The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

The weather was too cold, and neither of them wanted to eat cold food, so they hadn't eaten lunch yet. Min Xi took out the pancakes he had made in the morning and went to the fireplace in the living room on the first floor of the hotel to heat them up before eating.

There were not many customers in the store. The few customers were sitting around the fireplace in the living room, warming themselves by the fire. When they saw Min Xi and Yun Ji coming down, they all looked at them curiously.

Min Xi smiled and greeted everyone: "Hello, I came here to borrow the fire to bake some bread. It's too cold and we haven't had lunch yet."

When everyone heard that he had not had lunch yet, they all took the initiative to make room for him by the fireplace.

Min Xi said: "Thank you!"

He used a fire poker to roast the cakes over the fire. Everyone was a little surprised to see his cakes, as they were somewhat different from the way they were eaten in Spain.

Some guests took the initiative to talk to Min Xi and asked about their origins. Min Xi did not hide it and said that he was from Lisbon.

Someone asked, "Did you come through the checkpoint today?"

"Yeah. It came from the checkpoint."

"How much did you pay?"

Min Si said: "5 reais per person and 1 reais per horse."

Everyone gasped. "It's gone up again! Last year it was only 3 reais. Luckily we don't have to pay that. You're out of luck. There are guides from the local village over there who will take you through a small path and only charge you 1 reais per person."

"I didn't meet anyone. I didn't see anyone along the way." Min Xi said.

"It's snowing today, so I guess they weren't waiting outside. So you're out of luck." The man shook his head regretfully.

Min Xi asked: "Is charging 5 reais per person your king's request?"

"What else?" the man shrugged.

Since that was said, Min Xi naturally had nothing to say. It seemed that Philip II was more powerful than the Queen of England and was a money-hungry person.

In fact, it is not surprising that Philip II was so greedy for money. During his reign, he was either fighting or preparing for war in order to fight for maritime hegemony, purge pagans, and suppress the Dutch uprising. War is a huge money-eating beast. Even if there was a steady stream of gold and silver shipped back from the New World, it still could not fill such a big hole.

Because he could not repay the debts, he declared national bankruptcy three times during his reign in order to avoid all debts.

So in addition to plundering a large amount of wealth from the New World, he also had to plunder it from his own people through methods such as increasing taxes, not to mention foreigners entering the country. He would not let go of any place where he could make money.

As we chatted, the scallion pancakes were heated up, and the aroma was released through the roasting. The guests sitting around the fireplace smelled the fragrance and became more alert: "What kind of pancake is this? It smells so good!"

Min Xi handed a baked pancake to Yun Ji behind him and said, "Scallion pancake."

Yun Ji took the cake and started eating. As the hot cake entered his mouth, his body quickly warmed up.

The guests had lunch, and it had been two or three hours. It was cold in winter and the calories were consumed quickly. They couldn't help swallowing when they smelled the fragrant scallion pancakes.

A customer asked, "Where did you buy this cake?"

Min Xi said: "We did it ourselves."

"You cook for yourselves?" The guests were even more surprised. It was rare to see a man cooking.

"When I'm away from home, I'm not used to the food here, so I have to cook it myself. But I heard from the store owner that the food is pretty good, so I plan to try Spanish food tonight." Min Xi said.

The customer was stunned, looked at the owner and said, "Yes, it's not bad."

The shop owner found himself on a pedestal and couldn't get down. It seemed that he had to serve some real food tonight. He had to let these two Chinese people know that Spanish food was better than Portuguese food, and not worse than what they made themselves.

When it was time for dinner, the guests were surprised to find that there was ham tonight! The store cut the ham into thin slices and sandwiched it between toasted bread, which was not even black bread, but wheat bread.

The shop owner said to Min Xi with some pride: "This is our most famous ham in Spain. Please try it and see how it tastes."

Min Xi picked up the toast with ham slices on it and smelled it first. The pig was still not castrated, but after going through processes such as smoking and pickling, and a long period of fermentation, the fishy smell of the pork itself had become much lighter and barely acceptable.

Min Xi took a bite and found the ham's unique smoky flavor quite good, but the toast was a bit dry. Fortunately, it was served with vegetable soup. I have to praise the chef for not adding pork to the vegetable soup.

Min Xi took a bite and nodded, "This ham tastes pretty good."

The shop owner said proudly: "Am I right? Our Spanish ham is the best in Europe."

Min Xi also admitted that Spanish ham is the best in Europe: "It is true." It's just that the ham is a bit too salty. The first bite tasted good, but after a few more bites, I felt choking. It's true that there is no shortage of salt near the sea.

Min Xi could only use vegetable soup to dilute the saltiness of the ham. Fortunately, he only gave two thin slices of ham and not more, otherwise he would have to get up in the middle of the night to drink water.

But there was a serious problem with the dinner provided by the store, that is, the portions were too small. Min Xi was not full, let alone Yun Ji who had a bigger appetite.

After returning to the room, Min Xi said, "Let's cook for ourselves tomorrow morning. If we keep eating like this, we'll starve and become skinny."

"Okay." Yun Ji smiled when he heard that. He knew that Min Xi was worried that he would not have enough to eat.

The next morning, the snow on the city streets had melted a lot, and Min Xi asked, "Are we leaving today?"

Yun Ji said, "I think it will be almost finished by the afternoon."

"Then let's have breakfast first and set off a little later. I'm afraid that if we set off late, the road will become muddy due to too many vehicles and horses passing by," said Min Xi.

"That's what happened. Let's go today."

"Go out and see if there are any vegetables for sale at the market. If there are, buy some and take them with you."

"it is good."

The two went downstairs and went out for a walk. Badajoz was not big, so the market was easy to find. They found it after asking one or two people. Fortunately, there were people selling vegetables at the market, although there were not many things to choose from. Between pork and poultry, the two consciously chose poultry and bought a chicken, some eggs and vegetables.

For breakfast, the two decided to have boiled chicken and shredded chicken noodles. When they returned to the hotel, Min Xi took out his own pot and went to the kitchen to borrow a stove.

This is a husband-and-wife shop. The proprietress cooks for the customers herself. She is now making breakfast for everyone in the kitchen. Compared with the ham and bread last night, the breakfast is too simple. There is only some toasted black bread and some butter. There is no soup. Only a cup of hot water is provided. After all, the toast is too dry.

Min Xi wanted to borrow the kitchen to make breakfast, so the landlady naturally couldn't say anything.

After they finished preparing breakfast and brought the shredded chicken noodles and half a boiled chicken to the restaurant, several guests who were chewing bread almost popped their eyes out.

"Landlady, why do they eat different from us?" a guest protested.

The proprietress glanced at it and said, "Oh, they made it themselves."

Min Xi and Yun Ji sat face to face, eating noodles and boiled chicken at the same time. The food was hot and fragrant, and the guests were so greedy that they drooled. The buttered bread in their hands instantly became tasteless, but since the bread was bought by the guests themselves, they were too embarrassed to go over and eat for free.

Min Xi noticed that he was being watched by many people, and he greeted everyone enthusiastically: "Try the chicken I made."

The guests were a little hesitant when they heard this, but one of them couldn't resist the temptation and came over: "Let me try a piece. I've never seen this way of eating."

Min Xi said enthusiastically: "Try it, it will taste better with some of this dipping sauce."

The guest picked up a piece of chicken with a fork, dipped it in the garlic sauce, put it in his mouth and took a bite. He was immediately amazed: "It's so delicious!"

Upon hearing this, the other customers hurried over to try a piece, and they were all amazed. In the end, even the owner and the proprietress couldn't help but want to confirm whether it was as delicious as they said. It didn't matter if it was just one bite, but a piece of chicken made the two of them silent for a long time. They were still boasting to others yesterday that the food in the restaurant was delicious, but now they were really slapped in the face.

A plate of boiled chicken made the guests enthusiastic about Min Xi and Yun Ji, and they chatted with them for a long time.

After breakfast, the two packed up all their things, checked out of the hotel, and prepared to load the car to leave. A guest saw them checking out with their luggage and quickly stopped Min Xi and asked, "Sir, are you leaving now? Are you going to leave after the snow melts?"

"No, we are worried that after the snow melts, the road will be overwhelmed by too many vehicles and horses and become very muddy, so we should leave early before the snow melts completely." Min Xi explained.

The guest struck his left palm with his right hand and said, "You are quite right. I will go today too. I will go to Madrid with you."

When they were chatting yesterday afternoon, they told each other their destinations, and many people knew that they were going to Madrid.

"Are you going to Madrid too?" Min Xi looked at the other party with some surprise.

"Yes, I'm going back to Madrid. Please wait for me for a moment, I'll go pack my luggage, it will be there soon!" The guest hurried upstairs to pack his luggage.

By the time Yun Ji had harnessed the horses and driven the cart to the store door, the customer had also gotten off the cart, bringing a coachman with him to drive the cart.

The guest introduced himself again. His surname was Garcia, he was from Madrid, he was the butler of the Count of Flores, and he came to Badajoz to do work for his master.