Gourmet: The God-Level Culinary Tycoon

A cow’s tongue is a very active muscle, so its fibrous and muscle tissues are extremely tough.

If the beef tongue is cut too thick, the meat will be hard and very difficult to chew. The only way to soften it is to cook it for a longer time.

And a sizzling claypot obviously doesn’t meet the requirement for long cooking times, so the beef tongue must be sliced very thin to cook through in a short amount of time.

But if it’s cut too thinly, the cooked beef tongue will look rather meager and sad.

Some people might say, "A cow’s tongue is long, so why not just slice it crosswise?"

This idea seems great and very simple.

But anyone who has cooked should know that ingredients have their own grain and texture.

There’s a classic cooking saying: "Slice beef against the grain, and pork with the grain."

Compared to other meats, beef has tougher fibrous tissue and more sinew. It must be sliced against the grain, perpendicular to the muscle fibers, in what’s called a cross-cut. This breaks up the sinew and makes the meat palatable.

If you slice with the grain, the tendons and sinew remain intact. After cooking, the meat will be tough and impossible to chew through.

Slicing pork against the grain, however, makes it fall apart easily.

Because pork is tender and has very little fascia, slicing it against the grain—whether into slices or shreds—makes it very likely to fall apart.

This is especially true for julienning. Slicing against the grain will cause the pork to crumble, and you’ll end up with mince instead of strips after stir-frying. Therefore, pork can only be sliced with the grain.

Beef tongue presents a similar problem. Slicing it straight across its width results in a very tough texture.

So, to solve this problem, the chef cleverly uses a special decorative cutting style to create larger slices of tongue.

Large slices of beef tongue are better both to eat and to look at.

Li Xiao picked up a large slice of beef tongue.

The slice of tongue was cut very thin and completely coated in sauce.

He held the beef tongue up to the stream’s camera.

"Take a look, everyone. A super large, thin slice of beef tongue. The chef here has some pretty amazing knife skills!"

"Now, let me give it a try and see how their beef tongue is."

With that, he tossed the slice of tongue into his mouth.

The next moment, his eyes narrowed, his face filled with admiration.

"Excellent. The tongue has a wonderfully firm and springy texture. Their special satay sauce is a mix of sweet and savory. It’s very rich, but it doesn’t mask the tongue’s inherent beefy flavor."

"Shoving a huge piece of beef tongue straight into your mouth is so satisfying!!"

After swallowing the beef tongue, he turned his gaze to the crispy intestine sizzling claypot next to it.

As the camera panned over, comments flooded the live stream chat.

"My God, do people actually eat that stuff?"

"I hate eating fatty intestines. They have such a strong, stinky smell!"

"The person above just doesn’t get it. Pig intestines are supposed to be stinky to be authentic!"

"Bro knows what’s up! This stuff isn’t even good if it doesn’t stink!"

"My God, does everyone in this stream have such an acquired taste?"

"This stuff is like durian. People who think it’s delicious absolutely love it, and people who don’t think it’s delicious think it stinks."

...

Seeing the viewers’ comments, Li Xiao quickly jumped in to explain.

"First, I need to clarify something. What I ordered is ’crispy intestine,’ which is also called ’raw intestine’ or ’flower intestine’ in some places. It’s not fatty intestine or large intestine. Although it’s called intestine, it’s not part of the digestive tract."

"’Pig raw intestine’ is a part that only comes from sows. It has a particularly crispy texture."

"Crispy intestine is much easier to clean than large or small intestines. It doesn’t have much of an odor on its own; you just need to rinse it with water a few times."

"Because the texture of crispy intestine is very firm, several cuts are immediately made on it after it’s cleaned. This helps it absorb flavor and cook more easily."

"Since crispy intestine takes a relatively long time to cook, and because it has a slight odor of its own..."

"So, before going into the pot, the crispy intestine is blanched beforehand."

"Blanching not only removes most of the odor but also makes it even crispier."

The viewers in the live stream chat obviously had an inquisitive spirit, eager to get to the bottom of things.

"That explanation made it sound even more horrifying. An organ that only sows have??"

"Holy crap, I always thought crispy intestine was just another type of pig intestine. So I was wrong this whole time!?"

"I looked it up... turns out crispy intestine is actually the fallopian tubes????"

"People from Guangdong Province are terrifying. They’ll eat anything!"

"Fun fact: Crab paste is the male crab’s accessory gonads and hepatopancreas, and crab roe is the female crab’s ovaries and digestive glands."

"Now that the bro above put it that way, I guess crispy intestine doesn’t seem so hard to accept after all."

...

Li Xiao wasn’t paying attention to what the live stream chat was saying.

Of course, even if he had been, it wouldn’t have affected his appetite.

After all, he already knew what he was ordering when he placed the order.

In his view, as long as a food tasted good and was cleaned properly before cooking, it was a good ingredient.

He picked up a piece of crispy intestine, coated in sauce, and popped it into his mouth.

A rich, savory sauce flavor instantly filled his taste buds. As he bit down, the surprisingly springy and crisp texture of the intestine amazed him.

He couldn’t taste even the slightest hint of an off-putting smell. Clearly, the chef here was very meticulous when preparing the crispy intestine, having cleaned away all the membranes and other impurities.

Of course, the most important factor was that the crispy intestine used by this restaurant was definitely very fresh, and they had taken the step of blanching it beforehand.

Feeling the scored pieces of crispy intestine continuously bouncing against his teeth, Li Xiao nodded in satisfaction.

This crispy intestine sizzling claypot had the richest flavor, and the reason was simple.

Crispy intestine itself has no flavor; you eat it for its springy, crisp texture. Therefore, the final taste depends entirely on the chef’s secret sauce.

And this restaurant’s secret sauce was clearly outstanding.

This resulted in the crispy intestine sizzling claypot turning out exceptionally well.

Only after eating several pieces of crispy intestine in a row did Li Xiao have a moment to look at the stream’s bullet comments.

Seeing a group of viewers calling his eating habits freakish, he didn’t feel the least bit ashamed. On the contrary, he was rather smug.

"What’s so freakish about crispy intestine?"

"They’re just fallopian tubes, not some unmentionable body part."

"We have even more ’freakish’ food in Guangdong Province. When I have time, I’ll take you all to eat ’Claypot Kid Rice’ and ’Deep-fried Ghosts.’ Oh, and autumn is almost here, so there will be water cockroaches to eat, too."

"Water cockroaches after autumn begins... man, are they plump and delicious!"

Live Stream Chat:

"??? ’Claypot Kid Rice?’ What kind of ’kid’ are they cooking in that pot? It’s not a person, is it?"

"’Deep-fried Ghosts?’ What the hell is that? You can deep-fry ghosts?"

"Honestly, pickled greens with pig intestines is the real delicacy. Back in my hometown, it’s not authentic unless you stir-fry the pickled greens with pig intestines."

"My God, I’m gonna puke. Cockroaches? Can you really eat that stuff? They look disgusting!"

"Good lord, what kind of hardcore food stream is this?"

"Water cockroaches are also called diving beetles. Even though they’re called cockroaches, they aren’t the kind we usually see. They’re actually quite expensive. Wild ones go for over 200 yuan for 50 grams. Most people can’t afford to eat them."

"Cockroaches that cost over 2,000 yuan per pound... Now I’ve seen everything!"