The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

After everyone finished dinner, Amanda washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen before leaving get off work.

Fernando didn't leave until Amanda and Gail left. Then he said to Min Xi, "Min, you can't treat your servants like this. They won't know what's good for them. You have to set up some rules and let them know that the master is the master and the servant is the servant. They need to know what is superior and what is inferior."

Min Xi smiled and said, "You can't say that, Your Excellency the Baron. I am the boss and I pay for their labor. This is a fair transaction and both parties are willing. Other than that, we are all equals and there is no difference."

Fernando looked at Min Xi and thought about it. Yes, they were different from him. He was a noble and they were commoners. There was really not much difference between them.

Fernando said: "Having said that, you can't be too indulgent to them. It's also against the rules to withdraw wages in advance. They are all new here, and you are not familiar with them. What if they use this to cheat you of your money?"

Min Xi said: "Of course I wouldn't do the same to everyone, and my salary is limited. If someone really wants to give up the job for a little bit of profit and betray a kind boss like me, that's their loss. I just lost a little money and saw the true face of a person. I can still afford this price."

Fernando, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, probably found it difficult to understand Min Xi's thoughts.

Yun Ji didn't say anything, but he could understand Min Xi's thoughts. He had suffered a lot when he was a child and grew up eating at many people's homes. He could only survive because of people's kindness, so he was willing to help those who were in the same difficulties.

Fernando left, and just after walking a few steps, he turned back. Yun Ji, who was closing the door, asked in surprise: "Baron, what is this--"

Fernando said, "I'm going to take these chopsticks home and practice hard." He tried several times tonight but still couldn't use the chopsticks well. In the end he had to rely on a fork to finish his noodles. But when he saw Min Xi and Yun Ji using chopsticks so smoothly, he was really envious. If he could practice using chopsticks well, couldn't he show off to his friends?

Before going to bed, the two counted the accounts. Today's income was almost 1 reais more than yesterday, and there were a dozen more customers, mainly because there were more customers in the evening, and all the ingredients were sold out, with no waste at all.

Yun Ji asked, "Are you tired?"

Min Xi stretched his shoulders and said, "I feel fine. With Amanda's help tonight, I feel a lot more relaxed. Although there are more customers, I don't feel more tired than yesterday."

"That's good." Yun Ji felt a little relieved. "Eat dinner earlier next time, before the guests come. Even if you get hungry later and have a midnight snack, it's better than working on an empty stomach."

"What you said makes sense. Let's eat before five o'clock. And eat earlier at noon, before eleven o'clock." Min Xi said.

"Sure. The lady who came today is a hard-working person and does a good job." Yun Ji said.

"Yes, I originally wanted to let her wash the dishes, but I found that she is actually more suitable to help me. She is used to doing kitchen work and is very efficient in washing vegetables and processing ingredients. For the young man who is coming tomorrow, I plan to let them switch and let the young man wash the dishes." Min Xi said.

"Then let's switch over. Everything is based on your convenience." Yun Ji said.

The two of them worked under the lamp for a while. Yun Ji was still drawing the sketch of his "Magu Offering Longevity", while Min Xi was preparing the menu and ingredients for the Duke's birthday party.

It is said that more than a hundred people attended the Duke's birthday party, which was a huge challenge for the chef. First of all, there were no big pots used in weddings in rural China to cook food, and one dish had to be cooked in several portions.

I don’t know what Western chefs can do, but they probably only know how to stew, fry and bake. They don’t know how to stir-fry or steam food, and they rarely fry food. Min Xi plans to start with these three cooking methods.

Let’s have a roast duck. This foreigner seems to like it very much. With so many people, just kill more ducks, dig a naan pit, and roast them all at once.

Let's make another dish, boneless roast chicken. This dish requires a lot of spices, but the Duke should be able to afford it. The only problem is that there is a lack of soy sauce, so the color won't be very good. I'll just use sugar color to make do.

If you have tomatoes, you can make tomato sauce and cook a squirrel mandarin fish dish. If you don’t have mandarin fish, you can use sea bass instead. However, this dish needs to wait for the Baron to confirm it. After all, tomatoes are only named after they are eaten.

Make a dish of salt and pepper shrimp. Since it is Chinese food, just follow the Chinese method.

I will cook a simplified version of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. As for the ingredients, I have to prepare most of them myself. After all, the Fulangji people are not good at cooking. The dried goods are all salted, such as fish maw and scallops. Min Xi has dried some of them and is preparing to make a private menu for the guests in the future, but there are still many that have not been gathered, so I have to hurry up and prepare them.

Forget about the soup. Buddha Jumps Over the Wall can be considered a soup. I guess Western chefs will also prepare soup. If there is no soup there, just make some mushroom chicken soup yourself.

As for the staple food, we can make seafood noodles. The weather is too hot, so there is no need to eat noodle soup. For dessert, we can make custard buns.

After Yun Ji finished sketching, he looked at Min Xi next to him and asked, "What are you writing?"

Min Xi yawned: "The menu prepared for the Duke's birthday banquet."

Yun Ji came over and asked: "What is Buddha Jumps Over the Wall?"

Min Xi was stunned. It seemed that Buddha Jumps Over the Wall didn't exist at that time. Min Xi said, "It's just a soup. Many ingredients are stewed together for a whole day. It smells so good that even monks can't help but break their vows and want to jump over the wall to eat it."

Yun Ji smiled and said, "Interesting, is this a dish from your Yingtian Prefecture?"

"No, it was made by a chef from Fujian," said Min Xi.

Yun Ji said, "It seems that you have learned a lot during those years in the restaurant. Why didn't you become a chef, but became a sailor?"

Min Xi said: "I heard that being a seaman can earn a lot of money. After a few trips, you can buy a house or land. Alas, high pay comes with high risk. I almost lost my life."

"When you come back, I will double your wages." Yun Ji said.

"Then thank you, Young Master." Min Xi said jokingly.

Yun Ji also smiled: "Okay, go to bed early, you have to get up early tomorrow."

"Yes, you must wake me up tomorrow morning. Don't stop waking me up just because I haven't woken up yet. I have to prepare some ingredients for the Duke's banquet." Min Xi said, "After the ingredients are prepared, I have to cook them for the Baron and ask him to taste the dishes."

"It seems like I'm lucky enough to have Buddha Jumps Over the Wall first?" Yun Ji asked with a smile.

"Of course, we have to satisfy our own appetite first," said Min Xi.

The next morning, the two went to the market. They were lucky. They happened to meet a fisherman who had killed a shark. The shark was not big, but the locals did not eat sharks very much. Even if they did, they only ate some meat and threw away the other parts. When they went there, no one wanted the shark's fins or head.

Min Xi bought the shark's head and fins for very little money. The lips and skin of the fish head can be used to make fish lips, and the fins can be used to make shark fins.

I saw someone selling croaker, so I bought a few. The meat of croaker is very tender and fresh, and it is perfect for boiled fish. However, the most precious part of croaker is not the meat, but the maw. After it is dried, it becomes isinglass, which is more valuable than gold, just like the isinglass of yellow croaker.

Although Min Xi had dried a lot of croaker maw, he couldn't help but want to buy it when he saw croaker. The locals didn't know how valuable isinglass is. Croaker is just an ordinary fish, and the price of one pound is only a few riels. So every time he saw it, Min Xi would buy some. Even if he couldn't use it all, when he brought it back to Ming later, it would be like bringing back gold.

Dried scallops can only be used to replace abalone. Abalone was not found, and people here don’t seem to eat abalone. However, there should be this kind of shellfish in the sea, and people who are good at swimming need to go into the sea to fish for it.

Min Xi found a man who specialized in selling shells in the market. He also often bought shells from him. He described the shape of abalone to him and asked him if he had seen this kind of shellfish in the sea. The man gave an ambiguous answer. Min Xi said, "Next time you go to the sea, you can help me catch some. If it is what I need, I will give you money."

The man nodded: "Okay."

Min Xi asked: "When are you going to the sea? Tomorrow?"

"I'll try it today, you come tomorrow." The man agreed.

"Okay, if you have it, I'll take it all." Min Xi said, "The price is twice as high as yours."

When the man heard this, he thought it was a good idea and agreed without hesitation.

After the two came out of the seafood market, they hurried to the vegetable market to buy meat. The most common meat they used was mutton, followed by chicken. Min Xi rarely used pork because of its strong smell, but today he bought a few pig trotters, mainly to get the tendons, which are the ingredients needed for Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

In the summer, mushrooms grow vigorously and there are many mushroom sellers. Min Xi also found the mushrooms he wanted and prepared to take them back to dry for later use. As for other ingredients that he couldn't find, he could only forget about it, after all, he could only make a simple version of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.