Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 377: Chapter 238: Exploring the Seabed Again

He had expected to see something along the lines of "very popular with diners," but as he scrolled down, he was met with five words: ’fishy taste, poor meat quality.’

The smile on his face froze. He scrolled down further in disbelief.

"The taste of Sea Catfish is similar to river eel. They have a strong fishy taste that many diners find unacceptable. They are typically salted and dried, or braised when eaten fresh."

’To think a sea fish has to be braised to be edible. Just how strong is that fishy taste?’

’Then again, freshwater catfish are rarely steamed either. They’re usually braised or cooked with other strong flavors to cover up that muddy taste.’

’Strong-flavored cooking methods... All I have are chili peppers and wild ginger for strong seasonings. I guess I’ll have to grill it. The smoky flavor from the charcoal should cover up some of the fishiness.’

’Sea Catfish are particularly fond of shellfish. Looks like I should avoid using shellfish for bait from now on. If possible, I should use fish guts or small fish to attract other kinds of sea fish.’

’And spiny lobsters also happen to like eating dead sea fish. Kill two birds with one stone.’

There was another problem, though. Lobsters usually only inhabit the crevices between rocks in Mangrove Forests or coral reefs, and they require a certain water depth.

The reef near the shore was too shallow, making it rare to find any Lobsters. This was confirmed by the fact that Bartel had only found two in an entire week.

’Though that guy was pretty lazy, to be fair.’

’I’ll skip the Mangrove Forest and leave it to Andre and Erica. Looks like I need to get a longer bamboo pole and drive it into the seabed in the shallows. That’ll make it easier to set out the fish traps.’

The bamboo he had collected so far was all on the shorter side, averaging 3 to 5 meters. Taller stalks were available, some exceeding 10 meters.

He hadn’t gone after them before simply because he lacked the tools. Bamboo that tall was certainly much harder than the shorter stalks.

Now, however, he could give it a try.

Since he was already at the beach, he also picked over a dozen coconuts to take back with him.

Panama is in the tropics, so the coconut trees here were mostly a mix of the common tall and dwarf varieties.

Although the two varieties differed in annual yield and harvest frequency, both were types that could bear fruit year-round.

The older dwarf coconut trees were especially productive. A single tree could yield more than ten coconuts at once and could be harvested three to six times a year—about once every two to three months.

It was because he already knew this that he felt no guilt about picking the coconuts.

It was a deserted area, after all. Very few animals could actually climb the trees to get the coconuts. Coconut crabs were one exception, but they weren’t very numerous.

In other words, leaving the coconuts on the trees was a waste. Once they ripened and fell, they would either rot or be washed away by the sea. They were far more valuable stored safely in his stomach.

Breakfast today was simple. He roasted three blue crabs, opened two coconuts, and heated up some of the smoked venison.

To supplement his micronutrients, he deliberately sliced off a few pieces of smoked venison liver and heart.

The smoking process hadn’t changed the texture of the liver much. It tasted like any well-cooked liver—soft and crumbly. The heart, on the other hand, had changed. It was much less springy, becoming firmer and chewier.

’Oh, right. I should check on the pickled vegetables.’

He climbed down to the bottom of the pit where a row of bamboo tubes sat along the wall. Their tops were sealed tightly with pieces of cut banana leaf, held in place with bamboo strips and stones.

He grabbed one at random, untied the bamboo strip, and lifted the banana leaf. A faint, stinky smell of fermentation wafted out before he even removed the tube’s lid.

The moment he opened the lid, a stench nearly ten times stronger hit him in the face.

Lin Chen fanned the air in front of his face, his expression unchanging. The smell soon dissipated.

The tube contained pickled chili peppers. The method was simple: boil a brine with about 15% salt content, let it cool, and pour it into the tube. The bamboo tubes themselves had been sterilized in boiling water beforehand. He had also added two slices of wild ginger and two allspice berries to each one.

Adding a little vinegar and white spirits would have been ideal, but he didn’t have any on hand, so he had to skip that part.

"Chili peppers need to pickle for a while—at least a week in this weather. The longer they sit, the more sour they get. I put a mix of two different kinds of peppers in this batch. I couldn’t add the spiciest kind, though. A single one of those is lethally hot, so they have to be pickled separately."

"For those of you watching at home who want to try this, you can use either a cold or hot pickling method. For cold pickling, just use the method I’m using and add any spices you like to the brine. Cold-pickled ingredients end up crispier. Hot pickling gives you a texture more like a pickle or the pickled pepper slices you’d find at a hot dog stand."

"In theory, you can pickle most vegetables. It’s like in Korean cuisine, where they have hundreds of different kinds of small, pickled side dishes."

After letting the gas escape, he put the lid back on and tied it securely. He would have to repeat this process for every bamboo tube.

"Fermenting foods produce a lot of gas. If you don’t release it, the container can explode. It also affects the texture and taste of the peppers. Most importantly, releasing the gas ensures the lactobacillus can keep multiplying. If an anaerobic environment forms too early in the pickling process, it will accelerate the growth of harmful bacteria. In simple terms, it’ll spoil."

After checking the peppers, he moved on to the tubes containing chili leaves, taro leaves, and Purslane.

Even though it had only been two days, the colors of the three types of leaves had already changed distinctly.