Gourmet: Midnight Vending

Sour.

Li Xiaobo saw that little boss next door was about to die of jealousy!

It's enough that you bring a girl out to your stall, but you have such a pretty girl helping you work. Is there no justice?

So he turned his speaker volume to maximum. It was the only way he could resist that sour stench!

Yino and Su Shasha frowned as they continued to thaw and clean the chicken.

Meanwhile, on Chen Mo's side, the formal preparation of Bàngbàngjī had begun!

The whole chicken was boiling in a big black pot, and Chen Mo asked Lu Yingqiu to move a bit aside and started another pot.

The dried red peppers he bought were being roasted in the pot, then a bit of rapeseed oil was added to continue the roasting.

Chen Mo tilted his head to glance at Lu Yingqiu, finding that the girl wasn't joking, she genuinely understood the seasoning of this dish.

Lu Yingqiu had just cleaned the sesame seeds, and Chen Mo took them casually, "Let me fry them."

"Alright." Lu Yingqiu lowered her head and continued working on other seasonings.

The cleaned sesame seeds were roasted until crispy in the pot, then taken out.

The method was repeated with Sichuan peppercorns, which were also roasted until fragrant and taken out. Then pour rapeseed oil into the empty pot and let it heat, mainly to mature the oil.

After the dried red peppers were roasted, they were pounded into coarse pieces with a mortar and pestle, and a simple chili oil was made using the mature rapeseed oil.

The Sichuan peppercorns and sesame seeds were then respectively ground into powders for later use.

On Lu Yingqiu's side, she mixed sesame paste and sesame oil at a one-to-one ratio to make a small portion of sauce. She was somewhat unsure how her method differed from Boss Xiao Chen's, hesitated for a long time, then finally mustered the courage to ask, "Is this your ratio?"

Chen Mo nodded, as he was watching all along, "That's right."

Then the two of them proceeded to the final preparation.

A clean large basin was filled in turn with sesame oil and paste, soy sauce, chili oil, sesame powder, sugar, Sichuan pepper powder, and MSG, all mixed well together.

Lu Yingqiu had one extra step compared to Chen Mo.

She used slightly less chili oil, then added some prickly ash oil and placed fresh green Sichuan peppers in the sauce, giving it a prickly ash flavor.

The finely chopped green onions were placed beside for later use; some people buy them for a final garnish, so putting them now would be too early.

What a pity that there were three girls helping today; otherwise, Chen Mo could have put the ground sesame powder and such into the ready-to-use spice box, making future prep much easier.

These spices, they must be roasted and ground by hand to be fragrant and strong enough. If you bought them ready-made from the supermarket, no matter how well they are stored, the flavor will diminish significantly.

Once the sauce was ready, Chen Mo turned his attention back to his chicken.

Before he knew it, ten minutes had passed.

He lifted the lid, and with the boiling water bubbling, poured a scoop of cold water in, instantly calming the broth.

"Yingqiu, can you boil some water for me?"

A tuft of Lu Yingqiu's hair immediately stood up.

He called me Yingqiu?

"Alright."

Feeling goosebumps she couldn't explain, she dazedly filled the electric kettle with water and set it to boil.

The water in Chen Mo's pot calmed down, but before long, it was boiling again. He used a black ladle to flip each chicken over, covered the pot, and continued cooking.

Another ten minutes passed!

Another scoop of cold water was added to the pot. Once it boiled again, he flipped the chickens until the water boiled again, continuing to cook for another ten minutes.

Back and forth, over half an hour had passed.

The enticing aroma of chicken gradually filled the air.

Next door, Li Xiaobo sniffed and couldn't help but chuckle slightly. He turned down his speaker a bit, and strolled over to the food truck, leaning an elbow on the display counter, "Little boss, what are you making?"

Only then did Chen Mo remember he hadn't written a menu sign yet!

"Which of you three has good handwriting, help me with this: write 'Bàngbàngjī, 8 yuan/serving.'"

Roughly speaking, the small food boxes Chen Mo had in stock were left over from previous egg dumpling sales, and the box was small; one chicken could make about 15 servings.

At this price, one chicken could sell for about 120 yuan, which wasn't too exorbitant.

After all, the key ingredients of Sichuan cuisine aren't the focus; the real cost comes from the spices.

Bàngbàngjī?

Hearing this, Li Xiaobo curled a corner of his mouth, "Little boss, why does it feel like you're copying my Bōbōjī?"

Chen Mo chuckled, "Buddy, although we're both chicken, yours is fake chicken, and mine is real chicken. Your dish hardly has any chicken meat. Mine is all pure chicken."

Bōbōjī typically between some chicken claws and gizzards, while our Bàngbàngjī is purely chicken meat!

It's delicious!

Li Xiaobo smacked his lips and saw Yino seriously write the menu item on the sign and even drew a cat.

Oh my!

Li Xiaobo felt a sour pang at the thought that he had no idea what spell this guy put over these three girls. It's not just about looking a bit handsome, is it?

"But I've got to give you a heads up." Li Xiaobo spoke in a rather solemn tone.

It really got Chen Mo's attention, "What's the matter?"

"If you want to set up a stall here, you have to be prepared to work a whole day for nothing!"

"Oh?" Chen Mo was quite concerned about this matter, "What do you mean?"

Li Xiaobo leaned against the window sill, pulled out a cigarette, was about to light it when he saw Yino turning to glare at him, embarrassedly put the cigarette to his nose for a sniff and then put it back into the pack, "During the week, the ones who come here to soak in hot springs are all city moms."

"Don't be fooled by my selling Bobo chicken, but it was a big hit online not long ago! No kid wouldn't come crying to try Bobo chicken for one yuan a skewer when they hear about it, right? Your Bangbang chicken, if you ask me, is a bit lacking."

Chen Mo understood.

In other words, setting up a stall in this location is basically aimed at kids. Li Xiaobo's Bobo chicken is sweet-tasting, not spicy at all.

Kiddos eat one skewer and want a second. Three or four skewers are stuck into one chicken claw, making a lot of money.

"What do you know! Brother Xiao Chen's cooking is great, it'll definitely sell like hotcakes!" Yino, who was writing and drawing, felt unhappy hearing Li Xiaobo say this. She spoke her mind, quickly retorting.

Su Shasha also pouted her upper lip, looking at Li Xiaobo angrily, "Exactly, if you don't know, don't talk nonsense!"

Lu Yingqiu's lips moved, and there was some anger in her eyes, but in the end, she didn't say a word.

Li Xiaobo's face was almost red from being criticized by the two girls, thinking to himself that he was just kindly reminding them, why are these two little sisters so excited?

"Alright, alright, I didn't say anything. Just give it a try, and see if I'm right."

Then, Li Xiaobo stepped back to his food cart and turned the speaker up a bit.

On Chen Mo's side, after repeatedly lowering the temperature and then bringing it back to a boil a few times, he used a pointed chopstick to randomly check the chicken.

He found no blood oozing out, and the texture of the meat was very tender. Cooking it to this level would suffice.

"Is the water cool?"

Lu Yingqiu nodded, brought the basin of boiled and chilled water to Chen Mo's side.

All ten chickens were put into the cool boiled water!

The whole chickens, which had just been cooked at high temperature, entered the cold water basin, and a layer of yellow grease immediately floated up. As the temperature continued to drop, the grease gradually solidified on the surface of the cool boiled water.

Chen Mo used a black spoon to scoop out the grease, and noticed the meat color submerged in the cool water had changed slightly, with the yellow on the surface faded quite a bit, making the color more uniform.

"This is somewhat similar to Cantonese-style poached chicken." Chen Mo was talking to himself.

Cantonese poached chicken needs to be dipped in ice water. Scientifically speaking, the goal of both is the same, but the level of cooking in poached chicken is not as much as Bangbang chicken, so it requires rapid cooling in ice water to quickly solidify the blood near the bones, preventing it from seeping into the meat and increasing a gamy taste.

Hearing Chen Mo's words, Lu Yingqiu looked at the chickens in the basin, "Actually, there's some difference from poached chicken."

Chen Mo turned his head in surprise to look, a key character was unexpectedly engaging in conversation with him?

[Familiarity +3]

Lu Yingqiu spoke slowly, "In my hometown, there's a type of chicken that grows up eating peanuts, so the chicken tastes very special. So, I think it should be a bit different from poached chicken."

Whether Cantonese poached chicken is delicious or not, Chen Mo doesn't know for now. But from the preparation method, they seldom add any seasoning during cooking. It's post-cooking that they add seasonings to enhance flavor. Therefore, both poached chicken and Bangbang chicken have very high requirements for ingredients,

like the Qingyuan chicken used by Yueyun Pavilion; it must be delicious when made into poached chicken given its high quality.

The chickens bought from Pang Donglai are also good, but they can't quite compare to the ones airlifted by Mu Xin.

Listening to Lu Yingqiu, Chen Mo got interested, "Grown up eating peanuts? So, does your hometown grow a lot of peanuts?"

Lu Yingqiu nodded, didn't speak.

Chen Mo's eyes lit up, "Then peanuts growing on trees must be hard to pick, right? How do the chickens fly up to eat them?"

Lu Yingqiu: Ծ‸Ծ

"Peanuts... grow in the ground..."

Chen Mo's smile froze awkwardly on his face.

Peanuts growing underground?

Emma, living in the countryside of Jingzhou, I've really only seen hardy crops like corn and potatoes.

"Boss Xiao Chen, haven't you learned about a text called Fallen Peanut..." Lu Yingqiu's voice got lower and lower.

So low that Chen Mo couldn't hear.

Can't hear, can't hear... Chen Mo automatically blocked out all external sounds, even finding the flashing character profile in his mind particularly annoying.

[Seeking Flavor·Two: Han Yang Peanuts.]

"Are you mocking me too? Is it so embarrassing to have never seen a growing peanut plant? Damn!"

Ignoring the task content, Chen Mo pretended nothing had happened, jumped out of the food cart, grabbed four chickens, came back, and continued cooking!

With the busyness on the food cart, time ticked by second by second.

Next door, Li Xiaobo occasionally glanced at his phone, then looked at the food cart nearby. Based on his years of experience in setting up stalls, it was almost ten o'clock, typically when guests would start arriving.

Because Huaxi Hot Spring is a very special resort. Although it looks luxurious on the outside, as long as you don't stay overnight, you can buy those package tickets online.

Adults for 99 yuan, children for 88 yuan.

A day at the hot spring village with the kids: soaking in hot springs, sweating in saunas, sunbathing, amusement parks, plus a lunch buffet.

Moms take photos for social media, kids have a blast, overall, it's pretty cost-effective.

So generally, the moms would arrive around ten in the morning, soak in the hot springs first, then have lunch at twelve. After that, they take a break with the kids, play at the amusement park in the afternoon, concluding a wonderful day.

Truly, with three years of stall-setting experience under his belt, just as Li Xiaobo figured people would be arriving soon, from not far away a BMW Mini drove up.