Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

At the counter, there were only white glutinous rice balls for now. Lin Chen was busy preparing new side dishes, and it would take a few more minutes before he could make the savory ones.

A few women, curious, each picked a rice ball of a shape they found appealing.

The rice balls were still warm to the touch, slightly hot but not too hot to hold.

Lucas’s production speed almost matched the speed at which diners took them away. They were picked up just seconds after being made, so there was no worry about affecting the taste of the fried dough stick.

Some customers didn’t want the sweet ones, so they passed them to the next person, but they didn’t let too many diners come up at once to avoid clogging up, leading to a build-up of several white glutinous rice balls on the table from time to time, only to be immediately cleared out.

The few women, having waited in line and watched countless other diners devour the rice balls in a rush, had their anticipation levels maxed out.

"Crunch"

The anticipated crisp sound rang out, followed by the shattering sound of sugar granules.

Their eyes simultaneously lit up.

"Huh??"

"Such an unexpected texture!"

"I thought it would be good, but not THIS good!"

"The texture of this rice is amazing, it’s fragrant even by itself, adding sugar really makes it feel like a dessert."

"What exactly is this crispy thing inside called a you tiao, how is it made? They say it’s similar to a churro, but I can’t see the resemblance?"

"Mmm ah~"

While they were enjoying their food, the kids nearby couldn’t help but feel envious, waving their little hands and showing a deep longing in their big, bright eyes.

The three little ones, who had been quietly sleeping in their strollers, suddenly opened their eyes at almost the same moment as if there truly was a magical mother-child connection.

"No, kids can’t eat adult food!"

"Sweet babies, are you hungry? Here, have some formula~"

The three mothers hurriedly put down what they were eating to soothe the babies, as a tantrum would be too troublesome.

Su took small bites of the glutinous rice ball, savoring the fragrant sesame aroma, her eyes showing a bit of envy yet a bit of relief.

She was already 31 years old. It would be a lie to say she didn’t want kids, but for some reason, she hadn’t been able to conceive.

Though interacting with them, she realized that raising kids is indeed quite troublesome. Wherever you go, you have to bring them, making everything centered around the child, unable to do anything for yourself, much like being imprisoned with no freedom.

Just like now.

She could comfortably enjoy the food, while others were busy calming their babies.

By the time they calmed their children, the rice balls would probably be cold.

With such a comparison, her previously anxious state of mind was significantly alleviated.

"Yeah, Mr. Wilson didn’t lie to me. The food here is indeed nice. The purple glutinous rice balls should be even tastier, right?"

"But why did that person in front tell us it wasn’t good and not to queue up? Strange, I can’t understand."

However, as tasty as the glutinous rice balls were, they were just that, not to the point of surprising her.

At most, they were something she would buy to try if she had the chance, but not a big deal if she missed it.

The reason why so many people lined up was probably just out of curiosity?

She hadn’t seen the self-service dishes the restaurant offered, but they couldn’t be much different from what’s typically available, be it in any place she visited, hotel offerings were mostly the same, especially the breakfast options weren’t much to talk about.

Comparatively, queuing to buy food from the food truck seemed more interesting.

She felt like she had grasped the novelty-seeking psychology of the diners and wouldn’t be as curious next time she passed by, unlike today.

Not long after, she got a freshly made purple glutinous rice ball.

She expected it to taste somewhat like the white one — tasty but ordinary. Yet, one bite left her stunned.

The crisp potato shreds were mixed with a faint green pepper aroma, the sweetness of the carrot strips perfectly unleashed, combined with juicy and tender diced green beans, and the addition of two types of pickles brought the overall flavor to another level.

Particularly, that intense special aroma made it irresistible, one bite after another, she couldn’t stop.

"Is this the taste of flame?"

While waiting in line, the surrounding diners didn’t lack for chatter; she naturally heard many discussions about this special technique involving a burning pot, claiming it gives a unique aroma.

It makes sense, every time she went camping or to a barbecue party, meats grilled over an open flame or charcoal indeed had a distinctive flavor.

Just that she never expected vegetables could also be cooked this way, and the flavors of the three simple ingredients in the rice ball completely exceeded her expectations.

Her just-calmed heart was immediately stirred again.

She suddenly recalled overhearing that there was some kind of food voting event on the hotel homepage, with videos of past dishes made.

Since she had time, she thought she’d take a look at what delicious foods had been sold here before.

"Su, could you help us get the rice balls, we shouldn’t disturb their business."

These homemakers, having to hold their babies while trying to find a moment to pay, simply didn’t have spare hands, and didn’t dare eat in front of the kids, afraid of making them crave and act out.

Su replied twice and waited at the window for a minute or two before receiving three freshly made rice balls.

"How does it taste? Is it to your liking?"

For new customers like this, Lin Chen also proactively smiled and asked, conducting some after-sales service.

"Pretty good, quite tasty, truly a flavor I’ve never tasted before. It’s a pity I can’t try other foods here. Are you considering opening to the outside?"

"Certainly, we will open to the outside in the future, but because it’s a trial opening now and this week is just the second week after opening, we need to conduct market taste research. If there are too many people, we can’t serve them all, so for now, we supply internally only."

"Also, we only have this many staff, and with the upcoming Olympics, hiring is a bit difficult. We’ll consider what to do after this week’s over."

"Ah, I see," Su nodded in agreement. "I understand, it’s only the second week since it opened. I thought it had been running for a long time."

She didn’t chat much longer; more diners were waiting to eat and she smiled and nodded at Lin Chen before turning to leave.

A few people pushed baby strollers to nearby beach seating areas and sat down. Some fed bottles, some sang nursery rhymes, others pointed at the sea to entertain the babies, full of different tricks.

Su had no interest in learning how they calmed the babies. She secretly stuffed the rice balls into the cloth bags under each stroller and then sat down and took out her phone.

Soon, she logged into the Radisson Hotel’s website and found the pinned discussion thread marked with a flame symbol.

Clicking inside, and swiping a few times, she gradually got immersed, totally captivated by the diverse and uniquely styled Great Xia cuisine, reading carefully about each culinary style’s introduction.

"So the sweet and sour pineapple fried meat pieces and dim sum are all Southern Great Xia cuisines?"

"Noodles come in so many varieties, amazing, they all look quite good—are they all handmade?"

Steamed, boiled, deep-fried, pan-fried, braised, all manners of novel dishes leap into view.

Though most didn’t have the delicate presentation of Western cuisine, their visual impact was certainly strong—just looking at them made one feel hungry.

Within just a few minutes, she lost count of how many times she swallowed.

Finally scrolling to the bottom of the introduction page, she saw a web link.

Upon clicking, she found herself on the TikTok overseas edition interface, which featured videos of food truck stalls!

Every video title was prominent, with large characters marking the specific food on the video screen.

With a quick glance, she spotted a video of last weekend’s kite festival activities.

Scrolling down further, fried rice, barbecue, seafood—everything was present.

Particularly, the garlic grilled oysters video had the most captivating visuals, with plump oysters covered in golden garlic sizzling and bubbling on the charcoal grill.

"Gulp."

Once again swallowing her overflowing saliva, she glanced at the three still entertaining the babies, while her fingers automatically clicked open the video.

"Oh my, it looks too delicious!"

"The time... It was not long ago???"

"Damn, it looks like it wasn’t even displayed on the restaurant side at that time. Why didn’t I come in that direction back then!"

"What are you watching that’s so fascinating?"

A woman who had finally lulled her baby to sleep wiped the sweat off her forehead and came over, casually picking a glutinous rice ball from the table and taking a bite.

Seeing Su entranced by her phone, her eyes almost glued to it, she curiously edged closer.

Just one look and she couldn’t tear her gaze away.

"Oysters can be made this way??"

"They look too tasty!!!"

Hearing her exclamation, the other two women became curious and urgently looked over.

"What oysters?"

"Where are oysters?"

They then realized she was watching a video.

Wanted to look over, but the babies still weren’t asleep, lest they get their interest stirred up too and become a problem.

"Just that food truck, the head chef made grilled oysters before, covered with a thick layer of garlic paste, looked fantastic!"

"Grilled oysters? Can you grill oysters?"

"I’ve only had fried oysters, and when made well, they are indeed good. Seafood with garlic paste surely can’t be bad, right?"

"Wow, there’s even hand-grabbed seafood?! This red garlic sauce can be mixed into noodles???"

After the grilled oysters video finished playing, it automatically switched to another video, coincidentally being the seafood series that Su was equally interested in. Surprisingly, it looked even more explosive in visual effect than the grilled oysters.

The two women holding their babies were almost driven mad by the tempting scene being described by the other two, wishing they could rush over to see for themselves.

"Where are you watching it?"

"Just on the Radisson website, there’s a pinned voting video. Click in and scroll to the bottom for the web link."

"Or you could directly use TikTok or Instagram, you can find it. It’s the account of the young guy who made white glutinous rice balls, and there’re many videos, including the stall videos from before the restaurant opened."