Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 340 - 317: Rice Cooked with Chicken Broth

After listening to Xue Ping talk on the phone for a long time, Zhou Yu put down his pen and stood up, smiling as he walked to the window.

It turned out they were calling to ask about the extraordinary lion’s head dish Zhou Yu used to make when he had a restaurant. Back then, he taught them how to make it in the kitchen.

"The rest you already know. The key is the cooking time. The lion’s head must be a dish that waits for people, not people waiting for the dish. If you stew it too long, the meat will crumble and won’t be tender. Simmer it on low heat for at most an hour, no more!"

At this point, Zhou Yu suddenly thought of someone, a young man he had competed against for a position on Wanglong Mountain a few days ago!

"Oh, I once saw someone use a magical method to make lion’s head. He didn’t even knead the meat mixture properly, and his control of the heat was exquisite. Heh heh, telling you this is useless; I tried several times and couldn’t learn it, let alone you guys."

"Anyway, just make it the way I taught you. With your skills, you can’t speak for big restaurants, but it’s definitely enough to set up a food cart on the street."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yu couldn’t help but reminisce about that day’s competition, feeling a bit sentimental for some reason.

He wondered what that young boss named Chen Mo was up to now. If there’s a chance in the future, he could introduce Chen Mo to his master.

...

Just after hanging up the phone, Xue Ping patted his chest, "You go get the food cart ready, it’s settled."

Xue An chuckled, "Alright!"

Xue Ping was fiddling with a blackboard that looked similar to the yellow food cart next door, writing on it: Lion’s Head: 18 Yuan/piece

Meanwhile, Chen Mo went on another crazy shopping spree at the supermarket.

Actually, it wasn’t that big of a deal; mainly, a somewhat complicated step of making broth was added to the fried rice recipe provided by the system.

Just like traditional Yangzhou Fried Rice, chicken broth is used in the cooking process, so Chen Mo specifically bought a whole bunch of chicken skeletons and a lot of chicken breast meat.

"Didn’t expect to use this trick so soon."

Chen Mo always thought making broth while cooking was troublesome, but now he couldn’t avoid it.

He quickly parked the car by the roadside and couldn’t be bothered to return it to the parking lot, otherwise, he’d have to carry things back out.

"Hmm?"

Chen Mo noticed a small food cart appearing next to his own cart.

It looked rather simple, just a regular street handcart with a slightly modified tray for a gas cylinder and a burner, while the cutting board for cooking was placed on another table.

None of that mattered.

When Chen Mo saw the sign hanging on the food cart...

"Hey buddy, you’re selling lion’s head too?"

Xue Ping looked up, "Yeah."

Xue An, who was chopping meat, stopped his knife, "Heh heh, that yellow cart owner is really something. Coming to our Yangzhou to sell local dishes and even modifying them! It’s one thing to modify, but he dares sell them at such high prices. That’s one thing."

Chen Mo thought, if you’ve let it go, why bring it up?

"The problem is, our local cultural and tourism official media even makes a video to promote him. Hey buddy, isn’t that absurd? We brothers are dissatisfied, so we set up a stall next to him to prove our strength with sales volume!"

Chen Mo was quite taken aback.

This really happened?

When did the cultural and tourism bureau make a promotional video, and why didn’t I know about it?

Seeing Chen Mo silent, Xue An waved his kitchen knife, "Hey bro, can you come support us later? The lion’s head we make was learned from big restaurants, guaranteed to be delicious."

Chen Mo nodded, "Sure, no problem, I’ll be the first to support you when they’re ready."

With that, Chen Mo turned around, carrying a bag of chicken bones and a bag of chicken breast meat, and went into the food cart.

Xue An waved the kitchen knife, holding back the words "thank you," "Not that he..."

"Woah, he’s the owner of that cart?"

"Bro, what’s the situation, what’s up with him dressing in a suit to set up a stall!"

"Indeed, quite pretentious. You chop the meat first, I’ll go see what he’s doing."

Xue Ping strolled over, standing by the cart’s display window, his gaze drifting until it landed on the sign hanging outside the cart, "Hey, bro, you’re selling fried rice today?"

"That’s right. Care to support?" Chen Mo teased.

Xue Ping chuckled awkwardly, "I’d like to, but isn’t your fried rice a bit too expensive? 188 a serving, wow, daring price!"

"As long as it’s well-made, it’s not expensive." Chen Mo took out the cleaned chicken bones from the cupboard, "I’ll order a portion of lion’s head, better get to it."

Xue Ping wanted to say something but saw Chen Mo pull out a box from below and throw eighteen Yuan on the counter.

"Lion’s head with soup."

Xue Ping begrudgingly took the money, "Alright, you wait!"

After dealing with this baffling little brother, Chen Mo began preparing the broth needed for the [fried rice].

It wasn’t all that difficult, just simmering chicken bones to make chicken broth, then mincing the chicken breast to repeatedly refine the broth, making it clear of any impurities.

Chicken broth was just the beginning.

The broth had to be divided into two parts, a smaller amount was used for frying rice, and the other for...

Cooking rice!

Before understanding the recipe, cooking the rice, the rice Chen Mo cooked before was all wasted.

He cooked another big pot of rice using the Thai Fragrant Rice with chicken broth instead of water in the normal rice-to-water ratio.

Then he started making the lion’s head.

Due to yesterday’s setback, Chen Mo only cut up twenty pounds of pork belly today, which could make about thirty or forty lion’s heads.

Without the kneading step, making the lion’s head was rather quick; only the slow simmering process was lengthy.

Next door, after Xue Ping and Xue An finished chopping the meat, both suddenly found themselves in a dilemma.

"Bro, this doesn’t feel right."

"Yeah, I feel it too."

"Master specifically instructed us, the dish must be people waiting for the dish, not the other way around. If we make a whole pot and no one buys it, the lion’s head won’t taste good anymore!"

Xue Ping just realized this issue.

In the restaurant, they used to cook only after guests ordered, never thinking this situation would arise.

Setting up a stall and making dishes in a restaurant are completely different.

"Why don’t we make less at a time, the little boss next door just ordered one, let’s stew four for now!"

"That works."

With the mixed meat in hand, Xue An quickly made four big meatballs, carefully placing them in hot water and covering them with cabbage leaves before simmering them slowly.

During the wait, the two brothers were still curious.

"Why don’t we go take a look?"

"Let’s go, take a look."

At this moment, time was still passing.

It was around three in the afternoon, the sun was blazing, and the Xue Brothers sneakily left their stall to the yellow cart next door.

"Since the lion’s head has to be a dish that waits for people, this boss must just be cooking blindly, stewing such a big pot at once, can it taste good?"

"Today, we’ll expose the conspiracy of the cultural and tourism bureau."

The two stood outside the food cart, pretending to be nonchalant but actually peering intently inside.

They wanted to see how this little boss was actually making the dish!