The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

The atmosphere at the table was somewhat dulled by this topic, so Old Master Tao changed the subject again: "Since we are leaving in the fall, there is still time. Min Xi can learn something during these few months."

Min Xi said: "Thank you for your teachings, Grandfather. If I have nothing to do, I will follow you to take lessons."

Old Master Tao nodded: "Okay!"

Several cousins ​​were particularly curious about the situation in Europe, so they asked them about the current situation in various countries. Yun Ji and Min Xi answered them one by one. They covered everything from people's lives to national governance, and Min Xi had observed all of these carefully, so he could explain them clearly.

The Tao family discovered that Min Xi was not an ordinary person at all. His insights and perspectives on issues were very unique. No wonder Yun Ji praised him for his intelligence.

After lunch, Min Xi and Yun Ji played with Yun Lin for a while, planning to leave after he took a nap. They were going to invite yesterday’s friends to their home for dinner tomorrow, so they had to make some preparations in advance today.

As a result, even though the little guy was so sleepy that his eyelids were fighting, he was still reluctant to sleep. He held Yun Ji's finger tightly with his little hand, saying that he was afraid that his brother would be gone when he woke up.

So Min Xi said to Yun Ji, "We have been at home these days, why not take Lin'er back with you? He has a nanny with him anyway."

Yun Ji thought about it and said, "Okay."

Then he said to Yunlin, "Lin'er, go to sleep. I'll sleep with you. When you wake up, I'll take you home, okay?"

Yunlin tried to open his eyes: "Okay!"

Yun Ji accompanied his brother to bed and said to Min Xi, "You should also take a nap and let them take you to my bedroom." He has his own room here.

Min Xi shook his head: "No, I'll go for a walk in the garden, and when you wake up, we'll go back together."

Yun Ji was a little worried: "Wait until Lin Er falls asleep, I'll come find you."

"No, you should stay with him more. Don't wait until he opens his eyes and can't find you. This is my grandparents' home, what do you have to worry about?" Min Xi said and went out.

Yun Ji thought it made sense and stopped trying to persuade him.

It was spring time and Min Xi wanted to sit in the garden. He met Tao Shu on the corridor and started chatting with him.

Tao Shu failed in an imperial examination and was considered a failed candidate. There were usually two options for candidates like him: one was to continue studying, and the other was to wait for selection as an official. In the Ming Dynasty, candidates were also eligible to become officials, but in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, with the increase in the number of scholars, only a very small number of candidates could become officials, and they were usually instructors in counties, prefectures, and prefectures, and their official positions were not high.

Tao Shu was still young, so of course he continued to study and wait for the next imperial examination. He did not enter the Imperial Academy, so he studied at home. Anyway, his grandfather, a Hanlin scholar, and his father, a member of the Ministry of Revenue, were both Jinshi, and his grandfather was a first-class Jinshi, so they could guide him.

It was also through chatting with Tao Shu that Min Xi learned the specific details of the Ming Dynasty's imperial examination system and wondered in his mind how likely it was that he would pass the examination and become a scholar.

Like all young people, Tao Shu was full of yearning and curiosity about the outside world. However, it was impossible for him to go out to sea, so he could only ask Min Xi about the outside world.

They kept chatting until Yunlin woke up from his nap. Yunji carried him to find Min Xi, and then he said goodbye to Tao Shu and left the Tao Mansion with Yunji and his brother.

Yunlin was very well-behaved. The baby who had just woken up was still sleepy-eyed. He snuggled in his brother's arms and yawned continuously.

When Min Xi teased him, he looked at her with his big black and white eyes, staring blankly without saying a word, and seemed to be in a bad mood. It was not until they arrived at Qianmen Street and got off the carriage to buy things that the little guy became fully alert and in high spirits.

Children love to be lively. He looked at all kinds of new things curiously along the way and wanted everything he saw, but he didn't say a word, just stared.

Yun Ji and Min Xi would ask where his gaze lingered, "Do you want it?"

The child remained silent. Min Xi patted his head and said, "Just tell me if you want it. I can afford it."

Yunlin looked at him: "Is it okay?"

"Of course!" Min Xi answered proudly, and so he bought him a rattle, a small windmill, sugar men, candied haws, and small dough figurines. His little hands were too full to hold them all, so he had to give them to the wet nurse and maid who followed him.

The wet nurse said: "In fact, the old man, the old lady and the uncle have all bought things for Lin'er." She wanted to express that the Tao family did not treat Yunlin harshly.

Yun Ji said, "I know, those were bought for him by his grandfather and uncle, and these are bought for him by us, they are different."

The nurse heaved a sigh of relief after hearing what he said.

However, Yunlin was weak, and the wet nurse did not let him eat the food bought on the street, saying that it was not clean and would upset his stomach.

Min Xi also thought it made sense. Beijing was windy and dusty, so both the candied figurines and the candied haws must have been covered in dust. So he said to Yun Lin, "Lin'er, play with these. We won't eat them. I'll make them for you when we get home. I can also make candied haws and figurines."

When Yunlin heard this, he nodded happily: "Okay!"

Min Xi first went to the dry goods store to buy a lot of dry goods and spices, which were the ingredients for the banquet for the guests tomorrow. He also went to the fruit store to buy a lot of hawthorns, apples, pears and other fresh fruits, preparing to go back and make candied haws.

When they got home, Diego heard the noise and ran out to greet them, with the Little Bully following closely behind him.

“Boss, you guys are finally back—” Diego’s voice stopped abruptly when he saw Yunlin, “Who is this kid? He’s so cute!”

When Yunlin saw the strange-looking Diego, he was so scared that he quickly hugged Yunji's neck tightly and buried his face in his shoulder, almost crying.

Min Xi noticed his change and said with a smile: "Lin'er, don't be afraid, this is your brother's friend. Diego, this is Yun Dong's younger brother, you can just call him Brother Lin. He may be a little shy."

Diego raised his hand and greeted, "Hello! Brother Lin."

He spoke in a strange accent and Yunlin didn't understand at all, so he didn't even turn his head.

Diego was a little embarrassed, so he had to change the subject: "Boss, what did you buy?"

Min Xi said, "I plan to invite people to dinner at home tomorrow, and I bought some ingredients. What did you buy when you went shopping today?"

Diego said happily: "I bought a lot, everything, food and entertainment. The capital is so interesting! But I spent a lot of money."

Min Xi smiled and said, "It's okay, I'll give you more flowers when they're gone."

When Yunlin heard Min Xi talking to Diego, he turned around quietly and secretly looked at Diego. He thought he looked quite scary, so he didn't dare to look at him again.

Min Xi and Yun Ji pretended not to notice his little action. It takes an adaptation period to arrive in a new environment and meet new people.

After Min Xi came back, he went to the small kitchen in Xiwei Courtyard. The kitchen had not been used since Yun Ji left, so it needed to be cleaned again. Tao Xing and Tao Sheng moved some firewood and ingredients from the big kitchen because Min Xi said he wanted to cook Yun Lin's meal himself.

Before cooking, Min Xi boiled some syrup, wrapped a few strings of candied haws, and asked Yun Ji to pour the syrup on a little dragon, because Yun Lin was born in the year of the dragon.

Yunlin held a candied haws in one hand and a candy figurine in the other. His face flushed with excitement. He looked at his brothers with eyes like black grapes: "Can I have some?"

Min Xi said, "Eat the candied haws. Sugar men don't eat them."

"This is me, I don't want to eat it!" Yunlin really likes the little dragon that his brother made for him. He looked at the sugar dragon, opened his mouth and took a bite of the hawthorn coated with syrup, his little face wrinkled with sourness.

Yun Ji pinched his little face: "Is it delicious?"

"It's delicious! Brother, try it too!" Although he likes candied haws very much, he is still willing to share them with his brother.

“Okay!” Yun Ji bit off the hawthorn he had taken a bite of, and Yun Lin giggled happily.

The nurse looked at his happy expression and said with some sadness: "This is the first time for Lin'er to eat candied haws."

Min Xi said: "The method of making candied haws is simple. You just watched me make it. You can also try to make it at home in the future."

"Okay!" the nurse agreed readily.

Diego also tried the candied haws and gave a string to old Hughes. They both liked them very much. Sweet things are most suitable for foreigners' taste.

Min Xi looked at the remaining string of candied haws and handed it to Yun Ji: "This is for you."

Yun Ji took a look and didn't take it. Instead, he bit off a hawthorn from Min Xi's hand and said, "Okay, you can eat the rest yourself."

Min Xi also took a bite of the hawthorn, which was sour and sweet and very appetizing: "Look at how excited Lin'er is, it seems that he hasn't eaten a lot of food. I will make more snacks for him later so that he can have a taste."

Of course, it wasn't that the Tao family was mean to him, it was that he was weak, and the Tao family took good care of him. All the food was cooked in their own kitchen, and he was rarely asked to taste the fruit and snacks bought outside. The Tao family's cook was okay, but the snacks they made were only traditional Suzhou-style snacks such as osmanthus cake and mung bean cake, with not many varieties.

"Okay. I heard from my grandmother that Lin'er has a weak spleen and stomach. He can't digest many things, has a poor appetite, and eats very little. He can only eat a little at a time, so he needs to be fed several times a day. Raising him is harder than raising ten of me." Yun Ji couldn't help but smile bitterly when he said this.

Min Xi said: "When he grows up, he should be better. There is no need to be too meticulous in raising him. If you do, his resistance will be weakened and his body will become weaker."

"You're right. Country kids are all born in the mud and dust. They are all strong and sturdy."

"It's not necessary to compare him with the country kids. Lin'er has been weak since birth. If he was raised in the countryside, he might not be as healthy as he is now." There was another sentence he didn't say. If he was a country kid, he would have died long ago.

Min Xi asked the nurse Yun Lin about his diet. Usually, it was porridge, noodles, soup and other foods that were easy to digest. He was not allowed to eat anything raw, cold or hard. For example, he only ate half of a candied haws, and the nurse didn't dare to let him eat it, saying it was raw.

Min Xi couldn't help but ask, "You don't usually eat fruit, you cook it for him, right?"

The nurse nodded and said, "Apples and pears are steamed before they are given to him to eat."

Min Xi held his forehead with his hand. This was too much of an overreaction. It would be useless. "Don't worry about him. Hawthorns are good for appetite. Let him eat two. You can let him eat less fruit, but don't let him eat cooked fruit. It will have little nutrition. You are right to take good care of him, but being too meticulous is not good for him."

The wet nurse couldn't understand Min Xi. How could a grown man like him know how to take care of a child?

Yun Ji said: "Ninth brother is right, we should listen to him from now on."