The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

Professor Greeley was not shy and took Min Xi to his studio in the botanical garden.

There are many shelves in this room, on which are placed many bottles and jars. There are notes attached to the bottles and jars with the names of certain plants written on them. They should be used to collect seeds.

Min Xi looked at the names of these plants with curiosity, but most of them were unfamiliar to him. Phonetic writing is different from Chinese characters. There are thousands of commonly used Chinese characters, while there are only 26 Latin letters. On the surface, the threshold for entering the Chinese character industry is much higher.

But once you have mastered the common Chinese characters, you can roughly guess the meaning of the word by combining them at random.

Latin language vocabulary needs to be created all the time, so even if you can read a certain word, you may not know its meaning, because many words will disappear and be created with the changes in society. You will really be learning words all your life.

Professor Greeley found a glass bottle and said, "We call this milho. I got three seedlings from a Spanish merchant and cultivated them carefully for a summer. I only got about twenty seeds."

Min Xi looked at the tiny seeds inside. Aren't they corn? From three corn plants, he only harvested more than 20 corn seeds. This yield was too low!

Although he knew it was a bit excessive, Min Xi still spoke up: "Professor, please forgive me for being so presumptuous, but can you give me a few of these seeds?"

Professor Greeley looked at him and said, "Are you interested in this? It's a pity that there are too few seeds. If there were more, I could give you some. Wait until next year. I believe there will be more seeds. I will give you some then."

Min Xi knew that this would work, but he thought that if he didn't bring anything back after such a trip, he would return empty-handed. He held out two fingers: "Just give me two, I want to try to see if I can grow them."

Professor Greeley looked at him, hesitated for a long time, and said, "Okay, I'll give you two."

Professor Greeley opened the bottle, took out two seeds, wrapped them in a piece of paper, and handed them to Min Si.

"Thank you, professor! I must try to grow one. What are the requirements for its cultivation? Does it like shade or light? Do you like dryness or moisture?"

Professor Greeley said with some embarrassment: "I haven't yet determined all of its habits, but from what I know so far, it probably doesn't like soil that's too wet."

"Thank you, professor!" said Min Xi.

Of course he knew what environment was suitable for corn, but now he still had to ask like a studious baby, so as to show his respect for the professor and the corn seeds.

Min Xi looked at other bottles and jars again, but his knowledge was really limited. He shamelessly asked Professor Greeley for advice and found that many of them were common seeds, such as wheat, oats, rye, etc. There were also seeds of various vegetables and many wild grass seeds.

However, he still found peanut seeds and asked the professor for some. The professor had a lot of peanut seeds and gave him about ten peanut pods, which contained about ten or twenty seeds.

There was another seed. Min Xi hesitated whether he should take it or not, because it was tobacco seed. He used to smoke, and during those long and lonely days on the ship, almost no seamen did not smoke. But smoking is harmful to health. After hesitating for a long time, Min Xi gave up. This thing will be introduced to China sooner or later, but at least it cannot be introduced through his hands. Let it go.

After visiting Professor Greeley's botanical garden and studio, Min Xi felt that he had gained a lot, as he actually got him corn and peanut seeds.

Min Xi said, "Professor, Professor Boyle should have finished his get out of class by now, right? Let's go find him. I'll treat you to dinner."

Professor Greeley smiled and said, "You are guests from afar. How can we let you treat us to a meal? I will be the host today. Come on, I will take you to find Boyle."

So Professor Greeley took Min Xi and Yun Ji to find Professor Boyle. Professor Boyle had already finished get off work and was about to go home. When he saw Yun Ji and Min Xi, the old man seemed very surprised: "You really came?"

Yun Ji said, "Yes, Professor, we wanted to come here a long time ago, but we didn't expect Coimbra to be so far away. We have been busy and only had time to come today."

Professor Greeley said, "Boyle, these two guests have come from afar. Let's be good hosts and treat them to a meal."

Professor Boyle nodded: "Okay!"

Min Xi said, "We still want to discuss mathematics with Professor Boyle."

Professor Boyle looked at Yun Ji and asked, "When will you return to Lisbon?"

Yun Ji said, "I'll go back tomorrow."

Professor Boyle said, "That's easy. Come to my house tonight and we'll discuss it in the evening."

Professor Greeley smiled and said, "Sure, it's a wonder that Professor Boyle is willing to entertain guests."

Professor Boyle ignored his teasing and said, "Let's go and have dinner. Yun, I want to verify some abacus problems with you."

Yun Ji quickly caught up with Boyle, and the two discussed as they walked.

Min Xize and Professor Greeley walked behind, listening to Professor Greeley gossiping about Professor Boyle. Professor Boyle was the most unkind teacher in the school. He was rather blunt and devoted to learning. He was not very worldly-wise and could not get along with other colleagues in the school. Only Professor Greeley was his childhood friend, and their friendship lasted for decades.

"He is not very good at dealing with people, but he has a good heart and is a very sincere person. It is very easy to deal with him. He always means what he says. He is not hypocritical and does not beat around the bush. He is very direct," said Professor Greeley.

Min Xi nodded: "Professor Boyle is a pure person."

"That's right!"

After walking for a while, Professor Boyle stopped and looked at his old friend: "Where are we going to eat?"

Professor Greeley laughed. "I thought you knew. Let me lead the way."

Soon, Professor Greeley took them to a small, old restaurant. "This is a restaurant I often come to. Although it is a bit old, the food tastes good. The salted cod here tastes great. I have never eaten such delicious salted cod anywhere else."

"Really? I'm looking forward to trying it." said Min Xi.

Salted cod is a traditional Portuguese dish. It is said that there are many ways to make salted cod. Min Xi has tried several of them. To be honest, the taste is really good. At least in Europe, Portuguese cuisine is ranked among the best.

As expected, the salted cod here is baked. Although it is salted fish, it does not taste too salty. It should be because it has been soaked long enough before baking to soak out the saltiness.

What’s rare is that the grilled salted cod here is very tender and tastes really good. It is not worse than the most expensive restaurant in Lisbon. The key is that the price is less than one-third of that restaurant.

"It tastes really good." Min Xi praised sincerely.

Professor Greeley was very proud: "I was right. I think this is the best restaurant in Coimbra."

Professor Boyle said: "The food in your restaurant is still better."

Professor Greeley was stunned when he heard this. An honest man speaks most sincerely. He said, "Of course, it can't be compared with their dishes. But in Flangji, it's already quite good."

Min Xi smiled and said, "I feel honored to be recognized by the two professors."

Professor Greeley said excitedly: "Boyle never cared about these things. This is the first time I heard him care about something other than mathematics. He even praised your food for being delicious. It shows that your food really left a deep impression on him."

Min Xi smiled even more happily: "Thank you for the compliment, Professor! When you two go to Lisbon next time, you must come to our hotel. I will treat you two to a meal."

"Okay, if we go to Lisbon, we must go there for dinner." Professor Greeley laughed.

At night, they stayed at Professor Boyle's house. Professor Boyle was not a local. He was a minor nobleman. He was employed by the University of Coimbra because of his outstanding knowledge. He rented a house near the University of Coimbra. His family only came to live in the city in winter. In other seasons, they stayed in their hometown. They said that the air in the countryside was better and they felt more comfortable there.

So his house had a place for Min Xi and Yun Ji to stay, instead of them having to stay in a hotel.

In the evening, Yun Ji discussed mathematics with Professor Boyle, and Min Xi was listening beside them.

Professor Boyle also had someone make an abacus for him. Although it was not as good as the one Yunji carved himself, it was still usable. He shared his research experience with Yunji. Professor Boyle had his own ideas about abacus research. Yunji could not answer some questions, but Min Xi could understand Professor Boyle's ideas, but he just listened and did not express his opinion.

Professor Boyle gave Yun Ji a stack of materials that had been sorted out long ago, saying that they were his mathematical research over the years. He specially compiled a copy for Yun Ji and asked Yun Ji to study it first. If there was anything he didn't understand, he could write to him and ask.

Yun Ji put the information away and said that he would study it carefully when he returned.

The next morning, Professor Greeley came over without going to church. He took Professor Boyle with him to walk around the city and visit the University of Coimbra.

After the clock struck ten, Min Xi and Yun Ji decided to go back home. When they came here yesterday, it took them nearly nine hours on the road. Of course, they were delayed by something. Now they are setting off to go back. If there are no delays on the way, they should be able to return to Lisbon before dark.