Food: Random stalls, customers chase me all over the country

Chapter 543-Brother Jie's Five-Spice Fried

"Brother Wang, when you get to my place, I'll take care of everything. I've eaten at every restaurant and food court in Xiamen, big and small. The ones I take you to are guaranteed to be top-notch, authentic restaurants."

Early the next morning, Shen Teng found Wang Fan and wanted to take him around Xiamen.

Wang Fan smiled and said, "You won't take me to those top restaurants, will you?"

Shen Teng immediately shook his head and said, "How is that possible? Don't you know me? Don't worry, I'll take you to eat authentic Minnan dishes today."

Speaking of skills, the chefs in big hotels and restaurants are definitely better, but since these restaurants are too high-end, the food is somewhat out of touch with reality. The ingredients used are too high-end, and the chefs handle it very carefully, so some of the authentic flavor is lost invisibly.

On the contrary, those street-side restaurants use fresh and popular ingredients and are willing to use them generously. The food they make has more local characteristics and is more in line with Wang Fan’s original intention.

Shen Teng drove to a vegetable market very quickly. After parking the car, he pointed at the market and said, "You must come to the vegetable market for breakfast. The breakfast here is the most down-to-earth."

Shen Teng took the lead and led Wang Fan inside. Wang Fan looked around with great interest. Most of the people coming and going to look at clothes were locals, and the atmosphere was full of lazy urban atmosphere.

"Brother Wang, let me tell you, the Bashi Fried Five-Spice here is super delicious. I've been eating it since I was a child, and I never get tired of it."

As Shen Teng spoke, he pointed to a shop in the distance and said happily, "That's it, Eighth Market Ajie Fried Five-Spice."

Wang Fan looked up and saw a small shop with a boss sitting at a table making something, which he thought was the raw material for fried five-spice dishes.

The two of them quickly approached. The boss, a man in his forties, was very happy to see Shen Teng and said, "Hey, isn't this Xiao Teng? You haven't eaten here for a while. Where have you been?"

Shen Teng has been eating at this restaurant since he was a child. The boss has been working here for twenty years, from a young handsome man to a middle-aged uncle, so he is naturally very familiar with Shen Teng.

Shen Teng chuckled and said, "Brother Jie, don't say that I, as your younger brother, don't take care of you. Do you see the guy next to me? Hurry up and show him your most perfect cooking skills. If this brother of mine gives you a few pointers, the line at your door will stretch all the way to Fuzhou."

"What?"

Brother Jie glanced at Wang Fan in surprise. He looked like a young man. At most, he was as handsome as he was when he was young. He couldn't see anything special about him.
Could it be some foodie influencer or a local promoter for Meileme or Hungry Group?
Wang Fan said with a bit of a laugh: "Brother Jie, don't listen to his nonsense, he just likes to joke around."

Brother Jie laughed and said, "It's okay, it's okay. Now that Xiao Teng is here, I have to do it myself. He took care of my business a lot back then. Wait a minute, I'll do it for you now."

After saying that, he did not forget to say to Shen Teng: "Why don't you come in and help? Let your friend look around."

Shen Teng looked at Wang Fan. It didn’t matter to him whether he helped him or not. He mainly wanted to see if Wang Fan wanted to go around by himself.

Wang Fan nodded and said, "Then you go and help, I'll look around by myself." Looking at this vegetable market full of life, he really wanted to walk around by himself and see if there were any fresh and unique seasonings or spices here.

Shen Teng said, "Okay, then come back in about 10 minutes. It will be best when it's fresh out of the pot."

Wang Fan strolled towards the vegetable market. Brother Jie quickly pulled Shen Teng aside and whispered, "Who is this friend of yours? Can he really help my business?"

Shen Teng was a little surprised: "Brother Jie, you're not going to do that, are you? I remember your business was pretty good before, wasn't it?"

Brother Jie sighed and said, "That was in the past, wasn't it? Look at it now? There would have been a line at the door before, but now there are hardly any people."

Shen Teng whispered, "Did you adjust the recipe? Or did you use some unclean meat?"

Brother Jie snorted, "What are you talking about, you idiot? Am I that kind of person? My recipe and ingredients haven't changed. It's mainly because all these internet celebrity restaurants are suddenly popular now, and diners have been attracted by them. Apart from regular customers like you, I haven't seen any new faces here in a long time."

Shen Teng chuckled, "What do you call that? It's like falling asleep and getting a pillow. Brother Jie, let me tell you something. You'll have to prepare your top-notch fried five-spice dishes, and then shamelessly ask Brother Wang for guidance. As long as he gives the green light, I guarantee your business will be even better than before."

Brother Jie asked suspiciously, "Who is this friend of yours? From what you said, it seems like he can cook?"

Shen Teng said proudly: "Don't worry about his identity, just listen to me, I will help you speak later."

Brother Jie was full of doubts, and he was very angry when he saw Shen Teng's mysterious look, but now he really needed help from someone, so he had to suppress all his doubts for the time being.

His store is in a great location, and he never had to worry about customers in the past. However, with the increasing number of internet celebrity stores in the past six months, his business has been going from bad to worse. He spends all day thinking about how to revitalize his store. He hasn't even had time to surf the Internet in the past six months, so he doesn't even know who Wang Fan is.

However, Shen Teng helped Brother Jie not only because this was the place where he had been eating since he was a child, but mainly because he valued Brother Jie's character. He was a very kind person. He would treat any child who was short of money to a meal, and it didn't matter whether they could make up for it later. The ingredients he used had always been very solid over the years. He estimated that this was also related to his increasingly poor business.

Because you use solid materials, you have to sell it at a higher price than others. If you don’t sell it at a higher price, you will lose money. Why shouldn’t I buy the cheaper one for the same thing?
But Wang Fan happened to be a person who was very particular about ingredients, and he didn't believe that Brother Wang would just sit there and watch such a small shop run with integrity fail.

When the two of them finished making the fried five-spice dumplings, Wang Fan also came back strolling. From his expression, you could tell that he had bought something good.

Wang Fan was holding a bag with several bottles and jars in it, all of which were Xiamen-specific seasonings that he had picked out.

However, he also found that Xiamen does not use many spices. The main spices are pepper, curry, and five spices: star anise, cumin, Sichuan pepper, galangal, and cinnamon. People basically buy ready-made five-spice powder, and rarely use the same proportion of spices when cooking at home.

Shen Teng greeted him, "Brother Wang is back. This fried five-spice dish just came out of the pan. Try it and give Brother Jie some advice."

(End of this chapter)