Culinary God in Wilderness

'Oh, right, I almost forgot. I still need to make a fish trap. That's one of the best ways to secure a reliable food source.'

He was afraid he'd turn around and forget, so he decided to just make it now.

He used the pile of bamboo strips he had split as a frame and started by weaving a bamboo basket.

Then, he wove a separate funnel-shaped entrance, wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. He tied the wide end to the basket to secure it, forming a simple fish trap.

'Fish, crabs, and Lobsters are creatures without much intelligence. As long as they see food and it seems safe, they'll inevitably rush over to eat. When the time comes, I just need to put some fish guts or something in the trap, and any creature that can fit through the entrance will crawl inside for a meal.'

'Once they're in, they most likely won't be able to escape back through the same entrance. Then, I just have to pull the rope... Oh, right, right! I haven't tied the rope on yet!'

He split some more bamboo on the spot, wove it into a ten-meter-long rope, and tied it to the fish trap. Only then was the job truly done.

'Let's go. I'll head to the shore and grab some stuff for bait. If the tide was high, I'd head straight out to sea!'

Unfortunately, it was currently low tide, so the bamboo raft couldn't be taken out to sea at all.

So, he strolled along the sandy beach on the other side of the reef.

This area was in the direction of Bartel's shelter. The taro he had accidentally found the other night was In the Forest inside the valley by the shore.

Since he was already here, he gathered some shells and other things to use as bait, stuffed them into the fish trap, and placed it somewhere near the raft, tying the rope to the same post.

He would leave it overnight and come back tomorrow morning to see if there was an unexpected catch inside.

For the rest of his time, he headed straight for that unfamiliar valley.

First, he found the patch of taro, dug up a few roots, and stuffed them into his bamboo basket along with the leaves. Then he started wandering aimlessly along the edge of the woods.

For a full hour and a half, aside from Purslane, he found no other useful plants. It was mostly just weeds and bushes. Some were edible, but the information in his memory bank told him they had a poor texture, so he didn't bother picking them.

'Since there's nothing in the valley, I'll have to rely on experience and search halfway up the mountain.'

He looked up, his gaze following the slope of the mountain. In the distance, he could see the bamboo forest where he had spent all his time recently, as well as the location of Bartel's original shelter.

'A place Bartel chose for a shelter probably isn't anything ordinary, right? Hmm, I've decided. I'll go search around there and see if I can find anything good.'

Although Bartel wasn't a Hunter who specialized in wilderness survival, his expertise in tracking wild deer meant he possessed at least some survival knowledge and skills.

An old Hunter like him wouldn't just consider flat terrain when building a shelter. The surrounding environment would have to meet at least two, if not all three, of these conditions: abundant resources, a water source, and a food source.

He had been busy building the aqueduct for the past two days, and when he came this way, he was only focused on carrying firewood and bamboo. He hadn't explored the vicinity at all.

He first headed up the mountain slope, arriving at the ruins of Bartel's shelter.

There were still some broken scraps of firewood and bamboo on the ground, along with plenty of twigs and leaves. They were too difficult to gather and not particularly important, so he didn't pick them up.

'Uphill is the bamboo forest, downhill is the river valley, and this is the way I go back and forth to my shelter... Hmm, I'll start by exploring this way then.'

While wandering, he was also constantly observing the position of the sun in the sky.

Many plants and fruit trees prefer to grow in places with long hours of sunlight but not excessively high temperatures, preferably with a water source nearby.

By observing the sun's path and combining that with his past experience in finding various ingredients, he could roughly deduce which areas had a higher probability of yielding new discoveries.

He had only been walking for a few minutes when the trickling sound of water suddenly echoed through the woods.

'This sound... it's probably not a creek, but more like a mountain stream. The water flow isn't particularly strong.'

No wonder Bartel chose to build his shelter here. As long as there was water, he could survive.

A mountain stream in front, a creek behind, a bamboo forest above, and a beach below—it was an absolute treasure trove of a location.

Following the sound of the water, he walked on. He hadn't seen the stream yet, but a patch of dense green plants scattered among the bushes caught his attention.

This patch of greenery was different from the usual messy clumps of weeds or bushes; it was very similar to the potato field he had found earlier.

The entire patch of forest floor was covered in dense, low-growing green leaves, so thick that the soil beneath was almost completely invisible.

He crouched down, casually pulled up a handful of leaves, and revealed the endless, vine-like stems hidden underneath.

'Are these... sweet potatoes?!'

When he first saw the shape of the leaves, he could hardly believe his eyes. But after seeing the stems, his suspicion instantly became reality.

'Holy cow! Such a huge patch of sweet potatoes! I'd guess it's at least a dozen or so square meters. I've struck it rich, I've struck it rich! So Bartel must have found this and decided to build his shelter nearby!'

Besides potatoes, sweet potatoes were one of the most popular staple coarse grains among North Americans.

Not only could they be used for sweet potato fries, mashed sweet potatoes, and roasted sweet potato chunks, but diced sweet potatoes were even added to many stews to enhance sweetness and texture.

When he worked in a restaurant kitchen, he often stewed large pots of soup. The main ingredients for one of them were chicken thighs, diced sweet potatoes, spicy Spanish sausage, and roasted red peppers, plus a mishmash of various spice powders and basic vegetables like garlic, onions, and carrots.

The first time he made it, he couldn't even imagine what a strange flavor stewing sweet potatoes with chicken and spicy sausage would produce. But after tasting it, he was surprised to find it was quite good.

So much so that when he later encountered the bizarre practice of adding a small amount of rice to the soup as an ingredient, he gradually grew used to it.

'This is the real deal. For Da Xia People, it's even more useful than potatoes. Its leaves, stems, and roots can all be used in cooking, they all taste great, and they're nutritious.'

'Of course, those are just bonus values. The most important thing about sweet potatoes is their starch!'

Speaking of this, Lin Chen's tone became excited.

'Sweet potato starch, potato starch, corn starch, pea starch, wheat starch, and tapioca starch are basically the most common starches in the world. Each type has different properties and different uses.'

'In our Great Xia, the first five are the most used. Tapioca starch has only become popular in the last decade or so. I'm sure many people have heard of the first popular product made with tapioca starch: the pearls in bubble tea.'

'I'm getting sidetracked. The properties of sweet potato starch are different from potato starch. Potato starch has a softer texture and is usually only used to thicken soups and sauces or to make things like liangfen jelly.'

'Sweet potato starch has a drier, harder texture and has a particularly wide range of uses, like coatings for fried foods, making sweet potato noodles, being used in dumpling wrappers, making pancakes, and so on.'

'You could say that sweet potato starch can do everything potato starch can do, and it can also do things potato starch can't. It's the undisputed all-around champion.'

'Its only drawback is that it can't replace wheat starch, and you can't use it like wheat flour to make chewy noodles, flatbreads, or loaves of bread. But in my book, it's still worthy of being considered number two in the world of starches.'

Seeing this field of sweet potatoes, Lin Chen couldn't tear himself away. He rolled up his sleeves and got to work, wishing he could dig up every last one and take them back in one go.

However, his bamboo basket had limited capacity. Once it was full, he had no choice but to make a trip back.

When he returned, he was carrying a total of three bamboo baskets.

One in front, one on his back, and another carried in his hand.

The one he carried was mainly for the sweet potato leaves and vines, so it wasn't heavy.

To gather this strategic resource as quickly as possible, he even skipped dinner, making three round trips until he had finally transported all the sweet potatoes back to his bamboo house to be stored underground.

The remaining sweet potato vines and leaves would have to wait until tomorrow to be slowly collected; climbing the mountain at night was still quite dangerous.

He sat before the fire, where two medium-sized sweet potatoes lay quietly in the embers.

'I'm rich, I'm rich! This time I've really struck it rich!'