Chapter 106 The Wild Chinese Cuisine (1/2)

Chapter 106: The Wild Chinese Cuisine

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The neck of the pheasant twisted off. Ah Meow immediately began dragging the bird with him. It took the pheasant to Mr. Li, joyfully looking for the reward.

The pheasant had grown beautifully with its red crown and blue neck. There were mixed colors of feathers on its body: yellow, dark and light brown, and purple. Its body was dotted with various spots and it had a long, brown-yellow tail.

Hans saw it and laughed, ”We are lucky. We have grilled chicken for our lunch later. This is a rainbow-colored pheasant. The flavor of the wild meat is very delicious.”

Li Du threw the pheasant into the bag with the shoots and said, ”I am not going to grill it. I will cook you all stewed pheasant with bamboo shoots. Ah Meow, you did a great job! I will give you the drumstick later.”

”Meow meow!” Ah Meow pushed its head in front of Li Du’s hand and wanted him to pat on its head before it was willing to leave.

The five people dug the bamboo shoots together. They were able to dig a lot up within an hour.

Although there were many of them working together, Li Du was the only one doing any real work. Hans took advantage of this opportunity to flirt Natalie. Stephen and Hannah were snuggling up together.

They dug until the afternoon. Then they found a mountain spring and decided to camp here.

Li Du poured out the full bag of wild bamboo shoots and the pheasant. He asked, ”How much did you all manage to dig?”

Hannah’s bag was only half full. Stephen’s bag was empty.

”You didn’t get even one?” Li Du asked with a gloomy face.

Hans teased and said, ”Well, my bag is filled with spices, pots, and lunch boxes. I’m worried that the bamboo shoots would press down on them. That's why. Haha.”

Looking at Natalie's flushed face, and how she was gasping angrily, Li Du knew that Hans was just making an excuse.

But Hans realized he should offer to help now, so he took over the work of peeling the bamboo shoots. Stephen helped to clean the pheasant while Hans peeled the bamboo shoots obediently.

Li Du looked at the stream. There were some small fishes swimming joyfully, indicating that the river water was very clean; they could directly use the water for cooking.

Stephen said, ”The source of the river is not far away—a little pond—and the water quality is good. I came here very often to fish with Hannah and friends when I was in high school.”

Li Du walked up along the streams and he saw a small pond. A few people were fishing there.

Stephen also went to have a look after cleaning the pheasant and returned with two common American river pikes.

”I caught two fish with chicken intestines and organs. We are so lucky. We can make grilled fish,” he smiled happily.

Li Du nodded and said, ”These pikes look good. You clean them and I will stew the chicken.”

He asked Hans to bring a small pressure-cooker. There was a lot of firewood on the mountain. They put some timber together so they could set up a fire easily.

Li Du cut the pheasant into pieces and stewed it. He had bought fennel, star anise, dried tangerine peel, pepper, onion, ginger, and also garlic from the Chinese supermarket.

Howevers this was a pure, wild pheasant with fresh bamboo shoots; the stew did not require a lot of spices. Otherwise, the spices would affect the delicious pheasant and the bamboo shoot’s fragrance.

Hans finished peeling bamboo shoots so he came over. He asked, ”Besides soup, what else we can eat? We cannot grill the food here and eat, right?”

Li Du smiled and asked, ”Why not?”

He took out the prepared aluminum foil and sprinkled some olive oil on it. Then he put the bamboo shoots into it. He baked it on the grill after he wrapped it well.

After he finished preparing the dish, he took out a package of bacon from the bag. He cut the bamboo shoots into thin strips, wrapped them with bacon, and placed them on the same grill.