Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

"Forget it, forget it. As expected, delicious food is hard to make. There’s a reason there are few Great Xia cuisine restaurants."

"Looks like I’ll have to bring the kids over next time to try Chef Lin’s cooking on-site. It’s a pity they can’t taste such delicious sticky rice dishes."

"No worries, all of Chef Lin’s dishes are delicious, eating something else is just as good."

"By the way, what’s for lunch today?"

"I saw several metal buckets being carried up earlier, but they haven’t been used yet."

Lin Chen couldn’t help but find it both amusing and speechless at how the diners suddenly remembered so well.

"Lunch, huh, that’s a secret!"

"But those three soup buckets are indeed related to lunch, I guarantee that it’ll definitely taste better than breakfast."

Even though there were many people lining up for the food, it was still a small proportion compared to the total number of hotel guests.

Most tourists are here to enjoy themselves leisurely, so naturally, they tend to sleep in. There aren’t many willing to wake up early for breakfast, let alone stand in a long queue.

Some latecomers, seeing the long queue by the food cart, could only shake their heads in regret, sigh inwardly, and head to the nearby restaurant for a buffet instead.

Although Chef Lin’s food was novel and delicious, they weren’t willing to queue for half an hour or an hour to buy it.

With that time, how nice it would be to enjoy the cool restaurant environment while savoring a fine buffet meal.

Lin Chen’s presence had indeed changed most tourists’ misconceptions about Great Xia cuisine and sparked a keen interest in the culinary culture of Great Xia.

But, how to put it, no matter how good foreign cuisine is, people ultimately stick to their original dietary habits and won’t completely change them just by dining out a few times.

Because of this reason, the number of diners in the restaurant had increased increasingly over the past few days. Within half an hour to an hour from opening, the entire first-floor area could be filled.

Meanwhile, Wilson was savoring the flavorful sticky rice dumpling, especially the crispy potato shreds with a hint of wok hei inside, which grew more addictive with each bite.

As he leisurely nibbled on the dumpling in small bites, a few familiar figures strolled in from the parking lot entrance.

"Oh, isn’t this Mr. Wilson? I heard your recently rented house is up for rent again. I thought you were leaving."

The speaker was a brunette beauty, appearing around thirty, exuding a mature woman’s allure.

Beside her were a few other women, each pushing a stroller, seemingly out for a walk.

"Oh no, I just got tired of living there and wanted a change of environment. Come to experience the feel of a big hotel."

Wilson nodded at her, smiling simply.

The beauty was his co-tenant; they rented the entire floor as their home, while he rented a half-basement room, equivalent to a ground floor, not disturbing each other.

This situation was quite common abroad; most people preferred renting over buying a house.

"You’re living here now??"

The beauty turned her head in astonishment, glancing at the towering modern building not far away, looking a bit confused.

Even without inquiring inside, the structure’s appearance indicated a five-star hotel scale.

Why leave a cheap house to stay in an expensive hotel?

Truly wealthy!

She couldn’t help but glance over at the queuing crowd and the rice dumplings in their hands.

She was, of course, aware of the news about a skilled Great Xia chef here. At last weekend’s kite festival, she attended as well, but due to taking care of the little one, she didn’t partake much in the festivities and missed the chef’s stall, settling for a few hot dogs to fill her belly.

Almost every morning, she and a few women living nearby would arrange to walk their children for company and a bit more safety.

"What’s being sold here, rice-wrapped vegetables? It looks quite ordinary, why is there such a long line?"

"Haven’t tried this chef’s dishes, have you?"

Wilson didn’t answer her question but saw right through her.

"No, isn’t it that only hotel guests can purchase here? I asked before when passing by, but they didn’t allow it, so what can be done?"

On this topic, the woman’s face also showed regret.

Saying she didn’t want to try would be untrue; a chef with such high popularity must be making delicious food.

"It’s available for purchase."

Wilson honestly explained, "I asked yesterday. There’s a new rule, non-hotel guests have one chance to buy. If you have time, I really recommend giving it a try."

"Don’t listen to him!"

The fat man nearby had already finished two sticky rice dumplings, left with an empty plastic bag.

"Don’t buy it; it’s not that good. Trust me; you won’t regret not buying bland food after queuing for minutes."

"?"

Wilson frowned at the man, who didn’t meet his gaze, just uttered those words, and turned to the restaurant.

The women knew the restaurant had a variety of buffet options, and hearing the fat man’s firm advice made their wavering curiosity waver again.

"Though I don’t know why that guy would lie to you, judge for yourselves; there are plenty of diners here eating."

He made a good point.

The women exchanged glances and saw the same intent in each other’s eyes.

The taste of food is too subjective. You can’t just avoid eating something because one person says it’s not tasty. At least Wilson is right; there are dozens of customers queuing up here to buy food.

If it really were bad, who would bother lining up?

"What should we do? Should we queue up?"

"I’m just afraid the wait will be too long. What if the kids start fussing?"

"How about asking them first if we can buy something? That way, we’ll be sure. We don’t want to wait and then find out they won’t sell to us."

"Makes sense, Su, can you help us ask?"

Su is Wilson’s beautiful roommate. She is one of the only two without kids here, and she often hangs out with these housewives to learn a bit about parenting. Besides, she doesn’t really have many friends in the area.

"Sure, I’ll go ask."

She straightforwardly walked towards the food truck.

Without disturbing the two working busily in the food truck, she approached two beautiful women at the small table in front and asked.

"Excuse me, I heard there’s a promotion for new customers here? Is it true that even if you’re not residing here, you can buy something to try?"

Dais was cashing out a customer and gave Elsa a look, who immediately smiled and replied.

"Yes, ma’am, this is a promotion we launched this week."

"Since our restaurant is still in its soft opening phase, various systems are not fully established, so we are initially cautious. We can only improve bit by bit."

"If you’re interested in trying, you can line up at the back, but you can only buy a single serving; you can’t carry for others."

Hearing that she couldn’t carry for others, Su looked at her friends, feeling a bit troubled but also understanding of their rules, which made sense.

If everyone carried for friends, buying for three, four, five, or six people, what about the other customers?

Although it doesn’t affect the business, it would affect their reputation and name.

"Alright, thank you, I’ll discuss it with my friends."

She quickly walked back to inform them of the news. They were not disappointed; instead, they happily headed to the end of the line.

It wasn’t initially open to the public, so being able to buy now is like getting a deal; what’s there to be unhappy about?

Wilson didn’t pay much attention to them. He’s not familiar with Su and, at most, just nods when passing by or taking out the trash.

He’s now hesitating whether to continue eating buffet-style in the restaurant or leave since he’s only half full.

He checked his watch: 7:30, less than three hours until queueing for lunch.

If he eats until he’s completely full, he might not be able to digest much in three hours given his usual appetite.

After some thought, he decided to save room in his stomach for lunch.

The head chef did say that lunch would be tastier than breakfast, and you should eat more of tasty food.

Anyway, the buffet in the restaurant has the same dishes throughout the week. He could come back another day.

Having made up his mind, he turned and left without hesitation.

"Hey, everyone, look! Is that security guard over there eating a rice ball too?"

The women, bored after just getting in line, glanced around and soon spotted Meng Qi, in his security uniform, sitting on a bench in the beach area.

This discovery further strengthened their desire to try.

Even hotel staff came to buy the food, so it must be good!

After about half an hour, it was their turn. The queue moved faster than they expected.

Seeing the unfamiliar women with strollers in front of them, Lin Chen and Lucas were a bit puzzled and turned to look at Dais and Elsa.

"They’re nearby residents who wanted to try the food here, so I let them queue up."

Oh right, there’s a new customer benefit. Almost forgot!

"Do any of you have dietary restrictions? If not, you can take one of each color."

"The white one is sweet, containing sugar, black sesame, pork floss, and youtiao (fried dough sticks)."

"The purple one is savory, with shredded potato, carrot, green beans, pickled radish, Great Xia pickles, and youtiao."

Lin Chen pointed to a small blackboard nearby. Elsa had already written the specifics on it to help customers decide in advance.

"The sweet one is eight euros, and the savory one is ten euros."

He had given this pricing careful consideration.

After all, it’s a restaurant under a big hotel. Selling too cheaply wouldn’t be good, but neither would pricing it too high. It’s best to stay within the normal range for food trucks.

Based on his previous pricing, it would have definitely been around five euros, but now it’s raised to ten euros, nearly doubling the profit.

Rice balls are not costly to make, mostly using cheap vegetables and rice, with the most expensive part being labor.

Since they were already here, of course, the ladies wanted to buy both flavors, knowing there wouldn’t be another chance unless they specifically booked a room.

"Great, there are no nuts inside, so I’ll take them both."

"I’ll try one of each too, to see how good they really are."