Juicy

But he didn't have the five-spice powder here. He could make it from scratch, but he didn't have all the ingredients either. It made him feel bummed out, as he had clearly found out his solution but couldn't try it out yet. He could try to make the dish with the spices he has here, though it definitely wouldn't taste the same.

Wang Ming still had other meats to go through, so he could only put the mongolian lamb away from now. He still had one more lamb shoulder, but he would cook it the next day. When he can retrieve the five-spice powder from his restaurant, he could also get other ingredients as he stores them all there.

He hadn't thought this true. He should have been more prepared with his spices, but there was nothing he could do for now.

So he moved onto Tri-tip and the flap steak as both of them are fairly similar, in that they are lean pieces of meat with less fat than most of the other steak cuts. But the beauty of these cuts is exactly that they don't have a lot of fat content, so you can experiment with them a lot more.

A steak that has a high fat content is tender already but if you cook it in a wrong way, say cooking it through it usually makes the steak tough. But with the cheaper cuts that don't have as much fat you can cook the meat till it's well done but still have a tender steak through velveting, though if the meat pieces are thick then even the velveting process won't help.

Wang Ming loves the freedom to experiment on the cheaper meat cuts, as if you have an expensive cut of meat, making it taste great is normal. But to have a cheap cut of meat but making it taste as good or even better than an expensive one that's real skill. Though this didn't mean that expensive cuts are inferior, they just don't stimulate his creativity like the cheaper ones do.

What he loves with the Tri-tip and the flap steak is their ability to absorb the marinade. If he also used baking soda to tenderize the meat, the end product would be amazing.

Wang Ming used normal Asian ingredients to marinate both the steaks after he had velvet'd the steaks, but as the Tri-tip is a thicker steak while flap is a thin, veiny one, so he used even more marinade on that one.

Cooking the steaks on a pan Wang Ming seared both of the steaks to give them a great crust then put them both in the oven, he wanted to cook the steaks with a constant and controlled temperature, this time he would cook the steaks until they're both well done.

He actually hadn't done this many times at all since most people like their beefs rare to medium rare. But if his plan worked, then this could be something special.

The steaks took roughly 20 minutes to cook through, for the flap steak Wang Ming could clearly see the meat had toughened up, which meant it's done as for the Tri-tip he pressed his fingers on it, feeling that it was the same toughness as the palm of his hand he knew it's done. He didn't have a meat thermometer at the house, so this was the best way to do it.

Letting the steaks 10 minutes to rest, Wang Ming felt nervous, like when he cooked the pork belly for the first time. Even though he had no pressure now or any deadline, he felt his heart-rate racing for each minute that went by. Even though he tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down, he couldn't stop the adrenaline pumping in his body.

The smell that the steaks exuded made Wang Ming hungry, even though he had eaten a lot already, the aroma were incredible. He could almost taste the different ingredients he had used for the marinade, just from the aroma.

Finally, after 10 minutes he cut into the steaks, which didn't look impressive. As the best beef are usually the high-grade beef which is medium-rare to medium at the most. But the steaks he had made were completely brown on the inside, but even then the meat didn't feel too tough. His knife sliced through the meat easily, he even had to press lightly on the meat only as he felt like his fingers would flatten the meat if he didn't.

With these steaks he cut them thin, roughly half a centimeter for each piece. After cutting a few pieces of both steaks, Wang Ming took a piece of the flap steak and ate it. The taste was almost just as he expected. The marinade had a great savory taste. The meat felt incredibly tender even though its flap steak which has little fat. It doesn't melt in your mouth like Kobe beef, but the steak was still so tender that he barely needed to chew.

Though he felt a little disappointed with the flap steak, it tasted amazing, a lot better than the flap steak he had made at the FengShong market. The savory taste this time just complements the steak a lot more, but it just didn't have the x-factor that Wang Ming was looking for.

Sighing, he took a piece from the Tri-tip steak too. He didn't have too high hopes for this one, as he had used no other ingredients for the Tri-tip. But when he put the piece of steak into the mouth, his eyes widened, Wang Ming couldn't believe it he had succeeded!

Wang Ming didn't think it would work at all, but when he cooked the Tri-tip steak, he had used a thin needle to poke many holes into it. He then used the oil and lard he cooked the steak with and the juices that came out of the marinade to infuse the inside of the steak with the fats and flavor.

He didn't have high hopes for the technique since he hadn't heard about anyone doing it like that. Using a tiny needle to stab the steak at least a few hundred times, most people just use big needles to stab the meats to tenderize it.

When the steak touched his tongue, Wang Ming felt all the fatty juices infused into the meat, bursting out creating a flavor explosion in his mouth. But since he had cooked the fat and lard with the marinade, it made the juices taste even better. Usually the juices taste little but with the marinade it tasted amazing, not only this but since the holes are small not too much of the marinade gets in so it tastes just enough and not too intense.

This could be a dish he could sell in a future restaurant. How the juices and the flavor explode into his mouth felt addicting. He ate half the steak in just a minute. He wanted to finish the whole steak, but someone knocked on his main door.

No one knew he lived here, so Wang Ming felt it was weird for someone to knock on his door, but it could be a neighbor that had seen him earlier and wanted to say hello.

Opening the door to greet his neighbour, he didn't even have time to see who was behind the door, when he heard a familiar voice say.

"Wang Ming?"