Gan Lan and her friends chatted until the sky began to brighten. The topic had shifted countless times, and she still hadn’t figured out what they meant by their earlier remarks. However, she didn’t really care; perhaps they were just saying whatever came to mind.
Just as she was enjoying the conversation, she received a call from Liang Cong.
"Mr. Liang, is something the matter?"
"You saw the message from the competition organizers, right? I’ll pick you up for tonight’s banquet."
Gan Lan nodded. "Alright, I understand."
She had originally planned to decline, but having a teacher accompany her was a good idea. That way, the dramatic TV tropes she had just been imagining wouldn’t happen to her.
Now, she wondered if she should livestream today and, if so, what she should make. If she didn’t livestream, how would she pass the time? It seemed that whenever she wasn’t cooking, she had no idea what to do with herself.
She wondered why these kinds of banquets had to be held at night. Couldn’t they do it during the day?
While pondering this, Gan Lan browsed the Star Network Ingredient Store, quickly scanning through the available ingredients. Previously, she had made the "Four Great Heavenly Kings" of Cantonese morning tea, along with glutinous rice chicken and rice noodle rolls. Today, she would follow up with something special—using cuts of meat that the people of the future might find hard to accept.
Chicken feet with black bean sauce, spare ribs with black bean sauce, and Money Belly, paired with a serving of hot and sour sweet potato noodles as the staple dish. Today’s menu was set!
She purchased the ingredients and seasonings. It took her quite a while to find fermented black beans, but thankfully, she managed to track them down.
Around eight o’clock, she started her livestream. Wearing a gentle smile, she offered her daily greeting to the ever-present viewers in her channel. "Good morning! You’re all up quite early today."
I’m So Stressed: [I just fell asleep a little while ago. I planned to nap for two or three hours before the streamer went live. I didn’t expect you to be on so early today! I was super sleepy, but now I’m instantly wide awake! We get to eat more delicious food~]
The green of the Qingtuan is really beautiful: [Goddess, goddess! Long time no see, I missed you so much! I’ve made it home safely. Spending such a thrilling and adventurous day with you was so exciting! Hehe~ What are we eating today?]
Not Coming Tomorrow: [I was already asleep, but the moment I heard the special notification sound, my eyes snapped open! My mind instantly cleared, and I rushed into the livestream. I think I must have been poisoned by this thing called Huaxia cuisine—and it’s a chronic poison, too. Otherwise, why would someone like me, who normally has terrible morning crankiness, feel so happy and completely unbothered after being woken up this early?]
...
"Today’s breakfast is going to be incredibly hearty," Gan Lan said, placing the spare ribs she had bought into clean water to soak. Although the blood-absorbing stickers were very convenient, skipping the soaking step just felt a bit weird to her. "Remember when we did that morning tea series before? I’m sure you haven’t forgotten the Crystal Shrimp Dumplings, egg tarts, barbecue pork buns, dry-steamed siu mai, glutinous rice chicken, and rice noodle rolls, right? All six of those are staples of morning tea."
"Today, we’re making three new delicacies, along with a bowl of hot and sour sweet potato noodles as the main course." She then began trimming the nails off the chicken feet with the help of her robot assistant. "What I’m holding right now are chicken feet. You’re probably feeling quite unfamiliar and confused, right? You must be wondering how on earth something like chicken feet can be edible."
Immortal Barbecue: [Exactly! Why would we eat chicken feet? Junior, are you absolutely sure this thing is edible? It doesn’t even have any meat on it, and it’s a literal claw. I’m feeling a bit repulsed. Good thing I spotted the ingredients for the spare ribs and the hot and sour noodles, otherwise I might have backed out today.]
Roast Meat Bibimbap: [Um... I don’t think I can accept these chicken feet either. Streamer, I’m passing on the claws, but I definitely want to eat everything else!]
BBQ Pork Bun Cutie: [Oh my god?? Chicken feet are edible?! No, no, no, the moment I look at these things, I just... Even though the streamer washed them thoroughly and even clipped their nails, I still can’t accept this. Sob~ Sorry, streamer.]
Sky Blue: [Heh! You cowards upstairs don’t even dare to eat a chicken foot! Nothing made by our junior’s hands is ever bad. You’ll all be eating your words for rejecting it now, hmph!]
...
Seeing that more than half of the comments were expressing their inability to accept the chicken feet, Gan Lan wanted to laugh. If they couldn’t even handle chicken feet, they probably wouldn’t be able to stomach the upcoming Money Belly at all.
The thought put her in an exceptionally good mood. After finishing clipping the nails off the chicken feet, she immediately put on a sealed mask and took out the cow stomach she had just bought on the Star Network—also known as Money Belly.
"This might not look very appealing, and it has a bit of an odor. Compared to the ingredient I have in my hands right now, chicken feet are child’s play. Let me introduce it." The corners of Gan Lan’s mouth curled up. She could already imagine the fantastic reactions her viewers would have once they heard it was a cow’s stomach.
"A cow has four stomachs, and this is one of them, called the reticulum. Look, doesn’t it resemble a net? It might smell a bit strong, so you should probably turn off your olfactory sensors for now." Gan Lan pointed at the textured patterns on the reticulum to show the viewers.
Hot Pot Balls: [Junior, I... You warned us too late! And you call this ’a bit of an odor’?? I’m feeling sick all over. Suddenly, chicken feet seem like a divine ingredient; I misjudged them. Boohoo, why would anyone subject themselves to eating a cow’s stomach? I think I’m going to die here today.]
Feiran: [Could it be any smellier than things like Yao Yu? How come you all devoured the stinky Yao Yu with such gusto?]
Sky Blue: [Oh? Captain, then why did you put on a mask? Why not properly experience this aroma?]
Fiery Phoenix: [Oh my goodness, is this actually edible? It stinks! I don’t want to eat this at all. Hard pass! So is it going to be nothing but bizarre ingredients today? Sob sob sob.]
...
"Is it even harder to accept than the Yao Yu?" Gan Lan asked. "You guys can go take a nap first and come back to see the finished product. Then you can decide whether or not you want to eat them." She trimmed the excess fat off the Money Belly and rinsed it with clean water.
Next, she poured an appropriate amount of flour and alkaline powder into the container with the Money Belly, rubbing and washing it repeatedly. She then scrubbed it with salt before rinsing it thoroughly several times over.
After draining the water, she added the right amount of salt, scallions, ginger, rice wine, and water used for washing rice, then steamed it for about twenty minutes.
"We’re steaming it for around twenty minutes now to remove the odor. We’ll add the seasonings later."
She took the soaking spare ribs, which had released their bloody water, and used the high-tech water-absorbing stickers to draw out the remaining blood. Then, she added a suitable amount of julienned ginger, chopped bird’s eye chilies, rinsed fermented black beans, and minced garlic.
Pouring in the right amounts of light soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking wine, starch, and salt, she mixed everything evenly and set it aside to marinate.
She filled a pot with clean water, tossed in some ginger slices and cooking wine, and dumped in the chicken feet, which had been chopped in half. Once the water boiled, she skimmed off the foam, scooped out the chicken feet, and rinsed them clean. Finally, she used absorbent paper to dry off the chicken feet completely.
"This step is absolutely necessary, otherwise the hot oil will splatter everywhere when we fry them later." Even though Gan Lan knew that probably no one was following along and cooking with her, she still offered a kindly reminder.
She poured a generous amount of oil into the wok. Once the oil temperature reached seventy percent heat, she dumped in the chicken feet and began frying. Although they were already completely drained of moisture, Gan Lan still covered the wok with a lid, occasionally flipping the chicken feet over.
Once the chicken feet were fried to a golden brown on both sides, she scooped them out and soaked them in clean water, allowing them to puff up and soften.
"Haven’t you guys praised me for having hands that can turn the mundane into the magical? Why are you suddenly so repulsed? Don’t end up regretting it later~" Seeing the livestream audience universally expressing their refusal, Gan Lan couldn’t wait to see them inevitably change their tune. At that thought, her eyes filled with mirth.