Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 448: Chapter 282: Trash? That’s a Supreme Delicacy

"I’m a chef from Great Xia. I also worked in Western restaurants for a few years. I’m planning to shoot vlogs here and make all sorts of delicious food."

"Shooting videos of you making food?"

The heavy-set man paused for a moment. "Looks like you have quite a few fans. Making a living just by filming videos... If you ever need pork, come to me. I’m the only one selling it in this whole market."

The market here was different from the ones back home. It was made up of individual stalls, each like a separate storefront, giving it the feel of an indoor shopping arcade.

Led by the landlord, the two of them quickly toured the entire small market.

Pork, beef, chicken, seafood, vegetables, and fruit took up most of the market area. The rest sold various sundries like nuts, flour, alcohol, and so on.

The people here came from all over the world—Europe, South America, North America—but the atmosphere in the market was very harmonious. He didn’t feel the slightest hint of any uncomfortable tension.

Although there were no Da Xia People inside the market, there was a sundry shop owner not far from the entrance who was from Great Xia, as was the female owner of a fruit stand.

Lin Chen was quite moved to find compatriots who had settled down and opened shops in such a remote place.

’Our people are really in every corner of the world.’

After two days of simple renovations and purchasing various equipment, Lin Chen’s stall finally opened for business.

He had been filming videos ever since the renovations began, and many curious fans in the comments were guessing where his stall was located.

He was, after all, the only two-time champion in the history of the show *Wild Survival*. He’d also won a full four million in prize money and was a foreigner. This combination of identities drew a massive amount of attention from the show’s fans.

Furthermore, as his related videos were shared across YouTube and other major social media platforms, a large number of casual viewers became dedicated fans.

In the two weeks since the show’s filming ended, his personal account had surpassed 500,000 followers, and even Erica’s follower count had broken 200,000.

Lin Chen wasn’t too surprised by this.

’A beautiful, lightly-clad woman naturally generates buzz. Even if she just films her daily life, she’ll gain fans faster than the average person.’

"It’s the first day of business. What delicious thing are you planning to make for the camera?"

The landlord had just arrived at the market when he saw Lin Chen and Erica at their stall, adjusting the stove and other equipment. He approached them curiously and asked.

It was the first time a chef, and a foreign one at that, had set up shop in the market. It wasn’t just him; everyone else was very curious too. People came by to ask questions almost every day.

"I haven’t decided."

Lin Chen spread his hands with a helpless smile.

"There are too many things I could make, but since it’s the first day, I don’t want to make anything too ordinary. It should be something meaningful or something that can generate some buzz."

"Let’s make dessert! Desserts from Great Xia are definitely on par with French pastries. Everyone would love them."

Erica was still thinking about the egg tarts. Ever since she’d tried them, she’d been inexplicably hooked, getting cravings every few days.

"No, desserts take too much time. It’ll be dark by the time we’re ready. Next time."

After thinking for a long time without any good ideas, he decided to wander around the market to see if he could find some inspiration.

He had just stepped out of his stall and looked up when he saw the man at the chicken stall grabbing a large handful of chicken skin, stuffing it into a plastic bag, and getting ready to throw it away.

The bag of chicken skins was heavy; it looked like there were at least a couple of pounds in there.

In an instant, a brilliant idea popped into his head.

"Wait! Don’t throw it away!!!"

He dashed forward and shouted anxiously.

"Huh?"

The man froze, looking doubtfully at the young newcomer from Great Xia.

"What’s wrong?"

"Old Zack, you were about to throw away these chicken skins, right?"

"That’s right."

"Sell them to me. I can use them to make a delicious snack."

"If you want them, just take them. They’re just trash anyway. But make sure I’m the first one to get a taste after you’re done."

"No problem!"

Lin Chen happily took the heavy bag of chicken skins. ’I can’t believe I found the perfect ingredient just by stepping out of my stall.’

Erica, acting as the camerawoman, had already raised her camera and perfectly captured the entire scene.

"You can make a dish out of chicken skin?"

The landlord had been about to leave, but his interest was immediately piqued again.

Old Zack had run his chicken stall here for over a decade and had thrown out who knows how many tons of chicken skin. No one had ever shown any interest in it.

Who would have thought that as soon as this young chef from Great Xia showed up, he’d claim he could make something delicious with it? How could anyone not be curious?

"Trust him," Erica said. "I’m not sure what you can make with chicken skin either, but he’s the two-time champion of the show *Wild Survival*. His fans call him the ’Godly Chef of the Wild.’ He can whip up incredible meals even in the wilderness with barely any ingredients. Now that he’s back in a proper kitchen, whatever he creates will definitely be delicious."

"*Wild Survival*? Two-time champion? Godly Chef?"

The string of titles left the landlord feeling a bit dizzy. He quickly pulled out his phone to look it up online.

He wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t checked. But when he did, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

’A huge internet celebrity has come to our little market?!’

"Hey! Zack, look who this is! Lin is a big star!"

"Hey, Big Guy, get out here! Come see how many fans our Lin has!"

"Little Mei Mei, have you heard of the show *Wild Survival*? Lin was the champion of the last two seasons!"

The landlord, like he was showing off his own grandson, went from stall to stall announcing Lin’s identity in the blink of an eye.

And just like that, the news that Lin had gotten a bag of chicken skins from Old Zack to cook something spread to every shop in the market.

In just five or six minutes, seven or eight people dropped what they were doing in their shops and ran over, wanting to see what Lin Chen would do with the chicken skins.

Lin Chen hadn’t expected Erica’s casual comment to have such a huge impact, and it had completely disrupted his plan to cook quietly.

’Thankfully, food has nothing to do with fame. Delicious is delicious, and bad is bad. Even the most famous restaurant will go out of business if its food is terrible.’

’As long as the food is good, you’ll always have a loyal customer base. Even a small neighborhood shop with no sign can stay open for decades.’

Under the gaze of nearly ten pairs of curious eyes, he poured the entire bag of chicken skins into a metal colander and gave them a quick rinse with clean water. Then, he took them out one by one, spread them on a cutting board, and used a sharp blade to scrape off the excess fat remaining under the skin.

His movements were fast, and aided by a new knife, he only needed to scrape each piece of skin twice, finishing one every two or three seconds.

After scraping off the fat, he also had to pluck some remaining pinfeathers.

Everyone watched for a while, but seeing that it would still take some time to process all the skins, they returned to their own shops to work, planning to come back later.

「Thirty minutes later.」

Once the last piece of chicken skin was scraped clean, Lin Chen poured them all back into the colander, sprinkled on some baking soda, and quickly massaged them to wash away the slimy residue on the surface. Then he rinsed them clean and drained the water.

After cutting them into bite-sized pieces, he added white pepper, sesame oil, cooking wine, minced garlic, and minced ginger to the chicken skins and put them in the refrigerator to marinate for twenty minutes.

"Why put them in the fridge?" Erica asked curiously.

"Refrigeration helps the marinade penetrate the ingredients faster, achieving a better result in less time. Plus, the room temperature is over twenty degrees Celsius right now, so refrigerating them reduces the risk of spoilage."

While the chicken skins were marinating, he mixed together a batter using cornstarch and flour.

"One hundred grams of cornstarch, forty grams of flour, and sixteen grams of baking powder will make a fairly all-purpose crispy batter. I’m going to use beer instead of water, which will make the coating even crispier when fried and also help suppress any gaminess from the main ingredient."

"Of course, you can’t choose one with a strong malt flavor, or the fried coating will be a little bitter."

"You also need to add a little sea salt and garlic powder to the batter for a base flavor. That way, it’ll be flavorful even if you don’t add any seasoning powder after frying."

After mixing the batter, he began to pour oil into a cast-iron wok and started heating it up.

Once the chicken skins were done marinating, he poured the batter in little by little, mixing continuously until each piece was clearly coated in a thin layer. Then, it was time to start frying.

He grabbed a handful of the skins. There was no need to arrange them, just to make sure they didn’t stick together.

SPLASH

As soon as the battered chicken skins sank into the wok, the once-quiet surface of the oil instantly erupted into a rolling boil.

"Right now, I’m frying them on low heat just to set the shape. Later, I’ll raise the temperature and fry them a second time. It’s the same process as making fried chicken."

He even pointed to the stove below, signaling for Erica to get a close-up of the flame’s size.

The wok was quickly filled with dense, tiny bubbles, and the aroma of deep-frying slowly began to drift through the air.

"Hey!"

The landlord, who had been chatting idly in Old Zack’s shop, smelled the aroma and shot up as if he’d been electrocuted, rushing over to Lin’s stall.

"How come you started frying all of a sudden? I missed the whole preparation process!"

Old Zack followed close behind. Seeing the large basin of battered chicken skins and the bubbling wok of oil, he found it hard to believe that chicken skin could be prepared this way.

’Chicken skin is already so greasy. Frying it would be like adding oil to oil. Could it possibly taste good?’

After frying, the chicken skins visibly shrank and curled up, turning into irregular, twisted chip-like shapes.

The chicken skins had completely lost their original unpleasant appearance, becoming golden and crisp, their surfaces continuously bubbling with tiny, dense bubbles.

The rich aroma of chicken fat wafted through the air, growing stronger and stronger. Its mellow scent, almost as rich as butter, traveled far and wide, drifting into the other stalls. The busy vendors’ nostrils twitched, and only then did they suddenly realize what was happening.

One by one, they swarmed over from all directions, some still wearing gloves. They stared, dumbfounded, at the small basin of golden, crispy ’chips’ that had just been taken out of the wok.

"Fried chicken skin?"

"Oh my god, to be honest, I can’t connect these with chicken skin at all. They look way too tempting."