Chapter 428: 340: Need Waiters? Applying, Two of Us!

The tourists who tasted the unique flavor of the handmade meatballs expressed great curiosity and enthusiasm for these lovely little things.

They haven’t even started to play with the farm’s activities, yet they’re already thinking about packing some meatballs to take back to the hotel to eat.

Some who are leaving this afternoon are even considering whether they can buy more to take home and share these savory treats with their families.

The most important thing is the price is still cheap; no matter the flavor, it’s only one euro.

Compared with the tomato meatballs sold outside for casually ten euros, the cost-effectiveness is simply unbeatable.

Although there’s no tomato sauce to mix with pasta, the meatballs are large, pure meat, and eating a few more definitely beats canned tomato juice in terms of nutrition and satiety, right?

"Hello, I want to ask how long can these meatballs be stored at room temperature if packed to go?"

"I want to buy more to take home; can they be frozen? Will the taste change?"

So quickly, they already want them packed?

Lin Chen didn’t expect this turn of events; he originally thought there might be guests wanting to pack after finishing their playtime, but didn’t expect anything before they even started playing.

Does this mean that these meatballs really suit their taste?

"At room temperature, it’s not recommended to store them for more than four hours. The weather is hot now, and if left too long, the taste will turn sour and eating them may cause diarrhea."

"If you need them packed, I personally suggest storing them in refrigeration. You might want to see if the farm’s cold storage can be temporarily used, but you’ll need to chat with the farm staff for details."

"Simply refrigerated, storing for 3-4 days should be fine. When eating, heat them in water, bake them in the oven, or pan-fry them, it’s all okay, but the texture will become crispy."

"If frozen, seal them, and they can definitely be stored for a year. But the longer they’re frozen, the worse the taste gets. I personally think the best texture is within three months."

He certainly doesn’t know how long these meatballs could be frozen for, what he said is purely based on experience accumulated in daily life, can be casually applied to any meat.

While explaining to the tourists, Lin Chen glanced at some staff waiting nearby, nodded, indicating for them to come over.

These employees are responsible for leading the tourists, similar to farm guides. Each person is responsible for a convoy of eight to ten people; after a brief explanation, the tourists are allowed to explore freely.

Receiving Lin Chen’s signal, several of them immediately stepped forward.

"Use the cold storage?"

"Of course, no problem, use it as you please."

"Great, then please give me thirty of each kind of meatballs!"

"Me too!"

Almost instantly, the food truck received more than two hundred meatball orders, catching two people off guard, hurriedly putting gloves back on to start making meatballs.

"May I ask your names? Dais, could you jot them down, write them on the bags."

"Got it, Chef."

"You all must be heading into the farm to play, right? Please pay first, once the meatballs are ready we’ll have someone directly send them to the cold storage. Don’t wait here the whole time."

"Great, this method works well."

"Then we owe it to the Head Chef."

"How much is it, each is one euro, right, plus an additional five euro packing fee? Fine, paid."

Anyone willing to buy nearly a hundred euros worth of food wasn’t bothered by the five-euro packing fee. The boxes needed are indeed many; charging is quite reasonable.

Raphael, just having left not far, also saw this scene, nodded secretly, gaining a deeper recognition of the popularity of handmade meatballs.

"This trip wasn’t in vain, picked up a lot of inspiration, and all have been market-verified, no need for me to repeat experiments, great!"

Next to him, John personally served as his guide, leading the way.

"Which areas does Mr. Raphael want to visit first? The vegetable and fruit areas are relatively close, the greenhouse and the breeding areas are slightly farther apart, in different directions."

"Let’s start close by, I won’t look at ordinary ingredients, are there any characteristic ingredients?"

"Of course, our hotel owner is a Great Xia person, as you are aware. So our farm grows many fruits and vegetables favored by Great Xia people, not commonly seen in the Western market."

"That’s wonderful, let’s go quickly, I’m already eager to see them!"

Raphael’s eyes sparkled with excitement; this is far more interesting than visiting a supermarket.

In a supermarket, you mostly only see what they want to show you, but at a farm you can see the entire appearance of the plants.

In the week before sending Lin Chen to work here, he had a simple discussion with Lin Chen.

Especially when visiting a Great Xia Supermarket, he heard Lin Chen say that Great Xia people not only eat the fruits and roots of plants, but also leaves, stems, flowers, all can be edible.

The problem is those parts can’t be seen in a supermarket, wholesalers don’t sell these ingredients either, so there’s no place to find them, except to personally run to the farm.

This time coming to find Lin Chen, visiting the farm was one of his main purposes, just unexpected there are so many uncommon Great Xia ingredients planted here, truly a pleasant surprise.

"Lin, how much stock did you prepare in total, are there only those in the fridge?"

A few minutes later, having quickly completed the ordered meatballs, Nagishiro Sho shook a somewhat sore tiger’s mouth, and once again took some stock from the fridge to replenish it.

"Yes, prepared about more than a thousand in total, thought it’d be enough to sell until noon, now it seems obviously not enough."

Lin Chen felt a bit troubled by this situation and was considering whether to increase inventory to extend the stall time.

If it’s stocking on-site, squid and black tiger shrimp would definitely be out of the question because the tools and space in the car are limited; he could only consider pork balls.

But only one flavor seems a bit perfunctory, so maybe he should add more flavors of pork balls.

He wasn’t worried about increasing the inventory, as making balls was no longer a challenge for him.

The problem was he wasn’t sure if these additional flavors would affect the ball-making challenge’s determination.

To be safe, selling out and packing up was actually the best option.

Even though he seemed very trusting of Xiao Zhao and Old Chen, he was actually still worried inside.

The two of them had only been here for a little over a day and were completely unfamiliar with the foreign customers’ habits and tastes, making it easy to screw things up.

Plus, he had brought both Dais and Elsa out, leaving only Helena and Lucinda in the restaurant’s hall, so there was no one in his team to substitute as a waiter, effectively increasing the workload for others.

"This won’t do. It seems like I need to hire at least two more waiters."

As he was frowning and pondering, a few figures suddenly appeared in front of the car window.

Instinctively, he looked up.

"Why are you guys back?"

Nicole blinked and pointed at Su next to her: "She said she has a question for you."

Su didn’t stand on ceremony and took a step forward, asking directly: "Are you still hiring? I want to apply as a server!"

"What???"

"What?"

"Huh?"

At this point, not only was Lin Chen stunned, but Dais and Elsa, who were busy packaging at the table, also froze on the spot, wondering if they had misheard or something.

"You want to apply as a server?"

Dais put down the box in her hand and walked over, while Elsa continued with the packaging work.

"Yes."

Su nodded: "If I’m not mistaken, there are only two waiters in your team, right? Since you all are here, it means the restaurant is short-staffed, and the two new guys can’t communicate fluently with the customers."

"A person who can’t communicate can’t be a waiter; they can only help carry plates. I happen to live near the restaurant and don’t have a job at the moment, so I thought I’d ask if you’re hiring. If you are, I can start right away."

Lin Chen looked at her surprised and didn’t expect that this lady’s thinking was in line with his.

What a clever mind!

Most importantly, Lin Chen had a bit of an impression of Su; she was definitely a regular who came almost every day recently.

That means a high acceptance of Chinese food!

"To be honest, I am considering hiring servers, but Dais is the one responsible for managing the front hall in our team. If you’re interested, just talk to her."

"Me??"

Dais pointed at herself, a touch of confusion flashing through her eyes, apparently not understanding when she suddenly gained a title.

"Yes," Lin Chen winked at her, "you’ve been working for a long time and are experienced. Elsa is still an intern, and you’re her mentor. If we’re hiring, it should still be handed over to you, right?"

"Uh... seems about right."

Dais scratched her head and motioned Su to come along: "This way, ma’am, let’s talk over there."

Nicole and her friend were dumbfounded.

Why did she suddenly say she wanted to apply as a waiter?

Before the two could react, Su pulled Nicole by the arm and whispered in her ear.

"Weren’t you interested in Chef Lin? And you just happen to be out of work now. Instead of lining up every day to buy food and facing a constantly changing stall location, wouldn’t it be better to become one of his employees?"

"That way, you can not only see him every day, but also spend more time with him, and you get to eat his food for free."

With every sentence, Nicole’s eyes sparkled a bit more.

"Yeah! What a great idea, how did I not think of it!"

"I thought of it for you, so how about it, interested in becoming my colleague?"

"I am, but..."

Nicole glanced back at her friend, who quickly gave her encouraging winks and raised a small fist to cheer her on.

"Don’t worry about me, Nicole. I have my man, and if you become a server, you can even slip me some special dishes I can’t get at the stall."

"Go, my friend, good luck!"

"And even if it doesn’t work out, you’ll learn some skills and gain experience, won’t you?"