Chapter 26: No Staple Food Left? Then Let’s Have Barbecue
With Su Qi's assurance, Zhang Tuohai felt relieved and stopped paying attention to the private messages he had been receiving. Instead, he directly withdrew the posted commission.
As soon as the commission was withdrawn, the people in the regional channel immediately panicked.
They had initially hoped to make a profit by taking advantage of Zhang Tuohai's acquisition opportunity, but they didn’t expect him to be so decisive as to cancel the commission outright.
This left them stunned.
It was like they had thrown flour into their hands.
Not everyone is as wealthy as Zhang Tuohai, who has the resources to make dough-based foods.
Making food from flour requires a lot of water; without water, you can't make dough, buns, steamed buns, noodles, or even baked flatbread—all of these need water as a support.
For the vast majority of people, the water they get each day is barely enough to drink, let alone use for making dough-based foods.
Flour in their hands was almost useless, even less valuable than ordinary materials.
At least wood could be burned for warmth.
Fabric could keep you warm.
But what could flour do?
Even if it was burned, it was prone to causing explosions.
Zhang Tuohai's action had a direct chokehold on them.
It woke them up from their dreams of wealth.
It made them realize that their fate had always been in Zhang Tuohai's hands.
If Zhang Tuohai truly stopped buying flour, he would just lose a bit of profit, but they might actually face hunger.
If Zhang Tuohai resolutely refused to buy flour, some of them could even starve to death.
Realizing this, some astute individuals privately messaged Zhang Tuohai to apologize sincerely and then voluntarily lowered their prices.
The lowest offer was 300 grams of bread for 500 grams of flour.
Zhang Tuohai wasn’t really trying to drive them to desperation. Seeing that they had lowered their prices, he reluctantly agreed to purchase a batch of flour, making them extremely grateful.
However, Zhang Tuohai was so pleased with the deal that he ended up trading away all the bread he had, even exchanging all his baked flatbread.
Now, he had almost no decent staple foods left.
There was still some instant noodles, but that was reserved food and couldn’t be used casually.
Looking at the sky, Zhang Tuohai realized it was already too late to steam buns.
By the time the buns were done, it would be dark.
Moreover, steaming buns required yeast, which was too troublesome for Zhang Tuohai to bother with.
He decided to have something simple tonight.
Hmm, how about a barbecue?
Zhang Tuohai rummaged through his stored ingredients, picking out one giant eagle's wing, one giant eagle's leg, a few bunches of chives, tiger hearts, tiger kidneys, tiger whips, and so on—this should be enough.
He had prepared the barbecue grill and skewers during his first shopping spree but had never found the right opportunity to use them.
Today was finally the time to put them to use.
However, after setting up the barbecue grill, Zhang Tuohai realized an awkward problem.
The giant eagle's wing was too big; the barbecue grill couldn’t accommodate it.
Zhang Tuohai's grill was a standard one, 18 centimeters wide and 2 meters long.
But the giant eagle's wing was 2 meters long and half a meter wide—bigger than the grill. What was he to do?
"Do you have a larger barbecue grill?" Zhang Tuohai messaged Su Mu.
"A larger grill? How big? Is a standard grill not enough?" Su Mu asked, curious.
"The ingredients are a bit large," Zhang Tuohai replied, sending the dimensions of the giant eagle's wing.
"The largest one I have is a roasting oven, 1.6 meters high and 1 meter wide. You can fold the wing in half, and it should work. If not, I don’t know what else to suggest," Su Mu responded, sending Zhang Tuohai the blueprint for the oven.
[Giant Roasting Oven Blueprint: An excellent companion for slow roasting. Height: 1.6 meters, Width: 1 meter. Equipped with 10 special grilling tongs.]
[Materials Required: 10 units of stone, 2 units of metal ingots, 5 units of metal fragments.]
Zhang Tuohai checked the dimensions and found it would meet his needs perfectly.
"Alright, how much?" Zhang Tuohai asked.
"This blueprint isn’t worth much. If you want it, you must be planning a barbecue, right? Just share some with us," Su Mu replied.
Su Mu knew that during the early stages of material shortages, no one would bother with such a blueprint.
Now, everyone’s resources were extremely tight, and they would prefer to split a resource in half rather than use it for something like this.
Only someone as wealthy as Zhang Tuohai would consider buying it.
So, Su Mu decided to give Zhang Tuohai a favor, essentially giving him the blueprint for free.
"Alright, I’ll give you a portion of the barbecue once it’s done," Zhang Tuohai agreed.
He guessed Su Mu’s intentions.
However, their cooperation had been pleasant, and they had built up a bit of goodwill through several transactions.
Getting to know each other better wasn’t a bad idea.
A potential ally might prove unexpectedly useful at certain times.
Receiving the blueprint, Zhang Tuohai constructed the giant roasting oven.
The giant oven looked like a massive vase, divided into three parts: a ceramic base for burning, a central roasting chamber, and a lid on top for sealing.
Zhang Tuohai ignited the wood, turning it into charcoal. He then split the giant eagle’s wing in half, coated it with sauce, skewered it with special tongs, and hung it on the hooks inside the oven. He did the same with the tiger whips, tiger hearts, and other ingredients.
Finally, he closed the lid and waited patiently.
He had seen such a roasting method in a video by a foreign uncle and had always wanted one.
Unfortunately, he had no yard for roasting, so he had to give up on that wish.
Unexpectedly, his wish was fulfilled in the apocalypse, leaving him speechless.
This kind of roasting method was different from ordinary grilling.
Ordinary grilling is open, leading to significant moisture loss. If grilled too long, the meat becomes burnt and tough; if grilled even longer, it can even turn to charcoal.
It requires a high level of skill from the griller.
In contrast, the closed roasting method retains moisture, making the meat tender and preventing it from burning.
It’s like the difference between hanging-roasted duck and slow-roasted duck.
About 20 minutes later, Zhang Tuohai opened the lid and took out half of the roasted wing. He cut a piece with a knife and tasted it.
Hmm, the meat was tender, and the sauce had fully penetrated the meat. The flavor was excellent.
"Who would have thought I was actually a barbecue master? If I could go back, opening a barbecue shop might make a lot of money," he mused.