Gourmet: From a Stall in Northern Europe

"Pineapple barbecue?"

Alex and Joshua suddenly understood, "Is it like the Brasil grilled pineapple? That tastes pretty good."

"You could say that, but no cinnamon powder."

Talking about grilled pineapple, Chu Yueyue couldn’t restrain herself from swallowing, the sound especially clear in the silent night.

Luckily, everyone was starving, so no one joked about it, and the pace quickened.

With seven people, theoretically, a small deer would be enough, and they might not even finish it, but with Lin Chen, the Head Chef, it can’t be that simple; wild boar and deer meat must be scheduled.

"There’s a pond nearby, shall we go there to clean up?"

"Sure sure!" Maurice turned his flashlight around, leading the way, "There are some fish and shrimp in the pond, I usually fish for fun, and the useless guts can be thrown in as feed."

"They might have to go hungry tonight."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"In the hands of our Great Xia chefs, there’s no such thing as useless guts, unless they’re toxic and can’t be eaten."

"... Haha."

Maurice was momentarily clueless about how to react, so he gave a fake laugh, unintentionally glimpsing Alex and Joshua, only to see deep anticipation on their faces.

These two old fellows want to eat guts too??

The silent Lin Chen suddenly spoke up: "You should be glad there are no Sakura chefs around."

"Huh? Why?"

This time it sparked the hunters’ curiosity.

"In Sakura Country, there’s a trend of eating unconventional and organ sashimi; common ones include raw chicken gizzard, raw chicken heart, raw chicken meat, and advanced ones are raw horse meat, raw horse liver, cow liver, raw horse heart, cow heart, etc., with the nastiest being raw pork intestine sashimi."

As soon as Lin finished speaking, the place fell into a dead silence.

Even hunters with decades of experience found themselves at a loss for words.

"Heavy taste, aren’t they afraid they’ll die?"

"Afraid, of course, they’re afraid, so these sashimi sources are strictly controlled; they must be from livestock cultivated in a special sterile environment, wild ones won’t do."

"Phew... That’s good."

"Though they can’t eat it raw, it doesn’t mean they like their barbecue fully cooked; you know grilled bird, usually it’s three-fifths cooked, deer meat is fine, but think about three-fifths cooked wild boar."

"Stop, stop, let’s not talk about Sakura Country’s stuff, okay? Isn’t your Great Xia the oldest culinary nation? Why not talk about what dishes are coming next?"

"..."

"Forget it, let’s just honestly wait to eat, even if you told us, we’d probably have no idea."

Remembering the Great Xia fast food from lunch, the gloom in their hearts was instantly dispelled, replaced by a clearer hunger.

If it’s that level of meals, don’t even ask, just bury your face and eat!

"How do Great Xia People handle the wild game?"

"Boil water to remove fur, gut them."

"Turns out the methods are similar worldwide."

"So the question is, where do we get hot water, or do we need to start a fire first?"

"I brought charcoal and a torch." Lin pointed to the backpack, "But the deer and wild boar are too big, there’s no container to hold them, we’ll need to dismember and remove hair first."

"It’s simple, leave it to us."

"I’m not bragging, but in my life, I haven’t slaughtered a thousand wild boars but at least five hundred, I can handle them cleanly with my eyes closed!"

Forty-something minutes later.

When John joined the group with several large bags, the bags on the ground were already filled with various processed meat pieces, and next to them, the grass was piled with many leftover white bones with meat strands.

Lin Chen took the bags, swiftly processing the needed materials, while Joshua and Alex had already started the fire together, and Maurice also fetched the grill and other cooking utensils from the car.

After marinating for half an hour, two deer legs began roasting over the campfire, soon dripping golden oil, falling into the fire with a tempting ’sizzle’.

Picking out some charcoal pieces from the campfire and tossing them into the grill, laying on the grill net, setting up a small milk pot, pouring in adequate water and a piece of hot pot base, then throwing in the blood membrane-removed pig brain and deer brain to stew.

Seeing those two bloody brain flowers, all the foreigners present shivered involuntarily, and even John, who had tasted them before, was no exception.

The cut pieces of meat were skewered with the side dishes and placed directly on the grill to be smoked and roasted.

Unlike domestic pork, wild boar meat is leaner, and to make it tender, apart from marination, you have to choose the right part.

In just two or three minutes, Lin Chen grabbed a bunch of thinly sliced meat skewers from the heat, sprinkled them with cumin powder and chili flakes, and the rich aroma instantly burst out.

"Here, two skewers for each person, no more than that."

"This is..."

Alex and Joshua took the meat skewers, smelled them first, then looked up in surprise: "Wild boar meat? What part, the tenderloin?"

"Yes, thinly sliced tenderloin."

They both watched Lin Chen’s marination process earlier, so they didn’t ask much, but they were extremely curious about the taste of the meat treated with such a magical marination method and couldn’t wait to stuff the skewers into their mouths.

"?!"

The texture was completely different from the imagined grilled wild boar meat, with not the slightest bit of toughness or chewiness, even so tender that no effort was needed, just a gentle bite would tear the meat apart easily.

The meat itself was fresh and juicy, with a perfect level of savory taste, and the cumin granules on the surface burst one by one as they chewed, filling the mouth with a unique fragrance.

They never thought wild boar meat could taste so good as barbecue, no, wait, not just wild boar meat, even ordinary pork, beef, or chicken leg meat hadn’t been this tender when grilled.

Is that magical marination method so amazing??

Unknowingly, after consuming two skewers of tenderloin each, everyone’s eyes lit up completely, shining like searchlights, and they were tightly fixed on the next batch of meat skewers sizzling with oil on the grill.

"This is venison tenderloin, I’ve never had it grilled before, so I can’t guarantee the taste."

Lin Chen picked up a bunch of even redder tenderloin meat and placed it on the iron plate, keeping one skewer for himself.

He wasn’t particularly hungry; generally speaking, people who cook tend to feel fuller than those waiting to eat. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but right now he didn’t have much appetite, just wanted a taste to know what it was like.

The marinated venison tenderloin also looked very tender, with a glossy surface still dripping juice, some spots even bubbling lightly under the residual heat.

Compared to wild boar meat, venison appears much more frequently in Western restaurants, with more than 80% of mid-to-high-end restaurants considering it as one of the main dish ingredients.

Venison is nutritious and has an excellent texture, with juiciness comparable to beef, some parts even tenderer than beef, and lower fat content, making it a truly high-protein meat that fully meets guests’ demands for healthy dining.

Lin Chen didn’t have time to savor it carefully; after devouring the whole skewer, he tossed the bamboo stick into the trash bag and continued turning the ingredients on the grill with both hands.

The venison found in restaurants is all specially bred, with almost no gamey smell of its own, and this wild fawn had no gamey smell either, possibly because it was still young.

"It’s delicious, much tastier than wild boar meat!"

Several foreigners nodded, evidently very satisfied with the taste of the venison skewers.

If the wild boar tenderloin skewers had a slightly chewy kind of smooth and tender texture, then the venison tenderloin skewers were purely soft, tender, and juicy, to the point where each bite burst with juice, even with a hint of sweetness in the meat juices.

Unlike pork, venison doesn’t need to be cooked well-done and can be prepared to different degrees of doneness, similar to steak, based on diners’ preferences.

At this time, Lin Chen was grilling it to medium-rare, with the center still a faint pink, but given the marinade and chili powder, it was hard to tell. One could only judge that the venison wasn’t fully cooked by the slightly sweet and gamey taste remaining in the meat juice.

If you’re not particularly sensitive to taste, it’s hard to pick up on that slight sweet taste of blood, which had long been thoroughly covered by the flavors of cumin, chili powder, and marinade.

After several skewers of tenderloin went down, everyone’s taste buds were fully activated, and the sense of hunger was stronger than ever.

They hadn’t eaten dinner, plus they’d been hiking and climbing in the outdoors for two or three hours, and then dragging a two-hundred-pound wild boar and a hundred-pound fawn, so they were starving and felt like they could eat an entire cow.

Even Chu Yueyue, who usually didn’t have a big appetite, was now staring wide-eyed and eagerly swallowing her saliva as she watched the skewers being flipped over on the grill, occasionally turning to the venison leg being turned by Joshua and sizzling with oil.

"Mr. Alex, do you know how to grill?"

"Yes, of course, grilling is one of the essential survival skills for a Hunter!"

"Then could you please help watch these skewers, just flip them as frequently as I did earlier, so I can free up my hands to make other dishes."

Lin Chen made room, grabbed a frying pan from the ground, and Alex eagerly stepped up to the grill, imitating his movements and flipping the skewers one by one.

The skills of grilling are universal, with the only difference being in the methods of handling the meat.

Having grilled for over thirty years, Alex felt more excited than ever, and he couldn’t wait to taste what different forms of grilled skewers would exhibit in terms of flavor.

His eyes quickly scanned the grill, spotting several skewers of obvious venison mixed with sections of white scallions, gradually emitting a faint sweet aroma under the charcoal fire.

Next to them lay the pineapple grilled meat they were most curious about, apparently paired with wild boar meat; one lean, one fatty, and one pineapple, each bamboo skewer neatly strung with six dice-sized cubes, already grilled to a brown-yellow, just looking at it gave the impression that it was definitely delicious.