Of course, this also requires a person's imagination and practical skills. If you lack both of these abilities, then even if you were given a box of matches, you might not know how to use them to start a campfire.
I don't know what kind of bamboo these are, but these tall bamboos can definitely be used by me. Next, the problems of storing water and preparing bowls and chopsticks will be solved, and I can even cook a pot of delicious turtle soup.
Thinking about how I've been eating barbecue for so many days, the bamboo in front of me looked more and more appealing. I decided that no matter what method I had to use, I had to get a few pieces to take home, not for any other reason than that being able to have a sip of hot soup would be a wonderful option.
But when I actually went to cut the bamboo, I ran into trouble. All I had were reeds and pebbles.
While the awns of reeds are sharp enough to cut, that's only so-so when cutting soft tissues; they're simply not suitable for things like cutting bamboo.
The pebbles are hard enough, but not sharp enough. It would take forever to grind bamboo down with them; I might not even get to drink the soup before my turtle eggs go bad.
I sat on the ground, staring at these bamboo stalks the size of teacups, deep in thought, feeling somewhat resentful. But every cloud has a silver lining, and I came up with a good idea.
I found some tinder and gathered some dry twigs. After lighting the fire, I placed it in a circle around the base of a bamboo tree.
During this time, I kept adding firewood. I knew that bamboo is hollow and not very thick inside. As long as the fire was big enough, it wouldn't take long to dry out the moisture at the roots.
The bamboo was roasted by the fire, quickly softened, and fell to one side.
The bamboo had turned greenish-blue, but it hadn't broken yet. So I thought of a good way to speed up the process. I found some leaves, overlapped them, and rolled them into a narrow, trumpet-shaped opening that was smaller in the front and larger in the back.
I put the larger piece in my mouth, pointed the other end at the fire flames, and started blowing.
The flames were drawn by the strong wind into a bright line of fire, rapidly heating the roots of the bamboo. Soon, the bamboo turned from green to yellow, then from yellow to black, and finally ignited, turning fiery red.
This utilizes the principle that when a flame passes through a narrow, high-velocity fluid, it is guided into a high-temperature jet. Acetylene gas cutting for cutting steel also uses this principle, except that it uses acetylene as fuel and pure oxygen as the oxidizer.
After a flurry of activity, it took me nearly thirty minutes to completely burn the bamboo. Then, using a thick wooden stick, I easily knocked all the bamboo joints away, leaving only a bare bamboo stalk.
I left the bamboo stick where it was and continued exploring for a while. During this time, I found some berries and wild vegetables like dandelions and plantains.
I'm very satisfied with this harvest; I collected quite a few wild vegetables.
I placed the wild vegetables at the bottom of the basket, and then put the berries wrapped in leaves and the turtle eggs on top of the vegetables. This way, the wild vegetables could act as a good buffer, protecting the turtle eggs and berries from damage.
My basket felt almost full, and today's meal was sure to be the most sumptuous I'd had in days. Thinking about this, my stomach started to rumble, so I decided to take my spoils back to my camp and cook myself a big feast.
I washed all the wild vegetables by the lake. As I was washing them, many fish swam over to snatch the vegetable scraps floating on the surface.
Looking at these plump fish, I thought I'd skip it for today. I'll think about it tonight and make a fishing rod or a trap to catch a few fish for a treat.
Carrying the bamboo pole back to my shelter, I put everything down and, as usual, lit a campfire on the ground.
I burned the bamboo pole to make two sections, one of which was longer and closer to the center. I plan to use this section to make a kettle for myself; this section of bamboo, when filled with water, will probably weigh about two or three pounds.
Making the kettle is extremely simple. I just put red-hot charcoal on the white bamboo membrane inside the bamboo section and blow air into it. Soon the bamboo membrane will have a hole burned in it. Then I find a piece of twig, grind it into a stopper, put it on a water tank, and that's it.
The remaining section, near the base of the bamboo, was considerably thicker. I used the same method I used to burn the bamboo before to cut this section in half, thus obtaining two sturdy bamboo pots.
I can usually use them to boil water to make dandelion tea or berry soup, which are both good choices. But today, their task is to help me cook a pot of soup so I can have hot pot.
I collected some spring water from two bamboo tubes nearby, and then filled my water bottle with water.
When conditions permit in the wild, people should still maintain a sense of ritual.
I used a clean, flat stone as a cutting board and banana leaves as a tablecloth.
I cut all the wild vegetables into small pieces using reeds and stalks, and then put some of the turtle eggs directly into the bamboo pot on the left.
On the other side, some crushed turtle egg liquid was added. I didn't have egg drop soup, but turtle egg drop soup seemed like a good option.
Then, a lot of wild vegetables were put in from both sides, and soon a pure and natural fragrance wafted over.
But I'm resisting the urge to eat right now; I'm determined to have a proper meal today!
So I climbed the tree again and used leaves to wrap up a lot of wild boar jerky, which will be the star of today's hot pot.
As I gazed at the fragrance emanating from this sinful and extravagant thing, tears streamed down my face.
While the meat was cooking, I broke off the end of a bamboo stick and made myself a pair of chopsticks.
All the necessary rituals were complete. I picked up the pot of turtle egg soup, which was already steaming hot and fragrant, and blew on it.
I picked up a large clump of wild vegetables mixed with the aroma of eggs with my chopsticks, blew on it, and slurped it up. The smooth texture of the dandelion combined with the freshness of the turtle egg made for an incredibly satisfying experience.
Just then, the monkey king whose butt I poked also followed the scent and came over with his gang of followers.
The monkey king stared longingly at what I was eating, its throat seemingly swallowing saliva. Seeing that it didn't come over to snatch it, but instead sat aside like a well-behaved dog waiting for my charity, I suddenly felt even more favorably disposed towards this clever monkey.
I smiled and put down my work, then took another bamboo pot containing whole turtle eggs and used chopsticks to pick out two cooked turtle eggs for it.
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