Gourmet: Midnight Vending

Chapter 48: From Now On We'll Sell Buns and Handmade Noodles


In the past, the interior of the food truck was very simple, at least it looked quite simple.

One side was empty, just an ordinary car window, while the other side had a counter for preparing meals, along with spots for plugging in appliances and a stove for cooking. Two-thirds of the space inside the food truck was empty.

And now...

Chen Mo walked into the food truck and felt that the narrow corridor left was just enough for him to walk back and forth. It was practically impossible for two people to pass by each other face-to-face.

On the previously empty other side, there was now a...

Chen Mo touched the back of his head, feeling that this wasn't a chef machine, but more like a row of cabinets crafted by a carpenter.

[Cloning Chef Machine: A chef machine specially crafted for mobile food truck owners, with the primary function of cloning, aiming to preserve top-grade ingredients for you to enjoy an exquisite life.]

[Clone: Can bulk clone grade-A and above ingredients. (Note: Cloned ingredients are limited to use within the food truck.)]

[Clone Quantity: 0/10]

So to call it a cabinet isn't wrong. There was a whole row of small wooden cabinets on the roof of the food truck, divided into ten small compartments, with an opening in the middle showing the car window below, just ordinary cabinets, also with ten cabinet doors.

"That means..." Chen Mo felt somewhat thankful that he had saved some of the flour he got in exchange last night, leaving half a pound intentionally.

He took that half-pound out of the storage cabinet and placed it in the first small top cabinet.

[Clone Quantity: 1/10]

[Category: Grade-A Flour]

[Clone Capacity: 5 pounds/time]

[Cooldown Time: 30 minutes]

After placing the flour into the cabinet, Chen Mo realized that as long as he glanced at the cabinets above, relevant texts would appear.

"So if that's the case..." bending down, Chen Mo opened the cabinet below, which was previously empty, and now there was a basin of flour there! "Wow! This is kinda sci-fi, huh?"

Does that mean that as long as grade-A ingredients or higher are placed in the top small cabinets, the cabinets below would automatically replicate the corresponding ingredients?

Isn't this function a little overpowered?

Chen Mo first thought about this: Am I doing a cost-free business?

Of course, since the system appeared in his mind, questioning its "reasonability" now would be unreasonable in itself.

He glanced at his phone; work started at 9, and it was now 8.

"I gotta see just what this so-called 'Flavor-Seeking Recipe', and grade-A flour is all about."

Chen Mo used a clean bowl to scoop a full bowl of flour from the basin below the cabinet.

This is the big bowl the Jingzhou people usually use for eating noodles. It can scoop about a pound of flour, and based on what he recently learned online, a pound of flour can make a pound and a half of noodles, just enough for a twenty-five-year-old young man from Jingzhou to eat.

Southerners, though, might not be able to eat that much.

He poured the flour into a basin. Kneading dough was always a shortcoming for Chen Mo; even his previous bun doughs were quite rough.

Chen Mo washed his hands clean.

Following the image in his mind, he slowly mixed the flour into what seemed like a smoother dough, then divided it into three small doughs and continued kneading.

Next was rolling out the dough.

The handmade noodle-making process was interesting; repeatedly rolling a small dough into a rectangular sheet and then wrapping it around the rolling pin to roll it out, releasing and wrapping the unrolled parts to continue rolling.

Repeating this, all three doughs were rolled into sheets about two millimeters thick. After folding them several times, Chen Mo turned them sideways, pressing slightly with one hand and cutting the noodles with the other.

[Each cut should go straight through, no hesitations.]

The system specifically reminded him, and Chen Mo understood because they were noodles, if he didn't cut through straight and dragged, the noodles would deform.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The knife made pleasant sounds on the chopping board, and soon all three sheets were cut into noodles five millimeters wide.

Of course...not every noodle could be that precise.

Chen Mo continued crafting according to the Flavor-Seeking Recipe.

"Isn't this seasoning a bit too simple?"

At least he thought he would need to simmer a stock, or at the very least prepare some lard, right?

But in result...

[Use pure water to boil, adding a green vegetable stalk after boiling for 8 minutes, and remove noodles after 9 minutes.]

[A little salt, a little soy sauce, two drops of sesame oil, a spoon each of green onion and cilantro.]

To put it simply, this bowl of noodles only had three seasonings.

Salt for saltiness, soy sauce for umami, and sesame oil for fragrance, while green onion and cilantro would impart a new flavor to the noodles.

But isn't this too...

Simple?

As he pondered, a pot of noodles was already cooked, looking different than usual, and Chen Mo examined it carefully.

He noticed these noodles had a slight yellow tint, and the soup in the bowl had a a faint yellow color, yet was exceptionally clear. After adding soy sauce, the soup had a slightly light brownish color.

"Let me see what's up!"

"Slurp~~"

He clamped the noodles fiercely with his chopsticks and sucked them directly into his mouth.

In an instant.

The wheat aroma spread, full of freshness. It was clearly just three simple seasonings, but each seemed to be added perfectly.

The fragrance of sesame oil floated along the tip of his tongue down his throat, with the salty, umami flavors merging with the wheat aroma of the noodles, entering his stomach with the rolling heat.

"Interesting!" Chen Mo immediately noticed how special these noodles were.

This bite was stunning, proving to be lethally appealing for noodle lovers, making him unconcerned about pondering what made it so good, just sucking up the noodles eagerly.

"Oh, yes!"

The previous night when he was making bun filling, he also shelled a few eggs, placing them in the stew pot.

Later, negotiating with Old Jiang made him forget about this.

He took out a frying pan from the cabinet, and the eggs soaked in the stew sauce overnight turned an enticing brown color, seemingly fully absorbed with the stew's flavor.

One egg scooped into the bowl, pushed to the side with chopsticks, and bitten in half.

The meat fragrance, five-spice aroma mixed with the egg scent, made the wheat aroma in his mouth more lively.

The key is...

After bringing to a high boil and entering the pot for just four minutes, it became the perfect soft-boiled egg!

With a bite, the egg yolk slowly oozed out, instantly blending into the noodle soup.

"Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp..."

Chen Mo swallowed the noodle soup in one go.

Feeling entirely refreshed!

"Well then, I'll start selling noodles and buns today!"

"Gotta add braised eggs, this is a perfect match!"

Finishing off a pound of handmade noodles in the early morning, Chen Mo didn't feel full. If it weren't late, he wouldn't mind another bowl.

They say the Jingzhou people sleep more not because they're lazy, but because they are carbo-loaded.

Whether this is true or not, by the time he was in a meeting at work that morning, Chen Mo started dozing off.

"Old Jiang, this year's company project requires on-site investigation, don't you think it's a bit rude that your marketing department isn't willing to take on such minimal work?"

The head of the marketing department, Jiang Fei, snorted lightly, "Our department has only six people. Other than Xiaochen and Xiao Mu, everyone has family responsibilities. How can you ask us to scout such late-night projects?"

Not waiting for the investment manager to say more, Old Jiang retorted, "Besides, Jingzhou is a city without nightlife. The company's idea for a 24-hour restaurant investment project is just a joke! Your investment department can't even make such a simple decision, so you throw the dirty and exhausting work to our marketing department."

"You wouldn't be suggesting Xiaochen take Xiao Mu out to set up a stall on the street every night for this, right? Do you think that's appropriate?"

After Jiang Fei finished, feeling his argument inadequate, he turned to look for support, "Chen Mo, do you think that's appropriate?"

Mu Mu, being just a small intern, didn't dare to speak in such a situation, so Jiang Fei turned directly to Chen Mo for help.

Chen Mo, dazed, opened his eyes.

Feeling like a student caught snoozing suddenly asked a question by the teacher.

Instinctively he said.

"Appropriate!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.


Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter