Unpaid Food Testers

Food fills the stomach, diligence is rewarded by Heaven, true flavor is simple, and its benefits are subtle and pervasive.

[Special side quest triggered for people's livelihood: [Warmth in the Snow - Don't Let It Go!]]

[Task Description: A true master chef not only excels at preparing exquisite dishes in a grand hall, but also warms the hearts of the hungry and cold on a snowy night.]

[Task Requirements: Serve at least one hundred servings today of "Casserole with Pickled Cabbage and Black Fish with Crystal Noodles" and "Stewed Pork Belly with Pickled Cabbage and Vermicelli."]

[Temporary system support activated:]

[1. Starting immediately, Lingtian Farm and the system's cold storage will have their special quotas of ingredients required for this mission fully unlocked!]

【2. 解锁供给：极品黑山猪带皮精五花肉300斤、灵泉鲜活大黑鱼100尾、绝品【古法天青坛陈酿雪里红】50坛、绝品【灵泉纯手工雪丝红薯粉】100捆！】

[3. Culinary God-Level Passive Efficiency Enhancement: [Master Butcher's Skill] doubles hand speed, [Multiple Fire Control] doubles control over heat!]

[Task Rewards: System points will be awarded based on completion progress, and the ecological area of ​​Lingtian Farm will be doubled!]

A series of prompts from deep within my mind rolled down like thunder.

Lin Fan, who was about to completely shut himself away from visitors, suddenly paused for a second.

Seeing Lin Fan suddenly fall silent, Boss Zhang outside the door assumed he was completely enraged and about to slam the door and kick him out. His hand, clutching the banknotes, stiffened, and the hope in his eyes slowly faded, replaced by an undisguised despair.

"Boss Lin... really... really can't you even have a sip of hot water...?"

The deliveryman lowered his head, tucked his frostbitten fingers into his sleeves, gave a resigned wry smile, and turned to push the electric scooter parked on the side of the road.

Su Xiaoxiao and Aunt Wang in the lobby also sighed and reached out to help Lin Fan push the heavy door back up.

however.

In the moment when everyone was disheartened and ready to scatter in the biting cold wind.

On Lin Fan's calm and deep face, his brows relaxed slightly.

He slowly lowered his right hand, which had been resting on the door frame, his gaze sweeping over the deliveryman's ears, which were blue from the cold, and over Boss Zhang's bloodshot eyes, before settling steadily on the faces of the thirty-odd people outside the door, who were starving and freezing.

Lin Fan's voice wasn't loud, but in the deathly silent alley, every word landed clearly:

"...The portion of food prepared for the tasting has indeed been eaten."

Lin Fan abruptly changed the subject:

"but--"

"We happen to have a batch of fresh ingredients that just arrived at the store."

Lin Fan's gaze swept over the crowd:

"We urgently need a group of unpaid food tasters to help us try out some new winter dishes."

Upon hearing this, the previously noisy crowd fell silent for half a second.

Mr. Zhang, the owner of the hardware store at the very front, still had his hand suspended in mid-air, clutching the crumpled hundred-yuan bill, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Free...tasting?"

The delivery guy behind him, who was shivering from the cold, stood frozen in place, gripping his helmet straps with both hands, swallowing hard, and hardly believing his ears.

Lin Fan stood on the threshold, his expression calm, and spoke crisply: "The shop has a sign that says it's closed. We won't charge you a penny today."

"We just brought in two new dishes from the kitchen: one is braised black carp with pickled cabbage and glass noodles, and the other is braised pork belly with skin and glass noodles."

"If you want to eat, go to the right-hand street-facing window to queue up. There's only one rule: after you finish eating, write two honest sentences on a sticky note, whether it's too salty or bland, or whether the noodles are too soft or too hard, just tell the truth."

After hearing this, Boss Zhang slapped his thigh and shoved the banknotes in his hand back into his cotton-padded coat pocket as if afraid Lin Fan would change his mind. He then turned and rushed towards the wooden window on his right.

"Line up! I'll be first! Boss Lin, for saying that, I'll write you two whole pages of notes after we finish eating!"

"I'll join the queue too! Excuse me, brother, don't cut in line!"

The delivery guy propped his electric scooter on the curb and followed after him in a few quick steps.

The thirty-odd people behind them seemed to wake up from a dream. The neighbors, passing drivers, and nearby shop owners who had been crowding in front of the main entrance waving banknotes all rushed to the takeout window on the right and formed a long queue according to the order of arrival.

Old Liu tucked his copper pipe behind his waist, stood beside the line, and used his hoarse voice to maintain order:

"Don't push forward! Take half a step back! Step on the heels of the person in front of you, and whoever pushes will have their share deducted! Stand properly!"

Middle-aged patrolman Lao Wang also came over with Xiao Chen, and casually pulled over the police cordon at the street corner, placing it outside the team to avoid blocking the way for pedestrians on the back street.

In the lobby, Su Xiaoxiao quickly ran to the front desk counter, took out two large boxes of folded, thickened kraft paper insulated bowls and two full bags of plastic soup spoons, and placed them on the preparation table at the takeout window.

Aunt Wang couldn't sit still any longer. She washed her hands, put on her apron, and went over to help spread out the paper bowls.

"Little one, let me help you divide the bowls."

"Hey! Thank you, ma'am!" Su Xiaoxiao replied crisply, pushing the wooden sliding window of the food pick-up window all the way up and locking it in place.

In the kitchen, the stove was already roaring.

Lin Fan returned to the warehouse, and with a slight thought, the system's exclusive quota was instantly allocated to him.

On the large stainless steel refrigerated platform in the ice storage room, hundreds of kilograms of sliced ​​black mountain pig pork belly with skin are neatly stacked. Each piece is a standard three-layered cut of pork belly with alternating layers of fat and lean meat. The skin has been singed with a blowtorch to remove fine hairs and scraped clean until it is white and translucent.

In the two large live-water aquaculture tanks next to it, dozens of Lingquan blackfish, each weighing about five pounds, were swimming violently, splashing water everywhere.

[Master Butcher's Skill] Passive skill activated.

Lin Fan's wrist sank slightly, and the thin-bladed knife in his hand almost turned into a blur.

"Sizzle! Sizzle!"

With a swift stroke, a blackfish was caught, stunned, scaled, gutted, and deboned in less than fifteen seconds.

The blade was pushed along the spine, and the entire piece of fish meat was removed; then a slicing knife was used to cut at a 30-degree angle, and with a series of wrist flicks, more than two hundred translucent fish slices, each 1.5 millimeters thick, fell into a large porcelain basin like snowflakes.

Salt, wine, water, and kneading until the fish fillets are firm, then egg white, starch, and oil are added to seal in the oil. The entire process of coating 200 jin (100 kg) of fish fillets is completed in six minutes.

On the other side of the large cutting board, the pace of slicing pork belly with skin is even faster.

The heavy scalpel cut down smoothly, slicing the pork belly into thin slices two inches long and half a finger wide, with the fat, lean meat, and skin all evenly cut, as if measured with calipers.

Lin Fan pushed all the sliced ​​meat into the large pot of boiling water next to him to blanch it and remove the foam, then took it out and drained it.

Both high-powered stoves were turned to their maximum.

On the left is the main stove, with a large, deep iron pot, one meter in diameter, on it.

Lin Fan scooped in two large spoonfuls of cooked black mountain pork fat to coat the wok, then added a handful of ginger slices, crushed garlic cloves, and dried chili pepper segments to sauté until fragrant. After that, he poured in a full fifty pounds of blanched pork belly slices with skin.