The Breakfast Stall in Garden Community [Gourmet]

[Running a High School Cafeteria: A Gourmet Guide] is now available. Please add it to your collection! Also coming later: [The Little Canteen by the School Gate]. Blurb at the end. Blurb: Song Xin was a skilled cook. After graduating, she worked for six months and promptly became a human resentment-making machine. With the New Year approaching, she listened to her boss draw up another round of empty promises in a meeting. At last she couldn't take it anymore. She quit on the spot and walked out. Back home, her parents, who were hopeless cooks, were about to fry meatballs. She rolled up her sleeves and took the spoon. At three in the afternoon, the smell of fried meatballs drifted through the apartment hallway, and the residents' group chat exploded with excitement. The fried meatballs are here! * After the New Year, a new breakfast stand opened at the entrance to Garden Estate. It was a hit as soon as it opened. Soon, the line of customers stretched around several corners. Garden Estate became the most envied neighborhood around. From the fried meatballs and delicious tangyuan at the beginning, to warm, rich bone-broth noodles, tangy and appetizing sweet-and-sour radish slices, and sweet, crisp sugar-crusted pancakes, then seasonal rice with spring bamboo shoots and cured sausage, wisteria-flower cakes, and shepherd's-purse rice... She won over customers' taste buds on chilly mornings and gave them a good mood for the rest of the day. * The homeroom teacher of an Affiliated High School senior class recently noticed that some students' grades were soaring and that they were arriving earlier and earlier, full of enthusiasm. It was as if they'd awakened a Study System! But after observing them for a while, the teacher realized the secret lay at the breakfast stand near school. The students were willing to get up early every day for breakfast! There was something suspicious about this mysterious breakfast stand. Could it be Ah, so delicious! The teacher was hooked too. The food at this breakfast stand was unbelievably good! By the way, when will the breakfast stand at Garden Estate stop limiting purchases? I want to eat there all day long! A lighthearted, everyday Gourmet story Slow-paced and slice-of-life [The Little Canteen by the School Gate] Wei Zhoucheng returned from the big city to her small county town. She'd only wanted to lie flat and live a quiet life, but her cooking was just too good. Most importantly, there was a little kid at home who took the delicious food Wei Zhoucheng made and showed it off every day, successfully making a bunch of other kids cry with envy. As a result, just two days after Wei Zhoucheng got home, people came knocking on her door. She hadn't figured out how to apologize yet when she heard them ask, "Do you take children?" Huh? What does that mean? "Chenchen, I've watched you grow up. Now that you're home, you can't just sit around doing nothing..." The neighbor went on and on, leaving Wei Zhoucheng completely baffled. "Have you considered opening a little canteen?" Wei Zhoucheng understood. They hadn't come to settle a score. They were bringing her a business opportunity! She was about to refuse, but then she saw the hopeful look in the eyes of the little show-off at home, along with the group of kids peeking around the doorway. "I'll do it!" * -- Why are primary school kids always on the verge of tears when their teachers keep them late? -- Why have middle schoolers developed lightning speed just to get a meal? -- Why are teachers no longer willing to leave through the school's north gate after work? -- Why has the kid who never wanted to eat suddenly gotten chubby? The answers are all at Chenchen's Little Canteen! * -- "What's for lunch today?" "Braised pork, tomato and egg stir-fry, sweet-and-sour ribs, and greens." "Damn it! Do students even know how to appreciate good food?!" -- "I heard Chenchen, the owner, made little cakes today too?" "Yep, three layers with cream in the middle! Why couldn't I have been twenty years younger?" "Food this good should be enjoyed by us adults!" [Running a High School Cafeteria: A Gourmet Guide] [The Cafeteria Management System is at your service. Please select the store you wish to manage.] [We've detected a cafeteria registered in your name. Automatic binding complete.] [Beep! Beep!! Beep!!! Warning, warning, warning. Player data exceeds limits. System capacity insufficient. The System is, ] The moment Zhou Erxing got home to take over the family cafeteria, which had been passed down for generations, and stepped onto the school grounds, she heard a voice. Then she got a broken System that had turned into a cafeteria management System. Zhou Erxing flatly denied the System's complaints. "You bound me without even asking how good a cook I am." [...] [Harsh words make a System cold in the sixth month.] "System, why is your menu incomplete?" [It exploded.] * Yun City No. 1 High School was the best high school in Yun City and several neighboring cities. It had always been top of the field in interschool competitions, except for one thing: The cafeteria at Yun City No. 1 High School combined all the worst qualities of cafeteria food. Every student entering it had to ponder life's deepest question: Why do people have to eat? "Every meal is an interrogation of life, a corruption of the soul, the cruelest punishment. Every time I go to the cafeteria, my taste buds dance on the tip of a knife." -- A tearful essay by an unnamed student who scored 75 in Chinese. Boarding students brought huge bags of food whenever they returned to school, while the day students had practically become delivery drivers. Planning out meals to ensure their taste buds didn't sound the alarm on any day at school had become a secret skill passed down at Yun City No. 1 High School. Then one day, the notoriously awful Third Cafeteria got a new manager. The first-year students, who hadn't yet suffered through the cafeteria food, became the taste testers. In the morning: pork-and-shrimp buns, steamed rolls with minced meat, flatbread stuffed with vegetables, and chicken wonton soup... For lunch: sweet-and-sour ribs, pork braised with fermented tofu, beef brisket with tomatoes, and hot-and-sour fish head... Dinner was no less impressive: fried pork ribs with rice and vegetables, Qishan saozi noodles, lamb paomo... There was also beef noodle soup piled high with beef, deliciously spicy red-oil dumplings, and rice noodles in rich sesame sauce. Limited-time treats like lotus pastries, Liantang mooncakes, and golden twist doughnuts filled every student with anticipation for the Third Cafeteria. What delicious food would the Third Cafeteria have today? The Third Cafeteria quickly became number one in the hearts of the students. It was their favorite cafeteria, with no competition! Students from other schools and other cafeterias: We're all competing to be the worst. Why is Yun City No. 1 High School's Third Cafeteria secretly raising the bar?! * At the end of the week, parents at Yun City No. 1 High School made a huge spread at home, waiting for their children to return and eat like hungry beasts. "Son, why have you stopped eating? You must have lost weight after a week at school..." "Who hit you?!" The parent hadn't even had a good look at their child. Now they looked up and saw that their kid's face had puffed up a size! "No, it's just that the new cafeteria at school is so good, I ate a bit too much." Before the school year began: "Don't be scared when you go to Yun City No. 1, kid. Mom knows someone. Your grandaunt's cousin's daughter-in-law works in the Third Cafeteria. She can look after you." "How can the cafeteria look after me? Give me an extra scoop of rice?" After the school year began: "Mom, can I get my great-aunt's contact information? I don't need an extra scoop of rice. I just want to eat at the Third Cafeteria every day!" Theme: Gourmet food can comfort the heart.