Cooking System: Street Food Rules

Jiang Feng's life became much more leisurely. He would simply rest at home every day and occasionally, on a whim, visit the Shandong Cuisine Restaurant. The restaurant's business was very stable, so he didn't need to do anything extra. At most, he coordinated matters concerning alcohol and beverages. After all, Jiang Feng was the restaurant's owner and had dedicated supply channels for drinks through a friend he had dined with on the Grassland.

The people Jiang Feng associated with now were also quite impressive. In addition, he received many invitations to various events. In this era of internet traffic, even if Jiang Feng didn't need it, it still affected his life. For example, several cities invited him to set up a stall, offering any location just to promote the city's cuisine. There were also some speaking engagements. Jiang Feng also found time to visit Yangzhou University, where he gave a lecture to culinary students. On-site, he taught everyone how to make a Huaiyang Cuisine dish and shared the cooking details step-by-step with them. This experience significantly helped everyone grow and progress.

As time went on, he grew somewhat bored. People still need goals, or rather, something to do, he thought. Accustomed to daily idleness, he felt himself becoming more and more listless. No wonder many internet moguls say, "I'm so rich, yet so miserable," he mused.

The system was still upgrading, and who knew what changes would come next. Jiang Feng turned his attention to three other cuisines he hadn't yet tried: Hunan Cuisine, Hui Cuisine, and Min Cuisine.

By chance, the Changsha City Tourism Bureau wanted to invite Jiang Feng for an event. Jiang Feng considered making the trip. He had been to Changsha before and had a good impression of the place. The city's cuisine was incredibly developed, especially its countless street food stalls. There seemed to be few restrictions on street vending in this city; wandering through its streets and alleys, one could often find vendors with their stalls. They sold all sorts of items, offering an even wider variety than a typical food street. Many snacks unseen elsewhere were abundantly available here. Changsha's food streets were indeed a dazzling sight.

Of course, some streets had a big reputation but were specifically set up to rip off tourists. Such situations existed, as every city tends to have such areas.

Jiang Feng accepted the invitation from the Tourism Bureau and decided to head to Changsha. This time, he wouldn't be setting up a stall covertly but would participate in the event openly and legitimately. Jiang Feng could barely keep a low profile now; he would be recognized as soon as he set up a stall, so there was no need for secrecy. It was better to be straightforward about it.

The Changsha Tourism Bureau was very pleased and immediately began coordinating event planning with him. The city was going to host a food festival. They even planned to invite some celebrities for concerts and similar activities. Similar events happened frequently everywhere; cultural festivals always drew a crowd. Jiang Feng's participation in the official food street event naturally made him a very important guest. The event's requirements were simple: Jiang Feng just had to set up a stall and choose one dish to make.

Jiang Feng began to contemplate his choices. Changsha had many novel foods. For instance, "laughing" crawfish potstickers, which incorporated crawfish into potstickers, were bursting with flavor. There was also mung bean paste waterfall ice, which stretched very high when scooped with a spoon. Stir-fried river clam meat was also a favorite among seafood lovers. Additionally, there were Indian flying crepes, stringy cheese corn, strawberry-coconut duos, little crawfish cup noodles, egg-wrapped potatoes, and more. Changsha's snacks were indeed extraordinary.

Furthermore, if one found the right place within the everyday food districts, the prices were normal. In some spots, however, they specifically overcharged out-of-towners and tourists, with much higher prices.

Jiang Feng pondered what he would make. He had many options. Even without the system's recipes, he had mastered a great variety of snack preparation methods. He even knew a few Hunan Cuisine dishes, such as Chopped Pepper Fish Head and Chili Stir-fried Meat. Setting up a stall in Changsha, especially in a prime location, means I definitely need to prepare carefully, Jiang Feng thought.

Rice noodles and Sweet Oil Rice Cake are also local specialties, loved by the locals, he thought. Stinky Tofu and crawfish are the same. I've made all these before; the difficulty isn't too high.

After much thought, Jiang Feng decided on the dish he would make: Meat-filled Eggs. Despite its plain-sounding name, this dish was truly an intangible cultural heritage item. Its obscurity was due to its incredibly high difficulty level. The process wasn't complex, involving just one crucial step: how to get the meat inside the egg yolk. Jiang Feng had received this recipe before but hadn't had the chance to make it. This was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

The method for creating Meat-filled Eggs was to crack a duck egg into a bowl, ensuring the yolk remained intact. Then, using chopsticks, one had to poke a small hole in the yolk and fill it with minced meat. This single step was extremely challenging. If one wasn't careful, the duck egg yolk would break. At that point, a complete Meat-filled Egg couldn't be made; instead, one might end up with a bowl of minced meat and duck egg custard.

Jiang Feng tried it himself. After finely chopping fresh meat and dicing mushrooms, mixing them well, and marinating them, he began filling the egg yolks. He cracked duck egg yolks into a bowl, then gently made a small opening with chopsticks and slowly piped the meat filling in. His first attempt failed as the duck egg yolk quickly broke and leaked out. But Jiang Feng was patient and swiftly moved on to his second attempt.

It was indeed a task that required skill. It had to be done manually since the egg yolk was so delicate; the meat could only be filled in by hand, little by little. No wonder it's considered an intangible cultural heritage dish; it's truly difficult, Jiang Feng commented to himself. The difficulty was not in knife skills or controlling the heat, but in the attention to detail, patience, and absolute understanding of the ingredients.

Even Jiang Feng had to practice many times to increase his success rate. The trash can beside him was full of duck eggshells. Little Black the cat and the dog came over curiously to see the commotion, unaware that for the next two days, their main food would be meat and egg custard. They had no choice but to eat it; after all, it couldn't go to waste. Luckily, they both liked eggs and minced meat. They certainly fulfilled their roles as good pets.

With continuous practice, Jiang Feng finally mastered the egg-filling method. His success rate increased dramatically. Given his excellent physical condition and positive attitude, mastering this dish wasn't a significant challenge for him. However, while he mastered it well, the same couldn't necessarily be said for others who might want to learn this dish.

「Soon, the Changsha Tourism Bureau released a poster for the food festival.」

Without a doubt, Jiang Feng was the star, positioned right in the center with a large portion of the poster dedicated to him.

Upon seeing this poster, netizens left comments under the official account:

"They actually got Boss Jiang to come! Impressive!"

"Wow, if Boss Jiang is going, then I definitely have to go too!"

"I haven't seen Boss Jiang set up a stall for a while. I kind of miss it!"

"Haha, Boss Jiang is going to Changsha. Isn't he going to open a Hunan Cuisine Restaurant there?"

"Do you even have to ask? Of course, he is!"

"What's Boss Jiang going to make at his stall? Will we be able to eat imperial cuisine?"

"How many imperial dishes can you make in a day? It'll definitely be snacks; don't even think about it."

The announcement was incredibly popular, and many people paid attention to this event. Online food bloggers with tens of millions of followers are not unheard of nowadays, but their influence isn't always that significant. Even if invited to a city's cultural festival, they usually don't create much of a stir. But Jiang Feng was different. After all, people from several regions truly liked him. In places like the Eastern Shandong Region, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Guangdong, Jiang Feng had left a lasting positive impression. Therefore, his reputation was quite excellent. Seeing he was going to appear, people were very supportive.

Then, Jiang Feng made plans to go to Changsha. He left his cat and dog under the care of the people at Happy Ranch. He also called over his assistant, Sun Zhuangfei. After all this time, Sun Zhuangfei was still the one he felt most comfortable working with.

Sun Zhuangfei's cooking skills had significantly improved by now. Even though he constantly followed Jiang Feng, he hadn't become cocky; he still diligently did whatever was needed at the Sichuan Cuisine Restaurant. His pay, however, was higher than many others. If Sun Zhuangfei continued to work hard, he might have the opportunity to move into management in a few more years.

Jiang Feng's stall was to be located in a night market called Sifangping Night Market. Every night, the place was crowded. To avoid congestion, his stall was set up inside a shop on the street. Jiang Feng began preparations early.

The terms for this event were also quite good. For setting up a stall for seven days, the Changsha Tourism Bureau would pay an additional one million yuan as an endorsement fee. This fee was quite low; some brands, especially kitchenware companies, had offered Jiang Feng tens of millions of yuan for endorsements. However, Jiang Feng wasn't short on money and had turned them all down. He rather enjoyed working with city tourism bureaus, mainly because the tourism department could offer him significant support.

Of course, the festival activities weren't limited to just setting up a stall; there were also live broadcasts to promote the food, which Jiang Feng would also participate in.

Jiang Feng and Sun Zhuangfei began preparations at the shop. It was the height of summer, and the weather was somewhat sultry. Jiang Feng thought that, besides snacks, he should also make some cold drinks. With an abundance of fresh fruit this season, it would be convenient to make desserts like Mango Pomelo Sago and Lychee Yangmei Shaved Ice.

While they were preparing, fans often came by. Seeing Jiang Feng, these fans were extraordinarily happy and asked for photos as mementos. Jiang Feng quite liked formal stall operations. However, with his current popularity, ordinary street vending wasn't so easy anymore, so a regulated setup like this was best.

Online enthusiasm was high. That evening, Jiang Feng was also invited to participate in the food festival's opening ceremony, promoting it through an interview. Everyone was eager, looking forward to trying Jiang Feng's food the next day.

「The next day, Jiang Feng started his preparations early.」

People were eagerly anticipating the food he would make.