Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 331 - 308: Cooking with Science

If it were in Sichuan, Chen Mo would definitely carefully prepare a spicy dipping sauce.

But this isn’t Sichuan, this is Huaiyang, so Chen Mo chose to use the aged vinegar from Jingzhou, the one brewed at that grain station.

The taste of vinegar from Jingzhou is quite different from ordinary vinegar. For example, among the nationally recognized four famous vinegars, Zhenjiang vinegar and Yongchun aged vinegar are brewed from glutinous rice, with a focus mainly on fragrance. Chen Mo prefers to use this kind of vinegar during cooking.

Baoning vinegar is made from wheat bran and traditional Chinese medicine yeast, with a fragrance mixed with a hint of herbal pine, making it a perfect highlight when making sweet and sour or cold dishes!

Different from these vinegars, Jingzhou vinegar is made from red sorghum and barley-pea yeast, and the fermentation medium uses smoked pottery jars. The aged vinegar brewed this way gives off an extremely strong sour smell but tastes silky smooth without any sharpness, just like lemon water gently poured into warm water.

That’s why there’s a joke online about the people of Jingzhou using vinegar to drown ten thousand buns every year.

Because they really do soak the buns in aged vinegar and devour them in one gulp.

And Chen Mo’s purpose for using this vinegar is very straightforward.

The intense sourness can instantly remove the greasy taste, yet when it enters your mouth, it doesn’t feel sour at all, not overshadowing the aroma of the meat in any bit.

Yu Hongtao saw Chen Mo find two small yellow bowls, pouring in just a bit of black liquid, and got a little puzzled.

"What’s that? Soy sauce?"

Chen Mo shook his head, "No, just smell it and you’ll know."

Taking the yellow bowl, just as Yu Hongtao brought his nose close, his head jerked back, "Wow! What kind of vinegar is this, it’s so sour?"

"It smells sour, but it doesn’t taste sour," Chen Mo said with a grin, finding his friend quite amusing.

He was just shouting about not paying if it wasn’t good, and now he’s obediently paying, so when Chen Mo saw his friend’s disdainful look, he deliberately said, "Dip the lion’s head in the vinegar; if it’s not good, you don’t have to pay."

Yu Hongtao was about to retort the first half of the sentence, but his eyes lit up upon hearing the latter half, and he pointed at Chen Mo saying, "Don’t think I won’t take the dare. If it’s not good, I won’t pay you a cent!"

Yuan Xiaolin tugged on her husband’s sleeve, feeling that Yu Hongtao was a bit unusual today, and wondered, after eating such a large lion’s head, would he still be able to move after eating more tonight?

But Yu Hongtao seemed unaware of his sleeve being tugged and just insisted on arguing with Chen Mo, "I’m not kidding! Get me two more lion’s heads."

Chen Mo said nothing, simply serving each of the bowls he gave the other party a lion’s head.

After opening the pot lid, Chen Mo did not turn off the heat, keeping the soup in a subtle state, with the lion’s heads still steaming as they were placed into the bowls, clearly hot enough to burn one’s mouth.

Enduring the pungent sourness, Yu Hongtao shoveled half a lion’s head into the bowl with aged vinegar.

Just by looking and smelling it made one’s teeth feel sour, so he dared not dip too much, just lightly grazing the surface before quickly scooping it out with a spoon.

Continuing to endure the overwhelming sourness, he held his breath and took a big bite!

"If it’s not tasty, I won’t pay him, what am I afraid of?" Yu Hongtao calculated in his mind.

As this meat entered his mouth, Yu Hongtao was ready to say that this way of eating the lion’s head was absurd, but unexpectedly, just a slight touch of his lips,

The greasy sensation released by the lion’s head in the mouth was suddenly crushed by the sharp, swift sword of the aged vinegar, transforming the rich greasiness into a light freshness. That bit of aged vinegar was just right, tasting like it’s sour, but not at all, instead vanishing any slight greasiness from devouring the meat.

"Wait... Boss, this vinegar is?" Yu Hongtao was amazed, finding the taste and texture of this vinegar completely different from any he’s had before, "Where is this delicious vinegar made from!"

"This is Jingzhou aged vinegar." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"No way, I’ve bought Jingzhou aged vinegar before, but it doesn’t taste as good as yours."

Yu Hongtao had bought some aged vinegars like Zilin and Ninghua Mansion online, and truth be told, the taste was quite good, especially adding a tiny bit of aged vinegar at the end when stir-frying certain dishes, the small flavor would instantly pop up.

But the vinegar he tasted just now was something else, smelling intensely sour, yet tasting not stimulating at all, a rather marvelous feeling.

Also, unexpectedly, dipping this lion’s head in the vinegar, initially thought to be a mismatch, actually had a completely different real-life experience from the imagined sensation.

"This one I bought from a small workshop in Jingzhou, where locals go to get their vinegar. It’s different from the factory-made vinegar you buy online."

"Tsk," Yu Hongtao smacked his lips a couple of times, still savoring the lingering aroma of the vinegar and meat in his mouth.

With the flavor of that vinegar, the taste of the meat seemed not only fresher, but also absolutely not greasy at all.

"This is truly amazing. It seems that Jingzhou vinegar has quite the reputation; I’d dare say the lion’s head tasted even better with the vinegar."

Chen Mo chuckled, for indeed, many things can be scientifically explained, especially cooking: understanding it from a scientific perspective can make many things quite comprehensible. Seeing the old friend as a food enthusiast, Chen Mo was not stingy in explaining further.

"There’s a substance in vinegar called glutamic acid, which is very savory. The fresh taste from the slow-stewed lion’s head comes from another substance called inosinic acid. When these two combine, it indeed produces a very strong umami flavor."

Previously full of awe, Yu Hongtao was momentarily stunned upon hearing this, thinking that despite looking young, this young boss had some decent knowledge; just based on these two explanations, he’d be at a university level!

I must say, during a conversation, occasionally throwing in some scientifically professional terms, whether understood or not, always tends to give one an impression of being particularly knowledgeable.

Yu Hongtao was now thoroughly won over.

Without hesitation, he scanned a QR code and paid Boss Xiao Chen 178 Yuan again, dividing a lion’s head dipped in aged vinegar for his wife, Yuan Xiaolin, "Come, honey, give it a try. I could never have imagined, no matter how hard I wracked my brain, that dipping the lion’s head in aged vinegar could taste so good!"

Watching the two happily devour the meat, Chen Mo couldn’t help but feel a bit glad.

The Ecological Garden was sparsely populated and quiet; earlier, he scanned the area and noticed that other vendors also had practically no business, so perhaps this could be considered a pleasing start for himself.

"Wow, it’s really not bad! Do you think we could replicate this at home?"

"You’d need to have this vinegar, oh, right boss, do you sell this vinegar separately?"

Chen Mo shook his head, "It’s not for sale."

The spices within the replicable seasoning box cannot be sold separately, otherwise they lose their effects, becoming no better than ordinary seasonings.

This is probably also to prevent system bugs; otherwise, there’d be no need to set up a stall, just selling seasoning would be enough to become the world’s richest.

Yu Hongtao had no further thoughts; it was normal not to sell it.

Having devoured two lion’s heads, they still craved more!

At this time, Liu Xu, the manager of the Ecological Garden, and Zhang Huixiang, who went off for a stroll, returned from another direction.

Seeing someone in front holding a little yellow box gobbling up meat, the two exchanged glances, somewhat tempted.

Earlier they hadn’t eaten, partly because they thought that despite the aroma, the lion’s head sold at a street stall might not taste as good as it seemed.

Moreover, 88 Yuan was indeed an intimidating price.

Not that they couldn’t afford it, but this price could basically get one lion’s head at most of the city’s restaurants; why bother with a street stall?

Watching the elder brother devour it with gusto, even scooping it with a spoon and dipping it in some kind of black liquid, made them quite curious.

"Shall we go have a look?"

"Let’s check it out, we haven’t had dinner anyway; ask this customer, if it’s tasty, I’ll treat you!"

Zhang Huixiang waved his hand, "There’s no need; we’re here for business, we can go Dutch and each pay for ourselves. But looking at the size of these lion’s heads, one should be enough to fill us."

"Let’s take a look first."

The two of them strolled over to the yellow food truck.