The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

Noticing the gazes watching from the dark, many people subconsciously held their muskets in their hands: "They won't attack us, will they?"

Yun Ji took a look and said, "Don't act rashly. Let's bypass this forest and stay away from these natives. As long as we don't show any hostility, they shouldn't attack us."

"What a hassle! We have guns. If they behave themselves, we can just shoot them twice! Those natives only have some crude weapons anyway." Someone grumbled dissatisfiedly.

Upon hearing this, Min Xi sternly rebuked the other party: "Be careful with your words! We are here to seek wealth, and peace brings wealth. Even rabbits will bite when they are cornered. If you use guns against them, won't they fight you with stones? When we go out and arrive at someone else's territory, we should behave properly. We don't take the initiative to cause trouble, and we don't have to be afraid of trouble when it comes."

Yun Ji also said: "Master Min is right, we don't cause trouble, but we are not afraid of trouble. Let's go."

He led the way, bypassing the forest where the natives were hiding, and landed from another place. When the natives saw them leave, they put down their spears and breathed a sigh of relief. Judging from the way these people were dressed, they didn't seem to be the islanders with whom they had a feud.

Yunji led everyone around this forest and walked into another forest. Someone suddenly shouted, "Are those chestnuts on the ground?"

Hearing this, everyone looked down and saw a lot of round fruits scattered on the ground. Min Xi couldn't help but laugh when he saw the brown round fruits. Isn't this macadamia nut? He almost forgot that Australia is the origin of macadamia nut. He didn't expect to encounter it today.

He bent down and picked up a fruit. It was round and tightly closed, and there was no way to open it. He looked up and saw that the tall macadamia tree was covered with fruit stems and shells. Most of the fruits had fallen off. He didn't know if these fruits were rotten or not, and whether they could still be eaten.

Min Xi lowered his head and picked up some fruits from the ground. Yun Ji watched him picking up fruits and asked, "Can we eat them?"

Min Xi nodded: "Yes. But I don't know if it's broken. I have to open it and see for sure."

Yun Ji bent down, picked one up, rubbed it in his palm, wiped off the dust, put it in his mouth and bit it with his teeth. This action was so fast that Min Xi couldn't stop him in time: "Don't bite it, it will break your teeth!"

As Yun Ji was talking, he already felt the sensation of nearly breaking his teeth. The fruit was as hard as a rock. "It's so hard, I can't even crack it open like this, how can I eat it?"

When the people around heard them say this, they all asked curiously, "Sir, is this edible?"

Min Xi said, "It's edible, but I don't know if it's spoiled. Try smashing it open with a hammer."

Someone took out a tool, found a stone on the ground, and hit it hard. It didn't open at once, so he hit it again with greater force. Finally, it opened, revealing the white flesh inside: "The shell is really hard, much harder than chestnuts. Can it really be eaten?"

Min Xi stepped forward and said, "Don't eat it yet. Let me try it."

He picked up the white flesh and smelled it. It didn't smell moldy, and it was very fresh. He put it in his mouth and took a bite. It was hard and crisp, with a faint fragrance, but no other taste. "It's edible. It's not bad."

When everyone heard this, they quickly bent down to pick it up and put it into their pockets.

Min Xi picked up some particularly black fruits and reminded everyone: "Be careful when you pick them up. Pick up the brown ones. The black ones may have fallen in previous years and are definitely bad."

Everyone picked up the food on the ground for a while, and each person filled a bag. Some people even smashed it open to taste it. Although it didn't taste special, it wasn't bad. For people who have been drifting on the sea for many years, as long as it is not meat, any food is very popular.

After picking up macadamia nuts, they continued walking forward. Not long after, they found finger lime trees. Unlike the finger limes they had picked elsewhere before, the finger limes here were obviously larger and slightly different in color, purple-black, with green flesh that was still so sour that it could make your teeth fall out. What was also very rare was that even though it was winter, these finger lime trees were still green and the fruits were still hanging on the trees.

It just so happened that we had eaten all the finger limes we brought on the boat, so we picked all the finger limes we saw. There were more finger lime trees than we had seen before, and the climate conditions here were obviously more suitable for the growth of finger limes.

We picked a lot of finger limes, so we don’t have to worry about not being able to replenish vitamins for the next few days.

After finding macadamia nuts and finger limes, they solved their vitamin problem and then it was time to go hunting. There were no emus in this place, but kangaroos were everywhere, so they mainly hunted kangaroos.

Although there are guns, people prefer to use bows and arrows to hunt kangaroos, because bullets are lost after each shot, and there is no way to recover them, while bows and arrows can basically be recovered. In addition, the prey hit by bullets tends to have the smell of gunpowder and rust, which affects the taste of the meat, but bows and arrows do not have such concerns.

Soon, they hunted two kangaroos. Each of them was carrying a lot of macadamia nuts and finger limes, and it was not convenient to walk because they bumped into each other while walking, so they took the prey and returned to the beach.

Everyone on the boat has come ashore and is cooking. They have used this time to catch a lot of fish, the most eye-catching of which are the big lobsters, real Australian lobsters, which are surprisingly large in size and large in number.

This lobster was not caught by casting a net, but by fishing. At that time, a crew member cast a net into the sea and caught a big lobster. The lobster was not in the net, but its claws were caught by the fishing net and brought up. Seeing such a big lobster, he tried to cast a few more nets, but he didn't catch any lobsters.

He was unwilling to give up, so he switched to fishing with a fishing rod, using the small fish he caught as bait. Unexpectedly, he caught one every time, and the lobsters were big and fat. This stimulated others, and several of them also joined the ranks of lobster fishing, so everyone can enjoy a lobster feast at noon today.

Seeing so many lobsters, Min Xi was a little itchy, so he rolled up his sleeves and cooked a grilled lobster for everyone. Since he had been out for a long time, many spices had been sold out, and there were not many left, so he could only cook it simply, mixing some pepper sauce, sprinkling it on the lobster meat, and pairing it with finger lime, which barely counted as a pepper grilled lobster.

Although it was not the first time I had eaten lobster, it was the first time I enjoyed it as much as today. Not to mention, it tasted really good. The meat was tender and crispy, and the more I chewed it, the sweeter it became. Everyone thought it was delicious.

As a result, not much of the kangaroo meat that was hunted was used, and the remaining kangaroo meat could only be cleaned and pickled with salt to make dried meat.

While they were eating and drinking on the beach, the local natives hid in the bushes on the shore and secretly looked over here, trying to figure out why these people were there.

The sea breeze blew, bringing the smell of barbecue over, making those people salivate. They were sure that these people were not islanders from the island, but outsiders they had never seen before. What were they eating? Why did it smell so good! But in the end, they still didn't come over to ask.

After dinner, they did not leave the boat, but went ashore to look for water and food, after all, they still had to prepare supplies for the next few days. They did not find any water on the previous trip, so they had to continue looking for it. They had to pick more finger limes and hunt more kangaroos. Although they had no shortage of fish and shrimp to eat along the way, they still needed to change their taste occasionally.

After dinner, they were still divided into two groups, one group stayed behind and the other group went ashore to work.

They still bypassed the forest where the natives appeared and chose another forest to enter. They also found many macadamia nuts and finger lime trees. This time they were not in a hurry to collect the fruits, but went to find water first. This was their top priority. Without water, they could not continue sailing.

Their long-term activities in Australia have given them experience. Whenever they can't find a water source, they track the movements of animals because animals also need to drink water.

Very smoothly, they were led by a group of kangaroos to a waterfall. The water was gurgling and clear, a rare sight in Australia. Everyone was overjoyed and ran towards the pool.

As they ran over, they unexpectedly ran into a group of natives who were fetching water. They were all women. They only wore animal skins around their chests and waists. When they saw these outsiders, they were all terrified and quickly turned around and ran away. Some were so scared that they even threw away the containers they used to collect water.

"Are we that scary?" muttered a naval officer.

"Don't worry about them, just fetch some water." Min Xi instructed everyone.

Everyone took out their water bags and barrels and started filling them with water. It was so rare to find such an abundant source of water that they had to make several trips to fill up the boat's water tanks.

Australia is a continent with an extremely scarce water supply. Along the way, except for a few bays connected to rivers, finding water sources in most of the places where we docked for supplies was an arduous task. Sometimes, we couldn't find water sources within a dozen miles of the docking point, so we had to get on the boat and change locations to look for water elsewhere.

The frightened native women ran for a while and found that no one was chasing them, so they stopped and looked at them from a distance. Seeing that they were also fetching water, they felt relieved and stopped running. The women were also carefree and watched the excitement from a distance. They saw that Min Xi and others were wearing more clothes than they were, and they were whiter than the people in their tribe. They found it very strange. Several women chattered and discussed in a low voice, and couldn't help laughing secretly.

Min Xi looked at the pool of water, then at the native women who had not left not far away, and could only sigh: "Why don't those women leave? I want to take a bath."

Yun Ji glanced into the distance and said, "Let's send the water back first. We can come back later. Maybe they will have left."

"Well, let's take a bath later." Min Xi had to leave first. In this continent, there are not many situations like this where they can encounter running water for bathing, so once they encounter it, they are unwilling to miss it. After all, sometimes they may not be able to take a bath for two months.

Not only Min Xi, but everyone else wanted to take a bath, but seeing those native women, they didn't dare to act rashly, so they could only leave with a smile on their faces. Some even started to make dirty jokes and say obscene things. Min Xi could only shake his head, he couldn't stop this kind of thing, he could only tell them not to use force on the natives, but he couldn't tell them what to say.