Rat-Meat Teppanyaki

Lan Jiao, Mi Lai, as well as other criminals, who were exiled to this planet, were residing in District Nine of Planet Trash. This was located in the empty land between the locals' establishment and the place where the warband soldiers, who were guarding the planet, were staying. Two rows of houses had been built for the exiles.

The only preferential treatment they had received after being exiled here was the separate rooms which they were living in right now.

Since the air quality on Planet Trash had been seriously damaged, acid rain was a common occurrence. The highly corrosive rain was fatal for everyone on Planet Trash.

Even if there was no food to eat, they needed a living place which could withstand the lash of the harmful rain.

Alliance Officials had overseen the construction of houses on every Planet Trash. The building material was highly immune to acid rain, and the houses were free for the people there.

In front of these row houses, there was a large patch of empty space. It not only made it easier for the residing patrollers to walk around, but also for Lan Jiao to cook the food.

In the Interstellar Age, science had been developed to an advanced degree. As a result, even fuel had been upgraded.

Lan Jiao had collected some comburants which could keep burning for a long time, after being ignited.

She nailed some iron sticks on the floor, put up the iron frame and placed a clean iron plate upon the frame. After igniting the comburants, she waited for the iron plate to start heating up.

During that time, Lan Jiao moved on to removing the flesh from the rat's bones. She cut the meat into long and thin strips and then put them on the heated iron plate.

With a hissing sound, the fresh and tender meat soon started exuding oil due to the high heat.

The cutlets shrank slightly due to the high cooking temperature, giving out more and more oil at the same time.

Rot-eating rats fed on all kinds of rotten food on Mountain Trash, which is why their meat tasted bitter and sour.

But they consumed a large amount of food, making their bodies bloated, juicy and fleshy.

Rot-eating rats would be a wonderful source of meat, if the sourness and bitterness could be removed.

Due to the lack of appropriate materials, Lan Jiao could not use the process of slowly removing the sourness and bitterness. Instead, the only thing she could do was to cover the original taste with chillies.

She waited patiently and then seasoned them with chilli powder when the meat was half done.

As the cutlets with chilli powder were getting grilled in the iron plate, the spicy smell permeated across the air.

The locals, who were originally standing there to watch her make a fool of herself, now had disbelief etched on their faces.

Slowly, they started to sniff around, hoping to swallow the delicious smell into their stomachs.

Even the patrolling soldiers who reminded Lan Jiao of the rats' meat became surprised. They subconsioucously licked their lips as well.

They had never expected that Lan Jiao could have turned the rot-eating rat into such a delicious smelling dish.

But the meat was that of a rot-eating rat, and the taste was still bitter and sour.

Lan Jiao concentrated on the cutlets on the iron plate, and continued to fry the meat. When it was almost done, she sprinkled a pinch of salt on the cutlets.

By this time, the wonderful smell had attracted almost all the locals of District Nine, as well as the patrollers.

Many locals came running to the place, and other soldiers also appeared there due to the scent.

All those, who were not on patrol duty, were present here at this point.

Lan Jiao sprinkled another handful of chilli powder upon the meat, as the frying was nearly done with a hissing sound.

The thick, spicy smell had spread far into the distance. Half a minute later, Lan Jiao sprinkled the remaining salt evenly upon the strings of fried meat which were now coated with red chilli powder.

Due to her severely starved state, she could not wait for the meat to be thoroughly soaked in the spices before being fried. All she could do was to sprinkle some more salt and chilli powder on the surface, so the strong flavor could cover up the bitter and sour taste of the rat meat.

Lan Jiao already knew that the Rat Teppanyaki dish she made today was more or less going to be successful, as she caught the smell.

Going by her own criteria, she would give this dish 5 stars.

Even with the limited material provided, she was able to exceed most dishes served on the Street Food Stands.

The moment Rat Teppanyaki was done, Lan Jiao heard Mi Lai swallowing down a mouthful of saliva behind her.

Mi Lai had been watching Lan Jiao while she was cooking the dish. He had witnessed the whole process, where the disgusting rot-eating rat was turned into delicious looking cutlets that gave out a wonderful smell.

He had a strong urge to taste the meat. He was really curious to know if the meat of a rot-eating rat could truly have an equally wonderful taste.

Yet Lan Jiao was the owner of the meat, and on Planet Trash where food was the most valuable thing, he could not ask Lan Jiao to share her food with him.

Lan Jiao turned around and saw Mi Lai salivating yet trying to conceal his impulse. She found the whole scene to be quite funny.

"Come and try the food. The dinner is on me today!"

Lan Jiao said and then added jokingly. "But don't eat it all. Leave some for me. I am really hungry as well!"

Having said the words, Lan Jiao pierced the fruit blade into a cutlet and blew on it slightly to cool it. Then, she threw it into her mouth.

Hearing what Lan Jiao said, Mi Lai was surprised. She was willing to share this valuable dish with him?

He hesitated and decided to give the nutritive solution, which he had found earlier, to Lan Jiao as a compensating gift.

He could not help but reach for cutlets on the iron plate. He pinched one cutlet and put it into his mouth despite it being piping hot. He chomped on it and chewed it with relish.

The greasy meat coated his teeth. The rat's flesh, which had been sour and bitter, turned spicy and juicy under Lan Jiao's skillful hands. The cutlet had stimulated his tongue tremendously. There was only one word for this thing - Delicious!

The spectators saw Mi Lai's widened eyes and the satisfied expression that had appeared on his face.

Without any more guesses, they all knew that the cutlets with a great smell would be extremely tasty.

Compared to Mi Lai who was munching on the cutlet with relish, Lan Jiao stuffed the cutlets into her mouth one after the other and swallowed them without even chewing properly. She wanted to fill her empty stomach as quickly as possible.

While eating, she became worried.

Would these locals, who looked ferociously hungry, lunge at them to grab the food?

Lan Jiao knew that she was on Planet Trash, where the social order was extremely terrible, even worse than she had expected.

These hunchbacked and black-skinned locals were not attacking them right now because they could see that those guarding soldiers, who were standing right here on Planet Trash and responsible for order keeping, were also drooling for her cutlets.