Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

The table clearly categorizes the ingredients from the farm into several major groups.

Fruits, vegetables, meats, and river delicacies.

If you want to see information on any aspect, you can directly find the corresponding title, which is quite convenient.

The fruit category table is empty because John himself couldn’t think of anything to write besides the fruit itself. However, since fruit isn’t considered waste, he left it empty for now.

The vegetable category lists many things, such as leftover roots, stems, leaves, flowers after harvesting, and some pods from beans, all of which were expected.

The river delicacies table has only a few lines — just blood, innards, fish heads, and fish bones from river fish, but there is a note in parentheses after fish heads and bones that they are sold elsewhere, probably to restaurants for making broth.

The meat category is the most comprehensive, which is also a major source of the farm’s income.

Over here in Europe, foreigners eat quite a variety, including many innards, unlike North Americans who primarily consume muscle meat.

Parts like heads, intestines, stomach, skin, blood, and feet are included as waste ingredients, all processed into feed for sale, with prices being extremely low.

Parts with strong flavors like intestines aren’t collected by anyone and are simply discarded as garbage.

But it varies; for instance, beef and pork blood can be bought back by manufacturers or restaurants to make blood sausages, but chicken, duck, and lamb blood have no takers.

Similarly, cow hearts and livers aren’t included in the table as they are common ingredients here, easy to sell.

Cattle are also categorized into adult cows and calves, the latter’s innards being more popular among diners; adult cows might have a stronger flavor and less desirable texture, so no one eats them.

The general situation is not much different from what he predicted, but with this table, he can more confidently plan new dishes.

After all, it’s all waste that others can’t sell and have to dispose of; using it for recycling resources makes sense, right?

After reviewing the table, he checked the voting situation on the official website.

"What the heck? No, how did Sichuan cuisine jump to first place, seriously?"

Previously, when he sold Mapo tofu and spicy stews at the stall, the response was average, with many feedbacks saying it was too spicy. How come everyone is now voting for Sichuan cuisine?

This doesn’t make sense!

Scrolling down to see the dishes with the highest votes, he suddenly understood.

"Oh, it’s because of the spicy hot pot! No wonder, it seems like a new spicy hot pot restaurant in Paris has recently gone viral, am I just riding on its wave?"

Before going to bed, he also browsed various social platforms, checking comments on Lucas’ homepage videos for customer feedback.

He has noticed these newly opened trending stores, and his surfing skills are not far behind others.

Besides the spicy hot pot, which offers a wide variety of dishes with customizable ingredients, twice-cooked pork, fish-flavored shredded pork, Kung Pao chicken, and couple’s lung slices also rank high. They generally seem to be dishes that aren’t too spicy but go well with rice.

Cantonese cuisine ranking high was within his expectation, after all, the Chinese culinary market abroad is dominated by Cantonese cuisine; it is undoubtedly the most familiar Great Xia cuisine to foreigners.

But Shandong cuisine ranking third was unexpected for him.

As a southerner, he has little concept of Shandong cuisine, only knowing that Northeast dishes are hearty, large portions, and robust.

However, Northeast cuisine is Northeast cuisine, and Shandong cuisine is Shandong cuisine, he isn’t sure if there’s any connection between the two. Without having received professional Great Xia culinary training, he can only research online for this voting activity.

In his mind, he thought that the rich and bold Zhejiang cuisine and the delicate and light Huaiyang cuisine would appeal more to foreign diners.

"Since that’s the case, it works out well. Spicy hot pot is simple, as long as the broth is prepared in advance, leaving plenty of time for me to make crab roe tofu."

He immediately overturned his original plan and decided to start making spicy hot pot from tomorrow. Meanwhile, he called Boss Magna to quickly get a few fresh king crabs.

He also logged onto the Shunfu platform to order a large batch of ingredients. It was just past noon, and if the delivery is fast, they could arrive in the afternoon, or at least by dinner time.

Shortly after sending the order, his phone rang.

It was the person in charge of the Romantic Area of Shunfu Group.

"Hello, it’s me, Wang Aiguo, am I interrupting Chef Lin’s work?"

"No, no, I just finished my task, what’s up?"

"It’s not a big deal. The thing is, I’m here for a survey. Chef Lin has been using our platform for over a week now, right? Do you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement in terms of ingredient quality or delivery service?"

Lin Chen pondered for a moment and shook his head, "Not at the moment, the experience has been good overall, especially delivery guy Daniel, who is very enthusiastic and punctual, five-star rating."

"If I had to nitpick, perhaps the variety of ingredients is somewhat limited?"

"I understand, since it’s abroad, many domestic ingredients are hard to come by..."

"Indeed!" Wang Aiguo quickly chimed in, "We are expanding in this area, just recently, we have made contact with several domestic suppliers, and we plan to try new shipments shortly."

"Chef Lin, is there any specific ingredient you need? I’ll send a link later, and if there’s something, we’ll get it in since we are merely ingredient movers; checking the ingredient quality relies on you chefs."

Us?

Oh right, I almost forgot that he’s a Great Xia food supplier, so he must have collaborations with many Great Xia restaurants here.

"Alright, let me see if there’s anything I need."

"Okay, for now, that’s it. If there’s any problem, feel free to contact me anytime. I won’t bother you any longer, goodbye~"

He was quite interested in the imported ingredients from back home that Wang Aiguo mentioned, so he sat quietly in place for two minutes.

"Ding"

A message popped up on the screen.

Lin Chen clicked on the link and read it carefully from beginning to end, his eyes filled with surprise.

"Various regional smoked meats, pickled vegetables, fresh mushrooms, wild fungi, regionally distinctive seasonings, as well as various normal meats and vegetables..."

Shunfu Supermarket’s supply is limited after all, and they can only offer internationally known brands for seasonings, which, while reliable, lack regional characteristics.

The link provided this time covered ingredients with distinctive regional features from across the eastern, western, northern, and southern parts of the country.

Like Zhejiang Province’s ham and bamboo shoots, Sichuan Province’s seasonings and spices, Yunnan’s mushrooms, Guizhou Province’s smoked meats, etc.

However, not all the ingredients in the link will be imported; it’s more like a reference list. What will actually be brought in depends on the supermarket’s own strategy.

In other words, this stocking is most likely a one-time thing, so he must cherish this opportunity to get some regional specialty ingredients that are hard to find here.

It’s not the season for Yunnan’s wild mushrooms right now; most are artificially cultivated or are very common wild mushrooms.

However, he’s not very knowledgeable about mushrooms, only knowing more famous ones like matsutake, truffles, bolete, and green head mushrooms.

He definitely doesn’t want anything toxic like bolete or green head mushrooms. People without professional training can’t serve wild mushroom dishes to guests; he knows this basic knowledge.

"Let’s get some fresh matsutake; they taste pretty good and are cheap now because they’re farmed."

"Let’s also get some smoked meats from Guizhou Province; they’ll surely be delicious in clay pot rice or something."

"Getting a couple of hams for soup would be perfect."

"Shacha King? I think I’ve seen it on mukbangs; it’s supposedly great for stir-frying rice noodles or something. Let’s get a box to try."

There were so many good things that he was dazzled and wanted everything. In the end, it took him over an hour to finish selecting, and the number of items in his shopping cart was over a hundred, some even in box units.

He roughly estimated that these stuff would be enough to last him for nearly a month.

Most of what he bought this time was stuff that could be stored long-term; he didn’t dare buy too many fresh ingredients, just enough for recent dishes.

With his frequency of twice going out a day, they would be used up in no time, so he didn’t worry about spoilage.

By the time he snapped back, the food cart was almost in the final stages of cleanup, with everyone tidying up, including clearing the remaining plates on the tables.

He checked the time, close to two o’clock, and today he only had dinner left to handle, wondering whether he would encounter any difficult customers.

He hadn’t yet received any notifications about dinner guests, so he wasn’t idle and directly started planning for tomorrow’s spicy hotpot preparations.

[Ding, Vegetarian Challenge completed, calculating task...]

[During the challenge, a total of 821 mushroom and vegetable buns were sold, with 798 positive reviews received, achieving over 95% positive reviews, challenge successful!]

[Reward received: Potion Fragment*1]

This time the settlement was quite fast, not like before when it dragged on until the next day, indicating all the buns had entered the diners’ stomachs.

[Ding, Breakfast Challenge Task Updated!]

[Traditional Breakfast: Please prepare and sell soy milk, deep-fried dough sticks, porridge, and side dishes, with no limit on the variety of dishes.]

[Each item must sell at least one hundred units; different flavors of the same type are counted as a unified settlement unit. An average positive rate above 90 means the challenge is successful.]

[Successfully completing the task rewards a Recipe Exchange Voucher*1]

Just when he thought it was another ordinary challenge task, the system’s prompt hadn’t ended yet.

[Since the host has successfully upgraded the food cart to a medium-sized scale, the challenge difficulty is upgraded!]

[1. This challenge must be completed entirely by the host personally, no help from others is allowed, and dishes made by others will not be counted for positive review points.]

[2. The entire meal preparation process must be completed within the food cart, otherwise it will not be counted for positive review points.]

[3. Once the first meal is sold, the stall time is 60 minutes; every extra minute will deduct 1 positive review point.]

[For each challenge difficulty achieved, an additional bonus of 1000 Euros will be awarded; meeting all three requirements at once provides an additional reward of a Food Truck Upgrade Card*1]