Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 302 - 283: “Fishing” Master, Chen Mo!

"Boss Xiao Chen, are you here to make us laugh?"

Wu Xiaofeng looked at the rod in Chen Mo’s hand, which was tied with a line that looked like a kite string and had a straightened safety pin bent at a small angle for a hook.

Thinking, I couldn’t catch a fish with my rod worth over ten thousand yuan, and you’re going to fish with a tree branch?

"I’m not here to make people laugh." Chen Mo spoke with authority, squatting down to pinch a yellowish lump of bait from the stainless steel bowl, rolled it into a small ball, then hooked it onto the hook, "Fishing is a skill."

"Oh?" Wu Xiaofeng was taken aback at first, feeling this guy was a bit pretentious!

But then thought it was funny.

The so-called fishing skill often refers to how anglers use their skills to tire out and catch a big fish after hooking it.

As for whether the fish will bite, what does that depend on?

It depends on the quality of the bait, but most importantly, whether there are fish in the fishing spot.

So people like Wu Xiaofeng, who were once obsessed with wild fishing, later found it didn’t work. A whole day would yield nothing. So they started going to fishing ponds full of fish everywhere, where you could hook one casually, and everyone would line up to compete who caught the biggest fish.

That’s truly satisfying!

So hearing Chen Mo say fishing is a skill only made Wu Xiaofeng laugh, thinking young people today would say anything to act cool.

And in front of so many people.

Because there was quite a commotion just now, almost all the classmates, parents, and teachers of this class gathered around, standing by the riverbank if they couldn’t squeeze in.

Wu Xiaofeng said, "Boss Xiao Chen, not to be blunt, but there are simply no fish in this river. The white stripes, Ma’kou, big carp you mentioned, if they were here, the villagers would’ve already fished them all out."

Chen Mo saw Wu Xiaofeng speaking so confidently.

He didn’t respond, just stayed silent, looking at the calm river surface.

He asked the system in his mind again, "Are there any fish in the river?"

[The answer we provided earlier was gathered from comprehensive internet searches with a 99 percent accuracy. There are definitely fish in this river!]

Ah... Chen Mo’s face showed a barely noticeable smile. If that’s the case, it makes things easier.

He moved the rod behind him, grabbed the end, and swung it hard!

"Uh!"

His scalp tingled a bit.

"Pfft!" Wu Xiaofeng burst into laughter, feeling unsatisfied, he threw away his fishing rod, leaned against a tree, and laughed heartily, clutching his belly, confusing the nearby parents.

Li Jingyi’s mother was also a bit baffled, looking carefully, she exclaimed softly, "Hey, the fish hook got caught in your head! Are you alright, Xiao Chen?"

Jingyi’s Mother quickly put down the spatula in her hand and ran over, "Don’t move, oh dear, it’s hooked into your scalp! That must hurt, is there any iodine or something in the car? Let me disinfect it for you."

Chen Mo said softly, "It’s fine, I have a tough head."

"Ha..." Li Jingyi’s mother was also amused, "You still have the mood to joke, it seems you’re really okay."

The wildly laughing Wu Xiaofeng watched Chen Mo bend slightly while Li Jingyi’s mother stood on tiptoe, their bodies nearly touching!

Carefully detaching the hook from Chen Mo’s head.

Damn, this guy must have done it on purpose.

A master, this guy is definitely a master!

Wu Xiaofeng couldn’t laugh anymore. At this point, he finally began to take Chen Mo seriously, thinking the other was just a fishing newbie, but unexpectedly Chen Mo turned out to be a "fishing" expert.

The fish in the river hadn’t taken the bait, but the ’fish’ on the bank had, amazing!

After removing the hook, the parents and students around laughed out loud, making Chen Mo feel quite embarrassed, while Jiang Wenqing standing nearby also felt embarrassed, even vaguely ashamed.

He tugged at Chen Mo’s sleeve, "Uncle Xiao Chen, if it doesn’t work, let’s just cook something else. It’s not necessary to catch a fish."

"No way, catching the fish is a must!"

Chen Mo seemed to be fueled by some strange determination, all because of that fish hook earlier, making it look as if Jiang Wenqing was the adult, and he, the child.

This time Chen Mo learned his lesson.

He avoided any casting theatrics, obediently re-baited, then grabbed the two-meter-long tree branch, lifting it high to drop the hook in the farthest possible water area.

Just before the hook hit the water, Chen Mo felt a bit nervous.

No wonder anglers get so addicted, this activity looks simple but is quite thrilling when you actually try it.

Uneasy, he asked in his mind again, "System, are you sure this bait can attract the fish? Is it really that magical?"

[Just try, and you’ll see, it’s truly magical bait.]

The hook, entered the water.

Wu Xiaofeng saw Chen Mo toss the hook about two meters away, and felt a bit anxious at that moment, thinking, could this guy really know what he’s doing?

When the hook submerged and ripples formed, the water surface returned to calm, Wu Xiaofeng relaxed a bit.

"I told you, there’s no fish here, see! How could such a small river possibly have... it moved! It moved!"

With a natural angler’s instinct, Wu Xiaofeng interrupted his sentence, seeing the rod tip twitch, he shouted loudly in surprise.

He pinched himself afterward for cheering on the enemy.

Chen Mo felt it too, immediately flicking his right hand upward, the hook emerged from the water, clutched by a palm-sized white fish flapping its tail fiercely.

The fish was small, but it had been caught!

"Awesome!"

"Wow~ Jiang Wenqing’s brother is amazing, he actually caught a fish."

"No way, are Jiang Wenqing’s group really eating fish today? That’s impressive!"

"Dad, I want to fish too! Make me a fishing rod, I want to fish, waah..."

Chen Mo retrieved the rod, unhooked the palm-sized white fish, while the little fish stubbornly flopped around in his hand.

"Hey, such a small fish isn’t enough for anything." Chen Mo said casually, setting down the rod and returning to the food cart, soon coming back out.

In fact, he just went in to use the food cart for cover, transforming the Black Blade he held into a dagger shape.

In front of everyone, Chen Mo squatted on the ground, skillfully inserted a dagger into the belly of the white fish, effortlessly removed the guts, tossed them into his trash bin, then took out the gills and threw the fish into a clean basin of water to rinse.

"Xiaochen, how are we going to eat this fish?" Li Jingyi’s mother was also somewhat excited. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

This project of catching and immediately cooking fish was her first time experiencing it.

"If it’s this small, we’ll just fry it casually."

Chen Mo held the cleaned fish in his hand, then found a very thick syringe from the small box he had taken out earlier.

The parents were curious and gathered around the temporary kitchen from the riverside again.

"What do you need a syringe for? To give the fish a shot?"

"This young man is interesting; first, he caught fish with a rod, and now he’s giving injections to dead fish, haha."

"I don’t understand, but I’m quite impressed!"

Chen Mo ignored everyone’s discussions.

In fact, in Chinese cuisine preparation, many people have never tried using a syringe for preliminary ingredient processing.

In Chinese culinary, the most traditional and commonly used method to deal with off-flavors and enhance aroma is: marination.

But ultimately, marination is still about letting the flavors of various seasonings and spices slowly seep into the ingredients over time.

However, in some Western culinary practices, syringes are used, allowing the flavors of the seasonings to be quickly injected into the ingredients, saving the time needed for marination.

That’s what Chen Mo was doing now.

Otherwise, with a freshly caught fish, how long would you have to wait if you were going to marinate it?

The syringe drew in the pre-soaked seasoning liquid, which was a mixture of ginger water, soy sauce, cooking wine, and a dash of salt.

The white fish caught was small, so Chen Mo injected it twice on each side, then used tweezers to dip it into the prepared batter.

The batter was made by mixing flour and corn starch, and the white fish rolled in it to be evenly coated.

In front of Li Jingyi’s Mother, the oil in the pot, at the right temperature, was already eager!

Throwing the battered white fish into the pot, Chen Mo said, "Listen to my command, alright."

Then, he immediately grabbed the fishing rod and ran back to the riverside.

"Wow, there are really fish in this river? Son, bring me the rod again."

Wu Xiaofeng didn’t want to give in.

If Chen Mo could catch fish with a tree branch, why couldn’t his carbon fiber fishing rod worth tens of thousands of Yuan do the same?

Chen Mo found Wu Xiaofeng’s actions amusing and didn’t pay him any mind, rubbing a yellow ball onto his own fishhook.

"Watch me!" Wu Xiaofeng shouted, casting his rod far away.

At the same time, Chen Mo also cast his tree branch out.

Whoosh~

Almost instantly after the hook hit the water, without any waiting, Chen Mo lifted the fishing rod.

"Whoa!"

"There’s actually a big fish!"

"Such a big fish, it’s quite impressive, probably around five or six pounds, right?"

"This is a bona fide Yellow River Carp, haha, this little boss sure has some skills in fishing."

Amidst the cheers, Chen Mo single-handedly reeled the fish in with the rod.

Wu Xiaofeng looked at his buoy floating quietly, beads of sweat almost forming on his forehead.

Chen Mo handed the rod to Jiang Wenqing, "See? Just rub a ball on, throw it in, and that’s it, there’s not so much fuss to it."

"No need for fancy rods, buoys, and whatnot; is it that hard to catch a fish?"

This remark, nobody knew who it was for, but Wu Xiaofeng was on pins and needles at that moment.

Jiang Wenqing, excitedly taking the rod from Chen Mo, seemed to be accepting a sacred mission.

And Chen Mo was somewhat surprised.

Who would have thought there’d be such a big fish in the river, but the parent was wrong just now, this isn’t a carp, it’s a grass carp.

Recalling the scene at the highway entrance, Chen Mo couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

Unfortunately, the quality of this grass carp isn’t on par with that uncle’s opening river fish. Even if you prepare the braising sauce extraordinarily well, you’d still taste a strong muddy stink.

Can’t say it’s bad, just a bit hard to eat.

So...

Chen Mo pointed to Li Jingyi’s Mother, "Take it out now."

"Oh!" Jingyi’s mother was busy watching Jiang Wenqing fumble around and only just reacted, quickly scooping out the golden-fried white fish.

"Drain the oil for one minute, then fry again for two minutes, take out, sprinkle with my seasoning, and eat directly."

The seasoning was simple as well.

Just a mixture of cumin and pepper salt.

Li Jingyi’s mother, looking at her phone, nodded, "Leave it to me."

Chen Mo, meanwhile, hugged the big fish with both hands, returning to the food truck.

Hmm... in the eyes of Huaxia people, there have always been rich ways to deal with ingredients with unique flavors.

Since clear stew and braising aren’t delicious, then use the simplest and most straightforward cooking method.

It’s said that in the Sichuan area, the humble people, to address the off-flavor of offal and the like, created extremely numbing and spicy hot pot and fragrant oil dips.

Chen Mo found his red chili peppers and the fatty beef scraps trimmed off during Sichuan grilled steak preparation.

Let’s get started then.

Spicy hot pot fish is immensely flavorful.