We’re eating the ear shell and scallops we harvested today.
There’s no need to rush and eat them if stored in the proper environment, but just in case…
Shellfish is a food often associated with food poisoig.
「Woah Hoo! Ear Shells! Scallops! Looks delicious!!」
At the hideout, there’s Eri, the handicrafts team, and Arisa.
Seems like she’s delivering the fishes she caught to Eri.
Arisa sounded so lively when she saw our catch.
「But, is this okay Eri? Eating raw food when you’re on your period?」
Eri blushed and told Arisa ‘don’t say that out loud’
I also followed her up with a wry smile saying ‘you don’t have a shred of delicacy’
Arisa doesn’t mind it and just laughed it off.
「I’ll do the prep work on my end so it shouldn’t be much of a problem to some extent Besides, this time, everything will be cooked」
「Eeh? Putting ear shell aside, scallops are better when raw!」
「I know how you feel, but safety first. Give up. And what do you mean by putting ear shell aside? Do you hate raw ear shells?」
「I mean, it’s supposed to be grilled, right? It’s dancing grill!」
「It’s also edible raw」
Arisa’s ever eaten raw ear shells.
It’s not that rare, but there’s the surprise.
「If you go to restaurants, there are places that serve ear shell sashimi and such」
Arisa’s right. Ear shells are usually grilled at dances.
It can be left as is, or baked with butter or soy sauce o top.
However, sashimi’s also delicious.
It’s characterized with it’s crunchy texture and mild sweetness and tastes best when served with liver soy sauce made from it’s guts.
「Ear shells are sweet when raw, but it brings out the umami when you cook it. If we ever go back to Japan, then we’ll eat some ear shells and compare the flavors」
「Hokage, you’re being a gourmet」
Arisa’s poking fun at me while being impressed.
Eri on the side seem impressed.
「I’ll leave the specifics of cooking to Eri, I’ll do the prep work」
「I’ll help out! Shinomiya-san!」
Hinako raised her hand.
In response, Meiko speaks from a distance away
「Hinako, help me here instead」
「Uuuuu」
Hinako looked regretful.
However, she can’t go against Meiko so she just moved on.
「I can do this on my own. Muscle, you can go back to your usual job」
「Got it Muscle!」
And so, I started preparing the scallops and ear shells.
◇
Processing scallops is easy.
First, you forcibly open the shell using the survival knife.
Then, the scallop and it’s meat reveal themselves.
The scallop is a white plump mass that’s a staple in sushi.
The most edible part of it is the adductor muscle.
Then, there are strips surrounding that muscle.
The strands are like their muscles.
They’re muscles, but they also serve as eyes.
In any case, I decided to use only the adductor muscles.
As for the other parts, I grill them ad give them to the monkey army.
「Hokage-kun, why are you using two buckets of water?」
Eri approached while I was working.
She seems curious why I have two buckets with me.
Both of them have water. One’s seawater, and the other is river water.
「There are two kinds of bacteria on scallops. Those that like salt and those that don’t. That’s why I’m using the sea water, which has higher salt content, and river water, which has lowe」
I move while explaining.
First, I wash it in seawater, then in river water.
「That way, we reduce the bacteria」
「I see, there are some bacteria that don’t like salt. Even though it lives in the sea」
「Well yeah」
No need to wash them too carefully since I’m cooking them over fire.
Even so, I washed them thoroughly.
Seeing that, Eri’s cheeks loosened from happiness.
「Eri-dono, I’m done with my job!」
Tanaka returns from his work outside.
Eri replied to Tanaka, and then told me “later,” and left.
「Now, we have to do the ear shells」
Preparing scallops is easy, but ear shells is a bit more difficult.
First, the slime and dirt on the surface of the meat have to be removed.
(No matter how I look at it, this looks like a woman’s pussy)
Oops, I’m thinking strange things.
Well, the best way to clean the surface is to use a scrubbing brush.
You can easily clean it by scrubbing with a brush dipped in seawater.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any brush here.
There’s on choice but to use cloth this time.
Cloth soaked in seawater and dipped in salt, then scrubbing the surface of ear shell with it.
Although it’s a lot less efficient than using a scrubber, that still completes the first step.
Next would be using the survival knife to remove the meat from the shell.
I flip the meat over and notice the red mass at the tip.
That’s the mouth of the ear shell.
Then, remove the mouth.
Next, scrub clean the reverse side.
It’s easy compared to the surface.
「Eri, can you use the innards of ear shell?」
「Hmm, I’m uneasy so no」
「Okay」
Eri has no experience in cooking scallops or ear shells.
So, she plans only using the adductor muscles, the standard.
「I don’t see the problem if you don’t use the innards」
If you don’t use the innards, then that’s all the prep work I need to do.
What’s left is to use sea and river water to remove the salt from the surface.
If we’re using the innards, then we need additional steps in the process.
You need to remove the sand bag from the innards for example.
Also, you need to check for poison.
Ear shell innards aren’t necessarily edible.
Technically, it’s not the innards, but the midgut line, and that area could be poisoned.
In case you ingested the poison, it can cause photosensitivity, but that’s a rare one.
The symptoms aren’t diarrhea and vomiting, which are standard for food poisoning, but sore skin, as if you had a sunburn.
While not deadly, it’s messy, requiring you three weeks for full recovery.
By the way, you can tell if the midgut line is poisonous or not by its color.
This time, all of them looked safe.
If we intended to eat it, there should be no problems.
「This should be enough」
I transfer the scallops and ear shells to the bowl.
I handed it to Eri and my prep work is done.
「Leave the rest to me」
「Yeah. I’ll give the monkey army the parts we’re not going to use for cooking」
And so, today we, including the monkey army, enjoyed seafood.