Chapter 63 063 Lamb Pilaf [First Update]
Yang Tao didn't give his online store review account a special name; he simply used the character "Tao" from his own name, calling it "Tao's Good Store".
He was studying in a southwestern province. Wen Fan opened Yang Tao's restaurant review account, which was basically full of dishes from that area.
Beef rice noodles, glutinous rice, siwawa (a type of steamed bun), sour soup fish...
I haven't posted many videos; only four or five in half a month.
The fact that Yang Tao was able to accumulate 800 followers with just a few videos is a testament to his abilities.
Wen Fan clicked on a video.
Hello everyone, the weather's nice today, I'm planning to go out and randomly pick a stranger on the street and treat them to a meal...
Wen Fan:......
Is this what you call "exploring a restaurant"?
Yang Fei, standing nearby, also exclaimed, "How can you do a restaurant review like that!"
This is more like performance art than a restaurant review.
When it comes to this, Yang Tao has a lot of grievances to share.
"You think exploring restaurants is easy now? You have no idea how competitive the food industry is!"
Going back, there were mukbang (eating broadcasts), competitive eaters, and regular restaurant reviews; now, it has evolved into various scenarios. There are mothers-in-law cooking, delivering meals to children, and delivering meals to husbands. Restaurant reviews include delivery drivers exploring new places, offering all-you-can-eat meals for 200 yuan, and visiting farmhouses…
Yang Tao is quick-witted. He had been thinking about creating his own media platform since college, but he kept changing his focus, from games to daily life. In the end, he found inspiration from Wen Fan and felt that the food industry had great potential.
But once he actually jumped in, Yang Tao realized that exploring restaurants wasn't as easy as he thought.
For typical store visits, unless businesses approach you for collaborations, you can't accumulate many followers by simply posting videos yourself.
After much thought, Yang Tao decided to create a persona of a college student who could attract attention on campus.
The episodes that were released featured his classmates. Yang Tao would find classmates who were willing to appear on camera, pay for them to take him to eat his favorite meals.
They already had a good relationship, and Yang Tao was good at livening up the atmosphere, cracking jokes while eating, which reminded many people of their campus life, so his popularity soared.
In addition, Yang Tao was well-liked on campus, so he quickly amassed more than 800 fans.
After complaining, Yang Tao couldn't resist showing off a little: "Now I'm a minor internet celebrity at school. The owner of the mala tang stall at the west gate of our school said he'd treat me to mala tang for a month if I filmed an episode of his show!"
Yang Fei: "...It wasn't you who told me to sort it out."
Qu Xiaoyu looked at Yang Tao with envy.
A month's supply of mala tang (a type of spicy hot pot) would easily cost several hundred yuan if you ate it every day.
Yang Tao tossed his hair and said narcissistically, "My dream is to take restaurant reviews all over the country in the future!"
Unlike Yang Fei and Zhang Shan, who decided early on to pursue graduate studies, Yang Tao was very self-aware. While Yang Fei could still explain math problems to Wen Fan during the summer, Yang Tao had long since forgotten everything he learned in his academic subjects.
Now I'm studying civil engineering for sinkholes, so my future is like a harbinger of doom, you can see the end from the beginning.
Since I don't want to study any further anyway, I might as well become a self-media creator.
Yang Tao may seem carefree, but he is actually quite meticulous. He did a lot of preparation before taking the first step.
Even Song Hui, who was initially skeptical about the matter, softened her stance after seeing her son's video.
"I don't understand what you young people do. If you want to do it, then do it."
With his parents' tacit approval, Yang Tao's thinking became clearer.
Everyone was very satisfied with the meat sauce fried noodles they had for lunch, and Yang Tao took the opportunity to bring up his own ideas.
"I'm thinking of doing some live streaming during this holiday."
While at school, he had more free time to create short videos, but since he was still a student, it wasn't convenient for him to do live streaming.
But since it's a holiday now, Yang Tao wanted to try live streaming, so he decided to stream Wenji's kitchen.
Whether or not to tip is secondary; the main thing is to build up popularity.
Mr. Wen and Mrs. Wen exchanged glances. Although Mr. Wen was a little nervous, he knew that this was a good thing for their business.
So he agreed, saying, "Okay."
Wen's mother, however, had other ideas: "Should we buy one of those lights? I've heard people say that dishes don't look good without lighting."
Yang Tao: "No need, we're not watching the kitchen the whole time."
That would be too boring.
They'll definitely show the eating scene after the live-streamed cooking process.
I'll edit the footage I filmed later and make it into a short video.
Mr. Wen's claypot rice is quite impressive, and the braised dishes in the shop are also delicious, but most importantly...
Yang Tao looked at Wen Fan.
"Young boss, could you make more dishes?"
Wen Fan calculated the time; apart from the last two days of the holiday, she was indeed quite free for the first six days. Her planned activities included some trivial matters such as going to the bookstore and walking the dog, after which she basically did her homework.
Cook?
"Sure, I'll cook some home-style dishes for lunch, and if anyone orders food for dinner, I can livestream the process."
As for the mukbang tonight, sorry, it'll be 100 yuan per person!
This was the first time Yang Tao had heard that Wen Fan's family had opened a private kitchen on weekends. He was very tempted, but he knew that he couldn't afford to eat there every day. At most, he could share a table with Yang Fei and a few others on one of those days.
"good!"
Yang Tao, full of energy: "I'll bring the live streaming setup tomorrow!"
As for tonight, Wen Fan said unhappily that he had no orders.
The private kitchen has been open for several weeks, but the customers are still the same old faces. When will we be able to expand?
Wen Fan was a little worried, especially since she had heard her parents talking about transferring the rent to the landlord last night.
Living such a leisurely life, Wen Fan almost forgot that his family was still destitute.
The shop is rented, and even the house belongs to someone else!
Wen Fan sometimes worries for her parents. She doesn't care too much about money, but renting a place isn't a good solution!
With a deep sigh, Wen Fan began to ponder what to do the next day.
It's already autumn now. Last month, the intermittent autumn rains drove the temperature down. These past few days, the temperature has risen again as the weather has cleared up, but the cool breeze in the mornings and evenings makes one's head suddenly feel cold.
In this kind of weather, shouldn't we eat some meat to fatten up for winter?
The next day, Wen Fan, unusually, went to the market with his father and his eyes lit up at the mutton stall.
The butcher brandished his boning knife, saying, "These are all good quality Tan sheep. Look at the color, they're freshly slaughtered!"
The mutton was brightly colored and had a clear muscle texture. Wen Fan pressed it and nodded in satisfaction: "Give me a leg of lamb, the front leg."
Lamb leg meat is firm, and the front leg has more fat than the hind leg, making it more suitable for pilaf.
"Give me some more spine."
This thing is also called lamb spine, which is the lamb spine with spinal cord. There isn't much meat, but the meat in the crevices of the bone is tender and soft, and it can be used for dry pot or soup.
After buying mutton, Wen Fan also bought carrots.
Father Wen: "Hand-pulled rice for lunch?"
Wen Fan: "Yes, make some more mutton soup."
When the weather gets cold, people need to eat more nourishing foods. Mr. and Mrs. Wen are getting older and often suffer from leg and back pain, so eating more mutton is perfect for them.
Wen's father loved to eat meat, and upon hearing this, he was overjoyed and excitedly returned to the shop to cook for Wen Fanteng.
Yang Tao arrived early and was setting up his live streaming setup.
Wen Fan pulled a leg of lamb out of the bag, leaving Yang Tao speechless and stammering.
"This...this is too expensive."
Yesterday, Yang Tao said he would pay Wen Fan for his live stream: "It would be unfair of me not to pay for the small boss's skills."
It's like they're freeloading.
Yang Tao insisted on calculating the costs of everything needed for the live stream, but a leg of lamb... Yang Tao was a little worried.
Wen Fan: "We need to eat too, you just need to pay for your own portion."
Just consider it as selling Yang Tao a meal.
While talking to Yang Tao, Wen Fan took the lamb leg to the tap to rinse it.
Yang Tao quickly squeezed in: "Let me take pictures! Let me take pictures!"
After filming a few shots, Yang Tao quickly opened his own account's live stream room.
"Hello everyone, this is Taohao Store."
Yang Tao rambled on into the live stream, and Wen Fan, taking a break from his busy work, peeked around to take a look and was speechless.
"There's nobody here, what are you talking about... Come and give me a hand!"
Wen Fan was very impolite and threw the carrot into Yang Tao's hand: "Peel it for me."
Yang Tao: ...
He muttered, "There were two other people there just now."
I came in, took a quick look, and left.
Wen Fan wielded the knife with lightning speed, slicing the lamb leg meat evenly and neatly.
Seeing Wen Fan like this, Yang Tao simply gave up as well. He thought to himself that his mentality was still unstable. He had clearly decided last night that the live stream was just a test, and it didn't matter whether there were viewers or not. He just wanted to increase the time spent to pave the way for the future.
But I couldn't resist today.
His heart races whenever someone enters the live stream.
As soon as someone leaves, he goes down again.
After going back and forth like this, he even started to feel discouraged and doubt himself.
Until Wen Fan tossed him a carrot.
Yang Tao peeled the carrot so badly that it was uneven and bumpy, which successfully annoyed Wen Fan.
"You peel the garlic."
He ushered Yang Tao to a corner of the kitchen and instructed him on the camera position and angle, telling him to aim the camera at the stove.
"Just take pictures of the food."
Yang Tao had resigned himself to his fate. Once the live streaming equipment was set up, he focused on peeling garlic, speaking in a Northeastern accent that Wen Fan couldn't understand.
"I should wear a mink coat and a big gold chain around my neck."
Just imagining that scene makes Yang Tao laugh.
After Wen Fan finished cutting the mutton, he chopped carrots and onions. He squeezed the pre-soaked rice with his hands, and when he saw that it was almost ready, he poured out the water.
Stir-fry the onions in plenty of oil over high heat until fragrant, then remove the onions and add the lamb back in to stir-fry. The originally red lamb quickly turns golden brown in the pan, and the lamb fat is rendered out, sizzling in the pan.
The aroma of mutton wafted out at that moment, and Yang Tao smelled it most clearly from the kitchen, with a rich, oily fragrance that carried a hint of the mutton's own flavor.
He grunted a few times and asked, "When can we eat?"
Wen Fan: "It's still a long way off."
The rice is still raw.
Stir-fry the mutton in the pot until it's cooked through, then add the seasonings and raw onions. Cumin is a perfect match for mutton; the moment you put cumin in the pot, the mutton gains its soul.
Wen Fan was adding water and preparing to pour in raw rice, while Yang Tao was peeling garlic the whole time.
I have to say, peeling garlic while smelling its aroma is incredibly satisfying.
On one hand, I was thinking about the delicious food that was coming soon, but on the other hand, I felt that this pilaf should be served with some soup.
I don't know if I can drink the mutton soup at noon.
Immersed in his own world, Yang Tao had almost forgotten about the live streaming equipment next to him.
Little did he know that several people had already arrived in the live stream room, and these people seemed to recognize him.
[Da Huilang: Oh my god, Xiao Taozi is live streaming? What is he live streaming about?]
[This trashy game ruined my youth: ...What else could it be? It's probably in someone's kitchen.]
[42 Concrete Mixing Spaghetti: Hey buddy, why are you just showing me the food but not me?]
[God of Inflated Coupons: I must say, it looks pretty appetizing. Especially the lamb; the color alone tells you it's good quality lamb.]
[Carrying a bucket up the mountain: Holy crap, the rice, the color, the soup.]
[Da Huilang: ...Speak up, you bastard! Are you just here to get revenge for me taking all your toilet paper before the National Day holiday?]
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Author's Note: I really can't stay up any longer, so I'll just update once and then I'll take a break. I apologize to everyone; staying up all night has left my mind a bit foggy, and I'm not entirely sure about what I've written. There will be another update before midnight at the latest.
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