The Gourmet Customizer

Chapter 254: Chapter 128: Who Said I Had a Small Appetite?

’Sweet and sour flavor?’

Ah Bao observed silently from the side. The pomegranate eggs he was working on were nearly complete. In Hubei Cuisine, they were considered a type of snack, excellent for pairing with drinks.

Su Chen mixed the pork slices with cornstarch, cooking wine, and salt in a bowl, then added a piece of lard to the wok.

The lard had only melted about seventy or eighty percent of the way when Su Chen poured all the pork slices into the wok. He immediately followed with the sliced scallions, ginger, and garlic, along with the prepared bamboo shoots and green mushrooms.

The ultra-thin pork slices only needed a very low temperature for the surface to set. Su Chen gave them a quick stir with his chopsticks and then poured in the prepared sauce from the bowl.

’Whoa, this cooking method feels so wild...’

’The oil isn’t even hot yet. It feels like the other ingredients are just coated in a little oil. There’s no way they’re cooked through, right?’

The oil temperature was so low that when the bowl of broth-based sauce was poured in, not a single drop of oil even spattered.

Ah Bao felt a bead of sweat on his forehead. ’What the hell kind of dish is this? The technique is just too crazy!’

The crucial part was, the sauce had barely been poured in before it was time to heat up, and he was already taking it all out again!

Damn...

Su Chen cleaned the wok and this time poured in vegetable oil. He brought it to a roaring boil over high heat, then returned the rice crust—previously Blasted to sixty percent doneness—to the wok to Blast it again.

’Now that’s more like it. I can’t exactly chew on concrete slabs, you know!’

Ah Bao nodded to himself. This re-Blasting step from Boss Su finally seemed a bit more reliable.

Su Chen concentrated on controlling the heat, Blasting the rice crust pieces until they floated to the surface, a perfect golden brown. Then he scooped them out and placed them onto a plate.

’This dish isn’t complicated to make, but it’s extremely unfriendly to beginners.’

’There are so many steps, and the heat control has to be precise. But once you get the hang of it, it would make a pretty good home-cooked meal.’

That was Su Chen’s overall impression of making the dish.

Just then, Su Chen turned to Ah Bao. "How’s your dish coming along?"

Ah Bao nodded. "It’s ready to be plated."

"My dish needs to be eaten while it’s hot. If you’re all set, I’ll prepare the final step."

"Yep, sounds good!"

Ah Bao was already getting excited. What exactly was this "final step" that could possibly fuse half-cooked pork slices with rock-hard rice crust?

At his word, Su Chen heated the little bit of oil remaining at the bottom of the wok until it was smoking hot!

And then!

He poured the bowl of pork slices and broth over the rice crust, then, quick as lightning, he drenched it all with the boiling oil from the wok!

WHOOSH!

TSSSSS...

A huge plume of oily smoke erupted from the plate. The broth over the pork slices foamed with tiny, sizzling bubbles under the deluge of hot oil. The mixture of oil and water seemed to take on a life of its own, desperately burrowing into the Blasted rice crust!

It made the rice crust crackle and pop nonstop.

Su Chen explained, "Because of the sound it makes when you pour the oil, this dish is also called ’Resounding Pork Slices’!"

As he finished speaking, an incredibly intense sweet-and-sour fragrance instantly filled the kitchen!

"Shuyu, there’s still a wok of hot oil. Go Blast some peanuts."

Ling Shuyu froze, pointing at herself. "Me?"

"Yep, hurry. Dinner’s ready!" Su Chen said, carrying the steaming plate of rice crust pork slices out of the kitchen.

Ah Bao followed, carefully carrying his dozen or so pomegranate eggs as if they were a precious treasure.

Zhang Li was at the dining table steeping tea. She looked up and took a deep sniff. "It smells amazing!"

After setting the plate down on the table, Su Chen asked, "Xiaozhangli, is there anything you don’t like to eat?"

Zhang Li nibbled on her fingernail, thinking for a long while. "I don’t think so!"

Su Chen and Ah Bao exchanged a look.

Why did Zhang Li always give off the impression that she could be easily lured away by a tasty meal?

The three of them sat down, and Ling Shuyu came out with a plate of peanuts.

Su Chen glanced at them. ’The heat was a little high, so they’re a bit dark, but at least she knew to add salt!’

On the table now were four dishes: Longevity Star Duck, Resounding Pork Slices, pomegranate eggs, and a plate of Blasted peanuts. The braised duck parts Zhang Li brought could also be considered a fifth dish.

Zhang Li held a bottle of Yakult, while the others each grabbed a "big green bottle" of beer and poured it into their glasses.

This Yanjing beer wasn’t particularly strong, but it went to your head surprisingly fast.

"Alright! To celebrate the successful completion of Teacher Cui’s order, let’s all have a drink!" Su Chen was the first to raise his glass.

Ling Shuyu and the others deserved a lot of credit for helping turn things around with Cui Yufen, burying the hatchet.

They were the ones who had traveled great distances to buy the ingredients Su Chen needed.

Especially the scallions.

It might sound crazy, but only someone who’s actually tasted them would know that scallions from Lu Province are completely different from those grown elsewhere.

Why else would so many people visiting Lu Province find savory crepes rolled with scallions to be so delicious, only to be disappointed when they try to recreate it with crepes and scallions from their local supermarket?

To put it bluntly, the scallions were the problem. The ones native to Lu Province are in a class of their own in the entire country.

"It was our pleasure." Ling Shuyu’s glass clinked against everyone else’s. GULP, GULP. She downed it in two swallows.

Zhang Li’s Yakult bottle looked completely out of place as it clinked against their beer glasses. "I... I want to try some beer, too."

"A little bit should be fine." Ling Shuyu topped off her own glass with the rest of her beer, then poured some for Zhang Li.

She had completely forgotten about the question of who was going to drive home later.

Su Chen and Liu Ahbao, meanwhile, expertly chased a swig of beer with a single peanut.

’Hmm, the heat was definitely a little too high, but they’re still edible.’

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