I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 305: Chapter 289: We’ll Go Back and Try It Ourselves

Next, the spicy crayfish was brought over.

This dish was one of the children’s favorites.

And so, the children dove in, their faces soon slick with oil as they exclaimed how delicious the spicy crayfish was.

The adults, of course, loved it too.

After finishing one, Wang Pavilion said gleefully, ”This spicy crayfish is absolutely incredible too. Uncle, you should try some. It’s super delicious.”

Xie Wanxiang hadn’t planned on eating any. He didn’t like crayfish. They were all over the fields in his village, but hardly anyone ever bothered to catch and eat them.

But after hearing what Wang Pavilion said, he decided to give one a try.

So, he picked one up and began to eat.

After he finished it, he said in pleasant surprise, ”It actually is really good. No wonder eating crayfish is so popular these days. Could we make it taste this good if we cooked it ourselves?”

Luo Yunlin said, ”Uncle, that’s wishful thinking. Chef Li You’s crayfish is the absolute pinnacle of flavor. How could we possibly make it this well? Forget us—even the master chefs at other restaurants can’t replicate this. However, there are a lot of crayfish seasonings available now. If you buy a packet of seasoning and make it at home, the taste will obviously be worlds apart from Chef Li You’s. But it’ll still be edible.”

Xie Wanxiang said, ”Then I’ll buy a packet of seasoning when I get back and give it a try. The fields in our village are teeming with crayfish, and barely anyone bothers catching them.”

Luo Yunlin said, ”More and more people in the countryside are probably eating crayfish now. The main reason people in rural areas didn’t eat it before was because they didn’t know how to cook it properly, so it didn’t taste good. Naturally, nobody wanted to eat it. But now that lots of people know how to prepare it, more people are eating it.”

Xie Wanxiang said, ”That might be true for other villages. But our village is still the same as before; very few people bother to catch and eat them.”

Luo Yunlin chuckled. ”Uncle, when you go back, you can set an example for your whole village. Get everyone hooked on crayfish. That way, when someone asks why everyone in your village suddenly loves crayfish, they’ll all say they learned it from you. How’s that for being a trendsetter?”

Xie Wanxiang laughed heartily and said, ”I can get behind that.”

Just as everyone was chatting and laughing, the Chopped Pepper Fish Head was brought out.

Luo Yunlin again urged everyone to try the Chopped Pepper Fish Head, saying, ”I’m not sure if you’ve ever had fish head prepared this way. It’s incredibly delicious. Everyone, have a taste, try some.”

Xie Wanxiang said, ”I’ve never had it like this. We always just cook the head along with the rest of the fish.”

Wang Pavilion said, ”I’ve heard of Chopped Pepper Fish Head, but I’ve never actually tried it.”

Luo Yunlin said, ”Well, then today’s the perfect chance to really experience it.”

Xie Wanxiang, Wang Pavilion, and of course the other relatives all nodded and began to eat.

Naturally, one bite was all it took for everyone to be pleasantly surprised all over again.

Who knew fish head could be so delicious prepared this way? They had learned something new yet again today.

Everyone was full of praise.

Hearing this, Luo Yunlin said, ”The reason this fish head is so good is that Chef Li You made it. If we were to make it ourselves, the flavor would be much, much worse. It would still be good, though, just not this good.”

Wang Pavilion asked, ”Is this dish complicated to make at home?”

Luo Yunlin shook his head. ”Not complicated at all, it’s very simple. All you need is chopped peppers, which you can buy ready-made at the market. It’s not expensive. Of course, as I just said, even though the dish is simple, the taste we’d get would be a world apart from what Chef Li You makes.”

Wang Pavilion said, ”That’s a given. The simplest dishes are often the hardest to make taste exceptional. It’s just that with simple dishes, it’s hard to make them taste truly bad, either. When we make Chopped Pepper Fish Head, as long as it’s passably delicious, that’s good enough for us.”

Luo Yunlin said, ”Passably delicious is no problem. I’ve made it myself, and it’s quite good.”

Wang Pavilion said, ”Then it’s settled, I’ll make it at home. I’ve always known about this dish but never thought to make it myself. But now, I have to give it a try.”

Luo Yunlin nodded. ”You absolutely should.”

At this point, Xie Wanxiang said, ”Yunlin, tell us how to make it. We all want to go home and try. When it comes to food, you have to switch things up sometimes.”

The rest of the relatives also nodded in agreement.

The relatives’ eagerness to learn the recipe was proof that bringing them here today had been a resounding success. Luo Yunlin was thrilled and said with a smile, ”Alright, I’ll tell you how to do it. First, for the fish head, you have to use the head of a bighead carp...”

Just as he finished speaking, more dishes were brought out one after another: Crucian Carp with Agastache, Twice-Cooked Pork with Garlic Sprouts, Mapo Tofu, and Stir-fried Shredded Potatoes.

Each new dish brought a fresh wave of amazement for the relatives. They never expected that these ordinary, home-style dishes, ones they frequently cooked themselves, could be so delicious.

’No wonder business is so good, even though this place is so out of the way.’

’With food this good, it’d be a miracle if business *wasn’t* booming.’

Everyone ate with gusto; this was the best meal any of them had ever had in their entire lives.

Bar none.

”Yunlin, thank you so much for bringing us here to eat. I’ve never had such delicious food,” Xie Wanxiang said to Luo Yunlin.

The other relatives chimed in with their thanks as well.

Even the children were piping up with thanks.

Luo Yunlin was overjoyed, laughing as he replied, ”If you like it, eat up! Eat as much as you want. We can order more when we’re finished.”

”It’s enough, it’s enough, this is plenty!” the relatives all insisted.

Even if there hadn’t been enough food, they couldn’t let their host spend any more money.

At that moment, the Longjing Shrimp was served.

Luo Yunlin said, ”I’ve never had this dish before either. Let’s all give it a try and see how it tastes.”

Everyone once again began picking up the shrimp to eat.

And of course, one taste sent another wave of excitement through the group.

”Who knew shrimp cooked with tea leaves could be this delicious? Today has been a real eye-opener,” one relative exclaimed.

Luo Yunlin said, ”That’s mainly because Chef Li You is the one cooking. If someone else were to make it, the flavor would be greatly diminished. Of course, even if the flavor were diminished, I’m sure it would still be very good. If it wasn’t good when others made it, it wouldn’t have become a classic, famous dish from Zhejiang Province.”

The relatives all nodded. They understood this point, of course.

At this point, their feelings toward Li You were a mixture of admiration and awe. ’How can such a young man cook so many different dishes so perfectly?’ they wondered.

It was unbelievable!

”By the way, the main ingredients for this dish are just shrimp and tea leaves, right? Both are very common! Does that mean we could make this at home?” Wang Pavilion said.

Luo Yunlin said, ”You can make it, sure. But this dish isn’t like the Chopped Pepper Fish Head, where we can manage a passably good version even if we can’t make it great. This dish is different; it’s fundamentally hard to get right. Forget the cooking process—we can’t even get the right ingredients. You need fresh, large river shrimp and Longjing Tea from Zhejiang Province. It’s not easy to find good quality versions of either. And even if you do, they’re very expensive. We wouldn’t be able to bring ourselves to buy them.”

”I see.” Wang Pavilion nodded. ”So, this isn’t a good dish for us to make at home, then.”

Luo Yunlin laughed. ”Well, you *can* still make it. If you can’t find good river shrimp, just use white shrimp or prawns instead. For the tea, just use regular tea leaves. You can still make it. The taste just might not be very good. But that’s okay, as long as it’s edible. The main reason to do it is for the novelty, anyway.”

Wang Pavilion laughed as well. ”That’s a good point. In that case, I’ll get some shrimp when I go back and give it a try. I’ve got tea at home, so I’ll just use that. We’ll see what it ends up tasting like.”

Luo Yunlin said, ”Sounds good! I’ll give it a try when I get back, too.”

Wang Pavilion said, ”But the key is, how do you make it?”

Luo Yunlin said, ”Look it up online. There are bound to be tutorials. They’ll just be generic ones for the public, but that’s good enough for us.”

Wang Pavilion nodded. ”True.”

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