Global Online Survival - Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Poached Leopard Coral Grouper

The bulb bloomed into dazzling light, illuminating the cabin.

With a lit lightbulb, he could do things at night now.

Curiously, Nine Thousand Years Old stuck its head out and came forward, seemingly intrigued by the glowing contraption.

Ye Jun hurriedly picked the bulb up and held the little turtle down.

It was electricity!

The wire was just two copper wires simply wrapped with cloth. It could leak if not careful. Ye Jun wasn’t afraid, but if such a little turtle took a hit, its birthday would be the anniversary of its death!

Ye Jun put Nine Thousand Years Old on the deck and told it to play at the side, then walked into the bilge carrying the bulb.

The pitch-black bilge was greeted with a light, and the electrical light illuminated everything.

In the bilge, aside from buckets of water, there were some wooden boxes.

These wooden boxes had plants growing inside them.

The box where the bean sprouts were planted was mostly empty, as they had been eaten by Ye Jun.

The rest of the bean sprouts had grown up to 10 centimeters. It would get too old if they weren’t eaten soon.

Ye Jun pulled all the bean sprouts and poured some more water on the adjacent box.

In the adjacent box, where garlic chives were planted, they were already sprouting. They were all three centimeters high, but because they were never exposed to light, they weren’t green. They were all leek sprouts!

This was some good stuff!

Not only was it nutritious, but it tasted great.

More importantly, this stuff could be harvested once every ten days and a half, and the crop was harvested again and again.

There was no better deal than to grow leeks in such a small space on a ship.

Ye Jun took the fresh bean sprouts out of the bilge and closed the cabin door tightly. The leek sprouts couldn’t be exposed to light or they would become garlic chives.

Back on the deck, Ye Jun started making lunch.

After a busy morning generating electricity, whilst gaining 10 points in Lightning Affinity, and getting the title of Great Scientist, it was a good gain, so it was worth a good meal to celebrate.

For lunch today, Ye Jun planned to have boiled fish.

With all the bean sprouts, wouldn’t it be a waste not to have poached fish in hot chili oil?

Poached fish in chili oil was a very famous Sichuan dish that was popular in the north and south of the country.

Not only was it delicious, but it was also very easy to make.

When Ye Jun was working, he had never gotten take-out just to save money. He had always cooked in the morning to make a good meal to take to the company to eat at noon. After that, he would go back home at night after work to cook again.

Making poached fish in chili oil was no big deal for him.

The main ingredient Ye Jun chose was a leopard coral grouper.

Ye Jun went to the side of the ship and pulled up a net cage, and inside, there were several groupers that were alive and well.

Ye Jun could catch fish every day, but sometimes, when he came across some good stuff, it was a pity to slaughter them for the little EXP they gave, so Ye Jun simply made a net cage to keep the good stuff in the sea, so that it was easy for him to have a sumptuous meal from time to time.

Several net cages were hanging from the side of the ship, with large lobsters, crabs, sea snails, sea cucumbers, and some of the more exotic seafood and fish were kept in them.

The ones that were kept all had one thing in common—they tasted good!

There was one in the net cage that was different from the normal grouper. This fish was pale red, brightly colored, and particularly aggressive.

This was the famous leopard coral grouper.

Ye Jun caught this leopard coral grouper the day before and didn’t bother to kill it, as he was waiting for this meal.

The meat of a grouper was so tender that it was simply the best for making poached fish, and a leopard coral grouper was the best type of grouper of them all.

After eating fish for so many days, Ye Jun had honed a set of fish-filleting knife skills, and in two to three strokes, he filleted the entire leopard coral grouper and sliced it into pieces of the same thickness and size.

In the old days, butchers dismembered cows. Nowadays, Ye Jun filleted fish.

Good ingredients need to be treated with care, and Ye Jun had never been so focused even when fighting monsters.

Egg white was added to the filleted fish, mixed evenly with some salt, then left to marinate for a while.

The next step was to prepare the dressing.

Wild gingers, wild chilies, and wild peppers, all of which Ye Jun had traded for.

With so many players around the world, it wasn’t hard to get some wild ingredients.

As for the cooking wine, he just substituted it with freshly brewed beer.

He heated oil in a pan, fried the fish bones, head, and tail until it was golden brown on both sides before adding boiling water to bring the stock to a boil.

On the other side, he blanched the bean sprouts and put them in a soup bowl as a base.

He poured the fish stock in and put the marinated fish on top.

He heated the oil in a pan again and sautéed the wild ginger, wild chilies, and wild peppercorns.

Pouring it over with boiling hot oil…

Zizzi…

The refreshing aroma rushed up to the sky.

The temperature of the boiling oil combined with the residual heat of the fish stock cooked the fillets just right.

Ye Jun wasn’t afraid of it being too hot. He couldn’t wait to pick up a piece of fish and stuff it into his mouth.

‘Ooh…’

The temperature was just right.

Ye Jun’s eyes lit up wide.

The flesh of the leopard coral grouper was so tender that it didn’t need to be stewed. Stewing it longer would instead make the fish tough and lose its original flavor.

Sucking on his fingers, Ye Jun took a picture in passing and uploaded it, all in one fell swoop.

When you had something good, you had to share it.

When enjoying your meals, you shouldn’t forget about your friends. Although they wouldn’t get to eat it, you should at least show them!

Seeing that you were having such a good time but still not forgetting about them, they would be moved to tears, with tears of joy spurting out of their mouths.

As expected, in an instant, hundreds of comments appeared under Ye Jun’s post.

“Poached fish in chili oil… Damn, what kind of heavenly days are you living?”

“I looked at the half-cooked and bloody Egyptian catfish I had just grilled, is this how a human should live?”

“I didn’t like Sichuan food before. I always thought it was too spicy. It’s only now that I feel regretful. If a Sichuan dish appeared in front of me, I would definitely say—not afraid of heat! If I had to make a choice, I would choose poached fish in chili oil!”

“I’m a professional chef. I don’t think Almighty Ye’s boiled fish is authentic, unless I’m allowed to try it!”

“What’s so good about poached fish in chili oil? The reason I don’t eat it is not that I don’t have any fish. I just don’t want to be unable to find someone to treat my hemorrhoids when the time comes,” someone said with jealousy.

“I’ve been chewing on tree bark for a few days, and my hemorrhoids are back! But they were cured yesterday by my mate…”

“Oh…?”

“Awesome…”

These guys were probably deliberately trying to disgust Ye Jun by talking about topics that were too heavy.

Ye Jun got a bad chill and hurriedly turned off the comments to enjoy his beautiful meal.

Having a full meal, he started his lunch break.

Ye Jun hadn’t noticed that Nine Thousand Years Old had sneaked into the sea while he was asleep.

Ye Jun didn’t expect this little guy to have such guts.

When he woke up, he realized that Nine Thousand Years was gone.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he was connected to his spirit pet and could sense that Nine Thousand Years Old wasn’t in danger, Ye Jun would be going crazy with anxiety.

This little guy had a lot of nerve.

In a short while, a small head emerged from the sea.

Nine Thousand Years Old seemed to struggle a bit in the sea, and it seemed to be holding something in its arms that made swimming for it a bit difficult.

Ye Jun hurriedly fished it up.

“You little guy, you’re too bold. Aren’t you afraid of being swallowed by a big fish?!” Ye Jun gave it a knock on the head.

The little turtle shrank its neck, and like a chastised child, it ingratiatingly lifted the object in its arms to Ye Jun like a treasure offering.