Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 411: Chapter 255: Cooperation Invitation

It would have been one thing if he were just cooking seriously. The chefs at every restaurant did the same, as did the owners of the food carts on the street.

What mattered most was that he was cooking for her alone, which made it feel exceptionally special.

As Lin Chen’s combat knife steadily fell, the stack of fish cakes was quickly sliced into finger-wide strips.

The stir-frying process was very simple. Once the stone slab was smoking hot again, he smeared a spoonful of coconut oil across it. He then scattered on some chopped green and red chilies, along with a few pickled ones, and flash-fried them until fragrant.

As the pickling juice hit the scorching hot stone, the instantly vaporizing steam sent sizzling oil flying in all directions, and a roaring flame shot half a meter into the air.

The sudden blaze gave Erica a huge fright. In her panic, she instinctively tried to back away, but she forgot she was squatting and fell right on her bottom.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch."

"Pfft..."

"Don’t you dare laugh!"

She huffily pushed herself up, patting the dust off her rear, and pointed an accusing finger at his nose.

"Did you do that on purpose? Making such a huge racket... Aren’t you afraid of starting a fire?"

"Of course it was on purpose," Lin Chen said with a grin, stirring the peppers in the flames. A thick, pungent, and spicy aroma shot straight up his nose.

"In Great Xia, we call this method ’flash-frying.’ The high heat agitates the water and oil, causing micro-explosions that lead to a powerful combustion reaction. This technique rapidly increases the temperature in the wok and imparts a special kind of aroma."

"Normally, you’d use a hemispherical wok for this, but our conditions are limited, so I have to use a stone slab instead. Oh, right, have you ever had Japanese teppanyaki? They light fires, too."

"Japanese teppanyaki? What’s that?"

"It’s where the diners sit around a large iron griddle. After you order, the chef cooks the food right in front of you, and they mix in some performance tricks during the process."

"Oh, oh, oh! Now that you mention it, I remember! Is that the one where they stack onions into a tower, pour liquor on it, and light it on fire to make it look like a volcano erupting?"

"Yep, that’s the one. Actually, that was also invented by us Da Xia People. Just like all-you-can-eat Japanese buffets, the flashier it is, the more it piques the diners’ curiosity. The truly authentic Japanese restaurants are usually tucked away in more hidden places."

"No wonder they say you Da Xia People are all so rich. Where do you get so many weird and wonderful ideas for making money?"

"We have a huge population and fierce competition. If we didn’t force ourselves to be creative, we would have starved to death long ago."

By now, the peppers were mostly softened and fragrant, with a shallow layer of light green juice pooling at the bottom.

He dumped all the fish cake strips in and tossed them quickly, making sure every single one was thoroughly coated in the sauce.

They didn’t need to be cooked for long. The fish cakes were already warm, so after a quick stir-fry in the flames for about ten seconds, he drizzled in a little oyster sauce, sprinkled on some chopped cilantro and sea salt, and it was ready to be served.

"Have a taste. I still have one more dish to finish."

He scooped the spicy stir-fried fish cakes into a bamboo tube and handed it to her before picking up a nearby branch and fishing a pitch-black, oval, unidentified object out of the fire.

Only after he rinsed it clean did Erica realize the thing was actually a taro.

She held the warm bamboo tube, her nose filled with a thick, spicy scent, the savory aroma of fish, and the unmistakable fragrance of coconut oil that nothing could mask.

She picked up a piece of the fish cake with her chopsticks. ’No, wait, in its current state, "fish noodles" might be more appropriate.’

She truly couldn’t imagine under what circumstances someone would think to grind fish into a paste, form it into a cake, and then slice it into noodle-like strips to be stir-fried.

If Lin Chen hadn’t told her how it was made, she might have even mistaken it for a plate of Italian fettuccine stir-fried with a few kinds of peppers!

The surface of the fish noodles glistened with oil. They had a rough, uneven texture that made them look almost deep-fried, and they were coated in a light green sauce.

The moment they entered her mouth, the sharp tang of the pickled peppers hit her, followed closely by a faint spiciness.

Having been pickled for so many days, the peppers were significantly more sour than before, almost on par with white vinegar. It instantly awakened her palate.

The texture of the fish noodles was even firmer and more substantial than it looked. Chewing them released the full flavor of fish. It didn’t feel like eating stir-fried noodles at all, but rather a uniquely shaped fish dish.

The savory freshness of the oyster sauce, the fish, and the pickled peppers were all concentrated into a single, small strip of fish noodle. Combined with the lingering aroma of coconut oil in her mouth after swallowing, it was an absolutely lethal combination for someone who had just woken up starving. It was as if a grenade had gone off in her mouth.

Just one bite was enough to awaken her taste buds, and she hurriedly stuffed a full mouthful in.

It was then that she finally noticed a unique flavor.

It was a bit like the aroma of a charcoal fire, but not quite the same. Yet it blended perfectly with the fish noodles, elevating their overall flavor profile to a new level.

’Could this be the effect of that so-called flash-frying?’

Moreover, the flavor of the peppers this time was also distinctly different from before.

He had also put pickled peppers in the fish soup last time, but their sourness and spiciness were very limited, like adding three or four drops of lemon juice to the soup, merely serving to cut the richness and add fragrance.

This time, the pickled peppers were noticeably sour, almost more so than a pickled cucumber. The spiciness was also heightened. Combined with the fresh green and red chilies, the resulting heat was layered and complex—a taste she had never experienced before.

She had never encountered a similar flavor profile, not even in Mexican cuisine, from a country that prided itself on its love of spice.