Chapter 508 - 342: The Ultimate Drinking Snack

Chapter 508: Chapter 342: The Ultimate Drinking Snack

A look of realization flashed in Jin Meiyan’s eyes. She secretly made a mental note of this tip, thinking she could show it off when she went out to eat with her friends back home.

The corners of her mouth turned up uncontrollably at the thought of her best friends shrieking and gasping in amazement around a charcoal brazier that wouldn’t catch fire.

Bathed in the wine-red glow of the setting sun and the bright light of the fire, the two dimples at the corners of the girl’s mouth looked all the more enchanting.

Lin Chen had lost count of how many times he’d been mesmerized by those beautiful dimples. When he snapped out of it, he shook his head with a wry smile.

"Meiyan, have your fans ever told you how beautiful your smile is?"

"Of course! My dimples are my trademark. My fans even nicknamed me the ’Dimple Angel’~"

She looked at Lin Chen with a sweet smile, a mischievous glint in her large, sparkling eyes.

"What, was Oppa captivated by my smile too? Don’t forget to follow me when you get back~"

"Hahaha, I will, I will. And don’t you forget to follow me."

"I already did, okay? Before I even came here~"

"Uh... Is that so," Lin Chen scratched his head in embarrassment. His gaze fell on a roasted chicken leg, which was now golden brown all over with slightly charred edges. He quickly grabbed one and pressed it into her hand.

"Here, here, have some roasted chicken. Careful, it’s hot!"

Jin Meiyan thanked him softly. She held the chicken leg in her hand, her eyes still fixed on Lin Chen’s face.

Seeing his slightly flustered expression, so different from how he was in the forest, she felt an inexplicable sense of accomplishment and smugness.

At this moment, she finally understood why Erica loved to tease him so much, both on the show and in private.

’Oppa is so cute when he’s shy. It really makes you want to keep teasing him!’

His expression reminded her of her best friend’s shy younger brother, who was still in high school.

Whenever she went to her friend’s house for fried chicken, drinks, and a chat, the little guy would blush, avoid her gaze, and stammer, unable to speak. Her friend would even joke that she should just marry him and become her sister-in-law.

Of course, she’d never agree to being taken advantage of so openly. Every time the topic came up, they would all end up laughing and roughhousing for a while.

’It’s just a shame they couldn’t come on this trip with me.’

Pulling her wandering thoughts back, she remembered Erica’s subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to stake her claim on him over the past two days. She could only sigh inwardly and dismiss the idea of crossing that line.

Lifting the fragrant, sizzling, oily chicken leg, she cast aside all thoughts of managing her image and tore off a huge mouthful of meat.

CRUNCH.

The skin on the surface was roasted completely crisp, making a sound like fried chicken as her teeth sank in.

The aroma of charcoal mixed with the rich scent of chicken fat burst forth the moment the skin broke. The sweet and savory flavor of the Korean chili paste, paired with the unique fragrance of cumin and chili powder, and the occasional pop of a toasted sesame seed—the multiple textures intertwined in her mouth, instantly conquering her ravenous hunger.

Grouse meat was firmer than regular chicken and not as fatty, but it was still far more delicious than turkey.

As she tore that bite away, scalding, savory juices continued to seep from between the muscle fibers.

She couldn’t help but open her mouth to let out a breath of hot air, tilting her head and swaying from side to side. It was as if she stir-fried the chicken again in her mouth before finally swallowing it.

The Korean chili paste, which had condensed into a crispy shell on the chicken’s surface, now lingered on her lips like a perfectly fitting, natural brownish-red lipstick.

Her appetite fully whetted, Jin Meiyan had no mental energy left for idle thoughts. In the face of such deliciousness, she completely forgot about her image. Holding the skewer in one hand and the chicken bone in the other, she began tearing at the meat with large bites. For the harder-to-reach parts, she used her hands to rip the meat off directly.

The chicken leg, which had been butterflied open before grilling to be almost as big as her face, was completely devoured in just a minute or two. She even gnawed away all the cartilage at the joints.

Still not satisfied, the girl sucked on the chicken bone, her big, sparkling eyes falling on him once more as if asking if there was any more to eat.

North American grouse are about the same size as commercially raised chickens. The three largest species can average over four pounds as adults, while the smaller ones are around one or two pounds.

Given her small frame and the fact that she was always managing her weight, her appetite shouldn’t have been very large. One big chicken leg should have been enough, logically speaking. But she still looked like she hadn’t had enough, clearly exhausted from a full day of trekking through mountains and rivers.

He grabbed a skewer of grilled chicken breast and handed it to her. The girl’s lips formed a small pout. She didn’t refuse it, but she looked a little reluctant.

Lin Chen shook his head, amused. "Just try it first. Don’t be so prejudiced against chicken breast."

"Alright, then. I trust your cooking, Oppa."

Despite what she said, she didn’t wolf it down like before. Instead, she tore off a strip of chicken breast with her fingers and popped it into her mouth, as if eating too much would be poisonous.

After a couple of chews, she froze, surprised by how unusually soft and tender it was.

Not only was the texture soft, tender, and springy, but it was also incredibly juicy. The whole piece of chicken breast had absorbed the charcoal aroma and, having been twice-baptized in chili paste, was flavorful down to the last fiber.

But that wasn’t even the best part.

Lin Chen hadn’t removed the skin from the chicken breast before grilling. Plus, he had scored the meat to make it thinner, which shortened the cooking time. For most of that time, the heat was absorbed by the skin, which was the key to keeping the chicken breast so exceptionally juicy.

The skin itself, having been roasted for a long time, had formed a crispy shell that crunched when she bit into it.

The fat from the skin mixed with the juices of the meat, complemented by the complex blend of seasonings. It tasted nothing like the dry, stringy chicken breast she remembered.

’It still couldn’t compare to the tenderness of the thigh meat, but if she were to rank all the chicken breasts she’d ever eaten in her life, this would definitely be in the top three.’

’And this was just cooked casually in the wild with simple conditions. If it were made in a professional kitchen, the flavor would probably be on par with a Michelin-starred restaurant.’

"So? It’s pretty good, right?"

"It is! It’s much better than I imagined!"

"Actually, it’s very simple to make chicken breast taste good. The most important thing is that it has to be fresh. Freezing and then thawing it causes it to release water, so most of the moisture is lost, and the texture naturally becomes tough."

"Another thing is that the cooking time can’t be too long. For example, you can cut it thin and grill it over a high flame like I did, or use a lower temperature, like the low-temperature slow-cooking in Western cuisine. Both methods can preserve the tenderness of the chicken breast."

As he spoke, he handed her a skewer of chicken wings. "Eating chicken breast all the time must be boring. Give it to me. I don’t have to manage my figure. You try the wings."

Jin Meiyan giggled. Without being coy, she handed the chicken breast back to him, but not before tearing off another strip to prove that it really was delicious.

’He was right, but no matter how good chicken breast was, it was still chicken breast. It wouldn’t magically transform into the texture of thigh or wing meat. For someone like her, who ate chicken breast for more than two hundred days a year, the last thing she wanted to see while out having fun was that stuff.’

But after just one bite of the wingette, the corners of her mouth shot up uncontrollably. In complete contrast to her reaction to the chicken breast, she once again grabbed it with her hands and began to gnaw on it.

After finishing the wing, before she could even put down the skewer, Lin Chen handed her a large piece of the grilled chicken carcass.

Operating on the principle of not wasting food, she took it and bit into it without a second thought.

But with that one bite, her eyes lit up. She looked at Lin Chen in disbelief.

The chicken carcass had a completely different style from the delicious legs and wings. It wasn’t thick and chewy like the breast meat; instead, it had a dry, fragrant quality.

There was still a decent amount of meat left on the bones. After being roasted over charcoal, even the bones themselves were completely crisp and charred. The seasoning on the surface was intensely concentrated. Although it was a tiny bit salty, the crunchy, chicken-flavored, charcoal aroma had a strange magic to it that made it impossible to stop eating.

After three consecutive bites, a strong urge hit her, and she finally remembered what this would go perfectly with.

Alcohol!

’Isn’t this the most classic bar snack ever!’

’Charred aroma, grilled meat, strong flavor, not too filling, and it’s protein.’

Every single point perfectly matched the characteristics of a good bar snack.

Just then, Lin Chen moved the pot of seafood soup, which had been simmering for nearly twenty minutes, off the fire. The initial liter of water had now reduced by nearly half, and the soup had taken on a rich, pale white color.

All the shellfish had been removed from their shells beforehand, leaving only the meat and the crabs in the pot.

The crabs caught on this gravel beach were all quite small. It was April, the season for crab eggs to hatch, so the shoreline was teeming with these tiny, recently hatched crabs.

They certainly didn’t have any meat, but that didn’t stop them from being used for soup. What they lacked in size, they made up for in number.

Coincidentally, Koreans love to drink piping hot stone pot soups, so this was right up her alley.

He simply sprinkled some salt and white pepper into the soup. No special ingredients were needed; the flavor was already delicious and savory enough.

"Don’t touch the mess tin right now. You could get a permanent burn."

"Got it, thanks for the reminder, Oppa~"

Jin Meiyan held the chicken carcass with both hands, nibbling at it in small bites. At some point, her fair face had become smudged with several streaks of sauce, making her look both comical and cute.

So she could have the hot soup sooner, he stuffed the rest of the chicken breast into his mouth in one go and began to chew slowly as he stood up. He walked over to a nearby spruce tree, took out his axe, and made a few quick chops into the bark. After stripping away the outer layer, he cut a piece from the woody layer beneath and fashioned a simple spoon with a small branch.

Seeing Lin Chen conjure up another utensil in just a few moves, Jin Meiyan’s eyes sparkled. She thanked him sweetly once again, took the bark spoon, ladled up some of the scalding seafood soup, blew on it a few times, and eagerly brought it to her lips.

Hooo~

Hooo~

SLURP~

Compared to the stunning roasted chicken, the seafood soup seemed utterly ordinary. It was almost no different from what she drank in South Korea, perhaps even a bit blander.

But it was precisely this light seasoning, with the subtle, spicy kick of white pepper, that perfectly neutralized the salty aftertaste of the chicken carcass left in her mouth.

Aaaah~

She let out an exaggerated sigh of satisfaction, her fair face flushing a rosy color.