The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

That night they moved to another place to spend the night, because they had killed a crocodile and the smell of blood was too strong, which might attract other wild animals to come and hunt for food. For safety reasons, they stayed away from the hunting site.

Nothing happened that night. The next morning, they rowed back to the place where they hunted crocodiles yesterday, because they wanted to visit the indigenous tribe. There was only a pool of blood left there. The crocodile meat and residues left yesterday were all gone. There were many dragging marks on the ground around, some from the shore and some from the water. It is estimated that there are both crocodiles and Tasmanian tigers.

Everyone was glad that they didn't stay here overnight, otherwise it would have been very lively last night and they wouldn't have been able to get a good night's sleep.

They cooked breakfast on the stove they had built yesterday. They were eating when the native from yesterday came. It was the native they had fished out of the river. He brought two companions with him, obviously to express his gratitude. The man gave Min Xi and Yun Ji a kangaroo skin as a thank you gift.

The kangaroo skin was relatively intact, but the processing technique was too rough. Min Xi and Yun Ji did not think much of it, but they still accepted it. After all, it was a gift from someone else, and the sentiment behind it was great.

After delivering the gifts, the three men did not leave. Instead, they squatted aside and watched them drink soup and eat roasted crocodile meat, their eyes fixed on them, not hiding their desire for food at all.

Seeing this, Min Xi had no choice but to serve them some more. The three of them were not polite and picked up the bowls to eat, grinning at everyone while eating.

After breakfast, the three natives gestured towards them, waving their hands in the direction they came from. Min Xi and Yun Ji knew that they were inviting them to their tribe.

So they left a few people to watch the boat, and the rest of them took their weapons and followed to the indigenous tribe.

This tribe is not too far from the river, and it only takes about ten minutes to walk there. Their tribe is next to a sparse forest, and the houses are built with wood and branches, with grass on the roof. Judging from the structure of the house, it is similar to that of the Tulu tribe, but it seems to be built more solidly.

This tribe was larger than the two tribes we had seen before. When they came over, many men, women, old and young stopped to watch. The natives wore very little, but the Ming people were used to it. After all, they had lived with the two native tribes for several months, so they were used to it.

Soon a group of people came out to greet them, led by an old man with a necklace made of conch and wolf teeth around his neck, who looked very special. When he saw Min Xi and the others, he crossed his hands on his shoulders and bowed to them.

Min Xi and Yun Ji returned the greeting with the Ming style bow.

The group of people automatically parted to make way for them. Min Xi noticed that there were actually quite a few emus and kangaroos wandering around in the village. When they saw strangers coming, they stopped to watch curiously. Min Xi even saw a naughty boy in his teens lying on a sturdy kangaroo. The kangaroo seemed to be used to it and was obviously very familiar with it.

Min Xi was surprised to see this and hurriedly asked Yun Ji to go and see. Yun Ji saw the scene and said, "That should be the kangaroo they raised."

"It seems so. They raise those emus and kangaroos." This shows that this tribe is more advanced than the two tribes they encountered before. At least they have begun to domesticate and raise emus and kangaroos.

The native leader led them to a spacious house with an unextinguished fire in the middle of the house. There were some relatively flat stones around the fire. The stones were very smooth and looked like they were often worn down by people. This scene was somewhat similar to the drum towers in some ethnic minority villages in China, which were specially used for gatherings.

The chief invited them to take a seat, and he sat down in the main seat, saying something in a babble. After a while, someone brought some roasted meat and fruit on leaves and placed them in front of everyone, inviting them to enjoy the food.

Min Xi and Yun Ji did not eat meat, but took some fruits in their hands. Here, they were not short of meat, but fruits and staple foods.

When the chief saw them taking the fruit, a smile appeared on his face. After a while, the person who delivered the food returned to the chief with the uneaten barbecue. The chief picked up a bone knife hanging on his waist and started cutting the barbecue, which looked like kangaroo meat.

After the leader cut it, he handed his knife to Yun Ji who was sitting next to him. Yun Ji didn't know what he meant and guessed that he wanted him to cut the meat and eat it, so he waved his hand to refuse.

The leader retracted his bone knife, but pointed to the long sword at his waist.

Min Xi saw this and said, "Seventh Brother, does he want to see your sword?"

Yun Ji shook his head: "I guess they saw us skinning the crocodile with a dagger yesterday and wanted our knife."

Upon hearing this, Min Xi pulled out a dagger. This knife was not one he often used, but one he brought from the Ming Dynasty as a trading commodity. He had quite a few of them, and he always carried a few with him when he went out. If he met the natives, he could use them to trade items or do favors.

When the leader saw the dagger in Min Xi's hand, his eyes lit up and he nodded vigorously, meaning that this was what he wanted.

Min Xi handed over the dagger: "Do you want to see this?"

The old man took the dagger, held it up and looked at it carefully, then went on to cut the barbecue on the ground. It was indeed much easier to use than his bone knife. He shouted happily, and the people behind him were whispering to each other. Unfortunately, Min Xi and Yun Ji didn't understand a word he said.

The chief picked up the dagger, tested the blade, turned around and said something to the natives behind him, and one of the natives turned and left.

Min Xi and Yun Ji began to taste the fruits they had just caught. There was a kind of green round fruit that looked a bit like a plum. It looked sour and tasted really sour and astringent. However, Min Xi and Yun Ji did not throw it away, but ate it. They were in urgent need of fruits and vegetables. There were too few edible fruits in this place, so it was good to have something to eat.

In addition to this kind, there is also a small green fruit that looks like a lemon. If you smell it, it has a lemon fragrance, and the skin is also similar, but it is pitifully small, about the size of a human finger. Min Xi recognizes this thing, it is called finger orange, and it is a native species of Australia. Min Xi has eaten it when eating Western food in Australia. It is used for seasoning, and its effect is similar to that of lemon.

Min Xi pinched it with his fingers and broke it in the middle. The skin was very thin, and the inside was full of granular flesh. He tried to eat a few grains of flesh. It was sour and tasted similar to lemon.

Min Xi said to Yun Ji happily: "Seventh brother, try this, it's called finger lime, it has the same effect as lemon, but it's too small!"

Yun Ji ate a little and said, "It is indeed true!"

"If we have this, we won't have to worry about getting scurvy in the future. This is a citrus fruit. Citrus fruits are rich in vitamin C, which can prevent scurvy. I just don't know if they have a lot of this here." Min Xi picked up the small finger orange and asked the leader, "Do you have any more of this?"

The leader said something, but Min Xi didn't understand.

At this time, the man who had gone out earlier came back and brought a few people with him. They were holding a lot of things in their hands, including Tasmanian tiger fur, kangaroo skin, wolf teeth, shiny opals, and a particularly beautiful shell with two huge white pearls inside.

They placed these in front of the leader, who pointed at the things on the ground and gestured to Min Xi and Yun Ji, then raised the dagger in his hand and gestured to himself, indicating that if they wanted the dagger, they could pick out the things to trade from the ground.

Min Xi said: "Seventh brother, he seems to want us to choose items to trade with them. Let's take those pearls. These are good things. They are so big. They are the best among pearls." The pearls seemed to be two centimeters in diameter, and it was obvious at first glance that they were not ordinary items.

"Okay." Yun Ji took out another small knife from his body, handed it to the leader, and then took away the shell containing the pearl.

The leader smiled and nodded when he saw this, and put away the two knives, one large and one small, with satisfaction. The pearls were just for decoration and not very useful to them, so it was a great deal to exchange them for knives.

Min Xi picked up the pearls and looked at them. One was perfect, while the other had a bulge. But it didn't matter. He would make a fortune just by getting the perfect one.

Min Xi held the pearl and gestured again, asking if there were any more like this. The leader shook his head, indicating that there were none. He pointed to the things on the ground and asked them to choose again. Min Xi picked up the opals and then took out a dagger and gave it to him.

The old man was satisfied with the collection. These stones were very beautiful, but they were too hard to drill holes in and wear on the body. Most of the time they could only be put away and put away. Moreover, they picked up these beautiful stones, which cost nothing, and they could make a lot of money by exchanging them for knives.

Min Xi changed the pearls and opals, then picked up a finger orange and asked the leader, saying that he wanted this.

The leader nodded and signaled someone to get more finger oranges for Min Xi. The man brought another handful of finger oranges to Min Xi, who accepted them and opened his arms to show that he wanted more. He also asked Yun Ji to take out a fire starter and show him how to light a fire.

This fire starter really aroused the interest of the natives. After Min Xi's unremitting demonstration, those people finally understood what Min Xi meant and agreed to take them to pick finger oranges.

Those finger oranges grew in the bushes not far from their village. There were several finger orange trees there. The finger orange trees were not very tall, but they bore a lot of fruit. However, since no one took care of them, they grew naturally. Some of the fruit were pitifully small, half the size of the ones they had eaten before.

Min Xi and Yun Ji asked the others to pick all the finger oranges together. The natives wanted to say something but hesitated. In the end, they didn't say anything. They also needed these things, but they thought that there were more than just these places, so they didn't say anything to stop them.

After picking the finger oranges, Min Xi and others gave the natives two fire starters, a ceramic jar and several coarse porcelain bowls. The natives were very satisfied as these things were so exquisite to them.