The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

When they learned that Diego was still baking pastries, they turned to the big kitchen, because the bread oven and tandoor were built in the big kitchen. Several pastries had already been baked, and everyone in the family had tasted Diego's egg tarts and cakes, and they all thought they tasted very good.

After tasting it, Min Xi and Yun Ji praised Diego: "Not bad, after such a long time, your skills are still not rusty."

Diego was embarrassed by the compliment: "I only know how to make snacks. I can't help my boss with anything else."

Min Xi smiled and said, "Don't worry, you'll be busy in a while."

Diego's eyes lit up: "Boss, are you going to open a snack shop?"

Min Xi smiled and nodded: "Almost."

Diego was very happy. He finally had a place to put his skills to use. Otherwise, he would have felt bad eating and drinking for free here every day.

Min Xi was thinking about what kind of dim sum he would sell if he really opened a dim sum shop. When he was in Lisbon, the dim sum in the dim sum shop was a combination of Chinese and Western, with both Western and Chinese dim sum. But in Beijing, he had to select Chinese dim sum. After all, they would try not to sell those that were available in other shops, so that they could be unique and irreplaceable.

Or they could just open a Western-style pastry shop. The two of them came back from Europe, and Diego is Portuguese, which is indeed a gimmick. This kind of Western-style pastry is indeed unique.

There are many breads and cakes that cannot be made in Portugal, but you can try to make them after you come back, because the ingredients in Ming Dynasty are much richer.

Diego asked, "Boss, when will the snack shop open?"

"Wait a few days, when I finish the things at hand, I will try to make some new products. When you have learned how to make them, you can open the dim sum shop." Min Xi said.

Diego's eyes lit up: "Are there any new snacks?"

"Of course. When I was in Lisbon, many ingredients were unavailable, so I couldn't make anything I wanted to." Min Xi was thinking in his mind what kind of Western-style pastries he should make. He didn't know if he could make puffs or the like, so he had to give it a try.

Yun Ji finished an egg tart and clapped his hands: "Diego, bake more, I'll give them away."

"Okay!" Diego agreed readily.

So that evening, the Tao family received the fragrant and still warm pastries. The soft and sweet Western-style pastries immediately captured the hearts of the young and old in the Tao family. The elderly liked their softness and deliciousness, and the children liked their sweetness and softness. Even Grandpa Tao, who rarely eats desserts, ate one of each.

Tao Yuan put the last bite of the egg tart into his mouth, swallowed it, and then said: "Cousin Ji is tinkering with delicious food at home all day. When are we going to visit his house? I wonder what he will use to treat us."

When he said this, even the sixteen-year-old Tao Yu was a little moved: "Did you eat the food that your cousin sent you last time? How did you feel about it?"

Tao Yuan licked his lips and said, "I just drank some boiled cabbage soup, ate a bowl of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, a roasted chicken leg, and two pieces of braised pork. I can only use four words to describe it: the best taste in the world!"

"You only know how to eat alone. You never call me when there's something delicious. I've taught you so many things in vain." Tao Yu couldn't help rolling his eyes at his brother.

"Can you blame me? It was you who was not at home. And brother, aren't you supposed to be a gentleman? How can you blame me so much for such a small thing?" Tao Yuan widened his eyes and accused his brother.

"Confucius said, 'Food and sex are human nature.' I am just following my nature." Tao Yu said calmly.

"Okay, let's find a way to visit my cousin's house. Or we can ask grandma if Brother Lin has left anything behind, and we can deliver it to him. We'll go there at the same time. My cousin will definitely ask us to stay for dinner." Tao Yuan said.

"Aren't you going to the academy for classes?" Tao Yu glanced at him.

"Let's go during the ten-day weekend. We'll go together." Tao Yuan encouraged his brother.

Tao Yu thought for a moment and said, "Let's talk about it later. If everything is ok, we'll go."

Sun Hua and his friends also received snacks that evening. When Sun Hua tasted the snacks, he ate them all up in one go, so much so that he didn't even have dinner. He touched his stomach and sighed contentedly, "Yun Ji said that Europeans are not good at cooking, but it seems that's not entirely true. At least they cook snacks very well."

Little did he know that these snacks were not invented by contemporary foreigners, but were the result of hundreds of years of accumulation of experience and wisdom.

In the next few days, Min Xi and Yun Ji were busy renovating the remaining shops. When they had free time, they tried to make new pastries with Diego at home. He first managed to separate butter and cream from milk. With butter and cream, there were more ways to make Western pastries.

Min Xi made red bean bread, date paste cake, cake rolls, cookies, puff pastry, etc. After spending a lot of effort, he even made puffs.

Diego really has a talent for making pastries. Whenever Min Xi puts forward his ideas, he will try to put them into practice and, by analogy, make a variety of pastries.

Yunlin has now become Diego's follower, because this weird-looking brother can make delicious and sweet snacks. Although every time he makes one, he only lets him eat one. He dare not let him eat too much, for fear that he will eat too much snacks and skip the meal.

"Lin'er was hiding when he first saw Diego, but now he's calling you brother all the time, and his little mouth is as white as honey. He's hiding just for a bite of food. He's really useless." Yun Lin couldn't help but laugh and scold.

Min Xi smiled: "It's a child's nature to be greedy. I think it's very cute. Haven't you noticed that he has gained some weight recently?"

"I can see that. It's all thanks to you. He especially likes the food you cook. It's hard work for you. You have to remember to cook for him every day and run back and forth between the store and home." Yun Ji was grateful to Min Xi from the bottom of his heart. He cared about Yun Lin more than his own brother.

"Who told him he is my brother too!" Min Xi raised his eyebrows.

When Yun Ji heard this, the corners of his mouth raised. He liked to hear him say this, which meant that Min Xi and he were no different.

Min Xi and Yun Ji spent more than ten days visiting all the shops in the capital. They rewarded those who deserved rewards, rectified those who needed rectification, and dismissed those who deserved dismissal. They used both big sticks and sweet dates to clean up the situation in a swift and resolute manner.

All of a sudden, all the shops of Yunxianghao perked up. The young new owner was a man of practical work and could not be fooled. They had better work hard, otherwise they would even lose their jobs.

After visiting all the shops, they closed the cosmetics shop run by Aunt Luo. They sold some of the stock at a low price and gave away the rest.

After closing, the store was renovated, a stove was installed, and a new counter was built. There was little glass in the Ming Dynasty, so gauze was used to prevent dust and flies. The gauze was translucent, and you could vaguely see what was inside, but it was easy to deform. If you pressed hard a few times, you might not be able to see it. The shop assistants had to pay more attention to this.

After the stove was built, Diego was called over to teach Aunt Luo how to make pastries. From now on, Aunt Luo and her husband will still be in charge of the store. Diego came here to be a pastry chef, but he alone might not be able to do it. He needs Aunt Luo and her husband to help him. If the business is good, they will have to hire more people to help.

And when they leave, Diego will probably go with them, so Aunt Luo has to learn how to make snacks as well.

On the day the shop reopened, the sound of firecrackers resounded throughout the street. The new shop was called "Yunxiang Western Pastries", which was simple and clear. Yun Ji, the young master of Yunxiang, had returned from the dead and had traveled around Europe. He had become a legend in the streets and had long been a topic of conversation among people in Beijing. The shop was named Yunxiang, so it was clear that it was a shop under Yunxiang. The Western pastries were clearly made from snacks learned from Europe. Anyone who saw it with a little curiosity would come to take a look to see what the difference was between Western pastries and Ming Dynasty snacks.

Yun Ji invited Sun Hua to come and help, and asked him to be the first to taste the cakes in the shop. Sun Hua picked up a steaming egg tart supported by paper, put it in his mouth, took a bite, closed his eyes and tasted it carefully for a long time, and said: "The crust is crispy and fragrant, the inside is smooth and tender, sweet but not greasy, delicious!"

He then tried several other cakes, with some good ones and some so-so ones, but he didn't just praise them. After finishing the cakes, he said, "Western cakes are mainly baked, so their biggest feature is their sweetness, but they use a special method to make them as soft as steamed buns just out of the oven. Even the biscuits are very crispy and delicious. In short, it's worth a try."

After hearing what he said, those who were watching the fun rushed into the store. On the first day of opening, Min Xi estimated that there would be many people in the store, so he called all the servants in the mansion who were free to come and help.

The store prepared a lot of pre-cut cakes for people to taste, which is not common. Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of the free snacks, so the cakes for tasting were quickly divided up by everyone.

Min Xi was not in a hurry. After the customers who had eaten had bought the cakes and left, he asked someone to cut another batch and put it there for people to taste. Although there would be people who would take advantage and come back to eat the free cakes, such people were still a minority after all, and Yunxianghao was not so generous.

When it opened in the morning, the store was very busy and many people were buying. However, as the prices were not cheap, the quantities bought were small, usually one or two or three or five.

Seeing that there were fewer people coming, Min Xi asked people to pack the new cakes in boxes and deliver the cakes door to door in the name of Yun Ji. They not only delivered them to the merchants on the same street, but also to the residents in the area.

Tao Mansion naturally had to have a lot of them, and the quantity was quite large, which made the brothers Tao Yu and Tao Yuan indulge themselves. That was not all. After eating, they ran to the pastry shop to buy more, which happened to be not far from home. Not only did they buy for themselves, but they also brought their classmates from the academy to buy. Most of their classmates were either rich or noble, and this wave of advertising was really good. Within a few days, all the wealthy families in the capital knew about this Western pastry shop.