The waitress announced,
"The Abalone over Rice. All of your dishes have now been served. Would you like to order anything else?"
Li Xiao looked at the others. "Do you all want to add anything else?"
The others quickly waved their hands. The dishes they’d ordered were more than enough.
Li Xiao didn’t rush to dig in. Instead, he first showed his viewers the 388-yuan Abalone over Rice.
The bowl of Abalone over Rice looked incredibly enticing.
The grains of fried rice were distinct, long, and slender. You could tell at a glance that it was a specially selected fragrant rice.
This type of rice has a firmer texture and absorbs less water, making the grains drier and perfectly suited for fried rice after cooling.
Each grain of rice was coated in egg, giving it a golden hue. It looked less like fried rice and more like countless granules of gold.
Precious ingredients were dotted throughout: dried scallops, shiitake mushrooms, black truffle, and caviar. Finely chopped fresh abalone was distributed evenly in the fried rice.
These ingredients not only added layers of complexity but also contributed a variety of textures and flavors to the dish as a whole.
A single, caramel-colored abalone sat atop the bed of fried rice.
The abalone wasn’t large, just a bit wider than Li Xiao’s thumb.
It was coated in a thick abalone gravy, giving it a moist sheen.
[I finally have enough Ink to redeem the illustration feature!!!]
The serving of Abalone over Rice wasn’t large, taking up only half of the stone pot, but it was the perfect portion for one person.
The rice grains were plump and had a beautiful soy sauce color.
"Holy crap, 388 for such a small bowl of rice?"
"It’s abalone, dude. Abalone over Rice. Is 388 really that outrageous?"
"It actually is pretty outrageous. Where I’m from, an abalone that big is 8 yuan, tops."
"Come on, you’re talking about fresh abalone. The host is eating dried abalone. They’re completely different."
"Dried abalone is more expensive because it’s made by drying a much larger one."
"The one the host has is probably a 40-head dried abalone. It might not look big now, but it was much larger before it was dried."
...Seeing the viewers in his stream discussing the abalone, Li Xiao decided to explain a few things.
"That’s right, there are many kinds of abalone. One of the viewers was correct earlier—there’s a huge difference between dried and fresh abalone."
"The 8-yuan or 15-yuan abalones you typically see at the market are Pacific abalone. They’re from the Yellow and Bohai Seas, around Shandong Changdao Island. They don’t grow very large, and because of the texture of their meat, they can only be eaten fresh."
"Most people think that seafood has to be fresh—that fresh is always better than frozen or dried. But that’s not necessarily true."
"In fact, dried abalone is much more valuable than fresh abalone."
"The process of drying abalone is quite complex. Since it’s not something you’re likely to do yourselves, I won’t get into the weeds explaining how it’s done."
"However, I can tell you that through this meticulous process, the abalone undergoes a special chemical reaction. The most notable result is the ’sugary heart.’ An abalone that develops a ’sugary heart’ has a richer, sweeter, and more umami flavor that fresh abalone simply can’t match."
"As the saying goes, ’Fresh and dried each have their own appeal. The fresh is tender and fragrant; the dried is rich and mellow.’"
"Alright, enough talk. Time for me to see how this Abalone over Rice actually tastes."
Li Xiao didn’t eat the abalone directly. Instead, he gently pushed it aside.
He used a golden spoon to scoop up the rice underneath it.
The top layer of rice had a thin coating of abalone gravy from its contact with the abalone.
He brought the gravy-coated, soy-sauce-colored rice to his mouth. Before he even began to chew, the rich flavor of the abalone gravy flooded his palate.
Abalone is expensive not just because dried abalone itself is pricey, but also because the gravy is incredibly costly to make.
A proper abalone gravy isn’t as simple as just opening a bottle of Lee Kum Kee abalone sauce and adding water.
Old hen, chicken feet, pig’s trotters, pork ribs, dried scallops, pork, dried cuttlefish, Jinhua ham, and high-grade Huadiao wine are the basic ingredients for the stock.
And without a pressure cooker, this stock needs to simmer for at least 24 hours—an entire day.
The rice wasn’t just rice; it also contained finely shaved black truffle and threads of dried scallop.
As the rice entered his mouth, Li Xiao’s eyes immediately narrowed in pleasure.
The grains were distinct, yet they felt a bit dry and firm.
He frowned slightly, and then it hit him. ’I’m doing this wrong. I’m supposed to mix the extra gravy with the rice underneath.’ He had forgotten that this wasn’t just Abalone Rice, but Abalone *over* Rice; without the mixing, the dish wouldn’t be perfect.
The ingredients for the abalone gravy—all rich meats, plus pig’s trotters and chicken feet, which are extremely high in collagen—made it a perfect match for the relatively dry fried rice.
After he mixed the gravy and fried rice together, the rice tasted much better.
[Congratulations, you have unlocked the 24th Compendium entry.]
[You have unlocked the food entry: Abalone over Rice]
[Dish Rating: 90/100 (Excellent)]
[Due to the Excellent rating, your rewards are quadrupled (x4).]
[Congratulations, you have received a cash reward: 800,000]
[Congratulations, you have received a cash reward: 800,000]
[Congratulations, you have received an item reward: 100 catties of 20-year-aged, top-grade, one-head dried abalone.]
[Congratulations, you have received a recipe reward: Braised Abalone with Gravy Recipe]
[The 100 catties of 20-year-aged, top-grade, one-head dried abalone have been stored in your...]
Li Xiao scooped up a spoonful of the abalone rice and held it up to the camera.
"The rich flavor of the black truffle and the toasted threads of dried scallop elevate what would otherwise be a simple fried rice."
"The rice is fluffed and cooled after being cooked, which ensures the grains stay dry and don’t clump together during frying."
"You can clearly see the golden coating on every single grain. That’s because before frying, the chef mixed the rice directly with whole egg. It’s the only way to achieve this kind of perfect golden fried rice."
After finishing about half the bowl of rice, Li Xiao finally picked up his chopsticks and lifted the abalone he had set aside.
He took a bite. Soft, crisp, and sticky—three sensations that should have been contradictory existed all at once.
Unlike the firm, crisp texture of a small, fresh abalone, this dried one had a springiness that came from its core. The outside, however, had become tender and soft from the long cooking time.
After all, large dried abalones have to be cooked for 24 hours, so a smaller one like this would still require at least 17 or 18 hours.
Even though it’s simmered over low heat, over a dozen hours of cooking will inevitably change the original crispness of the abalone’s outer layer.
But due to the unique properties of dried abalone meat, the texture of the interior doesn’t change much, even after all that time.
So, normally, this difference between the exterior and interior results in a single dried abalone having two completely different textures.
But this dried abalone presented a third texture: it was sticky.
The inside of the abalone was like a soft-set egg yolk, creating a sticky sensation like molten candy. It was savory, fragrant, and smooth, with an aftertaste that lingered endlessly.
Li Xiao held the half-eaten abalone up to the camera.
"Look! A sugary heart! This is amazing. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a 40-head dried abalone develop one."
"I think they’re losing money selling this bowl of rice. Seriously, I’m not kidding."
"Normally, this ’sugary heart’ phenomenon only occurs in abalone graded 10-head or better. I honestly never expected to find one in such a small dried abalone."