The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

After a month or two of hard work, the matter was finally resolved successfully, and Min Xi and Yun Ji breathed a sigh of relief.

This incident was not entirely without benefits, because this precedent-setting lawsuit caused a sensation in the whole city, and the Chinese Restaurant and Oriental Taste also became famous.

Normally, this matter seems a bit exaggerated to ordinary people. It's just a dessert. You don't allow others to make it, and you sue them in court and demand compensation. It's a bit overbearing. But as Min Xi made the secret recipe public, the public opinion changed. Although this boss is overbearing, he is very decisive. He would rather not make money than let his competitors get the secret recipe for nothing.

More and more people come here to taste the much-hyped double skin milk. People who have eaten double skin milk elsewhere say that it is the original one after all and tastes better than the stolen ones.

After the lawsuit, Min Xi decided to make a delicious meal to thank the friends who had helped them during this period.

"Please invite Your Excellency the Baron, Your Excellency the Lord and the Lawyer to have dinner together in my shop tomorrow night. Is there anything you would like to eat? Feel free to order any dishes and I will try my best to satisfy you." Min Xi said.

Fernando said, "I saw you made a lot of bacon at Christmas, but you didn't cook it for us, so I wanted to taste the bacon."

Min Xi smiled and said, "Okay, I'll arrange it for you."

Lord Melo said, "I don't mind. It would be best if I could try some dishes I haven't eaten before."

Min Xi nodded: "Try to satisfy you."

The lawyer said: "I heard that the King Chicken is very delicious, but unfortunately I haven't eaten it yet. I really want to try it."

"No problem, is there anything else?" Min Xi continued to ask.

Lord Mellor suddenly remembered something and said, "My father told me that he tasted a kind of meat at His Majesty's on Christmas Day. Although it was made of pork, it was exceptionally delicious and had no strange smell. I want to try it, too."

Min Xi said with some embarrassment: "This braised pork is not difficult to make, the problem is the raw materials. This dish may not be available tomorrow. Let's put it this way. If it can be made one day, I will definitely tell you in advance and make some for the Marquis and the Marchioness to taste."

"Don't forget me, I want one too." Fernando said quickly.

Min Xi smiled and said, "Okay, I have both."

The lawyer smiled and said, "Does that include me?"

"Of course!" Min Xi simply agreed.

The next morning, Min Xi and Yun Ji bought a lot of chickens. Since they were going to make roast chicken, they made more. One sheep is herded, and a flock of sheep is also herded. So today the restaurant menu has added a roast chicken.

The guests were very happy to see roast chicken. This dish is expensive, the process is complicated, and it takes a long time. It does not often appear on the menu. It is considered very good if it is made once or twice a month. Min Xi will only make this dish if many guests ask about it.

In addition to roast chicken, the menu for the evening banquet also includes cured pork ribs hotpot, fried asparagus with bacon, steamed sausage, beer duck, and of course seafood. It can be steamed, braised, or blanched. Now that we have soy sauce, it is very easy to braise, and there is also a dipping sauce for blanching.

Min Xi prepared the hot pot dipping sauce and brought it to them personally, and came over to say hello: "This is the hot pot dipping sauce, there are two kinds of spicy and non-spicy. If you can handle spicy food, use the spicy one. If you can't, don't force yourself."

Fernando looked at the braised fish and said, "Min, I haven't eaten squirrel fish for a long time. Can you make it for us again sometime?"

Min Xi said, "Squirrel fish needs the sauce of wolfberry. I have used up the sauce I made. If you want to eat it, wait until the wolfberry is grown."

Fernando said, "If you need wolf cherries, just tell me earlier. Have you forgotten that I have wolf cherries in my greenhouse? You can pick them all year round."

Min Xi slapped his forehead and said with a smile, "How could I forget this? I'll pick some for you some other day and I'll make squirrel fish for you."

The lawyer had never been to the restaurant before and asked curiously, "What is a squirrel fish?"

Fernando said, "It's just delicious fish. I'll invite you to come eat it some other day."

"Okay!" The lawyer had never thought that he would have such a strong interest in food. It seemed that he had not eaten good food before.

Min Xi said: "The dishes have been served. If you want to add anything else, please tell us and I will try my best to satisfy you."

Lord Mello asked, "This hot pot seems different from the previous ones. Is there any food in it?"

Min Xi explained: "This is pork ribs hot pot. First, stew the pork ribs until they are tasty, then serve them in the copper pot. You can eat the cured pork ribs first, and then add the side dishes. Please enjoy."

The lawyer looked at the cured pork ribs curiously and asked, "What kind of pork ribs are these?"

"Pork chop." Fernando picked up a piece of pork chop with chopsticks and said, "Lawyer Delan, you should try it quickly. This pork is different from the pork we eat before."

The lawyer tried to pick up the ribs with a fork hesitantly, but it didn't work very well. Fernando then helped him by picking up a piece with chopsticks and putting it into his bowl.

The lawyer first smelled it, and apart from a smoky smell, there was no strange smell as he had imagined. Could it be that it was smoked so the strange smell was suppressed? He picked it up with a fork and put it in his mouth. Apart from a special smoked fragrance, there was the aroma of meat: "Is this meat really pork? It doesn't seem to have any fishy smell." The Franks also eat smoked fish, so he was completely accustomed to this taste and even thought it was delicious.

"Yes. Because this pig has been processed using the Chinese method. Its genitals were removed when it was very young. After it grows up, the meat is not only tender but also has no odor," Fernando explained.

Lord Mello asked: "Is this the method brought by Min Heyun?"

"What else? No one else understands this except them. His Majesty the King knows about this. He has decided to promote castration technology in Portugal. In the future, we can eat pork without any peculiar smell. You have never eaten braised pork made with fresh pork. The taste is amazing. In my opinion, it is better than seafood!" said Fernando.

"Really? Then I'm really looking forward to it." The lawyer was very much looking forward to it. He seldom ate the meat of hot-blooded animals. Besides the fact that doctrine did not encourage people to eat it, the other reason was that the smell was too strong. The mutton smell was barely acceptable, but the smell of pork was really hard to swallow. If the castrated pork was really as delicious as the baron said, he would not mind eating it.

Lord Melo used to not eat pork because it was not in keeping with his status, but he made an exception and ate pork a few times in Chinese restaurants, such as sweet and sour pork.

On Christmas Eve, he came to get the roast goose. Min Xi asked him if he wanted braised pork, but he refused. Later, Fernando said that the braised pork was castrated pork, which was fresh, fragrant, soft and delicious. On Christmas Day, his father went to the palace for a banquet and ate braised pork elbow and braised pork. He couldn't forget it after he came back, and said it was a rare delicacy. He actually regretted it a little.

So he planned to try all the bacon today. He first ate a piece of asparagus fried with bacon. The asparagus was crisp and refreshing, sweet and smoky, and much more delicious than what he usually ate. He ate another piece of bacon. This piece of bacon was half fat and half lean, but it didn't feel greasy at all. It tasted salty and fragrant, with a special meaty aroma, without any fishy smell, which was really amazing.

Fernando is a person who is brave enough to try new things. He quickly tried the spare ribs, fried bacon and Chinese sausage. Then he picked up a piece of Chinese sausage and said, "I think this is the best. It is fragrant, spicy and chewy. If it wasn't a little salty, I could have eaten it all. I forgot to ask Min what it was made of."

Lawyer De Lan ate little of the food prepared by Min Xi. He tried everything and thought everything was delicious, so he ate too much in the end.

Lord Melo seldom made comments. He would eat as much as he liked. Today he mainly ate three dishes of cured meat. Since the cured meat was too salty, he had to drink while eating. As a result, he drank too much at the end of the meal.

Min Xi came out from the kitchen after finishing his work and asked Yun Ji, "Have the Baron and the others left?"

Yun Ji said, "The Baron and the lawyer have left, but Lord Melo hasn't left yet. He seems to be drunk. The Baron asked me to go up and take a look, but I didn't go. I'm waiting for you to go with me."

"Then let's go up and take a look, and send him to the carriage." Min Xi knew that Yun Ji had been avoiding suspicion and did not stay alone with Lord Mello.

(The next chapter contains a romantic scene, you can skip it if you don't like it.)