Culinary God in Wilderness

GULP.

He was anxious, but with such a delicacy before him, his primal urges triumphed over everything else.

Saliva uncontrollably flooded his mouth. Just by looking at it, he could almost feel his teeth sinking into the thick slab of Bear Pork Belly. He imagined the scalding juices and fat bursting out, a pleasure so intense it would make him shake his head from the heat.

The massive surge of adrenaline from hunting the Black Bear, combined with half a day of hard labor, had left him feeling utterly drained. The moment he saw this piece of meat, all that weakness and fatigue instantly transformed into an extreme, ravenous hunger.

His stomach cramped violently. He was so hungry he felt like his stomach was touching his spine, the kind of hunger that could make a man want to devour an entire cow. The feeling was so intense it bordered on nausea, and bile rose in his throat.

Without hesitation, he stuffed a piece of the Bear Pork Belly into his mouth, ignoring the heat. He bit down hard, his chopsticks already reaching for the next "victim."

PSHUUU.

Just as he had imagined, scalding juices shot out as the meat was compressed, and his mouth was coated in the rich, fragrant bear fat.

It didn’t have the strong, gamy taste he expected from wild meat. In terms of flavor, it was actually quite similar to beef or lamb.

He knew this was because the bear meat was incredibly fresh, and the cut he was cooking wasn’t one of the gamier parts.

If it had been left out for a day or two, the gamy taste would likely have become much stronger.

What surprised him more was that even though he hadn’t added any salt, the Bear Pork Belly had a faint salty taste, as if it were naturally seasoned.

The animal knowledge he had redeemed only covered various characteristics, like appearance, temperament, behavioral habits, preferences, hunting styles, pack characteristics, and so on. It didn’t include methods for butchering, cooking, or the flavor profiles of the meat.

Unsurprisingly, that information was probably included in the "Complete Guide to Wilderness Cooking."

He had no intention of wasting points to redeem that.

[Enjoying a rich, thick-cut piece of roasted Bear Pork Belly in the wilds of North America. Happiness +3]

The expected notification didn’t slow down his eating. After downing several pieces of the Bear Pork Belly in a row, his mouth was so sticky he could barely open it, and his lips were coated in a thick, glossy layer of grease.

"I didn’t expect the Bear Pork Belly to taste so much better than I imagined. But it has its downsides. The fat content of bear meat this season is too high. At nearly forty percent, the belly cut is almost pure fat."

He picked up two more pieces and held them up to his chest for a close-up on the camera.

Up close, you could see the hard crust on the surface of the meat held between his chopsticks—golden-yellow with hints of charred brown.

That one close-up shot was probably making countless viewers who hadn’t eaten dinner yet drool with envy.

"Heh heh," Lin Chen let out a sly chuckle. He took a bite out of one piece of the Bear Pork Belly and held it up to the camera again.

Before, all four sides of the meat were covered in that enticingly crisp crust, so you couldn’t really see the fat ratio.

Now, with half of it bitten off, the cross-section clearly revealed the glistening, translucent white fat inside, shimmering under the orange glow of the fire.

If you didn’t look closely, you might not even notice the thin, subtle layer of lean meat hidden within the fat.

The lean part of cooked belly meat turns white anyway, and the fat is also white. Unless you took a bite yourself, it would be hard to tell the difference with the naked eye, let alone through a screen.

"Fatty, right?"

Lin Chen tossed the rest of the piece into his mouth and chewed. The initial pleasure of the fat bursting in his mouth was gradually turning into a greasy, nauseating feeling.

He wasn’t sure if it was because he’d eaten too much or something else, but the aftertaste in his mouth slowly turned a bit sour, and the gamy flavor became more pronounced.

’It’s not exactly a gamy taste. Maybe this is just the natural flavor of bear meat?’

As the old saying goes in some places, chicken should taste like chicken, and fish should taste like fish. If you process it too much, you lose the food’s original flavor.

This is especially true for chefs. They have to taste the original flavor of an ingredient to understand what other ingredients or seasonings it pairs well with and what cooking methods will achieve the best results. This allows them to preserve some of the original taste while presenting diners with the most perfect flavor possible.

Looking at the large portion of Bear Pork Belly still left in the pan, Lin Chen scratched his head.

"This Bear Pork Belly is even greasier than I thought. I’ve only had twelve pieces and I’m already starting to feel overwhelmed. If I had some lettuce or cucumber, I could probably eat more, but eating it plain is just too much."

He had no vegetables. If he had some tart berries, they could have helped cut through the grease.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t seen any blueberries or raspberries lately. After all, it was already the end of October. In another two days, it would be November, well past their fruiting season.

The only berries he was likely to find in the wild during winter were cranberries, and probably in large quantities.

"By my estimation, one hundred grams of regular pork belly has about thirty to thirty-five grams of fat. But for a bear preparing for hibernation, the fat content is even higher. One hundred grams of Bear Pork Belly should have around forty grams of fat."

"In other words, the twelve pieces I just ate have already provided me with about five hundred calories. Combined with everything I ate yesterday, the energy stored in my body should be enough to support another hunt."

But protein and fat alone weren’t enough. Physical labor and running primarily consumed glycogen, which comes from carbohydrates.

To save time, he picked out a fist-sized potato, shredded it, and stir-fried it in the leftover grease in the pan.

It only took three or four minutes to whip up a pan of fragrant, stir-fried potato shreds.

He sprinkled a little salt on them for flavor, quickly finished the dish, then grabbed his hunting bow, quiver, and Engineer Shovel, slinging them over his back. After putting on his Hat Lamp, he set off straight back the way he came.

With a whole potato in his belly, he finally felt full. His legs no longer trembled when he walked, his back was straight, and he strode purposefully, moving through In the Forest.

"So far, I haven’t heard any howling. Based on my last encounter, this pack uses howls to communicate. It seems they probably haven’t found the traps I set yet."

As he traveled, he was already replaying the potential fight in his mind.

He had originally thought the wolf pack only had one alpha. As long as he took it out, the pack would be leaderless, losing all cohesion and tactical intelligence.

But after searching for information about wild wolf packs in his newly redeemed animal knowledge, he discovered that a pack could actually have two alphas.

An alpha male and an alpha female, each responsible for different tasks.

If he killed the alpha male, he wasn’t sure if the pack would still follow the alpha female’s lead. But pack hunting wasn’t the female’s responsibility, so she probably had no experience leading the group in a hunt.

’I have nineteen arrows left in my quiver. As long as I secure an advantageous position first, this pack will have a hard time posing any real threat to me.’