Chapter 523: Chapter 418: Roaming Street Vending, Getting Into Character!

After polishing off that big bowl of gou-dao noodles, all three of them, including Chen Mo, clearly still wanted more.

The noodles were incredibly chewy, and the rich wheat aroma in them was something Granny Chen and Chen Kexin had never experienced before.

Their oil noodles here, after going through the steps of adding edible alkali, boiling, and then tossing with oil, had already lost most of their wheat fragrance; what they called "eating noodles" was more of a façade—honestly, it didn’t have that much to do with the noodles themselves anymore.

Add in the diced pork knuckle that Chen Mo made—this stuff was something you could never get enough of, especially after he used Japanese dashi to bring a new seafood flavor into the pork knuckle; the taste really had a special charm.

But it was getting late.

Granny had a lot of ingredients to prepare and needed to get busy, and Chen Kexin had to head to work.

As for Chen Mo—

The time he’d agreed on with Pancake Uncle and Milk Tea Bro was almost here; even though for making milk tea pancakes he only needed to handle the cooking and didn’t have much prep work.

Still, since he wanted to do a second type of fusion food, it was definitely necessary to get some prep done in advance.

"Not bad, not bad. If you took these noodles to a night market stall, you’d definitely be the sharpest kid on the block tonight!" Granny praised him generously. "And you’re cutting the noodles on the spot, with so much to look at—there’ll definitely be crowds gathering to watch."

Leaving aside the taste, just talking about when Chen Mo was standing on the food truck shaving those noodles, his movements were so elegant they completely refreshed Granny’s understanding.

At the time she’d been thinking: So cooking can actually be such an elegant thing?

Chen Mo already looked bright and sunny, and on top of that he was wearing a very well-fitted black suit. His left arm was braced straight, his right hand moving up and down, as if he were playing some kind of instrument—he didn’t look like someone selling noodles from a street stall at all.

Accepting Granny’s praise without being shy, Chen Mo said, "All right, wish you booming business! I’ll head out first—time to go back, get things ready, and then roll the stall out."

"Mm, if you’re not busy tomorrow, come by again. If you like Danzai noodles, I can make them for you."

Chen Mo nodded and was about to leave.

"Hey..." Chen Kexin called him back. "Don’t forget, if you’re being chased, we usually don’t go all out chasing when we see that, okay?"

"Got it!"

Yesterday, Chen Mo had still been wondering what exactly that line meant, and today Chen Kexin reminded him again.

On the way back he kept mulling over whether this was some kind of hint from her.

Like, maybe when they went out on patrol, they were just putting on a show and didn’t really have to catch these wandering vendors and fine them.

After all, it was their job too.

The more he thought about it, the more Chen Mo felt this was quite possible. After all, if they really wanted to catch someone, yesterday Chen Kexin and her colleague could have easily had one drive and the other run; no matter what, they’d have caught Pancake Uncle.

"If it doesn’t work otherwise, I’ll try walking the stall tonight."

Chen Mo parked this thought in his mind for the time being, and once he got back to the parking lot, he immediately started preparing the ingredients he needed for today.

He had fifty jin of A-level flour he could use each day; aside from the three bowls of noodles he’d cooked that morning, there were still over forty jin left. He used all of it at once, kneading it into a smooth dough with the archived clear soup, then portioned it and put it into the cabinet to refrigerate.

Gotta say, all the features that appeared after the food truck’s later upgrades were incredibly practical—especially the archive function.

For ingredients he used often, it completely saved him from the hassle of making them over and over. Chen Mo even went ahead and archived the dough.

That way, if he kept running the stall tomorrow, he could just take it out and use it directly.

Next, he started braising the pork knuckle. He had a batch of knuckles plus katsuobushi and kombu express-delivered from a local supermarket; while braising the knuckles, he made a big basin of Japanese dashi.

Fortunately, making dashi wasn’t difficult at all—it was actually very simple.

"It’s a pity this stuff still isn’t as handy as Chinese stock in real cooking."

Although it wasn’t something you could just drink straight, Chen Mo had the Gourmet Instinct skill, so he still took a small sip.

And immediately came to a conclusion.

Japanese dashi might be excellent when you’re making Japanese food, but when you put it into Chinese cooking, it falls a bit short. Danzai noodles themselves carried traces of Japanese cuisine, and as for the gou-dao noodles Chen Mo was now planning to sell, they were basically a combination of traditional gou-dao noodles and Chen’s Danzai Noodles, with a touch of Lu Cuisine mixed in.

"Seems like only this fusion noodle really calls for it. Ah well, let’s test how it works today!"

He didn’t head out until all the pork knuckle was braised, diced, stir-fried again, and finally kept warm by soaking it in the dashi. Then Chen Mo lazily drove the truck toward the spot they’d agreed on yesterday.

By the time he reached that block, it was already past three in the afternoon.

Pancake Uncle and Milk Tea Bro had been waiting for quite a while. When they saw a massive yellow food truck driving into the street, there was clear surprise in their eyes.

"Could that be Xiaochen?"

"Probably not, right?" Milk Tea Bro sounded unsure. "If that’s Chen Mo, with a ride this nice, why would he still come out and run a stall?"

"Makes sense."

Pancake Uncle agreed with this logic.

After all, in their minds, once you had money, life would become colorful in all sorts of ways—there were thousands of ways to enjoy life, but none of them would involve going out to run a street stall.

When the ten-meter-long food truck finally managed to park by the side of the road, Chen Mo hopped down from the driver’s cab. "Sorry to keep you waiting!"