The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

As soon as the pre-sale was put on the market, many old customers came to place orders. After all, a roast chicken costs 188 Swiss francs, and a goose is much bigger than a chicken. It is also a necessity for Christmas, so this price is normal.

Most importantly, they believed that the goose in Chinese restaurants would be better cooked than they were at home.

Traditionally, Christmas roast goose is a whole goose. Goose meat is thick, difficult to taste, and difficult to cook, so it is really difficult to make it delicious.

For the poor, eating goose at Christmas is the best reward after a busy year, so they naturally don’t care whether it tastes good or not.

For the rich, if it weren't for the Christmas tradition of eating roast goose, they might not be willing to eat it. Now that Chinese restaurants are willing to sell roast goose, doesn't that save a lot of trouble?

The pre-sale of roast goose was stopped three days before Christmas because the goose needed to be marinated to remove the fishy smell and add flavor before cooking. It is cold in winter, so it needs to be marinated for about two days to fully absorb the flavor.

In total, more than 150 geese were pre-sold, which is a huge number, enough to keep the restaurant busy for several days.

Yun Ji went to the countryside in advance to order a large number of geese, and started going to the countryside to pick up the geese a few days before Christmas.

On the 22nd, Yun Ji went to the countryside to pick up the last batch of geese, and by the way went to the butcher's house to see how his castrated pigs were growing.

When the butcher saw his old customer coming, he received him warmly.

Yun Ji asked, "How are those castrated pigs doing?"

The butcher smiled and said, "It's just like what you said, sir. The castrated piglets grow very fast. In the past four or five months, they have grown as fast as pigs that grew in eight or nine months. A pig that is only six months old already weighs over 100 kilograms. In another six months, it will weigh at least 200 kilograms."

Yun Ji asked, "When are you going to kill this pig?"

The butcher was stunned for a moment: "Sir, do you want it now?"

Yun Ji said, "We need a pig right now. Please help me slaughter it and send it to our restaurant tomorrow morning. I want all the internal organs, including the pig."

The butcher was surprised and asked, "You want the whole one?"

"Yes, didn't we agree at the beginning that we wanted two whole castrated pigs? Let's kill one first." Yun Ji said.

The butcher said with some embarrassment: "But I want to wait a little longer. These castrated pigs may have grown. If I wait another three or four months, they can at least grow a few dozen kilograms of meat, which will cost me a lot of money."

Yun Ji said, "If you kill this pig now, I will give you 200 riels in addition to the price of the meat."

When the butcher heard this, he was immediately satisfied: "Okay, I'll kill it tomorrow morning and send it to you, sir."

Yun Ji nodded: "Well, remember to send it over tomorrow morning."

The butcher agreed readily.

The next morning, Min Xi was cooking roast goose in the kitchen when he heard someone come in and say, "Sir, I've brought the pork."

Min Xi turned his head and saw that it was the butcher delivering meat. He had been there for a while, and there was no one in the shop outside. He finally mustered up the courage to push the door and come in, because this place was too high-end and it was not a place that someone like him could afford.

"You're here? I'll be right there." Min Xi was delighted, and he quickly wiped his hands, walked outside, and said to a few shop assistants, "Come over and give me a hand."

Yunji and Gail were not in the restaurant at the moment. They went to the dim sum shop. As Christmas approached, the dim sum shop's business was particularly booming. People bought dim sum as if they were free and took them home in large quantities.

Westerners celebrate Christmas just like the Chinese celebrate the New Year. They eat well, drink well, and have fun. The whole family gets together to celebrate the holiday, and you have to prepare a lot of snacks.

Recently, after closing every night, Min Xi and Yun Ji go there to help bake cookies, fry twisted dough sticks, and bake bread. These items are durable and sell the best.

During the day, Yunji and Gail also helped out there except for meals. The store closed early these two days because of the holidays, so they focused on preparing roast goose for customers. Yunji and Gail simply went there to help out.

The dim sum shop now earns as much as the restaurant in a day. The highest sales in a single day was 30 reais, and all the stock was sold out.

Min Xi thought that the dim sum shop business would be good during Christmas, so he asked Diego to prepare the goods in advance, but he didn't expect it to be so good.

With the help of several people, the whole pig was moved to the chopping board in the backyard. The roast goose was made these two days, and the store was full of geese.

The butcher looked at the geese filling the house and yard and asked in surprise, "Why are there so many geese?"

Min Xi said, "It's Christmas, and we pre-sold some roast goose to make geese for everyone. Weigh the pork and I'll get the money for you."

The butcher hesitated for a moment and said, "The other gentleman said he would give me 200 more riels."

"Yeah, I know, he told me." Min Xi didn't care much about the 200 Swiss francs. He had no intention of selling the pig and was going to eat it himself.

After weighing the pork, Min Xi calculated the bill, gave the butcher the money, and said to him, "Help me cut the pork into pieces. I'll tell you how to cut it."

Seeing that he paid readily, the butcher readily agreed: "Okay, no problem."

Min Xi instructed the butcher to cut up the pork according to his own requirements. The two pig hind legs would be used to make ham, part of the ribs would be eaten and part would be made into cured ribs, the pig small intestines would be used to make sausages, and some bacon would be smoked, and the rest would be used to make various delicacies.

Min Xi gave a piece of meat to the butcher: "Take it back and try it to see if it is different from the previous meat."

The butcher was overjoyed: "Thank you, sir!"

Min Xi asked the butcher to cut several pieces of meat weighing three or four pounds to distribute to the store employees as year-end benefits. Because of the pre-sale of Christmas roast goose, everyone had to take a holiday until Christmas Eve, reopen on the 27th, take a holiday again on the 31st, and reopen on the 4th.

If an employee lives far away from home and does not come back to work during the day, it will be considered as a compensatory leave and will be made up later.

Min Xi thought with some evil humor that he had finally exported the adjusted leave to Europe.

They were busy until the evening. When the employees got off work, Min Xi and Yun Ji began to distribute benefits to the employees, including a roast goose, a piece of pork, and two boxes of snacks for each person.

Min Xi said: "Thank you all for your hard work over the past few months. Take these back and share them with your families. Have a good holiday when you go back. Merry Christmas to everyone!"

Everyone was so touched. They had been helping to kill geese for the past two days and were almost vomiting, but they never expected that they would still have one for themselves.

Yun Ji handed everyone a small red envelope of 200 reais and said, "Today's Christmas gifts are distributed. You can buy whatever you need. This month's salary will be distributed after the Chinese New Year. At that time, you will also receive a bonus of 1 reais. Thank you all for your contribution to our store. I hope that you will continue to work hard for the store in the future."

We deduct one month's salary and year-end bonus because we hope that everyone can come back to work on time after the New Year. It is very difficult to train skilled workers, and it would be a loss if they don't come.

Min Xi added: "Those who come to work on time after the New Year will receive a bonus envelope."

Everyone said they would come to work on time.

Before going to bed, Min Xi and Yun Ji carefully checked the buckets and pots containing roast goose. The guests would not come to pick up the roast goose until tomorrow. The goose cooked today was either soaking in the pot or in the bucket. It would have to be heated up before the guests came to pick it up tomorrow. Of course, it would also need to be heated up when the guests took it back.

I didn't have time to process the pork because I was too busy today.

Min Xi and Yun Ji carried the unprocessed pork to a private room upstairs and closed the doors and windows tightly to prevent rats and cats from stealing food.

Min Xi rubbed his waist and said, "I won't make roast goose next year. It's too hard. I get scared when I see goose now."

Yun Ji smiled and said, "We did it this year. If we don't do it next year, I'm afraid the customers won't agree."

"Yeah! Why did I dig a hole for myself and come up with such a bad idea!" Min Xi curled his lips helplessly.

Yun Ji looked at him lovingly and smiled: "Hurry up and go to bed. We still have a lot to do tomorrow!"

At this point, Min Xi's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, there's still some goose to braise. There's no one else to help tomorrow except you."

"Diego is still here. He will come to help tomorrow." Yun Ji said.

Min Xi was a little happier: "Diego is really a little angel. He didn't even want the meat and roast goose today."

"He celebrates the festival with us, just like we are one of our own. He definitely won't accept it," said Yun Ji.

"When the holiday comes, I'll make him two decent sets of clothes. He has grown taller and his old clothes don't fit him anymore," said Min Xi.

"You've grown taller, so you need to make some new clothes," said Yun Ji.

"The New Year is coming, and we should all go make new clothes," said Min Xi.

Yun Ji suddenly sighed: "I don't even know what day our new year is." When they came here, they all used the Western calendar. They were no longer sure what day it was. They could only vaguely calculate based on the changes in the moon, but they could not determine exactly what day it was in the lunar calendar.

Min Xi knew that he must be homesick, so he said, "Seventh Brother, no matter what day it is, at least I am here with you."

When Yun Ji heard this, he smiled: "Yes, thank goodness you are here with me."