Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

"Oh, it’s ovary and digestive gland, I thought it was something else. Isn’t it still... organ...???"

As he spoke, his voice gradually lowered, finally realizing something.

"Wait, what thing, eggs? Ovaries??"

"Are those the two things I understand??"

"Bingo~ Congratulations on the correct answer."

Boss Magna’s face turned pale, his expression constantly changing, quickly covering his mouth.

He wasn’t afraid of eating organs—he’d eaten animal hearts, livers, pancreases, and such, and they tasted pretty good.

But eating organs is one thing; many organs aren’t normally eaten by people.

Besides the fact that few restaurants serve them, a bigger reason is that no one can make them taste good, and they can’t remove that peculiar organ smell, so naturally, nobody wants to eat them.

But using crab ovaries and eggs to cook...

Somehow seems even more absurd than making tofu with crab’s blood!!

"You Great Xia people call this crab essence??"

"Yeah," Lin Chen nodded, looking completely matter-of-fact, "Just tell me if crab roe is delicious, is there any weird taste?"

"Uh... it is indeed quite tasty, and there’s no weird taste; instead, it’s very fresh, but..."

But those are ovaries and eggs, how did you Great Xia people think of eating this stuff!??

"Apart from the female crab’s yellow roe, the male crab also has crab paste, appearing translucent with a thick and sticky texture, equally full of umami."

"But the male crab’s paste usually appears in late October, and it’s the fattest in November. It’s not the right time now, so there’s no paste."

Aren’t male crabs different??

Oh right, male crabs indeed don’t have ovaries and eggs.

Magna instinctively nodded, then his face changed again.

"Wait, wait, wait!! Female crab is eggs, then the male crab’s paste, is it..."

"Yes, and no."

This time Lin Chen didn’t laugh, he looked seriously into his eyes.

"You can’t simply think crab roe is eggs, and crab paste is sperm, because these substances are just a part of it, they also include all surrounding tissue fluid, glands, etc."

"Does it make any difference!!!"

Magna felt like he was going crazy, a lump kept rising in his throat, ready to come up at any moment.

"As long as it’s delicious, who cares about all that, just relax~"

Lin Chen chuckled, placing the empty dishes into the dishwasher’s rack for a wash.

Foreigners are really fussy, why didn’t they get nauseous while eating?

"By the way, have you eaten pig or sheep or cow or chicken duck goose intestines? Different intestines have different flavors, the recipes are diverse, and the taste is fantastic..."

Magna’s face changed wildly, he couldn’t care less, his feet bounced up like they were equipped with springs, and he walked out.

"Well, I just remembered there’s work to do, gotta go!"

Intestines, aren’t they supposed to contain poop?

Can you eat that???

"Ugh!!!"

The more he thought about it, the more nauseous he felt, and finally, he couldn’t hold back, turning around midway to rush to the bathroom.

From afar, the sounds of upheaval inside could be heard, and Lin Chen shrugged helplessly.

Seems like foreigners aren’t just fussy, but also have weak mental endurance.

I’ll have to give that old chap some more training in the future.

Anyone who’s supplying him with goods should have a better treatment than ordinary diners!

"(Sniff sniff) Hey, what’s that smell, why does it smell like seafood, did you sneakily eat something good?"

While waiting for the dishwasher to finish, Lucas followed the scent from outside, with Dais and Elsa behind him, faces equally full of curiosity.

"Crab roe tofu, did a trial run earlier, it was successful, there’s another king crab in the evening to cook for a video, won’t take long, just around half an hour."

"What?!"

Lucas’s tone rose eight degrees, "Did you sneakily eat an entire king crab yourself??"

"Probably ate it with Mr. Magna, I think I heard him throwing up in the bathroom."

Elsa murmured softly, pointing toward the nearby bathroom.

"I heard it too," Dais nodded, eyes full of confusion, "Why would eating king crab make someone throw up, isn’t he a seafood vendor?"

Neither of them showed much interest in king crab; people here generally didn’t eat it, only Lucas knew the true significance of those three words.

The king crab he was thinking of and the king crab they were thinking of were completely different species.

Yes, species on the dining table.

"Is there a possibility that he ate too much?"

Lucas didn’t even think; his first reaction was this.

That’s a king crab after all, especially with a banquet-level preparation, plus a hot and spicy soup, how could a gluttonous guy resist that.

It’s so easy to eat until you’re stuffed with these two things combined.

"Oh~ that makes sense."

"Ever since I came to Dieppe, I feel like I’ve gained weight."

Dais pinched the flesh around her waist with some distress, "It looks like I’m working long hours every day, but the workload is much lighter than before. There’s always so much delicious food and drinks, so every day I go to sleep with a round belly."

"Me too, me too! I really feel like my face has gotten rounder!" Elsa nodded in agreement.

"That’s great!"

Lucas exclaimed in delight, "If you guys want to lose weight, then I’ll help you eat the king crab tonight..."

"Impossible!"

"Dream on!"

Before he could finish, the two women shouted in unison.

"You’ve had it for so many years, but we’ve never tried it. We’d rather be dead with fat than miss this kind of deliciousness!"

"Nonsense! That’s a state banquet dish, who the heck has the chance to taste it!"

The words about eating it for many years struck a nerve with Lucas, leaving him full of grievances with nowhere to vent, and he instinctively blurted out in Chinese.

No choice, some expressions just don’t have the same feel in their mother tongue; it’s got to be Chinese to be powerful.

"?"

The two women tilted their heads in confusion.

Although they couldn’t understand what he was saying, judging by his tone, could it be that this guy hasn’t eaten it either?

"You don’t understand, a state banquet dish is generally prepared only when presidents from various countries visit, and it’s not usually available. Most of them are specially modified by the head chef, so you can’t just eat it normally."

"I don’t really know where this guy’s recipe came from, it might not even be authentic, but it doesn’t matter, because you can’t see or eat it on regular days anyway."

Lin Chen didn’t argue with him, just smiled lightly.

Whether it’s authentic doesn’t matter, cooking is all about being delicious and appealing, who cares if it’s authentic or not?

Even if it’s authentic, people from different regions have their own taste preferences, authenticity doesn’t guarantee deliciousness.

Only what’s suitable is the best.

"Alright, just wait to eat. But there’s only one crab, definitely not enough for the three of you, so just taste it. You can mix it with rice or noodles; anyway, you can cook the rice or noodles yourselves, so do whatever you want then."

"Now wash your hands, and start moving the dishes outside to prepare for opening the business early, the sooner we finish, the sooner we can shoot the video, so we don’t drag it out late at night again."

After all, Malatang requires fresh cooking, and each serving takes at least ten minutes, meaning only six orders can be completed every ten minutes, and that’s thirty-six orders in an hour.

Considering there are two pot flavors, that doubles to seventy-two orders, so to reach two hundred orders minimum, it would take at least three hours.

It’s not that the daily stall task requires him to serve two hundred orders, mainly he’s used to preparing this amount, and since there are people helping, he might as well prepare more ingredients and earn more.

He’s now too lazy to pay attention to the daily stall task, he’s already worked out how the system operates.

The more complex and time-consuming ones generally require one hundred or one hundred fifty orders, simpler ones could be two hundred, three hundred, or even four hundred orders.

Anyway, making more surely won’t be a problem.

The prepared ingredients in the cold storage only amount to about one hundred orders, but thankfully most are semi-finished balls; just need to open the packaging.

The remaining vegetables can be prepared in spare time, since washing is all it takes, which isn’t much work.

The only preparation required for the tender beef was completed by Lin Chen last night, just enough for one box, sold out and that’s it, limited to one serving per person. Lin Chen already explained these precautions to them that morning.

As they carried the ingredients outside, Jonathan leisurely strolled over from the hotel, his hair messy and looking as if he just woke up.

Since the menu was changed this week and after trialing it over two meals yesterday, this guy seems to have found the knack.

In the morning, he spares time to prepare most of the lunch, and at noon he’s just finishing up, greatly reducing the workload.

Most cooking processes rely mainly on the oven, so he doesn’t need to personally do much, and during the waiting, he can prepare the next two or three batches, leaving the rest of the time free to relax.

"Yo, you’re preparing the stall this early?"

Seeing them continuously move ingredients outside, Jonathan couldn’t help but lick his lips.

The Malatang for breakfast was still memorable at this point, it’s spicy, but undeniably delicious.

He heard there’s a tomato flavor too, and as a tomato enthusiast, he’d really like to try that flavor.

"Could you cook me a bowl of tomato soup? I’m not in a hurry, it’s fine to cook whenever."

Lin Chen glanced at his watch, ten-thirty, it’s still early, but cooking can only be done now, since once the busy time kicks in, there won’t be time to care for him.

"Sure, what would you like to eat with it? Same as the morning?"

"You can freely pair it, anything that goes well with tomato soup is fine."

Lin Chen nodded, immediately grabbing a basket to start pairing ingredients for him, while silently activating the guest-attracting aura of the food truck.

This feature hadn’t been used for over a week, usually business was too good to need it, only under such circumstances when not operating at normal times could it be used.

Once the guest-attracting aura was activated, a halo only visible to him spread outward from the food truck to the surroundings, disappearing quietly after reaching a range of about a hundred meters.

Something magical was happening.

Originally, many tourists lying on the beach for a nap or sunbathing seemed to have sensed something, sitting up simultaneously and casting their gaze towards this area.

Seeing Dais, Elsa, and Lucas already moving ingredients back and forth by the food truck, each one showed a look of surprise, getting up one after another.

"Why is food being served early today?"

"That’s great, fewer people around, quickly order, taste it, and if it’s delicious, you can queue again!"