I Have a Countryside Gourmet Restaurant

Chapter 357: Chapter 331: This Dish Is Truly Magical

After Ling Xiaoru left, Li You sat down on the rocking chair at the restaurant’s entrance to rest.

Not long after, Lin Guodong arrived. He said to Li You, ”Xiaoyou, I’ll take half a braised chicken to go.”

Li You asked, ”Having guests over again today, Uncle Guodong?”

Lin Guodong smiled. ”Nope. The family is just craving your braised chicken, so I’m getting some for us to eat at home.”

So that was it.

Li You smiled back. ”Then please wait a moment, Uncle Guodong. I’ll go cut it for you right now.”

”Great, great.”

Li You personally cut half a braised chicken. It weighed 1.05 kilograms. He charged for an even kilogram—70 yuan.

Lin Guodong paid, chatted with Li You for a few more moments, and left happily with his braised chicken.

They would be having delicious braised chicken for lunch today.

Li You went back to resting on his rocking chair.

Time slowly passed. At 11 a.m., a customer arrived.

”Boss, did you buy pork offal at the market today? Are you launching a new dish featuring it? What is it? Fiery Stir-Fried Pork Intestines?” the first customer of the day asked.

Pork large intestines are also known as pork offal or fatty intestines.

Fiery Stir-Fried Pork Intestines is a very famous homestyle dish from Chuansheng Province that many people enjoy. It’s a type of Sichuan cuisine.

However, Lu Cuisine also has a dish called Pan-Fried Pork Intestines.

The two dishes don’t just have similar names; their preparation methods and textures are also quite similar.

After all, the two great culinary traditions of Sichuan and Lu Cuisine were bound to have some overlap and intersection.

This first customer was already asking about the pork offal. It seemed word of Li You buying pork offal today had already spread among the regulars.

The news had traveled remarkably fast.

Li You replied, ”I did indeed buy pork offal. And I am thinking of launching a new dish that features it. However, it’s not Fiery Stir-Fried Pork Intestines.”

”Oh? Then what is it?” the customer pressed.

Li You smiled. ”That’s a secret for now. Mainly because I’m not yet sure if I’ll actually launch it. I need to experiment with it first. If it turns out well, I’ll add it to the menu. If not, I might try a different preparation method.”

’Of course, this was just what I’m telling people. The next dish is definitely going to be Nine-Turned Pork Intestines.’

This time, the customer didn’t press further, just nodded and said, ”Alright, alright. We’ll be waiting for the good news, Boss. I’m sure it’ll be delicious no matter how you make it.”

Li You said, ”I’ll do my best not to disappoint everyone.”

The customer replied, ”You definitely won’t.”

The customers had absolute faith in Li You.

After that customer, many of the ones who followed also asked if Li You had bought pork offal at the market.

The topic of Li You preparing a new dish with pork offal as the main ingredient became the main point of discussion in the restaurant today.

The customers were all quite excited about it.

Even though many customers weren’t interested in pork offal and didn’t like to eat it, they thought pork offal made by Li You might actually be delicious.

So, they were looking forward to it as well, with the exception of a few who were completely repulsed by pork offal.

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By evening, the topic of pork offal was still going strong.

Ling Xiaoru and Chu Yiwei arrived at the restaurant one after the other.

Both were a little surprised that all the customers were talking about pork offal.

They hadn’t expected everyone to be so interested in an ingredient disliked by so many.

It was as if everyone was a fan.

But to be honest, pork offal was actually a very good ingredient. It was believed to have properties that could moisten dryness, supplement deficiencies, quench thirst, and stop bleeding. It could be used to treat conditions like weakness and thirst, prolapsed rectum, hemorrhoids, bloody stools, and constipation.

The key, however, was its taste... which was truly difficult for everyone to enjoy.

So, not all the customers in the restaurant could possibly like it.

But why did they all seem so interested and full of anticipation?

There could only be one reason.

The boss’s culinary skills had reached a level where customers were full of anticipation even for ingredients they normally disliked.

Ling Xiaoru and Chu Yiwei both felt emotional and happy about this. After they both chatted with Li You at the kitchen entrance for a while, they went upstairs.

Li You took about 1.5 kilograms of pork large intestines from the Storage Pavilion and gave them to Da Bai to clean.

Pork intestines were a good ingredient, but they were notoriously difficult to clean.

It was a real hassle to wash them. Getting them completely clean wasn’t easy.

You had to repeatedly scrub them with salt and vinegar to completely remove the intestinal fat, mucus, and other filth.

At the same time, you had to turn the intestines inside out and scrub them repeatedly again. And it was best not to break the intestinal wall.

In short, cleaning them was a lot of trouble.

For Da Bai, however, it wasn’t difficult at all.

In no time at all, Da Bai had cleaned the 1.5 kilograms of pork intestines until they were spotless. Not a trace of fat, mucus, or filth remained, and the intestinal walls were completely undamaged.

A truly great helper for Li You.

He set the cleaned pork intestines aside.

The time quickly reached 7 p.m., and Li You began preparing the Nine-Turned Pork Intestines.

He took a section of intestine. Choosing one end, he turned it inside out and then began to telescope the rest of the intestine into it.

You could pour water in while telescoping it and then work it through. This made it easier to sleeve and resulted in a smoother finish.

After sleeving it once, he turned it over from the bottom and sleeved it again.

And that was it.

The intestine, originally a meter long, was now only about 20 centimeters.

What was once a single layer of intestine now had four layers.

It felt good in his hand, very firm and dense.

He prepared the rest of the intestines in the same way.

Of course, you could skip the sleeving. But if you did, it wouldn’t look good when sliced after cooking. And it wouldn’t be as satisfying to eat.

So, you shouldn’t be afraid of the trouble.

In fact, sleeving them was quite fast and not that much trouble at all.

Next, he could run a toothpick through both ends of the sleeved intestine. This would hold it in place and prevent the inner layers from slipping out during the boiling process.

Then, he placed the sleeved intestines in a pot of cold water. He added scallion segments, old ginger slices, Sichuan peppercorns, and a small amount of cooking wine.

He began to boil it.

After bringing it to a boil over high heat, he reduced the heat to low and let it simmer.

It needed to cook for a relatively long time. Once the intestines were cooked through, he removed them from the pot.

If they swelled up during this time, he could poke them with a toothpick to release the air.

After letting the intestines cool slightly, he cut them into sections.

Sections about 2.5 centimeters long were best.

After slicing them, he blanched them in boiling water again.

Then he removed them and lightly coated them with dark soy sauce for color.

Next, he heated up a generous amount of oil in a wok.

When the oil was about 70 percent hot, he dropped the intestine sections in to fry them.

They shouldn’t be fried for too long. As soon as the outside turned golden brown, he immediately took them out.

He set them aside after removing them from the wok.

Next, he left a little oil in the bottom of the wok, added rock sugar, and began to stir-fry it.

This step is called ”caramelizing sugar.” It is a very important and crucial step for the dish Nine-Turned Pork Intestines.

When the rock sugar had melted and turned a date-red color, he added the previously fried intestines.

He stir-fried them quickly.

Once the intestines were fully colored, he added a suitable amount of cooking wine and rice vinegar.

After stir-frying a few more times, he added clear water.

The water level should just cover the intestines.

At this point, he added the right amount of soy sauce, white sugar, pepper, salt, and chicken essence.

He simmered it over medium heat for about 10 minutes.

When the sauce had reduced and started to thicken, he turned the heat to high to reduce it further.

While reducing the sauce, he added a bit of cinnamon powder and amomum powder, stirring them in well. Finally, he thickened it with a little starch slurry before plating.

A plate of Nine-Turned Pork Intestines, perfect in color, aroma, and taste, was ready. It was filled with the five flavors of sour, sweet, fragrant, spicy, and salty—a perfect reflection of life itself.

This was Li You’s first time making this dish, and he felt it had turned out very well.

While making this dish, Li You was, of course, also using other woks to cook for his customers.

Time slowly passed. By 9 p.m., the last wave of customers had finished eating and left.

Li You had also finished cooking all the dishes for himself, Ling Xiaoru, and Chu Yiwei to eat that evening.

Besides the Nine-Turned Pork Intestines, there were 1.5 kilograms of spicy crawfish, as well as portions of Steamed Perch, Stir-fried Bitter Melon, and Tomato and Egg Soup.

He closed up the shop and carried all the dishes upstairs. He also poured three bowls of wine, one of which was only half-full.

It was time to eat.

Ling Xiaoru’s and Chu Yiwei’s eyes were both fixed on the Nine-Turned Pork Intestines.

They both stared at it as if it were a curiosity.

It was the first time either of them had seen a dish featuring pork intestines in this form.

’Is this really pork intestine?’

The form and color were completely different from the intestines in dishes they were familiar with, like Fiery Stir-Fried Pork Intestines.

It looked like pork intestine, but not quite. ’Why is it in layers? How did he make it with so many layers?’

And the color. The intestines in dishes like Fiery Stir-Fried Pork Intestines were a meaty white, but this was a reddish-brown color.

They had never seen this method of preparation before.

’Is this a new method the boss invented himself?’

Neither Ling Xiaoru nor Chu Yiwei would be the least bit surprised if Li You had, in fact, invented a new way to cook pork intestines.

And they had to admit, prepared this way, it looked incredibly appetizing.

It was the first time for both of them to think that a dish featuring pork intestines looked appetizing.

It also had a fragrant aroma.

Unlike some other pork intestine dishes, which had an unpleasant, strange smell—somewhat like a gamy taste, but also slightly different.

In any case, it wasn’t a pleasant smell.

But this dish had none of that smell at all.

Not only was that smell absent, there was even a fragrant aroma that made one want to eat it.

That was simply incredible.

”Boss, how did you make this?” both women asked.

Li You said, ”I’ll tell you in a bit. Why don’t you taste it first and see what you think?”

”Alright.”

Both of them nodded, then picked up their chopsticks and each took a section of the intestine.

”Section” was the most appropriate word for it.

Li You also picked up a section. It was his first time eating this dish as well.

He had never had it before.

He popped it into his mouth and bit down gently. It was incredibly soft, tender, and smooth, effortless to eat. Yet it retained some of the chewiness that intestines ought to have.

The texture was simply marvelous.

Furthermore, he could clearly perceive all five flavors: sour, sweet, fragrant, spicy, and salty.

The five flavors blended together, colliding on his palate to create an unparalleled deliciousness.

This deliciousness was multi-layered, twisting and turning, providing an indescribable culinary pleasure.

Li You was pleasantly surprised. The Nine-Turned Pork Intestines were even more delicious than he had imagined.

It truly lived up to its reputation as a famous dish of Lu Cuisine, worthy of being one of the most representative dishes of Shandong Province.

No wonder when Guyi was forced to choose his favorite Lu Cuisine dish, he would pick Nine-Turned Pork Intestines.

It was truly an extraordinary dish!

At that moment, Ling Xiaoru and Chu Yiwei were also equally surprised and delighted.

’This dish really is delicious. It’s even better than I imagined!’

’That strange, gamy-like smell is completely gone.’

’And it’s so fragrant when you eat it, with hints of spice, sourness, and sweetness. It’s a marvelous, delicious flavor.’

And unlike many other intestine dishes that were rubbery and tough, taking forever to chew.

Your jaw would ache from chewing, but it still wouldn’t break down. In the end, you’d just have to swallow it whole.

But this dish wasn’t like that. It was very easy to chew, incredibly soft and tender.

Both women found the dish simply magical!

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