Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 360 - 334: Jingya Pavilion’s Intangible Heritage Fried Rice
"Boss Chen, isn’t the neighbor just too arrogant?"
Chen Mo glanced at Zhang Huixiang, didn’t respond, and instead asked, "Half portion?"
"Let me calculate for you, including me, my colleague, and..."
Zhang Huixiang counted, "Altogether there are six servings, twelve people, and everyone ordered half portions."
Xue Ping, who was waiting by the car, promptly took out a small notebook to start recording, "Boss, it’s six servings now. I’ll keep an eye on them when they settle the bill later."
"Not necessary." Chen Mo fetched some rice, ready to start making fried rice.
Still a bit puzzled, he thought to himself, if it’s only half portions that don’t charge, and you don’t need to foot the bill for the neighbor’s half portion, why would it make him lose his shorts? 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
He didn’t understand, but he respected everyone’s opinion.
Chen Mo started making the fried rice based on his memory, and now he could make three servings at a time.
Initially, it was just frying eggs, sausage, and ham, which didn’t seem like much. Some even said in the live room that they cook the same way at home and found it completely lacking in novelty.
But when Chen Mo added the dried rice into the pot, slowly stirring it with the golden egg blanket to blend them together, the fried rice began to look like something special.
Meanwhile, next door.
Huang Bo, unhurried, also started cooking. Besides the chef’s uniform, he wore a transparent mask.
Huang Bo expertly heated the oil in the pot, then faced the camera in Gao Hao’s live stream, "Yangzhou Fried Rice, as an intangible cultural heritage item, will be fully demonstrated to everyone today. Many people think it’s just egg fried rice with some extra ingredients, and they dare to sell it with random additions. I can only say this idea is wrong."
"Green onion should be added three times. The first time is to remove odors and enhance aroma."
He added the green onion into the hot oil, then diced bamboo shoots, mushrooms, Jinhua ham, and small river shrimps.
He piled in half a pot of ingredients, their colors varied, which didn’t look particularly appealing, rather more like...
"Why does it look a bit like pig food?"
"Shush!"
Gao Hao speechlessly turned his head to see who spoke, only to find it was the same old brother from yesterday who refused to eat the lion’s head even when offered for free!
Yu Hongtao, leading Yuan Xiaolin, had been watching for quite a while.
"What’s the hushing about? I’m just speaking the truth."
Huang Bo’s lips twitched, pretending not to hear, "So everyone, don’t use egg fried rice thinking to view Yangzhou Fried Rice. Once the aroma comes out, add the chicken broth."
"As the saying goes, ’A singer’s tune, a chef’s soup,’ now it’s about using chicken broth as the base to fuse the flavors of different ingredients. This is the true essence of Huaiyang Cuisine."
Huang Bo got more enthusiastic as he spoke, pouring the chicken broth into the pot and vigorously mixing the ingredients to make them blend thoroughly, making it look even more like a pot of pig food.
Yu Hongtao pursed his lips, shaking his head, and came to Huang’s car, "Boss, two servings of fried rice and four lion’s heads, please. Oh, by the way, do you still have that black drink?"
Hiss!
Chen Mo was stirring the fried rice in the pot, "You’re still drinking that?"
"Hehe," Yu Hongtao laughed sheepishly, "It’s delicious. I just can’t help but drink more when I like something. I love that taste."
Chen Mo glanced at Yuan Xiaolin, who was glowing with rosy cheeks behind Yu Hongtao, and gave the elder brother a knowing look, "Just a moment, I’ll get you the drink after I finish making these fried rice."
Unexpectedly, the drink really has such good effects.
At first, when meeting this couple, the sister-in-law didn’t have a single pleasant expression for the brother, but today she was leaning on his shoulder like a delicate bird.
"Boss, what’s with that drink that’s so good? Can you get me a cup too? It’s so hot," Xue An asked.
"Are you married?"
"No, I don’t even have a partner yet."
Chen Mo grunted, "Then you can’t drink it."
Xue An wanted to say something but was nudged by Xue Ping with his elbow, signaling him to keep quiet.
Next door, after the aroma of the chicken broth had infused the ingredients, Huang Bo added shredded conch and diced sea cucumber, then placed the pot on the adjacent stove to simmer, while he switched to a new frying pan.
"Today, I’ll be making Gold Wrapped in Silver, a variation of Yangzhou Fried Rice,"
Huang Bo heated the oil with a strong flame, pouring beaten eggs into the pan. Before the egg liquid solidified, he immediately added leftover rice, continuously pressing and stirring with a spoon to ensure each grain was separated and evenly coated with egg yolk.
When the rice grains turned light yellow, Huang Bo ladled more egg liquid into the pot, continuing to stir-fry.
Just then.
Swish!
An extremely loud steam burst caught everyone’s attention on the small path, and they all turned to look in the direction of the sound.
Even in Gao Hao’s co-broadcasted live stream, a huge change occurred.
Initially, Gao Hao’s live stream had over 500 viewers, and the official tourism account had over 100 viewers. With this loud noise, Gao Hao’s stream suddenly dropped to less than 100 viewers!
And on the tourism side, it jumped to over 600 viewers.
Evidently, people found the small screen unsatisfying and flocked to the next-door live stream for the big screen experience.
Zhang Huixiang was also shocked by the change in the live room, as the comments suddenly surged, and he couldn’t even keep up.
"What the hell just happened?"
"I didn’t catch it! There was too much steam, what happened? Did Boss Chen blow himself up because he was afraid of losing the contest?"
"Don’t panic, keep watching! Damn, impressive, what kind of technique is this?"
"Why do I feel... hey no, just look at next door, then look here, why does it feel... indescribable!"
"Hehe, Boss Xiao Chen has his own invention. Yangzhou Fried Rice is about adding chicken broth during the frying process, using heat to quickly evaporate the broth in three occasions, giving the fried rice a layered flavor. Boss Xiao Chen might have thought that was too complicated and slow, so he did it this way."
Although nobody knew who this long-winded viewer was, everyone felt he made a lot of sense.
Because, just now, they once again witnessed Boss Chen’s maneuver in the live stream.
The black pot flipped dramatically, tossing the rice high in the air!
Then, a spoonful of chicken broth was poured into the pot, right when the steam billowed vigorously, the rice landed steadily back in the pot.
The visible steam seemed just about to explode but was suppressed again, offering a visually stunning effect!
As the rice fell into the pot, Chen Mo continued to stir-fry a few more times, flipping the pan again!
Repeating this process three times.
Chen Mo added chilled shrimp, then used a strong flame to dry the moisture on the rice surface, drizzled with prawn oil, sesame oil, and Shaoxing wine, finally repeating the pan-flipping three times, infusing all the ingredients in the pot with high-temperature steam to fully release their flavors!
Done!
The three servings of fried rice were divided into six half-portions, each boxed in a container painted with egg dumplings.
Xue Ping, holding a stainless-steel tray, shouted loudly toward Huang Bo’s direction.
"Who ordered half-portion fried rice? Time to eat!"
Huang Bo almost lost his grip on the spoon.
He looked over, dumbfounded.
Dude, I just got halfway through frying, and you’ve already made six half-portions?
You made it so fast yet still charged so much? Really?
