Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe-Chapter 42: Strong Alliance, Lunard’s Invitation to Collaborate
Lin Chen cooked two whole packs of noodles.
One pack didn’t look like much, nearly half the size of a regular noodle package, definitely manageable for a man with a good appetite to eat by himself.
Lucas, without hesitation, picked up the bowl of fragrant sauced noodles, stirred it a few times, and shoved it into his mouth.
The rich peanut sauce fully fused with the aroma of scallion oil and the freshness of soy sauce, coating every noodle, becoming sticky and gooey. With each bite, you could feel your mouth being filled, and the sense of satisfaction was unparalleled by anything else.
The flavor was hefty, but the added scallion oil brought a faint fragrance to counteract some of the greasiness.
The noodles were cooked just right, not too hard or soft, with a slight chewiness, and when mixed, they wouldn’t break.
"Slurp, slurp—"
Lucas devoured the bowl as if he hadn’t eaten in months, clearing it swiftly.
"What flavor shall we try next? Scallion oil, beef black bean sauce, or a three-in-one combo?"
"Let’s go with the black bean sauce. We have plenty of time today, no rush. We can have the three-in-one later for lunch."
After that bowl, it was the peak craving time for noodles; he couldn’t wait that long, besides, he’d eaten the three-in-one for years, he hadn’t really tried beef black bean sauce much.
Having just scooped up the noodles, there were six bowls left, and the remaining few bowls were drizzled with a bit of scallion oil to prevent them from sticking.
Both of them were quite appetized, quickly finishing off six bowls of noodles, licking the leftover sauce from their lips, still craving more.
"No more, no more. Let me have a bowl of iced jelly to cut through the richness. Good stuff should be savored, not indulged in all at once, gotta leave some for next time."
Having eaten three bowls of sauced noodles in a row, the scallion oil was a bit overwhelming, definitely needed a cooling and thirst-quenching iced jelly to ease up.
The fruits hadn’t been prepared yet, they just used chilled sugar water with ice jelly and added a drop of mint essence to make do.
The last time he made jelly, it was relatively transparent with no bubbles. This time he deliberately added some bubbles for a better visual effect, but it wouldn’t affect the taste.
Too many bubbles made it look like mucus, and eating it felt strange too.
After breakfast, as he was handling the fruits, he saw Lunard leisurely driving his food truck over, surprised to see him and waving repeatedly.
Instead of stopping at his usual spot, he drove right next to Lin Chen.
"Hey bro, you’re here early today, on vacation? Selling together?"
He drank last night, left his boys to watch the food truck, completely unaware of what went down here.
Lucas glanced around rapidly and remembered this guy had tasted iced jelly before, quickly whispering a few words to him.
"What?!"
Lunard furrowed his brows, his mustache curling up: "These damned Kimchi People, have no culture, all they do is sneak around and steal every other day, they even copied our tacos before!"
"Added a bit of kimchi leaf and dared call it K Taco, so ridiculous. Customers aren’t dumb, tried it once and never returned, only their own folks would go buy it."
"Let’s get them!"
Lin was surprised at his gaze, wasn’t expecting he wasn’t the only victim.
Brasil Taco’s fame in the West was like the rising sun, no small fry could pretend to be them, and the Kimchi People didn’t continue selling since clearly, it wasn’t selling.
No matter how simple it seemed, the simpler things had more intricacies, every process needed strict control for the result to taste good.
"Alright, let’s get them!"
The three of them bumped fists, smiled, then each went back to their own food trucks to start busying themselves.
To deal with them, they didn’t need to do anything actively, Lunard’s customer flow was enough.
Lin Chen’s side had promotional videos playing, no need to defend their case deliberately, which would lower their stance.
Smart people would naturally distinguish, and clueless ones were useless regardless.
As Lunard started frying barbecue, the street’s aroma got stronger.
Slowly it approached eleven o’clock, pedestrians started showing up, mostly nearby workers seeking food.
"Hey, why has this guy shifted spots?"
Regular customers came by, almost daily reliant on Lunard’s tacos and wraps for lunch.
The truck moved just a few meters and instantly these folks came running like discovering new land, enthusiastically inspecting and surrounding Lin Chen’s food truck.
"Hey, guys, this side has Great Xia cuisine, I’ve tried it several times, absolutely this!"
Lunard raised his thumb, cheerfully recommending it to the diners, Lucas hurriedly switched the promotional video to Lin Chen preparing biangbiang noodles.
"He sells different foods every day, usually appears at midnight. Business is brisk, some even pack dozens of servings home, it’s rare he comes out during daylight, I thought I’d ride on his popularity haha."
"????"
"Packing dozens of servings?"
"Is that true? It’s not easy for you to praise something."
"Alright, I’ll try it, if it’s not good I’ll complain!"
When diners swarmed over, Lin Chen naturally started pulling noodles, almost in sync with the video’s action.
Flat long dough strands juggled in his hands like magic, seemingly casually pulled to each side, stretching into finished noodles, then bounced on the table, creating curious sounds.
Foreigners who’d never seen this noodle-making method were instantly intrigued.
"Where’s the menu, menu?"
"No menu, because what’s sold changes every day."
Lin Chen shook his head, pointing to the TV outside overhead: "Apart from what’s playing on TV, which is the noodles I just made, there’s the fruit iced jelly made of natural plants, kind of like jelly but drinkable."
"Plus, there are three types of Great Xia sauced noodles: scallion oil, peanut sauce, and beef sauce."
To thank Lunard for his kind gesture, he already prepared a pack of noodles inside earlier, just in time to be served.
Before a few diners, his hands swiftly slid across various condiment bowls, spoonfuls of sauce accurately dropped into the bowl, then added noodle broth, noodles followed, handing it to Lucas.
No need for reminders, Lucas picked up chopsticks, grasping the noodle bowl and went to the next stall.
"Quickly, stop the grill for a bit, sauced noodles need to be eaten hot, mix fast or they’ll clump!"
Just when no one was ordering, Lunard reduced the grill’s temperature to the minimum, smiling as he received it: "This is?"
"Peanut sauce noodles, there are two more bowls, you eat first, I’ll go get them."
Peanut sauce?! 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
This stuff was the favorite of Westerners, he didn’t hesitate, unpacked his chopsticks and mixed it quickly.
The dense peanut sauce quickly enveloped each noodle surface, accompanied by a wonderful scallion and nut aroma rushing into his nose.
He unconsciously swallowed.
These noodles... how can they smell this good?
