Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe-Chapter 41: Beef Zhajiang, Fragrant Sauce Noodles, and Scallion Oil Noodles
Even though hand-rolled ice jelly can also be made smooth and transparent, it’s ultimately rubbed out using gauze repeatedly, making it nearly impossible to achieve a bubble-free result.
Moreover, the natural pigments in the plant seeds mean the rubbed ice jelly definitely lacks the transparency compared to those instant jelly powders you buy from the supermarket.
People who don’t understand might even think that this seemingly flawed ice jelly is poorly made.
The two ladies carefully compared the fruit ice jelly in the photos and videos, then looked at the half-eaten bowl of Korean jelly in front of them, confirming they had indeed bought the wrong thing.
"We’ll have a stall out tomorrow during the day, selling ice jelly. If you’re interested, you can come and taste it; it’s only five euros a portion."
"Alright, if we have time, we’ll definitely... How much? Five euros??"
"Yes, exactly, five euros."
Lucas nodded: "Our family always adheres to the principle of good quality at a cheap price, with basic pricing at five euros. Sometimes cheaper, sometimes more expensive, depending on what we’re selling that day."
There were many customers in line for the Korean fruit jelly. He glanced at the queue, shook his head, and gave up on explaining to each one.
For these foreigners who know nothing, discussing authenticity is meaningless. They don’t have that concept in their minds; they just want to buy it.
While they were lining up, Marian’s appearance of packing several bags of food caught their attention, inevitably sparking curiosity.
Besides Marian, quite a few returning customers came to patronize Lin Chen’s business, and just past eleven, all prepared ingredients were already sold out.
While it was still early, Lin Chen bid farewell to Lucas and hurried home to start preparing the ice jelly for sale the next day. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Two days off per week, Sunday being fixed, with the other day off arranged randomly based on the head chef’s schedule unless requested.
Fridays and Saturdays are usually busy, so most employees take their days off within the first four days of the week.
Besides ice jelly, tomorrow he’ll also make the three-in-one biangbiang noodles Lucas wants to eat.
In foreign countries, there’s no breakfast culture, so there’s no need to wake up too early. He can prepare the dough in the morning, but the ice jelly has to be prepared in advance.
Since he’s making noodles, he plans to do some with flavors most characteristic of Great Xia.
Tuesday morning at nine, rushing into the supermarket right at opening time.
After asking around, buying two boxes of particularly alkaline-flavored dried noodles, then purchasing ten pounds of ground beef, two large bags of scallions, garlic, and various fruits.
Having bought so much, even after calling Lucas for help, it was still hard to move everything. In the end, he had to borrow a small cart from the supermarket to load everything onto the vehicle.
Back home, after washing most of the ingredients without processing them, he directly drove the food truck to the stall location, letting Lucas park his own car on a nearby roadside as a warehouse.
It’s still around ten o’clock, only this time it’s ten in the morning.
The streets were empty, with other food trucks not yet set up, and because it was a weekday, there weren’t many pedestrians, looking somewhat desolate.
Near the subway entrance, a few ragged homeless people lay or sat leaning, looking dazed as if staring into space.
Lin Chen washed his hands, put on an apron and headband, lit the fire, and started preparing the stir-fry topping.
Elsewhere, he filled a soup pot with water, added several handfuls of salt, waiting for it to boil.
[Ding! You have used a Recipe Exchange Voucher and obtained the Beef Minced Meat Fried Noodles recipe]
He used one exchange voucher, leaving two in reserve.
Shaxian scallion oil noodles and fragrant sauce noodles are too simple, not worth wasting.
Heat the pot with cold oil; then add two large spoons of lard, rotating the pot around, letting the oil fully coat the surface to prevent sticking while stir-frying.
Once the lard melts and starts to smoke slightly, add chopped onions and stir-fry quickly until semi-transparent, then add the ground beef and break it up while stir-frying.
The boiling lard steeps out the scallion aroma, and then the excess moisture in the beef is fried out, with the meat scent gradually floating up.
During frying, continuously stir to avoid uneven heating and allow the meat to fry thoroughly, crisply.
Once the beef bits begin to turn slightly brown, add minced garlic while stir-frying, and also add soybean paste and yellow bean paste, in a 1:1 ratio.
Continue frying for another three to five minutes to remove the astringency and raw taste, bringing out the aroma of the paste. Then add salt, chicken essence, MSG, and sugar, at a ratio of 1:1:1:3, finishing with some oyster sauce for enhanced flavor.
The scent of fried paste grows heavier, and even Lucas, busy with video shooting nearby, couldn’t help but take a deep breath, fulminating with hunger.
The homeless not far away seemingly smelled the tantalizing aroma, as one or two raised their heads, looking this way, seemingly tempted.
But seeing the towering blond guy bustling around before the food truck, they dared not stand up and take action, watching from afar.
The cooked paste was put in a bowl for later, allowing it to cool naturally, before preparing the scallion oil.
This item is simple, using salad oil or lard without odor and heating it; scallion whites go in first, frying until slightly yellow for aroma, then adding the scallion greens for slow frying on low heat.
Once the scallions all turn a burnt yellow, the heat is turned off, relying on residual warmth for prolonged frying, ultimately turning the scallion pieces fully dark brown.
Next was diluting peanut butter; this task lacked technical content, requiring only hot water to be poured in bit by bit while stirring, as the thickness depends on personal preference.
Another method combines scallion oil, soy sauce, and water with peanut butter and MSG, stirring while heating, resulting in sauce. However, this makes storage inconvenient and prone to spoilage, meaning it needs to be eaten quickly.
Peanut butter for making noodles should be thin, with consistency ideal for forming fine lines when scooped.
As for the minced meat topping, he had already finished frying it in the morning; the remaining task involved handling various fruits.
The two hadn’t eaten breakfast, so he opened a packet of dried noodles to toss into the boiling water, then considering, opened another to add.
The noodles used in Shaxian noodles are certainly not like the dried noodles on hand but can be managed given local availability.
The thin noodles cooked quickly, ready to serve in three to four minutes.
Beforehand, ladle into the box a spoon of scallion oil, a spoon of soy sauce, a small spoon of MSG, and two to three spoons of peanut butter, adjusting concentration according to personal taste.
For another container, three spoons of scallion oil are used, along with a handful of chopped scallions, a spoon of soy sauce, and a small spoon of MSG.
If scallion oil made from salad oil is used, a spoon of lard is added, but he used lard, so it can be omitted.
The cooked noodles were drained; taking care not to rush into bowl preparation, allowing a little noodle broth to naturally rush into the sauce, followed by distributing the noodles inside, stirring quickly to avoid clumping.
The heated noodles and broth impactfully release the aromatic notes of both peanut sauce and scallion oil sauce, far surpassing earlier rich aromas, flowing out the window.
Lucas had already fixed the screen projection; the TV hanging on the food truck started playing the process of Lin Chen making fruit jelly and biangbiang noodles interspersed with cultural video introductions about these two foods.
He himself leaned by the window, lips shiny with saliva.
"Fellow, hurry! Hungry, food food~"
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