Chapter 1079, Doesn’t Taste Good

Translator: Silavin

 

Yu Ying watched the crayfish braising in the iron pot. She thought for a good while. “Is it to make them taste better?”

 

“That doesn’t seem right. I don’t think alcohol tastes very good to begin with. Would cooking it make things better?” Yan Hua pursed her lips, unconvinced.

 

Yan Hua did not care for wheat wine. She always found the taste bitter and astringent. If she were going to drink at all, she probably preferred grape wine.

 

“If that’s not it, I can’t think of another reason.” Sha Lan tapped her chin with one finger.

 

“Making the flavour richer is part of it, and that’s not wrong. But the main reason is to kill off the bacteria.” Su Bai explained, perfectly serious. “Crayfish live in rivers, so they tend to carry some bacteria. Alcohol is good for killing bacteria. So, it removes the fishy smell and any bacteria at the same time, and makes the dish taste better.”

 

“I see. When the Shaman says bacteria, he means there are tiny living things inside that can make us sick. Like the water we used to drink before we boiled it. That had bacteria in it too.” Yu Ying said immediately.

 

“Exactly.” Su Bai flicked the tip of Yu Ying’s little nose.

 

“I remember it.” Yu Ying blinked without thinking.

 

“I just want to eat the crayfish already.” Yan Hua was already pacing on the spot, impatient.

 

Sha Lan breathed in deeply, nose tilted toward the iron pot, looking as though she were about to be fully carried away by the smell.

 

Su Bai wasted no more words. He picked up the spatula, gave the crayfish a final toss, and tipped them into a large wooden vessel.

 

He laughed and called out cheerfully, “Right. Everyone get your bowls and chopsticks and then try some.”

 

“Yes!” The girls answered in unison.

 

Everyone gathered around the dining table at once. Every pair of eyes went straight to the basin of crayfish and stayed there.

 

“I won’t hold back then.” Yan Hua immediately reached in and started gnawing on one.

 

The next moment she spat it back out, brow pulled into a tight knot.

 

“How do I say it? It’s so strange. The flavour is good, but chewing it is very disgusting. Can we actually eat this?” Yan Hua’s teeth were aching.

 

Yan Hua thought the flavour was excellent, which was simply the seasoning coating the outside of the shell. But chewing was extremely uncomfortable, because she had not removed the shell when she ate. She had bitten through meat and shell together. Of course it was unpleasant.

 

“Ah’Hua, you should wait for the Shaman to eat first. That was very rude of you.” Sha Lan said quickly, keeping her voice low.

 

When they ate together, they had always waited for Su Bai to pick up his chopsticks before anyone else dared to eat. That was simply how it was. No other Tribe could eat alongside their Shaman the way the Flame Dragon Tribe did.

 

In a way, the Flame Dragon Tribe was the first to dare do such a thing.

 

Since they were allowed to eat together with the Shaman, the least they could do was wait for him to start.

 

“Sorry. The smell was just so wonderful that I… that I lost myself for a moment.” Yan Hua lowered her head at once.

 

She had mentally struck herself eight hundred times already. She had been far too impulsive and had forgotten her manners.

 

“It’s fine, it doesn’t matter. Anyone can eat whenever they like. But the way you were eating just now was completely wrong.” Su Bai wagged a finger.

 

He had noticed when Yan Hua reached in, and had been about to stop her, but she had already put it in her mouth and bitten down.

 

“Ah? I was eating it wrong? Shaman, show us how to eat them properly!” Yan Hua was already drooling from the flavour she had caught.

 

The other two were not much better off. They had been quietly swallowing the whole time.

 

The basin of crayfish sat steaming, fragrance steadily rising, drifting right into everyone’s face.

 

“First you need to take the shell off. Step one is to remove the head. Step two is to strip off the shell on the body.” Su Bai talked as he worked, and soon a whole piece of crayfish meat lay revealed. “See. That’s how you get the meat out. Dip it in the sauce and it’s ready to eat.”

 

He sent the shelled crayfish straight into his mouth. He wanted to know whether crayfish from the primitive era tasted the same as the ones back on Earth.

 

And the meat left once the shell was removed was nearly half a palm in size. If the taste was truly the same, eating these was going to be extremely satisfying.

 

Sha Lan had been about to stop him a moment earlier. The reason was simple. This was meat from a species none of them had seen before. They did not know if it was poisonous.

 

Sha Lan had wanted to try it herself first, and only let the Shaman eat after confirming it was safe.

 

Su Bai naturally refused. The reason was simple, he had Danger Foresight now.

 

From the moment he reached for a crayfish to the moment he chewed and swallowed, the Danger Foresight had not triggered once. That made it perfectly clear, that the crayfish were completely safe to eat.

 

“En. Delicious. Taste like back then.” Su Bai was deeply satisfied.

 

He had half expected the crayfish here to taste somewhat different, perhaps more fishy than he was used to. But they were surprisingly good. Even better than the ones back in the modern era, in fact. These were far sweeter and much fresher.

 

“Really?” Yan Hua had been watching with intense focus. The moment she saw Su Bai’s expression, she could wait no longer, and started peeling her own crayfish.

 

Sha Lan and Yu Ying were the same. Both of them followed along and began peeling properly.

 

They were a little slow at first, but they all managed to get the meat out in the end.

 

“The taste is so strange. It’s nothing like anything I’ve had before but I love it.” Yan Hua’s red eyes lit up immediately.

 

As Warrior Trainees, they had eaten a fair variety of meats over the years. But Ferocious Beast Meat all tended to taste rather similar to one another, and none of it quite compared to sea food.

 

“The Shaman was not lying. Crayfish really are delicious.” Yu Ying was already hurrying to peel a second one.

 

“So much chew to it. The meat is red, but the taste is wonderful.” Sha Lan shook her cat tail excitedly.

 

She had expected the meat to be ordinary. She had also never seen cooked meat remain red like this before. Ferocious Beast Meat, no matter how vivid red it was when raw, always changed colour once it was cooked.

 

“Xiao Yu, go and cook a bowl of noodles. I’ll show you all a new way to eat this. Just blanch the noodles in boiling water. No seasoning needed.” Su Bai said, with the faintest curl at the corner of his mouth.

 

“Okay.” Yu Ying asked nothing further and went straight to the kitchen.

 

Yu Ying busied herself in the kitchen for a while and came back with a bowl of very plain noodles in clear broth.

 

Su Bai lifted the noodles out of the broth, placed the crayfish meat he had shelled on top, then ladled a generous scoop of the braising liquid from the crayfish over everything.

 

He mixed it all together and said, “Here. Everyone should try it. This is called crayfish noodles.”

 

He had eaten plenty of this back in the modern era. Every time he ordered crayfish, this was how he ate them.