Gourmet: The God-Level Culinary Tycoon

While bantering with his livestream viewers, Li Xiao didn’t forget about his roommates.

After a few minutes of idle chat, Iron-Handed Granny brought out the remaining two sizzling claypots.

The last two sizzling claypots were the Sand Ginger Chicken Sizzling Claypot and the Shrimp and Crab Sizzling Claypot.

The moment the lid was lifted, a rich aroma of sand ginger wafted out.

Looking into the claypot, he saw they had used two different kinds of sand ginger.

One was dried sand ginger, and the other was fresh.

Li Xiao extended his chopsticks and picked up a piece of chicken.

The surface of the chicken was golden brown, with fine bits of sand ginger clinging to it.

He gently shook his chopsticks to knock off the excess sand ginger.

Then, Li Xiao popped the piece of chicken into his mouth.

As he chewed lightly, a look of satisfaction spread across his face.

The outside of the chicken was crisp, but the meat inside remained incredibly tender and smooth.

The sand ginger itself wasn’t intensely spicy; it was more about its unique fragrance.

The only drawback, however, was that Li Xiao felt the chef had been a bit heavy-handed during preparation.

The flavor of the sand ginger completely overpowered the flavor of the chicken.

If this were any other place, Li Xiao would have suspected they were trying to mask unfresh ingredients.

After all, chefs typically only use more seasoning to cover up off-flavors when ingredients aren’t fresh.

However, judging by the chicken’s tenderness and juiciness, it was clear this restaurant was using fresh Sanhuang chicken.

And from the texture of the meat, it was most likely a free-range chicken.

Of course, overall, the flavor was still quite good.

Li Xiao:

"I have to say, the chicken is excellent. It’s a young Sanhuang chicken, so the meat is tender and smooth, but still firm. You can tell it got plenty of exercise."

"The overall seasoning is also quite good, but the sand ginger flavor is a bit too strong. If they’d used just a little less, the taste would probably be even better."

"But if you’re a fan of sand ginger, you’ll definitely love this Sand Ginger Chicken Sizzling Claypot."

Of course, Li Xiao was no sand ginger aficionado.

So, after eating just a couple of pieces, he turned his attention to the Shrimp and Crab Sizzling Claypot next to it.

The crab used was a common mud crab—not very large, but cleaned very well.

The shrimp weren’t anything special, just ordinary freshwater prawns, and they weren’t very large either.

But for the price—only 58 yuan for a whole pot.

At that price, Li Xiao felt it was already impressive that the ingredients were fresh and the portion was generous.

It would be unreasonable to expect them to use more expensive types of shrimp and crab.

Li Xiao picked up one of the prawns.

The front half of the prawn’s head had been trimmed off, and the rostrum and stomach sac were cleaned out thoroughly.

The back was split open with a knife to allow it to better absorb the flavors.

After all, the cooking time for a sizzling claypot is very short. If the back wasn’t split, the flavor would only cling to the shell, leaving the meat bland and tasteless.

Li Xiao gently pinched and broke off the head. The inedible parts had already been removed, so he could suck out the roe inside without any hesitation.

He stuck out his tongue and licked the golden roe from the corner of his mouth.

Li Xiao gave a thumbs-up to the camera.

"These prawns are fantastic. They might not be very big, but every single one is bursting with roe."

"They were cooked for the perfect amount of time. The roe is still in a semi-solid state."

"I love eating roe in this state the most—it’s more fragrant and the flavor is much richer."

In the livestream chat.

"SLURP. Man, those shrimp look delicious!"

"Those prawns were probably put to work before they even grew up!"

"58 for a pot with one mud crab and a good eight or nine prawns? At that price, I really don’t think there’s much of a profit margin!"

...

Li Xiao peeled the shrimp. Because its back had been split open beforehand, the sauce coated the meat evenly.

He tossed the shrimp meat directly into his mouth and chewed. It was plump, sweet, and perfectly cooked, with a firm texture.

The control of the cooking time was superb. A moment more and it would have been too tough; a moment less and it would have been raw.

The sauce was a slightly lighter XO sauce, leaning a bit on the sweet side. The reason for this was simple: it was meant to highlight the natural sweetness of the seafood. A saltier sauce would have easily overpowered it.

After licking the sauce from his fingers, Li Xiao nodded in satisfaction.

These prawns were exceptionally well-made, far better than the sand ginger chicken he had just eaten.

Li Xiao turned his gaze to the crab meat in the claypot.

The crab’s body was cut into four even pieces, while the carapace was left intact.

The outside of the crab pieces was coated in a golden-brown layer.

Li Xiao picked up a piece of the crab with his chopsticks and held it up to the camera.

"This piece of crab is perfectly intact, with no signs of falling apart."

"This type of mud crab is sometimes called a ’watery’ mud crab. It gets that name because its meat has a very high water content."

"If it were cooked using a normal method, the meat would be watery and have a very mushy texture."

"But here, before cooking, the chef coated all the crab pieces in starch."

"This layer of starch does a great job of sealing the moisture inside the crab meat, while also making its texture feel more substantial."

Li Xiao gently bit into the crab shell.

This type of mud crab has a very fast growth cycle, so its shell is quite soft. With a light bite, all the meat inside was exposed.

With a gentle suck, all the meat came free and entered his mouth.

Even with the starch coating, the texture of the crab meat was much worse than the prawns’.

Li Xiao shook his head slightly.

If he were to score the prawns he just had at an 85, then the crab meat would only get a 70.

While the starch coating improved the crab’s texture, it only raised it from a 60 to a 70.

Moreover, the mud crab itself had a noticeable muddy taste. Even though a large amount of garlic, shallots, onions, and perilla leaf were added during cooking to mask odors and add fragrance, they couldn’t completely eliminate that earthiness.

In his opinion, it would be better to just raise the price and use a better quality crab to replace this cheaper variety.

After swallowing the crab meat, Li Xiao began his review for the camera.

"Overall, this Celestial Treasure Restaurant is really quite good."

"I haven’t tried their other dishes, so I can’t comment on them."

"But based solely on these five sizzling claypots in front of me, I’d give them an overall score of 90."

"If I were to rank them from best to worst, it would be: the Eel Sizzling Claypot, the Beef Tongue Sizzling Claypot, the Crispy Intestine Sizzling Claypot, the Sand Ginger Chicken Sizzling Claypot, and the Shrimp and Crab Sizzling Claypot."

"The first three all deserve a score of 95 or higher. They taste fantastic, and I highly recommend you all come and try them."

"But the last two each have their drawbacks. For the Sand Ginger Chicken Sizzling Claypot, the chicken itself is tender and smooth—it’s good quality chicken—but they used too much sand ginger. All you can taste is sand ginger. I can only give it an 80. People who like strong flavors would probably love it, though."

"As for the Shrimp and Crab Sizzling Claypot, I don’t really recommend ordering it."

"Even though it’s cheap and the prawns taste decent, the mud crab itself is too small. In terms of meat quality, texture, and flavor, it’s barely passable. At most, it gets a 70."