Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 272 - 269: The Challenge Is Just a Front, Eating Is What Really Matters! (Part 2)

Chapter 272: Chapter 269: The Challenge Is Just a Front, Eating Is What Really Matters! (Part 2)

Speed up again!

seconds later, Xiao Xin successfully ate the fourth skewer of lamb, but at the same time, he jumped off the treadmill, chewing the meat with big bites and hands on his knees, "I can’t do it anymore, I’m too tired."

The onlookers pointed and discussed, feeling a bit sorry and inevitably puzzled.

This young guy looks like he’s in good shape, why did he disrupt his own rhythm while running just now?

After finishing the meat in his mouth, Xiao Xin decisively went to Ma Juntao to claim his 25 yuan worth of BBQ.

"I want ten skewers of meat, plus one oyster, oh, I’m just a few yuan short, could you throw in an eggplant for me?"

Ma Juntao agreed to Xiao Xin’s request with a smile.

Thinking to himself, the boss’s strategy was really unbeatable!

Everyone knows that gym memberships can’t be calculated with ordinary logic.

They’ve worked in gyms for many years, and they know best that gym owners love those customers who impulsively sign up for annual memberships.

It seems like a year is 365 days, and an annual membership costs eight or nine hundred, averaging out to less than five yuan a day.

But in reality?

In reality, these customers don’t go more than a few times a year, sometimes just ten times a year, and it ends up costing over a hundred yuan per visit!

So, this idea of offering BBQ with memberships seems like half-price for the membership card, but in reality, as long as enough people sign up, the gym makes a sure profit.

Xiao Xin, holding his tray of BBQ, stood by and started devouring the skewers.

"So how about it, Xin, why did your rhythm suddenly fall apart just now?"

"Yeah, Xin, with your level, you could leisurely earn fifty skewers running just five kilometers at your starting pace, couldn’t you?"

Seeing his two buddies so puzzled, Xiao Xin smirked and licked the meat juices from the corner of his mouth back in.

"Gulp~"

Swallowing all the meat in his mouth, he finally spoke to them.

"While I was running just now, I suddenly realized something."

"What is it?"

Seeing that no one around was paying attention to him, Xiao Xin said in a low voice, "Not many people know how delicious this BBQ is now, trust me, as more customers take on the challenge and find out how amazingly tasty this BBQ is, they won’t be able to get any!"

"My suggestion is, whatever the challenge is, let’s just pretend, get ourselves some BBQ first, not worry about the challenge, and just eat while we queue."

The two of them glanced at each other.

They were a bit skeptical.

"Is it really that good?"

Xiao Xin generously handed each of them a skewer, "Taste and see."

Of course, he only had one oyster and eggplant, which he wouldn’t give away to anyone.

The two friends eagerly devoured the skewers.

Their eyes shifted from bewildered to thrilled, and then to burning anticipation!

"See, I wasn’t lying to you, right?"

"Damn, with BBQ this good, who has time for challenges! Watch me steer through it, and go straight for the 25 yuan BBQ."

The two of them also chose the treadmill and the pull-up bar respectively.

After eating a skewer and doing one pull-up, they left the challenge scene amid the regretful sighs of onlookers and found Ma Juntao to claim their 25 yuan BBQ.

"Let’s go!"

"Yeah, quietly, don’t let them notice. This BBQ is so good, it’ll definitely be a hit tomorrow, and it won’t be easy to get any then."

The three of them put on exaggerated expressions of regret as they withdrew from the crowd, then casually headed towards the yellow food truck’s line, with about a dozen strong men queuing ahead of them.

These guys were all Jia Mei Gym’s trainers.

Xiao Xin had noticed long ago that these trainers had practically hoarded all of Boss Xiao Chen’s BBQ.

Each of them had at least a whole grill’s worth.

Inside, Chen Mo had just sorted out his work and realized that grilling three kinds of foods wasn’t that busy, as long as he followed the routine.

Seeing people queuing behind the trainers, Chen Mo lowered his head and chuckled.

Sichuan folks are not as straightforward as Jingzhou people.

Back in the day at the bridge, He Chunming also tried to attract customers to his foot massage shop by monopolizing snacks, only to be thwarted by Dunzi’s sudden limit on purchases!

He Chunming had no choice but to change his approach, moving his foot massage shop to the bridge and offering street-side massages.

And look at these Sichuan customers, all patiently standing in line for their turn.

Anyway, Chen Mo’s task is just to sell a certain number of skewers; he couldn’t care less about the customers’ affairs.

But the new BBQ stall owner next to him was a bit odd. When Chen Mo grilled, he grilled too.

When Chen Mo sprinkled salt, he did the same.

Just when Chen Mo spun in circles to ignite the skewers, that owner followed suit, but his skewers just wouldn’t catch fire.

Now he’s still spinning around in a confused daze.

To be honest, Li Chao was quite puzzled at this moment.

"Crap, why aren’t my skewers catching fire?"

"Did that little boss use some kind of technology?" his wife said anxiously, knowing the skewers were about to get charred while Li Chao was still spinning around confused, "Did he spray gasoline?"

"What nonsense are you talking about, can you still eat the meat if it’s sprayed with gasoline?"

Li Chao kept spinning in circles, as the aroma of burnt skewers filled the air. Frustrated, he stuffed them into the box beneath, "Take them home and cook them later tonight, and give me two hundred more skewers."

The woman reluctantly handed over ten skewers, "If it doesn’t work, why don’t you learn to grill oysters like him first?"

"That could work." Li Chao saw Chen Mo coming out of the food truck, seemingly about to grill oysters.

Immediately following Chen Mo’s example, he started placing oysters on his grill.

"Don’t worry, the oysters are no problem. I just tasted them, and that little boss just added some raw garlic and cooked chili, my sauce tastes just as good as his." Li Chao said confidently.

Chen Mo glanced over, finding it amusing.

He wondered how this BBQ owner even survived at the night market over there.

Grilling lamb skewers is all about the skill — the art of BBQ, a pure craft.

By controlling the heat, the lamb pieces transition from raw to cooked, going through medium rare, medium well, searing juices with high heat, until done, finally using high temperature to perfectly blend the seasoning with the oil from the meat, infusing it thoroughly.

This kind of craft isn’t something you can learn just by copying.

The state and temperature of the charcoal, the motions while grilling, plus the size of the meat chunks Chen Mo cut were different from that owner’s, naturally requiring different time and heat.

Chen Mo arranged the new batch of oysters and started ladling in the raw ingredients.

"Grilling oysters doesn’t require much skill; it relies entirely on the quality of the ingredients. That’s the difference between seafood and livestock... What a pity, that BBQ owner is still trying to imitate me."

Chen Mo chuckled and shook his head, pulling back his attention.

No matter how seafood is prepared, the quality of the ingredients greatly affects the deliciousness of the final dish much more than the cook’s skill.

So why does a live lobster in a restaurant sell for three to four hundred, but once it’s dead, even if just for a few seconds, it turns to thirty or forty?

Chen Mo felt that although Li Chao was a BBQ owner, his cooking skills were quite amateurish.

Only knowing how to mimic without understanding deeper reasoning.

Oysters all laden with raw ingredients, he then started ladling in the cooked ingredients from the beginning.

Once the last oyster had been filled with the cooked ingredients, the first one would be ready to eat.

Chen Mo turned and began working on grilled eggplant, casually glancing at the crowd of challengers.

Just in time, he hadn’t had dinner today yet.

To be precise, ever since the BBQ stall opened, Chen Mo hadn’t had a proper meal himself.

"System, is there anything to temporarily enhance physical abilities?"

[...Do you really want to act out something so pointless?]

Chen Mo: ...

"Not really, think about it this way." Chen Mo continued to work on the eggplant while communicating with the system in his mind, "I grill the BBQ myself, others buy it and then I eat it myself. Back and forth, a 2 yuan skewer becomes 4 yuan, isn’t that a big gain?"

[Seems like it!]

[Please return to the food truck and activate the neurotoxin from the defense system.]

"Wouldn’t that cause muscle paralysis?"

Chen Mo still remembered the six thieves subdued by this kind of neurotoxin.

[There’s also a toxin to make the body rigid!]

The food truck seemed a bit excited.

Anything involving making money indeed excited it.

Chen Mo carried thirty eggplants back to the food truck on a large platter, the Black Blade sliced them open and spread them out on the grill.

"No rush, sell more skewers first."

The thought of soon becoming rigidly firm excited Chen Mo a little, even quickening his actions significantly.