Chapter 624: Happiness From Within
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After seeing Li Du take the meat out, Ah Meow and Ah Ow ran over and tried to outrun each other. Ah Meow gently jumped onto the top of the refrigerator while Ah Ow jumped with all her strength and collided into the refrigerator with a bang.
"Aoow! Aoow!" Ah Ow howled.
Victoria was shocked and said, "Ah Ow is in pain from the collision."
Li Du waved his hand. "That's not possible, Ah Ow's bones are hard. She won't feel any pain even if she bangs into a car."
Ah Ow was grieving not because of pain but because of discontent.
Hans and the others were uninterested in defrosting the pork. Christians were not allowed to eat the intestines of animals. Although they were not Christians, they had been influenced by their surroundings and were also uninterested in intestines.
However, animals like Ah Ow and Ah Meow loved animal intestines, especially pig's liver. Li Du had previously roasted two pieces of pig's liver for them to eat, which was still fresh in their memories.
Li Du submerged the pork, pig's head, and pig's lung into the ice water to defrost. He then opened up the pressure cooker and placed a few pig's bones inside before filling it up with water for stewing.
He wanted to roast meat using the oven in the small house. He had learned all of this from dining in Las Vegas.
As the meat needed to defrost while the bone needed to stew, Li Du had nothing to do. He drove Victoria and the three furry children over to the Amish neighbor's house to pick up vegetables from the garden.
Since he was very close with Tomasson, Tomasson's garden was basically his garden.
When he reached the garden, he bumped into Tomasson, who was returning home.
Both of them greeted each other. Li Du said, "I'm here to pick some vegetables for lunch."
Tomasson looked at the sky and said, "As you please—but isn't it a little late to be preparing lunch?"
Li Du smiled. "We ate our breakfast late, so we'll be eating lunch late too."
He went into the garden and picked two autumn cucumbers before handing them over to Victoria.
The little girl discreetly refused. "I'll eat later. I-I-I also ate a late breakfast."
Li Du heard the little girl's stomach grumbling. She was already very hungry from riding the whole way here on her bicycle.
"Eat. The vegetables here are ours and we can't finish them."
After hearing his words, the little girl no longer stood on ceremony. She grabbed the cucumber and very quickly devoured it with a munching sound until only the end was left.
Li Du looked at her in amazement. The girl was so fierce, eating food so viciously with her small, cute-looking mouth. The cucumber entering her mouth was akin to entering a meat grinder.
Li Du brought along a bag and picked a few round onions, celery, rosemary, and garlic. After spotting some, he also picked a few large and round eggplants as well.
At this time, the autumn potatoes were also ripe. With a tug, a potato, which had a bunch of potatoes attached underneath, came out.
After picking a variety of vegetables, Li Du returned to the cabin to prepare lunch.
By this time, the meat had defrosted. He took it out and divided it into two portions, before shouting for Godzilla to come over to chop one portion into meat filling and the other into meat slices.
While Godzilla was chopping the meat, he speedily prepared the vegetables by cutting the eggplants into round slices. He subsequently mixed eggs and water into wheat flour until the mixture was glutinous, as he intended to make stuffed eggplants.
While the meat filling was used to make stuffed eggplants, the sliced meat was used to make roasted pork, a Spanish dish. This was a good time to try cooking the dish Sophie had eaten in Las Vegas.
He washed and cut the onions, celery, and rosemary, before pouring some oil into a pot. After the pot was heated, he put the vegetables in and started stir frying them.
When the onions and celery had softened, he added in bread crumbs, olive oil, lemon sauce, celery leaves, and egg yolks before continuing to stir-fry.
Having smelled the fragrance of the egg, Ah Ow and Ah Meow were at the side, persistently crying out "Awoo! Awoo!" and "Meow! Meow!"
Unable to withstand the pestering, Li Du had no choice but to hand an egg over to Victoria.
Victoria still declined. "Not eating, not eating, I'm not eating."
Although that was what she said, she was almost drooling.
Ah Meow stared at the egg and internally screamed. So what if you don't want to eat it? You think it's for you to eat? It's for yours truly! Give it to me!
Li Du ignored Ah Meow and said, "Eat first to fill your belly. It will be a while more before lunch."
Victoria no longer declined. She peeled away the eggshell and dipped the egg into olive oil and soy sauce before eating it with relish.
Ah Meow was very angry and jumped to snatch the egg. As Li Du did not like eating hard-boiled eggs, he always gave them to the three animals. Therefore, they considered hard-boiled eggs exclusively for them.
Even though the little girl looked skinny and frail, she demonstrated an immense strength when it came to protecting her food.
With a slap, Ah Meow, who jumped at her, was flipped over onto the table. She said, "The egg isn't nice, you won't like it Ah Meow."
Ah Meow started to go crazy!
Fortunately, the oven gave off a ding. The pig's liver and lung Li Du had placed inside were ready.
The ocelot and wolf cub loved eating these half-cooked. Li Du placed the pig's liver and lung in their plates before they chomped away until their plates were clean.
Looking at Ah Ow eating, Li Du understood the meaning of the phrase, "Eating like wolves and tigers."
After Godzilla finished cutting the slices of meat and meat filling, Li Du placed the stir-fried vegetables from the pot into the slices of meat and rolled them up. He subsequently smeared a little oil and sprinkled some black pepper powder onto the outside of the rolls before placing them into the oven for heating.
For the meat filling, adding garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and salt would do. He stuffed the meat filling in the middle of two pieces of eggplant and used the batter to seal them before frying in preheated oil.
The stuffed eggplants cooked very quickly. As eggs and butter were added to the batter coating, it became a bright golden yellow which looked appetizing.
After defrosting the pig's head, he chopped it in half and placed both halves into the pressure cooker to stew.
The bones inside the pressure cooker were scooped out, leaving behind a thick, white, fragrant bone broth.
In the meantime, Li Du scooped out a plate of bone broth and added in rosemary, green vegetable leaf and spring onion. With biscuits, the dish was delicious.
As Li Du was unable to find sauce that was required for stewing pig's head, he added in various seasonings.
Salt, white sugar, MSG, soy sauce, ginger, onion, pepper, galangal, clove, angelica root, cinnamon, star anise—whatever seasonings he could find in the supermarket, he added into the stew.
In addition, he also made braised meat with potato, fried sausage, and scrambled eggs with tomato. It was similar to making a big pot roast.
The meal was finally completed after spending one and a half hours.
Big Quinn and the others were also finished with tidying up the cargo. They washed their hands, set the table, and waited to eat.
Godzilla found a high chair for Victoria and squeezed some more fruit juice for her. Victoria thanked him sweetly before he gently smiled and left.
Li Du and Hans served the dishes. Hans rubbed his hands together. "F*ck, I'm starving."
Godzilla glanced at him and said, "There's a child."
"Yes, I know," Hans said. "What about it?"
Godzilla has no choice but to elaborate. "Don't speak vulgarities."
Surprised, Hans said, "You are too gentle and caring toward the little girl. This is not the fella I am familiar with. Say, who are you exactly?"
"I am Godzilla. Are you blind?" Godzilla asked, also in a surprised manner.
Li Du guffawed.