While she was stunned, Lin Chen set the marinated fish slices aside, covering them with a banana leaf to keep them from drying out.
He then sliced some bamboo shoots and potatoes for side dishes, and also cut the skate wings into bite-sized strips.
He thought for a moment. 'Cooking in just plain fish broth for too long might get a little heavy.' So, he retrieved a few bamboo tubes of pickled vegetables from the cellar.
"Can you handle spicy food?"
"Not really, but I can handle Buffalo City hot wings."
Lin Chen nodded thoughtfully. He took two pickled peppers from a bamboo tube, tossing one into each of their fish broths to simmer.
The peppers he chose weren't jalapeños, but a variety similar to long, twisted peppers, with a more pronounced heat.
He then opened another bamboo tube, plucked out a pickled Havana pepper the size of a fingernail, and dropped it into his own portion of fish broth.
