Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 286: Chapter 195: Lemongrass Grilled Fish, One Fish Three Ways

Lin Chen clutched the wooden spear, holding it steady as water splashed against his face.

’Judging by the commotion, it must have been a direct hit.’

’If he had missed, there wouldn’t be any struggle at all.’

The force traveling up the spear was much greater than he had imagined. He held on tightly for a while before the struggling finally began to weaken.

He didn’t dare let go. Instead, he bent over and plunged his left hand into the water, following the spear shaft down. Only when his hand closed around the tiger grouper did he dare to pull it out, spear and all.

SPLASH

In the beam of his headlamp, he could see the spear had passed cleanly through the tiger grouper. The poor fish’s lips were still opening and closing, and its fins twitched faintly, but its tail had lost all strength.

[Successfully captured a grouper with a tree branch on the coast of Panama. Happiness +2]

’That works too?’

A flash of surprise crossed Lin Chen’s eyes. As he felt an unfamiliar thrill and sense of accomplishment well up inside him, he gradually understood.

"This tiger grouper looks to be about seventy centimeters long. Judging by feel, it must weigh around three pounds. That’s a pretty normal average."

’The demand for grouper is much higher back in China. Farm-raised tiger groupers average around fifty centimeters and weigh about a pound, with prices fluctuating from thirty or forty to sixty or seventy yuan depending on the region. Wild tiger groupers are rarer and therefore more expensive—the priciest can go for two hundred yuan a pound.’

To think that a wild tiger grouper, a relative rarity back home, could be so easily found here on the coast of Panama—and one this big! It just went to show how abundant the seafood resources were here.

’He even suspected this one wasn’t considered particularly large. If he could dive down into the deeper coral reefs, he’d probably find even bigger ones.’

After seeing firsthand the massive sizes of North American wildlife, he was now starting to have high hopes for the seafood here too.

’A three-pound fish would yield about two pounds of meat. Add that to the leftover oysters and Green Mussels from lunch that they hadn’t cooked yet, and it would definitely be enough for two people.’

He used his sharp survival knife to slice open the tiger grouper’s belly right then and there, discarding all the inedible innards. After washing the blood away, he ran the back of the blade quickly along the body, sending a shower of scales flying.

Carrying his prize, he headed back toward the shore with his head held high.

Since it had barely taken any effort, he also grabbed a cluster of coconuts on his way back. This would save him an extra trip to the shore for water tomorrow morning.

’Come to think of it, in the eight days since the competition started, he’d barely drunk any water from the creek. He’d been using coconut water almost every day as a substitute for drinking and cooking.’

’While it was the safest option, the distinctive sweetness of coconut water couldn’t completely replace plain water.’

’Especially when making soup. A sweet and savory seafood soup was novel at first, but it started to taste strange after a while.’

’It was fine for boiling the seafood, but that was it. You definitely couldn’t drink the broth.’

’Once the cabin was built, he’d have to use fresh water for cooking to get the flavor right. Especially for fish soup—he had no desire to drink a sweet version.’

In the distance, the hot glow of the fire came into view.

He didn’t emerge from the forest right away. Instead, he flashed his headlamp a few times first.

When he saw Erica appear by the fire, waving enthusiastically at him, he relaxed and continued forward.

"Lin, what took you so long? Isn’t the creek in that... Huh?"

Erica pointed in the direction they had gone to bathe, but her words trailed off when she saw the huge, spotted fish impaled on the tip of the spear Lin Chen was carrying over his shoulder.

She froze for a second, then, as realization dawned, her eyes lit up.

"Dinner!!"

The excited cry had barely left her lips when she seemed to realize something and asked tentatively.

"Ah, right... is any of that for me?"

"You can have half, but you’ll have to..."

She hurriedly thumped her chest. "I promise I’ll pay you back!"

Lin Chen walked to the campfire, slid the tiger grouper off the spear, and placed it on a banana leaf.

He crushed three allspice berries, chopped up some lemongrass, cilantro, wild garlic, and a bay leaf, then mixed them with sea salt to create a marinade. He rubbed it evenly inside the tiger grouper’s belly.

Erica leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees and watching with rapt attention. "Are you going to grill it?"

"Yep. Pretty sharp, aren’t you?"

Lin Chen glanced up in surprise. As his eyes swept over her shirt and pants, he noticed they were no longer plastered to her skin. They looked dry.

’So she did take them off to dry by the fire.’

’He’d been gone for half an hour at most. In such a short amount of time, if she had kept her clothes on, she could have only dried the front. The back would definitely still be damp.’

’Good thing he’d been cautious. Otherwise, who knows what kind of chaos would have erupted in the livestream chat by now.’

"Of course! If I couldn’t even recognize grilled fish, what kind of wilderness guide would I be? I eat grilled fish all the time for work, you know!"

"Is that right? Well, next time, you can just pay me back with a grilled one. I’d like to taste your handiwork."

’After all, he was going to grill it before giving her a share. Asking her to pay him back with a fully cooked fish seemed perfectly reasonable, right?’

"Sure!"

Erica immediately agreed. "Grilled fish is probably my best wilderness recipe! It’ll be a perfect chance for you to try it and see if there’s anything I can improve on. And I can learn how a master chef grills fish in the meantime."

"I’m no master chef. At best, I’m just a street cook who worked in the back of a Western kitchen for a few years."

The two chatted for a few more minutes. Then, Lin Chen skewered the grouper on a forearm-length stick and planted it at the edge of the campfire, letting the intense radiant heat slowly roast it.