Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe-Chapter 150 - 124: Early Morning Famous Snacks—Fish Paste Soup Noodles (Part 2)

He also picked a spot that seemed to have the most meat and took a big bite, expecting it to be greasy, but it wasn't at all—it was purely fragrant.

There wasn't that melting fat layer you get with pork belly, just sticky pigskin that slipped down the throat like jelly.

Feeling relieved, she continued to devour the pig's trotters, periodically taking bites of rice dyed red by the sauce. The aroma of the rice combined with the sauce and oil burst on her tongue, making each bite more addictive and appetizing.

"Chef, can I have another half serving?"

Elsa had already cleared an entire plate, licking her fingers in a state of contentment while her eyes were fixated yearningly on the stew pot on the stove.

At this moment, she noticed that the pot beside her seemed to also be filled with hot seafood soup and fish balls.

Honestly, eating so much meat was satisfying but slightly greasy.

A bowl of refreshing seafood soup might be perfect, right?

Lin Chen thought so too, pointing to the stew pot: "Help yourself to whichever part you want, and the rice is in the rice cooker over there."

He casually took a pre-prepared lime, cut it open, and squeezed it into the seafood soup to enhance its sourness and freshness—similar to the principle behind the sour soup back home.

Foreigners also love this tangy flavored soup, especially with lemon juice, whereas they use vinegar less often.

He served each of the two women a small bowl, only then did he serve himself some rice and soup.

Dishes like pig's trotters and braised pork are striking and delightful at the first taste, and the happiness can be extended to the second and third bites, but the greasiness hits quite quickly if you have too much.

The mixed seafood soup combined the deliciousness of various fish, lobster, and shellfish, with the tangy and appetizing lemon juice perfectly counterbalancing the richness, achieving a strong partnership.

With this addition, the trio's fighting power surged, and they managed to demolish all the ingredients and rice, not even leaving the broth at the bottom of the pot.

Lin Chen had bought enough to fill four grown men.

Apart from himself, he also packed a box of braised four-combo rice for Lucas to take back.

He originally thought there would be enough left for his breakfast or something, but the two ravenous women polished it all off.

"Chef, this braised flavor is so fabulous, I think it would taste great with any meat, right? Could it work with seafood too?"

Dais's eyes sparkled, and the plate in front of her was licked clean, her once flat belly now bulging as if she were five months pregnant.

"It certainly can," Lin Chen nodded, "For example, the hairtail from yesterday could be braised, and other fish, shrimp, or seafood would work too."

That's what he thought, in a buffet, you must have braised dishes to hold the fort; it's one of the souls of Great Xia Cuisine.

No matter what ingredient you bring, braising is absolutely the most versatile and error-tolerant cooking method.

Tonight's dinner was a minor experiment, and the results proved the experiment to be very successful.

Now with garlic, spicy hand-grabbed, and braised as the base flavors, he finally had a rough framework for the menu needed for Sunday.

The next step was to enrich the details, maybe make some snacks, cold dishes, desserts, or drinks, and it should be ready.

The three of them cleaned up the kitchen together, returned to the hotel as a team, and Lin Chen agreed to notify the two ladies before setting up the stall next time, only then was he allowed to leave.

After delivering the meal to Lucas, as soon as he left, Lucas grabbed him.

"Bro, you're like a real brother to me, help take care of Xiao Hei, I'm going out to eat!"

"?"

Lin Chen peeked inside the room and happened to make eye contact with Lu Xiaohei, who was peeking curiously too.

Then he looked at the box of fragrant braised four-combo rice in Lucas's hand.

Got it, he understood.

Lucas didn't dare enter the room, holding the meal box he dashed out, and Lin Chen quickly darted inside, shutting the door.

"Meow~"

"What's up, buddy? I've got no food on me, no use calling! Your dad went to eat alone, doesn't want to share with you, you can smack him when he gets back, no need to cut me any slack!"

He plopped down on the bed, scanning the room, and soon spotted the editing video on Lucas's laptop screen.

He had never actually seen how a video was edited before, so he curiously leaned over for a closer look.

It looked like a foreign language, completely incomprehensible.

Just as he was about to get up, he felt a weight on his back; four small paws marched across his body, with a determined destination, traversing mountains and rivers to reach the back of his head.

"????"

He had no interest in accommodating this little guy, he propped himself up on the bed, forcing Lu Xiaohei to jump onto the bed, waving its front paws, and meowing angrily at him.

"You want to ride on me? In your next life! I'm a dog person, not a cat person~"

To be honest, kittens are indeed cute, but in his mind, dogs are more adorable, and a dog only has eyes for its owner, unlike certain kittens...

Seeing everyone they want to ride, absolutely unruly!

So young and already so mischievous, how will they grow up?!

"Here I come, here I come!"

Before long, Lucas knocked on the door, still licking his lips.

"The food today was great, pure meat feast, so satisfying. How nice would it be to have such a meal every now and then?"

Lin Chen stepped out quickly, patting him on the shoulder as they passed each other. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Get some sleep; you can have anything you want in your dreams."

"Wow, don't be so stingy! This stuff isn't expensive, don't try to fool the locals!"

"Oh? Now you're calling yourself a local? Not calling us fellow countrymen? Great Xia doesn't support dual citizenship~"

"You don't understand."

Lucas shook his head nonchalantly, "I'm trying to create conditions to become a fellow countryman. You think it's easy to get a Great Xia green card? You have to make a significant contribution!"

"If I can promote Great Xia's culinary culture throughout Europe, this credit should be enough for me to get a green card, right?"

"Sure, slowly work on that. Start with a small goal, like reaching a hundred followers?"

"Very soon! It's already over sixty now, a couple more days and it'll definitely exceed a hundred!"

"Hmm... thinking about it, how long have I been setting up stalls continuously, about a month? How about taking a break?"

"Bro!! You're like a real brother to me!!! Don't~~~"

Returning to his room, Lin Chen finished his wash-up, lay on the bed, and started browsing the internet for breakfast ideas with sea fish as the keyword.

The first to come up was fish balls, followed by fish soup, then there were fried fish sticks, smoked fish, and so on. He wasn't sure if these things were really eaten as breakfast somewhere or just riding on the breakfast trend.

He continued scrolling down.

Some seafood noodles, yellow croaker noodles, fish paste soup noodles, almost everything seemed to be main courses related to seafood in the form of noodles or pastry.

"What's this fish paste soup noodles, never heard of it… Whoa, one of Jiangcheng's eight must-try breakfast delicacies? Intangible cultural heritage breakfast? Such an impressive title?"

He casually clicked on it, and the text that popped up startled him, making his eyes go wide.

He quickly opened the encyclopedia to check the documented method.

"Pan-fry fresh fish until both sides are golden, then smash it and stew it for three to five hours to make a fish paste soup served with rice noodles? My God, is this for real?"

He certainly knows how to make fish soup, being a Jiangsu and Zhejiang person, he'd had plenty of milky fish soup growing up.

But he never expected that there was a method of smashing whole fish and stewing it for that long until the essence from both fish meat and bones is completely extracted, and the broth becomes thick before soaking the noodles with it.

The taste—just the thought of it sounds delicious!

"Wait a minute, according to this method, is it possible that the fish proportion could be higher than the noodles?"

"Ah! Got it, I can reduce the amount of rice noodles per serving and then offer free noodle or rice refills, that should work, right? You can't blame me if the customers aren't full, right?"

This inspiration actually came from last week when selling boxed lunches in Amiens, no matter how many rice refills customers took, the positive ratings were mainly based on what they got in the first serving.

There's no way they'd count separate rice sales in the ratings, that'd be plain silly.

Feeling like he seemed to have mastered some incredible kind of bug, Lin Chen excitedly sat up and directly made a call to Boss Magna.

"Hello? Good evening, Mr. Magna, may I ask…"