Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 429: Chapter 264: The Last Night

A strange, fruity aroma she’d never smelled before instantly triggered her cravings. In the wild, where there were no desserts, fruit was the only sweet thing she could dream of.

Especially mangoes.

But this strange fruit in front of her gave off a scent even sweeter and more fragrant than a mango. Just from the smell alone, she could feel her mouth watering uncontrollably.

"Here, try this first. That way, if you don’t like the taste, we won’t have wasted a whole one."

As he spoke, Lin Chen offered her the half-eaten breadfruit he was holding in his other hand.

"This thing tastes a lot like two fruits from my home in Great Xia and from Thailand—durian and jackfruit. I wonder if you’ve ever heard of them."

"Durian is known as the ’king of fruits.’ It’s very nutritious, and when you chill it, the texture is like silky-smooth ice cream. Its only downside is that the smell is a bit hard for some people to take. But those who like it are absolutely crazy about the smell."

"Jackfruit doesn’t have that smell, but its flavor is also quite unique. If you’ve never tried it, there’s no way for me to describe it to you."

He didn’t elaborate further, because it was obvious this girl knew very little about the food culture of Great Xia. She certainly wouldn’t know about fruits like durian and jackfruit, which were considered niche even within Asia.

Forget her—even the Koreans and Japanese people he’d asked back when he ran his food stall had never heard of them.

Sure enough.

Erica shook her head, a blank look on her face.

But that didn’t stop her from taking the strange fruit from Lin Chen’s hands.

However, since she had no frame of reference, she couldn’t make any connections to what he was saying, and so his description did nothing to entice her.

Compared to the whole breadfruit, this partially eaten one felt softer in her hand, and the sweet fragrance was even stronger.

Without even needing a reminder from Lin Chen, she eagerly reached out and began to tear at the peel on the edge.

Just like peeling an avocado, the breadfruit’s skin was semi-hard, semi-soft. Tearing it open revealed the pale yellow flesh underneath, which was thick and stringy like solid cream.

After a moment’s thought, she resisted the urge to dig in with her hands and instead brought it to her mouth, nibbling a small bite from the edge of the flesh.

The incredibly soft flesh melted the instant it touched her lips, truly smearing her mouth full like cream, and her entire palate was filled with that strange, sweet fragrance.

There was no need to chew at all. Just by moving her tongue, the flesh, as smooth and tender as paste, would naturally flow down her throat.

Erica’s eyes widened, filled with an expression of disbelief. She quickly took another large bite, only then confirming that she wasn’t dreaming.

"Looks like you can handle the taste. Then we don’t have to worry about wasting it."

Lin Chen nodded, and just as she was about to take a third bite, he snatched the breadfruit back from her hands.

"Alright, that’s enough. I just let you have a taste. This one’s mine. If you want more, open your own."

After speaking, he showed no intention of lingering and turned to leave in the direction of the bamboo hut.

Erica, having just had a taste of heaven, couldn’t possibly stop. Without hesitation, she tore open the fruit’s peel and began to take huge bites.

The fruit was so large it felt heavy in her hands. If she ate the whole thing in one day, she basically wouldn’t need to eat until tomorrow morning, so she couldn’t be bothered to go scrounge a meal from Lin Chen.

’Just have to bear it a little longer. After tomorrow, I can go home!’

’When the time comes, I’ll definitely buy the next flight to Toronto and make him treat me to some delicious Great Xia cuisine!’

Back at his place, Lin Chen wrapped the breadfruit in a banana leaf and placed it in the cellar to cool down a bit. For the next few hours, at least, he had no desire to touch the stuff.

He washed the cassava he had brought back, used his combat knife to make a vertical cut on the surface, and slipped his thumb inside. With a gentle pry, the entire peel came off the cassava’s surface, just like stripping bark from a tree.

Besides the brown outer skin, there was also a creamy, pale yellow layer in between, which looked like a large slice of cheese for a hamburger.

Just by sliding his thumb up and down, he could easily peel off the entire cassava skin.

After peeling all of them, he broke the cassava into sections.

The cassava had a semi-crisp, semi-soft texture, so it took almost no effort to prepare.

’According to the information from my memory, it’s best to use a pressure cooker for cassava. Pressure cooking for half an hour then letting it sit for another hour is the average. The specific time depends on the actual situation.’

’Of course, you can also just boil it directly, it just takes a bit longer.’

The plant encyclopedia only gave simple cooking suggestions without detailed instructions, so he could only rely on his own years of accumulated experience to make a judgment.

With this much cassava, the coconut bowls were definitely not big enough. He’d have to use bamboo tubes to cook it. And to ensure the water level covered the cassava, the containers needed to be deep enough.

The method was simple. He made a cut at the top of a bamboo stalk, opening up the entire segment. Viewed from the side, it was like slicing the top off a sphere, preserving most of the volume while creating an opening to put things in and take them out.

He used his combat knife to split the broken cassava pieces in half, one by one, and dug out the core, which had a ’string’ running through the middle.

’You can leave this core in. It’ll fall out on its own after cooking, or you can just spit it out as you eat. It’s edible, just that the texture isn’t great. Anyway, I’m bored and have nothing better to do, so I might as well remove it.’

Once all the cassava was stuffed into the bamboo sections, he could set them over the charcoal fire, fill them with water, and let them slowly stew.

The bamboo pieces he had just split off couldn’t be thrown away; they could be used as lids, fitting perfectly back on top.

Although it couldn’t compare to a pressure cooker, the temperature would certainly be higher than open-pot boiling.