Chapter 329 - 214: Fleecing the Rich Woman

Chapter 329: Chapter 214: Fleecing the Rich Woman

He’d been wondering about the familiar taste of the batter shell while he was eating, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

It wasn’t until he heard the two of them talking that he had a sudden realization—it was made from mashed potatoes.

Recalling the cooking process, it didn’t seem to be entirely mashed potatoes. He was sure that, at the very least, mashed potatoes couldn’t turn into a batter-like state.

If he thought the previous pan-fried venison steak didn’t require much skill, then these octopus balls, in his eyes, were more than enough to demonstrate Lin Chen’s powerful creativity and ability to improvise.

No mold? He thought to use sea urchin shells as a substitute.

No batter? He thought to process mashed potatoes as a substitute.

He even had to consider extracting salt from seawater. The technical skill hidden inside this seemingly ordinary ball was considerable.

After offering a few words of heartfelt praise, his gaze fell upon the few bamboo shoots piled next to the banana leaf.

From the looks of it, the crunchy ingredient inside the balls was this, because half an uncut shoot was still left on the banana leaf.

"What is this? I’ve never seen this kind of plant before."

The peeled bamboo shoot was long and pagoda-shaped, with a pale yellow color. Anyone who hadn’t seen one before would never be able to guess what it really was.

"It’s a bamboo shoot. It’s basically a baby bamboo—the stuff pandas eat."

Lin Chen was used to explaining it this way. No amount of description was as effective as just mentioning pandas.

"Bamboo shoots are an ingredient mostly eaten by the Da Xia People. They eat them in Japan, too, but it’s less common. There, it’s usually used as a topping in ramen."

"In our Great Xia, it’s a very common, everyday ingredient. You can use it in stir-fries, put it in dumplings, add it to hot pot, pickle it... there are lots of ways to eat it."

"Bamboo shoots themselves don’t have a special flavor; you eat them mainly for the texture. The taste depends more on the cooking method. Here, try a raw piece."

"Thanks."

Bartel showed great interest in this unfamiliar ingredient he had never encountered before.

He never imagined humans could actually eat bamboo; he’d always thought it was a plant only pandas could chew through.

Now that he knew about it, if he ever came across a bamboo forest while tracking deer in the wild, he would have another guaranteed food source. For wilderness survival, this was a crucial, potentially life-saving piece of information.

The raw bamboo shoot was just as Lin Chen had described: it had almost no taste, only the faint, fresh fragrance of the plant itself.

The smell was very similar to the scent he’d noticed when splitting bamboo, so it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.

After chewing for a while, a slight sweetness even began to emerge.

"Don’t think you can just eat this to fill your stomach just because it’s edible," Erica said, seeing right through his little scheme and jumping in to explain before Lin Chen could speak.

"Lin told me before that bamboo shoots are just young bamboo. The plant is made almost entirely of fiber, which has practically no nutritional value, and fiber is something the human body can’t digest."

"Eating a little can stave off hunger, sure. But if you eat too much, it won’t just put a serious strain on your digestive system, it could even cause constipation. The worst-case scenario is gastric bleeding. In the wild, that’s no different from suicide."

Bartel instantly broke out in a cold sweat. ’That was a close call,’ he thought.

If these two hadn’t been so easy to get along with—feeding him and clearing up his questions—he might have actually tried to live on bamboo out in the wild one day.

"Thank you both for the lesson. I’ll remember it. When we get out of here, if you ever need to hunt deer, feel free to find me. I’ll be your guide, free of charge."

"No need, no need. We’re all in this competition; who here can’t track prey? Once we get out and have a gun, hunting whatever we want won’t be a problem. Why would we need you to lead the way?"

Erica patted Lin Chen’s shoulder, as if showing him off. "I can tell you don’t know much about him. Let me fill you in."

"This is the badass who took down a black bear, over a dozen Yukon Wolves, and a musk ox in Alaska with just a hunting bow. How else do you think he became the champion?"

?

Bartel’s face changed dramatically. He stared in disbelief at Lin Chen’s relatively slender frame, his eyes sizing him up several times.

"I see. It looks like you two are just as skilled as I am. And you, miss...?"

"Me? I’m just a regular old forest guide, not as amazing as him. Oh, right, and I’m his fan. I signed up for this competition specifically to find him and learn his craft!"

A... a fan?

She joined the competition... to learn a craft??

Bartel blinked in confusion, thinking he must have misheard, or perhaps the young woman was joking with him.

After a few seconds passed and she showed no sign of clarifying, Bartel slowly began to realize she was actually telling the truth.

’You’re learning to cook... by joining the Wild Survival show?’

Huh??

He was having some trouble comprehending the situation.

’If you want to learn how to cook, couldn’t you just go work in the back of a restaurant that’s hiring for a while? Even if you don’t get to cook, you could at least watch and learn a few tricks.’

’Or, if you had the time, you could go to a culinary school for a year or two and learn the craft properly.’

’What on earth was she thinking, coming to the Wild Survival show to learn how to cook? It was all rather difficult to comprehend.’

But that was her prerogative. This kind of bizarre motivation was practically normal in North America, so he didn’t say anything more.