Chapter 18 – Food
The skin of the cassava is not difficult to scrape off, but because the stone knife is too crude and rough, there is no way to cut the cassava. Luo Zhen was able to prepare the cassava after a long time. The cuts were of different sizes and there were several discarded skins put into water and set aside for soaking.
However, just such a simple treatment cost all the stone knives in the house.
The stone knives mentioned by Luo Zhen are not in the shape of the knives he is familiar with, but are made of a sharp surface formed by the fracture of some stones. It is very blunt when used to cut things, and it is easy to drop the stone knife which makes it inconvenient to use.
Creating a suitable weapon has become one of Luo Zhen’s most wanted things. In addition to using it to handle food daily, at least there is a chance to counterattack when encountering danger.
And the best material Luo Zhen can think of is animal bones.
That’s right, Luo Zhen took a fancy to the bones of the fierce beast that attacked them.
The food distributed in the tribe must be collected in the square by yourself. Of course, people who are familiar with the steps can also help to cut it. The food distributed to Luo Zhen a few days ago was sent by Jiao Zhu, but for today’s food distribution, Luo Zhen decides to get them himself.
There were a lot of people in the square and because Jiao Zhu had the biggest share in hunting the beast, the task of distributing the meat naturally fell on him.
“You are here, this is for you and Lu Zhan.” Jiao Zhu handed over to Luo Zhen the share that he had set aside early. There were not many pieces of meat but it was a fist size bigger than the shares of the others.
“Thank you.” Luo Zhen took it and thanked him, but his eyes fell on the pile of internal organs and bones randomly placed on the side.
Except for the heart, almost no other internal organs have been moved. The bones have been removed very cleanly. The meat pieces on it have also been washed with water, a shame since it can be used to make minced broth.
“Can I have the bone in that kidney?” Luo Zhen only felt that it would be too wasteful to throw away those things, but he also knew who they were throwing these things to so he didn’t dare to ask for too much. He had a follow-up sentence saying, “I can trade this piece of meat.”
Jiao Zhu doesn’t want Luo Zhen to use meat for these unnecessary things, but he can’t make the decision without authorization, “Wait a minute, I’ll help you ask the leader.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Well, I’ll have to trouble you.” Luo Zhen stepped aside to let the people behind continue to come up to get their meat, while he stood aside and waited for Jiao Zhu to tell him their answer.
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Luo Zhen didn’t have much experience in choosing bones. Finally, he chose a bone that was almost as long as an arm, and he went back with a kidney. Before leaving, he even told Jiao Zhu to take A-Shui and Hei Ya to his house to eat at night because he promised to make them bird eggs.
Among the wild fruits picked by Luo Zhen this time, there is a kind of wild fruit with a little salty taste. Although it is very light, it can barely be used in place of salt. It is a pity that there are not many of this kind of wild fruit, and it is also distributed to Luo Zhen so there are only a handful left.
The cooking tool at home is only a stone pot, he washed and cut the meat pieces and added water to the stone pot to make stew first. When the stew was almost done, he added some wild vegetables and the salty wild fruits. It can barely be regarded as a vegetable broth.
There was still some time before the evening, and Luo Zhen intended to deal with the embryonic form of the bone knife first.
The bones of the fierce beast were harder than he had imagined. It was a very laborious task to break it open. When Luo Zhen finally divided the bones into two pieces, Jiao Zhu and the others had already arrived.
“What are you doing?” Hei Ya handed a small packet of green pears to Luo Zhen and asked him curiously when he saw a pile of gravel on the ground.
A-Shui was very interested in the two cuckoos so he immediately ran under the cedar tree to see the cuckoos, which caused a rush of bird calls.
Luo Zhen shook his sore arm, took the fruits, and explained, “Thank you, I’m about to make a bone knife.”
“Bone knife?”
“A knife made of bones?” Hei Ya picked up the two pieces of bones that were divided in half and looked at it up and down. The cut of the bones was not smooth, there was even a little hole, and the bone marrow in the middle hadn’t been disposed of yet. Hei Ya couldn’t imagine how he could make bone knives with such bones. If Luo Zhen said it would be used as a stick, he would understand it.
“Well, you won’t see anything yet, you’ll understand when it’s done.” Luo Zhen took a clean leaf and used a stone knife to clean the marrow from the bone, and then set it aside for later use. Luo Zhen originally wanted to soak it to dispose of the meat residue on it, but the only large-capacity furniture in the house was the big wooden stake that Lu Zhan got back to fill the water, so he had no choice but to give up.
“What do you plan to do with those bird eggs?” Compared to the bone knives that were not yet done, Jiao Zhu is obviously more interested in eating. In the eyes of the beastmen warriors, no matter if it were stone knives or bone knives, they naturally don’t have a need for them. Their claws are already very sharp.
“I plan to make custard and hard-boiled eggs.” Luo Zhen returned to the tent and took out a husk that had been prepared a long time ago. The husk is a bit like the inner shell of a coconut- it is very hard, but it is actually not resistant to burning.
After one time, even if it were basically scrapped, Luo Zhen still can’t see what these fruits were, but according to Lu Zhan, these fruits can only be picked in spring, and the shells were thrown by Lu Zhan after he ate them. At the back of the tent, Luo Zhen looked at a few of them that were still clean, so he picked them up and cleaned them as containers for use.
Seeing that Luo Zhen started to cook, even A-Shui, who was teasing the cuckoo bird, ran back to watch with short legs. The boiled eggs were very simple to make. He just filled the shell with water, put the bird’s egg in it, and put it in the fire pond- they just needed to wait for the water to boil.
Before making the custard, Luo Zhen first fried a small piece of fat meat in a stone slate to get a little oil. The fried meat residue was very fragrant, and even Lu Zhan, who was sleeping in the house, was awakened by the smell.
Luo Zhen looked at the small piece of fat on the stone slab and his saliva was almost flowing out. He felt a little helpless. He pulled the wood under the stone slab to dissipate heat, so as not to boil it out. The oil was squeezed out, so he then stepped forward to help Lu Zhan sit next to him, complaining a little bit in his mouth, “Didn’t I tell you not to get up? How can your wound heal like this?”
“What are you cooking?” Lu Zhan started talking, and wanted to reach out and pick up the oil residue on the slate.
Luo Zhen quickly patted the back of his hand. Lu Zhan retracted his hand aggrievedly and looked at Luo Zhen. Even though the other party did not speak, strangely, Luo Zhen still read out that the other party wanted to eat.
Luo Zhen’s mouth twitched at the corners and he cut the oily residue into quarters, divided a little for each of them, and then filled a little oil into the remaining shells- he opened the other bird eggs and poured the contents. He added a few salty fruits, filled more than half of the shell with water, then used a wooden stick to stir evenly. He put it on the fire and cooked.
A simple version of the custard is completed in this way.
This very crude version of a custard also attracted the surprise of those that were watching.
As soon as Luo Zhen put the husk on the fire, the little oil residue was stuffed in his mouth. The oil residue was a little dry after being fried, and at the beginning he was unskilled and didn’t handle the heat well, so it smelled a bit burnt, but he hadn’t tasted it for a long time so for Luo Zhen, who is used to fried food, this is already a rare delicacy he has eaten here.
“Is it delicious?” Lu Zhan licked the oily foam on his fingers, and looked at the expression on Luo Zhen’s face with a smile in his voice.
Luo Zhen found out that Lu Zhan actually stuffed the oil residue into his mouth, and it was also fortunate that the other party was willing to divide the oil residue into half for himself.
Lu Zhan watched Luo Zhen look at him, touched a bit of the slate with his hands, and said, “Make some more.”
“There is no fat anymore.” Luo Zhen relentlessly rejected the other party. Even if the oily residue smells good, eating too much is not good. Luo Zhen is even more afraid of the strong intestines of these primitive people who are used to eating cold raw meat. He couldn’t adapt to it all of a sudden, even if he wanted to add a little more to their recipes, Luo Zhen planned to take his time.
“Do you need meat? I’ll go back and get some more.” The three people came here after eating at home. Originally, they only planned to eat a bird’s egg. But if they ate Luo Zhen’s meat then they should go back and get some. Jiao Zhu was already preparing to stand.
Luo Zhen hurriedly stopped the other party, “No, the meat that I brought back is being stewed, and it’s almost ready to eat now.”
Luo Zhen instructed them to clean out the husks used to soak the cassava, he each filled a vegetable broth with the previous husks so they were already used, and then he steamed the cassava in a stone pot.
Jiao Zhu took the initiative to take over the task of cutting the kidneys, and A-Shui was also arranged to clean the wild vegetables. Because there was not much oil left, the green vegetables and the kidneys were mixed and fried. Finally, the steamed cassava was also stir-fried. One-third of the salted fruits is used for one meal.
When everything was done and Luo Zhen said that they could start eating, even the injured Lu Zhan seemed a little impatient.
“Unexpectedly, these foods could be cooked like this.” Jiao Zhu twisted a piece of kidney with his hands, put it in his mouth, and chewed twice before swallowing. Although the taste was not like that of roasted meat, it was more delicious than boiled meat, which made him feel very novel.
Luo Zhen was teaching A-Shui how to peel the eggshell and forbid him to eat the eggshell together. He replied, “If you find seasonings in the future, it will taste better.”
“What is seasonings?”
“Various weeds that can add taste to food like rock salt.” Luo Zhen explained it in words they could understand.
“Next time I will help you find some.” Hei Ya was eating the fried cassava, which he personally liked very much. He never knew that the root of this plant could be eaten. If he could find more, It can relieve the usual pressure of Jiao Zhu.
“Well, then I will trouble you.” Luo Zhen is very happy to have someone help him. He wants to live a better life here, but he can’t do it alone.
Now I’m hungry for some egg custard..