By the ti Ma Lu returned to his rented apartnt, Old Wang had already processed a Two-Headed Hyena, skinned it, removed the innards and bones, and minced the at.
He took the plastic bag handed to him by Ma Lu, glanced at it, then turned back into the kitchen.
Ma Lu took a seat on the sofa, pulled out his phone to spat with netizens on a forum, and before he knew it, more than twenty minutes had passed.
It was then that he caught a whiff of an appetizing scent, took a couple of sniffs, and felt his already empty stomach grow even hungrier.
Unable to remain seated any longer, he got up and entered the kitchen, just in ti to see Old Wang lift a piece of at pie from the frying pan.
The at pie was fried to a golden crisp, still sizzling as it left the oil. After draining the oil, Old Wang placed it on an empty plate, accompanying it with so sliced cabbage, squeezed so lemon juice over it, and finally drizzled it with a spoonful of his special tomato sauce.
Ma Lu was already impatient and fished out so disposable chopsticks left over from a takeaway al, grabbed the at pie, blew on it twice, and then took a big bite.
The bread crumbs on the outside gave a crispy texture, crunching between his teeth and sealing the moisture inside the pie.
As the crust broke apart, the juices flooded out like a breached dam, engulfing his whole mouth with a rich aty aroma.
The minced jackal at was chewier and denser than pork, providing a more satisfying chew, although so might find it to be a bit tough. But as Ma Lu bit into it, he didn't find it tough; it was slightly crispy with a tinge of sweetness on the aftertaste.
"Ah, it's lotus root; you had buy lotus root to use here?"
"And onions," Old Wang said.
"No wonder there's no gamy taste, and the lemon juice is a great touch, reducing the greasiness of the fried stuff considerably."
While speaking, Ma Lu took another bite and let out a light sound of surprise.
But this ti, he was too busy eating to talk, swiftly devouring the at pie on his plate.
Still not satisfied, he went on to eat the cabbage on the side as well, licking his lips with longing, "What's the deal with this sauce? Why do I feel it brought out a stronger flavor in the at pie after pouring it on?"
"It's because I added broth to it, using the bones of the Two-Headed Hyena. However, the cooking ti was a bit short; it would have been better to let it simr for another day and night."
"I see, so my craving for another bite is probably thanks to the tomato playing its part," Ma Lu said, placing his chopsticks down and letting out a satisfied sigh.
"This is the most delicious at pie I've ever had; if this is only rated at ★☆, I can't imagine how tasty the dishes with more stars must be."
"To taste food with a higher deliciousness rating, you need to gather higher-quality ingredients or improve my chef level to further unlock and stimulate the potential of the ingredients," Old Wang replied.
"Got it, got it, I'll do my best to look for them," Ma Lu said, hooking his arm around Old Wang's shoulder, "But right now, there's sothing even more important."
"What's that?"
"The deliciousness of the Fried Jackal at Cake has completely exceeded my expectations; I think we should set up a stall imdiately and let more people taste this delicacy!"
"But aren't we still not finished with the preparations for opening the shop?"
"Hmm, I'll figure sothing out; for now, you just prepare the ingredients for 100, no, 150 at pies."
After setting the goal for the first day of business with Old Wang, Ma Lu ate another Fried Jackal at Cake before getting to work.
He first tossed a few bottles of mineral water into the freezer, then spent 40 yuan on Jiyou Tongcheng to buy a second-hand gas stove, convinced the guy across the street to give him a connection hose, and even found a seller of oil paper bags, although they hadn't been online for two days.
Ma Lu tried to leave a ssage for him and then headed straight for the print shop at the entrance of the neighborhood. There wasn't enough ti to redesign the signboard, so Ma Lu simply used A4 paper to print out the words "Fried at Pie" in the largest font size, bold and in black, and then printed out the QR codes for WeChat and Alipay paynts.
He stepped outside and turned towards the two-dollar store around the corner, only to find it was not yet open.
Alright, Ma Lu checked the ti; it was only 7:15 in the morning. It seed a bit too early, so he took the subway to deliver a gas stove and by the ti he got back, the two-dollar store had finally opened.
Ma Lu bought so small boxes for condints, little buckets for sides, and two folding stools, spending a total of 30 yuan. Next door at the convenience store, he bought two packs of cigarettes, and at that mont, a seller on the secondhand marketplace who had been offline earlier finally showed up.
However, he had already left for work, and there was no one at ho, only available for transactions in the evening.
Ma Lu thought for a mont and decided to make the purchase, mainly because the seller's price was indeed cheap: 15 yuan for 900 wax paper bags, and the quality seed good in the pictures.
It seed he couldn't use them today, but it didn't matter. Ma Lu found a small pancake shop by the roadside, spending 30 yuan to buy 100 paper bags ant for pancakes, and then went on to buy 60 from a scallion pancake vendor.
He had wanted to buy so plastic bags too, but just then, soone ca up, asking on WeChat if he was ho.
Ma Lu replied with an "I am."
The person with the Hirase Yui profile picture sent another ssage:
— Do you rember what you promised ? My dad just left. I'll bring a box of figures up, help find a place to keep them safe.
Ma Lu typed:
— Alright, by the way, Little Brother Yang, do you have any leftover plastic bags from when you were selling spicy seafood? Bring so up with you.
This ti, there was a long silence from the other side, and it took half a minute to reply:
— Are you blackmailing ?
— No, no, bring them up, and I'll treat you to a fried at pie.
— Wait, I'll check.
Seeing this ssage, Ma Lu was no longer in a hurry to buy plastic bags and headed back to his rental. When he ca out of the elevator, he happened to see Little Brother Yang peering around the stairwell entrance with a cardboard box in his arms.
"Relax, your dad won't ambush you here."
"You know nothing about my dad," Little Brother Yang snorted coldly. "Back when I was in elentary school, he'd often ambush . Pretending to go to work during the sumr vacation and then coming back not even ten minutes later, catching playing on the computer."
"That cunning?"
"That's just how he is. You better be careful around him too." Little Brother Yang was sure it was safe and quickly stepped out of the stairway, urging, "Hurry up and open the door, hurry up."
"Yeah." Ma Lu took out his keys, unlocked the door, and Little Brother Yang briskly dashed inside, setting down the box and nudging at the two rolls of plastic bags secured with rubber bands, "Here, the ones you wanted. Where's the at pie?"
"Coming up." Ma Lu went into the kitchen and asked Old Wang for help with frying.
Since the at pie ingredients and fillings were all prepared in advance, it didn't take long to cook them, and they were done in less than four minutes.
Little Brother Yang, as a veteran of the street food business, waited while offering so pointed advice to the newcor.
"This line of work is not easy. You'll know when you actually start selling. Don't set your expectations too high on the first day; even one custor counts as a victory. What's important is taking that brave first step. Then, you'll find that working this business is even tougher than a regular job."
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