Once Lin Zhou decided on the location for his stall, he began preparing to cook curry.
The Lunar New Year period is the time when farms slaughter pigs, cattle, and sheep. Fresh beef is air-freighted over early in the morning and is now being soaked in a pool to remove the blood.
Various spices need to be carefully blended.
One by one, the spices were placed on the island platform. Lin Zhou could tell what kind of spices they were just by smelling them, and he would grab a little and put it into the basin.
A little of this, a little of that, no need to weigh them one by one with tools.
The best spices are those you mix and match as you please.
In the culinary world, the worst thing you can do before you have any real skills is to act on a whim or do whatever you want.
When culinary skills reach a certain level, following the rules leads to complacency and stagnation, while a lack of innovation means no progress.
At this moment, a flash of inspiration and following one's heart are like seasonings for cooking.
Lin Zhou selected only a dozen or so of the hundred or so spices. He first stir-fried them in a wok without oil for a while to bring out their aroma. Then he ground them all into powder, which is the pure curry powder flavor.
The turmeric-colored powder is sifted several times to leave a relatively fine powder, and the curry powder is now ready.
The rich aroma of curry is already beginning to take shape.
Compared to curry cubes, curry powder is made from pure spices that are roasted and ground, resulting in a purer aroma and no oil or other additives.
However, using them requires more skill from the chef, unlike curry cubes which are more convenient.
If you don't do it well, a pot of curry will either be bland or have an off flavor, so it's relatively difficult.
Lin Zhou ground a bucket of curry powder, and stopped once he was sure it was enough.
He pressed the bell, and the butler outside immediately brought people in to personally tidy up the spices and clean the room, all without making a sound to disturb Lin Zhou.
Online discussions about where Lin Zhou will set up his stall this week have escalated beyond just asking for his address; they've even turned into prayers and ancestral worship.
It just so happens to be Chinese New Year.
Some netizens, while burning paper money to their ancestors, didn't forget to ask their ancestors where Boss Lin would set up his stall in the new week.
As soon as the video was released, netizens who never thought there was such a shortcut began to follow suit.
This immediately ignited everyone's enthusiasm for ancestor worship.
Later, some netizens discovered that praying to Buddha was effective in this matter.
When he went to the temple to burn incense, he drew a fortune stick with the intention of giving it a try. The fortune stick told him not to think about it anymore, as he would not find it.
Outraged, netizens posted the message online, and suddenly the number of people praying to gods and Buddhas exceeded the number of people offering sacrifices to their ancestors.
After all, some young people may not know how to worship their ancestors alone. Without the help of elders, they may not even be able to find all the graves. But it's different when you go to a temple. Even if you don't know the location, you can just take a taxi there.
It's convenient to go to temples now; even if you don't have cash, there's a QR code on the donation box where you can donate incense.
This modern scene greatly shocked netizens who had never been to a temple to offer incense.
Zhouzhou stood in the Guanyin Temple with her phone in hand, unsure whether to scan or not.
Pulling her friend aside, she whispered, "Is everything in heaven this advanced now? This QR code leads to a temple collecting money, right? Will Guanyin Bodhisattva receive it?"
Friend: ...
What a stupid question!
"This money should be for the temple's incense offerings. After donating, you can go to the side to get incense and then burn it to worship Buddha."
Zhou Zhou smiled awkwardly upon hearing this, then swept up the money according to her own wishes and went to the monk next to her to get incense.
After going through the whole process, you have to go to the side to draw a fortune stick and wait in line.
"Wow, there are so many people! I've never been here before and I've never seen anything like this before."
Zhou Zhou looked around. The temple they had come to was quite famous in the area. It housed many gods and Buddhas and was built along the mountainside. To offer incense, one had to climb the mountain.
Even though it requires climbing one step at a time, the path up the mountain is crowded with people, and the sounds of people panting and groaning are constant. When you get to the temple to kowtow, you have to do it one by one in order.
The entire temple was shrouded in smoke from the many incense sticks burning. The fragrance was very strong; I couldn't tell if it was sandalwood or agarwood, but the smell brought a sense of tranquility.
After spending a long time in such an environment, Zhouzhou felt her whole being calmed down.
My friend quietly replied, "I don't know if it's because there are more people offering incense during the Lunar New Year, or because everyone is seeing videos of netizens asking Buddha for directions to Boss Lin and they're testing the waters."
Zhou Zhou's eyes widened upon hearing this. So many people?
Does Mr. Lin have that many fans?
His friend, guessing his thoughts from the wide-eyed surprise in his eyes, said irritably, "My God, don't you even know how many fans Boss Lin has? Not to mention our country, didn't you see there are foreigners in the crowd too!"
Thanks to Torin Zhou, since opening up the overseas market, his absolutely overwhelming culinary skills have allowed foreigners to directly experience Chinese cuisine.
Many foreigners are now learning Chinese recipes so they can travel to China and enjoy its cuisine.
This demonstrates Lin Zhou's influence abroad.
Foreigners have been praising Mr. Lin as the God of Cookery in the East.
Upon closer inspection, Zhou Zhou saw that there were indeed foreigners kneeling there with fortune-telling tubes in their hands, chanting incantations as they shook the tubes according to the instructions.
"Foreign languages...can Buddha understand them?"
His friend fell silent for a moment.
That's a good question.
But you shouldn't ask him; you should ask Buddha.
...
When it was Zhou Zhou and her friend's turn, there were three prayer cushions in a row. They knelt down devoutly, then shook the fortune stick container while making a wish, until the first fortune stick fell out of the container. That was the fortune stick they had drawn.
Zhou Zhou picked it up and glanced at it. It looked like four lines of poetry, but she couldn't understand them, so she lined up to have it interpreted.
"For fortune telling, scan the QR code over there."
As they approached, they heard these words. Zhou Zhou calculated that the money she had spent on visiting the temple today must have been at least a thousand yuan. Praying to the gods and Buddhas is quite expensive, isn't it?
Since we've already come all this way and drawn lots, Zhou Zhou can't possibly give up halfway.
I paid directly by scanning the QR code.
The old monk then asked Zhou Zhou to write down his date of birth.
"Master, I'm looking for someone. Could you please take a look at what the fortune slip says?"
Old monk: ...
Another missing person search?
The old monk, though puzzled, did his duty and, as usual, read aloud the four lines of the divination slip.
Then, under Zhou Zhou's somewhat unclear gaze, I explained the meaning of the fortune slip in detail.
The old monk spoke with a slight local accent, making it difficult for people to understand him clearly.
In addition, the monks' words tend to be somewhat mystical.
After hearing the last part, Zhou Zhou noted that he would be plagued by petty people this year, should stay away from arguments and water, as these would be bad for him, and that he would have romantic opportunities in the second half of the year.
There were probably too many people in line, so there wasn't enough time for him to ask questions carefully.
When Zhou Zhou saw the old monk hand over the fortune slip, she knew the interpretation time was about to end, but she hadn't yet asked about what she had come to ask for. She immediately asked anxiously, "Master, didn't the fortune slip I asked for say that?"
This fortune slip predicted the year's fortune, taboos, and even marriage prospects, but it didn't mention what he was asking for.
Zhouzhou was extremely worried.
"It wasn't mentioned in the divination slip."
The old monk said calmly.
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