This could be considered one of Di Tou's few passions in his rather mundane life. He liked going around looking for cheap eats that were of decent quality. This was a rather typical hobby for a working class man, but Di Tou liked to think he was relatively bold in this front.
After all, the streetfront food industry wasn't an easy one.
While many people liked to claim to be experts that knew the "good places" in the local area that were "hidden gems" the reality of the matter is that the ones they recognized… were still notable restaurants.
The attitude that the majority of people have when coming upon an unfamiliar food street is to look for something that is filling, cost-efficient, hygienic, and most importantly, safe.
Now you might be wondering how that's different from hygienic. Well, there's a negative connotation associated with many of these restaurants, in terms of whether or not the place is just a front for money laundering, or if they use non-spoiled ingredients.
Many customers will look inside the restraunt to see if there is anyone sitting down already. If the place doesn't look at least half full… Well, there's no harm in trying the place next door that is filled.
In such a manner, many storefronts that don't hire or summon their own people to sit down and take up space for the majority of the day struggle to find new customers, even if they really do have good food. As for reoccurring customers, haha, you have to have a customer first to even think about it.
In many ways it's quite like writing a novel. But I digress.
Di Tou was relatively bold in that he was willing to risk going to a new restaurant almost every time he ate out, and over the course of a year he would eat his way through the food street. Then from there he could pick his favorites.
As for how often he went out to eat… Well, for a man of Di Tou's culinary ability, let's just say it was both more cost efficient and time efficient to eat out for dinner - lunch was typically available in the company canteen.
Anyways, walking into the rather deserted and hidden restaurant, Di Tou was imminently greeted by the strong smell of garlic and the sight of a slightly plump bald man wearing a bloodied apron wielding a butchers knife at a rack of ribs.
Looking around, the noodle shop was bigger then expected, as after the narrow entry way it expanded out into a reasonably large sized room that was maybe 15 by 15 meters, condoned off in one corner by the kitchen area.
There was only one other customer inside. A angry looking woman with a scar on her neck, who was currently glaring at the bald man, who was presumably the owner and chef.
Seeing Di Tou, the man chopping the ribs paused for a second, looking up to see who entered, before looking back down and continuing at his job.
Di Tou hesitated for a moment, before choosing the table next to the angry looking woman and asked, "Laoban (boss) what do you have here?"
The plump man, not even looking up replied, "Rib noodles."
"Ah?" Di Tou paused for a moment, "No other options?"
"Just rib noodles today."
"Alright, I'll take one bowl of rib noodles."
"Alright. You'll have to wait for a bit. She's before you." The plump man gestured slightly with his head towards the angry lady.
Di Tou followed the gesture to look at the angry lady to find her glaring at him, as if challenging him to try to steal the first bowl of noodles.
"Ahem." Di Tou shifted his eyes away.
…
10 minutes passed, and the boss was still chopping the ribs.
…
Another 10 minutes passed, and the boss had begun to handmade noodles.
…
Yet another 10 minutes passed, and the boss had just started boiling the water.
…
Before the next 10 minutes could pass, Di Tou couldn't help but say something, to break the silence that had sat in the room for the past 30 minutes.
"Boss." The boss stopped staring at the boiling water to look at Di Tou, moving his hand to lift the cleaver.
"Haha, take your time, I'm looking forward to it. Haha..."
Turning around, Di Tou looked at the lady, who while still looking angry, had turned to direct her gaze at the chopsticks in her hand.
"Ahem, this missus, are you a regular here?"
"…"
F*ck. He gave up alright?
He'll just quietly wait for the noodles.
They better be d*mn good noodles.
After waiting, you guessed it, another 10 long minutes, Di Tou was starting to get a bit frustrated.
It's been forty minutes already, ah?
It's not even like he couldn't justify waiting forty minutes for food, but these were noodles right? They were supposed to be fast, and even if that was ignored… WHY HAD IT BEEN ABSOLUTELY SILENT IN THE MEANTIME!?
It wasn't even like nobody else had tried to enter the shop in the meantime, one or two more people had stepped in the door, taken one look at the awkward trio assembled inside, and in a manner much wiser then Di Tou, sprinted the f*ck out.
"Aiya…" Slumping his head down into his arms, Di Tou gave up. He had already been here for forty minutes, and if he left now, not only would he not be able to get over the grievance in his own heart, he had a feeling he would be leaving with a cleaver in his back.
"This better be good or I'm giving you a 1 star review and calling the food sanitation board on you." Di Tou joked to himself.
After another… unnamed duration of time that happened to be a sixth of an hour, as Di Tou was starting to drift off…
*SLAM*
Di Tou, startled, jumped out of his seat… and pulled his back.
"F*CK."
Coming to his senses, Di Tou saw the boss staring at him expressionlessly.
"Two spirit stones."
"Ah?"
"Two spirit stones."
"Ah, okay."
Still somewhat in a trance, Di Tou reached into his bag and grabbed two spirit stones before mechanically passing them to the boss.
The boss, confirming the payment, returned to the kitchen partition and… continued chopping ribs.
Screaming internally, Di Tou thought, "F*CK there's no one in this damn shop, who are you chopping the ribs for?"
Shaking his head, Di Tou resigned himself to the fact that he had been scammed. Massaging his poor back, that had been pulled over three times in the last 24 hours, Di Tou returned to his seat, at which a giant steaming hot bowl of noodles had been placed.
His left eye twitching, Di Tou stared at the pile of ribs that towered up almost a full foot over the 2 foot wide bowl.
"Okay, maybe it's not a scam but… I don't know if I can eat this much…"
Placed next to the oversized bowl, was a normal sized bowl, which by comparison seemed small that was full of a garlic and soy sauce mixture.
Looking at the mound of food ahead of him, and the small pair of chopsticks that he had, Di Tou hesitated for a second, "Boss, do you have gloves?"
*Stares*
"Nevermind."
F*ck it, it was just a little messy, nothing he hadn't lived through before. Looking over to his neighbor to see how they decided to approach this behemoth of food… he saw three empty bowls and a pile of bones stacked up two feet high next to the lady who was currently devouring a fourth bowl.
Sensing Di Tou's gaze, the lady glared at Di Tou over the top of the bowl, continuing to eat the entire time.
F*ck it… It seemed like he was the weird one here somehow.
Grabbing a rib off the top of the pile, which happened to cause a chain reaction in which lead to two other ribs to tumble down the mountain, Di Tou brought the rib before his mouth and bit into it.