A queue had already formed outside Lin's Restaurant.
"Hey, don't miss out!" Lin Weiming's enthusiastic voice rang out: "Come and have a taste, come and have a look! Free samples, free samples! Anyone interested is welcome to come and try some!"
Even in later times of great abundance, the idea of free samples is hard to resist.
Moreover, this is a time when even after a good meal, people still need to exert all their strength.
Lin's Restaurant had only been open for a short time when the queue was already very long.
"Hey, sir," the young pharmacy clerk said, taking a few deep breaths of the enticing aroma, drooling as he asked the middle-aged man beside him, "What exactly do they sell? It smells so good!"
"I don't know either. I stood on tiptoe to take a look, but I really couldn't figure out what it was. But since it's a free sample, we'll go over and try it later and find out!" The person next to him, like him, twitched his nose, and drool dripped from the corner of his mouth, which he wiped clean with his sleeve.
They quickly reached the front of the line and saw several dark-colored things being grilled on a row of iron racks. A young man was brushing black sauce on them and adding some pickled radishes, pickled cabbage, and other side dishes, making the things sizzle as they grilled.
The middle-aged woman deftly skewered the dark substance with a stick, sprinkled it with some unknown substance, and in that instant, the aroma spread once again.
A little girl dressed in a pink ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), with two newly blooming pink cherry blossoms on her head, was holding something that had already been roasted. She was now struggling with it with her few tiny teeth, eating it with great relish.
The aroma was so strong that just watching the little girl eat made their mouths water.
The people in front were calling out, "Come over and try it later, it's free! If you don't like it, don't buy it, or you don't have to pay."
Lin Weiming was holding a large plate with several small pieces of food skewered on small sticks. He would give one piece to anyone who came over and wanted a free sample.
Just the right amount, not too much, not too little, just the right amount for one bite.
"Boss," the young waiter approached, asking curiously, "What is this thing? I've never seen it before?"
"These finely roasted sweet potato noodles," the little girl explained in a soft, sweet voice, "are delicious!"
"Here you go." Lin Weiming handed a small piece of roasted sweet potato skin to the young waiter with a smile and said, "This is called roasted sweet potato skin. It's made with sweet potato starch and is soft and chewy. It's filled with minced meat sauce and various pickled vegetables. It's a snack from Sichuan. Try it and see. If you like it, you can buy more. If you don't like it, you don't have to spend any money."
The waiter stuffed the free roasted sweet potato skin into his mouth. The first bite was salty, fragrant, soft, and chewy. With each bite, he could taste the minced meat sauce inside, which had a slightly sweet flavor, but the main flavor was the aroma of the meat sauce itself.
However, the aroma was quickly overwhelmed by the smells of pickled radishes, pickled cowpeas, and pickled cabbage, and was swallowed whole as a result of chewing.
This stuff is really delicious!
However, the drawback is also obvious: this piece of roasted sweet potato skin is too small!
He only took one bite before it was gone.
It's sour and spicy, and it whets the appetite.
The young man took a bite, but instead of feeling full, he wanted to eat more and more.
"It really is delicious..." It was still early morning, and the young man hadn't had breakfast yet. He took out the money he had prepared to buy meat buns from his pocket, swallowed hard, and asked cautiously, "Then, how much is this piece of roasted sweet potato skin?"
"The price isn't expensive, just three coins! My mom is grilling these big pieces right now, three coins a piece. If you like them, just come and buy some," Lin Weiming said with a smile.
The main ingredient in roasted sweet potato skin is sweet potato starch. Sweet potatoes are cheap and can grow in two or three months, resulting in high yields. However, unless it's a famine year, no one would eat sweet potatoes every day, and eating too many sweet potatoes can upset your stomach.
But sweet potato starch won't, and the roasted sweet potato skin made with sweet potato starch won't either. It's also spicy, delicious, and filling.
Besides the sweet potato starch, the remaining pickled vegetables were all made by the villagers themselves, and the Lin family's jars cost almost nothing.
The only meat sauce that cost some money was just a thin layer brushed on, and the amount used was pitifully small.
"Give me one! I like these green beans, can I have more?" The waiter's eyes lit up.
He took out the few copper coins he was holding in his hand.
The meat buns were two coins each, and these roasted sweet potato wrappers also had meat sauce inside, as well as so many pickled radishes and pickled cowpeas. They looked much bigger than the meat buns, and tasted delicious, and they only cost three coins!
After doing some mental calculations, the young man decided that eating the grilled skin was more worthwhile.
Liu Junlan moved nimbly and quickly took another sweet potato skin that had been baked the night before, placed it on the iron rack to grill, brushed the other side with her secret meat sauce, and put all kinds of pickled vegetables on it.
Yesterday, Lin Wanyue suggested that they could make some grilled meat, grilled meatballs, and other similar items, and wrap them in sweet potato wrappers to differentiate themselves.
However, since it was only their first day of business, they were worried that people in the county wouldn't like the food, so they didn't make many preparations.
She quickly finished, skewered the sweet potato peels with bamboo skewers, and handed them to the young waiter.
The young waiter was holding a roasted sweet potato skin, about to stuff it into the abyss's gaping maw, when he first saw his boss standing at the door waving at him.
waiter: "..."
So he had no choice but to carry the roasted skin back to the pharmacy.
"Let me try it first!" The pharmacy owner snatched the item from his hand. "What exactly is this?"
He had been drooling over the aroma of this thing for a long time, and now that the young man had finally brought it back, he couldn't wait to take a bite.
"But boss, this is what I bought... I haven't had breakfast yet," the young shop assistant said, feeling aggrieved.
The pharmacy owner, Li Changde, had a big mouth, and he stuffed the whole plate of roasted sweet potato skin into his stomach in just a few bites.
He hadn't eaten breakfast either; this sour roasted skin wasn't enough to fill his stomach.
"Then hurry up and buy two more servings! Your boss isn't full yet either!" Li Changde asked, "How much is this serving? I'll pay you!"
"Three coins, just three coins a serving." The waiter's sorrow turned to joy immediately, and he looked at his boss expectantly.
"Alright." Li Changde took out ten copper coins from his pocket and handed them to him: "Take these, and remember to bring me back a copy as well!"
"Alright, I'll bring it back right away!" The young shop assistant grabbed the copper coin and ran off in a flash, his face beaming with joy.
He's really lucky today. Not only did he get to eat such delicious food first thing in the morning, but he also made four coins from the stingy boss!
There were just too many people in line.
The young shop assistant was standing on tiptoe looking ahead when he felt someone press down on his shoulder. He turned around and saw that it was a few thugs from the Jiang family pawnshop.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com