CHAPTER 259: CHAPTER 259 DELICIOUS LEAN MEATBALLS AND STICKY RICE, THE REWARD OF THE CITY TASK!

[Opening Wenzhou City Task (1/2): Sell Wenzhou snacks at a designated location for seven consecutive days, serving 100 guests each day.]

[Task Reward: Physical fitness enhancement (including strength, reaction, energy).]

[New Recipes Acquired: Raw Crab, Lean Meatball, Pork Offal Noodle, Glutinous Rice, and Lamp Cake recipes.]

[Accept the task?]

The system’s task appeared early. Jiang Feng finished up with the restaurant business before deciding to take on the task. By that time, he had already driven to Wenzhou and rented a house. The food truck had been shipped over as well.

Looking at the newly acquired recipes, Jiang Feng was quite satisfied. After getting the recipes, he needed to cook each dish himself to truly master their content. The system’s recipes were like stored experiences of a master chef’s cooking.

Raw Crab, Lean Meatballs, Pork Offal Noodles, Glutinous Rice, Lamp Cakes... All famous Wenzhou specialty snacks. It’s a good opportunity to experience the local food culture, Jiang Feng thought.

Setting up a stall in a foreign land was now a familiar routine for Jiang Feng. First, he would rent a small restaurant as a base and park the food truck there. When it was time to prepare and process ingredients, everything would be done in the small restaurant.

Sun Zhuangfei was still by Jiang Feng’s side. After all, there were many miscellaneous tasks to handle, and having an assistant made things much easier.

Jiang Feng planned to sell Lean Meatballs and Glutinous Rice on the first day. These two foods could be sold together and attracted more buyers, as they were common street snacks in Wenzhou.

"This week’s snacks aren’t very competitive; there are many places selling Lean Meatballs and Glutinous Rice in the streets and alleys," Jiang Feng said to Sun Zhuangfei. "Let’s try our best to do well."

Sun Zhuangfei smiled and replied, "Boss, once people recognize us, we won’t lack customers, right?"

Jiang Feng remembered setting up a stall at West Lake. It had been thronged with people, packed as tight as sardines. People were crowding all the nearby stalls; the scene was lively indeed.

So Jiang Feng said, "Let’s try not to be recognized. Nobody knows we’ve come to Wenzhou, so business should be reasonably good for the first few days. You go and do the shopping this afternoon as I instructed, and I’ll scout out a spot for the stall."

"Sure, Boss," Sun Zhuangfei immediately agreed. He had no other thoughts but to do well what Jiang Feng asked of him.

Thus, in the afternoon, after Jiang Feng had settled everything at home and left his pets there, he drove to the location designated by the system to inspect it. He needed to figure out where the system’s city task intended for him to set up the stall. After all, the locations chosen by the system sometimes exceeded expectations. Like opening a Big Bone Soup Shop next to a funeral home, or selling West Lake Vinegar Fish by West Lake, he mused.

Many people said Jiang Feng was whimsical and had lots of ideas. Jiang Feng felt helpless about that. Was it my whimsical idea? It was the system’s random task assignments. If it was a small shop or a snack street, that would be fine. But I feared ending up in some bizarre location.

Soon, Jiang Feng arrived at his destination. As he looked into the distance, he was dumbfounded. Utterly dumbfounded.

He saw windmills—giant metal windmills standing tall among the rugged mountains, each with three blades softly turning with the breeze. The grass below was lush and verdant.

If I were here for tourism, I would have found the place quite nice, with lovely scenery. But I’m here to set up a stall. I need foot traffic, need to find ways to sell snacks. This is a bit absurd, he thought.

Jiang Feng checked the location; the place was known as the "Pingyang Xiwan Wind Power Station." It was a site for wind power generation. However, because the scenery here was beautiful, it was also a tourist spot near Wenzhou. Many people came here for inspiration. There were also lots of reed beds, and with the right filters, the scenery was quite nice. But there were few people. There was no scenic area management; apart from certain off-limits areas, visitors could come and go as they pleased. You could drive up the mountain to enjoy the view.

Jiang Feng continued up the mountain road. It was challenging and tested his driving skills. Before long, he reached the place where the stall was to be set up. The location was somewhat familiar: a platform on the hillside known as Pingyang Mid-Mountain.

This spot was popular; tourists could take a break or enjoy the view as they descended the steps. Especially in the morning, it was a place to witness the sunrise and the sea of clouds.

Having confirmed the stall’s location, he now had to decide when to set up. This time, he had to consider visitor flow. Being in a rural scenic area, there weren’t as many visitors, and even if he was recognized, it would take some time for news to spread.

This place was busiest in the mornings and evenings. Mornings were for sunrise viewing; the sunrise here was unmatched. Many people came down from the mountains in the morning, with the added bonus of seeing the sea of clouds. Evenings were for sunset, which was also beautiful. Between the windmills and the vast open fields, people watched the reddening sun slowly dip below the horizon, then drove home, ending their day’s journey.

Let’s do it in the morning; we can cater to more people that way. The scenery here is quite nice. Setting up a stall in this location also looks good. It’s refreshing and uplifting, Jiang Feng thought. He stood on the platform, looking at the distant scenery, and accepted the new stall location.

The view here was indeed pretty good. Wenzhou had many tourist attractions, such as waterfalls, islands, and mountains. Since experiencing the local culture is the goal, there’s no need to stick to the food streets in the city. It would be better in the wilderness, he mused.

Once everything was confirmed, Jiang Feng returned to the shop to prepare for selling snacks the next day.

Jiang Feng started by busily making Lean Meatballs. He took a large piece of lean pork, cut it up, added a bit of fat to enhance the flavor, and put it all in a meat grinder. Then, he added a spoonful of salt, a spoonful of chicken bouillon, half a spoonful of sugar, half a spoonful of pepper powder, and a bit of minced ginger. All the seasonings and meat were ground together.

Jiang Feng also prepared a bowl of scallion, ginger, and Sichuan pepper water by soaking these ingredients in iced water for a while. While blending the lean pork, he continuously poured in the Sichuan pepper water. He would pour some in, blend for a few seconds, pour more, and blend again.

After this process, the lean meat had turned into a fine mince. The flavors of the various seasonings—salt, sugar, chicken bouillon, pepper powder, scallions, ginger, garlic, and Sichuan pepper—were fully integrated into the meat.

China’s culinary culture was profound and intricate, with a deep understanding of how to make meat more flavorful.

The meat filling had become somewhat sticky. He added tapioca starch, soda water, and more scallion-ginger water before blending it again until it reached a very sticky consistency.

Later, all he would have to do was place the meat filling on a cutting board and use chopsticks dampened with water to scrape it into the pot, bit by bit. Lean Meatballs were not round balls but rather strips of meat, resembling the pork fillet in Sweet and Sour Pork Fillet. This type of meat was mostly lean pork, with some starch added to adjust the texture, making it tender, smooth, and exceptionally fragrant.

After cooking the Lean Meatballs, a soup base needed to be prepared. This involved placing salt, chopped scallions, pepper powder, rice vinegar, dried shrimp, seaweed, cilantro, and diced pickled mustard root in a bowl, and then ladling some of the cooking broth over it. The taste of this soup base was also good. If one liked it spicy, they could add some red chili oil.

Lean Meatballs were very popular in Wenzhou, and wherever they were sold, there would be a queue. As long as the vendor’s recipe was authentic, the taste would not disappoint.

Jiang Feng had prepared the meat filling beforehand, so it only needed to be cooked in the pot when the time came. The delicious Lean Meatballs would then be ready to serve.

Jiang Feng even made two bowls for himself to taste. After cooking, the Lean Meatballs were soaked in the flavorful broth. He picked up a strip of meat, still glistening with broth, and ate it straight away.

The meat was still hot, tender, and silky. The taste of the broth came through first—fragrant, with a unique flavor characteristic of the snack. Then he chewed gently. He could feel that the surface of the Lean Meatball was very smooth. It was initially tender when chewed, then gave way to a firm, meaty texture as he bit down harder. The flavor of the meat was also very good; it had been well-seasoned and became more fragrant with each chew.

For meat lovers, this bowl of Lean Meatballs was simply a perfect snack.

Sun Zhuangfei also got a bowl. As he ate, he couldn’t stop praising it. "Boss, this is so delicious! Selling this will definitely be a huge hit!" he exclaimed in amazement.

Following the boss meant being well-fed, almost like having nine full meals every three days. The dishes Jiang Feng made were truly delicious.

Jiang Feng replied calmly, "This is a very famous local snack made with genuine pork hind leg meat, so of course, it tastes good. This dish could also be added to the Zhejiang Cuisine Restaurant’s menu, allowing guests to purchase it." That was his plan.

I also need to teach the restaurant’s chefs how to make some basic snacks. The recipe for Lean Meatballs is available online; there’s nothing particularly special about it. All that’s required are genuine ingredients, proper handling by the chefs, and precise control of the heat. Having the restaurant’s head chef make it would be just right, Jiang Feng considered.

"Lean Meatballs are no problem. Next, we need to make Glutinous Rice," Jiang Feng said. "Those tourists wandering around over there must be hungry. Our prices aren’t expensive, so we won’t lack customers. The location for the stall this time is a bit remote, so there probably won’t be as many people coming over, and we can relax a bit more."

After preparing the meat filling for the Lean Meatballs, Jiang Feng started to get busy making Glutinous Rice. The Glutinous Rice from Wenzhou is exceptional.

The glutinous rice itself needed to be soaked a day in advance. Then, the mushrooms also had to be soaked. When the time came, he would put the glutinous rice in a steamer, ensuring good air circulation to cook it thoroughly.

He chopped up deep-fried dough sticks, fried them in a pan until crispy, and then scooped them out. Next, he fried minced pork in the pan, adding spices, chopped mushrooms, cooking wine, oyster sauce, and so on.

The essence of the Glutinous Rice lay in how well the meat sauce was made. Later, it needed to be stewed with sugar, colored with dark soy sauce, and pressure-cooked to ensure the minced meat had a soft texture.

Jiang Feng was busy with the meat sauce today, making a delicious pot of it.

When serving, one would first dish up a bowl of glutinous rice, then add the fried dough stick pieces, ladle a generous spoonful of the minced meat sauce over the top, and finally sprinkle it with chopped green onions and dried shrimp. This was an authentic bowl of Wenzhou Glutinous Rice.

The Glutinous Rice was incredibly fragrant. Glutinous rice itself absorbs flavors well; the soft dough sticks soaked up the sauce, and the meat sauce was carefully seasoned, savory, and rich. Plus, the garnish of green onions and dried shrimp enhanced the dish. This bowl of rice was so delicious it was heavenly.

For people from Wenzhou who lived elsewhere, this kind of delicious Glutinous Rice was probably what they missed the most.

With the preliminary preparations all done, they just had to wait for tomorrow to drive the food truck to the Pingyang Xiwan Wind Power Station and set up their stall.