasty on its own.

"This taste is so familiar, isn’t this the same garlic sauce we had in Great Xia with seafood and vermicelli?"

"Yes, yes, that’s it, I can’t believe you remember."

"So that’s how the garlic sauce is made, no wonder it’s so delicious, but why does this garlic taste sweet, not spicy at all?"

"How should I know, I’m not the chef, plus I spend most of my time in the pickles area, unlike Yuqi who participates in many activities back home, she should know."

"Yuqi? We’re asking you, why don’t you answer...!?"

"Hey!! Why eat so fast, it’s not like someone is snatching it from you!"

"Whenever you want to eat, you can, but we don’t often get the chance, leave some for us!!"

"Are you a pig, just eating and not talking!"

"Heh~"

Yuqi grinned, tossing the empty shrimp shell into the bag, quickly grabbing a grilled squid skewer and stuffing it into her mouth, not caring about any ladylike image.

"As a saying from Great Xia goes, food is the people’s paramount concern. What’s wrong with loving to eat? It’s natural. People are made of iron, food is steel, skip a meal and it feels empty. Finding such authentic crayfish, it’s a staple from home, I’m showing respect to the chef’s skills!"

While they chatted and laughed loudly, Wang Ziqin and the three others mixed the crayfish, along with its sauce, into the knife-cut noodles below.

Mixing crayfish stew with instant noodles is standard, they’ve done it often before, but it’s the first time they’ve heard of mixing it with knife-cut noodles.

This type of wide noodle is perfect for mixing, absorbing sauce, and being chewy, it might turn out even tastier than mixed with instant noodles.