Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 443: Chapter 277: Door to a New World

After ordering a pile of dishes, Lin Chen also added crispy fried pork, brown sugar glutinous rice cakes, bayberry ice tangyuan, and two refreshing fruit teas.

"Isn’t this too much? Over thirty dishes... can the two of us finish all this?"

The waitress came over, holding the freshly printed receipt, and asked with some concern.

"It’s fine. We ordered half-portions of everything. We both have pretty big appetites. I can eat three pounds of meat by myself. Just bring it out. We’ll get a doggy bag for whatever we can’t finish."

"Alright then."

The food came out quickly. Just a few minutes after the order was placed, waiters began arriving one after another, carrying heavy trays laden with small bowls filled with various ingredients.

The restaurant followed an authentic Mountain City style, using reddish-brown earthenware bowls. Each small bowl only held a small amount of ingredients.

"It doesn’t look like that much, actually. It’ll be gone after one bite of each."

At first, Erica had also been worried they’d ordered too much. She had never ordered over thirty dishes in a restaurant before. Even at a Michelin-star restaurant with its delicate portions, the most she’d ever ordered was twenty courses.

"Come on, I’ll show you how to mix the dipping sauces. That’s one of the core parts of the hot pot experience."

When they got to the sauce station, they found two neat rows of more than a dozen different sauces and garnishes.

"First is the sesame paste you were looking forward to. It’s a mix of peanut butter and sesame paste. The ratio is usually two-to-eight, but it can vary depending on the restaurant."

"The base is sesame paste, oyster sauce, soy sauce, cilantro, and garlic. I’d recommend you also add some scallions, Thai chilis, sesame seeds, and peanuts. If you like it sweet, you can add a bit of sugar too."

"Next is the dry dip. It’s an essential dipping sauce for Mountain City hot pot. It’s simple: just scallions and a spicy numbing powder. It’s mainly for ingredients that don’t have much flavor on their own, or ones with an offal-like smell, such as duck blood, duck intestines, bamboo shoots, or kidney slices."

"Last is the sesame oil dip, which is another specialty of Mountain City hot pot. It’s mainly minced garlic and sesame oil. If you find it too plain, you can add a little oyster sauce for extra flavor and fragrance. This sesame oil is a blend, too—it’s sesame oil mixed with vegetable oil."

He first mixed the three basic dips for Erica, then made a sesame paste dip for himself, but he added half a bowl of Thai chilis to his.

"You eat that many chilis?"

Seeing his bowl filled to the brim with sauce, then looking at the three shallow bowls in front of her, Erica suddenly had the strange feeling that his dip must taste better.

While they were mixing their sauces, the hot pot base was brought to the table. The surface was covered with a dense layer of dried red chilis over all sorts of spices. Next to it sat two little white bears made of beef tallow, every strand of their fur rendered with lifelike detail.

The other half of the pot was a tomato broth, a flavor that foreigners tend to prefer.

"This is nothing. The sesame paste cuts the spiciness of the Thai chilis to a certain degree. It’s almost like eating green peppers."

The two of them stared eagerly as the little bears in the pot slowly melted, a rich aroma of beef tallow gradually filling the air.

GROWL~

Erica’s stomach let out an embarrassing growl, but she knew she couldn’t rush it. They had to wait for the broth to come to a full boil before they could start cooking.

The aroma grew richer and richer, and not far from them, other customers were digging in with gusto. Every second felt as long as a year.

"Is it boiling yet? Is the induction cooker not powerful enough? Is it on the highest setting?"

"Calm down. This is the sixth time you’ve asked in the last five minutes."

Lin Chen shook his head with a helpless smile. The wait for the broth to boil was truly the hardest part.

Fortunately, a plate of freshly fried crispy pork was brought out, its surface still sizzling with oil.

Already famished, Erica didn’t even wait for the waitress to set the plate down before grabbing a piece and stuffing it into her mouth.

"HISS... Hot, hot, hot!!"

The scorching-hot pork was like a red-hot branding iron, so hot she couldn’t stop shaking her head, yet she couldn’t bear to spit it out.

CRUNCH.

The crispy batter shattered at the sound, and a peppery, numbing sensation instantly spread across the tip of her tongue before migrating to her lips.

It was as if a faint electric current was buzzing against her lips. The strange feeling made her eyes widen in shock.

"Is this that pepper you said would make things go numb? What a strange texture. It’s strangely addictive."

After the searing heat subsided, it was followed by the perfect spiciness of the seasoning powder and the faint, rich aroma of the fat in the meat.

Through the opening where she had bitten, she could clearly see a few translucent, crystalline parts on the cross-section of the meat. If she wasn’t mistaken, that had to be fat.

"This place chose a good cut of meat. It’s a mix of fat and lean. A lot of places use pork loin or other purely lean cuts for their crispy fried pork. It’s delicious, sure, but it’s missing that richness from the fat."

He personally preferred the marbled kind, especially during the agonizing wait for the pot to boil. When you’re already starving, a few pieces of rich, spicy, and numbing crispy pork are incredibly appetizing.

They had only ordered a half-portion of the crispy pork, which was just seven or eight pieces. The two of them had just whetted their appetites, and the plate was already empty.

Just then, the waitress came over with a plate of glutinous rice cakes drizzled with brown sugar sauce, setting it down and clearing the empty plate while also checking the status of the induction cooker.

Just one glance, and Lin Chen could tell they were a frozen product. He could already guess what they’d taste like.

But for Erica, who had never tried them before, it was like a door opening to a whole new world.

"This is delicious too! It’s soft and chewy like a fried cheese stick, and it even pulls apart. Plus, it’s drizzled with syrup! Is this considered a dessert?"

"Uh, not really. It’s considered a snack, at most."

To prevent Erica from getting full on just the appetizers, he had to step in and help finish the remaining half-plate of rice cakes.

Thankfully, the hot pot finally came to a boil right then, BUBBLE BUBBLE, rolling and churning as it released an even more intense aroma of beef tallow.

Lin Chen quickly pulled the plate of tripe in front of him and picked up a piece.

"Remember the mantra I taught you last night?"

"Seven up, eight down!"

Erica gulped, eagerly picking up a piece of the strange food that looked like a dishcloth. She followed Lin Chen’s lead, dipping it up and down in the boiling beef tallow broth, counting out loud.

"...Six, seven, eight!"

Although only about ten seconds had passed, the surface of the large piece of tripe was already slightly curled from the heat.

Though she was a bit nervous, unsure if it was actually cooked through, she trusted Lin Chen. She dipped it into the sesame paste she’d been so excited about, swirled it around to coat it thoroughly with the sauce, minced garlic, and cilantro, and then stuffed the entire thing into her mouth.

"?!"

The moment it entered her mouth, the rich aroma of the sesame paste hit her like a tidal wave. The thick, smooth texture carried an unparalleled nutty fragrance, which, combined with the distinct beef tallow flavor and the spicy-numbing profile, exploded in her mouth.

The crisp texture of the tripe made a satisfying crunch with every chew. As she chewed, she could also taste the minced garlic, cilantro, and Thai chilis. Most importantly, the sesame seeds and crushed peanuts mixed into the paste were the perfect finishing touch.

That single bite fulfilled every expectation she’d had for hot pot. An immense sense of happiness filled her heart, and a sweet smile bloomed on her face.

"OMG, OMG, OMG... This is incredible!"

"How can it be this delicious? Oh my god, I’ve got goosebumps all over. Look!"

She yanked up the sleeve of her sun-protection jacket, and sure enough, her smooth skin was covered in tiny goosebumps.

"We’re just getting started. There are still so many dishes left. You’ll be even more surprised."

Beef tripe, honeycomb tripe, duck intestines, aorta, tribute vegetable, lotus root slices, bamboo shoot slices... They were all crunchy, yet each ingredient had its own unique crispness.

This precision, where things belonged to the same broad category but were subdivided into countless smaller ones, made her appreciate for the first time just how profound and extensive the culinary culture of Great Xia was.

The same ingredient in the same broth could taste completely different when paired with a different dipping sauce.

And if you changed the broth, the flavor would change yet again.

This magical way of cooking satisfied both the diners’ desire for a hands-on experience and their need to eat only what they liked, all while allowing them to sample many different flavors at once.

Most importantly, in this environment, listening to the BUBBLE BUBBLE of the pot in front of them, she felt a faint sense of warmth welling up inside her.

It was as if they weren’t eating in a restaurant, but having a meal at home.

’If only we could open a bottle of red wine, wouldn’t the atmosphere be even better?’

Right on cue, their drinks arrived. One was a faint pink, the other a pale yellow. Both had lots of fruit floating in them and looked exquisite—not at all like drinks you could buy for just a few bucks.

For someone trying beef tallow hot pot for the first time, after eating for ten-plus minutes, the combination of the heavy sesame paste and the rich broth was starting to feel a bit greasy. The continuous spiciness assaulted her mouth and lips, making them look as if they were coated in bright red lipstick.

She subconsciously reached for the pretty pink drink. After a few sips, an unparalleled freshness instantly swept away the greasiness and spiciness in her mouth.

The sweet and sour taste was distinctly different from lemon, yet it had a faint lemony aroma and another strange, unidentifiable fruit fragrance.

"What is this, lime? It doesn’t look like it; the color is too pale. And what’s this pink one? I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything like this before."

"That’s a perfume lemon. It’s a variety cultivated here in Great Xia. Its peel has almost no bitterness, and it has a special fragrance. It’s not overly sour, which makes it perfect for fruit drinks."

"The pink one is guava. It’s originally from South America. The flavor is quite mild; it’s popular with girls mainly because the color is pretty. It’s a refreshing type of flavor, perfect for cutting through greasy food."

"What’s in your cup? Let me try."

Unlike the refreshing guava and lemon drink, this pale yellow beverage was noticeably more sour and sweeter, and it also had a faint, clean citrus fragrance.