I Am A Gourmet: Just Eight And You Want Me To Start A Roadside Stall Novel! - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Sichuan Pickled Vegetables!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Throughout the day, Xu Le did not look at his phone much.
He only heard from customers that he had already become famous on the online media platform.
But as for how popular Xu Le was, he really did not know.
Xu Le opened the social media application. The first video that was played was about him.
[An eight-year-old child sells 10,000 bowls of Oil Doused Noodles on the streets of Shanghai. People call him the Master Chef!]
Xu Le was stunned after reading the caption.
Selling 10,000 bowls of Oil Doused Noodles a day?
Why didn’t I know about it?
Xu Le did not know whether to laugh or cry. He had to admit that these publicity accounts were too daring.
As he scrolled down, there were still many videos of Xu Le.
However, this time, it was the editing of Qin Yun’s live-stream. It was the scene of her eating the Oil Doused Noodles.
He scrolled down and saw a little boy lying on the ground in a shopping mall in Shanghai. He was crying as he wanted to go to Hongxing Food Street to eat noodles.
He continued scrolling and found many videos related to Xu Le…
Xu Le flipped through seven to eight videos in a row. All of them were related to him.
Xu Le took this opportunity to register a Weibo account and applied for a verified account from the official website.
An account named “8-year-old chef” appeared on the social media application.
Not long after, some sharp-eyed netizens noticed Xu Le.
In just half an hour, Xu Le’s number of fans in the application had reached one million!
At the same time, he received thousands of private messages.
Some of them were asking about recipes, while the majority of them were asking if there were delivery services.
Fans from all over the world wanted to try Xu Le’s cooking.
“Food delivery?”
Xu Le frowned and thought about it.
For example, dishes like the Oil Doused Noodles and Kung Pao Chicken would not taste good when delivered.
More importantly, there were already many customers in front of his food stall. The supply could not meet the demand. There was no need to use takeout to expand the sales.
If he had to deliver takeouts…
A side dish seemed to be a good idea!
Xu Le’s eyes lit up at this thought.
He immediately opened the system interface and his eyes quickly searched through it.
Soon, Xu Le decided on a suitable target.
“Sichuan Pickled Vegetables!”
Exchanging for the recipe for Sichuan Pickled Vegetables would require 30 gourmet points.
Without hesitation, Xu Le chose to complete the transaction.
In an instant, a large amount of information filled Xu Le’s mind. There were all kinds of cooking methods for the Sichuan pickled vegetables.
Among these pickled vegetables, Xu Le chose the most typical one, Old Vinegar Radish.
“It’s another Sichuan dish again.”
Xu Le lay on the bed and smiled bitterly.
From the activation of the system until now, all the dishes he had obtained from the system were basically Sichuan dishes.
Xu Le was about to become a Sichuan Cuisine chef.
After a tiring day, Xu Le quickly fell asleep.
…
The next morning.
Xu Le woke up early.
Apart from setting up the stall, he had another important thing to do, which was to ferment the pickled vegetables.
After arriving at the market, Xu Le bought ten transparent glass jars to ferment the pickled vegetables.
The advantage of this glass jar was that it was aesthetic looking and its contents could be observed at any time.
The downside was that it was less enclosed and was transparent to sunlight.
After buying the glass jar, Xu Le went to the market to buy another 50 kilograms of radishes.
Since he was fermenting pickled vegetables, he would definitely have to ferment more. Anyway, with Xu Le’s current popularity, there was no need to worry about not being able to sell them.
Soon, there was a problem that Xu Le faced.
The 50 kilograms of radish…
He could not carry them back!
He found a warm-hearted stall owner to help him move all 50 kilograms of radishes home.
Of course, Xu Le also gave him a few dozen yuan as compensation.
He had the radishes and jars.
Then he could start making them.
The first step in preparing the pickled vegetables was adding water.
The authentic Sichuan pickled vegetables had to be prepared with cold water. It couldn’t be raw water and couldn’t be stained with any grease.
During this period, the 50 kilograms of radishes that Xu Le bought were all cut into small pieces that were as thin as cicada wings.
As there were too many radishes, Xu Le had to cut them for an hour before he was done.
“Let’s prepare the spices.”
Aniseed, fennel, pepper, cinnamon… all sorts of spices were placed in a small gauze bag and distributed according to the proportions.
He boiled the water, added dried pepper and ginger slices, and then put all the spices in.
The cooking took five minutes.
Then, the taste had merged together.
After the condiments cooled down, Xu Le put all the radish skin inside and added salt.
Xu Le chose to add red wine salt.
Using the taste of red wine, he added a unique flavor to the Sichuan pickled vegetables.
The red wine salt also needed to be made by himself. Then, he would add about 200 grams of the salt into each jar, followed by 20 grams of rock sugar and white wine until it covered the ingredients.
Xu Le found a few bottles of Maotai wine left by his father in the warehouse.
“Isn’t it a little too extravagant to make pickled vegetables with Maotai?”
Xu Le’s face was filled with conflict.
After all, a bottle of Maotai wine cost more than a thousand yuan.
However, Xu Le made up his mind.
Anyway, it wasn’t something he’d paid for. It was something his father had left behind. To make the pickled vegetables taste better…
“Daddy, I can only make you pay for it!”
Gulp, gulp, gulp…
The Maotai wine was poured into the glass jars as if they were for free.
He didn’t stop until the ingredients were completely submerged.
He added two types of vinegar in the ratio of 1: 1. This was the origin of the old vinegar radish’s name.
He closed the lid of the glass jar and sealed it with plastic wrap.
He found the darkest corner of the house. Because he was using a glass jar, the pickled vegetables could not be exposed to the light at all, or else the fermentation would fail.
“I’ve already prepared pickled vegetables for everyone. You can buy it online in three days!”
Xu Le filmed a video and recorded the entire process of him fermenting the pickled vegetables.
Half an hour after he uploaded it online, he received hundreds of thousands of likes.
Right now, the title of an eight-year-old chef had already become popular throughout the country.
Countless people wanted to try Xu Le’s skills.
In the afternoon.
An article suddenly appeared on the Internet and went straight to the trending searches.
It was also related to Xu Le.
The person who wrote this article was a chef from a famous restaurant in Shanghai’s Heavenly Restaurant. He also had more than 100,000 fans online.
‘Analyzing the culinary skills of an eight-year-old chef.’
Based on many videos online, he gave Xu Le’s culinary skills a very professional review.
“Although Xu Le is only eight years old, there is no doubt that he has extremely high culinary skills.”
“The method of cooking the two Sichuan dishes is both professional and authentic. Although I have never tasted them personally, from the videos taken by the netizens, I would like to give a professional analysis.”
“First of all, Xu Le chose to knead the noodles on the spot to make the Oil Doused Noodles. He pulled the noodles to preserved the most authentic taste. He was also very particular about the selection of the seasoning.. He added cone pepper and tabasco pepper in the ratio of 7: 3, making the spicy taste even better.”