Chapter 2320 The Genes of the Foodie Empire

Pang Tong, with this body type displayed over there, it would be completely false to say that Pang Tong doesn’t like to eat. So when Fei Qian asked someone to present the latest ingredients, Pang Tong couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Eating is always the first need for the development of human productivity.

The first thing that was served was the bean cake and rice cake. In the Han Dynasty, rice cakes were called "rice cake", "bait", "獍", etc., and there was even the word "cake". However, in the past, due to the grinding technology, the raw material powder of the rice cake was relatively coarse, so it should be more like a "rice cake" rather than the more delicate pastry that was common in later generations.

Thanks to the further improvement of water mill technology, a large number of water-powered mills built in Jingshui can grind rice flour and bean flour day and night. Coupled with Fei Qian's memory of some pastries of later generations, he can grind beans, rice, corn and other old grains. Mix it according to the proportion and make several kinds...

"Have you washed your hands?" Well, look, this is mung bean cake..." Fei Qian handed a small bean plate with mung bean cake to Pang Tong.

Mung beans had been discovered in China before the Han Dynasty, and became a daily food, and even had certain medical effects in traditional Chinese medicine. However, the mung bean cake made by Fei Qian was still a problem for Pang Tong. First time eating it.

Pang Tong took the bean plate and smelled it.

Some light fragrance.

Mung bean cake is the type that smells a bit ordinary at first, but the more you smell it, the more fragrant it becomes. It is not strong or overpowering, just like a gentle and gentle lady, soft and sweet. , will never take away the protagonist's position, but it will not be ignored either.

Pang Tong apologized, without using chopsticks, he took a piece and put it into his mouth, "Well..."

There is no need to exert force, just a gentle bite, and a piece of the soft, glutinous and sweet mung bean cake will be bitten off. The delicate and dense taste will instantly fill up, with a slight sandy feeling, the fragrance of mung beans, and the faint smell of wheat. In one place, fresh and natural, with some oily fragrance...

The glutinous fragrance is sweet, the taste is mellow and natural, sweet but not greasy, fragrant but not bright. Pang Tong's eyes lit up after he ate the first piece. Before he could swallow it completely, he took the second piece and said, "So many times... so many times..."

The bean plate was not big, with six or seven small pieces stacked on it. Pang Tong ate half of it in a blink of an eye. Then he slowed down because his mouth was somewhat dry, and he took a sip of tea to moisten it.

"It tastes sweet and smooth in the mouth, warm and delicious, so good!" Very good! ” Pang Tong gave a relatively high evaluation, “And there seems to be some grease added to it?” 』

Fei Qian laughed, nodded, and then took another red bean cake and black bean cake, "These two bean cakes are made similarly, just try them..."

Although Fei Qian just let Pang Tong have a taste, for Pang Tong, it took three or four pieces of both...

"Also, this is rice cake..." Fei Qian brought the white rice cake over and placed it on Pang Tong's desk. Then he took a bean plate and said, "Look at this again..."

Pang Tongyi looked at it and clicked on the bean plate on the table, "Is this... the Five Elements?" 』

Although mung bean cake has the word "green" in it, the actual color is not green, but yellow-green, and even more yellow to some extent, so Fei Qian used the latest pastry. To replace the green among the five elements, it is "tea cake".

"This..." Pang Tong was holding the plate of tea cakes and marveled, "It looks like green leaves, how is it made..."

The big man's cakes, of course, are not as particular as those of later generations. Not only is the ingredient ratio relatively simple, but the mold is equally simple. It would be good to have a boxy wooden mold, but a mold like Fei Qian's that was specially made by someone looks like a piece of tea leaf. , almost the only one for the big man.

It is said that it is a tea cake. Of course, it is not all made of tea, but the juice of another vegetable is added. Yes, it is spinach. Spinach was introduced to China probably during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Around the time of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, it was presented from Persia.

Later, Su Shi of the Song Dynasty wrote in a poem, "The bitter cold in the north has not ended yet, and the pine ribs on the snow bottom are like iron armor." Little did you know that Shu is rich in winter vegetables, and their leaves and buds thrive even more in the cold due to frost. "From the poem, it can be seen that spinach was widely planted in Shu at that time and could be produced in the open field over the winter. This proves that spinach had been cultivated in China for a long time at least before the Song Dynasty and even became an overwintering vegetable.

It's just that Fei Qian once again opened up the Western Regions, and during the entire conquest process, he specifically told us to pay attention to these plant and animal species that were not found in China. Therefore, spinach entered China three to four hundred years ahead of schedule. .

Of course, if you use the matcha process, you can also use tea powder, but if you use too much matcha powder, it will be slightly bitter, unlike spinach juice, which has a light smell and is not overwhelming. Moreover, Feiqian also wants to develop another series of matcha pastries, so this ordinary dyeing task is naturally left to Spinach.

Pang Tong ate the tea cake and shook his head, "These Five Elements cakes are all of the highest quality and are sold in sets. They must be... hehe..."

Fei Qian nodded slightly.

For this set of Five Elements pastries, in addition to tea cakes, Fei Qian will also develop different molds, which will then correspond to the Five Elements. They will eventually be sold in two models. One is a simple square pastry, aimed at ordinary middle-class gentry children; The other type is pastries with new molds, which are sold to the upper class.

In this case, is this price...

Of course it’s hehehe.

Pang Tong picked up another piece of pastry and frowned, "It's just that this pastry is fragile and not convenient for long distances..."

Fei Qian smiled and said: "If you use a bamboo tube and line it with thatch strips, you can travel a long distance..."

Packaging is also a part of the price. In later generations, packaging can even be sold for more value than the goods inside. The most typical ones are this type of cakes, such as moon cakes, which are disposable cake boxes.

Unexpectedly, Pang Tong raised objections: "This matter... I'm afraid it's inappropriate." 』

Fei Qian followed Pang Tong's gaze and looked towards

Bamboo tube?

oh. Understood.

Fei Qian shook his head and said with a smile: "There is no need for this. Even if this thing is not used...it cannot be kept secret..."

Fei Qian knew what Pang Tong meant. After all, using bamboo tubes to seal dry food storage, as a configuration for long-distance marches, can be regarded as a pioneering work. To a certain extent, it can also be said to be a secret. However, this kind of secret is not It's not the kind that's hard to crack and can't be copied.

"Since Guo Fengxiao returned to Xu County, Cao Jun has changed the cloth bags into bamboo tubes to store military rations..." Fei Qian said calmly, "Therefore, there is no harm in using them..."

Pang Tong was startled for a moment, then clapped his hands, "This Guo Fengxiao!" 』

Fei Qian waved his hand and said with a smile: "Even without Guo Fengxiao, we can't hide these daily interactions. It's just sooner or later. Don't mind!" 』

Pang Tong listened, thought for a while, and nodded, but then shook his head, smacked his lips, and suddenly began to ponder, his eyes rolled around several times, and then he laughed, "Wonderful!" The Lord's move is absolutely brilliant! In the land of China, where is bamboo? Hahaha, if Cao Mengde did this in a big way, it would either miss the opportunity for farming or work, and it would be half the result with half the effort, and it would hardly be useful! Wonderful! 』

Fei Qian listened, blinked, and could only smile slightly in response.

Thinking about it carefully, what Pang Tong said seems to be the same. Although China produces a lot of bamboo, the distribution is not evenly distributed in various places. Because of the habit of bamboo, it is a relatively cheap material for Fei Qian, but for Cao Cao Not necessarily.

There are relatively few bamboo forests in the north, and they are also relatively small. To the north of the Yellow River, except for some bamboo forests in Chang'an and Longxi, there are only vast bamboo forests in Qingzhou. To the south of the Yellow River, within the area controlled by Cao Cao, There are only bamboo forests in Jingzhou, and most of them are in Jiangling.

The Southern Bamboo Forest Feiqian occupies the Sichuan, Sichuan and Yunnan areas, and there are many scattered or clustered bamboo forests. The other Southern Bamboo Forest is in the Sun Quan Jiangdong area. These two huge bamboo forest systems also do not belong to Cao Cao.

Of course, there are still some bamboo forests that have not yet been developed at this stage, such as Jiaozhi and Lingnan areas. However, no matter how these are developed, at this stage, or even within a long period of time, they have nothing to do with Cao Cao. Therefore, here in Fei Qian, bamboo tubes made of bamboo are cheap and can be continuously produced, but when it comes to Cao Cao, they may evolve into unsustainable and even expensive items.

Therefore, even if Cao Cao wanted to pirate, it would still not be as convenient as in later generations. In addition, Cao Cao has a large population base. Although a large population has the advantage of a large population, if one is not careful, a small incident will become a very troublesome incident after the expansion effect of the population is added. .

"This is..." Pang Tong asked, staring at the food in another bowl. Although he has eaten a lot of pastries, he still has a deep enthusiasm for new ingredients.

Fei Qian motioned to Pang Tong that he could use his chopsticks, "This is rice noodles..."

At first, Fei Qian couldn't tell the difference between rice noodles and rice noodles. Later, he just used the simplest method to separate them. The thin ones are called threads, the thick ones are called noodles, and the ones that are neither thick nor thin are called rice demons.

The history of rice noodles is earlier, and the history of rice noodles is even earlier than rice noodles.

It's just that both rice noodle and rice noodle need good and new rice. Only rice noodles can be made from old rice. Of course, it's not the kind of old rice that has a lot of aflatoxin. Nothing can be made from that type of old rice.

When Fei Qian ate rice wrappers for the first time in the Han Dynasty, he was a little surprised, because the rice wrappers he ate in later generations were filled with chili peppers, but there were no chili peppers in the Han Dynasty. Later, because he didn't eat spicy food at that time, Fei Qian said he shouldn't add chili peppers and was despised by the rice noodle seller, saying, "How can you eat this spicy food?" 』

Rice noodle is probably a product of the Qin Dynasty. It was originally made from barnyard grass, which is not full of millet, so it is not found in the classics. However, rice noodles are officially called "can". That is, polished rice, and because it flows out and is cooked, it becomes messy like thread and linen, and is tangled and entangled, which is also called "random accumulation".

So the price of rice noodles is relatively expensive, while rice noodles are relatively cheap...

Some foods and some convenient methods of later generations are not necessarily good. For example, rice noodles and rice peels are basically directly polished by machines in later generations. The efficiency is naturally improved. However, after high-speed friction of metal, not only It gives the rice noodles a bit more of a burnt smell, and the tiny metal particles can also cause the taste to be a bit impure. Not to mention adding various chemical products to the materials for the so-called "Q bomb"...

The rice crust in the Han Dynasty was all stone-ground. Because it was ground slowly, it was impossible to have the burnt smell caused by high-temperature friction. Using a bamboo strip sieve, although the fineness is definitely not as fine as that of later generations, the taste is still the same. A little more innocent than later generations.

The same goes for rice noodles.

In history, rice noodles were only invented after the Northern and Southern Dynasties, so it is not difficult for Fei Qian to make them now. And this is also a new application for grain. On the one hand, it increases the value of the grain itself, and on the other hand, it also gives some old grain more places to go.

Compared with cakes that are drier and can be transported over long distances, rice noodles are less resistant to storage and need to be cooked and eaten...

Pang Tong ate a bowl of haggis and rice noodles with great gusto. Because the amount was not actually very large, he finished it in three or two times. He also drank the soup, and finally put down the soup bowl with some satisfaction.

"how? Fei Qian asked.

Pang Tong nodded and said, "Yes, it is refreshing and delicious, and it is a good food." 』

Fei Qian smiled, "Is there any shortcomings?" 』

"I'm afraid..." Pang Tong looked at the rice cake, then at the bowl of rice noodles, pointed at the bowl of rice noodles, and then said, "I'm afraid it will be difficult to transport this thing... Besides, I already have soup cakes to eat." ... Could it be that the Lord wants to take his place? 』

Fei Qian laughed and said, "No..."

Food is the most important thing for the people, but it is not only the Chinese who pay attention to food, but everyone is the same. It's just that ordinary foreigners have relatively weak culture at this time and cannot express the meaning of "food is the first necessity of the people" in shorter words.

For example, there is a saying in the Bible about "five loaves and two fishes". Regardless of whether it conforms to the law of conservation of energy or not, this fact alone shows that even if Jesus wanted people to listen to his sermons, he had to eat them first. Besides...

Chinese people not only want to eat enough, but also pay attention to the form, aesthetics and meaning of eating. They regard diet as an integral part of the entire lifestyle and give it cultural form and connotation. In the long process of social development, the Chinese people have formed common dietary etiquette, dietary taboos, dietary styles, and dietary preparation methods, which has formed a rich and colorful dietary culture.

From this aspect, Chinese food culture has transcended "food" itself and acquired a more profound social significance.

Under the rule of Fei Qian, there was the religion of the Five Directions of God. In the simple religious system and the relatively simple cognitive system of the world of inquiry, yin and yang and the five elements were undoubtedly the most important foundations of China. However, all along, in The sacrificial activities of the Five Directions and Five Elements are relatively chaotic...

Now that the five elements and five colors of cakes appear, they will subtly become a religious sacrificial item, and may also lead more people among the nobles to worship the five directions and five emperors.

Of course, the most important thing is that Fei Qian can develop new ways to make money. After all, everyone knows that the catering industry is about making hard money. It is really hard work. But if you are like Fei Qian and have a lot of people under you, it will be so hard. You can let others do the work...

Therefore, Feiqian's goal is the five-color and five-element cakes, which are mainly related to religion and are sold to the children of the gentry. The rice noodles made from Chen Mi are for craftsmen with average incomes, and even ordinary people around the town. …

"It's hard to find exquisite food for the people..." Fei Qian said slowly, "If you only increase the cost a little, you can have a rich meal... You only need one stove, one cauldron and one utensil, and you can cook it in one place. Cooked in the countryside or in villages..."

The biggest problem of the small farmer economy is self-sufficiency, and there are many factors that lead to self-sufficiency, but one of the links is that in the entire consumption process of the small farmer economy, everything he needs is what he needs, and the excess produced is not effectively used. commodity trading.

To put it simply, farmers and women plant vegetables in front and behind their houses. When they eat, they just pull out two of them. When they are not eating, they just let the vegetables grow as they please. They don’t care at all whether the vegetables are old or not. Whether it was eaten by insects, whether it was planted too much and rotted in the fields, anyway, as long as there is enough to eat, farmers and women will not have much willingness to collect and process it.

On the one hand, it may take up more farming time to deal with these things, and on the other hand, it cannot be sold for a price, so a lot of it is simply wasted.

Although it is said that old grain can be used to make wine and vinegar, the brewing technology is not as common as it was in later generations. In some cases, the court even prohibited private brewing, or it was done by large rural households to make money. , and ordinary farmers are not allowed to make wine and vinegar...

Therefore, in the small-scale farmer economy, there is a big problem with things like home-grown vegetables, old rice, and various surplus crops, that is, raw materials without any processing are very cheap.

If you want to break this closed-loop small-scale peasant economy, the West bloodyly completed the transformation of this model with the sheep-eating-human movement after the industrial revolution. However, Feiqian does not need such a drastic change, so he considers adopting the current model. A more gentle approach, using a variety of food to slowly penetrate and reverse.

The development of the food processing industry will require the consumption of more food raw materials. On the one hand, it can stimulate the production of raw materials, and on the other hand, it can also increase employment. In production, transportation, production, sales, etc., it can transform some agricultural populations into Craftsmen or business people.

Just like in the initial stage of reform and opening up in later generations, among all industries, the first to flourish was not the primary and secondary industries, but the tertiary industry. Among all commodities, there is no doubt that the "eating" line It is easiest for things to form an industrial chain, and it is easy to form automatic and spontaneous promotion.

Why does the small-scale peasant economy only focus on farming crops? That's because no one allows them to see the distance. Once the genes of the foodie empire awaken, it will be difficult to suppress, and the subsequent changes will naturally be like water erosion, taking place naturally.

Just like Fei Qian promoted the transformation of pasta, from hard dough pancakes to the more popular cooking cakes and steamed buns, perhaps the new uses of these old grains can make the water flow faster and earlier. Be active.

In addition, there are some additional uses...