Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 282 - 273: Redefining the Boundaries of Cuisine

Chapter 282: Chapter 273: Redefining the Boundaries of Cuisine

When grilling the muscle fibers and subcutaneous fat on the back of the eyeball, the eyeball should face forward.

With four hundred eyes staring straight at him, Chen Mo indeed felt waves of discomfort.

"It seems I’m still quite a way from being a true gourmet."

Chen Mo deeply realized his shortcomings and decided to delve into various dark dishes domestically, not really to eat them himself, but mainly to overcome this psychological discomfort.

About seven minutes into grilling, the white fibers and fat on the back of the eyeball gradually turned golden brown, with visible fat sizzling and bubbling on the surface.

For now, set aside those weird thoughts, turn over those two hundred pairs of eyes first!

After all, it was slow grilling on a low flame, and any "explosive" incident wouldn’t happen until two minutes later. During this time, Chen Mo quickly dashed outside to the grill to start arranging oysters.

Compared to eyeballs, oysters look much friendlier. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Not only friendly, if you pick them up with chopsticks and look at them from the side, they’re quite likable.

Once the oysters were arranged and topped with raw materials, the timing was about right to go back to the food truck and start observing the eyeballs again.

"Huh..."

The previously black and white eyeballs had now been slow roasted to a slightly white hue, and the previous feeling of being stared at now felt like being looked at with upward rolling eyes.

Nearly two minutes into grilling, the eyeballs appeared visually swollen, looking as if they might burst open at any moment!

"Is there a possibility..."

Looking at the bulging eyeballs, Chen Mo had two choices according to the recipe: first, set the grilled eyes aside to let the internal temperature cool slightly before continuing to grill; or, diligently keep turning them over.

Flip them up and down, left and right, essentially trying to achieve an effect where the temperature of the eyeballs continuously rises and falls.

"What if I use oil, specifically sesame oil, to cool them down?"

To ensure everything goes well, Chen Mo moved most of the skewers aside to cool and left only ten skewers of eyes on the grill.

He then took out the sesame oil he specially prepared while making Sichuan Cuisine, mainly cooked rapeseed oil infused with scallions, ginger, onions, and other seasonings.

He used a brush to dab the sesame oil and flipped the eyeballs face-side up, brushing a thick layer of sesame oil on the surface.

Applying room temperature vegetable oil on the surface of the ingredient can instantly cool it down, and because it’s on a low flame, the rise in oil temperature is also very slow, allowing for the oil temperature to rise and the ingredient temperature to fall during this process.

Seeing the explosive-looking eyeballs shrink a bit after coating with oil, Chen Mo knew he’d made the right bet.

"Sometimes you can’t rely entirely on recipes, it’s quite important to incorporate your own ideas."

He then promptly brought back the more than a hundred skewers of pig eyes that were set aside, evenly brushing a layer of rapeseed sesame oil on the surface, visibly shrinking the eyeballs back.

"Got to thank Xiao Jiao for this, haha."

Chen Mo recalled that not long after he started working, Old Jiang had to travel, and his wife was busy, so he didn’t have time to take his kid to some extracurricular firefighting class, so he asked Chen Mo to take his kid instead.

During the class, as the firefighter heated a pot of oil until it caught fire, he asked the kids: "Now, how do you put out the fire?"

Some kids said to use water, others said to use a fire extinguisher, and some suggested covering it with a wet blanket!

Xiao Jiao immediately proposed his idea, saying: "Pour oil into it!"

His classmates burst into laughter, saying the pot of oil is already on fire, adding more oil would just add fuel to the fire!

Yet the firefighter uncle decisively poured a large amount of cold oil into the pot, and soon the raging flames extinguished themselves.

After the class, Chen Mo asked Xiao Jiao how he knew to use cold oil.

Considering this method was indeed quite unconventional, not something most people would think of.

Xiao Jiao just said, my mom often does this in the kitchen!

Thinking of this, Chen Mo shook his head with a silent laugh, muttering to himself, "Seems like Xiao Jiao’s summer camp is quite something to consider, Old Jiang has helped me so much, it wouldn’t do to not go help."

Amidst these random thoughts, the eyeballs swelled up once more, and Chen Mo continued brushing another layer of vegetable oil on the surface. Repeating this process a few times, the progress bar indicating doneness finally seemed to reach the highlight point.

"Time to start seasoning!"

The seasoning for grilled pig eyes was quite simple, though one of the condiments was indeed less common in grilling techniques—oyster sauce.

The brush dipped in oyster sauce was used to evenly coat the front side of the pig eyes, followed by a generous sprinkle of cumin powder and a final handful of chili powder.

After turning the pig eyes over, the same steps were repeated.

Once the seasonings were sprinkled, it’s important not to rush; continue grilling over low heat for about half a minute.

Watching the spices gradually adhere tightly to the food surface due to the rising oil temperature, Chen Mo felt he had gained further culinary enlightenment.

"The aroma inherent in spices requires cooking methods to be fully activated, so those grill masters who think just tossing spices on cooked skewers off the flame are quite half-baked..."

It’s like cooking, who adds seasonings after turning off the flame?

The seasonings on the skewers still require heat to bring out their aroma, that’s how grilled skewers become the most flavorful!