Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 215: Chapter 171: Sea Urchin Buffet, Highly Poisonous Grouper

"That’s right!"

Lin Chen pointed to a bullet comment that was immediately pushed to the top on his watch. "That friend just now guessed correctly. It’s the crab’s reproductive glands."

"During mating season, female crabs produce a lot of roe, while male crabs produce milt, which is the translucent part. In Great Xia, the most common way to eat it is to steam it and dip it in soy sauce and vinegar."

"As for what they are exactly... heheh, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s delicious and nutritious~"

Hearing him say this, the faces of many people who liked eating king crab changed drastically, as if they’d just realized something.

Like a child who had just pulled off a successful prank, Lin Chen scraped away the black membrane inside the sea urchin while snickering to himself.

From the camera’s angle, his expression wasn’t visible. He could smile as deviously as he wanted, as long as he didn’t make a sound.

The stereotype online about foreigners being picky eaters with many allergies mostly refers to those from North America. They’re the ones with the pickiest palates.

People from places like South America, Europe, and Asia actually have very diverse diets. Many traditional European dishes even include animal organs.

Even if they knew what sea urchin and crab roe were made of, they most likely wouldn’t have much of a reaction.

Only picky Americans would ’lose their composure’.

"What are you laughing at?"

A familiar voice came from nearby.

He replied instinctively without thinking.

"Nothing."

The moment the word left his mouth, Lin Chen’s expression froze. He whipped his head toward the direction of the voice.

At the edge of the Mangrove Forest not far away, Andre’s familiar face was looking at him with confusion.

’How did this guy find me??’

Lin Chen’s mouth fell open in surprise.

’If I remember correctly, I never told this guy my survival plan.’

’In this vast Panama Forest, with the Dalian Mountain Range in the way, this old fox actually managed to pinpoint my location out of 49 targets. Could it be that he was nearby during the drop and has been following me this whole time?’

The thought sent a sudden shiver down Lin Chen’s spine, and a chill ran up his back.

"Surprised how I found you?"

Andre cracked a wicked smile and strode over with a bamboo basket on his back.

"Make me a meal for free, and I’ll tell you."

"In your dreams!"

Lin Chen rolled his eyes, then flicked a piece of sea urchin meat into his mouth and savored it.

"I told you before the competition, there’s no cooperative mode this time. If you want to eat, you have to pay. Show me some sincerity first, and then I’ll consider whether I’ll cook for you."

"Is that so? What a shame."

Andre shook his head regretfully and took out two white, unidentifiable objects from his basket.

"Do you know what these are?"

"Plastic trash?"

"...You’re the trash!"

Andre shot him an irritated glare. "These are the tags that were tied to the feet of the grouse released by the production team. They can be converted into points!"

"Oh," Lin Chen scraped the rest of the sea urchin roe into his mouth in one go and mumbled, "So?"

"Based on my judgment, the points you can get for these tags should be much higher than for prey you catch yourself in the wild. That’s because they’re limited, and these are the only land animals you can catch in the forest here."

"And?"

"Isn’t such important information worth something?"

Lin Chen shrugged and casually tossed the empty sea urchin shell onto the sand.

"Worth what? My viewers already told me."

"?"

Andre scratched his head. "That’s a thing?"

Lin Chen couldn’t be bothered with him. By now, the tide had receded another ten-plus meters, exposing a large stretch of beach under the setting sun. It was the perfect time for foraging at low tide.

He had cooperated with this guy before because he was inexperienced. But he wasn’t the same person he was back then; there was no need to team up again.

Besides, they were rivals this time, having entered the competition to determine a winner. Cooperation was even more out of the question.

Seeing that Lin Chen didn’t want to deal with him, Andre licked his somewhat chapped lips, glanced around, and soon fixed his gaze on the coconut trees along the coast.

Before long, Lin Chen found another stranded Purple Sea Urchin in a crevice between some rocks.

The black one he just opened wasn’t as plump as a Purple Sea Urchin and had a faint bitter taste. It was safer to just stick to gathering Purple Sea Urchins.

After picking up the sea urchins, he saw patches of mussels clinging to the rocks beside him, packed as densely as a honeycomb.

This type of mussel had a black shell and wasn’t very large. In northern Great Xia, they’re also called clams.

The Green Mussels you might eat in some Western or Japanese restaurants belong to the same mussel family as these, but the proper name for Green Mussels is the "Emerald Mussel," while these black-shelled ones are "Purple Mussels"—they are two different species.

Green Mussels are larger and have plumper meat. These clams are on the smaller side, with the meat being only about the size of two thumbnails.

He didn’t start gathering them right away, instead scanning the surrounding area.

"Mussels and oysters are both types of shellfish that can be eaten raw, but most people probably don’t know that under certain conditions, shellfish can produce deadly toxins in their bodies, like paralytic shellfish poison, neurotoxic shellfish poison, and diarrhetic shellfish poison."

"The reason I dared to eat them raw this morning is, one, because I’m a chef and have undergone systematic food safety training, and two, because the production team gave us time to prepare before the competition started, which included looking up information."

"Simply put, I do not recommend that anyone eat any type of shellfish raw if you are uncertain."

"So, under what circumstances can they be eaten raw? I’m just sharing this for educational purposes. I strongly advise everyone not to try it, not to try it, not to try it!"