Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 451: Chapter 285: The Headache-Inducing Eggplant

The video had only been online for a few minutes, but dozens of red notification dots had already appeared on his dashboard.

Before he could even finish reading the private messages, the number of unread messages hadn’t decreased. Instead, it had exploded to over a hundred and was still climbing at a steady pace.

"This isn’t working. There’s no way I can read them all. It looks like we’ll have to do a giveaway."

"A giveaway is so boring. It’s too random. What if the person we pick isn’t a good fit in some way?"

"Then what do you suggest? We can’t seriously go through them one by one and screen them ourselves. I bet we’ll have at least a thousand messages by then. Just reading and keeping track will take days."

Erica pinched her chin, thinking for a moment, then her eyes lit up. "What if we have the fans leave a comment directly on the video, and after three days, whoever has the most likes gets invited for a free experience?"

"A contest for likes?"

Hearing the idea, Lin Chen was stunned and said doubtfully.

"Will that really work? No one likes normal comments. Only the really weird ones get likes from people online."

"Isn’t that perfect? Someone who can get people to like their comment is bound to bring in some traffic, which is better than inviting some unknown, ordinary person. Then we can just post our communication process online to prove we aren’t rigging it. Besides, people will probably be curious to see what the experience is like for the person with the most-liked comment, right?"

"That does make some sense. But is one person too few? We’re just doing an outdoor survival experience, not a true wilderness survival challenge. For someone without any knowledge in this area, it might be a better experience to be part of a team."

"But they’ll have the two of us, won’t they? We can’t just leave them to fend for themselves."

"Alright, let’s try it that way for now."

The two of them immediately recorded a follow-up video and posted it online.

Such a unique selection process immediately attracted enthusiastic participation from their many fans. Anyone following him would definitely have some interest in wilderness survival.

Even if they only watched shows, they would have picked up some amount of outdoor survival knowledge. They wouldn’t be complete novices.

Plus, with the two of them watching over things, they could minimize any negative aspects of the experience.

It was a recreational activity, after all. If they made a guest who had traveled all this way suffer, they might not come back next time.

An hour after the video was uploaded, the comment section below already had over six hundred comments.

The vast majority of them only had one or two likes. Occasionally, you’d see a few with five, six, seven, or eight likes, but comments with more than ten were rare.

They focused on the comments with more likes, but there was nothing special about them. They figured these were the types who had mobilized their entire social network, calling on friends and family to help them get likes.

In any case, the deadline was three days away, so there was no point in looking now.

"So what are we doing next?"

"What else? Back to the market to figure out what content to film today!"

「By the time Lin Chen returned to the market, it was already afternoon.」

The moment his figure appeared at the market entrance, the lady running the fruit stall near the gate cried out excitedly, as if she’d seen a celebrity.

"Lin! You’re finally here! Do you have any idea how hard the last two days have been without you?"

"Fruit Sister, stop being so dramatic. You’re over thirty this year. You got through the thirty-some years before me just fine, didn’t you?"

In just a few short days, Lin Chen, with his ’magical’ cooking skills, had become completely familiar with the people here, even reaching the point where they could casually joke around.

"That’s different! Hey, it was only after you showed up that I realized cooking is such an amazing skill. After tasting your food, I feel like the rest of us don’t know how to cook at all!"

"That’s true," Erica agreed with a nod. "Before he took me to a Great Xia restaurant for stir-fry, hot pot, and bread and desserts, I never thought there was anything wrong with what I usually ate. But ever since I experienced Daxia Cuisine, I’ve realized that what I used to eat at home was purely to fill my stomach, not to enjoy a meal."

"Hot pot? Bread and desserts?"

Fruit Sister keenly caught the keywords. Even though she had no idea what they were, she couldn’t help but swallow.

"Hey! Lin’s back!"

From the next stall over, Mr. Beef waved enthusiastically at him.

"Making something delicious today? I’ve wasted away these past two days you’ve been gone!"

"Oh, give me a break! I wonder who it was that ate two twenty-ounce beef patty burgers yesterday. How is an appetite like that any different from a pig’s?"

"I work from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon, tired as a dog! What’s wrong with eating a little extra protein? It’s not like I’ll get fat!"

Lin Chen shook his head, amused, and quietly slipped away between their two stalls, leaving them to bicker back and forth.

As he passed the vegetable stall, the woman running it was staring worriedly at several stacks of plastic crates.

Seeing Lin Chen pass by, her eyes lit up and she quickly waved him over. "Lin! You’re just in time! See if you can make something delicious with this?"

"Hm?"

’I could understand if a butcher shop or seafood stall had discarded scraps,’ he thought, ’but a vegetable stall... that shouldn’t happen, right?’

He went closer for a look and saw many deep purple, round, pomelo-sized eggplants arranged neatly inside black mesh plastic crates.

’Eggplants?’

The moment he saw them, a flash of realization crossed Lin Chen’s eyes.

’No wonder she’s worried. People here almost never eat these at home. Only some restaurants use eggplant as an ingredient, and even then, it’s not very common.’

’Restaurants have their own dedicated suppliers; they don’t buy from the market. This means basically no one wants these eggplants.’

"How did three crates of eggplants end up here?"

"I was wondering the same thing. I only found these three crates at the bottom after I finished sorting the delivery. I called about it, and they said they were a freebie. The farm couldn’t sell them either and isn’t planning on growing them anymore."

The woman’s wrinkled face was clouded with worry. "If you don’t want them, they’ll probably just sit here and rot. None of us know how to cook this stuff."

"I’ll take them! Of course, I’ll take them!" Lin Chen nodded without hesitation. "Eggplant is a great ingredient. You can make lots of delicious dishes with it." ’Looks like I’ve got my content for today’s shoot.’

He had already decided on the theme for his series of updates from the market: ingredients that people don’t normally use in their daily lives.

Once the episode on chicken skins was released, the view count exploded. Almost everyone was in the comments, marveling that chicken and fish skins—things that usually belong in the trash—could be turned into such a popular delicacy.

Some resourceful home cooks even replicated it perfectly and got amazing results, leaving comments saying their kids were fighting over it and that it had become one of the family’s favorite snacks.

The spicy and numbing seasoning powder they bought from the Great Xia supermarket, in particular, had opened up a whole new world for them. It went with almost any pan-fried or roasted meat, completely replacing their old steak marinades.

It was precisely because of these positive comments that Lin Chen decided to continue the series. After all, making ordinary cooking videos was too boring; he had to find a unique angle to attract viewers.

He carried a few large eggplants back to his stall, then went to buy some green peppers and peeled garlic cloves, and finally bought a box of century eggs from the Chinese grocery store by the entrance.

He had just finished gathering all the ingredients when Magnus came looking for him.

"Eggplant?"

Seeing the plump, round, dark purple vegetables on the counter, he raised an eyebrow, his interest piqued.

"Magnus, do you guys not normally eat eggplant at home?"

"Almost never. When you chop it up and roast it, it gets all mushy and watery. If you boil it, it just dissolves in the soup. And eating it raw is weird, like eating a sponge. Hardly anyone likes it, and you rarely see it in supermarkets."

’Just as I thought. That matches my impression exactly.’

Even back when he was a student and working part-time jobs, over several years, he had only encountered eggplant two or three times.

"Would you believe me if I said I can make several different delicious dishes with eggplant?"

"I believe you, of course I do. I just want to see how you do it."

Lin Chen glanced at the ingredients on the counter, counted them on his fingers, then turned and shouted to the seafood stall behind him.

"Kardashian! I need five hundred grams of shrimp. You got any?"

"I do, of course I do! Never mind five hundred grams, I could get you five kilograms!"

Kardashian wasn’t the owner’s real name, but a nickname. It was mainly because her figure and general vibe were so similar that everyone started calling her that.

After a while, she even grew to dislike mentioning her real name, preferring that people use her nickname. It made her feel like the market’s female celebrity.

Kardashian cheerfully brought over a bag of black tiger shrimp, leaning curiously on the counter to peer at his setup.

"Eggplant?"

’Same reaction as Magnus.’

"That’s right. Get ready for something delicious. I’m planning to make five different dishes. I’ll pay you for the shrimp in a bit."

"No need for money, just give me a serving of each. I’ll probably be the one making out on this deal, hahaha~"

This place was right by the sea, so seafood was especially cheap. Five hundred grams of black tiger shrimp was about a pound. In the supermarket, frozen black tiger shrimp generally cost between 12 and 20 dollars, while fresh ones were over 25 dollars and considered a rarity, as you could seldom find them live.

For that price, you could buy two sandwiches at a roadside Subway, a few pieces of fried chicken, or a fast-food meal from a mall food court.

Exchanged for the price of five dishes, she was most likely getting the better deal.

Since she’d put it that way, Lin Chen didn’t insist. He nodded in agreement, then tied on his apron and began to prep the ingredients.

He tossed the fresh green peppers directly into an iron wok over high heat. Nothing else was needed—it was a pure dry roast.

He de-headed and shelled the black tiger shrimp, flattened the meat with the side of his knife, chopped it a few dozen times, and then repeatedly pounded it with the back of the blade.

"The back of a Daxia cleaver is very thick, specifically designed for pounding food. This process breaks down the shrimp and brings out its natural gelatin, making the meat smooth, springy, and sticky. Like this."

After pounding the shrimp into a paste, he lifted the cutting board and flipped it over. The thin layer of shrimp paste stuck firmly to the board, showing no sign of falling off.

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