"Cough, cough..."

Li Wei fanned the smoke in front of him with his hand and casually wiped the sweat from his face. His once fair face now looked no different from a piece of black charcoal.

Looking at the seemingly endless line of customers, he was overwhelmed with despair.

No end to the grilling, just no end!

The straightforward business tactics were useless now. Whether it was Feng Haoyu or Old Man Zhao, the number of people at their stall wasn't much different from his.

"Boss, your smile looks so bitter. Don't you like to smile properly?"

Upon hearing this voice, Li Wei trembled, trying to muster a smile, which made all the queuing diners burst into laughter.

Kong Weide strolled over at this moment. The moment Li Wei saw him, he shivered all over, and his forced smile turned even more strained.

Holding back his laughter, Kong Weide said, "Hmm, you must manage your expressions well, don't get more complaints from tourists."

"Yes..."

Seeing Li Wei's miserable state, Kong Weide couldn't bear to tease him any longer and patted his shoulder. "Hang in there, I estimate there won't be so many visitors in a few days."

Li Wei almost cried, "Bro, stop lying to me. It's already like this now, how will I survive May 1st? Can I take a sick leave?"

Kong Weide laughed heartily, "I'm not lying to you, we owe this to your master."

Upon hearing the word "master," Li Wei's eyes lit up. He could never match his master's knack for stirring things up and attracting tourists. After all, "at the end of the barbecue trail, the master reigns supreme." If his master were to come to the Lu Dong region, his pressure would surely lessen substantially.

"Is Master coming to the Lu Dong region?"

Kong Weide shook his head, "No, didn't he just stroll our place for a month before leaving? After leaving, he went to Yunnan, focusing on our Lu Dong's specialty chicken dishes, which not only attracted some tourists to Yunnan but also diverted some tourists from Zibo to other brother cities to eat fried chicken. The number of visitors to Zibo today has noticeably decreased."

"As expected, Master is the best!"

"Mind your expressions!"

Kong Weide gave a final reminder before continuing his research elsewhere.

Li Wei felt re-energized all over. After all, he had glimpsed hope. He reckoned he could hold on a bit longer.

With renewed fighting spirit, he glanced at the queue, eyes reigniting with hope.

"These few people want to wear me out? Let the storm rage on, I'm sure I can counterattack!"

...

Wang Fan didn't know he had indirectly saved his apprentice's life. Right now, he was busy marinating chicken with Zhuo Qianqian.

They prepared a big pot of Sichuan pepper according to the ratio of 50 grams per chicken, and 5 grams of cumin per chicken, which they put into the pot to dry on low heat, then crushed them finely after drying.

Next, Wang Fan poured rice wine into the chopped green onion and ginger shreds, mixing them evenly. After rubbing a layer of fine salt on the carved-up chickens, he sprinkled the freshly ground Sichuan pepper and cumin powder on them.

As he sprinkled the powder, he rubbed it evenly on the chicken so that every bit of meat was coated with the pepper powder.

Afterward, he evenly spread the soaked onion and ginger on the chickens and placed the tray into the fridge.

Zhuo Qianqian could do these tasks as well. The two of them quickly finished marinating 100 chickens together.

After finishing this work, he began to prepare the Zaozhuang spicy chicken for lunch.

In the Lu Dong region, if you say which area excels in what, there will likely be some opposition.

For instance, if Linyi claims its fried chicken is the best, none of the others offering fried chicken would agree.

However, if Zaozhuang claims it's the spiciest in all of Lu Dong, with its Zaozhuang spicy chicken being the hottest among all chicken dishes, there would certainly be no objections.

In that small area of Zaozhuang, you can hardly find any dish lacking chili pepper.

Although both are called spicy chicken, the Sichuan and Chongqing regions' spicy chicken and Zaozhuang spicy chicken are entirely different.

Sichuan and Chongqing spicy chicken are heavy on oil and seasoning, while Zaozhuang spicy chicken leans towards fresh, salty, and saucy spiciness.

The Sichuan and Chongqing version uses dried chili peppers, but Zaozhuang's version requires a lot of fresh green peppers, with bird's eye chili and wrinkled green peppers being essential.

The last time he made Linyi fried chicken, its spiciness was despised by many locals in Yunnan, so today he's going to up the ante with Zaozhuang spicy chicken.

Coincidentally, Zaozhuang spicy chicken has a slightly sour-spicy taste, quite similar to the local flavor in Yunnan. But who knows how many Yunnan pals can handle the high-end Zaozhuang spicy chicken?

Wang Fan asked Zhuo Qianqian to change the menu and specially noted "extra spicy," pricing it the same as Linyi fried chicken, 300 bucks a serving.

Generally, this dish in Zaozhuang costs between 100 to 120. Some street stalls, because of low operating costs, might offer a rooster over two catties for just 60 bucks, but Wang Fan, aiming to ensure authenticity, chose chickens and chili peppers of Lu Dong origin from the System Mall, and the shipping costs skyrocketed geometrically.

Something that pleasantly surprised Wang Fan was that Zhuo Qianqian could make pancakes.

"Our staple food in Xinjiang is also flour-based foods, I've learned to make naan since childhood."

Zhuo Qianqian said matter-of-factly.

Though naan and Lu Dong pancakes have some differences in preparation, knowledge is interrelated, and after doing some research, she quickly grasped the knack of making Zaozhuang pancakes.

Now that the Zaozhuang spicy chicken and Zaozhuang pancakes were perfectly paired, they just awaited the Yunnan folks to evaluate them.

Wang Fan, having built a reputation over two days, found that even before meal times, people came with friends, hearing of his fame.

The last time Chen Shuo didn't experience the deep numbing chili sensation, which left him quite disgruntled.

He even had which hospital to go to in mind, but nothing happened at all.

Despite the slight disappointment, the taste of that Linyi fried chicken lingered delightfully for him.

Coincidentally, a Yunnan friend joined him, and he immediately dragged him to Man Ting Park.

Xu Yan was quite puzzled, "Shouldn't I be the one hosting since we're in Yunnan? How come I'm being led by you on what to eat in Yunnan?"

Chen Shuo laughed heartily, "I've eaten at this place once, and it's truly fantastic. Besides, the spiciness is great, and the chicken is superb. I bet you've never had anything like it."

Xu Yan said exasperatedly, "Jianshui Steam Pot Chicken, Citongguan Spicy Chicken, Eshan Mashed Chicken, Tonghai Soy Sauce Pepper Chicken from Yuxi, Bamboo Mushroom Yam Chicken, Lijiang Fire Pit Chicken, and many more. We have tons of delicious chicken dishes in Yunnan, why should we try Linyi fried chicken? Can it compare to our Yunnan chicken?"

Chen Shuo pushed Xu Yan toward Wang Fan's restaurant, "You've had Yunnan specialties for over twenty years, a change of taste is nice too. Since you're here, you might as well try it. I wonder what the chef will prepare today."

Xu Yan reluctantly shrugged, "Alright, alright, you're the guest, so you have the final say."

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.