Chapter 2319 The Genes of the Foodie Empire


    Pang Tong, this body shape is over there, if it is said that Pang Tong does not like to eat, it is really too fake. Therefore, when Fei Qian presented the latest ingredients, Pang Tong couldn''t help swallowing a mouthful of saliva.


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


    The first thing to serve is bean cake and rice cake. In the Han Dynasty, there were various names for rice cakes such as "rice cake", "bait", and "ci", and even the word "cake". It''s just that before, because of the grinding technology, the raw material powder of rice cakes was relatively coarse, so that it should be more like "rice cakes" rather than the more delicate pastries that are common in later generations.


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


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


    Mung beans were discovered in China before the Han Dynasty, and became a daily food, and even have a certain medical effect of traditional Chinese medicine, but like the mung bean cake made by Feiqian at present, for Pang Tong The first time I ate it.


    Pang Tong held the bean dish and smelled it.


    Some faint fragrance.


    Mung bean cake belongs to the type that smells a little ordinary at first, but the more you smell it, the more fragrant it becomes. It is neither strong nor overpowering, just like a gentle and gentle lady, soft and sweet. Yes, it will never steal the protagonist''s position, but it will not be ignored by people.


    Pang Tong apologized, and without using chopsticks, he directly took a piece and put it in his mouth, "Hmm..."


    No need to use force, just bite lightly, and a piece of the soft, glutinous and sweet mung bean cake will be bitten off. The delicate and dense taste is filled instantly, with a slight feeling of sand, the fragrance of mung beans, and the faint smell of wheat, lingering In one place, fresh and natural, with some oily scent...


    Waxy and sweet, full-bodied and natural taste, sweet but not greasy, fragrant but not gaudy. After eating the first piece, Pang Tong''s eyes lit up, and before he swallowed it completely, he took the second piece, "A good time... a good time..."


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


    『The entrance is sweet and smooth, warm and palatable, very good! Very good! Pang Tong gave a relatively high evaluation, "and there seems to be some grease in it? 』


    Feiqian laughed, nodded, and then took another red bean cake and black bean cake, "These two bean cakes are also made in a similar way, just try it..."


    Although it is enough for Fei Qian to let Pang Tong taste it, but for Pang Tong, it cost three or four yuan to eat both...


    『Also, this is rice cake...』 Fei Qian also brought over the white rice cake, put it on Pang Tong’s table, and then took another bean plate, 『Look at this again...』


    Pang Tongtong looked at it, and ordered the bean plate on the table, "This is... the Five Elements?" 』


    Although the mung bean cake has the word "green", the color of the cake is actually not green, but yellow-green, and even more yellowish to a certain extent, so Fei Qian used the latest cake To replace the green in the five elements, it is "tea cake".


    『This…』Pang Tong held the bean plate of tea cakes, and was a little surprised, “It’s like a green leaf, how is it made…”


    Dahan’s pastries are of course not as particular as later generations. Not only is it relatively simple in the ratio of ingredients, but also in the mold. It is good to have a boxy wooden mold, and a mold like a piece of tea is specially made by someone like Feiqian. , It is almost the only one for the big man.


    It is said to be tea cakes, of course not all of them are made of tea, but the juice of another vegetable is added, yes, it is spinach. The serious spinach was introduced to China, probably during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.


    Around the time of Tang Taizong, it was offered by Persia.


    Later, Su Shi in the Song Dynasty said in a poem, "The bitter cold in the north is not over yet, and the snow bottom is like iron armor." Did you know that my Sichuan is rich in winter vegetables, and the frosty leaves and buds are more robust in the cold. 』From the poem, it can be seen that spinach was widely planted in central Sichuan at that time, and it was able to overwinter in the open field, which proves that spinach had been planted in China for a long time at least before the Song Dynasty, and even became a winter vegetable.


    It''s just because Feiqian once again opened up the Western Regions, and during the entire conquest process, he specially confessed to pay attention to these plant and animal species that China did not have, so spinach with spinach entered China three or four hundred years earlier. .


    Of course, if you use matcha technology, 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 does not overwhelm the host. And the matcha pastry Feiqian also wants to develop another series, so this ordinary dyeing task is naturally handed over to spinach.


    Pang Tong ate the tea cake and shook his head, "These five-element cakes are all top-notch products, and they are sold as a set. It must be... hehe..."


    Fei Qian nodded slightly.


    In addition to tea cakes, Feiqian will develop different molds for this set of five-element cakes, which will correspond to the five elements, and will eventually be sold in two models, one is simple square cakes, which are aimed at ordinary middle-class gentry children, And the other is the pastry of the new mold, which is sold to the upper floors.


    In this way, at this price...


    Of course it is hehehe.


    Pang Tong picked up another piece of pastry and frowned, "It''s just that this pastry is fragile, so it''s inconvenient for long-distance travel..."


    Fei Qian said with a smile: "If you use a bamboo tube and line it with thatch rafts, you can go far..."


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


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


    Fei Qian followed Pang Tong''s gaze and looked at—


    Bamboo tube?


    Oh. Understood.


    Feiqian shook his head and said with a smile: "There is no need to do this, even if this thing is not used... it must not be kept secret..."


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


    『Since Guo Fengxiao returned to Xu County, Cao Jun has changed cloth bags into bamboo tubes to store military rations... 』 Fei Qian said lightly, 『Therefore, there is no harm in using it...』


    Pang Tong was taken aback for a moment, then slapped his hands, "This Guo Fengxiao! 』


    Fei Qian waved his hands, and said with a smile: "Even without Guo Fengxiao, this daily contact can''t be hidden, it''s just sooner or later, don''t mind!" 』


    Pang Tong listened, thought for a while, and nodded, but shook his head again, smacked his lips, suddenly pondered, rolled his eyes several times, and then laughed, "Wonderful! My lord''s move is wonderful! In the land of China, where is there bamboo? Hahaha, if Cao Mengde made such a big move, or missed farming and mulberry, or promoted labor, it would be twice the result with half the effort, and it is rare to use it! 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 reason. Although China produces a lot of bamboo, it 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. In the north of the Yellow River, apart from some bamboo forests in Chang''an and Longxi, there are only stretches of bamboo forests in Qingzhou. There are still bamboo forests in Jingzhou, and most of them are in Jiangling.


    The southern bamboo forest Feiqian occupies the area of ??Sichuan, Shu, and Yunnan. There are many bamboo forests, both scattered and clustered. The other southern bamboo forests are located in the east of the Sun Quan River. These two huge bamboo forest systems also do not belong to Cao Cao.


    Of course, there are still some bamboo forests that have not been developed at this stage, such as Jiaozhi and Lingnan, but no matter how these are developed, at this stage, even for a long time, they have nothing to do with Cao Cao. Therefore, in Feiqian, the bamboo tube made of bamboo is a cheap and sustainable item, but when it comes to Cao Cao, it may evolve into an unsustainable or even expensive item.


    So even if Cao Cao wants to pirate, it is still not as convenient as later generations. In addition, the population base of Cao Cao is very large. Although the population has the advantage of having a large population, if one is not careful, small things will become very troublesome after adding the expansion effect of the population. .


    "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 subtly hinted that Pang Tong could move his chopsticks, "This is rice noodles..."


    Rice vermicelli, rice noodles, at first Feiqian was not very clear about the distinction, but later, he simply used the simplest method to divide them.


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


    It’s just that both rice skin and rice noodles need good rice and new rice. Only rice noodles can use old rice. Of course, it’s not the kind of old rice with aflatoxin. That type of old rice can’t make anything.


    When Fei Qian ate rice skins for the first time in the Han Dynasty, he was a little surprised, because the rice skins he ate in later generations had chili peppers in them, but there were no chili peppers in the Han Dynasty. Fei Qian, a later generation, was despised by the boss who sold the rice noodles because he didn’t eat spicy food at the time, saying that he should not put chili peppers, “How can I eat this broken baby spicy food?” 』


    Rice skin is probably a product of the Qin Dynasty. At first, it was made of barnyard millet, that is, not plump millet, so it was not mentioned in the scriptures. However, the rice noodle is called "charm" in the classics. That is, polished rice, and because it flows out and is cooked, it is messy like thread, tangled and entangled, also known as "random accumulation".


    So rice noodles are more expensive, while rice noodles are cheaper...


    Some foods, some convenient methods of later generations, are not necessarily good, like rice noodles and rice skins, which are basically directly polished by machines in later generations, and the efficiency is naturally improved, but because of the high-speed friction of metal, not only It gives the rice noodles a little more burnt smell, and the fine metal particles will also make the taste a bit impure. Not to mention adding various chemical products to the material for the so-called "Q bomb"...


    The rice skins in the Han Dynasty were all ground by stone mills. Because the grinding was slow, it was impossible to have the scorching smell from high-temperature friction. It was sieved with bamboo sticks. Although the degree of fineness was definitely not as good as that of later generations, the taste was not. A little more innocence than later generations.


    The same goes for rice noodles.


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


    Compared to drier pastries that can be transported long distances, rice noodles are less resistant to storage, so make them and eat them now...


    A bowl of Haggis Soup and Rice Noodles, Pang Tong ate it with a sigh of relief, because the amount was actually not a lot, so he finished it in three or two bites, then drank the soup, and finally put down the soup bowl with some satisfaction.


    "how? ’ Fei Qian asked.


    Pang Tong nodded and said, "That''s right, it''s refreshing and delicious, and it''s a good food." 』


    Fei Qian smiled, "Are there any shortcomings? 』


    "I''m afraid..." Pang Tong looked at the rice cake, then at the bowl of rice noodles, pointed to the bowl of rice noodles, and said, "I''m afraid it will be difficult to transport this thing... Besides, there are already soup cakes... Could it be The lord wants to replace him? 』


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


    The people take food as their heaven, but it is not only China that pays attention to food, but everyone is the same. It''s just that ordinary foreigners'' culture is relatively weak at this time, and they can''t express the meaning of "food is the first thing for the people" in shorter words.


    For example, in the Bible there is a saying of "five loaves and two fish". Regardless of whether it conforms to the law of energy conservation or not, this fact alone shows that even if **** wanted people to listen to his sermons, he wanted people to be full first. besides...


    Chinese people not only want to eat enough, but also pay attention to the form, aesthetic feeling and meaning of eating. They regard food as an integral part of the whole lifestyle and endow it with the form and connotation of culture. In the long process of social development, the people of Huaxia have formed common dietary etiquette, dietary taboos, dietary styles, and dietary preparation methods, that is, a rich and colorful dietary culture has been formed.


    From this perspective, Chinese food culture has surpassed the "food" itself, and gained a deeper social significance.


    Under Fei Qian’s rule, there were five teachings of gods. In the simple religious system and the relatively simple cognitive system of the world of things, yin and yang and the five elements are undoubtedly the most important foundations of China, but for a long time, in The sacrificial activities of the five directions and five elements are quite chaotic...


    Now that the five-element and five-color pastry appears, it will subtly form a religious sacrificial item, and perhaps drive more people from the gentry''s children to worship the five directions and five emperors.


    Of course, the most important thing is that Fei Qian can open up new ways to make money. After all, everyone knows that the catering industry makes hard money, and it is really hard work. Things can be done by others...


    Therefore, Feiqian''s goal is the five-color and five-element pastry, which is mainly corresponding to religion and sold to the children of the gentry, while the rice noodles made by Chen Mi are for artisans with ordinary income, and even ordinary folks around towns. …


    "It''s hard to find exquisite food for the common people..." Fei Qian said slowly, "If you only need to increase the cost a little, you can get a good meal... You only need one stove, one pot and one utensil to cook in the collection and in the In the countryside, or in a village...』


    The biggest problem of the small-scale peasant economy is self-sufficiency, and there are many factors that produce self-sufficiency, but one of them is that the things that the small-scale peasant economy needs in the entire consumption process are what he needs, and those that are produced in excess are not effectively obtained. commodity transactions.


    To put it simply, farmers and women plant vegetables in front of and behind their houses. When they eat, they pull out two. When they don’t eat, they let these vegetables grow freely, and they don’t care whether these vegetables are elders. Is it eaten by insects, or is it rotten in the field after planting too much? 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 is impossible to sell the price, so a lot of it is directly wasted.


    Although it is said that old grains can be used to make wine and vinegar, this brewing technology is not as common as later generations. Even at certain times, the court forbids private brewing by the people, or it is for the big households in the countryside to make money. , Ordinary farmers are not allowed to make wine and vinegar...


    So in the small-scale peasant economy, there is a big problem with things like home-grown vegetables, old rice, and various surplus crops, that is, raw materials that have not undergone any processing are very cheap.


    In order to break through this closed-loop small-scale peasant economy, the West has bloodily completed the transformation of this model after the Industrial Revolution with the cannibalism of sheep. However, Feiqian does not need such a drastic change, so it is considering adopting the current one. In a more gentle way, slowly penetrate and reverse with the diversification of food.


    The development of the food processing industry will consume 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., some agricultural population can be transformed into Craftsman or businessman.


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


    Why does the small peasant economy only focus on Zhuanghe? That''s because no one let them see the distance. Once the genes of the foodie empire wake up, it will be difficult to suppress, and the subsequent changes will naturally be like water erosion, and it will happen naturally.


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


    In addition to this, there are some additional uses...


    (end of this chapter)