Capítulo 22: Forest barbecue
With the meat from 4 beasts, Zhao Wei was set for at least a 2 weeks. The boar's meat alone could last him a week. For the Lizard's, their bodies were pretty lean Which made their meat quite tender but there was very little of it.
A good thing for Zhao Wei was that he had noticed that Panda didn't eat with him most of the time. Following the rabbit around, he noticed that it knew which plants he could eat in the forest. Even though they no longer looked the same, a lot of the plants still maintained the same flavors for their fruits. Even before the change, Zhao Wei was a particularly good cook.He was by no means talented, but he'd watched plenty of cooking shows and failed their recipes plenty of times before he got them right. He picked up a few herbs and fruits here and there but not too much as it was a belief of his to only take what he needed.
A few herbs that tasted like lime, thyme, rosemary and even a few mushrooms lined a small woven basket he made for himself, although they could probably be used as monster props in a movie now, Zhao Wei knew them by the taste and smell they gave off. On his hip, a section of a lizard's jaw could be seen as he had broken it off to turn into a small saw to cut off the herbs he needed, the branches alone were already too tough for his old knife.
Besides this, he'd cut off some rambutan branches and fruits. This particular fruit was actually locally grown in Indonesia even before the upheaval, looking like a red plum with hair like spines growing all over the fruit. Now however, it looked like a black spiked ball, if it was thrown by a baseball player it'd probably pierce metal plates if it didn't hurt their hands first.
Bringing it back, he began to prepare lunch for himself. From the boar it's belly had mostly been eaten by the lizards as well as most of it's limbs. But it's shoulders, ribs and cheek meat were thankfully left untouched.
Today he decided to just use the cheek, the meat was tender and easy, as he hadn't had any proper meals for some time it would ease his stomach into it as boar meat was already full of flavor on it's own. Taking some lime which now looked like hand grenades, he cracked them open with the tooth-knife and crushed the insides which gave out quite a lot of juice compared to it's size. Mixing it with water, he laid the choice meat inside to get rid of any residual blood.
Once the meat was nice and white like store bought pork, he broke open a few rambutan to see the sweet white flesh of the fruit inside. Taking them he laid them on the meat and let it rest easy to let the flavor sink in.
While he let the meat rest awhile, he took a mushroom and broke them up with his hands. These were button mushrooms, whose names are self explanatory but they were now the size of a fist, one was enough to fill the pan alone.
Taking some pork fat, he stuck it on a stick and put it into the fire. After a few seconds he pulled it out to handle the flaming pork fat which constantly dripped melted fat juice. The pan was brought close and he dripped the salty juices over the mushrooms to cook them nicely. A small crackle came out from the pan as the mushrooms began to turn a light shade of brown. Breaking a stalk of thyme he pulled some of the leaf of from the top into the pan and threw the rest of the stalk in.
The smell of mushrooms collided with the saltiness of the boar fat and the earthy aroma of thyme to mix into a ridiculous irresistible fragrance. Next Zhao Wei put a nail on the coffin as he took some of the left over lime and poured some of it's juice in, adding a little acidity and zest to balance the flavor.
Once this was done, the pork was ready to be cooked. Covering the pork with some shredded rambutan bark, he dug a small pit in the fire, throwing it in he shoveled some of the still burning coals on top of it.
Panda watched on in the sidelines as Zhao Wei went through his process, it wasn't beautiful by any means, but it seemed natural as if there was a lost person cooking in the forest usually everyday. The smell hit it like a ton of bricks, instantly making it gulp down it's one saliva imagining what it would taste like.
Taking up the pan with the mushroom, he set a few pieces aside in a separate plate and put in on the floor. Taking this obvious signal panda walked over.
It was against it's nature to eat something not from the trees themselves, but it's golden brown color and the smell pushed it's appetite too far. Coming in close it sniffed at the food, it's button nose twitching madly to figure out if it was safe to eat. As it's mouth came in to bite, it suddenly Jumped backwards.
Zhao Wei was bewildered at it's reaction until he realized something. "Oh sorry, I forgot to tell you that it's still hot.." as soon as the words came out of it's mouth he was embarrassed of apologizing to a rabbit, "Well it's your fault for being like a glutton, rushing to eat the food, maybe I was wrong, maybe you're not related to a panda, maybe you're related to a pig, better be careful, if you get too fat I might cook you like Bee Cheng Hiang." [1]
Panda may not have understood all he said, but it seemed to get the gist of it. It sent Zhao Wei a death glare, vowing to do something horrible to him in case the food wasn't delicious.
After the steam didn't come out as much, it reassembled it's courage and came close. In it's first bite a simple but strong flavor overflowed into it's mouth, The amalgam of the thick almost creamy coat with the tender flesh of the mushrooms almost made them drinkable.
It almost cursed the size of it's own mouth, as it had to nibble every bite in and couldn't just swallow the thing whole. It ate as if it had been meditating like a monk for two years who swore off food and just now had been served food by God himself.
Zhao Wei on the other hand, looking at the rabbit was quite surprised at it's appetite. He wanted to tease the rabbit a little, but seeing it enjoying the food he made, he was satisfied.
To anyone who cooked, there was no greater joy or compliment than seeing their food being enjoyed wholeheartedly.
A few minutes pass and Zhao Wei dug into the flame and took out what looked like a black ostrich egg. Panda was confused by the sight of it, but it saw that there was no disappointment in Zhao Wei's eyes and therefore decided to watch the show a little longer.
Using the blunt side of his tooth-knife, Zhao Wei split the black thing in two. Panda who came over to look saw how although the wood outside was burnt and black, there was a juicy piece of meat inside which was perfectly cooked through.
Zhao Wei kept one half for himself and lay the other half in front of panda. Beginning his meal, even he was surprised by the flavors that came out. The mushroom was as tender as tofu and yet held together like jelly, the flavors from the fat and thyme as well as the lime were balanced in an awe-inspiring way. It appeared that with their evolution, their other factors were greatly enhanced such as flavor and texture.
Going to the meat, once he poked it with his fork, it slid inside as if he was poking butter with a heated fork. The flesh almost melted in his tongue and the rambutan gave it a caramel like coating as if he had marinated it in sugar for several days, coating it's outer layer in a thick shiny brown shell.
Biting through it, he'd hear a crackle before his teeth broke into an almost gelatinous flesh. The meat was about the size of two basketballs, but both man and rabbit silently finished them in less than 10 minutes.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
bcrow
bcrow 1. Bee Cheng Hiang is roasted pork slices which are sort of like the Chinese version of jerky. They're quite sweet and if you guys ever have the chance you should try some. I personally could eat them for a meal myself
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