After eating, Li Long carried the roe deer over to the spring to skin it. In this short time, it had already attracted quite a few insects, and he worried it would develop maggots if he waited any longer.
Liu Shanmin sat a short distance away, watching Li Long deftly skin the roe deer, and suddenly asked:
"This roe deer doesn't seem to taste as good as lamb."
"Wild game... heh." Li Long shook his head. "Once you've eaten enough of it, it's nothing special. All that running makes the muscle fibers coarse. Out there, they go hungry one day and eat their fill the next, they're often frightened, and they eat all sorts of things, so their blood has a stronger smell. Roe deer aren't too bad. Try some rank wild boar meat and you'll see. It's only natural that it tastes bad."
People at this time generally lacked meat. Having any to eat was good enough, and they weren't so particular. In later years, poultry and livestock farming expanded, while wild animals dwindled as their habitats shrank and more were killed. Then they became delicacies in the eyes of some wealthy people.
In truth, wild game didn't taste good without heavy seasoning. There might have been that old saying, "The toad wishes to eat swan meat," but swan meat actually had overly coarse fibers and didn't feel pleasant in the mouth.
It was only their rarity that made people see them through rose-colored glasses.
Only after saying this did Li Long realize that Liu Shanmin had eaten roe deer before. If he hadn't eaten it here, where had he eaten it?
He didn't dwell on it. He removed the hide and divided up the meat, following his usual method: he cut some meat off the bones to stew