Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 378 - 351: Turns Out Boss Chen Bought Them All
A restaurant known for its signature shrimp dish, and now, right at mealtime, they’re out of shrimp?
How absurd does this sound?
Gao Hong felt embarrassed, bringing so many city leaders to experience the charm of Huaiyang cuisine, and now they’re stuck at the dining table.
He held his patience, "Don’t your restaurant prepare ingredients in advance?"
Today, all the waiters were briefed by the restaurant’s management on how to explain things to customers with a unified script.
The waitress politely apologized to Gao Hong, "To ensure the freshness of the river shrimp, our restaurant generally only stores a portion of live shrimp, and once it’s almost done, we send someone to purchase more in advance."
"But today, for some reason, all the regular seafood shops we collaborate with suddenly sold out of shrimp, even those further away and not frequently partnered with, have no river shrimp left!"
After explaining, the waitress bowed and apologized again, finally presenting a small gift prepared by the restaurant to each customer.
Gao Hong took a deep breath.
The leader sitting next to him said, "We can just choose another place to eat. We came today to experience Huaiyang’s famous dishes; how can we do without Phoenix Tail Shrimp? Let’s go to the one next door."
Gao Hong couldn’t really argue in this situation, so he reluctantly agreed.
The group left Tingfeng Tower and moved to a big restaurant next to it; although it’s not one of the four famous buildings, it’s quite business-friendly and serves decent Huaiyang cuisine.
But as soon as they sat down and ordered their first dish.
The waiter approached with a full face of apology, "Sorry, we’re out of shrimp today. May I recommend you try our..."
Gao Hong stared blankly at the menu, "Out again?"
If one place ran out, that’s still acceptable, but two places in a row without shrimp feels unusual.
Just then, a young person in the group suddenly held up his phone, "Oh my god! I think I know why these restaurants have no river shrimp!"
"What’s the matter?" Gao Hong asked curiously.
"Take a look."
The young person showed everyone his phone, "Isn’t this the super popular Ecological Garden you’ve been hyping up lately? My goodness, they’ve bought up all the river shrimp in Yangzhou!"
Everyone gathered around the phone, and Gao Hong’s face turned red instantly because the live stream was from Gao Hao, an employee of the tourism bureau.
The guy was chattering away in the live stream.
"Oh my! Look at Boss Xiaochen, buying so many shrimps; this is the third truck! Emma, there’s more behind, what the hell is going on!"
In the live stream, one truck after another was seen driving onto a small road, with many people busy unloading.
"Boss Xiaochen totally slashed the price of Phoenix Tail Shrimp, each shrimp only sells for two yuan, and they taste amazing! Oh damn, this time there’s no purchase limit, let’s join the queue quickly!"
The camera pans to show a huge crowd of customers clustered in front of a yellow food truck. Even just watching from a phone, the scene was quite spectacular.
Upon hearing what Gao Hao said in the live stream, the city leaders became interested, "Is there really something like that? Why don’t we, instead of eating in a restaurant, head to the Ecological Garden since we’re here? Let’s join the fun too!"
Gao Hong thought to himself, "Your itinerary doesn’t have this event, weren’t we supposed to listen to a work report before deciding whether to inspect the Ecological Garden?"
It’s not that they couldn’t go.
The issue was that no preparations had been made; is it appropriate to go now?
But since the leaders suggested it, he couldn’t refuse and had to brace himself, "If you say so, let’s go to the Ecological Garden today!"
After a series of hassles, they eventually arrived at the Ecological Garden.
Unlike the usual quietness, the road leading up to the North Gate of the Ecological Garden was lined with parked cars, and more vehicles continued to arrive from other directions.
"Parking is going to be an issue here; we need to re-plan this, especially if more tourists come, it’ll definitely cause traffic jams."
Gao Hong quickly made a note, "The Ecological Garden was originally planned to have a large parking lot, and we will consider making it free in the future." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
The group continued walking inside, and once they turned a corner and took a few steps further, they were stunned by the scene in front of them!
Especially Gao Hong, who felt his scalp tingle.
Damn it, what happened in these two days to the Ecological Garden to make it look like this?
Didn’t it used to be barren, with at most some residents grilling barbecue by the roadside? How come...
Looking at the curb, who knows when, but row after row of tables and chairs had been set up.
Every table had customers sitting behind it, enjoying the delicacies spread on the table. Upon closer inspection, weren’t they eating the Phoenix Tail Shrimp that they searched all night for but couldn’t find?
That wasn’t the main point.
The key was, across from these customers...
There were women dressed comfortably, squatting and attentively washing the customers’ feet!
Some of the women lifted the customers’ feet onto a towel-covered lap, their hands slapping rapidly.
Other women were pressing the soles of the customers’ feet with gloved hands, occasionally asking with concern.
"Is the pressure okay?"
"This is the kidney reflex zone, did I press too hard for you?"
