Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 280 - 272: Dark Aesthetics by the Street: Blazing Eyes_2
Hou Qingyun was still puzzled. When he passed by earlier, he glanced and saw that there was a gym hosting an event on the side of the big road, with little girls dancing and muscular men exercising. What does any of that have to do with them eating?
But he still turned around and walked back to the place with the biggest crowd, and Hou Qingyun spotted Hu Jian Country right away. He was sitting happily on a small yellow stool by the street, enjoying the spectacle.
"Old Hu, what are you doing sitting here? Hurry up, it’s almost the time we agreed on."
Hu Jian Country pointed at a yellow food cart, "Hey, isn’t this the place I reserved?"
He didn’t notice Hou Qingyun’s face muscles gradually stiffening and instead cheerfully shouted toward the boss inside the cart wearing a suit, "As we agreed yesterday, the skewers you grilled today come to me first, anyone who changes their word is a bastard!"
Chen Mo sneered, "The first one will be grilled for you! Anyone who doesn’t eat is a bastard!"
Hu Jian Country squinted at the menu board.
Sure enough, Boss Xiao Chen didn’t lie. Besides the three kinds of skewers from yesterday, there were two new additions.
[Spiritual Eyes: 8 yuan/skewer]
[Silkworm Pupae: 10 yuan/skewer]
Hu Jian Country took a deep breath. The second one was understandable, and he recognized it.
In Chengdu, there are many barbecue owners who came from the Northeast, and their menus often feature that item. Hu Jian Country had only seen it but never eaten it because each time he watched the pupae squirming in the basin, he couldn’t imagine that grilling them could make them taste good?
No, whether they taste good is another matter.
But can you eat it once it’s grilled?
Leaving aside the grilled silkworm pupae, Old Hu was puzzled, what on earth is Spiritual Eyes?
Isn’t Spiritual Eyes another term for eyes? How could it become a dish name?
However, constrained by his "bastard agreement" with Chen Mo, Hu Jian Country stubbornly refused to ask.
Hou Qingyun was anxious, "Old Hu, aren’t you messing around? We’re supposed to host a meal, having guests sit by the roadside to eat, what kind of thing is that? And there’s nothing much here, just one... two barbecue stalls, and this one only has five kinds of skewers—doesn’t this make a joke out of us?"
Hou Qingyun looked at the barbecue stall next door.
Wow, the owner there wasn’t grilling anything at all, not even a menu board, just busy wiping sweat, "And both these bosses seem to have some issues."
"What issues?" Hu Jian Country asked, puzzled.
"Why wear a suit in this hot weather? It’s already hot standing next to the barbecue grill, and wearing a suit on top of that—look at how overheated that boss is, he’s going to get heatstroke at this rate!"
Phew...
Hu Jian Country looked over, and it was true.
Li Chao standing in front of the grill only felt like the shirt inside was soaking and sticking to the meat on his body, with beads of sweat continually pouring down from his forehead, the towel beside him was already wet from wiping.
"I told you wearing this doesn’t work, but you insisted on it. Now, how are you supposed to grill skewers being this hot?"
Li Chao impatiently wiped his forehead again, "What do you know? That boss grilling the meat skewers so well could very well have something to do with him wearing a suit!"
This was something he had tailored when he got married, and it cost him quite a bit of money.
He’d only worn it once on stage, never again until now, still brand new, though it was winter when he got married, and wearing it now in the hot summer was indeed a bit much.
"Maybe that kid’s got issues." Hu Jian Country said, "But it doesn’t matter. I watched closely yesterday, that stall doesn’t do barbecue; it’s specifically for this Boss Xiao Chen to do thermal processing. You’ll get it in a bit."
Hou Qingyun still wanted to say something, then saw Hu Jian Country suddenly stand up and walk toward the roadside, "Minister Zhang, Minister Qin, over here, this way!"
Hu Jian Country spoke as he walked to the roadside and shook hands with them.
Zhang Zhenhua and Qin Xiufen had a brief moment of astonishment flash across their faces as they simultaneously turned to glance at the yellow food cart by the road, with their looks of surprise turning into embarrassment.
It’s not that they couldn’t eat at roadside stalls.
On the contrary, as authentic old Chengdu natives, many of them actually enjoy eating at roadside stalls.
But at least it’s in a small square or similar setting.
Who just sits by the road to eat meals?
When their gaze fell on the menu board in front of the yellow cart, they understood immediately.
The menu only had five kinds of skewers, although one of them they didn’t know what it was, judging by the prices of the other skewers, the barbecue here was clearly priced much lower than the market.
"That’s true, Old Hu doesn’t have much money at this age, just eats something casual by the roadside. Anyway, the main thing today is to clarify things with Old Hu and Old Hou." Zhang Zhenhua said in a low voice.
Qin Xiufen subtly nodded, as she sat down and slightly turned her body to quietly say, "Let’s sit for a little while, and then make our points clear."
The four of them sat down, occasionally looking around, and found that after they sat down, many people also started sitting along with them.
The small yellow tables were quite few, but all were already full. The neighboring barbecue stall had more tables, which were also fully occupied. Not only that, but even around the gym, people gathered.
This somewhat surprised Qin Xiufen, "I didn’t expect this small stall to have such good business. Are all these people here waiting for barbecue?"
Speaking of this, Hu Jian Country instantly perked up.
"Director Qin, you wouldn’t believe it—I queued here for over two hours yesterday, and just when it was my turn, hey! They ran out!"
"I figured, that’s not gonna work, so I agreed with this boss that when we come today, he must serve us first."
Old Hu was quite proud, "Otherwise, we probably would’ve been in line waiting for several more hours!"
