The Billionaire Life

Karaage

Henry's out of town, the house is clean, and there are no plans for him to buy something from the stock market today.

Alex decided that today's lunch was karaage.

Alex pats away the excess cornstarch from the marinated chicken thighs before putting it away in a frying basket.

He then picked up another piece of chicken thigh that is marinated with a mixture of Japanese soy sauce, grated ginger, grated garlic, pureed Fuji apples and onions, pinch of salt and black pepper, chicken bouillon, roasted and crushed Szechuan peppercorns, and dried and crushed cayenne pepper before dipping it into the cornstarch.

As he is doing this, his brain rolls back to a memory when he was still living with his parents and sister.

******

One day, his Dad is out of town, while his sister is working in her own line of work as usual. Alex was working on some financial paperwork about his family's coal trading company's financial situation when he smelled something burning.

His eyes popped out. "What the heck?!"

He ran out of the office, which is located right next door to his home, to the source of that 'not-in-a-good-way' smoky smell.

The kitchen.

Alex sighed in exasperation.

"Mom, not again..." he groaned loudly as he turned off the burner quickly.

"MA! WHAT ARE YOU COOKING?!" he shrieked.

From afar, a shrill voice shouted. "Oh my God! I forgot!"

Alex opened the lid of the pot, shocked to find out that it was rice.

"MA!? HOW IN THE HELL DID YOU OVERCOOK THE RICE?!" Alex was aghast at the sight.

At the bottom of the steamer, the bottom of the steaming rice was turned into charcoal with brown edges. The sides are colored gradation between brown and white. The smell is definitely repulsive, even for caramelized glucose.

His mom, Agatha, finally emerged from the bedroom to the kitchen. She's holding her phone like usual, since she has so many clients and friends. His mom is the community's confidant and on often times, interior designer with no computer skills but has a great taste. She got so many text messages and calls from either friends or contractors and clients, she ended up abandoning her household duties quite often.

Well, not always.

"I'm so sorry, honey! I was steaming it for our lunch," she said.

"But now our lunch is ruined! What are we going to do?!"

Dahlia looked panicked. In the meantime, she tried to save as much rice as she could. Alex, meanwhile, turned on the exhaust system to get rid of the burning charcoal smell.

Alex asked in apprehension, "How's the rice? Salvageable? Consumable?"

She replied, "Hard to say. The bottom is done to black crisps."

"Oh no. What do we eat then?"

"Relax. This can be fixed, by turning it into congee."

Alex was unsure. "Will it take long? It's almost lunchtime."

"Don't worry. It won't take long. Anyway, can you look for some toppings in the fridge?"

"Fine..." Alex can only sigh in defeat.

He then started to search the contents inside the fridge that can be used for the topping. He found yesterday's leftovers of chicken karaage, salted duck egg, beef floss, salted anchovies with green chilies, and green chili cakalang (skipjack tuna meat, smoked and shredded). His mom, meanwhile, started putting water on a fresh new pot and dump the salvaged rice in it.

Alex bemoaned, "Oh God, we got karaage, but it doesn't fit with congee."

His mom reassured, "Don't worry. Just eat it, otherwise you just let it rot like your sister did once with her leftover char kuey teow. And it doesn't taste nice."

Alex can only sigh, knowing she was right.

That afternoon, Alex and Agatha ate a congee (thankfully, not scorched to black thanks to Alex's supervision) with a variety of toppings, including the chicken karaage that's gone soggy courtesy of the liquid from the congee.

Truth to be told, it wasn't that bad. It ended up tasting weird.

******

Alex just chuckled at the memory as he fried the chicken for the second time.

It's been a long time since he went home and visited his parents and grandparents, despite being only 15 minutes away if there's no traffic jam, or 45 minutes away if there's a traffic jam.

"Maybe I should visit them soon," he thought of himself. "Scratch that, Henry and I should visit them soon."

"Maybe take them out to yum cha, perhaps?" his train of thought continued. "They really loved the yum cha from Crystal Jade last time we took them there. Or maybe we should go for a steak. Can't go to Fogo, though. Grandma and grandpa can't eat much...

Oh, we should bring Henry's grandparents as well, so at last grandpa has someone to talk to besides us. Papa Hendrik and Mama Christiana definitely can join us..."

"Wait a minute," he realized. "Why am I bringing the whole truckload? That lunch should be just between me, Henry and my family..."

He then looked down to the frying tray. "And where the hell is my chicken?!"

He looked around and found a bunch of karaage freshly golden brown and rested at the tray.

"Damn! I fried them all," he exclaimed, giggling at his own silliness.

He then proceeded to clean the kitchen, by creating a mini egg pancake from the egg batter and the leftover flour, let the oil cool down, and washed the equipment before putting it in the dishwashing machine to clean it the second time. Not yet, anyway.

Once he was done, he took out a small pot and filled it with water, before taking out instant miso soup from one of the shelves.

The water is finally boiling and he started mixing it with the instant miso soup.

In minutes, lunch is finally ready.

Piping hot karaage with Kewpie mayo mixed with paprika on the side, freshly steaming bowl of rice, and hot miso soup is finally served in front of him.

He then turned on the smart television, and put on Netflix's Midnight Diner, landing on the episode when Master prepared karaage for a sleeping woman who is supporting her cold comedian husband.

As Master started to cook the karaage, Alex started to take a bite out of his piece of chicken.

It was delicious.