Chapter 155: Chapter 155 The taste of this restaurant is unexpectedly delicious!
Jiang Feng’s Bobo Chicken business was doing well.
In such a food street, as long as it wasn’t particularly bad, business was usually good.
Stall owners all knew one principle: location first, taste second.
Location was the most important, followed by taste.
The greasy spoon next door was run by a pork brain shopowner.
Jiang Feng didn’t use to eat pork brains, finding them somewhat creepy to look at.
However, after trying them once, he realized they weren’t as creepy as he thought.
The pork brain shopowner was very friendly and often chatted with Jiang Feng.
That day was the fourth day Jiang Feng had been running his stall.
Once again, a few backpacking tourists came over, ordered some Bobo Chicken, and then, all smiles, asked for a photo with Jiang Feng.
Seeing this, the pork brain shopowner laughed and chatted with Jiang Feng, "You’re quite popular; even tourists want to take photos with you. Do you have fans online?"
As the shop owner finished speaking, a few young tourists chuckled and replied, "Boss, Executive Chef Jiang is a well-known attraction in our city! He has lots of fans. If you go to our area, you’ll know. For any restaurant where Executive Chef Jiang is the head chef, you’d need to queue from noon to night for a table."
"Right! I wanted to have Shandong Cuisine at Jiangyue Terrace the other night and had to start queuing for a spot at noon. It was that intense."
"He’s a famous chef in our city!"
The young people took turns praising him, their words as sweet as honey.
Hearing them speak so highly of him, Jiang Feng’s lips curled slightly upwards, and he waved his hand modestly. "You’re exaggerating. The business is just doing well because it’s newly opened. Please don’t say that."
The pork brain shopowner, hearing their words, was quite surprised. He hadn’t expected Jiang Feng to have such a background. "That impressive?"
The young tourists said excitedly, "Of course! We came here on our trip specifically to take photos with him."
Everyone was chatting enthusiastically.
The pork brain shopowner also noticed that Jiang Feng’s Bobo Chicken had many returning customers.
This showed that the taste was indeed good.
As they chatted, other customers were also enjoying Bobo Chicken.
A young girl asked them, "Does the boss have a personal account? What’s it called? Can I find him?"
One of the young tourists replied, "Executive Chef Jiang doesn’t have a personal account, but you can look up his videos. Just search for ’Executive Chef Jiang queuing videos,’ and you’ll find him."
Hearing this, a few girls began searching on a short-video app.
And indeed, they found something.
#ResortFoodStreetQueue#
#ViralSteamedBunStallInTheMountains#
#JiangyueTerraceOpeningExecutiveChefJiangFirstWeek#
All of these videos were online and quite popular.
"Oh my god, it’s really him!"
"He likes to set up stalls everywhere, making different kinds of food."
"Learned cooking from a young age, comes from a family of chefs, and has a strong culinary foundation!"
"He even owns a Shandong Cuisine Restaurant, a proper, upscale one that’s become a local landmark!"
"So, not only is the boss handsome, but he’s also wealthy?" a few girls murmured among themselves.
Jiang Feng looked a bit helpless.
Just enjoy the skewers, why are you digging into my background! I wanted to get along with you all as an ordinary person. No more pretending, I’m laying all my cards on the table! I am indeed the owner of a large restaurant!
Then, a girl approached Jiang Feng and asked, "Boss, what made you decide to come to Chengdu?"
Hearing this, Jiang Feng sat leisurely at the table and replied, "Chengdu is the culinary capital of the world, with a rich food culture and a wide variety of dishes. I came here to experience it."
If any other small stall owner had said that, it would have sounded pretentious.
But these people knew Jiang Feng was a restaurant owner, and hearing him say so calmly, he struck them as someone profound and impressive.
Hearing his words, the girl spoke with admiration, "Boss, your cooking skills are incredible! Your Bobo Chicken is truly delicious!"
Jiang Feng responded with a smile, "Glad you like it."
The group of young tourists left after taking their photos.
There weren’t many people from his hometown visiting Chengdu, so his days were fairly relaxed.
Plus, being surrounded by tasty greasy spoons and with Bobo Chicken being quick to prepare, Jiang Feng’s stall was popular but didn’t have overwhelming queues.
This feeling was quite pleasant.
All he needed to do every day was prepare one batch of spicy red oil soup base; the rest of the skewers were bought from the market.
He wasn’t busy at all.
During some downtime, Jiang Feng called Happy Ranch.
Zhang Xinya told him that Little Black had been moping lately, always sitting at the ranch entrance, gazing into the distance, and clearly missing him.
After a video call with Jiang Feng, Little Black became lively again.
"I’ll bring him over at the end of this week," Jiang Feng told Zhang Xinya. "This little guy needs to be with me."
"I’ll be visiting a classmate in Chengdu in a couple of days. I could bring Little Black along," Zhang Xinya immediately said with a laugh.
"Ah? That’s too much trouble. Shipping pets is a hassle, and they aren’t allowed on high-speed trains anyway."
Jiang Feng didn’t like to trouble others and still intended to handle it himself.
"No worries, it’s on my way. Besides, I can take Little Black out for some fun. Rest assured."
Zhang Xinya readily agreed.
Jiang Feng had a good relationship with Happy Ranch, so that was settled.
「...」
In his spare time, Jiang Feng would also visit the famous greasy spoons in Chengdu to eat.
It had to be said, there really was a lot of delicious food there.
There was Mao Cai in a spicy red oil broth, or pig’s trotters dipped in chili oil.
They all delivered a fiery, hot sensation.
Snacks alone were flourishing everywhere, and the famous Sichuan cuisine restaurants were too numerous to count.
Making a name for oneself here was quite difficult.
Jiang Feng’s cooking skills needed no introduction. With the system’s help, the snacks and Sichuan dishes he made were definitely top-tier.
But as for making a name for himself, he had to take it step by step.
In the afternoon, three young men appeared on the road, hurrying over.
One of them, named Hu Kui, said, "You guys have to believe me, this Bobo Chicken is definitely tastier than Xian Zhi Wei’s. I ate here yesterday, and it was so satisfying!"
Xian Zhi Wei Bobo Chicken was a locally famous Bobo Chicken shop. Its business was booming, ranking it among the city’s top greasy spoons.
Upon hearing Hu Kui’s words, the other two were skeptical.
"Tastier than Xian Zhi Wei’s? If that were true, it would have been popular a long time ago!"
"Bobo Chicken tastes pretty much the same everywhere. Xian Zhi Wei’s broth is well-simmered, and they use expensive ingredients, so the texture is better. Ordinary shops can’t compare."
The three chatted as they made a beeline for Jiang Feng’s stall.
At this time, Jiang Feng’s stall was surrounded by quite a few people.
All were waiting for their Bobo Chicken to be ready.
There was no helping it; the Bobo Chicken he’d prepared in advance had sold out, so Jiang Feng had to blanch more on the spot.
It was a simple process. The cabinet was stocked with various skewers. Customers just picked what they wanted, and he blanched them in boiling water for a few minutes.
Hu Kui and his two friends came to the cabinet, selected about thirty Bobo Chicken skewers, then went to the counter, paid, and waited.
Soon, their Bobo Chicken was ready.
All the skewers were coated in the red oil broth, gleaming red and glistening enticingly.
For these spice-loving locals, such tantalizing food was impossible to resist.
You were the ones who seduced me first, you tempting skewers.
Hu Kui picked up a skewer of gluten and slid the gluten off it.
The delicious, spicy flavor instantly exploded on his taste buds.
The fragrant chili oil flowed over his tongue, and his mouth watered instantly.
The springy gluten, with just a light chew, felt so tender it seemed to melt against his teeth.
Gluten was an ingredient that absorbed flavors well, soaking up more of the broth.
When chewed, it pressed out even more of the spicy broth.
It was pure bliss. This is the feeling! Hu Kui’s face beamed with pleasure.
The other two also began to devour their skewers.
The delicious taste of the skewers also changed their expressions.
"These skewers are really tasty!"
The sesame seeds were an especially brilliant touch, balancing the oiliness of the chili and making the skewers even more delicious.
For dishes like hot pot, Mao Cai, skewers, shabu-shabu, and Bobo Chicken, success hinges on both the quality of the ingredients and the seasoning of the soup base.
When ingredients are comparable, the base becomes critically important.
Jiang Feng’s secret red oil broth was truly exceptional.
This exquisite taste elicited repeated exclamations of admiration from the other two.
"Really good!"
"Indeed delicious!"
"This place is great, and business is good too!"
"It actually tastes a bit better than Xian Zhi Wei’s!"
Hearing them say this, Hu Kui was very pleased. "I told you, this place is very tasty. Look at the business; it’s even busier than yesterday. A lot of people come here to eat!"
The two looked around.
Just as Hu Kui said, the greasy spoon was doing very well.
There were always people at the counter; it was almost never empty.
This was a food street, and the reason it became one was the presence of residential buildings and factories nearby.
People in the area needed to eat and loved coming to this street for food.
Some tourists also knew that to taste local specialties, they needed to come to streets like this, so they would come as well.
Gradually, Jiang Feng’s Bobo Chicken built up a reputation.
The two friends who came with Hu Kui agreed, "This place is pretty good."
"It really is a new restaurant. Like I said, if it tasted this good, it should have become popular long ago."
"It’s not far from where we work; we can come eat together whenever we feel like it."
"Right, I’ll bring my partner next time. She loves Bobo Chicken. She’ll be thrilled if I bring her here."
The three quickly finished their Bobo Chicken, but still felt unsatisfied and wanted to buy a few more skewers.
This newly opened greasy spoon was truly a hidden gem.
In the evening, after Jiang Feng finished his shift, he received a call from the original owner of the greasy spoon. The owner said he had family matters to attend to back home and also had a lucrative major job to handle, so he probably wouldn’t return for a month.
Jiang Feng felt this might have been arranged by the system. Very likely, he would still be setting up his stall at this greasy spoon next week. But he might not be selling Bobo Chicken then. That was fine too; he could build up his reputation. At the very least, he could accumulate many regular customers.