Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 368: Chapter 233: You Caught Their Whole Family?

She dashed over, her slender fingers pointing as she muttered and counted, "3, 6, 9, 12... 37?"

The Flying Fish varied in size. The largest was even longer than the Lobster, while the smallest was about the length of a phone.

"Did you catch their entire family?"

"Not quite. I got lucky last night. Not long after I went out to sea, I ran into a school of Flying Fish being chased by Blackfin Tuna, so I just grabbed a few and came back."

’You call *this* just grabbing a few?’

Erica rolled her eyes hard, momentarily at a loss for words.

She had thought she could beat Lin when it came to gathering seafood, but it turned out he was only unlucky by the shore. Once he was out in the ocean, his luck was through the roof.

Those two huge catches alone were enough to make her envious, not to mention all these Flying Fish.

"I was planning to call you over anyway. This was just an accident. I just wanted you to help me translate something, by the way."

Fresh lobster and crab couldn’t be left out for too long. From midnight until now, it had been twelve hours at most. The crab should still be alive, but the Lobster definitely needed to be cooked as soon as possible.

These Flying Fish also had to be dealt with today. Otherwise, in the warm, humid, twenty-something-degree environment, they might be rotten by morning.

"What are you planning to do with them?"

Seeing all this seafood, Erica had a feeling that this lunch would once again feature something unexpectedly wonderful.

"My ingredients are too limited, so I can’t make too many different dishes. You’d best not get your hopes up."

Lin Chen shrugged, laying out all the ingredients. As usual, he began mentally arranging and combining them.

’First, there’s no oil, so I can rule out any fried dishes. That leaves steaming, grilling, boiling, or eating them raw.’

’The Lobster can definitely be eaten raw. I’ve never seen this kind of crab before, but since king crabs and snow crabs can be eaten raw, this spider crab probably can be too. Still, to be safe, I should just have a little taste and not eat too much.’

It would be a real shame not to try some sashimi with such rare, fresh ingredients.

’The Lobster head, crab shell, and the heads and bones of the Flying Fish can be used to make a seafood soup. No need for any special seasonings—just add some bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and a few pieces of cured meat for extra flavor. Oh, right, I can add potatoes too.’

’As for the lobster tail... how should I prepare it?’

’And the crab legs and Flying Fish meat... what a headache.’

Before all that, there was one thing he needed to confirm first.

He casually grabbed a Flying Fish, and the sharp blade of his knife sliced along its neck, easily carving off half a fillet.

He ran the pad of his finger up from the tail, feeling for the number of bones hidden within the flesh.

As he felt it, his expression slowly soured.

’So many bones?’

The pad of his index finger felt a dense thicket of tiny bones. ’What’s the difference between this and a crucian carp?’

Crucian carp was the fish he hated eating most. Not because it tasted bad, but because it had so many bones. You’d spit out as many bones as you ate; it was impossible to clean them all out.

With this many bones, there was basically nothing he could do with it. Even if he managed to cook it, it would be a serious challenge for him and Erica to eat.

"What’s wrong? You don’t look so good."

"Too many bones. Way more than I imagined."

He shook his head with a wry smile, filleting the other side of the fish and setting it aside.

"I thought saltwater fish would have far fewer bones than freshwater fish. Grouper, tuna, salmon, turbot... those are all species with very few bones."

"I never expected Flying Fish to be the exception. It has so many bones, they’re as dense as hair, and they’re all those little Y-shaped bones hidden in the muscle that are impossible to remove."

Hearing this, Erica’s expression changed slightly. "Then what do we do? With so many bones, does that mean we can’t eat it? Can you use that method you taught me for cutting through hairtail bones?"

"That’s probably the only way to try. That, or making fish soup. Besides that, I don’t really have any other good ideas for them right now."

According to the information on Flying Fish in his head, people in Japan apparently dried it and ground it into fish powder. The powder was like a natural MSG, adding a savory umami flavor to soup bases.

If he had oil, he could have deep-fried them into crispy fish jerky.

He quickly filleted two of the relatively larger Flying Fish, chopping up the heads and bones and setting them aside.

Next, he swiftly dismembered the Lobster, carving off a portion of the body meat, cutting it into small pieces, and placing it on a leaf to be used later.

He cut the remaining tail in half, saving it for the grill.

Finally, it was the strange crab’s turn—the one covered in spikes with long, slender legs. Despite its legs not looking very strong, prying open its carapace took a surprising amount of effort.

Especially when he gripped the shell and pulled upwards, the creature flailed its legs wildly, as if in a final burst of life. It only stopped moving after the carapace on its back was ripped open with a "CRACK."

He broke off a leg first, removed the shell, and revealed the whole, pale pink meat hidden inside.

The spider crab’s legs were long, but the amount of meat wasn’t that exaggerated. In fact, judging by thickness alone, it couldn’t quite compare to a snow crab.

Without adding any seasoning, he grabbed the veritable crabstick and popped it into his mouth.

His teeth clamped down on the meat as he gently pulled the leg’s cartilage out, leaving the meat behind. The entire cartilage was stripped out perfectly.

The taste of the crab leg sashimi was far more delicious than he’d imagined. The saltiness of the seawater didn’t detract from its flavor; instead, it tasted as if it had already been perfectly seasoned with salt.

Chewing thoughtfully, he finally understood why imitation crabsticks were made with those shredded textures—it was because real crab meat looked just like that.

The crab meat was tender and smooth, with a subtle springiness. After the initial saltiness, a wave of sweetness unique to crab meat washed over his palate.

He didn’t taste any bitterness, astringency, or other strange flavors, which proved this type of crab was safe to eat raw.

He broke off another leg, cracked it near the joints on both ends, and then, with a firm snap of his hands, easily pulled out the entire piece of leg meat in one go.

"Here, try it."

Erica had already been swallowing her saliva. As a fan of sashimi, she had never tried raw crab leg before. It was something you could usually only get at high-end Japanese restaurants.

While it wasn’t too expensive for her, she usually spent her time in forests or suburbs and rarely went into the city, so she’d had few opportunities to eat at such places.

"Huh, so this is what crab sashimi tastes like. It’s so soft and tender, but not sticky-soft like sweet shrimp. It really does have the texture of a crabstick."

"That’s the leg meat. Next, you can try the body meat."

He plunged his small combat knife diagonally into the middle of the crab’s body and pressed down hard.

"CRACK."

With a crisp sound like a breaking cracker, the section of the body where the two legs had been connected was sliced off.

It was like a small drawer, packed full of translucent, jelly-like crab meat.

He split it in two and handed one half to Erica.

"Squeeze it with both hands, and the crab meat will come out like toothpaste. You can just suck it right out."

Although this wasn’t Erica’s first time eating crab, she had never eaten it raw. She took it curiously and squeezed it firmly with both hands, just as Lin Chen had instructed.

A large glob of translucent, paste-like crab meat was squeezed out of the shell, with juices constantly dripping down. A distinctly salty, fishy crab aroma filled the air.

"SLURP."

The crab meat was cool in her mouth, soft and smooth—even softer than jelly.

She tilted her head, thinking, and finally remembered where she had tasted this familiar texture before.

’Vinegar aspic!’

’Yes, that’s it! Vinegar aspic!’

The texture was very similar to the jelly-like substance served with appetizers in Michelin-starred restaurants, but with the added sensation of sweet shrimp.

It didn’t even need to be chewed. A gentle press of her tongue and it melted on the spot, releasing a gush of the uniquely savory, sweet, and salty flavor of crab meat.

Even though it had no seasoning at all, it was exceptionally delicious!