The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

The four paintings were completed two days ago. These paintings have great charm. The flowers and fruits in the four paintings are all red, but the four shades of red, red plum, peony, lotus and pomegranate, are different. Yun Ji's color matching skills are quite good.

The birds in the four paintings have their own unique expressions and auras. The liveliness of the magpies and sparrows varies, the peacocks are noble, and the mandarin ducks are elegant.

What impressed Min Xi most was that Yun Ji had never seen a peacock, but he painted it so beautifully. His imagination was really amazing. He probably borrowed the image of the phoenix from other people's paintings.

The outer frame of the screen is almost finished, but there are still some details to be perfected. His carving skills are not as good as his painting skills. After all, he only learned how to carve seals, not wood carving. He is already quite impressive for being able to carve it.

But his carving skills also have advantages. Ordinary wood carvings are carved by craftsmen and are generally more formulaic. Yun Ji’s carvings are considered to be those of a literati, and his painting skills are better than those of craftsmen, so the resulting effect is very good and quite lively.

"That's great! This is totally worth the 500 reais from His Majesty the King!" Min Xi said with a smile.

"I think it's just average, but time was tight and I couldn't do better," said Yun Ji.

"It's already very good! He offers 500 reais, does he still want to get Tang Bohu's painting?" Min Xi said with a smile.

Yun Ji said seriously: "When Tang Bohu was alive, a painting might not be sold for 500 taels of silver."

"If it could have come to Europe when Tang Bohu was still alive, I'm afraid it would have sold for a much higher price."

Yun Ji thought for a moment and said, "Maybe you are right."

Min Xi asked: "What did you eat today? Did you eat the pancakes I made for you this morning?"

Yun Ji said, "I had pancakes for lunch and cooked noodles for dinner. I added eggs and the dried scallops you dried."

Min Xi smiled and nodded: "Okay, you can arrange your own meals. I was worried that you would mess around. We are having a delicious meal today. We are having beef at the Marquis's house."

Yun Ji asked curiously, "Where did the beef come from?"

Min Xi said, "It looks like the Marquis's family slaughtered a cow."

"Are they allowed to slaughter cattle here?" In the Ming Dynasty, it was strictly forbidden to slaughter cattle privately, because cattle were important farming labor and a guarantee of grain production. Even sick and old cows had to be reported before they could be slaughtered.

Min Xi said: "Private individuals should not be allowed, but the aristocracy has privileges, and they can always get permission. Have you ever eaten beef?"

Yun Ji nodded: "I have had the opportunity to eat it once or twice. It is not as tender as pork, but it is chewier."

"Yes. I think it tastes better than pork."

"Then you are in for a treat today."

The next day, Lord Melo came to the store early. He brought Min Xi a large piece of beef, which weighed at least 20 kilograms. "You can't buy beef outside, so this piece is for you. We can't finish a cow in a short time."

Min Xi took it and said, "Thank you very much, sir. Let's have lunch here. I'll make you some delicious beef."

Lord Melo said, "I won't eat lunch. I have to go back to accompany my uncles. Where's Yun? I want to see the paintings he made."

Min Xi said, "He is carving a screen upstairs. I'll take you there."

Lord Mello nodded: "Okay."

Min Xi took Lord Melo up to the attic. This was the first time that an outsider was allowed to go up there. Yun Ji was sitting on the floor of the attic carving the frame of the screen. Min Xi was still on the stairs, so he said upstairs, "Seventh brother, I brought Lord Melo upstairs. He said he wanted to see your new painting."

Yun Ji was stunned when he heard this, then said, "Oh, come up."

Lord Mello was a little excited when he entered Yun Ji's private space for the first time. He stuck his head out from the stairs and saw Yun Ji sitting on the floor. He was bending over and carving wood with a focused expression, and was not affected at all by the arrival of someone.

Lord Mello first looked around the entire attic. There was only a big bed in it, a table by the window, and two wooden boxes at the end of the bed, which must have been for their clothes. There was nothing else, and there were so few things that they could leave at any time.

Min Xi called out to him, "My Lord, the attic is low, please be careful not to hit your head."

In fact, there is no way he can hit the bed, as long as he doesn't go towards the bed and just moves in the middle.

Lord Melo came back to his senses, walked over to Yun Ji and watched him carve the border of the screen, and asked in confusion: "What is this for?"

Min Xi said, "This is the border of the four paintings. Paint it here."

Lord Melo walked to the table, and Min Xi took out the painting covered with silk cloth and placed it on the table. The table was not wide enough to completely put the painting down, so Yun Ji placed the table upright when painting.

Lord Melo looked at the four paintings and was so surprised that he couldn't speak for a long time: "So many paintings?"

Min Xi nodded: "Yes, there are four paintings, four scrolls of flowers and birds, all of which have good meanings. After the frame is carved, these four paintings will be inlaid to make a screen that can be used for decoration and to block the view. This is part of our Chinese furniture."

Lord Mellor looked at it carefully and said, "It's a beautiful painting. Is it painted on silk?"

"Yes, we all paint on paper and silk," said Min Xi.

"It's almost the same as when we paint on canvas." Lord Melo nodded, then turned back to look at Yun Ji and said, "Yun is really a talented person."

Min Xi smiled and said, "Of course. Your Excellency, have you finished reading it? Let's go down after you've finished reading it. We won't disturb him from doing his work. It will be handed over to His Majesty tomorrow, so time is a bit tight."

When Lord Mello heard that Yun Ji was working overtime, he naturally decided not to stay any longer.

When they got down from the attic, Lord Mello asked, "Min, do you live in the attic too?"

"Yes, we all live there." Min Xi said naturally.

Lord Melo was silent. He saw two pillows on the bed. It seemed that they were sleeping in the same bed, just as he thought. He was a little discouraged. If they were in the relationship he guessed, it was no wonder that Yun had been so cold to him. If they were not in the relationship he guessed, it meant that he had no special feelings for the same sex, so it was no wonder that he was so indifferent to him.

Min Xi didn't expect that just by taking Lord Mello upstairs to take a look, he would make the other party think so much. It was an unintentional result.

Min Xi did not waste the beef sent by Lord Mello. Of course, he could not give it to the guests. The ingredients were so rare that he had to enjoy it himself. Now that the weather was cooler, it was no problem to keep the fresh meat for two days.

Now that we have bean paste and beef, we must make boiled pork slices.

Braise a few pounds of beef and keep it for at least two days. Make a few pounds of beef meatballs, and bake the rest into beef jerky to eat slowly. I happen to have an oven at home.

At noon, Yun Ji ate the boiled pork slices made by Min Xi. It’s true that Min Xi’s boiled beef was really good. The beef was smooth and tender, and the meat was delicate. The more you chewed it, the more fragrant it became. It was spicy and delicious, which whetted your appetite. You even ate two more steamed buns.

Whenever a dish uses bean paste, Min Xi will make steamed buns, just to avoid the taste of the buns mixing with the dish.

For dinner, we had braised beef, which had a different texture, chewy and springy, with a unique flavor. It was also very suitable to be eaten with pancakes.

That night, Yun Ji mounted the four screens on the frame and placed them on the ground. Min Xi sat on a stool and tilted his head to admire them for a long time, and exclaimed: "It's really beautiful. Our ancestors' aesthetics was really amazing. Putting up a screen like this, the level is raised. It is both beautiful and practical, and it is really impressive. I think His Majesty the King spent 500 reais, it's totally worth it!"

Yun Ji's expression seemed to be relieved: "Hearing you say that, I feel relieved."

"You have to be assured. I said it was beautiful, let alone them. What good things have they seen from us?"

Yun Ji smiled and said, "I am like a monkey that becomes king when there is no tiger in the mountain."

"Seventh Brother, you have to be more confident in yourself. Even if you are not a tiger, you are at least a leopard. Our main point is that scarcity makes things valuable, and we make money from this information gap." Min Xi said.

When Yun Ji heard the word "information asymmetry", his heart moved. It seemed to be true. If you want to make more money in business, you have to rely on this information asymmetry and the fact that things are scarce and valuable. Therefore, even though maritime trade requires such a huge investment and such high risks, everyone is still willing to take the risk, isn't it because of the huge profits?

Yun Ji said, "Ninth brother, do you think the prices in our restaurant are too cheap? This is the only Ming Dynasty cuisine in Europe."

Min Xi nodded: "I also think it is cheap. But the price cannot be high at the beginning. The cost of food is there. If you sell it at a high price, no one knows whether your food is delicious or not. Who is willing to take the risk? When Amanda and Gail are more experienced, I think we can open a high-end restaurant, improve the environment, and raise the price by one or two times. This restaurant will only sell affordable dishes, the price can be lowered a little bit, and the menu will be fixed. If the nobles want to eat the dishes I make, they have to pay a lot of money."

Yun Ji couldn't help laughing: "Are our plates getting bigger and bigger?"

"Of course, if you want to make money, the bigger the better!"

The next day, Fernando came to get the screen. Yunji led him to the attic. When he saw the four screens in the attic, he held his breath: "Yun, are these the four screens you mentioned? So beautiful, so beautiful! It's simply God's masterpiece!"