CHAPTER 193: CHAPTER 193: POTATO CHIPS

The snake meat, once cut, looked just like premium beef, with beautiful white fat marbling intertwined, making one drool.

As expected of a high-level magic beast, even the grain of the meat was different.

Eric involuntarily recalled the Fire Thunder Beast meat he had eaten before; it was both tender and fragrant.

It seemed the taste of this meat wouldn’t be bad either.

Understanding that Eric wanted to cut these pieces of meat into uniform sizes, Thomas kicked him out. He didn’t even need to use a cleaver; he just extended his sharp claws, and with a few swings, he cut out several large basins of square meat cubes.

Eric then told Kevin and the others to peel the corn and cut it into rounds, and also slice some meat thinly to roll inside cabbage leaves, then skewer them with bamboo sticks.

The sight of a group of muscular young men squatting on the ground skewering meat was truly a bit funny; even the Ox-Head tribe curiously sat down to join in. Soon, they had skewered quite a lot, and the colorful skewers were placed in basins.

The kitchen, which wasn’t small to begin with, felt a bit cramped after being occupied by these big guys.

Eric also creatively sandwiched garlic cloves between the pieces of meat. He remembered that when he ate barbecue before, he had eaten it like this; roasted garlic was quite fragrant.

There wasn’t much sauce left at home, so Eric brought it all with him when they set off. After all, the Ox-Head tribe had ingredients; if they liked it, Eric planned to use the sauce recipe to trade for a bit more food.

Of course, it would be best if Eric made more sauce himself; that way, using the finished sauce to trade with the Ox-Head tribe would be most reasonable.

But Eric really didn’t have many ingredients on hand. Next year, when there was more food, he could make more sauce, but it wasn’t as good as using it right now to solve the immediate urgency.

Although the tribe wouldn’t go hungry this year, Eric still wanted to try to exchange for as much food as possible. What couldn’t be eaten could be used as seeds; next year, they would plant as much as they could. Since the Snow Wolf people ate so much, stocking up on extra food was the most important thing.

Moreover, farming depended on the weather; not every year would be a bumper harvest, so the warehouse had to store enough food for at least one or two years.

Eric came from a country with a long-standing agricultural civilization; a history of several thousand years was enough for him to understand the importance of "storing grain against famine." After all, the Snow Wolf people had strength to spare; not using it to work would be a waste.

As for the sauce recipe, although trading it directly for food was a bit of a loss, fortunately, the thing Eric lacked least was this. In his head, there were countless ways to make delicious dishes; losing one or two recipes didn’t matter.

He put the sweet paste and soybean paste he brought along with other spices to make a barbecue sauce. Kevin, having tasted meat grilled with this sauce before, couldn’t help licking his lips upon seeing this.

"Kid Eric finally agreed to bring out the sauce; haven’t eaten it in so long, I’m dying of craving."

Thomas had just finished cutting the meat and intended to come over to get the sauce for grilling later. Passing by, he couldn’t help but slap the back of Kevin’s neck hard:

"You only know how to eat. Kid Eric said long ago that there isn’t much of this sauce left; he only brought it out because we have guests. You eat less later!"

Kevin tearfully followed the jar of sauce in Thomas’s hand with regretful eyes.

There were quite a few potatoes in the kitchen and in Balu’s bundle. Eric assigned all the peeling and slicing work to Max; he wasn’t good at this meticulous work, especially peeling. Eric had tried it; the potato would shrink by half after he finished peeling it.

Being born clumsy was something he had to accept.

When he was small, Eric imitated a movie, learning to peel an apple without breaking the skin. The result was ruining half a kilo of his grandmother’s apples.

At that time, fruit was very precious, exchanged for with grain. The whole family had to gnaw on apples for several days, unable to even eat rice. Grandma didn’t waste the peeled skins either; she washed them clean and boiled them with sugar water for Eric to drink.

From then on, Eric had a certain awareness of his level of clumsiness. As his age increased, he showed no signs of improvement; even darning a sock, he would make the hole bigger than others did.

Max carried a sack of potatoes, went to the side, and quickly peeled them. His sharp claws swung in the air, creating afterimages, and thin potato slices piled up in the wooden basin.

Eric picked up a slice in surprise. This potato slice was cut so thin that, let alone for grilling, even making potato chips would be no problem!

An idea flashed; since there were potatoes, he could make potato chips to eat. These were completely natural homemade potato chips with no additives!

He hurriedly carried two more large sacks of potatoes over to Max, looking at him with shining eyes.

Although he didn’t know why Eric wanted to slice so many potatoes, could it be because he thought the Ox-Head tribe ate more vegetables?

Confused in his heart, Max still diligently peeled and sliced both sacks of potatoes.

The sauce Eric brought wasn’t enough for so many people. He found the spices prepared by the Ox-Head tribe, used a stone to crush them vigorously into fine powder, mixed them according to ratio, and made two types of dry rub: spicy and non-spicy.

The only regret was that there was no five-spice powder. If there was a chance, he definitely had to find it or something to replace it; otherwise, making barbecue always felt like something was missing.

The pumpkin had been steaming for about half an hour; Eric moved the steamer aside. At the same time, the pot of mung beans was soft and cooked.

He asked Kiet to pour out the hot water in the pot, then poured the steamed mung beans into a large wooden basin, quickly using a pestle to mash them smooth while hot. Then, he added sugar and mixed well; the sweet and fragrant smell of mung beans immediately spread throughout the kitchen.

Max had already filled two large basins with potato slices nearby. Eric heated the oil in the iron pot and poured a whole basin of potato slices in to fry.

While waiting for the potatoes to cook, Eric didn’t rest his hands. He took out the prepared glutinous rice dough, skillfully pinched off small pieces, flattened them in his palm, scooped a spoon of sweet mung bean filling into the center, and rolled them into balls.

Half of the cakes he placed in the steamer to make sticky rice cakes, and the other half he set aside, waiting to finish frying the potatoes to put them into the hot oil pan to make fried cakes.

The smell of cooking oil blended with the fragrant aroma of fried potatoes filled the nose. Unknowingly, the people skewering meat held their skewers or pieces of meat and approached, looking into the pot, their eyes unable to hide their craving.

The Snow Wolf people were fine; after all, Eric always liked making fried food. The communal kitchen now also grasped the essence, frequently making dishes like fried fish balls and fried shrimp balls, so everyone had some resistance.

The Ox-Head tribe was different. their cooking techniques were either boiling or roasting; at most, they knew how to pan-fry lightly. This was their first time seeing deep-frying like this. The strong aroma assaulted their noses, and the Ox-Head people couldn’t help but move a little closer to the pot.

Eric hurriedly waved the spatula, telling them to back off; this was boiling oil:

"You guys step back a bit, it’s very dangerous, be careful of getting burned."

Tu coughed lightly twice and stepped back a little.

Kiet, on the other side, stared unblinkingly at the potato slices in the pot; by now, the potatoes had started to turn golden and crisp. He couldn’t resist; while Eric looked away, he secretly took a slice and stuffed it into his mouth as fast as the wind.

A "crunch" sound rang out. Eric looked in horror towards the sound, seeing the large ox head with curved horns chewing.

"Is your tongue okay?"

Kiet’s mouth kept chewing, his eyes closing in delight.

"So delicious, both crisp and fragrant!"

Completely immersed in the gourmet food, Kiet didn’t answer Eric’s question, only busy expressing his feelings after eating the potato chips.

But seeing that he didn’t look burned, Eric felt more at ease, only feeling like his heart was about to fall out from the scare.

Were these beastmen all so reckless? It seemed his human mindset was still too heavy.