Gourmet: Midnight Vending

Chapter 552 - 431: Two New Fusion Dishes (Part 2)

Once the thought process opened up, everything didn’t seem that difficult anymore, and Chen Mo already had an idea for his second fusion dish.

"After merging the ingredients from both places, if we also combine the cooking methods and dining habits, isn’t there nothing more suitable than Tofu Box?"

The ownership of the Tofu Box dish is actually quite controversial.

There is a recipe for this dish in Huaiyang Cuisine, and there’s a method for it in Boshan Cuisine from Shandong as well. The basic ideas are similar, but the cooking methods are slightly different.

Huaiyang Cuisine focuses on eating the natural flavor of the food, while Boshan Cuisine emphasizes using techniques to give the ingredients a new soul.

"When tofu meets squid..." Chen Mo shivered with excitement.

Just imagining that texture is exhilarating!

The so-called squid is a term used in Taiwan. For instance, when Chen Mo was at the Shilin Night Market, he saw a stall crowded with people selling a snack called Stir-fried Squid.

Another stall was also doing well, selling grilled calamari.

In fact, these are the same ingredient, which inland people usually refer to as squid!

"If the small squids are pre-cooked and then placed inside Tofu Box for a second cooking, and finally given a third cooking in the Boshan style, what would that be like?"

Can’t imagine.

Because even just imagining, Chen Mo already could taste how exciting that complex flavor would be!

After recording down the ingredients for the second fusion snack, Chen Mo found the contact information of the boss Granny Chen had introduced him to, and sent a message asking them to send him a small amount of these ingredients first.

While waiting for the ingredients to arrive, Chen Mo began preparing the preliminary work.

What matters most in Braised Sea Cucumber?

Green onions!

Making scallion oil is the soul of this dish, while the soaking of the sea cucumber is its body. Without sea cucumber at hand, Chen Mo started by making scallion oil.

Unfortunately, being in Taiwan, it’s impossible to buy those large Shandong green onions, and he had to use local ones instead.

Chen Mo studied the recipe sent through the delivery system, gradually figuring out how to perfectly merge the two dishes. By immersing himself completely, he entered a very intriguing state.

It was as if, heaven and man were one.

Meanwhile, Xiaoxia successfully met up with her group and was even honored to become a partner with the group leader.

"Attacking Fatty?"

"Creepy Blacky?"

Xiaoxia looked at the group leader, who was 1.7 meters tall and definitely weighed less than 150 pounds.

The group leader looked at Xiaoxia, who was slightly chubby but had fair skin.

Both of them were a bit dumbfounded.

Isn’t she a girl? Why is her screen name Creepy Blacky?

Xiaoxia was also puzzled, "Aren’t you a guy with a normal build? Why are you called Attacking Fatty?"

The air was filled with an awkward and speechless atmosphere. After a moment of silence, Attacking Fatty spoke first, "I’ve already planned our route before coming here."

Xiaoxia was amazed as Attacking Fatty pulled out a paper map from his backpack, marked with many red circles.

This is too professional, isn’t it?

"We’re responsible for this area, starting the search here. Based on Boss Xiao Chen’s closing and retreat routes, I think the parking lots around here are very likely," he said.

"Mm-hmm!" Xiaoxia nodded like a little chick.

Following such a professional, her thoughts no longer mattered.

Attacking Fatty lifted his eyelids and glanced at Xiaoxia, "Let’s go. I hope our group finds Boss Xiao Chen first."

The carpet search officially began!

Certain parking lot.

Chen Mo finally received the ingredients he had been eagerly anticipating, starting with soaking the sea cucumber.

One must be amazed that when a certain industry in a certain place is highly developed, the supporting industries are also very powerful.

Just like the sea cucumber in this instance.

If bought inland, mostly one would get dried sea cucumbers and have to soak them manually. In the recipe Chen Mo received, there’s even a special note.

The success of Braised Sea Cucumber hinges on its soaking process. It must be soaked in cold water for 48 hours and kept in the fridge, with the water changed every 8 hours.

The entire soaking process is free of oil, salt, or alkali. Properly soaked sea cucumber should feel tender, with no hard center.

It’s actually a time-consuming task usually left for apprentices in big restaurants; the head chef wouldn’t waste their time doing this.

But in Taiwan, with the highly developed night market culture, when buying ingredients, Chen Mo just needed to specify the level of soak he wanted for the sea cucumbers.

The supplier naturally provides the relevant product.

In fact, those in this business might offer sea cucumbers prepared at a lower cost than if Chen Mo had bought and soaked dried ones himself—that’s the ultimate result of industrialization.

Of course, properly soaked sea cucumber is just one core aspect.

Chen Mo first cut open the belly of the sea cucumber and removed the beak. He then placed it in cold water, brought it to a boil, then turned it to a simmer and set a 40-minute timer before moving on to other tasks.

Now, making scallion oil!

If the soaking quality of the sea cucumber is key to this dish, then the flavor of the scallion oil is its soul.

Pour vegetable oil into the pot, without heating it first, and add in the chopped scallion whites. Chen Mo reserved a few scallion whites for later use.

Then he added a few slices of ginger to the pot. As the temperature gradually rose, small bubbles began forming around the scallion and ginger, until they were fried to a golden brown over low heat.

Then he fished out the browned scallion and ginger pieces, waited for the oil temperature to rise again, and added the reserved scallion whites for just 10 seconds before removing them.

"To put it simply, this is just extraction..." Chen Mo chuckled at himself, "In Chinese cuisine, we call it stewing or refining, but it’s all about extraction—drawing the flavors of the scallion and ginger into the oil."

The processed scallion oil was filtered and set aside for further use.

Next, he could start making the flagship dish of Lu Cuisine!

Since this dish was to be fused with Oyster Omelette, large sea cucumbers obviously couldn’t be directly used for frying, so Chen Mo’s idea was to first cook the sea cucumber in scallion oil until it was 80% done, then dice it for making Oyster Omelette.

Of course, after making the Oyster Omelette, an additional step was needed; otherwise, the fusion wouldn’t be complete.

Once the scallion oil is prepared, the ensuing process isn’t that complex.

After simmering the sea cucumber for 40 minutes, he turned off the heat and let it cool in the water before retrieving it. He simmered it further with ginger slices, cooking wine, and clear soup over low heat.

This step primarily aimed to remove any fishy smell and enhance flavor.

Once completed, he reheated the previously filtered scallion oil, sautéed the leftover scallion segments to bring out the aroma, added cooking wine, poured in the clear soup, and finally sprinkled in soy sauce, white sugar, and salt.

The broth was brought to a boil directly in the pan.

"This aroma." Chen Mo took two big, deep breaths. It truly was delightful.

Indeed, clear soup is practically invincible when preparing braised dishes, hence why some older Shandong restaurants often run out of meals early during the evening rush.

It’s simply because the clear soup made the previous day was used up!

With the broth boiling, the sea cucumber was added, and the fire was turned down to continue simmering, so the scallion oil’s taste could infiltrate the sea cucumber.

One can’t rush such dishes, so Chen Mo watched the broth gradually reduce, eventually turning up the heat to reduce the sauce, the last step being to drizzle in the cornstarch slurry.

...

Elsewhere, having searched eight parking lots, the Black Fatty combo still found nothing.

"This isn’t right. I remember watching the stream last night; he clearly drove off from this street. Analyzing Boss Chen Mo’s actions, he should surely rest at a nearby parking lot, right?"

Xiaoxia, holding her chin, looked at the map in Attacking Fatty’s hand; only three places remained unsearched.

Even other group members in the chat reported finding nothing.

Xiaoxia pointed to one spot and suggested, "Shall we try here next?"

Attacking Fatty glanced at it, "I planned to leave this one for last since it’s closest to the night market. Logically, it’s not convenient for parking, and the air isn’t great with so many vehicles. Since Boss Xiao Chen is traveling, he likely wouldn’t choose such a spot, would he?"

Xiaoxia, however, had a different perspective.

She thought that since Boss Xiao Chen was traveling and with a food truck, he must be a food lover.

For food lovers, being close to a night market is surely the best choice!

"Let’s try it then, given only three remain."

Attacking Fatty nodded, "Alright, let’s go!"

The Black Fatty combo continued moving forward!