Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 269 - 267: Setting Up a Stall Next to Boss Xiaochen

Chapter 269: Chapter 267: Setting Up a Stall Next to Boss Xiaochen

Chen Mo’s seasoning for grilled eggplant completely inherits the characteristics of lamb skewers and oysters: simplicity.

The eggplant, split with a knife, is first brushed with oil, partly to increase the temperature and also to prevent the eggplant flesh from charring.

After brushing with oil, brush on a layer of soy sauce, then it’s exactly like the raw garlic sauce for oysters—a spoonful is scooped onto the eggplant flesh and spread out with the back of the spoon.

Once that’s done, the areas of eggplant flesh covered with garlic are already starting to smoke. Finally, sprinkle some sesame seeds and chili powder for flavor and a garnish, followed by a pinch of scallions.

Perfect!

Chen Mo quickly pulls the eggplant off the grill by holding the corner of the bottom, landing it steadily in a disposable plate.

"Doing it this way indeed saves a lot of trouble, and the serving speed has also increased significantly," Chen Mo thought to himself.

All you need is to use the grill for sweet potatoes to soften the eggplants, then brush them with seasonings one by one, without having to wait too long before they’re ready to serve.

"The grilled eggplant is ready," Chen Mo said.

Over there, Ma Juntao was having a great time devouring meat skewers and oysters. Hearing that the eggplant was ready, he immediately got up and ran over, grabbed the eggplant, and went back to his seat.

Li Chao squinted at the hefty man and whispered to his wife, "Simple, this young boss’s barbecue seasoning is very simple; there’s no technique to speak of."

His wife also looked serious, "Although it’s simple, it seems to taste a bit better than ours."

Li Chao nodded silently, not commenting further.

The lamb skewers were tender and juicy, with a slightly charred surface boasting a roasted flavor. The grilled oysters perfectly fused the seafood taste with the flavor of diced chili and garlic, with soft, succulent oyster meat that’s chewy.

This was entirely different from the barbecue techniques Li Chao learned in Northeast China, "It seems this young boss’s barbecue accentuates the natural taste of the ingredients, whereas our barbecue techniques focus heavily on seasonings."

"Yes, ordinary customers can’t tell the difference between our lamb skewers and beef skewers."

Li Chao chuckled awkwardly twice, then suddenly said, "Right, why don’t we set up a stall here today as well?"

"Why?"

Li Chao glanced over at Chen Mo and continued in a low voice, "Let’s set up next to this young boss. Never mind the business initially; if we can secretly learn some skills, wouldn’t we never have to worry about business in the future?"

His wife thought for a moment and asked, "Can you learn it?"

"Don’t worry about that."

Li Chao was best at learning from others.

When he worked at a barbecue restaurant in Northeast China, on the surface, he was working, but in reality, he was learning on the sly.

The barbecue chefs there were quite crafty.

Every time he was asked to buy seasonings, it was always two and a half jin, and when mixing the seasonings, they would just grab a handful as if at random.

At first, Li Chao foolishly followed suit, grabbing and mixing the seasonings, but later found out that what he made was inedible!

After some time, he finally understood.

The barbecue chefs had their own seasoning ratios. It appeared like they were grabbing a handful, but no one knew precisely how much actually went into the bowl and how much was casually sprinkled on the ground and washed away by water.

Even so, Li Chao managed to work in Northeast China for two years, switching barbecue spots every so often. Gradually, he pieced together his own set of barbecue seasonings based on various chefs’ preferences and, when he returned to Sichuan, tried it out with quite a bit of success in business!

But... today Li Chao truly learned what it means that there is always someone better.

Since Li Chao was determined, his wife didn’t say much either, "You stay here, and I’ll go collect the stall from the night market. By the way, this spot won’t get busted by the city management officers, right?"

"It should be fine. If they were going to crack down, this young boss wouldn’t have been able to set up here for several days."

His wife went to the night market to put their barbecue stall together, while Li Chao stayed by the food truck, waiting for his turn.

Li Chao eagerly grabbed the greasy, sizzling hot eggplant, picked a piece with chopsticks, and pulled it to the other side, perfectly tearing off a strip of the eggplant flesh, covered in garlic sauce and scallion bits.

"In essence, it’s just soy sauce and garlic sauce, shouldn’t taste too bad, but it surely doesn’t have any distinctive features," Li Chao silently thought, taking a bite of the eggplant flesh.

Hmm?

The moment the eggplant flesh entered his mouth, Li Chao immediately sensed something was off.

It...

Li Chao tentatively looked up, seeing Chen Mo busy loading more eggplants into the sweet potato grill.

"Why does the charcoal flavor come through so strong?"

"The eggplant fiber is almost unnoticeable, and the texture is unexpectedly soft and glutinous. More astonishingly, there is even a hint of natural sweetness in the aftertaste?"

Damn!

Li Chao was dumbfounded and hurriedly tore off another piece of eggplant to eat.

The increase in garlic flavor and the aromatic glutinous texture of the eggplant blended perfectly, truly a flavor incomparable to ordinary grilled eggplant.

"Obviously, he didn’t add much seasoning. Why is it this delicious?"

Over there, Ma Juntao and his friends were also eating grilled eggplant.

As ordinary customers, they didn’t have too much to say; they just found the grilled eggplant incredibly delicious!

One bite and their mouths were burning, gulping air to cool down, the rich garlic flavor filled their mouths, needing no chewing, just a gentle swallow, the soft and sticky eggplant flesh seemed to melt away!

Delicious!

Before long, Li Chao’s wife finally arrived.

Chen Mo looked up, puzzled.

Why did someone set up a stall right next to mine, also selling barbecue? This is just ridiculous.

Li Chao quickly laid out his stall, slightly closer to the street compared to Chen Mo’s grill, allowing him to observe Chen Mo’s every move.

Two hundred skewers placed directly on the grill!

Li Chao followed suit.

And then Chen Mo just stood there motionless, arms crossed, eyes closed, taking a short nap.

"Could it be that resting with your eyes closed is part of the barbecue process?" Li Chao scratched his head, opting not to follow this step from Chen Mo for now.

As Li Chao set up his stall, pedestrians occasionally passing by Construction Road gradually began to stop.

In the world of dining, it’s essential to cluster together.

Gu Fang was already heading back to the gym with hundreds of oysters, continuing her live stream.

"It’s right here; yesterday this was where the oysters tripped me up!"

"How could it be? One oyster couldn’t have made your legs weak, right?"

"Just try it, these grilled oysters are really extraordinary."

Three young people sat on the roadside bench, none other than the ones from yesterday’s pull-up challenge at Original Power, led by Xiao Xin.

Several gym friends watched the live stream and later mocked Xiao Xin in their group chat, with some suggesting that Xiao Xin was bewitched by the boss lady’s gaze.

That really pissed Xiao Xin off!

In a fit of pique, Xiao Xin brought two friends along today, planning to let them eat some late-night snacks before heading to the gym.

Once seated, Xiao Xin noticed there was a gym nearby, seemingly just opened.

"Wait, I’m going to borrow a dumbbell, and I bet you won’t have the strength after eating these oysters!"

The two friends chuckled awkwardly, not saying a word. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

In their hearts, though, they were ridiculing Xiao Xin.

What a joke, oysters couldn’t possibly make you go all weak.

This is seafood, not some kind of aphrodisiac, geez!