Culinary God in Wilderness

"Lin!"

"Look at these two big guys!"

When Andre appeared before him, holding a giant duck in each hand, even though Lin Chen was prepared for it, he couldn’t help but be stunned by the massive size of the King’s Down Ducks.

In his experience, a normal duck weighed around three or four pounds. Anything bigger was usually an old duck, which was too tough to eat unless you stewed it into a soup.

But those were meat ducks, artificially bred for consumption. They weren’t a natural breed and couldn’t be used as a reference.

Wild ducks, on the other hand, typically weighed around two pounds due to their active lifestyle and more limited diet.

But these two monsters, especially the more brightly colored one, could rival a market meat duck in size. He estimated it was already around four pounds.

The other King’s Down Duck, the one with brownish-gray feathers, was a size smaller, but not by much. It had to be at least three pounds.

No wonder they said the King’s Down Duck was the largest of all ducks.

Andre’s archery was truly impressive. Both King’s Down Ducks had been pierced through the back by a single arrow, which had missed their legs and vitals.

As long as the arrows weren’t pulled out, they would likely survive for quite a while before succumbing to their injuries.

He held one in each hand by the wings. The colorful King’s Down Duck’s pearl-like black eyes were still filled with a clear fighting spirit as it flapped its wings, trying to escape its predicament.

The gray one, in contrast, was exceptionally quiet.

"The colorful one is the male. They’re responsible for finding food and guarding their territory. They get especially aggressive during mating season."

Andre seemed to notice the question in his eyes and explained with a smile.

"I’ve heard that for a chef, the best ingredients are live ingredients, so I deliberately avoided a fatal shot. Do you have a special way of preparing them, or should I just process them here and now?"

"Are you hungry?"

Lin Chen didn’t answer his question, instead posing an unexpected one of his own.

He was taken aback for a moment, then took stock of his own condition and nodded. "Yeah, I’m hungry."

"Then you wouldn’t mind being hungry a little longer, would you?"

"Huh?"

Lin Chen gestured at the bounty on the ground. "We’ve gathered so many different kinds of ingredients on this trip. I think it would be a waste of a rare opportunity—and the ingredients themselves—if we didn’t make a proper feast."

"But the dishes I have in mind are time-consuming and the process is quite complex. It’ll definitely take a few hours..."

"Then we’ll have it for dinner!"

Andre blurted out without a hint of hesitation. "This is a rare opportunity. I don’t want to waste precious ingredients on some ordinary-tasting dish."

"Just say the word. If you need any help, just ask!"

"Not for now. Let’s take our haul back to my camp first."

"Huh? Aren’t you going to process the ducks here by the river?"

Seeing Lin Chen start packing up the ingredients without another word, Andre asked, confused.

"Duck blood is good stuff. It’s rich in nutrients and can replenish a lot of trace elements and minerals."

"...Fine. You’re the chef. I’ll listen to you."

The moment he heard that even the duck blood was being saved, Andre’s brow furrowed slightly. The faint taste of blood involuntarily surfaced in his mouth.

"What’s wrong? You have a problem with animal blood?"

"Not really. It’s just... it reminded me of when I was a kid, the first time I was starving out in the wild with my old man. He dripped warm wild duck blood into my mouth. To be honest, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling."

"Don’t worry," Lin Chen said, finishing packing all the ingredients and nudging him with his elbow. "After this meal, I guarantee you’ll never think of that memory again."

Andre looked at him skeptically, then nodded. "I’m looking forward to it."

On the way back, Lin Chen, not wanting things to get awkward, decided to play the part of a good host and strike up a conversation.

"So what’s Utah like?"

"You wouldn’t want to vacation there, believe me," Andre said with a chuckle. His stubbled face, mixed with grime, made him look like a man in his fifties or sixties.

"Desolate plateaus, bare mountains and canyons, a hopeless salt lake desert... All in all, it’s not a place suited for most people to live."

"Just think of me as a Hunter or an explorer from some remote backwater, who grew up in the wild."

"What about you? What kind of country is Great Xia?"

"Friendly, peaceful, and warm," Lin Chen blurted out without a second thought. "In Great Xia, you don’t have to worry about running into danger. There are no thieves or robbers on the streets, no guns or drugs. Even if you casually leave your valuables on a bench by the street, they’ll still be sitting right there waiting for you a few hours later."

"You might even find a young person who decided to watch over them for you."

"Oh my god, that’s incredible!"

Andre’s sky-blue eyes widened in amazement. "I can’t speak for other places, but in North America, at least, that would be absolutely impossible!"

"By the way, I’ve heard Great Xia’s food is famous. What kinds are there?"

"There are too many to count," Lin Chen said, shaking his head with an amused smile. "Great Xia officially recognizes eight major culinary traditions, each representing a different province or region. On top of that, there are countless minor ones. Every tradition, even every city, has its own unique food culture."

"Each tradition includes at least thousands of different dishes. If you tried to list them all, you’d die of old age before you finished. If I had to name a few that are more well-known internationally, I guess it would be things like fried rice, spring rolls, and dumplings."

"How does it compare to sushi? Sushi is one of my favorite Asian foods."

"Sushi? Do you mean the kind with a slice of raw fish on rice, or the colorful rolls with different ingredients inside?"

"Red dragon rolls, green dragon rolls, black dragon rolls, volcano rolls... I guess that’s the second kind, right?"

"Sorry, but the second kind was invented by us Da Xia People. It just borrowed the ’sushi’ name. You’ll notice that almost all those types of rolls are found in all-you-can-eat sushi places, and the owners of those places are almost always Da Xia People."

"So you’re saying the one with raw fish on rice is the real Japanese sushi?"

"You could put it that way. But actually, sushi also originated in Great Xia. It was a food that our coastal inhabitants had moved on from, and the Japanese just took it and modified it a bit."

"...Oh my God!"

As if he’d suffered a massive shock, Andre clutched his head with both hands, his eyes filled with a dazed disbelief.

The two dying King’s Down Ducks dangled near his head, creating a rather comical sight.

But after this shock, a deep sense of curiosity and anticipation began to grow in Andre’s heart.

’If even my favorite sushi was actually an invention of Great Xia’s chefs, then what is there to worry about? All I have to do is wait to eat!’

As they talked, the familiar cliff slowly came into view.

As the two of them gradually climbed the slope and saw the fortress-like shelter Lin Chen had built, the King’s Down Ducks in Andre’s hands fell to the ground with a THUD.

"Oh my God, what am I seeing? A castle??"