Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

"Seems like it."

When speaking of that magical red chili oil, the diners all nodded with a look of sudden realization.

Those who have tried it know that it looks spicy but tastes fragrant, and it’s a fragrance that lingers.

If you really talked about spiciness, it might only be about a tenth of what it appears to be.

"Chef, he says it’s not spicy at all. Are you sure you made it medium spicy?"

A curious diner immediately turned to complain to Lin Chen, seemingly wanting Lin Chen to add a bit more to the guy’s dish.

Who knew Lin Chen would just smile and shake his head.

"Let’s wait and see, the spiciness in Great Xia comes in many forms."

"There are those that are immediately spicy upon entry, but only burn the mouth and not the stomach."

"There are also those that gradually become spicy after swallowing, only burning the inside and not the mouth."

"And there’s the kind that doesn’t seem spicy at first, but gets increasingly spicy as you eat."

"The first two usually result from cooking with fresh or dried chilies, whereas pre-prepared spicy sauces like hot pot often belong to the third category."

"Don’t mind him acting tough now; give it a few more minutes, and he might be begging for mercy."

"Impossible!"

Magna’s mouth twitched, stubbornly insisting on his point.

Although he could indeed feel a noticeable spiciness now, it was still within his tolerable range.

Instant noodles tend to soak up sauce, almost like drinking the sauce, and he didn’t think there was anything in this bowl spicier than instant noodles.

To prove it wasn’t spicy, he once again picked up the noodles and slurped them down quickly, finishing the bowl clean.

The entire bowl of food visibly lowered by a large margin, nearly a third in height, and he was only feeling about thirty percent full now.

"It really just looked like a lot, but it was actually just enough to fill me up."

Nodding to himself, he wasn’t surprised by Lin Chen’s accurate grasp of his appetite, since he had eaten here several times already. After all, Lin Chen is the head chef; it’s only strange if he didn’t remember.

With a bowl of noodles down, the unbearable hunger in his stomach was slightly relieved, but he still didn’t dare to linger, planning to speed up to finish the food in front of him quickly.

It’s not that he didn’t want to eat slowly, but after five or six bites of noodles, he could indeed feel the accumulated spiciness in his mouth increase significantly, with his whole body starting to heat up.

He had only eaten a third, and if he finished the whole thing, the spiciness might double.

That level might actually be too much for him!

To avoid embarrassing himself in public, it’s best to finish quickly and make a quick escape.

"Potatoes definitely aren’t spicy; have a few slices to ease it."

The thick potato slices quickly drew his attention. After the earlier mixing, the potato slices had broken into several pieces but still roughly kept their larger shape.

The texture should be one of those kinds that melts in your mouth.

He didn’t dare use a fork to stab them, for fear of breaking them into more pieces. He could only use the fork’s tines to nudge them into his mouth.

"?!"

As soon as the potato slice entered his mouth, the rich sauce on its surface surged like a tide, bringing with it a rich salty and sweet flavor that paired with the soft and sweet potato, brightening his eyes.

"Haha, I knew it, potatoes couldn’t possibly be spicy!"

The dense, soft potato melted in his mouth with a tongue press, instantly forming a layer with a faint sweetness that perfectly coated his tongue.

The initially numbed tongue suddenly lost its pain sensation in a miraculous way.

Magna was overjoyed and hurriedly swept the remaining broken potato pieces into his mouth, taking advantage of the momentary lapse in spiciness to eat a few more bites.

Of course, he knew this was just a temporary illusion. The spiciness wouldn’t just disappear like that; unless he stopped eating and waited seven or eight or maybe ten minutes, it might gradually fade away.

Fish tofu, crab sticks, beef balls, tendon balls, cuttlefish balls, sweet n’ spicy...

He ate several different kinds of rounds of food in a row, and each had a distinct texture and flavor.

Especially the fish tofu, which was soft and springy to bite, with a noticeable bounce-back, and the fish flavor was intense, unlike anything he had ever tasted.

Despite being a seafood wholesale boss, he had long grown tired of eating seafood and wouldn’t normally touch it with a pole.

It was only Lin Chen’s novel dishes and flavors that caught his interest.

"This fish tofu is delicious, the texture is incredible, and the fish flavor is strong yet not fishy. How is it made?"

"These spherical foods are very tasty, each with a different flavor, quite interesting."

He knew these were semi-finished products because he could tell when selecting the ingredients that fresh-made ones looked quite different from the semi-finished ones.

But semi-finished products don’t just appear out of nowhere; there must be a specialized factory producing them, and in Great Xia, there are surely shops that handmake and sell these spherical goodies.

He guessed that Lin Chen might know how to make them, so he just blurted out casually.

"How is the fish tofu made?"

Lin Chen was briefly stunned, as he actually didn’t know this sort of thing.

Don’t even mention fish tofu; when it comes to those kinds of meatballs, nobody knows how to make them.

This is quite normal. Aside from the Chaoshan area, which is famous for making meatballs, most places use pre-made ones and rarely make them by hand.

[Ding, conditions met, challenge task triggered: Meatball Master]

[Meatball Master Challenge: Each time it is activated, a random meatball type will be drawn for the challenge. You can use a Challenge Card to increase the number of types challenged at one time.]

[The reward is set according to the difficulty of the drawn meatball. The basic reward is a Recipe Exchange Coupon; the higher the difficulty and the more types in a single challenge, the more rewards will be given upon completion.]

Another challenge??

Lin Chen’s scalp felt a little numb now.

Since the food truck was upgraded, these challenge tasks have been popping up one after another, with no time to even do them, and each one is more challenging than the last.

This Meatball Master challenge that was just triggered doesn’t seem too difficult, but low difficulty also means fewer rewards, making it seem pointless.

If you only make one type of meatball, you might just get a recipe coupon, which is no different from the usual food stall routine.

So this challenge definitely focuses on the variety.

He has seen on videos shops in Chaoshan specializing in handmade meatballs, with all kinds of meatballs lined up in several dense rows, at least a dozen or twenty flavors.

He doesn’t expect to make so many at once, but if it’s less than three types, it’s not worth doing.

Who sells just one flavor of meatballs at a food stall? That’s nonsense, especially when he’s under the title of head chef and pretending to be from a grand hotel. That’s not how you slack off.

Glancing at the challenge cards currently saved up in his pocket, he has only two for now.

Refreshing a National Banquet challenge also requires challenge cards, and doing this Meatball Master challenge requires at least two challenge cards at a time, so these originally useless things suddenly became in demand.

"The National Banquet challenge is quite difficult. It probably won’t be held twice in a short period. After completing this one, I’ll post the video and see the effect before deciding when to start a new task next time."

"I’ll use these two cards for the Meatball Master challenge first. Just now, mala soup was sold with meatballs. After lunch service, I’m sure to attract a big crowd of customers interested in meatballs.

"Then I’ll launch a meatball special, making handmade meatballs on-site, and it should have a great effect."

He went through the plan in his mind, feeling there was hope and a bit of excitement in his heart.

Honestly, meatballs are something that almost every young person in Great Xia, especially at his age, has eaten since childhood.

But very few have eaten truly fresh handmade meatballs.

Even those marketed as handmade beef meatballs are pre-packaged products, incomparable to those cooked fresh from hand-rolled minced meat.

Unexpectedly, the first time he would eat handmade meatballs was ones he made himself—what a ridiculous twist.

Once the family debts are repaid and a little saving has been accumulated, he plans to find time to travel back home.

While he’s still young and can still get around, he shouldn’t waste his life being all about work.

The more effort he puts in now is so he can retire early in the future.

He’s considered developing back home, but he couldn’t figure out what his advantage would be after returning.

Good at making Western food?

If he goes to work for someone, he might as well set up a stall locally and earn more money.

As for opening his own restaurant, he’s definitely thought about it.

A chef who doesn’t want to open a restaurant isn’t a good chef.

But knowing how to cook is one thing, and knowing how to run a restaurant is another.

Running a restaurant involves management and marketing, which is entirely different from being a chef. It requires someone specializing in it to run the place well; otherwise, it’ll go bankrupt sooner or later.

Instead of risking it back home, setting up a stall abroad, which is more leisurely and makes money faster, suits him better.

As the saying goes, better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix.

Competition back in the home country is too fierce. He doesn’t have that strong drive to improve; muddling along abroad with foreigners is quite alright.

As for the future, that can wait for later; take it one step at a time.

After making lunch for Boss Magna, he didn’t stay long in the food truck, planning to take the remaining hour to tinker with his king crab.

He had initially wanted to boast to the people around him about his spice tolerance, but seeing Lin Chen getting off the truck and heading to the back kitchen, he somehow had a premonition that this guy was definitely going to mess with the crabs!

Since it was already agreed that he would make him a dish, and it was also a high-difficulty dish, Magna didn’t even think before following along.

"Gotta go, everyone, got something to discuss with the head chef~"

As soon as he entered the restaurant, his face changed, and he quickly ran to fill a glass with ice-cold Coke, gulping it down in one go.

"Buurp~~~~"

"Ah! Back to life!"

Lin Chen looked at him with amusement.

"Still tough-mouthed?"

"Who, who’s tough-mouthed? I just felt a bit salty, got thirsty, that’s all. Didn’t find it spicy at all!"

"Mmm, mmm, mmm, okay, fine, sure, I didn’t say you found it spicy~"