Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

"It’s already half-past nine, why hasn’t breakfast started yet? I’m starving!"

"There seem to be many more people in line today than last week. I wonder what delicious food they’re selling."

Elise and Vanessa stand idly at the hotel entrance, craning their necks to peer through the dense crowd not far away.

The queue has long dispersed; all that remains are guests dining, so breakfast should be arriving around now.

They waited another ten minutes.

Finally.

A familiar figure wearing a security uniform walks out from the side of the restaurant, dragging a luggage cart in hand. The two girls’ eyes light up.

"It’s here!"

"My lunch, hahaha, I’ve waited so long for this!"

Anyway, there was no one coming to the front desk at this time, so they didn’t care about much and quickly ran in that direction.

Today, the food delivery was handled by another guy from the logistics team. Since this task allows for slacking off and getting along well with the ladies, everyone wanted to do it. After much discussion, they decided on taking turns.

"What’s for breakfast today?"

The guy’s eyes widened when he saw the two girls running toward him. The front desk was known for having the most beautiful staff. If he could get one of them as a girlfriend, others would be certainly envious.

Before they arrived, a fragrant breeze wafted through the air.

He took a deep breath of the sweet scent, grinned, and lifted the lid of the thermal box.

"Creamy mushroom and cheese lasagna with cold salad or something. It’s said to be selling very well; we made five trays this morning, each with thirty pieces. I watched him cut them, and they’re huge trays."

"Wha-what is it?"

"Creamy lasagna???"

The smiles on Elise and Vanessa’s faces froze. Disbelieving, they leaned over and took several boxes from the thermal box.

They didn’t even need to open them; they could see the food inside through the transparent lids.

"This must be Jonathan’s work, where’s Lin’s?"

"All sold out."

The man shrugged helplessly: "I initially thought both chefs were preparing breakfast like last week, but the rules changed. Jonathan is temporarily in charge of the staff meals."

"Oh no!!!"

Upon hearing this news, the two stood there as if struck by lightning, their smiles slowly fading.

Seeing this, the man quickly patted Elise on the shoulder to comfort her: "Don’t worry, I’ve already heard that Chef Lin will be serving around eleven for the noon meals. Since I’m picking up food today, I’ll go early and see if I can reserve some."

"If I can’t reserve, I’ll queue myself. If you want to eat, I’ll bring it for you, how about that?"

"!!"

A glint of hope sparked in their dull eyes, and they nodded vigorously.

"Great, great!"

"Thanks a lot. Let us know how much it costs, and we’ll contribute."

"By the way, what’s tasty today?"

"Buns, beef filling, that might burst with juice. But apparently the vegetable buns for noon are even better, according to the chef himself!"

The hotel staff didn’t have much concept of Great Xia Cuisine, as this place was mainly a seaside town suitable for vacation and retirement, with few Asian tourists. Naturally, there wasn’t much cultural fusion.

Since Lin Chen arrived, his unique Great Xia Cuisine left an unparalleled impression, prompting employees to search for Great Xia culinary videos during idle times.

Buns, as one of the most common Great Xia breakfast foods, have a distinct shape and crafting technique that these employees have remembered. Mentioning them instantly brings the concept to mind without further explanation needed.

"What kind of bun fillings will there be? Cabbage? Tofu? Radish shreds?"

"Don’t say more, I’m already drooling!"

Vanessa mimicked the man’s action and gave his shoulder two heavy pats: "Our lunch today depends entirely on you. Can we trust you? If you promise but don’t get it, we’ll be disappointed."

The man staggered from her pats, his shoulder slightly numb, baring his teeth with a grin and nodding repeatedly.

"Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’ll definitely get them for you! I swear!"

The two were recognized beauties within the hotel, the dream goddesses of almost all single male employees.

Whoever could establish a good relationship with them first would gain a relative advantage.

Currently, Gray was the biggest contender, but recently luck seemed against him, as his schedule always conflicted with the two ladies’, leaving no chance to meet.

As a result, other competitors, eagerly waiting, grew increasingly restless.

Assured of their lunch, Elise and Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief, waved to him with steaming food boxes, and quickly walked toward the lobby.

Although they couldn’t eat Lin Chen’s dishes for now, creamy mushroom and cheese lasagna sounded decent, and the taste should be fine.

At least it’s better than last week’s overly common tomato meat sauce lasagna.

The two quickly returned to the front desk, opened the box, and a rich aroma of mushrooms mixed with the creamy scent of cheese wafted over.

The square lasagna was visibly smeared with brown mushroom paste, and the top cheese already had a baked golden-brown color. The lavish ingredients were slowly sliding down the edges.

Not only on the surface, but between each layer of pasta, thick sauce mixed with various mushrooms and green spinach could also be seen.

Just by looking at it, you could tell this thing must be delicious!

"Wow, I didn’t expect Chef Jonathan to have a trick up his sleeve; this lasagna is definitely better than last week’s."

Elise lifted the top two layers of pasta with a fork, revealing the assorted mushrooms within.

Besides the common button and brown mushrooms, there were crab-flavor mushrooms Lin Chen used last week, as well as a few varieties never seen before.

Not knowing them wasn’t a problem; they all looked quite tasty, especially with the brown mushroom paste covering their surfaces, giving off an aroma even more intense than when the box lid was opened.

Without a doubt, the amount of mushrooms contained in this mushroom paste was far more than the visible ones.

Among the brown mushroom paste, many white threads of thick liquid could be seen; it must be parmesan cheese shreds, the soul of lasagna.

Aside from this layer, the spinach layer below was also covered in creamy sauce.

In summary, this is a top-tier creamy mushroom lasagna, one you wouldn’t find even in a Michelin restaurant unless they added some truffles.

Aside from the two of them, the other employees receiving breakfast also faced the ordeal of heaven to hell.

But they did not have such good luck; the delivery guy kept his mouth shut tight, not revealing a thing, claiming ignorance.

"Hey, is this really a dish made by Jonathan?"

"Unbelievable, the level is so varied!"

"The last time I had creamy mushroom lasagna was half a year ago. Maybe it’s been too long since I last had it, but this time it feels especially delicious."

"It’s true; eating tomato meat sauce almost every day probably makes it seem bad once you’ve had enough?"

"This salad is quite unique too; it has a taste similar to the cold dish Lin made last week, seasoned similarly."

"Nice, Jonathan has improved. If we could have employee meals like this all the time, it wouldn’t be bad at all?"

"Then eat more; I still want Lin’s cooking. If it’s available again, let’s swap ours."

"Do I look like I’m crazy?"

Hotel employees, upon receiving their boxed meals, took a few glances and those who couldn’t hold back started eating right away, chatting and showing a massive change of opinion about Jonathan’s culinary skills.

As for the kitchen side.

Lin Chen, who had just closed up, didn’t have time to rest and immediately started preparing the dough for buns.

It wasn’t long, nearing ten o’clock.

John, sweating profusely, dragged several boxes of ingredients inside.

Lin Chen hurriedly opened the boxes to quickly check them, and after confirming everything was fine, dumped the contents into the sink.

"What deliciousness is being made here?"

John wiped the sweat from his forehead and casually helped carry the ingredients, appearing not in a hurry to leave.

Looks like there’s another adding to the meal-crashers.

"Making buns, with vegetable stuffing, and some fried noodles."

He wasn’t foolish; preparing a large number of buns within an hour was unrealistic, especially with only twenty minutes left to wrap them, unlike in the morning when he had more than an hour for prep.

When short on time, you solve it with dishes.

Fried noodles, being one of the most convenient, quick, and tasty main courses, became an undeniably suitable substitute.

Depending on the region, fried noodles can have different flavors; the most traditional being Northern-style fried noodles, then sweet-style near the Kimchi Country, Southern-style with mountain delicacies, three-delight, seafood, and so forth.

He had tried them all; the sweet-style fried noodles were eaten abroad at a Kimchi person’s restaurant. To be honest, it tastes pretty good there, the noodles are different from regular ones, leaving you wanting to lick the plate after eating.

Mainly because he wasn’t picky; he could eat anything, but if it was someone who didn’t like sweet flavors, they certainly wouldn’t like it.

However, he doesn’t plan to make the sweet style, to avoid any cultural misunderstandings.

He’s going to make homeland-style mountain delicacy-flavored soy sauce fried noodles.

It’s not that other styles couldn’t be made, just that time was tight, and he had to make do with what ingredients were at hand, barely crafting a dish.

The mountain delicacy feature of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region mainly involves various types of bamboo shoots, followed by water caltrop, mushrooms, etc.

In his hometown, they also add five-spice dried tofu, not the harder market variety, but freshly handmade tofu sold by vendors in the morning, needing to be sold out by day’s end.

Especially in hot weather, if kept until the afternoon, the tofu starts souring and affects the taste.

Here, you couldn’t buy that kind of five-spice dried tofu, but regular tofu could be used as a substitute, slightly harder than silken tofu, sufficient to maintain its shape.