Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

Chapter 493 - 405: Watching Mukbang Videos Is Even More Addictive Than Gaming

When Rovena finally made out the few lines of menu written on the blackboard, she rubbed her eyes in disbelief, thinking she must have seen it wrong.

"Isn’t this a buffet restaurant? Why are they starting to sell sandwiches individually?"

"Could it be to make it easier for diners to pack up and take away, so they can have a bite while playing?"

"Then where is Lin now? I wouldn’t have wasted more than twenty minutes queuing here in vain, would I?"

He hadn’t thought about this issue at all before, instinctively just came to queue, only now realizing something was off.

Since Lin has a food truck, he might very likely not be working in the restaurant, but driving around with the truck, setting up stalls for promotion.

Thinking of this, Rovena suddenly panicked, unsure whether to continue queuing or what.

Just then, Helena happened to come over from the front to distribute wristbands to guests, while settling bills; his eyes lit up.

"Miss!"

"Is this queue for the buffet or what? Is Chef Lin in the restaurant?"

"He is."

Helena glanced at him and replied with a smile: "The buffet comes with this wristband, which is provided upon payment, and using the wristband you can go in and get food."

"If you don’t eat buffet and want to buy Chef Lin’s sandwich breakfast, then you don’t need to pay in advance, just go in directly when it’s your turn later."

"This queue is to prevent too many diners inside the restaurant causing chaos, affecting everyone’s dining experience, and it’s hard to handle when there are too many people."

Situations like these might happen every half hour or so; there are always diners who are a bit distracted and don’t pay attention to what’s being called up front, she’s long used to it.

Or rather, this is one of the most frequent incidents a server might encounter.

Hearing that Lin Chen was actually in the restaurant today and not out running about, Rovena let out a long breath of relief.

Lucky!

But isn’t Chef Lin fond of cooking Chinese cuisine? How come he’s suddenly making sandwiches?

Could it be Great Xia-flavored sandwiches?

Thinking of the delicious garlic flavor from yesterday, Rovena instinctively licked her lips, already beginning to anticipate the taste of those sandwiches.

Looking at the menu alone, there didn’t seem to be anything special, all are familiar flavors except for the purple sweet potato sandwich which looked odd.

But since it’s foreign-flavored, the plain translated name makes sense.

Better wait to eat and see.

Not far off.

Sergy, leaning against the tree trunk, bobbed his head up and down, appearing to be dozing.

At a certain instant, he suddenly realized he had nodded off, jerked his head up.

"Thud!"

"Ah! Tsk..."

The back of his head solidly bumped into the tree trunk, hurting so much he bared his teeth, but the previously muddled state also dissipated completely at this moment, his gaze turning exceptionally clear.

"What time is it... Damn, it’s already past seven thirty!?"

A lapse of attention surprisingly let nearly an hour slip by.

He quickly turned to look towards the restaurant not far away, seeing the long line still at the entrance, a sense of unease settled in his heart instead of a boulder-like relief.

After all this time, should I still queue?

If I were to queue now, by the time it’s my turn the restaurant might be nearly closing, leaving little to eat and fewer customers then, I’d definitely face Su directly.

But if I don’t queue, I can only observe from afar like now, not seeing a thing.

"Wait, that doesn’t make sense, why am I feeling guilty?"

While pondering, he suddenly slapped his thigh, "I’m not the one sneaking around keeping secrets, so why should I feel guilty?"

"Since Su is working inside, according to what the security in front said, I can enter and dine as a relative completely openly."

"At that point, it should be Su who explains what’s going on to me, right?"

"But it might be too late for breakfast now, I can wait for lunch, the lunch menu must be better than breakfast."

"Having stayed here for so long, it seems indeed I haven’t stayed at the big hotel here, nor have I tried how this newly opened restaurant’s food tastes."

"Judging by the popularity, the taste should be pretty good, right?"

With this thought, he felt a surge of confidence swelling from the depths of his heart, holding the tree trunk to stand up vigorously, striding towards the restaurant.

First check what time lunch starts, then queue early!

Having just walked a short distance into the parking lot, several women holding kraft paper bags came toward him, all bearing bright smiles, seeming to be coming out of the restaurant after dining.

With a quick spark, he immediately stepped forward and intercepted them with his arm out.

"Sorry, ladies, may I trouble you for a minute?"

"Anything we can help with?"

The women apparently in a good mood had no reaction to his act of stopping them.

At this time in this place, surely it’s about asking something related to the restaurant.

"The thing is, my girlfriend is working inside the restaurant, but she didn’t tell me, I’m afraid showing up suddenly before her might startle her, seeing you’ve just finished dining, I wanted to ask how the food inside is?"

"Ah! Is that so? What’s your girlfriend’s name?"

"Su."

"Oh, oh, oh! Is she the girl at the reception? It seems like her name tag has that name."

"I heard she just started a few days ago. It should be her; quite pretty."

"Which server working in there isn’t pretty? You can’t work at a fancy hotel without some looks!"

The group chatted away, focusing entirely on discussing the servers’ appearances and figures.

Sergy twitched his lips a few times, didn’t dare interrupt their excitement, and could only wait silently.

After a dozen seconds, they finally seemed to realize.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, our chat got sidetracked. You wanted to ask about the food, right?"

"Chef Lin’s skills are well-known in the area. His Great Xia cuisine completely overturned our perceptions, and many diners who come here for it find the same. It turns out Great Xia cuisine isn’t that sour and sweet fried stuff."

"The buffet inside is done by a white chef, and today Chef Lin is making Great Xia flavored sandwiches. Oh, let me show you directly."

Saying that, someone picked up a bag, revealing the beautifully packaged sandwich box inside.

Through the transparent lid, you could clearly see the neatly cut, colorful sandwich slices, especially the one with a thick layer of purple in the middle, offering a stronger visual impact.

Beside the box were a few round objects wrapped in red wax paper, looking like burger shapes.

The woman proudly picked up a burger, opened it in front of him, revealing the true face of the burger.

"????"

Just one look, and Sergy’s eyes widened with shock written all over his face.

"Is this a burger? Why is the bread so flat?"

"Yes, it’s a Great Xia flavor burger, naturally different from what we normally eat."

"Don’t be fooled by the thin bread; it tastes chewy and resilient like naan. You get it? Like the naan from Indu or the Middle East."

"The fried chicken and beef patty inside are incredibly juicy, especially the beef patty, like a fountain. Be careful when eating; it’ll flow out!"

Just from a glance and hearing them chat a bit more, Sergy’s curiosity was completely piqued, eager to try and see what these unique sandwiches tasted like.

"Oh, by the way!"

One of them checked the time with a regretful face and said, "This place closes at nine for breakfast, and it’s almost eight now. It takes about an hour to queue, so you might not get to eat if you line up now."

"But we can’t say for sure; you can go try."

"Even if you don’t get to eat, surprising your girlfriend is still something, right? Working hard all morning must be tiring; give her a loving hug!"

"Bye, if we’re lucky we might see each other at lunch~"

The ladies waved at him, signaling him to hurry and line up, while they walked toward the hotel.

Sergy swallowed his saliva and without hesitation, quickly jogged over to the back of the line.

This restaurant’s menu is even more varied than he imagined!

While in line, the diners in front kept discussing things about Lin Chen, even holding up phones watching food videos.

Listening quietly for a few minutes, he finally caught some keywords.

Picking up his phone to log into the Radisson website, he quickly found the pinned link entry for the hot vote on the homepage.

Upon clicking in, the various intriguing dishes firmly captured his attention, reading one by one meticulously downwards, with no desire to skip.

"Great Xia cuisine is divided into so many categories?"

"Looks pretty impressive; no wonder they said what they ate before were western-style modified Great Xia dishes, and now it indeed seems like that."

"This webpage link should be the video entry they were watching, right?"

"Oh, oh, they even have social media accounts. This restaurant is interesting, even sending the head chef out to shoot videos."

Based on the comments on the previous web page, he quickly found the most popular videos.

Sizzling oil big skewers barbecue, golden and snow-white garlic grilled oysters, hand-grabbed seafood soaked in red oil, crispy juice-exploding Chinese burgers...

"Sir, sir?"

Suddenly, someone patted his arm.

Sergy jolted back to reality, realizing he had unknowingly come closer to the front of the queue.

In front of him stood a stunningly beautiful woman, even more attractive than his girlfriend, with a fiery figure and breathtaking looks that made him afraid to meet her gaze directly.

"We’re very sorry, sir, but we’ve just been notified that the breakfast stock isn’t enough. Do you want to get a lunch queue number, or?"

Lunch?

Sergy blinked and glanced at the time on his phone.

Eight forty-five.

An hour gone???

Watching food videos felt like playing games, completely unaware of time passing.

"What time does lunch start?"

"Lunch is from eleven to one, but queuing typically starts around ten thirty, and Chef Lin might even start earlier with the self-service at eleven."