Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

Chapter 300 - 212: The Great Xia People Hide Their Secrets Too Well, Such Delicious Food Yet No Promotion

"This stuff is so addictively delicious, I can’t stop eating. How many pounds is this dish again?"

"About seven or eight pounds, but there’s really not enough for all of us. Usually, eating two or three pounds by oneself is no problem."

After finishing the crayfish, everyone was still licking the sauce from the corners of their mouths and turned their attention to the next dish.

Meanwhile, Lin Chen stood up to go to the kitchen to make some instant noodles, while the crayfish soup was still at the optimal temperature to mix in for the best taste.

A shallow layer of orange-red fish soup remained, with the fish head and bones still intact and some meat clinging to the bones. However, it was clear that the real focus was the surrounding soup.

This heavily-flavored soup probably wasn’t meant for direct drinking. Was it also meant for mixing with noodles?

As the only remaining half-Great Xia person in the room, Lucas, seeing everyone staring at the fish soup without making a move, understood and ladled a full scoop of fish soup over his rice, taking half a fish head as well.

"This kind of fish soup is meant to be soaked with rice or mixed with noodles. Usually, it’s made with a whole fish or a specially selected bighead fish. There’s not much meat on these fish bones, so it’s up to you whether to eat it or not. Just try the soup."

On the surface of the fish soup floated chunks of green and red chili peppers, garlic leaves, and plenty of purple perilla and orange peel pieces. The overall aroma was complex—a very refreshing yet rich smell.

In South America, they use orange juice and spices to stew pork and beef, but using orange peel directly as an ingredient, especially in fish soup, was unheard of.

In their minds, the strongest tasting fish soup was probably something like Marseille Fish Soup.

However, due to their unconditional trust in Lin Chen’s cooking skills, everyone took turns scooping a bit of fish soup onto their rice to try it out.

Sakura People are extremely skilled at making various broths, especially fish soup. Nagishiro Sho was incredibly curious about how Lin Chen used just a bit of black fish scraps to make such a large pot of seemingly thick fish soup.

He didn’t pour the fish soup directly over his rice. Instead, he served himself a separate bowl to taste.

As soon as the fish soup hit his mouth, the rich umami flavor was evident, with a noticeable sauce fragrance, likely from the red soybean paste.

Following this was the unique aroma of the fish soup, with a slightly sticky mouthfeel—indicative that the gelatine and fats from the fish head and bones were fully boiled out.

Black fish is river fish and should theoretically have a strong earthy taste, but it didn’t. The heavy sauces and the unique flavor of dried perilla, combined with the special fragrance of orange peel, completely masked the faint fishy taste, leaving only pure deliciousness.

What intrigued him was the hint of orange peel in the fish soup. The proportion seemed perfect; any more would have overpowered the fish soup, turning it into orange peel water.

"I see."

Chef Marchello also tasted the fish soup alone, sipping while nodding, his eyes reflecting a realization.

This was similar to how they make vinaigrettes in Western cuisine—a bit of orange zest or lemon zest can enhance the aroma, but too much backfires and overpowers the main ingredients.

He had never thought of adding orange peel to a meat broth before; it was truly eye-opening.

Scooping up a fragrant spoonful of rice and plunging it into the fish soup, the taste transformed.

Drinking the soup alone was rather salty, but with the rice, it magically balanced the saltiness. The fresh fragrance of the rice further neutralized the spices in the fish soup, amplifying the inherent freshness of the fish.

The rice had been cooked just right, firm and chewy, absorbing the fish soup completely in seconds, making one want more.

"Slurp—"

At the table, several ladies, Jonathan, and Lucas clutched their bowls, shoveling rice into their mouths with unrestrained vigor.

"Come on, eat up, what’s with the restraint? The food’s getting cold!"

Seeing everyone focus on the rice and ignoring the dishes, Lucas shamelessly grabbed a big serving of scallion oil fish slices and pickled fish into his bowl, then scooped out a big portion of tripe soaked in red oil, not forgetting to add half a bowl of rice to his own bowl.

The fish slices drizzled with scallion oil looked translucent and appetizing, with the tender white fish covered in a light soy-like sauce.

The tripe, on the other hand, with red oil continuously dripping off, soaked the rice completely, offering a visual feast even more appealing than the fish soup with rice.

At this moment, Lin Chen emerged from the kitchen, carrying a pot of instant noodles. Lucas quickly put down his mountain of rice, helping to lift the pot of crayfish and pour it directly onto the noodles.

The once plain instant noodles were instantly covered in garlic paste, stirred to fully integrate the spicy and aromatic crayfish soup into the noodles, transforming it into a pot of spicy garlic noodles.

It looked a bit monotonous, lacking side dishes and meat.

But that’s okay; the essence of Chinese stir-fry is potluck.

Lin Chen took a plate, using the chopsticks to lay a generous helping of garlic-covered noodles on the bottom, adding pickled fish slices, pickled vegetables, scallion oil fish slices, and tripe, finishing with a scoop of the tripe broth.

A plain plate of mixed noodles was instantly upgraded to a luxurious seafood spicy noodle dish!

Everyone blinked at the noodles in his hand and then back to their own fish soup-soaked rice, suddenly finding their food less appealing.

John, never having tasted Lin Chen’s cooking before, ate with sweat pouring down his forehead, face flushed red from the heat, while chugging icy coke, yet he couldn’t resist the urge to continue devouring the food.

He usually couldn’t handle spicy food, but somehow Lin Chen’s dishes had a magical appeal—one bite and he was hooked.

The control of that spicy flavor is just right, not overwhelming, yet able to provide a fiery thrill to the palate.

Even his entire lips and tongue are now trembling slightly, tingling in waves.

"I never realized that blackfish and crayfish are such delicious ingredients, why don’t the restaurants here serve them?"

The blackfish meat is tender, and its skin chewy yet soft. The crayfish’s texture rivals that of lobster. He couldn’t understand why these two ingredients are left unappreciated.

Marchello and Nagishiro Sho awkwardly averted their gazes.

They too wanted to know why!!

The ingredients for restaurants here are uniformly provided by suppliers. If a head chef wants to develop new dishes, they must rely on the supplier’s list or seek inspiration from outside, such as supermarkets, markets, and farmer’s markets.

The problem is... there’s nowhere to buy blackfish and crayfish here. How were they supposed to know these things taste so good!

Mr. John noticed the duo’s embarrassment but didn’t press further, instead silently elevating Lin Chen’s status in his mind.

For someone to know how to cook with ingredients even Michelin three-star chefs haven’t touched, what does that suggest?

It seems the gold content of those three Michelin stars isn’t that impressive; it only works in the West and doesn’t apply in the mysterious East at all.

Oh no, wait, this person seems to be from the East too?

He quietly glanced at Nagishiro Sho, "So it seems the problem isn’t with the East, it’s with the Great Xia."

The Great Xia People have hidden too well!

Such delectable things, and no one knows about them!

And also that cow stomach, originally just discarded as garbage, not even used as feed, but in Chef Lin’s hands, it becomes a gourmet dish.

The crisp texture still lingers in his mind, and he hasn’t had enough of it.

Thinking about how many cow stomachs were tossed away on the farm before... it’s regrettable!!

It’s not just John; Marchello and Nagishiro Sho were also amazed by the way Chinese cuisine handles fish.

In Western cuisine, fish dishes usually involve large sea fish being deboned and made into steaks for grilling, or turned into fish fillets, or crushed into fish balls, fish cakes, or fish pies.

Japanese cuisine is even simpler, apart from sashimi there’s grilled fish or tempura, or dishes like saikyo yaki which uses miso as a marinade.

The Chinese method of slicing fish, marinating it, and then cooking it completely shattered their existing perceptions, offering them endless inspiration.

Also the marinating techniques, and the oil-pouring process—these are all new knowledge.

This trip to Dieppe wasn’t in vain!

Both felt fortunate in their hearts, but also secretly regretted not having come into contact with authentic Chinese cuisine earlier.

The Chinese restaurants in Romantic Country mostly have adapted flavors, with many dishes being self-created just to cater to local tastes.

They both knew this and had tried them, but lost interest afterward as there wasn’t anything remarkable.

With the recent surge of popular Great Xia foods, Chinese cuisine has re-entered their radar.

In Paris, trendy items like tanghulu, roujiamo, and noodles are completely different from the previous style of Chinese restaurants.

Marchello, after all, with decades of industry experience, quickly figured out the crux of the matter.

Most existing Chinese restaurants have been around for a decade or more. When they opened, their customer base was the now middle-aged demographic, whose tastes likely leaned toward sweet and sour fried items.

But now, the Chinese food that’s wildly popular is mainly consumed by young people, barely featuring any sweet and sour dishes, causing business at traditional Chinese restaurants to gradually decline.

Analyzing just these two points, the facts are clear.

Times have changed, and so have the tastes of diners.

The current younger generation has a stronger acceptance capacity, and due to the developed internet, they’re more interested in authentic foreign cuisine rather than the adapted versions.

Of course, interest alone doesn’t mean full acceptance; choosing the right dishes is important.

He has reason to believe that the dishes Lin Chen has cooked so far have definitely been adjusted accordingly, not in their original full form, or else the people present wouldn’t all find them delicious.

Maintaining most of the traditional flavors with slight adjustments to satisfy foreign diners’ palates is qualified adaptation, not completely changing the recipe’s craft!

As he contemplated this, his gaze towards Lin Chen was filled with deep admiration.