The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

Min Xi was most worried about his seeds, fearing that they would sprout. Fortunately, the peppers and tomatoes were packed in glass bottles, and the bottle caps were tightly corked and stuffed into the wooden box. After being knocked around all night, they were not damaged, only the bottle corks were a little wet.

The corn, peanuts, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. were soaked overnight. There was no rain the next day, the sun was shining brightly, and the wind was strong. Min Xi and his four companions watched for a whole day and finally dried the seeds. After a few more days of drying, there would be no problem.

Most of the things have been dried under the help of sea breeze and sunshine. Some goods that have no place to dry have to wait until tomorrow.

The tinder was also dried. Min Xisheng was getting irritated, so he made some hot tea for everyone. He added dried chilies and pepper to the tea and asked everyone to drink it to dispel dampness and cold.

These were spices that Min Xi bought with his own money. He didn't find ginger in Lisbon. According to Westerners' tradition of eating gingerbread at Christmas, ginger should have been introduced to Europe a long time ago. Maybe it was introduced here, but it had not yet become popular on a large scale, so he had to use pepper and chili instead of ginger to boil water for everyone to dispel cold and dampness and prevent people from getting sick.

To be honest, this water has a very strong taste. After drinking it, the spicy feeling goes all the way from the mouth to the stomach. Everyone just feels the burning sensation in the throat. For people who have never eaten spicy food, it is simply torture.

Some people protested: "Can we not drink it? It's too hard to drink!"

Min Xi said, "You have to drink it. I am doing this for your health. If you get sick, there are no doctors or medicines on this ship. Who will save your life?"

Min Xi drank a bowl himself. He just felt a little choked and spicy, but it was not unbearable. After all, he had even drunk the spicy soup base of hot pot, so this was really nothing. Yun Ji and Diego could barely accept it, but the others could not.

But the captain knew that Min Xi was doing this for everyone's own good, so he ordered everyone to drink a bowl.

The next day, Min Xi cut the onions into shreds and gave each person a little. This time there was not even half an onion left, after all, there were less than 10 onions left.

Everyone was very dissatisfied with the small amount of onion shreds: "This is too little! Will there be no more tomorrow?"

Captain Almeida scolded, "Be content, Mr. Min is already very good at making arrangements. The Goddess and the Harvest were running out of fruits and vegetables before the storm, and they are frequent passengers on this route. Just hold on for another day or two, and we will reach the next supply point."

Everyone had to shut up in disappointment. What the captain said was the truth. Although there was limited room for creativity in using black bread, bacon and beans, it had to be admitted that Min Si made them much more delicious.

After dark, Min Xi and Yun Ji went fishing with their fishing rods. At night, it is difficult to see the sea surface, so the sails are usually lowered, and sometimes even anchors are dropped to slow down the boat. This speed is suitable for fishing.

The Jazz was different from the Shark. No one on board seemed to be good at fishing, and there were no fishing rods, fishing nets, or other tools. It was only when Min Xi and Yun Ji found out that there were no fishing rods on board that they got a few tough branches in Cape Verde and made their own fishing rods. The fish hooks were also made by burning and bending needles. It was very difficult to catch fish with this simple fishing rod, but it was better than nothing.

Min Xi asked the people on the boat why they didn't catch fish for themselves, and everyone answered that they didn't know how to fish and didn't know which fish were edible.

This was not a problem for Min Xi. As long as he caught a fish, he could basically recognize it. After all, he had seen the commonly eaten fish all over the world, so he could just not eat the ones he had never seen before.

They were not close to the continental shelf, so the water depth was hard to estimate, but it was definitely not shallow, and it was not a fishing ground, so the fish they could catch were actually limited. They worked hard for half the night, but in the end they only caught a grouper, which was not big, probably only about five or six pounds.

Min Xi and Yun Ji also understood that it was big enough. With their simple fishing gear, it was already a blessing to be able to catch such a big fish.

It took them a lot of effort to pull the fish onto the boat.

The next morning, everyone ate hot and fragrant fish soup. The fish soup was eaten with black bread, and the black bread instantly became delicious.

Everyone admitted that Min Xi had the solution and was able to make everyone eat hot and fresh fish soup.

Because they had successfully caught fish the night before, Min Xi and Yun Ji continued to fish at the stern of the boat the next night. If they could catch anything, it would be a profit.

Diego also followed them out fishing, so naturally, the little bully followed them. The food was not good recently, so the little bully could only eat black bread. This morning, he finally ate fish soup with black bread and fish bones, which made the little guy very happy.

It is confined in such a small boat every day. If it runs a few steps quickly, it may rush overboard. It is really difficult for it, although it doesn't like to move.

At this moment, Diego was trying hard to practice Chinese with two people, and the little bully was lying at their feet.

Suddenly, the little overlord stood up and shouted a few times into the darkness. Min Xizhun turned around and said, "What's going on? Overlord, what did you find?"

For safety reasons, lights are usually not turned on at night, because this will expose their position and serve as a target for pirates, although the chance of encountering pirates in this position is very small. Of course, there is also the risk of colliding with other ships, but in this drifting state, even if a collision occurs, it will not be too serious. Moreover, on such a wide sea, if two ships can collide, it is really a stroke of luck.

Yun Ji opened his eyes wide, looking at the vast darkness, trying to find something in it, but apart from the starlight, it was just darkness. The little bully was quiet for a while, then called out twice.

Min Xi said: "It must have heard something." A dog's hearing is ten times that of a human.

Everyone fell silent, and Yun Ji pricked up his ears to listen. After a long while, he said uncertainly, "There seems to be a sound in front of the left. It may be another ship."

Diego lowered his voice and said, "It's not a pirate ship, is it?"

Min Xi said: "It's unlikely. Coming to rob someone in this position is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The return rate is too low."

I don't know how long it was before I heard a voice coming from the darkness, speaking in Portuguese: "Excuse me, are you the Jazz? We are the Goddess!"

When Min Xi heard this, he quickly replied loudly: "Yes, we are the Jazz! Are you all right?"

The other party replied: "It's nothing serious, just the cargo was soaked in water. What about you? Have you seen the Harvest?"

"We are all fine, and the cargo was all soaked. We didn't see the Harvest!" Min Xi replied.

Soon, Captain Almeida came out and asked, "Is it the Goddess?"

"Yes, the Goddess is just ahead." Min Xi said.

Almeida smiled. "That's great! Where's the Harvest?"

"I don't know. They have no news either."

Almeida ran to the bow and exchanged information with the captain of the Goddess in the dark, confirming that they would reach St. Helena the next day or the day after, and agreed to meet again after arriving at the port.

After the exchange, the captain came over and rubbed the little bully's head: "Little guy, you have done a great job. If it weren't for you, the Goddess would not be sure that it was us."

It seemed that it was the little bully's barking that made the captain of the Goddess recognize them. After all, when they came to the ship to eat, the little bully was chewing a bone happily beside them. The other two captains were very impressed by this little dog.

Although there is no news about the Harvest now, it is certain that the Goddess is safe, which means that the possibility of the Harvest being safe is also relatively high.

We were lucky tonight and actually caught two fish, a grouper weighing about seven or eight kilograms and a sea bream. The next day we all had the treat of fish soup.

During the day, they finally saw the Goddess, which was about a few hundred meters away from their left front. With a fellow ship, they felt more relaxed, at least the safety factor could be improved. Besides, the Jazz had not traveled this route before, so they needed a guide.

On the morning of the third day, they finally saw the island. For people who had been drifting on the sea for nearly twenty days without landing, the joy of seeing land was indescribable.

Even the little bully shouted with joy.

Arriving at St. Helena, they had only completed one-third of their journey, but for those who had just experienced a storm and were running out of food, this joy was no less than arriving at their destination.

There are many Portuguese people living on St. Helena Island. They grow vegetables, fruits, grains, and raise poultry and livestock. Their main purpose is to provide supplies for ocean-going ships traveling from north to south.

This supply point is obviously more lively than the Madeira Islands. After all, all sailboats heading south or north have to resupply here.

After arriving at the port, everyone couldn't wait to get off the boat. We had been at sea for too long and everyone missed the feeling of being on solid ground, especially the clean water and fresh vegetables and meat.

Min Xi and his four companions and a dog also got off the boat. This time, the task of purchasing food on the ship was also given to Min Xi, which was enough to prove the captain's trust in Min Xi.

So in addition to buying the ingredients he needed, Min Xi also had to buy ingredients on the ship.

The first day on the island was a shopping spree. At noon, many crew members had lunch on the island. There was a Portuguese restaurant here. The seafood was very good. There were both black bread and wheat bread. Although it was not as good as Min Xi's cooking, it was hot and fresh.

Min Xi and others originally wanted to eat on the island, but the crews of the two ships had all disembarked and there was a long queue for food, so Min Xi had to go back to the ship and cook for himself.

With the seafood bought, Min Xi made a simple seafood noodle dish and also blanched a lot of vegetables. After such a long time, we finally got to eat noodles and vegetables, and everyone felt like crying while eating.

When Captain Almeida came back, Min Xi and the others had not finished eating yet. He came over and asked, "What delicious food do you want to eat?"

“Seafood noodles.”

"It looks so delicious. It looks better than what I ate at the restaurant on the island."

This was too obvious. Min Xi smiled and said, "Captain, do you want to eat something? There's more in the pot."

"Yes!" Captain Almeida was waiting for him to say this.

"Okay, I'll go get you some noodles." Min Xi put down his bowl and chopsticks and went to serve him some noodles.