Free Web NovelChapter 1126: Chapter 457: Mantou Sandwiches—What Kind of Way to Eat Is This? Zhen Wensheng: You Will Regret This! [Subscription Request]
Next, add the dried green beans and continue stir-frying to drive out the moisture; that way the dried beans will taste better.
Once the dried beans are fried dry, pour in a big bowl of stock, then drizzle in some dark soy sauce, add a bit of sugar and a spoonful of oyster sauce, bring it to a boil over high heat, and dump in the dough drops.
Let it simmer briefly, then turn up the heat to reduce the sauce.
When the reddish glossy sauce clings to the surface of the dough drops, drizzle in some seasoning oil, turn off the heat, and plate it.
"Time to eat!"
He carried a small basin of fried dough drops to the table, then set out Ginger Lotus Root, salted duck eggs, and a small plate of pickles.
Shu Yun helped bring over the steamed buns, and Dou Wenjing brought the bowls and chopsticks.
Last, Lin Xu carried the pot of freshly cooked plain rice porridge over, clay pot and all. After ladling out a bowl for each person, breakfast officially began.
"One salted duck egg per person. These steamed buns are hollow; you can stuff them with fried dough drops or pickles to eat."
Lin Xu peeled the salted duck eggs that had cooled enough not to burn the hands, and dropped them into the white porridge.
This was how he’d liked to eat since he was a kid: take a sip of porridge, then pick up a bit of salted duck egg with his chopsticks and pop it into his mouth, the briny savoriness mingling with the clean fragrance of the rice porridge.
When you get to the yolk, the golden oil seeps out and gives the entire bowl of porridge a rich umami aroma.
Seeing this, Shen Jiayue also sank her salted duck egg into the porridge.
The porridge was still very hot and couldn’t be drunk yet, so she started with the steamed bun.
She tore open the bun, scooped some fried dough drops into the slit with a small spoon, added a few pieces of pickles, then held it in her hand and took a bite.
The bun was fluffy and soft, the fried dough drops inside were springy and tasty, with tender fragrant cubes of meat and chewy dried green beans mixed in.
One bite down, and you felt comfortable all over.
Shen Guofu couldn’t stop eating at all:
"How come we never thought of eating it like this before? Stuffing it in a bun like this is really satisfying."
Dou Wenjing said with a smile:
"I used to only hear jokes about ’buns with noodle filling’ and thought it sounded funny. Didn’t expect to actually eat it today, and it actually tastes really good."
Shu Yun chimed in:
"Yeah, though in many places in the Northern region they always had carb-stuffed-with-carb ways of eating. You could say we’re going back to tradition."
Lin Xu had never eaten fried dough drops before, hadn’t even seen them, and thought cooking them this way wouldn’t be good, but it turned out surprisingly good.
Turns out adding diced meat and stock was the right call.
This stuff needs to be fragrant enough for it to taste good.
"Once Xiaoqi-jie finishes the resignation paperwork, Wenjing-jie, you coordinate with Sister Yan over there and terminate the portrait authorization for me, my senior brother, and all on-camera chefs. Also, the title inscription from Mr. Lishan has to be deauthorized as well. You two can discuss the specific steps, and if necessary, ask Brother Feng to negotiate."
During the meal, Lin Xu started arranging the cleanup work for breaking with the TV station.
He couldn’t control how the TV station broadcast the show, but he could terminate authorization for use of his likeness, and the other chefs could do the same.
After all, this show had sponsors and ads; it wasn’t a public-service program. The people appearing on camera had the right to choose to terminate authorization.
Dou Wenjing bit into a bun:
"Okay, I’ll talk to General Manager Chen after we finish eating and straighten this out."
Shen Guofu said with a smile:
"This is actually a good thing for you. It’s way better than letting it grow into the flagship show of a satellite channel and then getting interfered with. Breaking off now has very little impact; you can move forward unburdened."
Lin Xu nodded:
"Once the food show is on the right track, I’ll talk with Liu Zhengyu and work with the National Travel Association to launch our own travel program."
Food and travel naturally complement each other. A lot of people travel not just for the scenery; food is also a big draw. It’s perfect to use the show to discover some local specialties.
That would be a good thing for both Joyful Media and Lin Xu.
After the meal, Lin Xu tidied up the kitchen, then left home with everyone to head to the restaurant and start a new workday.
The TV station.
Zhen Wensheng looked at the resignation letters from the members of the production team and let out a helpless sigh:
"You’ve endured a lot these past few years. Now the channel has finally started to pick up a bit, and yet... I’m sorry. As your boss I’ve failed you, made you suffer."
Yesterday he’d slammed the table and thrown cups in front of the station leadership, but it had been useless.
So when he saw everyone’s resignation letters today, he wasn’t surprised; instead he just felt very guilty.
The benefits he’d promised everyone when the channel was founded had never been fulfilled. Only in these past few months had the Travel Channel finally "turned serf and sung," and then this mess happened.
After signing off on their resignations, he said:
"Just go straight to HR and handle the paperwork. I’ve already given them a heads-up; they won’t dare make things difficult for you."
After all, Zhen Wensheng was still the channel director. Though he couldn’t withstand pressure from the station leadership, he had no problem giving the HR folks a hard time if needed.
Zeng Xiaoqi opened her mouth, just about to say something, but Zhen Wensheng waved his hand:
"Go deal with the formalities. Your pension and social security and such are a bit more complicated than theirs. The sooner you finish, the sooner you can go home. When you’re not busy anymore, remember to treat me to a meal."
"Okay, I’ll definitely treat you!"
Everyone bowed to Zhen Wensheng and left his office.
After his close-knit staff walked out, Zhen Wensheng wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, steadied his mood, left the Travel Channel, and went to the station leadership’s office.
At this time, several leaders inside were discussing who would take over Taste of the World.
Seeing Zhen Wensheng come in, they asked curiously:
"Did you manage to talk Zeng Xiaoqi around?"
Zhen Wensheng shook his head:
"No. She resigned, and the entire production team resigned."
"Huh, such backbone? If they resign, they resign. This program has a mature template. We’ll just keep shooting. We’ve still got Mr. Lishan anyway..."
Zhen Wensheng sat down on the sofa:
"Mr. Lishan went back too, and at the same time terminated authorization for his title inscription."
"An old man with such a strange temper isn’t suitable to work with anyway."
"It’s fine. We’ll just find another person from the cultural circle to sit in as our authority. No big deal."
"He won’t be on camera anyway, so who it is doesn’t matter."
Watching them muttering as they discussed, Zhen Wensheng said:
"I told you yesterday you’d regret this. The best development path for this show is to let Zeng Xiaoqi run it herself, because she can draw on Lin Xu’s clout. Other people don’t have that kind of pull."
The head of the advertising department said disdainfully:
"Old Zhen, don’t act like that kid is so important. Without Lin Xu and his senior brother, we can just find other chefs to cook on camera. There are so many famous chefs in Yanjing. I don’t believe I can’t just call up Huo Yuanchao, the executive chef at the Summer Palace, and ask him to be our on-camera chef."
Zhen Wensheng didn’t say anything; he just smiled faintly.
This leader, a bit annoyed, pulled out his phone and called Huo Yuanchao:
"Old Huo, this is Old Liu from the advertising department at Yanjing TV Station. We met at that dinner last time... I’ve got a food show here that needs a famous chef to appear on camera. Do you have any free time?"
He’d thought Huo Yuanchao would readily agree, but what he heard instead was...
"On camera? I can’t promise you that for now. I’ve signed a talent contract with that Joyful Media. Maybe you should talk to them first. If you can work things out, I’ll appear."
Joyful Media?
Isn’t that the company Lin Xu has shares in?
They’d just offended Lin Xu’s friend; now they wanted to approach them for on-camera work? That was obviously impossible.
If it were someone else, maybe they could be tempted with an appearance fee; but neither Joyful Media nor those head chefs were hurting for money. A bit of cash wasn’t going to lure them.
As for big money... the sponsors weren’t the God of Wealth; they couldn’t just keep shelling it out.
The other department heads nearby, seeing how this was going, also contacted some famous chefs they knew.
But without exception, all those chefs had already signed with Joyful Media, and quite a few were literally at Joyful Media right then, having a meeting to plan new food shows.
This...
Everyone looked at each other, feeling like they’d just picked up a rock and smashed their own feet.
Watching this, Zhen Wensheng was secretly delighted.
He’d told them they would regret it. Now look—comfortable, isn’t it?
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This Chapter is 5,600 characters. It’s the end of the month—brothers, I’m asking for a Monthly Ticket.
