Ch113 – A Truly Savory Admonishment

Ruan Tang knew that Chen Yuanwu and Cao Jun’s basic skills were very solid, so he gave the kitchen knife to Chen Yuanwu and let him handle the rabbit. He then had Cao Jun handle the pheasant. The rabbit needed to be skinned with a kitchen knife and then cut into small pieces, while the pheasant needed to be scalded with hot water.

Seeing the rabbit, the audience began to argue once again. Many people thought that rabbits were very cute and that Ancient humans must have used them as pets, not as food. But people who have studied Ancient Earth history came out and insisted that the rabbits could be eaten. The two sides could not come to an agreement for a long time.

[Ye Liuyu: The bunny’s so cute! How could you eat the bunny?!!]

[Miao Miao loves to eat all the dishes of the anchor: All of Tang Tang’s dishes are delicious. If you don’t want to eat then make sure you keep your chopsticks where they are!]

However, the guests were completely unaware about the situation in the live chat. Both Chen Yuanwu and Cao Jun were very nimble and efficient. It didn’t take long for the rabbit and pheasant to be dealt with.

Ruan Tang put the cut rabbit meat into the plastic basin they’d just received today. He soaked and washed it with water, and then put it into a small bowl after the blood had been thoroughly washed away. He added salt, soy sauce, and a little starch. He kneaded it into the meat and allowed it to marinate for a while. Because grass was the rabbit’s normal diet, its meat will have an earthy or grassy taste. He must be meticulous in getting rid of the gamey-ness, otherwise, the soldiers with their heightened senses might find it hard to swallow.

Later, Ruan Tang fried the chopped green onions, ginger, and garlic in hot oil until it turned fragrant. He then added and stir-fried doubanjiang and chilli paste until the red oil was heated out. He put in the marinated rabbit meat and sautéed over high heat. Finally, he put in water and chopped chilies, and simmered it on low heat.

A thick, spicy scent drifted through the crack between the pan and the lid, causing everyone to gulp.

After cooking for about five or six minutes, Ruan Tang poked the rabbit meat in the pan with his improvised wooden chopsticks. After making sure that the meat was completely cooked, he used high heat to make it absorb more flavor before plating the dish.

“Mr. Ruan, can I try it?” Chen Yuanwu couldn’t help asking.

The cut up rabbit meat was soaked in red oil and looked very tempting. Add to that the spicy peppery smell, it was completely unthinkable that it was made with rabbit meat that he had found completely unpalatable before.

“Of course.” Ruan Tang passed over his chopsticks.

As soon as the spicy rabbit meat entered his mouth, an indescribable spicy flavor bloomed directly on the tip of the tongue. After cooking, the rabbit meat was very flavorful and the meat was very tender. After the oil was applied, the outer layer of the rabbit meat had an extremely thin and crispy shell, which greatly enriched the taste.

If the oil temperature was not controlled well, then this outer shell might be fried too tough. But Ruan Tang’s control of the oil temperature was just right, so that the thin layer of crispy shell added a bit of a scorched flavor to the rabbit meat. It was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

The audience watching the live broadcast saw the intoxicated expression that came unbidden on Chen Yuanwu’s face. How could they resist? They could no longer pay any attention to whether rabbits should or shouldn’t be eaten, they simply picked up their chopsticks and started eating.

[A little bit of ice: Ah, ah, ah, it’s so delicious! How could it be so tasty?]

[Day and Night: Hmm … Is this really the rabbit meat that Chen Yuanwu ate yesterday? Why do I feel that it’s totally different … amazing!]

[Yue Mingya: Won’t you let me prostrate myself before you? Take it! Take it!]

[Ye Liuyu: So good o (╥﹏╥) o]

Chen Yuanwu picked up the plastic basin, planning to bury all the offal and fur, but was stopped by Ruan Tang. “Leave me the rabbit head and chicken giblets.”

The spicy rabbit head was a well-known Sichuan dish and it tasted very good. Although there weren’t a lot of chicken giblets, it could also be fried and eaten as a side dish.

Only then did Chen Yuanwu and Cao Jun know that this animal with white fur, long ears and red eyes was called a rabbit.

[Princess Bai Yiqing: My Tang is so smart! He unexpectedly knew that it was a rabbit. He must have read a lot of ancient history!]

[Yi-Er: My Tang is amazing! Sending Crystal Flowers!]

Ruan Tang took the rabbit’s head in hand. He skinned the rabbit’s head with a kitchen knife, and then cut off the ears, eyelids, and throat. Because the scene was so bloody, he deliberately used his body to block the cameras in consideration for the sensibilities of the viewers. By the time everyone saw it again, he had already processed the rabbit’s head.

He then soaked the rabbits head in a bit of cooking wine, ginger and scallions to remove the gamey-ness. This will take about 30 minutes.

Then he started to make beggar’s chicken. He used the back of the knife to break the pheasant’s bones. After he had folded it into a ball, then coated the pheasant with salt, pepper, and scallion-ginger juice, he wrapped it fresh lotus leaves, and then and covered it in wet mud before putting it in the oven to bake.

The audience had never seen this method of cooking, and they were all very surprised, especially when they saw him put mud on the chicken. Many people came out to criticize this practice as being too unhygienic. They seriously doubted whether the resulting dish would be really edible. Only Ruan Tang’s old fans were calm and composed, simply waiting for the coming face-slapping.

[Hehehehe: This anchor always does this. What’s the f*ck is with this covering the chicken with lotus leaf and mud? Can you really eat something like this? The lotus leaves will dry as soon as they’re roasted. By then, the mud will run into the chicken. Are they going to eat mud? He’s just playing to the gallery, making up all this sensationalist claptrap! Now he’s done something unthinkable!]

[Jingjing Yu: Wow, is that a hater? Time to wait for the face slapping!!!]

[Little transparent: Looking at these haters jumping up and down, I can’t help but want to laugh—haven’t your faces been slapped enough!]

[Can’t stop hugging trees: Don’t throw away the used sunspots, wrap them in flour and fry until golden. The child next door is crying from hunger ~]

After Ruan Tang put the pheasant in the stove, he was ready to make his last dish. Zha Panpan had given him the bear’s paw yesterday. He had already boiled it with clean water and it was now hanging up to dry. It was now ready to be processed. They would burn off the fur and remove the sharp nails and tough leathery soles. They would then cut the back of the paw to remove the bones, after which, it would now be ready for cooking.

The taste of bear’s paw itself was already quite strong. It didn’t require any complicated processing. Ruan Tang put it in boiling water, added onion, ginger, garlic, rice wine and pepper, and then cooked it for about an hour.

When the audience saw this scene, they once again voiced their criticisms. Now, it was a rabbit’s head, an ugly and squelching bear’s paw, and a pheasant wrapped in mud. This was a brain, a smelly foot and mud. Except for the pot of fish soup and the spicy rabbit, none of the remaining three dishes would be allowed to enter their mouths.

And many people had seen Zha Panpan cook the bear meat. Although Zha Panpan had used a lot of seasonings and the final taste of the bear meat was not bad, it was tough and hard to eat. Chewing it made your cheeks hurt. Moreover this hairy bear’s paw was so thick and ugly that in the eyes of the audience it wasn’t even as good as scraps. All of a sudden there was a contradictory feeling welling inside them.

[Is your Ruan throwing himself at the street today?: Keke, maybe you should eat it since you like licking his boots so much? Drinking some water from his foot bath would cure any illness! [vomiting]]

Many people called into question Ruan Tang’s actions and a quarrel broke out with Ruan Tang’s fans who were defending him.

After half an hour, the gamey-ness in the rabbit’s head was finally eliminated. Ruan Tang took the rabbit head out, put it in a pot and simmered it in boiling water to completely remove the remaining blood. He then put it in the oil pan and used doubanjiang and chili oil to stir-fry the rabbit’s head. He seasoned it with some soy sauce and a bit of sugar and let it simmer for fifteen minutes.

The rabbit head had fully absorbed the red oil and sauce making it look smooth and shiny, rosy and delicious. If it weren’t a rabbit’s head, some people would definitely be willing to try it.

Generally speaking, the method to eat a rabbit’s head was to grasp its upper and lower mandibles to tear it in half and gnaw on the bones, but this method would be far too bloody and violent for the future people who have never even eaten rabbit before. So Ruan Tang tore off the edible meat from the rabbit’s head little by little with his chopsticks and put it on a clean lotus leaf. As for the remaining skull, brain and tongue, he’ll wait until they return inside the log cabin before gnawing on it. It’s more savory than the meat and was very appetizing.

The rabbit head was not large, so only a small portion of meat can actually be eaten. So in the end, the rabbit head meat on the lotus leaf was only six small pieces, just enough for each of them to get a taste.

[Little transparent: Oh my gosh, what kind of supernatural meat is this? How could it be so delicious?]

[Can’t stop Hugging Trees: My god, this meat is so savory, spicy, fragrant and tender. It’s also a little sweet, it’s so delicious! Why is there so little? I only had a few mouthfuls!]

[Ye Liuyu: Is this really a rabbit’s head? !! !! !! I’m wrong! I shouldn’t have doubted that Ruan Tang … o (╥﹏╥) o]

The rabbit’s head had been stewed until it fully absorbed the spicy and sweet taste from the sauce. The meat that could be eaten from the rabbit’s head was actually the masseter muscle. Because of the way the rabbit chews, it was very elastic and tough. It tasted especially good!

After a while, the beggar’s chicken was sufficiently baked. Ruan Tang used a wooden stick to pull out a scorched earthen lump from the stove, it looked ugly and unsightly.

The doubtful voices that were suppressed by the deliciousness of the spicy rabbit’s head appeared again. The audience still couldn’t imagine that the pheasant, which was wrapped in mud and was roasted black, could it be edible.

[Hehehehe: Look at this blackened exterior, how are you going to eat it? It seems to me he really wants everyone to eat mud, right? Hahahahaha]

However, these viewers were destined to have their faces slapped. Ruan Tang picked up the roasted beggar’s chicken and smashed it directly against the ground. The outer layer crumbled, exposing some browned lotus leaves that were roasted inside. He just had to push aside the lotus leaves away and the shiny chicken inside could be seen. An indescribably delicious aroma then hit them in the face and the audience were taken aback by surprise.

[Gu Shanxiao: Damn, why does it smell so good? !!]

[Mu Yange: What kind of trick is this? ? How could mud caked chicken smell this good? Can even mud be used as seasoning? Σ (° △ ° |||) ]

[Little Swallows fly: I couldn’t help having a taste … I just want to say … It’s so delicious! !! !! !! ]

Because it has been sealed and baked in the mud for a long time, the chicken was fragrant and tender. Each mouthful melts in the mouth. The aroma of lotus leaves was brought into the chicken by the high temperature. When eating it, it added a delicate fragrance to the chicken, adding brilliance to this dish.

Chen Yuanwu and Cao Jun didn’t need to taste it at all. Just by the smell, they could already tell that the taste of this dish would definitely be good. Their admiration for Ruan Tang’s cooking skills rose. He was indeed a top chef to be able to turn the foul into the rare and ethereal.

[Genuine Devil: Hmm … So that black bear’s paw, maybe it’s also delicious?]

[Tatami Tata: Suddenly I feel like my face kinda hurts … Boo hoo, boo hoo, Why didn’t I listen!!!]