I'm the Culinary God

"This thing only looks scary, but it’s actually quite fun."

Xie Baomin took a cauliflower snake out of the bag like a juggler. He held the snake’s head with one hand and stroked its body with the other:

"Look at this snake meat, so plump it’s mouthwatering."

Lin Xu watched the snake continuously twisting and turning and couldn’t help but step back.

He didn’t see anything plump, only found it frightening.

Handling eel before never felt too creepy, but with this snake, no matter how you look at it, it makes people uncomfortable, scared, timid, with hairs standing on end.

Xie Baomin played skillfully:

"Junior brother, your courage isn’t good enough. I have never been afraid of snakes since childhood. In school, I even used to put them in my pocket for fun. Later, when the teacher said I couldn’t put them in my pocket, I put them in my teacher’s pocket instead..."

Lin Xu: ??????????

Senior brother, you should keep a book of laws at home. To have survived without getting beaten to death from a young age, you really need to thank the protection of the law.

"Wow, this snake is really nice and plump."

Zhuang Yizhou walked over, looked at the snake in Xie Baomin’s hand and clicked his tongue in wonder. Seeing more in the bag, he casually took one out, handling it as if it were a leek, which surprised Lin Xu.

Wei Qian, who was initially somewhat timid, was also baffled:

"What the hell, aren’t you scared?"

"What’s there to be afraid of? Where I’m from, we eat snakes. They’re delicious."

Not only was Zhuang Yizhou unafraid, but Zhu Yong also felt snakes were no different from other ingredients; he even grabbed the snake’s head, pinched its mouth, checking if it had venomous teeth.

This kind of behavior made the Northern chefs see their colleagues in a new light.

Xie Baomin said:

"Grab a rope, I’ll teach you how to properly slaughter a snake. This is a secret not shown to everyone in specialty dish restaurants."

Wei Qian handed over a rope.

Xie Baomin took it, tied one end to a nearby hanging rack with one hand, and made a tightening Pork Trotter knot with the other hand on the rope’s other end.

Then he threaded the snake head into the knot, tightened it around the thinnest part behind the snake’s head, and hung the whole snake up.

"If you kill snakes often, you can also nail a nail to the door board like with eels, and thread the snake’s head through, then you can proceed with slaughtering."

The snake’s head was hanging, and the whole snake continued to twist regardless.

Xie Baomin picked up a small knife with a two-inch blade and started to gut the snake.

"The most important thing when gutting a snake is not to damage the gallbladder, so try to use a small knife. With a short, lightweight blade, it’s easier to control."

Seeing everyone crowd around, Xie Baomin began to explain seriously.

He held the twisting snake body with one hand and used the small knife to scrape the scales off the snake’s neck. Then he carefully slit into the spot where the scales were removed, exposing and separating the windpipe and blood vessels.

The snake twisted violently now, but Xie Baomin’s knife cuts were very steady.

He slowly sliced downwards with the small knife. Reaching the snake’s body, the abdominal cavity became visible, revealing the slender-shaped internal organs and the gallbladder.

Wei Qian saw this and realized it wasn’t the same as the method taught in online videos:

"Why haven’t you bled it? Aren’t you supposed to bleed a snake?"

Xie Baomin pointed to the heart area of the snake and said:

"Bleeding’s necessary, but it’s not done from the head; the heart is extracted, and blood is let from there... Get a bowl."

Ma Zhiqiang immediately brought an empty bowl closer.

Xie Baomin stabbed at the snake’s heart with the knife tip, and blood dripped into the bowl.

To aid the bleeding, he even lifted the whole snake body, holding the heart area at the lowest point, explaining while bleeding.

"A snake’s body is long and thin. If you bleed it like a normal animal from the neck area, half the blood would coagulate. The artery’s too thin and long, and the bleeding isn’t efficient. Comparatively, bleeding from the heart area allows the blood to flow more thoroughly, and makes the snake meat whiter."

When there was no more blood from the heart, he continued to peel downwards.

He only stopped at the snake’s anus.

By now, the entire snake was fully gutted, but the internal organs hadn’t been removed, and its body kept twisting, creating a somewhat eerie scene.

Holding the small knife, Xie Baomin cut the windpipe, esophagus, blood vessels, and so on below the head, pulling them out from the abdominal cavity until all intestines and other internal organs were cleared.

After everything was cleaned out, he also cleaned the connective tissue inside the snake’s body.

Then he carefully cut out the gallbladder with the small knife, slowly peeled off a thin transparent membrane on its surface, placed it in high-proof liquor, and laughed, saying:

"This is Old Huang’s favorite; once he comes, he’ll definitely be the first to grab it."

Lin Xu was not interested in snake gall liquor, but some people liked it, and not just the gall, even the snake blood wasn’t spared.

With the abdominal cavity cleaned, Xie Baomin took a knife to cut the snake’s head off at the root, placed the whole snake body on the cutting board:

"Prepare a basin of hot water around eighty degrees, I’ll teach you how to remove snake scales."

Generally, people think snakes should be skinned before eating, but actually, just removing the scales makes the texture and flavor quite agreeable.

While waiting for water to boil, Xie Baomin removed the snake’s head from the rope, smashed it several times with the back of the knife, and then threw it into the trash can:

"No matter which snake you’re preparing, the remaining head should be smashed with the knife and then thrown away. This thing can still bite a few hours later, so to avoid accidents, it’s better to smash it directly, and cultivating this habit will prevent accidents if you ever get the chance to prepare venomous snakes."