The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

While eating the hot and fragrant noodles, Captain Almeida sighed with satisfaction and said, "Thank you for your hard work tonight, Mr. Min. I have invited Captain Pereira of the Goddess to dinner and asked you to cook."

"No problem, we need to eat anyway." Min Xi agreed readily.

Yun Ji asked, "Captain, how long will we stay here?"

Almeida thought for a moment and said, "I'm not sure yet. Let's wait for Captain Pereira to come tonight and discuss it together. I estimate that we will stay here for two days to wait for the Harvest. If we can't wait, then we will have to leave first."

This time, we had enough time to stay at the supply point, and there was plenty of time to buy food. Unfortunately, it was summer in the southern hemisphere, and there were too many mosquitoes, so it was difficult to dry fish and meat, otherwise Min Xi would have made some himself. Now he could only buy local dried fish.

In the evening, Min Xi prepared a fairly sumptuous dinner on the boat. He stewed chicken soup, roasted lamb, and cooked some seafood. In short, everything was different from last time, and Captain Pereira ate so much that he kept sucking his fingers.

They talked about the situation during the storm. Neither ship saw any floating cargo or debris on the sea. If there was any, they were all small things, which should have fallen from their own ship. This meant that the Harvest was fine in the waters where they were, unless the storm blew them further away and caused an accident.

But this situation cannot be ruled out. After all, the Harvest has been at the rear and is some distance away from them.

The two captains said this and comforted each other: "It's okay, the Harvest is definitely fine. They may have been blown further away by the storm, and they will arrive in two days."

During the two days of replenishment on St. Helena Island, Min Xicai bought the items needed on the ship and bought a lot of supplies with his own money. This time he must be fully prepared, as he did not want to lack fruits and vegetables again.

The biggest surprise that Min Xi got on St. Helena was lemons, which are the best fruit for preventing scurvy. The lemons on St. Helena were transplanted from Asia by the Portuguese, but the fruit was too small and too sour. People had not yet realized the superiority of lemons in supplementing vitamin C and preventing scurvy, and did not consciously stockpile lemons. Therefore, these fruits were not very popular in the local area. In early summer, no one picked the lemons hanging on the trees, and many of them fell to the ground.

Min Xi found the lemons in front of someone's door while he was wandering around the island. He was overjoyed and found a basket to pick up all the unrotten lemons that had fallen on the ground. He also picked all the lemons from the trees and gave the owner some money.

The other party said, "These fruits are too sour and can't be eaten at all. Do you want this?"

Min Xi said, "Yes, I see it didn't go bad even after it fell on the ground, so it should be very durable. In fact, you can plant more lemons and sell them, and tell people that eating this will prevent you from getting scurvy. It will definitely sell well!"

The owner was skeptical: "Is it true?"

Min Xi said: "Of course it's true. I'm from Asia, and this is our Asian fruit. I won't get any benefit from lying to you, right?"

After Min Xi found the basket of lemons, he went to other places on the island and found a few other lemon trees. As expected, the sales of these things were not very good and not many were planted.

Min Xi bought all the lemons and gave some to Goddess. When she heard that this thing could prevent scurvy, she was skeptical, but when she heard that this thing could be kept for several months without going bad, she accepted it, thinking that it would be used as an emergency food when she really had nothing to eat.

They waited on the island for two days, but the Harvest still didn't arrive. Everyone knew that the Harvest was in danger, but since they hadn't seen the ship capsize, they still believed that it was still fine. They couldn't wait any longer, they had to hurry on.

The original three ships became two. To be honest, everyone was upset, but this is sailing, the rewards are high, but the risks are also high. The most pitiful are the sailors. Although they earn more than ordinary people, they are really exchanging their lives for money.

The distance from St. Helena to Cape of Good Hope is about the same as that to Cape Verde. This section of the journey was much smoother than the previous one. There were no storms. The biggest trouble was that the ocean current and wind direction were a bit against the flow, so the ship could not go faster.

In order to utilize the wind power, the direction of the sail needs to be constantly adjusted, so this part is the most tiring for the sailors. In addition to their daily work, they have to add the task of adjusting the sail all the time.

Although it was tiring, it was safe at least. Although the voyage was a bit long, we had sufficient supplies on St. Helena and never suffered from food shortages, especially fresh fruits and vegetables.

About half a month later, when the fresh fruits and vegetables from the island had been almost eaten, Min Xi began to distribute a lemon to the crew every day, and reminded them: "It is best to eat it with the skin, don't waste it, and you won't get scurvy if you eat it."

To be honest, this kind of lemon has not been cultivated and optimized, the fruit is very small, and the taste is so sour that it is hard to describe the feeling. Everyone thought it was too unpalatable. Min Xi ate the lemon with a grin: "Unpalatable? Is it unpalatable than stinky meat or bread with worms? This thing can really prevent scurvy, what's the point of me lying to you?"

Everyone was skeptical, but with no other fruits or vegetables to distribute, they had no choice but to eat it.

Min Xi added: "If you find it too sour, you can cut it up and soak it in water to drink. When the sour taste fades, you can eat the rest. In short, don't waste it."

As expected, many people took the approach of soaking lemons in water and drinking them, because they were so sour that they had never eaten anything so sour in their lives.

But no matter what, everyone ate the lemon in the end.

From that day on, Min Xi gave everyone a lemon every day. Everyone resisted at first, but gradually got used to it. In the absence of other fruits and vegetables, everyone regarded eating lemons as a comfort.

Finally, after eating lemons for a week, the ship finally arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. If it didn’t arrive earlier, everyone would have been sour.

Min Xi counted the lemons and found that only one third was left. He said to the crew members dissatisfiedly: "If you don't want to eat them, I don't want to give them to you. They are life-saving!"

Everyone laughed after hearing this: "Well, our lives have been saved. We don't have to eat sour lemons today! Thank God!"

The Cape of Good Hope was the supply point for all ships traveling between Asia and Europe, and Portuguese and Spanish ships would converge here. Due to the hostile relationship between the two countries, Portuguese and Spanish sailors were also hostile to each other when they met. In the best case, they would just glare at each other and spit at each other, but in the worst case, they would even fight on the spot and get their heads broken and bloodied.

When they docked today, they encountered three Spanish sailing ships that were also heading from Europe to Asia.

As soon as Captain Pereira of the Goddess arrived at the hotel where they usually stayed, he found that a group of Spaniards had already checked in before them. Those Spanish crew members arrived at the Cape of Good Hope one day earlier than them.

Pereira saw the Spaniard and came out cursing, spitting fiercely on the ground: "What bad luck! I ran into the damn Spaniard!"

When he came out, he saw Captain Almeida coming with his men and said unhappily, "Don't go there, go to another one. There are Spaniards over there."

Almeida traveled back and forth to the New World all year round and had more dealings with the Spaniards. Upon hearing this, he turned around and left with his men. As they were about to leave, they heard boos and jeers coming from behind.

Min Xi looked back and saw that the group of Spanish sailors were gathered together, raising their middle fingers and pointing downwards to provoke them.

A crew member next to him clenched his fists: "I really want to beat them up."

Captain Almeida shouted, "Just bear with it. Do you want to die?"

Although the conflict between the two sides may not necessarily lead to death, if you are injured, you will have to rely on yourself to recover. In this era, a minor injury that is not properly handled can cause a person to lose a limb or even die, so everyone tries to avoid conflict. The Spanish are also sure of this, so they dare to provoke like this.

They had stayed at sea for too long, so when they reached the Cape of Good Hope, they all got off the boat and wanted to find a place to take a bath.

The hotel Captain Pereira had chosen earlier was said to have a bathroom, but it was occupied by the Spaniards, so he had to change to another hotel, which had no bathroom.

When the shop owner heard them say they wanted to take a bath, he said, "If you want to take a bath, it's easy. Just go to the river and take a bath. In this kind of weather, you can take a bath however you want."

This is indeed a good idea. Going to the river to bathe and swim in the summer is also what Min Xi often did when he was a child.

After they settled in the hotel, they followed the owner's instructions and found a clear stream. The stream was shallow, so swimming was not possible, but it was more than enough for a bath.

Min Xi jumped into the water impatiently without even taking off his clothes, and Diego and the Little Overlord followed suit.

Yun Ji took off his shirt slowly before going into the water and finding a place with deeper water to sit down.

Old Xius took off his clothes slowly. He actually didn't like taking a bath, but when he was with Min Xi and Yun Ji, he knew he needed to take a bath and change clothes. After all, compared to them, he smelled too strong.

Most of the sailors on the Jazz also came to take a shower consciously. After all, they worked hard on the ship every day and their bodies were soaked with sweat and covered with mud and dirt countless times. They still had to take a shower when they had the chance.

What's more, when Min Xi was on the ship, he would talk to everyone every now and then, intentionally or unintentionally, about the health-preserving methods of Chinese medicine, which advocated changing clothes, bathing and washing hands frequently. Even the emperor and court officials had three days of rest every month, which were specially given to them to go back and take a bath.

The hints are so obvious, it would be very rude not to take a shower.