I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Giving the Longhorn Beetle to the Children

He was still holding the Silkworm Beetle in his hand.

Sure enough, it wasn’t dead. It was still alive.

Beside him, Ye Shengge said, ”Long-horned beetles are major pests. Boss, you should probably go buy some pesticide specifically for them.”

Ye Shengge didn’t notice anything unusual.

Li You nodded. ”I’ll go to the town market to buy some another day.”

Ye Shengge added, ”Well, I’ll be going then. Thanks for the loquats.”

Li You said, ”Alright. Take care.”

”Okay.”

Ye Shengge turned and walked away, eating the loquats in her hand as she went.

Li You looked at the Silkworm Beetle in his hand but didn’t kill it.

Instead, he found an empty plastic water bottle in the shop and put the beetle inside.

He would give it to Wei Ping’s two children later.

’I wonder if they’ll want it?’

To kids in the countryside, long-horned beetles were fun insects, on par with bamboo grubs, rhinoceros beetles, and stag beetles.

Li You used to catch long-horned beetles for fun all the time when he was little.

The kids in the village still did it now.

He just wasn’t sure if Wei Ping’s children, having grown up in the city, would also like long-horned beetles.

’I’ll ask them later.’

With that, Li You walked into the kitchen.

He opened the Storage Pavilion.

The equipment he wore in the game instance was also visible.

However, it was grayed out and couldn’t be retrieved.

But he could perform the ”dismantle equipment” action.

If obsolete equipment was no longer useful, he could choose to dismantle it.

After dismantling, there was a chance to obtain items like ingredients, recipes, or kitchenware.

The beginner equipment gifted by the system couldn’t be dismantled.

Otherwise, Li You would have dismantled his top right then and there.

Now that he had the Celestial Beetle Cocoon Clothing, the system-gifted top was useless.

But since he couldn’t dismantle it, he had to drop the idea.

He took a look at the Qiankun Rice Cooker.

Li You took out the Qiankun Rice Cooker.

Its appearance wasn’t much different from a normal rice cooker.

It was about the size of a 4-liter model.

’It doesn’t seem to have any special features.’

”System, is there anything special about this rice cooker?”

”Host, this rice cooker can cook up to 110 pounds of rice.”

Li You was startled.

A normal 4-liter rice cooker could only cook about three pounds of rice at most.

’This one can cook 110 pounds?’

’I get it. So that’s what ”Qiankun” means. It’s like a whole universe inside.’

’How magical!’

Li You clicked his tongue in amazement.

”Oh, right, System. The rice made with this cooker should taste better than rice from a regular one, right?”

”Yes, Host. Rice cooked in the Qiankun Rice Cooker can achieve the quality of rice steamed in a traditional wooden steamer, or *zeng*.”

A *zeng* is a traditional cooking utensil popular in many parts of the south.

Its purpose is to steam rice.

Usually made of fir wood, it’s shaped like a bucket that’s wider at the top and slightly narrower at the bottom.

The middle is bound with woven bamboo strips, and there are handles on the sides for easy carrying.

It has a lid on top and a perforated base.

This allows steam to pass through.

Before rice cookers became popular, almost every household used a *zeng* to steam rice.

Rice steamed in a *zeng* is much tastier than rice made in a rice cooker.

The only advantage of a rice cooker is its convenience and speed.

In Changle Village, where Li You lived, many villagers still primarily used a *zeng* for cooking rice.

And now, this Qiankun Rice Cooker could produce rice with the same quality as if it were steamed in a *zeng*.

Li You was thrilled.

It really was a magical rice cooker.

He moved on to the other items.

The Knife Skills technique. This skill came at the perfect time.

Because making stir-fried shredded potatoes required him to shred potatoes.

Good knife skills could produce shreds that would greatly improve the dish’s presentation.

To make proper stir-fried shredded potatoes, you had to cut the shreds with a knife, not use one of those special shredding tools.

Using a tool would ruin the texture.

Knife skills were a fundamental technique that every chef had to practice relentlessly.

But now, with this Knife Skills technique, Li You didn’t have to go through all that hard work.

’Learn immediately.’

Li You made his choice.

From that moment on, Li You possessed top-tier knife skills.

Next, he checked his newly acquired ingredients.

Besides flour, there were beef, beef leg bones, beef spinal marrow, peanut oil, chili oil, and more—quite a variety.

Most of them were ingredients needed to make beef broth.

As for the beef broth, Li You had already mastered the perfect method for simmering it.

The method called for beef as the main ingredient, complemented by beef spinal marrow, beef leg bones, and a chicken carcass. The broth was simmered slowly through several stages—boiling, simmering, and skimming—with more than thirty different spices like Sichuan peppercorns, black cardamom, cassia buds, and ginger peel.

Both the ingredients and the process were far more complex than making the broth for Yangchun Noodles.

The final product was crystal clear, yet incredibly savory.

’I have all the ingredients now. Why not start simmering the broth right away?’

’Since I’ve mastered the beef noodle recipe, I should get it on the menu as soon as possible.’

’Having only Yangchun Noodles is just too plain.’

No sooner said than done.

The four main ingredients—the beef, beef leg bones, beef spinal marrow, and chicken carcass—also needed to be soaked in cold water for at least an hour to draw out the blood.

However, Li You could skip this step. His ingredients had no blood in them.

So, Li You put the four ingredients directly into a pot of water and began to heat it.

Just as the water was about to boil, he skimmed off the scum. Then, he added a suitable amount of salt, black cardamom, ginger peel, Sichuan peppercorns, and other ingredients, which he had wrapped in cheesecloth to form a spice sachet.

After the water came to a rolling boil, he reduced the heat to a low simmer.

This would need to cook for a while.

...

「Two hours later.」

”Uncle Li You, look at the crabs we caught!”

Wei Ping’s family returned.

One of the children was holding a plastic water bottle that had been cut open. Inside were five or six small crabs.

He was showing them to Li You.

The beef broth in the kitchen was still simmering, but Li You didn’t need to watch it constantly.

Seeing the crabs in the bottle, Li You smiled. ”Did you and your brother catch these yourselves?”

”Yeah!” the child said excitedly. ”There were so many crabs there. We caught a lot. We let the others go and only kept these few. We’re going to take them home and raise them.”

”That’s great,” Li You chuckled. ”Then you’ll have to take good care of them when you get them home.”

”Okay!”

The two children replied in unison.

Li You smiled. ’The little guys are so excited right now, but how many days will that interest last? It’s hard to say.’

’Kids are all like that.’

”Oh, by the way, Uncle has something to show you.”

Li You turned, picked up the water bottle containing the Silkworm Beetle, and held it out to the two children.

”Look, what’s this? Do you know what it is?”

When the children saw the Silkworm Beetle, they both let out an excited ”WOW!”

”I know, I know! It’s a long-horned beetle! I saw one in a book.”

”I know too! I saw one too!”

”So, do you want it? If you do, it’s yours.”

”Yes, yes, we want it!” both children said, buzzing with excitement.

Seeing the children so happy made Li You happy too. He smiled and said, ”Then it’s all yours.”

”Thank you, Uncle Li You!”

”Thank you, Uncle Li You!”

...