Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 444: Chapter 278: The Magical Great Xia Bread

"This is a kumquat lemon drink. These floating on top are kumquats. They’re a type of citrus you can eat with the skin on. Just think of them as tiny oranges."

A few gulps of the icy drink soothed the tingling numbness in her mouth, and the greasy feeling vanished without a trace.

She wiped her mouth, put down her cup, and her gaze fell upon the dozen or so dishes remaining on the table.

"I think I can go on. Come on, what’s the next challenge?"

The meal lasted a full two hours. The battle only ended when her flat stomach was bulging, looking as if she were six months pregnant.

"BURP—"

Letting out a long, full burp, Erica leaned back in her chair, waving her hands repeatedly.

"I can’t. I can’t eat another bite."

Lin Chen fished out the last of the handmade noodles from the tomato broth, mixed them with sesame paste, scallions, cilantro, and minced garlic, and wolfed them down completely.

It looked like a lot of food, but the actual quantity wasn’t that overwhelming. Most of it had gone into Erica’s stomach.

He ordered two more portions of meat and a few other things he was still craving. After gleefully enjoying his solo feast, he set down his chopsticks in utter contentment.

"This place is pretty good, you could even call it authentic. The taste is almost the same as hot pot restaurants back home. It’s just that the quality of some ingredients is a bit average. After all, sourcing raw materials abroad is bound to be difficult."

Erica nodded in agreement. "I’ve never had the authentic stuff, but I can officially declare this place my number one. For the foreseeable future, no food is going to beat hot pot’s place in my heart. It was just a little too spicy. Next time, we can try a different flavored broth."

Nanaimo wasn’t too far from Lin Chen’s tentative destination—only about a two-hour drive.

If he really settled down there in the future, he could drive over anytime he got a craving.

It was already past two in the afternoon when they left the hot pot restaurant.

If they didn’t get a move on, they’d probably end up traveling at night.

It wasn’t too far from here to Salt Spring Island, about an hour or so. There should be dedicated bus and ferry routes. After all, it was a tourist area with hundreds of farms; the transportation had to be convenient.

While he was busy looking up transportation and booking a hotel, Erica suddenly tugged on his sleeve, pointing to another building not far away.

"Lin, what’s that shop? It looks like a bakery."

"Hm?"

Hearing this, Lin Chen subconsciously looked up.

"It really is. Well, since we’re here... come on, I’ll show you what Great Xia bread and desserts are like."

The moment she stepped inside, Erica was hit by a wave of buttery, wheaty fragrance so strong she nearly stumbled.

"Oh my god, it smells so good. I haven’t smelled such a pure aroma in so long."

Looking closer, she saw the display cases were filled with a dazzling array of at least twenty or thirty different items.

Besides all sorts of exquisite and unusual breads, there were even a refrigerated case and a warming display, holding desserts and egg tarts.

She pressed herself right up against the plastic door of the display case, gaping at the various types of bread inside, none of which she had ever seen before.

In her mind, bread was supposed to have things like dried fruit, nuts, or chocolate, with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

But the breads in front of her were topped not only with something that looked like sausage, but also with scallions, chili peppers, mayonnaise, pork floss, seaweed, ham, and more.

They were called bread, but their ingredients made them seem more like sandwiches.

But if they were sandwiches, they still had the shape of bread.

In just a few seconds, it nearly fried her brain’s CPU.

Since she didn’t recognize anything anyway, Lin Chen just grabbed two trays and picked out some of the more unique varieties to-go.

Maybe because it was located next to the hot pot restaurant, business at the bakery was pretty good. Many of the display cases had already been picked clean.

Through the transparent glass wall, you could clearly see the kitchen in the back. Ovens taller than a person held several layers of rising dough, and the rich aroma in the air was wafting from there.

Only after they had bought a full three large bags of spoils was Erica finally willing to leave the magical place.

The moment they stepped out of the shop, she eagerly pulled out an egg tart and stuffed it into her mouth.

CRUNCH.

The flaky, crispy crust shattered at the sound, while the smooth, sweet egg custard filling was still warm enough to be slightly scalding.

With that one bite, her eyes lit up instantly like searchlights.

"Fuck!"

Lin Chen’s mouth twitched. He hadn’t expected to hear her curse.

Even during a month and a half of surviving in the harsh wilderness, he hadn’t heard a single curse word from her.

Not even when they were just eating hot pot.

And all just for a seemingly ordinary egg tart?

’It can’t be that serious, can it?’

Erica held the half-eaten egg tart, her clear, glass-like eyes wide. She stomped her slender legs on the ground several times and pointed at the tart with a look of utter disbelief.

"You’ve never had an egg tart? That can’t be right. It’s not like they’re some rare delicacy."

"Of course I have, but not like this!"

She reluctantly swallowed the food in her mouth, then stuffed the remaining half in, mumbling indistinctly.

"Bakeries in the United States make tarts too, but they’re usually things like cheesecake tarts, lemon tarts, or blueberry tarts. Even though most of them have eggs in the ingredients, the final product isn’t like this."

’So that’s what she was talking about.’

As a chef, Lin Chen instantly understood what kind of "egg tart" she was referring to. To put it simply, it was a pie, made by rubbing flour and butter into crumbs, pressing it into a mold, baking it, and then pouring in the liquid center for a second bake.

Thinking about it, egg tarts originated in Portugal. They were a type of European food that never really became popular.

It was only after they were brought to the country and KFC bought the recipe that they gradually rode its influence to become popular all over.

From that perspective, it really didn’t have much to do with North America.

"Didn’t you just say you couldn’t eat another bite? Why are you eating again now?"

"You don’t get it. For women, there’s a separate stomach for dessert!"

Lin Chen shook his head with a laugh, not stopping her from eating more.

After surviving in the wild for so long, she would have lost a lot of weight. It was normal to need to replenish her nutrition after the competition.

Following his lead, the two of them hailed a cab to the nearest ferry terminal for Salt Spring Island.

It cost a little more, but it was better than waiting foolishly at a bus stop for an hour or two.

The rest of the journey went smoothly. They took the ferry to Salt Spring Island, then hailed another cab to the hotel, taking the opportunity to chat with the driver and learn about the local situation.

On the way to the hotel, the line of farms along the road was endless, one after another. There were also many specialty stores for agricultural by-products, and even large-scale factories.

According to the driver, Salt Spring Island could be called the most developed area for agriculture and animal husbandry on Vancouver Island. The various food products from here not only supplied all the surrounding cities but were even exported to other countries, especially nearby Central America and South America.

You could say the entire Salt Spring Island was built specifically for trade, with tourism being just a derivative, secondary industry.

His spending habits had become a lot more generous now that his net worth was over a million.

Before, he used to check prices before ordering food; now, he just ordered whatever he wanted.

Same with travel—he just chose whatever was most convenient.

And the hotel he had just booked wasn’t just a well-known lakeside hotel on the island with views of both the lake and the sea; it even had its own hot springs facilities.

’This is all the fruit of my own hard work. I’m not just wasting money, so what’s wrong with enjoying it a little?’

By the time the two of them arrived at the hotel room, one of the three heavy bags was already empty.

Erica pulled open the curtains to look down at the beautiful scenery, still holding a bagel sprinkled with chili powder.

After the baptism by fire of that Mountain City hot pot at lunch, this little bit of chili powder was nothing to her. In fact, just seeing it now was enough to make her mouth water uncontrollably.

She bit into the slightly chewy bagel, revealing a filling packed with cured sausage. The pleasure of the bursting oils, combined with the numbing, spicy powder, once again shattered her perception of what a bagel could be.

"It’s not just spicy, it’s stuffed with sausage too??"

"Oh my god, what on earth goes on inside the minds of you Da Xia People? How did you ever come up with this flavor?"

Lin Chen felt like he’d lost count of how many times she’d made a similar exclamation on their trip. He was getting used to it.

"The way you’re eating, you probably won’t need dinner. Baked goods are calorie bombs. Be careful, or you’ll wake up five pounds heavier tomorrow."

"We’ll see about tonight. I’m not hungry right now, anyway," Erica said, waving her hand dismissively. "It’s fine, I’ll just drink more water. Weight isn’t important. I just saw the hotel has a swimming pool. I’ll go for a few laps later to get some exercise."

Perhaps from eating too many carbs at once, she fell fast asleep not two minutes after lying down on the bed.

Lin Chen sent her a few texts and got no response. Figuring she had probably fallen asleep, he didn’t call and wake her. He decided to go out for a stroll nearby and walk off his own meal.

He hadn’t been gone from the hotel for long when his phone suddenly rang.

He froze for a second seeing the name on the screen, then answered the call.

"Hello?"

"It’s me, Zhao Pengfei! Chef Lin, where are you now? Have you been to Salt Spring Island yet?"

"I just got here. I dropped off my luggage and was about to take a look around. What’s up?"

"What? You just arrived? That’s great! I was worried you’d already finished your tour and left. My company has some business to discuss over here, so I’ll probably be here for two or three days. A lot of the farms and factories here work with my company. I suddenly thought of you and decided to call and ask. If you don’t have plans, how about I show you around?"

"Wouldn’t that be too much trouble?"

"No trouble at all! If you really end up starting a business around here in the future, we could totally cooperate, right? When the time comes, I can deliver whatever supplies you need. Consider it hiring you as our company’s agricultural products ambassador, so we can ride your coattails a bit."