The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

After buying seafood, when going to the market to buy meat, Min Xi chose mutton between pork and mutton, even though mutton was three times more expensive than pork.

Min Xi looked at the pork stall and sighed, "Seventh Brother, the pork here is not castrated, and it tastes very fishy. Even blanching and adding spices can't completely cover up the smell. I still miss the pork from our Daming Dynasty, which is still delicious even without blanching."

He estimated that the pork in the Ming Dynasty was much more delicious than the one he ate in modern times. After all, the pig breeds at that time were carefully selected by their ancestors, and the pig seedlings had not yet been replaced by pig breeds from the West.

"You can eat it when you get back." Yun Ji said.

But how long will it take to go back? The most important thing is that many dishes using pork as an ingredient do not taste the best and are not popular with locals.

Min Xi looked at the pork seller. No one went to buy his meat for a long time. After all, pork was about the same price as seafood, and it was red meat with a strange smell. People preferred to eat seafood.

Originally, Min Xi was his big customer, but today he didn't buy pork, but bought mutton from next door. The pork seller looked even more worried.

Min Xi said: "Seventh brother, I have an idea."

Yun Ji looked at him: "What's the idea?"

"Can you castrate a pig?" Min Xi asked.

Yun Ji shook his head: "How could I know? I've never seen one." There must be no one raising pigs in Beijing.

Min Xi said, "I've seen it, but never done it. I roughly know where it is. Do you dare to try it?" Thanks to the Internet, there are all kinds of videos on trimming donkey hooves, delivering cattle and sheep, castrating chickens, and even castrating pigs. Thanks to my strong curiosity, I clicked in to watch them all.

Yun Ji looked at Min Xi. He should be more skilled than himself in wielding a knife, but he actually asked if he dared to try. However, facing this trust, Yun Ji said, "I dare!"

Min Xi said, "I'll go find the pork seller and see if he has any piglets left. I'll buy a few and do an experiment."

Yun Ji knew that he was very obsessed with food, so he said, "Okay, go ahead." It's just making a cut on a pig. He has killed chickens and ducks before, so what's so difficult about it!

The pork seller saw Min Xi coming over and smiled: "Sir, would you like to buy pork?"

Min Xi said, "Buy some, and give me all the bones. There's a little more meat." He pointed at the ribs.

The butcher was used to Min Xi buying meat in strange places. He even wanted the pig's ears. The butcher unloaded the whole rib and weighed it on the scale: "15 pounds, 45 Swiss francs."

3 a pound of pork ribs, you can really enjoy the pork ribs. If there is no fishy smell, Min Xi can buy all his pork ribs. Min Xi gave the money to the pork seller and asked: "Boss, do you raise the pigs yourself or buy them from others?"

The pork seller said, "I raise some myself, and I also buy some from other people. As you can see, pork is not easy to sell! Sometimes I even lose money if I can't sell it."

Min Xi said, "Boss, I have a suggestion, but I don't know if I should say it or not."

"You say!" the butcher said quickly.

Min Xi said: "In China, pork is the main meat dish. And our pork tastes much better than yours. Do you know why?"

The pork seller shook his head: "I don't know."

"Because the pigs in our place have their testicles of boars and ovaries of sows castrated when they are very young. This makes the pigs docile, grow faster and are easier to manage. More importantly, the fishy smell of castrated pork is gone and the pork tastes better," said Min Xi.

The pork seller was skeptical: "Really?"

Min Xi nodded: "Really."

The pork seller asked, "How do we do that?"

Min Xi said: "I have only seen it, but I have never operated it. But you can look at the part of your pork that has the strongest fishy smell and determine its location."

As expected, the pork seller found the location of the sow's ovaries under Min Xi's guidance. Min Xi turned around and said to Yun Ji, "Seventh Brother, have you found the correct location? How deep should we cut?"

Yun Ji originally wanted to fool around, but when he thought that this might happen to him, he read it carefully and said, "Remember it."

Min Xi said to the pork seller, "Boss, how many piglets do you have at home? How many months are they?"

The boss said, "There are eight more piglets, just two months old."

Min Xi said, "How about this, boss? This Sunday, our store is closed. You can come to my store. I'm at 46 Magallanes Street. The name of the restaurant is China Restaurant. You can find it by asking. We will go to your house to castrate the pigs. If something goes wrong with the piglets after they are castrated and they don't survive, I will pay you the price of an adult pig."

The boss was very puzzled: "Why?"

"Because I want to eat castrated pork. If you learn this technique, in addition to selling meat, you can also make money by castrating pigs for people in the future," said Min Xi.

The boss thought about it and felt that he was not at a disadvantage at all, so he agreed: "Okay, I'll come to see you after church on Sunday."

"Remember, you must come, otherwise I will never buy your pork again." Min Xi said.

"Sure, sure! I'll definitely come!" the boss agreed hurriedly. He didn't want to offend this big customer.

After returning to the store, Min Xi prepared to make breakfast, and Yun Ji rolled up his sleeves to knead the dough and fry the dough sticks.

But he was stopped by Min Xi: "Seventh Brother, wait a minute, let's not get along on this side first."

Yun Ji looked at him: "What's wrong?"

Min Xi said, "First, go find a handful of clean wheat straw. Clean and dry, not dirty."

Yun Ji was puzzled, but he went to find a bunch of clean wheat straw, which they bought to start a fire.

Min Xi said, "Put it in a clean place and burn it, then collect the straw ashes. I want to make some lye water."

Deep-fried dough sticks are also called fried dough sticks. In addition to fermenting the dough, you also need to add an appropriate amount of alkali so that the dough sticks can expand easily and have a crispier taste.

Min Xi had studied chemistry and knew what chemical reactions could produce alkali, but since it was for human consumption, he did not dare to do anything rash, so he decided to burn wheat straw to make alkali water.

This was the method he saw his grandmother use when making rice dumplings. Even though soda ash was available everywhere at that time, the old lady still insisted on using the traditional method of burning rice straw to make alkaline water.

After hearing his instructions, Yun Ji understood, because he had seen people collecting lye water in this way. So he followed Min Xi's instructions, burned the wheat straw, and collected the clean wheat straw ash.

Pour clean water into wheat straw ash, this is alkaline water. Wait for it to settle, pour out the clean water on the top and use it to knead dough, which is equivalent to adding alkali.

After collecting the alkaline water, Min Xi first conducted an experiment to see how much was appropriate, and then fried the dough sticks separately. The ratio he needed was the one with the best effect and taste.

The fried dough sticks just out of the pan are fluffy and crispy and taste especially delicious.

Tasting the familiar taste, Min Xi ate two sticks and said with some regret, "It would be better if there was pea milk."

Yun Ji looked at him and smiled: "Can chickpeas and broad beans be used to make soy milk?"

Min Xi thought for a while and said, "I don't know. I haven't tried it. How about trying it next time?" But even if he made it, it might not taste like that. He had only used soybeans and black beans to make soy milk, and he also knew that Beijingers used mung beans to make soy juice, but these beans were not available here.

Even so, the fried dough sticks were delicious enough and Diego and his friends loved them very much.

When this dim sum was introduced at noon, customers were very enthusiastic. After all, all the dim sum and desserts introduced by Chinese restaurants are delicious.

The fluffy and crispy fried dough sticks really captured the stomachs of the diners, and everyone gave their scores enthusiastically, with at least 9 points or more, and several even gave full marks.

Youtiao is different from other dishes. It is a snack, so the price is naturally similar to that of a snack. One youtiao costs 6 reeses, which is about the same price as baked buns and egg tarts. Everyone can afford it, and two are enough for one person.

Min Xi is of course aware that the company does not make money by selling fried dough sticks. Although the profit is high, the price is cheap after all, and diners cannot eat large quantities. The main thing is to promote new products so that diners always remain curious and fresh about the restaurant, which will make it attractive to diners.

Some people may think that this method of attracting diners with new products is unreliable and will run out of tricks one day. But Min Xi has nothing to fear. Chinese cuisine is profound and there are still many dishes and snacks that have not been shown to them.

Baron Fernando came over at noon. He came to get his horse and had lunch in the store. He ate the fried dough sticks and thought they were very good: "How come you made something so delicious so late?"

Min Xi smiled: "Which dish in my restaurant is not delicious?"

"That's true, but this is a staple food, unlike dishes. Dishes can be replaced, but staple food can be eaten every day," said the baron.

Min Xi said: "In fact, in China this is not considered a staple food, it is a classic breakfast."

"Then you can sell breakfast in the future," said the Baron.

Min Xi said, "We have to get up in the morning to buy groceries and make breakfast. Won't Yun and I be exhausted?"

"If you want to make money, you can't rely on yourself for everything. You have to hire someone. For example, when you buy groceries, you can find someone you trust to deliver them to you. Even if it's a little more expensive, won't you save time? You can also teach others how to cook. Of course, this may be your secret recipe, and you won't pass it on to others." said the baron.

Min Xi said, "I didn't mean to keep it secret. The employees in the store are also learning how to cook and make dim sum from me, but they haven't learned it that quickly. I can consider asking someone to buy the groceries, but my daily menu is not fixed, so I'll buy them myself for now. And I've always planned to open a dim sum shop. Once the employees in the store have learned how to cook, I'll let them help me open the shop."

"That's right. When doing business, you have to learn how to use people. It's hard to make a lot of money if you have to rely on yourself for everything," said the baron.

"Your Excellency is absolutely right." Min Xi also agreed.