Chapter 330 - 214: Ripping Off the Rich Woman (Part 2)

Chapter 330: Chapter 214: Ripping Off the Rich Woman (Part 2)

Before long, Lin Chen had finished all the secondary preparations. The mango sauce had simmered down to a brownish-tan, reducing by about half until it was as thick as honey.

No one had touched the three remaining octopus balls, so Lin Chen ignored them, simply placing the other three empty sea urchin shells back on the grill rack.

He started with three small pieces of deer fat as before. Once the fat rendered, he used it to evenly coat the inner walls of the sea urchin shells, then poured in the potato batter until the shells were about half full.

This time, he didn’t wait, immediately starting to stuff the fillings into the batter.

Two knuckle-sized pieces of grilled octopus tentacle, a piece of tender bamboo shoot, a small strip of grouper belly, a pinch of crab roe, five strips of crab leg meat, and finally, the gelatinous crab body meat, which he divided and piled on top.

But that wasn’t all.

He turned, ducked into the cave, and grabbed a red chili pepper, chopping off a small amount to sprinkle inside.

There was also the black porcini mushroom he had picked up on his way back. He chopped up the cap and added it in too.

So many ingredients were mixed together that they filled nearly all the remaining space.

The potato batter, which had originally only filled the shells halfway, was now so full from his constant additions that it looked like it was about to overflow.

"There’s an advantage to doing it this way. You can use that clever little brain of yours and try to figure it out."

’An advantage to stuffing it this full?’

Seeing that his method was different from the last round, Erica’s interest was immediately piqued.

Over the past few days, she’d discovered that Lin Chen’s teaching style was highly effective. He would always demonstrate first, letting her observe and think for herself before finally revealing the correct answer.

This method—not just giving the answer but adding a step for reflection—helped her retain new knowledge much more deeply. She could often remember things after seeing them just once.

She couldn’t help but think back to her teachers from school. ’If they had used a method like this, my grades wouldn’t have been so terrible.’

She thought back carefully, recalling that every street food cart she’d ever seen making octopus balls seemed to add a ton of batter right at the beginning.

’Why add so much at the start? What’s the reason?’

’Wouldn’t adding more batter slow the temperature rise in the center, affecting how quickly the filling cooks through?’

’Especially since the ones Lin Chen is making are extra-large. They should cook even slower.’

Her gaze was fixed on the half-formed octopus balls in the sea urchin shells, trying to discern the hidden meaning behind his actions.

She watched for a little while longer. Then, as Lin Chen began prodding the edges of the balls with his chopsticks to see if they were sticking, something seemed to click. Her eyes suddenly lit up.

"I get it!"

"Oh?" Lin Chen smiled at her. "Go on, explain."

"At first, I thought large and small octopus balls were made using the same principle. But when I just saw you start to turn them, and the batter had only formed a thin outer shell, I realized why you have to add so much batter at the beginning."

"You add a lot at first to create a base, giving you enough area to pack in all the fillings. As you add the fillings, the batter in the center gets pushed to the sides and upward, which naturally increases the surface area and reduces the amount of batter in the core."

"The batter that’s pushed to the sides gets more heat, so it cooks faster. That way, you avoid the problem of the outside being cooked while the inside is still raw."

"Then, when the excess batter is about to overflow the container, it’s time to turn the ball. You move the already-set part away so the uncooked batter flows to the bottom. You can add a bit more batter then, and you just repeat that process until the whole ball is formed."

"It seems like a pretty standard process, but I thought about it more. It seems like every place makes octopus balls the same way, but in reality, the taste can be dramatically different."

"Good octopus balls all share a similar trait: they’re packed with fillings and have a relatively thin outer layer. They don’t have that noticeably sticky, gooey texture when you eat them. The really terrible ones, on the other hand, almost always have that exact problem."

"So, putting it all together, the more fillings you stuff in the middle, the less total batter you need. This results in a thinner, crispier outer layer. You avoid that awful feeling of taking a bite and getting nothing but a mouthful of undercooked batter."

"Excellent."

The corners of Lin Chen’s mouth lifted in a satisfied nod. He was quite pleased with her recent performance.

Clearly, she had a talent for cooking. Otherwise, there was no way she could have analyzed the principles and techniques so thoroughly after watching for only a short time.

"You’re right. With good takoyaki, no matter the size, the skin shouldn’t be too thick. A thick skin ruins the texture, and you risk getting a mouthful of wet, gooey batter."

"A lot of vendors try to cut costs by skimping on the filling. They’re basically selling you a ball of flour with barely any octopus inside. They’re just plain bad, and anyone who tries one will almost certainly never buy from them again."

"However, because of the typical batter ingredients and ratios, takoyaki is usually soft and chewy, not crispy. The reason mine are crispy is mainly because the batter’s ingredients are different."

"Grated potato can be a substitute for flour. Once you mix it with starch and water, it can actually act as a coating for fried foods. So, when you pan-fry it, it naturally comes out crispy."

"Compared to the purely soft kind of takoyaki, I personally prefer this crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside texture."

"Yes, yes, me too!"

Erica nodded eagerly in agreement. "I’ve been eating octopus balls for years and I’ve never had a crispy one! Even made with potato, the texture just blows away anything you can buy from a food cart!"

"I can’t even imagine how satisfying it’s going to be to eat one of these giant octopus balls, stuffed full of all kinds of seafood!"

Fresh giant octopus, sea urchin, grouper belly, crab meat and roe, deer fat—just these ingredients alone were enough to elevate these octopus balls to a whole new level of luxury.

’A box of eight takoyaki from a food cart, made with frozen octopus, costs almost ten bucks. If you sold this kind, wouldn’t a single one be close to fifty?’

Nearby, Bartel listened to the two of them murmuring back and forth. It was all Greek to him. He scratched his head in confusion and spoke quietly to the camera.

"I don’t know what they’re talking about, but these octopus balls look seriously tempting. With all this seafood in them... if I want to eat one, I’m probably going to have to pay for it somehow."

The last one was just a test batch without much filling, so eating it wasn’t a big deal. There wasn’t much of a psychological burden.

But this batch was absolutely loaded. He would feel too guilty if he freeloaded again.

Everyone chosen for this challenge was a veteran with extensive wilderness survival experience. Add to that the general, borderline-overconfident attitude of North Americans, and you had a group of people with a lot of pride. It was almost unheard of for one of them to just take a handout.

Thinking of this, he immediately turned and walked toward the forest.

"?"

Erica turned her head in confusion, watching Bartel’s retreating back. "Where’s he going? They’re almost ready."

"Who cares? We’re the ones who gathered all these ingredients. It’s not like we promised him any, right?"

Lin Chen shrugged. He poured the last spoonful of potato batter into the remaining gap, then used his chopsticks to turn the ball so the gap faced down. Now, all that was left was to wait for them to cook through.

"If you ever want to make takoyaki this big yourself, remember to always cook the octopus first. Otherwise, it would take forever to cook raw octopus in the center of the ball using just low heat."

"I don’t wanna make it myself! It’s too much trouble. I wanna eat the ones you make~"

"...Fifty dollars a piece."

"No problem!"

"??? Then ninety-nine dollars."

"Whoa, that’s outrageous! How can you just jack up the price like that? Are you trying to rip me off?"

"That’s right. I’m ripping you off specifically, Miss Moneybags. It’s what you get for being so rich."

Erica pouted and huffed lightly but didn’t argue. She was, in fact, quite rich.

"Oh, right. You mentioned wanting to buy a manor last time, didn’t you? Are you planning to live in it yourself? Bring your parents over? A manor is a huge place, you know. You can’t possibly be planning to live there all alone, can you?"