The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

After the wedding, Baron Fernando took his new wife to the Algarve for their honeymoon. Located on the northern shore of the Strait of Gibraltar, the Algarve has a Mediterranean climate, warm sunshine and beautiful beaches. For Alice, who was born and raised in the UK, it is absolutely a fatal attraction. The baron really knows how to choose a place.

Sebastian I summoned Min Xi and Yun Ji to the palace to commend them, and kept them chatting for a long time. Hearing their experiences, he was so excited that he wanted to bombard the pirate ship himself. The king also gave them medals of honor and a reward of 1000 reais to reward their bravery and contribution to the Portuguese mission. It was also a windfall.

After that, Min Xi and Yun Ji had nothing to do. Apart from buying some pork legs to make bacon and ham, they spent the rest of their time learning Spanish.

Yun Ji was not very enthusiastic about learning Spanish at first, because they would not be in Spain for too long, and it was enough for Min Xi to understand it. But Min Xi said that they would do business with Europeans in the future, and in addition to the Portuguese and British, they would definitely deal with the Spanish. Learning now might be useful in the future. Yun Ji thought what he said made a lot of sense, so he started to study seriously.

At the end of the year, the business in the store gradually became busy, especially the dim sum shop, which needed to prepare Christmas and New Year goods in advance to avoid being too busy at that time. Min Xi and Yun Ji took time out to go there to help.

Occasionally, when the hotel would have guests invite them to a banquet, Min Xi and Yun Ji would go along to help out for a day or two.

Although busy occasionally, life is actually quite peaceful.

Before Christmas, old customers came to ask when the roast goose would be available for pre-sale this year. Last year, we worked until Christmas Eve to make the roast goose, and we were exhausted, but we didn't make much money. So after we were done, Min Xi said that we would not do it next year.

This year, the customer came to ask very early and asked so many times that Gail and Jasper became a little undecided, so they asked the owner if he would still sell roast goose this year.

Min Xi said: "I told the customers that we didn't order any live geese this year and we won't sell them."

As a result, when the customers heard that there was no roast goose for sale, they asked if there was roast chicken for sale. They had to settle for the next best thing and eat chicken since there was no goose.

Min Xixin thought that everyone was quite flexible and could adapt. If there was no goose, chickens would be fine too.

Min Xi looked at Gale: "Do you want to sell it?"

Gail chuckled: "This is what we thought. Last year, everyone came here to order roast goose, and this year they asked again. I think we can keep this as a traditional project."

Min Xi said, "If you are not afraid of trouble, then go ahead and do it. If you are really too busy, we will come to help."

"Thank you for your support!" Gail agreed happily and went to prepare the pre-sale roast chicken.

As soon as the notice was posted, the guests were a little disappointed to see that the Christmas roast goose had been turned into a roast chicken. After all, one roast goose is enough for the whole family to eat, but if there are more people in the family, one roast chicken is not enough and they have to order one or two more.

But making roast chicken is actually much easier for restaurants. For example, a stew pot may only be able to stew four or five geese, but can stew more than ten chickens. If a customer orders one chicken, they will order two. One chicken costs 188 shillings, and two chickens cost 378 shillings, which is about the same price as a roast goose at 398 shillings. However, the profit is not lower than that of roast goose, and may even be a little higher.

In order to have something to look forward to for their Christmas dinner, the guests were willing to spend money to reserve one or two roast chickens at Chinese restaurants. Some who had not been willing to buy a goose last year could not help but reserve one when they saw that roast chickens were cheap.

In this way, in just a few days, more than 400 roast chickens were pre-sold. It was Min Xi who reminded Gail to be careful not to take too many orders, which would damage his reputation. Only then did they take down the pre-sale sign.

Because of the pre-sale of Christmas roast chicken, Min Xi and Yun Ji had to help go to the countryside to buy live chickens. In the two days before Christmas, they helped to make roast chicken together, and on Christmas Eve, they had to help watch the store and pick up roast chicken for customers.

When Baron Fernando came to pick up the roast goose in the evening, he said, "You are celebrating with two people again tonight, why don't you come to my house?" Not everyone wanted to eat roast chicken. For example, the Baron and Lord Merlot, who had a good relationship with Min Xi, Min Xi still made roast goose for them, and they also made roast goose themselves.

Min Xi waved his hand to refuse: "Thank you for your kindness, we are not just two people celebrating the festival today, we also invited friends to celebrate at home together."

Baron Fernando was skeptical: "You also invited people to your home to celebrate the festival?"

"It's true. It's an old sailor we knew before." Min Xi did not lie. He asked Diego to pick up old Zeus early on.

A few days after Old Hughes moved to Lighthouse Street, he sent Min Si a very old parchment notebook, which was full of maps of various ocean currents and detailed annotations of navigable places.

The Europe and Africa western line is marked in particular detail. The New World is also marked, as are Southeast Asia and Africa eastern line, but there is only one line. It should be because it has not been walked many times, so only this one line is drawn.

The notebook also summarized many methods of observing the weather and identifying underwater reefs. These routes and experiences were extremely valuable to the two of them.

Yun Ji studied it for a long time until he knew all its contents by heart. He just needed to go on a voyage to verify whether what he had learned was correct.

Before Christmas, Min Xi went to visit Lao Xiu Si and said that he would pick him up to celebrate the holiday in the restaurant. Lao Xiu Si refused at first, saying that he was afraid of disturbing the guests of the restaurant. Min Xi told him that the restaurant would be closed on Christmas and there would be no guests, so it would be just the four of them celebrating the holiday, and Lao Xiu Si agreed.

After the guests took away all the roast chickens and roast geese, Yun Ji went to the inn to pick up Old Hughes for dinner. Min Xi and Diego prepared a sumptuous Christmas dinner together.

When old Zeus came over, the food had already been served on the table. In addition to the main dishes such as roast goose and Dongpo pork elbow, there was also hot pot, so there was no need to worry about the food getting cold while eating.

Knowing that he would spend Christmas with Min Xi and the others, old Zeus went to the bathhouse, took a hot bath, changed into clean clothes, and asked a barber to trim his hair and beard, making himself clean.

So when Min Xi saw Old Hughes, he was very surprised. After all, Europeans at that time could only take a bath twice a year, which shows how much importance Old Hughes attached to Christmas.

Everyone sat around the table, poured some fine wine, and enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner together.

Old Hughes secretly wiped away his tears while eating. He never thought that one day he would be able to sit around the table with so many people and have a decent Christmas dinner together like he did now.

Last Christmas, he was alone, drinking low-quality beer and eating cold bread, watching with envy other people's families enjoying hot and delicious food. He almost froze to death on the street, but was saved by the Chinese in front of him. This year, like those people he envied, he also had a hot and delicious meal, and it was the most sumptuous and delicious Christmas dinner he had ever had in his life.

Min Xi saw that Old Hughes was secretly wiping away tears, but he did not expose him. He just tore off a goose leg and put it on Old Hughes' plate: "Mr. Hughes, have a goose leg."

Old Hughes raised his eyes and stammered thank you.

In order to avoid embarrassment, Yun Ji took the initiative to ask Old Hughes what he saw on the parchment scroll. Speaking of this, Old Hughes became more talkative, and he talked a lot about his experience in navigation, how to predict the weather through wind direction, clouds, air humidity, etc., how to identify the direction through the sun and stars, how to identify underwater reefs through the color of the sea water, etc.

Yun Ji took notes carefully, asked a few more questions about things he didn't understand, and even wrote them down with a pen, waiting to verify them later.

Seeing that Old Hughes was no longer restrained when talking about sailing, Min Xi took the initiative to ask about his past sailing experiences. Old Hughes ate and chatted while they finished Christmas dinner happily.

After dinner, they went to the town square to see the Christmas tree and music performances. After the performance, they sent old Hughes back to the hotel.

Before leaving, Min Xi asked Old Xiusi: "Mr. Xiusi, if you have the opportunity to go to sea again, would you still be willing to go?"

Old Hughes' eyes lit up, but soon dimmed: "I'm already this old, and my legs and feet are not convenient. Who would be willing to ask me to go out to sea?"

Min Xi said, "If someone invites you, would you be willing to go? Would you worry that you would never come back after going out to sea?"

"If someone really wants to invite me, I will definitely go. What's there to be afraid of dying at sea? Nothing is more suitable for an old sailor like me than a burial at sea." Old Hughes said with a sigh.

After bidding farewell to Old Xius, Yun Ji asked Min Xi, "You just asked him if you wanted to invite him to be the navigator?"

Min Xi said, "Yes. If we buy a ship ourselves, we will definitely have to set up a sailing team. The captain and navigator will need experienced people, but such talents are in short supply. If Old Hughes is willing to go, he can train a navigator for us."

Yun Ji listened and said, "You are right. A hero probably wants to die on the battlefield rather than die of old age at home. Old Zeus probably also wants to die at sea."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too," said Min Xi.

Diego, who had been following them silently, suddenly said, "Boss, please teach me how to speak Chinese."