Chapter 418: Chapter 330: Isn’t Slacking Off Right in Front of Me a Bit Much?

Seeing the boss eating so heartily, the influence of this role model is immense.

All the employees working here know that their boss, John, is a lazy and food-loving guy. Whenever he’s missing, he’s usually slacking off, and for the rest of the time, you can see him holding snacks in his hand and munching.

Recently, the frequency of the boss disappearing has increased, and the time he spends away is getting longer too, sparking curiosity among the more inquisitive employees.

Finally, they found out that the boss receives a call before each disappearance and then drives off with a lot of unusual ingredients.

"The food from this truck is something the boss drives over half an hour to eat every day?!"

Such a thought popped into the minds of all the employees almost simultaneously, and suddenly everyone was intrigued.

The farm is rather remote, situated in the outskirts of the outskirts, where there’s not even a convenience store, let alone a fast-food place, within a few kilometers. The only food supply is the small stalls run by a few cooks employed by the farm.

These cooks are not professional chefs; they specialize in making street hot dogs. Every day at meal times, they fry hot dog sausages with onions and Mexican peppers. They almost never change the menu.

Even so, the farm’s employees mostly have no choice but to pinch their noses and buy hot dogs, as bringing their own lunch is just too bothersome.

Now seeing this food truck, with a legitimate hotel restaurant head chef inside, it’s impossible not to be tempted!

A few employees immediately walked toward the food truck, their eyes drawn to the menu written on the whiteboard beside it.

"Handmade Cuttlefish Roe Balls, Handmade Black Tiger Shrimp Sweet Corn Balls, Handmade Pork and Mushroom Balls?"

They were a bit familiar with pork balls, could imagine shrimp corn balls, but what on earth are cuttlefish roe balls?

"Please take a look over here."

In their confusion, a gentle woman’s voice came from beside them.

Dais, smiling, pointed at several metal bowls in front of her: "The white ones here are cuttlefish balls, made by grinding fresh cuttlefish and adding flying fish roe."

"The middle one is the Black Tiger Shrimp Sweet Corn Ball, also made by crushing fresh shrimp and adding sweet corn kernels. And these are the Pork and Mushroom Balls..."

The three bowls already contained a pile of balls, floating on the surface of the water, steaming, with the portable burner beneath them turned off for now.

*Pah!*

A loud slapping sound came from inside the truck, instantly capturing their attention.

Lin Chen checked the thickness of the cuttlefish paste and nodded with satisfaction, then poured in all the pre-prepared cuttlefish pieces and flying fish roe, mixing them evenly before grabbing a handful, squeezing it into a round, snow-white ball.

" ??? "

The young men were dumbfounded, their mouths agape, eyes filled with disbelief—they had clearly never seen anyone make meatballs like this before.

Lin Chen’s actions were quick, almost at the rate of one per second, until soon the pot was filled with bobbing and sinking cuttlefish balls.

He took a moment to glance at them and said with a smile, "It’s all handmade, right? Not lying, am I? Want to see what a cuttlefish looks like?"

With that, without caring whether they wanted to or not, he bent over, grabbed both an untreated black patterned cuttlefish and a processed snow-white cuttlefish from the box.

This one was deliberately left unprocessed, just for demonstration, while the rest had long been fully prepared.

"This is cuttlefish?"

"Looks a lot like squid, are they related?"

"The taste should be similar to squid, I imagine meatballs made from squid would taste pretty good."

"Hey!"

John frowned and shouted, "You guys, got a lot of time on your hands? Don’t you know it’s work time now?"

The few were startled, cold sweat instantly soaking their backs as they remembered it was work time, and their boss was watching them from behind, which was the scariest part!

Without daring to hesitate, they went ahead and ordered,

"Please give me three of each, thanks."

"I’d like two cuttlefish, four shrimp, and four pork ones."

"I have a big appetite; I can eat a whole 12-inch pizza in one sitting. How many do you think I should get?"

"If that’s your appetite, I personally suggest you buy about thirty; if that’s not enough, you can come back for more. We’ll be here setting up all afternoon until we sell out."

Dais and Elsa started packing the meatballs for them; the ones in the bowls were freshly made, and the soup soaking them was the broth from cooking the meatballs.

It could serve to keep them warm and also act as delicious broth to drink, similar to the mode of oden.

The meatballs cook quickly, and with the current customer flow being almost nonexistent, Lin Chen didn’t make much. He only made about twenty or thirty of each as samples to display.

The meat paste for the three different meatballs had been mostly prepared before coming here, so only the squeezing and cooking was left to do, which meant he wasn’t in a rush; he could make more as the customer flow increased.

The recent smashing step was actually intentional, mainly for its spectacle, and it also attracted the guests’ attention.

Additionally, his customer-attracting aura quietly spread out.

A few young employees cradled warm plastic lunch boxes as they walked to the condiment area, all simultaneously squeezing a small box of Sriracha to take away.

This Southeast Asian fermented spicy sauce is very suitable for pairing with meat products, commonly offered at hot dog stands, and they’re already used to eating it.

The hot, chubby meatballs were a clear contrast to the coarse meatballs offered in restaurants and fast-food places; these meatballs appeared much finer and incredibly smooth, resembling the texture of a fine pudding.

Even the pork meatballs, which had a more noticeable graininess, looked very tender, unlike the hard texture they were accustomed to with meatballs.

The three of them each holding their boxes and dip moved to the nearest empty chair, ready to sit down.

"Cough cough."

Suddenly, John’s coughing sounded from behind.

The smiles on their faces froze, and they quickly pulled back their butts from the chair, hurriedly taking their food towards the wooden cabin nearby.

The whole wooden cabin was the farm’s entrance, including the ticket office, agricultural product sales area, and the employee lounge, changing room, and toilet; the space was relatively large.

When there were no guests, almost all employees would gather here waiting for work, only leaving with tourists when guests required a guide.

Once the three hurried from outside and felt the scorching gaze behind them fade away, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"That John, he slacks off daily and doesn’t even let us sit and eat breakfast, too much!"

"No choice, he is the boss, after all. We as workers should keep it simple; standing to eat is fine."

Their appearance of holding steaming food instantly attracted the attention of other hungry employees.

Everyone had just come to work and almost nobody had eaten breakfast. Seeing someone suddenly having hot food, quickly prompted more than a dozen people to stand up in the hall.

"What the hell, since when does our farm sell breakfast?"

"It can’t possibly be made by those lazy guys; they only know how to make hot dog sausages and fried onions!"

"Hey! What delicious food are you three eating? It smells good, with a meaty aroma."

"Are you a pig, Blake? How is your box so large, it’s almost overflowing!"

Facing the colleagues that swarmed around, the trio guarded their food with a wary stance as if afraid it might be snatched, especially the muscular Blake.

They decided not to leave, simply standing around, placing their dips on the entryway machine, picking a meatball with bamboo skewer, and directly stuffing it into their mouths.

"Hmm?!"

Seeing the three of them freeze simultaneously, other employees started discussing.

"Hey! What do you guys mean, who wants to steal your food, is looking not allowed?"

"Buying from the back, right? It looks good."

"What kind of meatball is this? I’ve never seen it before."

"A white one, could it be chicken meatballs?"

"The pinkish one must be shrimp meatballs, looks delicious. Can’t help it, looking at this makes me hungry, I need to buy some to try too."

"Isn’t it good, say something, are you mute?"

The three had no interest in responding, as they tried a taste, they practically buried their heads into their boxes, their skewers constantly raising, dropping, raising, and dropping.

The chewy, firm squid meatball tasted plain, purely enjoyed for its texture; its added flying fish roe enhanced the flavor with some salty freshness, dipping in the spicy sauce made it very satisfying.

Shrimp and corn meatballs had a distinct difference in elasticity compared to the squid ball, not springy with toughness, but a pure bounce from the shrimp itself.

One bite distinctly appreciated the rich shrimp aroma, large pieces of shrimp plainly visible, crisp, juicy sweet corn exploded with juice, almost no fiber, like balls fully loaded with corn liquid.

The ultimate surprise was the unassuming pork meatball.

Its appearance wasn’t as unique as the other two, lacking the tempting roasted hue of a regular tomato meatball, like boiled purely in water.

Expectedly mild, but the moment it hit the mouth, a super rich pork aroma immediately burst forth, the tender minced meat quickly turned into mush with a gentle tongue press, combined with mushroom granules, instantly addictive, even without dipping in spicy sauce, it was flavorful.

The three ate while continually nodding, their eyes filled with wonder, clearly captivated by the taste of these hand-crafted meatballs.

Blake was alright, bought plenty, but the other two finished after just a few bites, leaving only half a bowl of meatball soup.

Without hesitation, they turned and walked away, drinking the hot soup at the bowl’s bottom as they went.

"Ah~!"