The Gourmet Customizer

Chapter 273: Chapter 132: Jellied Crispy Pot, an Appetizer

Wang Peixing downed the noodle soup in his bowl in two large gulps.

It looked like a lot, but once you started eating, a few big mouthfuls and it was all gone.

For some reason, that feeling he got from the steamed buns this morning returned—it was like he hadn’t eaten anything at all!

’This won’t do. I need another bowl!’

In just over ten minutes, all four pots of noodles had been completely devoured.

The slowest eater was Cui Yufen.

She had originally planned to eat only half a bowl, but she couldn’t stop herself and finished the whole thing.

Just as she was wondering if she should get another bowl, she saw that Lu Yongliang had already polished off four. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, Cui Yufen would have found it hard to believe. ’How can this guy eat so fast?’

’It was like he was just slurping the noodles straight into his stomach without chewing at all!’

"Are you making any more?" Cui Yufen asked cautiously.

She tried to maintain her elegance and not make it too obvious that she wanted to eat more.

Su Chen, however, hadn’t had a single bite.

He had been standing off to the side, watching them eat, and the shock he felt was simply indescribable.

If Fang Chang and his group had been ferocious eaters...

...then the way this group of burly men had just eaten gave the impression of...

’A pigsty, with rows and rows of pigs... just SMACKING their lips!’

’They had absolutely no sense of decorum or elegance. Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought they were a group of refugees from who-knows-where!’

"All the hand-rolled noodles have been cooked," Su Chen said, sounding a little helpless. "And the amount was based on what everyone ordered."

’It’s not my fault there wasn’t enough!’

Cui Yufen knew she had no grounds to complain. She had, in fact, only put her name down for one bowl, and she had received one bowl.

’But who could have known the noodles would be this delicious?’

This feeling of wanting more but not being able to have it was pure torture.

"Alright then," Cui Yufen sighed. "Is there somewhere we can sit for a bit? We should rest up before we leave."

"This way, please." Su Chen led his guests—these "older brothers and sisters"—to the lounge on the nineteenth floor.

The room wasn’t large; it could just about fit her group.

He returned to the dining hall. "To all my senior brothers, if you want to rest, you’ll have to head to the second floor."

"Why rest? My train is leaving soon, I should get going."

"That’s right, it’d be rude to linger any longer. By the way, Boss Su, what’s the total for the noodles?"

Su Chen said, "You’ll have to ask my finance manager about that. She’s not here right now. Just tell her how many bowls you each had when you see her later."

He wasn’t worried about anyone underreporting how much they ate; they were all respectable people and wouldn’t stoop to such things.

Just then, Old Ba asked, "Boss Su, when will that su-guo be ready?"

Su Chen thought for a moment. "It’ll take at least the whole afternoon to cook. Plus, this is a new experiment of mine, so we might not even be able to eat it tonight. I’ll have to let it steep overnight. You won’t be able to eat it until tomorrow morning at the earliest."

Old Ba grunted in acknowledgment and returned to his seat.

His brow was furrowed in thought, though it was unclear what he was mulling over.

Liu Fu rubbed his belly, deep in thought for a long moment. "Martial Uncle, I’d like to..."

Su Chen quickly cut him off. "Whoa, hold on. I call Teacher Cui ’Second Sister,’ and I call you ’Eldest Senior Brother.’ Let’s just stick to that."

’Otherwise, the hierarchy would be a total mess, wouldn’t it?’

’Of course, it might be fun to mess with Shang Mingke. The thought of a dead-serious Old Shang calling him ’Uncle’ actually made Su Chen quite happy.’

"Alright then," Liu Fu said. "Is there something special about your su-cai? Why did you call it a new experiment?"

Su Chen didn’t try to hide anything. "You probably saw the layer of pork skin I placed around the inside edge of the pot, right?"

"Uh-huh."

Hearing this, the other senior brothers all gathered around. They had all grown up eating su-guo, and every family’s recipe was different anyway.

The differences were usually just in the ingredients used.

But Su Chen’s method was truly novel.

"Here’s my thinking. With traditional su-cai, people usually take the ingredients out of the pot, cut them up, arrange them on a platter, and eat it cold. Some people like to eat it hot, too."

Shi Qi chimed in, "My family eats it hot."

"Exactly," Su Chen said. "Because if you eat it cold, and there’s meat and other things in it, the fat will congeal."

You can just imagine the scene.

Actually, there was no need to imagine. Back when he was a streamer, Su Chen had ordered su-cai with friends in Lu Province once.

The restaurant served a platter of assorted ingredients, and you could still see the white, congealed lard on top.

’What a headache. You couldn’t possibly eat that cold!’

"That’s why I came up with this method. Everyone, take a look... actually, let’s just head into the kitchen."

Su Chen was the youngest of the group, but right now he was like a teacher, leading them into the kitchen to observe the dish.

"I left a gap all around the edge of the pot. That’s so I can ladle out the excess oil later."

"Then I thought, since it’s going to be served cold and has all sorts of ingredients anyway, why go through the trouble of separating them all out? If you do that, it’s not much different from luzhu, is it?"

The others looked thoughtful, pondering Su Chen’s words.

"So I took a page from the method for making pressed head meat and put a large stone on top! As the ingredients cook and become tender, the stone will gradually sink. As it sinks, it will press even more of the fat out of the pork knuckle."

"Meanwhile, the pork skin around the edge will be the first thing to come into contact with the juices from the cabbage. As the temperature rises, the skin will start to melt, blending with the broth and infusing all the ingredients inside."

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