Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

Chapter 460 - 372 Shoots Up Without Warning—No Money, No Deal!

"If each of you gives me five euros, I’ll help you place an order. How about it?"

The woman who previously refused them spoke up in a timely manner, her face showing a teasing smile.

"Hurry up and decide, once they’ve finished picking up the oysters, it’ll be my turn to order. I don’t have time for you to hesitate unless you want to wait for the next round."

The three of them glanced secretly in Rovena’s direction with ugly expressions. Even though they were blocked by the dense crowd, they still felt a bit guilty.

Those damned greedy bastards!!

"Alright, let’s go with that. Help us buy six... seven dozen."

"Fifteen euros extra for the three of us, right?"

The three were about to pay when several tourists behind them heard the numbers they mentioned and immediately protested, shouting loudly.

"How much?? Seven dozen?"

"Plus what this woman bought, isn’t that close to ten dozen?"

"No way, no way, I don’t want to wait another fifteen minutes!"

"If you do this, I’ll immediately call your center to complain!"

"One dozen, at most you can buy one dozen, nothing more!"

The further back the customers were, the stronger their protests, causing even those behind them who didn’t know what’s going on to crane their necks forward to see what’s happening.

The three’s faces changed dramatically, quickly putting a finger to their lips to signal for silence.

"Shh!!"

"Keep it down!"

"Let’s talk this over, we can talk this over!"

"How about this, one dozen, I’ll first buy one dozen, okay?"

"Hand over the money!"

The woman happily took the money, then turned to Su: "Please give me three dozen oysters, thank you~"

"...Alright."

This kind of situation was the first Su encountered; he didn’t know what to do for a moment, so he settled the bill first.

Logically speaking, what they did was queue-jumping, which was unethical.

But they didn’t actually jump the queue; they just had someone else buy for them, so there wasn’t any real problem.

If they really bought seven dozen, that would indeed cause dissatisfaction among diners.

Seeing the crowd gradually quiet down, the three employees breathed a sigh of relief.

Just now, they almost thought they were done for!

But one dozen simply wasn’t enough to eat.

Let alone dividing it among three people, it’s not enough for even one person.

These are dishes prepared by a Michelin Chef, who eats oysters not by the dozen?

One dozen is only twelve pieces; each of the three can only have four, the taste fades before it’s even tried.

Not to mention there were a few guys still watching them.

If they ate by themselves...

Thinking of this, their gaze involuntarily fell on the customer in the second place.

"Sir."

"Ten euros."

The man simply made a hand gesture, "Less than that, no deal."

"...Alright, ten euros then."

As soon as the words were spoken, the tourist in the third place blurted out: "Twenty euros."

"..........."

The three looked at each other, shaking their heads in unison.

"No, no, we’re not buying."

If the price keeps going up, how are we supposed to eat?

They were just craving, not fools.

After paying, the three immediately ducked back behind the food truck, afraid that they’d be spotted by Rovena if they stayed outside too long.

Lin Chen, who was at the food truck, watched everything unfold before his eyes, shook his head with a smile, and didn’t interfere.

There were four waiters present, plus Dais, the ’Steward’, if everything needed his intervention, he might as well go back and write an apology letter.

"Oysters are ready!"

Half a minute later, the oysters on his side reached the perfect doneness, and he quickly packed them into boxes and handed them to the window, his gaze casually landing on the two customers who helped others purchase.

A few seconds later.

The female customer picked up the bag of oysters and turned towards the side of the food truck.

When she returned, she had two fewer bags in her hand.

"These look really good!"

Lin Chen’s ears twitched as he heard whispers coming from the back door of the food truck.

He turned his head but didn’t see anyone, they must be hiding further to the side.

The three employees couldn’t wait to take the paper box out of the bag and hold it in their hands.

Seeing those plump, rich oysters hiding beneath the golden garlic so close up, with the scent of garlic and seafood filling their noses, they could feel their mouths watering uncontrollably.

From a distance earlier, they didn’t have this feeling, but now that the oysters were in front of them, they felt the incomparable allure.

"So here’s the problem: there’s only two dozen oysters, and there are six of us. How do we divide them?"

"Dividing a dozen among three people isn’t going to be enough! I say leave one for each of them to taste, and if they want more, they should buy their own."

"Exactly, it’s not like we didn’t want to buy more; the guests had objections, so it’s not our fault."

The three of them exchanged glances and nodded. In an instant, they reached a consensus.

The next second, all three simultaneously scooped out a large piece of oyster meat with their spoons, blew on it briefly, and stuffed it into their mouths.

Since there were only two boxes at hand, two of them had to share one, with their heads so close they were almost touching.

Normally, they wouldn’t engage in such ambiguous behavior.

But they had no choice; time was tight, so they couldn’t afford to dawdle. Just eat!

"Phew!! Ah~"

"Hot, hot, hot... hiss... phew..."

"Amazing, this flavor, ah, simply amazing!"

As they chewed, they tilted their heads up, huffing and puffing, their feet stomping from the heat, yet reluctant to spit out the food, trying to cool the temperature inside their mouths by opening their mouths wide.

The tender oyster meat exploded into a delightful mush in their mouths, blending with the savory garlic sauce, making the taste exquisite.

The few chili slices and scallion sprinkled in the garlic sauce elevated the otherwise ordinary flavor by several notches.

It’s like throwing a giant rock into a calm lake, instantly stirring up raging waves.

To cater to the foreigners’ tastes, Lin Chen specially modified the amount of bird’s-eye chili in this garlic sauce to one-third of the original, enhancing the freshness without making it overly spicy.

Every spoonful of garlic laid on the oysters was meticulously selected to include two to three chili slices, no more, no less, rather than randomly scooping from the garlic paste.

If a customer needed more spiciness, they could add fresh bird’s-eye chili from the nearby bowl.

Fresh bird’s-eye chili has a noticeable taste difference compared to cooked ones, with varying degrees of spiciness.

This is cooking: even the slightest difference can affect the final dish’s flavor, so there’s no room for carelessness.

By the time the second diner walked over with their two bags of oysters, the brown paper boxes they were holding were thoroughly emptied, with the three of them scraping off the residual garlic paste inside the shells.

It all happened within just a few seconds; how did they finish twelve oysters already??

The man couldn’t believe his eyes.

"Damn, are your mouths made of metal? Aren’t you afraid of getting burned?"

After all, these oysters had just been taken off a grill at a temperature of several hundred degrees. Even if the oyster meat wasn’t as hot, it was definitely at eighty or ninety degrees.

Eating them straight away without cooling them down would surely blister your mouth?

"You don’t get it; eating them hot is the way to go."

"Yeah, when they’re cold, they’re not as tasty. Why else would people grill them for?"

The three took the bags from him, looking entirely nonchalant, as if stating the most obvious fact.

"Really?"

The man nodded in half-understanding, looking down at the box of plump oysters in his hands, still steaming, hesitated for a moment, but didn’t dare take a bite.

He had touched the oyster shells earlier, and his thumb was still stinging from the heat.

How could anyone eat something so hot?

With these thoughts, his gaze once again turned to the three, wondering how they were eating them.

Three or four meters behind him, another group of officers were silently watching this side.

Though their sunglasses blocked the view somewhat, the direction of their heads had already revealed their intent.

The three ship crew had no time to worry about anything else at that moment, wanting to quickly eat and leave, afraid that Rovena would nag them for lingering too long.

As professional crew members, they often had to eat while sailing.

Sometimes, they didn’t even have time for meals when busy, so naturally, they had ways to deal with such fresh-off-the-stove dishes.

They simply used spoons to scoop the oyster meat from the bottom and lifted it up, bringing it close to their mouths for a rapid, brief cooling blow.

Then they hoisted it into the air, continuing to blow to cool the surface.

In just five or six seconds, all three of them tilted their heads back, put the plump oyster meat into their mouths, and once again performed the head-shaking, foot-stomping routine in front of the tourists.

"?"

The man was dumbfounded by the absurd scene before him, shaking his head with a hand on his forehead.

Isn’t this simply tolerating the heat?

Forget it, forget it, he’s not in a rush; waiting a few minutes for them to cool down a bit is just fine.

"Pfft... haha."

The two officers were amused by the amusing antics of the three crew members and couldn’t help but chuckle.

Turion, who was scanning the scene across from them, instantly captured this moment and frowned, reaching for his radio.

"Number Three, Number Four, what’s so funny over there? Tell me."

"?!"

With the voice coming from around their waists, the smiles on their faces vanished instantly, quickly regaining a cold demeanor.

Rovena was at the very end of the line at the time, around forty to fifty meters away from the food truck.

Ahead were dense silhouettes and heads, not even the two grills could be seen—all he could see was a mountain-like pile of oyster boxes on the table.

Turning to glance at the three employees guarding the dock entrance from afar, a hint of confusion flashed in his eyes.

"Strange, why did those three take so long at the restroom? Did they all have a bowel movement?"

This thought just popped up when he saw three familiar figures appear in sight, returning from that direction.

Though their walking posture seemed a bit odd.

From such a distance, he couldn’t see clearly, thinking they surely squatted too long during their restroom visit, checked twice, and withdrew his gaze, not dwelling on it.