I'm the Culinary God

Back at the shop, Chen Yan was "casually" bragging to Shu Yun about catching a criminal suspect.

Ren Jie, who was standing by, was speechless. Chen always fantasizes about being a detective catching bad guys, but with his big-mouth style, he’d better copy the confidentiality rules a thousand times first.

After boasting about the process of catching the suspect, Chen Yan rubbed Dundun’s big head:

"Auntie had such a smooth day today, was it you helping out? Little guy, if you really can increase people’s luck, give Auntie a wave of super wealth. Auntie is just a simple person who wants to be a billionaire or something..."

Shu Yun felt sorry for her godson and pushed her hand away:

"Get out of here. What good is wealth for you if you just spend it all on claw machines and scratch-off tickets? You get a chance, and yet, Liu Huaqiang would shake his head at you."

Chen Yan: "!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ah yaya, can you guys not bring that up?

Once there was a chance to make a fortune in front of me, and I didn’t cherish it. Instead, I used it for claw machines. If given another chance, I’d definitely dive into the stock market and turn it upside down!

Ren Jie comforted her:

"Choosing claw machines shows you’ve got a childlike heart and are forever eighteen."

Chen Yan pouted:

"Although this sounds nice, I still want to be a billionaire."

"Sure enough, middle-aged people approaching their forties prefer money..."

Shen Jiayue just walked in and couldn’t resist a sarcastic comment.

Chen Yan, feeling down, didn’t argue but curiously asked:

"Is the residence registration sorted out?"

"Sorted out. Within a week, I’ll get the household registration book. Once I have it, Xu Bao and I will get our marriage certificate, ending our three-month-long illegal cohabitation."

From illegal to legal, it seems to be just a word apart, but in reality, it represents the birth of a new family.

Chen Yan doesn’t envy much else, but this issue of getting married does touch her a bit. She nudged Ren Jie with her elbow and whispered:

"Let’s find some time to get our certificate?"

Ren Jie was somewhat incredulous:

"Get the certificate? You...you won’t wait for the wedding?"

Chen Yan’s face turned slightly red:

"Of course, still waiting for the wedding, but as a law enforcer, you can’t knowingly break the law... illegal cohabitation isn’t legal..."

Ren Jie felt a surge of warmth in his heart and wanted to lift Yan Baobao up and spin her around three times.

But he ultimately held back.

Keep it low-key; feeding dog food in front of singles isn’t humane. Better to wait until tonight when they’re back home to spin.

Lin Xu went to the service counter and picked up Dundun:

"Son, starting today, I’m a Beijing resident. Come pick a seafood you want to eat, and today I’ll make something delicious to celebrate."

Wanting Dundun to help with luck, but not saying it outright, using a meal as an excuse instead.

By the seafood section, Dundun looked for a while and ultimately picked a plump-looking Gu fish.

"Oh, quite a good eye there, knowing the Gu fish is the fattest right now, so you want to eat it, huh?"

Lin Xu praised Dundun, then silently said in his mind:

"Draw a prize!"

On the screen in his mind, a lottery disc immediately flashed.

After following the process to draw a prize, a system prompt quickly sounded in his mind:

"Congratulations to the host on obtaining the Perfect Level lost dishes — Braised Three Chicken, Tea Oil Duck, Red Stew Meat!"

Are these lost dishes?

Lin Xu was a bit stunned; Braised Three Chicken is a bit obscure, but Tea Oil Duck and Red Stew Meat are quite common, especially Tea Oil Duck, which has a pivotal place in Xiang cuisine.

What kind of lost dish is this?

Just as he was thinking, the related experience of the three dishes flowed into his mind.

Only then did Lin Xu understand what the lost part meant.

First is Braised Three Chicken. This dish requires rubbing salt and air-drying wind chicken, pairing it with freshly killed tender rooster, and combining with wild chicken in a clay pot on low heat. The flavors of the three chicken meats blend, creating a rich umami taste.

But in modern society, no one really makes it this way anymore.

Firstly, it’s time-consuming and labor-intensive; secondly, it wastes ingredients. Most importantly, wild chicken is hard to catch and eating it is illegal.

However, in recent years, farmed wild chickens can be bought for consumption. Lin Xu thinks he might try it someday; salty chicken, fresh chicken, wild chicken, merging the flavors should be extremely delicious.

After reading Braised Three Chicken, Lin Xu then read Tea Oil Duck’s method.

The so-called Tea Oil Duck isn’t a duck fried or stir-fried in tea oil, but a duck marinated in tea oil.

The duck is cleaned and dried, rubbed with five-spice salt, air-dried, then pressed with a stone slab for two days to remove excess water.

Then neatly lay it at the bottom of a jar, pouring in cooked tea oil and Sichuan peppercorns for marinating, sealing and curing for four months, steaming when eating. It’s said the taste is incredibly delicious.

There’s truly no similar method nowadays according to this tutorial.

Because tea oil is expensive, nobody would pour half a jar of tea oil to marinate duck meat that isn’t that costly.

The closest approach would likely be Tea Oil Steamed Salted Duck, where the prepared salted duck is drizzled with tea oil and steamed. It’s reportedly also very tasty.

But in Lin Xu’s view, the duck steeped in tea oil for four months should be even tastier.

He might try it when he has time; if done now, it could be ready to eat around next May 1st, potentially becoming quite a delicacy.

As for the last dish, Red Stew Meat.

The method is quite simple, frying the pork dry in a pot, then putting it in a clay pot, adding sweet bean sauce and rice wine to braise, and eating once the meat is glossy red.