I'm the Culinary God

Why is there a bowl of rice porridge served first?

Old Shen, who can’t enjoy a meal without meat, picked up a piece of Crystal Pork and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly.

At this moment, Shen Jiayue had already stood up and started serving porridge.

She first served her grandma and the other elderly, then moved on to serve her in-laws and parents among the middle-aged generation.

Grandma Lin, who had just received her bowl of soup, didn’t quite understand the presence of rice porridge either, but after all, it was at Fishing Platform. She scooped a small spoonful, blew on it, and put it into her mouth, her eyes lighting up immediately:

"Oh my, this... isn’t rice porridge, it seems to be all meat."

Upon hearing this, Old Shen’s meat-loving instincts kicked in.

All meat?

Could this rice porridge be a special kind?

Lin Xu came in, smiling and said:

"This is Tai Chi Chicken Porridge made by my master and senior brother. They first pound the chicken meat into a paste, then beat it in chicken broth like Bump Soup to make it into porridge. The taste is really good, everyone can have more if you like it."

Shen Guofu eagerly brought over a small bowl, scooped a spoonful and tasted it, and immediately the freshness, aroma, smoothness, and various other textures and flavors filled his mouth.

It’s delicious, much better than rice porridge.

Shen Guofu finished the chicken porridge in his bowl in a few gulps, filled with curiosity towards this delicacy.

"This dish is really eye-opening, where is it from?"

Lin Xu replied:

"It’s Huaiyang cuisine."

"Why didn’t I encounter this when I was in Yangzhou?"

Xie Baomin chuckled:

"This kind of dish has mostly disappeared from the market. Those who know how to make it don’t do it, and those who want to don’t know how. Only at some ultra-high-end dining venues can you eat it by booking with their head chefs."

At the Fishing Platform, almost every chef above the rank of head chef knows how to make it, but it’s not on the menu from Building No.1 to No.18.

To eat it, you either have to be friends with the head chefs or spend a fortune at Building No.6 to connect with Qiu Zhenhua to get your hands on it.

Otherwise, you can only feast your eyes on it.

This is unlike Chicken Bean Curd, which you can still find in high-end Sichuan cuisine places. This chicken porridge is too complicated to make, with very high requirements for timing and stirring techniques.

If the technique isn’t right, the chicken paste can easily turn into meat lumps.

Seeing that her mother-in-law liked it, Chen Meijuan looked at Lin Xu and asked:

"Lin, have you learned it?"

"I have, but I still need to practice. Once I get back to Yinzhou, I should practice well and hopefully make a big pot for the New Year’s Eve dinner."

With that, he scooped himself a bowl, tasted it, and found it indeed excellent.

The smooth texture, the fresh and aromatic flavor, along with the rich taste brought by the fat, made it irresistibly enjoyable.

Listening to Lin Xu, Shen Jiayue nudged Chen Yan with her elbow:

"I’ll drink for you then, don’t mind Yan Bao."

Chen Yan glanced at her cousin:

"If I want to drink, I can just come to the Fishing Platform. As long as the head chefs make it, I can definitely get a taste, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll have Xiaoqi’s father-in-law make it."

With Zeng Xiaoqi as a good friend, whether it’s Qi Siming’s father or master, they could present Manager Chen with a perfect bowl of chicken porridge.

Mr. Gao came in carrying some alcohol, ready to have a couple of drinks with everyone.

He turned to Xie Baomin and said:

"Since the kitchen is not busy now, teach your junior brother to make pan-fried eel. I planned to teach personally, but with honored guests around, I can’t keep hiding in the kitchen."

Pan-fried Eel?

Previously, when the master mentioned this dish, Lin Xu thought it was just a casual mention.

Didn’t expect to actually learn it.

Then what’s the wait, it must be learned.

Lin Xu quickly downed the remaining chicken porridge in his bowl and left the private room with Xie Baomin in haste.

The others in the private room, busy drinking chicken porridge, were curious about the pan-fried eel, wondering what kind of delicious dish that might be.

In the kitchen, Xie Baomin said to Lin Xu:

"The pan-fried eel dish is actually quite simple, just to pan-fry, nothing particularly tricky."

Lin Xu curiously asked:

"Does the eel back need to be deboned?"

"Yes, this dish only uses the thicker meat on the eel’s back. The dish ends up crispy, moist, fragrant, and fresh, with a range of textures in one bite. It’s also considered a top-class dish for high-end banquets."

After speaking, he turned to an assistant chef nearby and said:

"Go get some cooked eel backs, make sure they’re consistent in size, not too different."

"Sure, Head Chef Xie, I’ll prepare them right away."

After instructing this task, Xie Baomin then peeled a few shrimps, removed the veins, and pounded them into a paste with a cleaver, adding some cooked pork fatback and a pinch of salt, then used the back of the knife to mash it into a shrimp paste and set it aside for later use.

The eel backs he requested soon arrived, the meat was tender, indicating the eel had been cooked just to the point and deboned while maintaining its freshness and aroma.

Xie Baomin rubbed salt and white pepper onto the eel back.

To give the eel a base flavor.

Then he took a few slices of toast, cut off the edges, leaving only the soft center.

He spread a layer of shrimp paste onto the toast, then cut the eel back into segments and evenly adhered it to the shrimp paste.

As he worked, he explained to Lin Xu:

"In this dish, the shrimp paste not only enhances flavor but mainly acts as a binder, while the pork fat not only adds flavor to the shrimp but also enhances the eel’s aroma."

Seafood products are low in fat, so adding some pork fat makes the dish more exquisite.

Lin Xu curiously asked:

"This dish surprisingly uses toast, is it high-end Huaiyang cuisine?"

Xie Baomin chuckled:

"In the past, it was made with buns, but in recent decades, it’s been switched to softer toast. What comes next is hard to say, as dishes must progress with the times and can’t stick to the old rules."

After all the eel backs and shrimp paste were stuffed onto the toast, Xie Baomin picked up a cleaver and cut the toast into four.

"The toast slices are too big to fry crisply, so it’s better to cut them into smaller pieces before frying, for a better effect."

With this step done, Xie Baomin set up the frying pan, added pork fat to the pan, and when it was heated, placed the toast slices with the eel tops into the pan to fry.

This dish actually cooks quite easily since the eel back is cooked, and the toast is cooked too.

The shrimp paste in between, although raw, cooks as soon as it’s heated, without needing to be fried for long.

Soon, as the toast became crispy and fragrant at the bottom, Xie Baomin started to plate it.

Pan-fried eel, officially done!

"Junior brother, we made quite a bit this time, the plate may not fit all. Why don’t you try some first?"

Without hesitation, Lin Xu smiled and used chopsticks to pick up a piece of the pan-fried eel, which was crispy and golden on the bottom, and put it in his mouth. With a gentle bite, the toast’s crispiness, the shrimp paste’s deep flavor, and the eel back’s freshness all combined into one.

It’s so delicious that Lin Xu couldn’t help but exclaim:

"Damn, it’s really good!"

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