Food Stall: Customers Chase Me across the Country

Chapter 604 - 572: Outing – Fuxing Village, Yanyuan Village

The eight-character formula for Mapo Tofu doesn’t have a single redundant word.

Chinese cuisine emphasizes color, aroma, and taste. If the tofu is too mushy, it affects appearance, and poor appearance affects appetite. So it must be "bound," meaning kept intact.

The spiciness, heat, freshness, and aroma of the dish rely on the addition of "heat." Once the dish cools down, even if the great master himself made it, it would not taste good.

Eating scalding tofu, puffing out hot steam with a "sizzle," the numbing sensation in your mouth feels electrifying. That exhilarating thrill is the essence of this dish.

The bowl for rice isn’t big; the rice is level with the lip of the bowl, seeing a slight hump in the middle with lower sides, providing the perfect shape for putting food on top to eat together.

When the rice is brought close to the nose, you can distinctly smell the fresh fragrance of the rice, immediately indicating it’s new crop rice from this year.

As a rice-producing region, a local restaurant must have such top-grade ingredients!

Spoon some Mapo Tofu onto the rice bowl; the red sauce seeps into the bright white rice grains, enveloping the unique fragrance of rice with the rich, mellow aroma of sauce, tofu, and meat.

As you chew, aided by saliva, the rice grains in your mouth seem to get sweeter with each bite, adding a different taste dimension to the already incredibly delicious Mapo Tofu. Unknowingly, Wang Fan had finished the entire bowl of rice.

Seeing this, Liang Siyu was so happy she could almost fly.

This is the food authority, Boss Wang! Eating heartily at her family’s restaurant, does it mean her father’s culinary skills are indeed good?

Although he used to boast all the time about how amazing his cooking was, without a reputable critic, who would know if he was telling the truth?

"Boss Wang, does our food suit your taste?"

Liang Siyu asked cautiously.

After wiping the oil from his mouth, Wang Fan praised, "It’s extremely good! The boss’s culinary skills are superb. Honestly, I just came from that Meizhou place at the street corner, and their Mapo Tofu is incomparable to this."

Wang Fan spoke straightforwardly.

Mapo Tofu is a branded dish belonging to Chen Mapo Tofu. Theoretically, only Chen Mapo Tofu can be called Mapo Tofu. Even if the method is the same, you can only call it spicy tofu or another name. Using Mapo Tofu would be infringing.

However, the successor of Chen Mapo Tofu generously authorized everyone to use the name for free, a scale of generosity unparalleled.

But since you used his name, you should at least ensure your product deserves his generous authorization, right?

That huge restaurant made such sloppy food really made Wang Fan mad.

Listening to Wang Fan’s praise, Liang Siyu could hardly believe her ears: "Really?"

Wang Fan replied, "Honestly, but could you bring me two more bowls of rice, or one big portion is fine."

Liang Siyu quickly pointed a little way off and said, "Here, we charge for the first bowl of rice only, and for subsequent servings, help yourself from the tub, all free, while I’ll get you your dish."

Then she joyfully dashed back into the kitchen, excitedly telling Liang Bo, "Dad, your cooking is fantastic! Boss Wang praised it as being much better than the one made at Meizhou earlier!"

Liang Bo rolled his eyes: "Isn’t that obvious? The head chef there calls me ’Uncle’ when he sees me. Besides, if he calls, I won’t even recognize him; that unknowledgeable rascal, ruining things!"

Wrinkling her nose, Liang Siyu ignored her father’s complaints, picked up the twice-cooked pork, and headed toward Wang Fan.

Liang Bo, however, carefully scrutinized Wang Fan through the window.

Tall and well-built, he had a masculine vibe, yet didn’t quite look like a chef.

He appeared to have no greasy smell at all, so how could he be a particularly excellent chef?

Probably another one relying on appearances to play at restaurant reviews and food broadcasts, the daughter being young is easy to deceive; he wasn’t going to fall for it!

Unaware that he already had an enemy in the old father, Wang Fan was about to happily gobble up his third bowl of rice; authentic, piping-hot Mapo Tofu is certainly a perfect match for rice.

Once the twice-cooked pork was served, his appetite was rekindled.

This dish obviously came right from the wok, bright red in color, bursting with aroma, and the green garlic shoots perfectly cooked and vibrantly green, harmoniously blending with the meat and other ingredients.

Each slice of meat was very thin, curling into little "lantern nests," a shape naturally forming when the cooking is precise.

The pork looked like second-cut pork, fat and lean intertwined, and the inability to identify faults in the meat while making so many portions guaranteed the ingredient quality. Regarding this portion of twice-cooked pork and this small eatery, there’s really nothing to criticize.

The main thing is the price was very reasonable.

One portion of Mapo Tofu is definitely enough for two people at 20 yuan, 30 yuan for the twice-cooked pork, 2 yuan for a bowl of rice with free unlimited refills. Describing it as affordable with outstanding value for money isn’t overstated.

Taking a deep breath, the thick aroma of fermented black beans, garlic shoots, chili bean paste, and meat flooded into the nose, with the pot scent mingling thickly, most tempting and making one salivate.

Wang Fan never thought he could eat five bowls of rice with just two dishes. These two dishes were so delicious with rice, he could hardly control himself.

This is truly Sichuan cuisine, with spiciness, heat, freshness, and aroma making you unable to stop eating!

...

Liu Fei had a group meal planned, and would be late today. Wang Fan didn’t disturb him, instead arranged for a meet-up at the Three Su Temple restaurant tomorrow evening. After returning to the RV, he refreshed himself and had a good night’s sleep, preparing to explore around Meishan tomorrow.