Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 396 - 359: Sweet Talk Gets You an Extra Bite
What the heck! Adding evaporated milk right in front of so many people?
Even though the customers on the street don’t know what evaporated milk is, and don’t know whether it’s harmful or not, thanks to that video, everyone subconsciously thinks that stuff is some kind of techno-gimmick!
Any boss who adds evaporated milk to customers’ dishes is a black-hearted boss!
But for Chen Mo, hearing Old Liu’s shout causing a stir among the crowd left him speechless.
"What evaporated milk, this is concentrated broth!"
"And it’s broth I’ve concentrated myself, don’t speak without knowing."
Chen Mo’s voice through the second-hand loudspeaker was powerful, clearly a bit annoyed.
Indeed, he wondered who in the line was speaking without understanding the situation, "It’s concentrated, made by simmering pork bones, chicken bones, and ham bones into a clear soup, then reduced over low heat."
While explaining, Chen Mo glanced at Old Liu in the crowd, thinking there were troublemakers among them.
Old Liu hadn’t anticipated that his offhand comment would cause a chain reaction among the customers, nor that Chen Mo would actually explain it himself.
As a chef, he certainly knew that many restaurants, to prepare large amounts of broth in advance, had to make it the day before, reduce it over low heat in the evening, and dilute it with water when needed, which is a common procedure.
He had just blurted out without thinking.
Old Liu, being questioned by Chen Mo and under the scrutiny of the customers following Chen Mo’s gaze, blushed like a red liver and stammered, "I... I must have seen it wrong, sorry about that."
Hearing Old Liu admit his mistake, several customers nearby gave him a look of disbelief.
"Daring to babble without any understanding; almost got me fooled too."
"I was questioning Boss Chen just now, shouldn’t have done that."
"Kick this person out!"
Frightened, Old Liu took a few steps back but still remained under everyone’s gaze, determined to taste whether this so-called big pot-brewed dried tofu threads would work or not!
If this method works, then what would chefs like them do? Just brew a big pot in the back kitchen and serve dishes whenever there are customers?
Seeing the person questioning him no longer speak, Chen Mo withdrew his gaze and put down the second-hand loudspeaker.
Once the water with the broth paste started boiling again, it immediately released the savory aroma characteristic of bone broth. Chen Mo then added the dried tofu threads that had been drained, followed by adding shredded ham.
At this point, Chen Mo squatted down a bit to carefully adjust the flame.
[Low fire, slow simmer.]
This step was crucial to cook the ham shreds, which are more resistant to cooking, and also extract the salty and savory flavors from the ham.
Meanwhile, infusing the savory broth flavor into the dried tofu threads is best done over low heat.
Cooking in a big pot is challenging here because what works as a low flame for a small pot might be equivalent to no fire at all for a big pot.
But this couldn’t stump Chen Mo, who had a progress bar. Once he got the heat right, the next step for this dish required waiting a full ten minutes. He held the loudspeaker and continued to instruct the customers in line to bring their dishes forward for secondary processing.
It was merely simple work, but coupled with the mobile payment notification, his experience value in his mind kept soaring, making Chen Mo feel extremely satisfied!
This time leveling up required a massive 200,000 experience points!
This was already an absolutely alarming figure, given that for a street vendor, an annual income of 200,000 is already inconceivable, yet Chen Mo had to complete this task within a week.
If he actually did it by then, that would be truly remarkable.
But from the looks of it, he might just pull it off, all thanks to the four unpaid laborers. Without them, Chen Mo would never manage it alone.
The big pot simmered the dried tofu threads slowly, and as the flavor of the ham was extracted, Chen Mo used a black ladle to gently stir along the edge of the pot, enhancing the aroma as it became more and more enticing.
"Ten minutes is just right; nine minutes, and it lacks a bit of readiness, but..."
For the first time, Chen Mo began the next step without waiting for the progress bar to reach its flash point.
When trying this dish in the afternoon, Chen Mo discovered a fatal issue with big pot cooking.
If it were a dish like braised fish, a slight delay in serving wouldn’t matter; even if later servings bathed in the sauce a bit longer, it would only slightly affect the crispiness of the fish’s surface, making it more flavorful.
Overall, it would still be fine.
But for cooking dried tofu threads, if you wait until they are fully cooked before starting to serve, by the time you’ve served half, the remaining threads would be somewhat overcooked.
Here, besides the flavor, the texture is also a critical component. Once the texture of the dried tofu threads is compromised, it can be said that the entire dish is ruined.
So... Chen Mo came up with a rather clever solution.
With some time left on the progress bar, Chen Mo leisurely added shrimp and pea shoots, ingredients that cook quickly, stirring them slightly.
If Old Liu were in the front row, he would be surprised by Chen Mo’s stirring method. His black ladle didn’t stir back and forth but moved in one direction, ensuring that the pot’s contents only shifted position without intermingling too much.
The final step.
Thickening!
