SWNOVELS Chapter 109.1: Peerlessly Gentle Zhao Zhenzhen
Chapter 109.1: Peerlessly Gentle Zhao Zhenzhen
101 on the main street looked like a bar on the outside, but its interior had undergone changes so drastic that the original workers who built this bar wouldn't recognize it.
All walls except the load-bearing ones had been knocked down, and all compartments and private rooms had been demolished.
The rectangular space, about 150 square meters, was crudely divided by a waist-high counter. Half of the counter was an open kitchen, and the other half displayed a large shelf reaching up to the ceiling filled with bottles and jars.
If Wagner could still compare the semi-open kitchen and the oversized shelf to things he had seen before in his life Those bamboo-woven boxes, iron plates, and plastic bowls filled with unfamiliar, aromatic foods on the counter, and the undead standing in the kitchen skillfully preparing food, completely exceeded Wagner's comprehension.
Wagner was hit by the aromatic fragrance as soon as he entered, even though he hadn't yet had the chance to take a closer look at the strange and rare items on the counter. His eyes were glued to an undead deftly using a strange square knife to chop a whole cabbage into shreds and skillfully throwing it into a large pot
"Hey, buddy, are you already drunk so early in the morning?" An old man wanting to enter grumbled at Wagner, who was blocking the door.
"Sorry." Wagner quickly stepped aside.
The old man holding a clay jar gave Wagner a stern look, then wobbled through the door, headed straight to the counter, and greeted the sweaty staff packing the prepared food into strange square boxes. "Good morning, Young Brook. Please give me some of those pastries from yesterday, not the sweet ones, and also a bag of salt."
Brook, the young man who was preparing boxed lunches for the town hall, quickly put down what he was doing. "Good morning, Grandpa Andre. Are you talking about dumplings?"
"Yes, yes, that's it. The name of that thing is too strange, and I always can't seem to remember it." The old man nodded eagerly and placed the clay jar on the counter while taking out a small stack of copper coins. "Please give me a bag of salt first and use the remaining money on those pastries."
Brook took the counts and counted them. "There's a total of eleven coins here. White salt costs eight copper coins per bag, and the dumplings are two copper coins for ten. For the remaining three copper coins, I'll give you fifteen. Is that right?"
"Yes, yes." The old man nodded, beaming widely.
When Wagner heard the two men talking about the price of salt in copper coins, he thought he must have misheard. Wagner was someone experienced in life. He remembered that the grocery store, with which he had a good relationship, charged two silver coins for a jar of salt. What could a few copper coins buy, a teaspoon of salt?
Then, he saw the youngster by the name of Brook put the copper coins into a drawer on the inner side of the counter, turned around, and took a small palm-size packet wrapped in semi-transparent plastic from the shelf which he handed to the old man.
The old man took this seemingly weighty bag and, with a swiftness not befitting an elderly person, stuffed it into the inner pocket of his coat.
Wagner's jaw fell, and he immediately looked at the shelf where the young man had taken the items from.
On the shelf rows were numerous small packages of salt, all packed this way. Each pack didn't have a large amount, and Wagner roughly estimated each packet to be about a pound.
Roughly a pound of salt can be bought for eight copper coins?!
Wagner clutched his head with both hands once again.
The Rhine Kingdom wasn't a coastal nation, and it got its salt from transport caravans of coastal nations. Due to Indahl being a land trade hub owing to its location, the price of salt there was cheaper than other places. Ordinary people could get a five-kilogram jar of salt from the grocery store for two silver coins. Of course, the price of salt seemed acceptable for middle-income people like Wagner. A jar of salt could last several months, after all.
However, it wasn't so easy for ordinary folk. Most families pooled money with relatives and neighbors to buy a jar of salt and then distributed it themselves. Housewives had to be as economical as possible, using only a tiny bit of salt each time they cooked soupit was good enough if it wasn't bland.
Such a shop managed by the undead evidently had a connection with Rex and Yang: Where did they get such cheap salt?! Wouldn't selling it to the townspeople so cheaply not cause a loss and lead to bankruptcy??
But the answer Yang had was that it really wouldn't. How cheap was salt in China? 400-gram packs of refined salt could be gotten wholesale for a few yuan each, and manufacturers could even customize private labels for the customer. The batch of salt given to the Undead Merchant Association was customized with a logo on each pack, along with Undead Merchant Association written in common text
Wagner's head was full of questions when he saw the young Brook remove the lid of a strange bamboo-woven box (actually a bamboo steamer), skillfully use a pair of long wooden sticks (chopsticks) to pick up the strange pastries in the box, counted them, and put them in the clay jar brought by the old man.
Ten of these tiny pastries for two copper coins didn't seem that excessive.
At this point, Brook accidentally damaged one of the pastries, and a small ball of meat rolled out.
"Ah!" cried Brook as he quickly picked up the fallen meat from the counter and ate it himself while apologizing to the old man, "This one's not counted since I broke it."
The old man gulped while nodding, eagerly waiting for Brook to continue filling his jar with dumplings.
While the sweet pastries (tangyuan) were very good, his grandson hadn't had meat for a long time.
Dumbfounded Wagner: ""
Waitthere's meat inside those pastries?!
Fifteen meat-filled pastries for three copper coins??
His hands, which had just been put down, once more returned to clutching his head
Brook filled the old man's jar with 15 freshly steamed dumplings, then took a small transparent bag, poured some black liquid into it, and handed it to the old man, saying, "Miss Sis Zhao said that the dumplings won't taste as good if you eat them without vinegar. Next time, remember to bring an extra bowl."
The old man happily expressed his thanks and left, hugging the jar tightly
Brook clapped his hands and looked at Wagner, who was still standing at the door, and politely asked, "Mister, can I help you with anything?"
Wagner regained his composure, took out the copper coins furnished by Yang, and stepped forward to the counter. "Yang asked me to pick up breakfast for three people He said it's a standard meal, and one portion should be less spicy."
"Mr. Lord Yang? Three sets? Ah, Mr. Yang has a guest, huh?" Brook appeared even more respectful. He accepted the coins with both hands, put them away neatly, and then took out three meal boxes from under the counter, swiftly filling them with food.
The so-called standard meal refers to a four-plus-one fast food meal.
All the meat dishes were ready-to-cook dishessimilar to the ready-made dishes people in China got when ordering takeout, with flavors almost the same regardless of which restaurant it came from.contemporary romance
From fried chicken chunks, chicken strips, popcorn chicken to Dongpo pork, braised pork, twice-cooked pork, fish-flavored shredded pork, braised eggplant, home-style tofu, potato beef, mushroom braised pork, Kung Pao chicken, black pepper chicken strips, spicy chicken giblets, braised ribs, curry potato chicken Everything was included.
These ready-made dishes were available on Taobao and were even as easy to prepare as instant noodles.
If Chinese people with their picky taste buds could enjoy this food tirelessly, the people of this other world couldn't possibly dislike them either.
It was just slightly more expensive compared to frozen foods and would result in leftovers if all these dishes were made. Therefore, the so-called standard meal was introduced, where only four types of ready-made dishes were prepared every day, along with some fresh vegetables bought from the market making it four plus one.
The clerical staff at the town hall consumed a great deal of mental energy and physical energy each day. Like Hal and the others, they could enjoy the standard staff meal (paid for by Rex). Meanwhile, those still at the resettlement point while regaining their fitness were a rung lower, and only had two plus one, with rice (expenses still covered by Rex).
Today's four dishes were fish-flavored shredded pork, spicy braised eggplant, Kung Pao chicken, and hot-and-sour shredded potatoes. Lowell, being unable to eat very spicy things, had less braised eggplant and more hot and sour shredded potatoes in his portion. His fish-flavored shredded pork and eggplant weren't topped with red chili oil, as well.
Watching Brook scoop the food up close, Wagner once again had a dumbfounded look on his face.
He had eaten quite a bit of delicious food in his life, but the stuff in front of him gave off an indescribably enticing aroma he had never experienced before.
And when Brook filled the meal box with steaming rice, Wagner had practically turned into a wooden dummy.
Rice was also eaten in this world, but there weren't many people who did.
It wasn't that people in this world had a disdain for rice; it's just that the cultivation of rice required much higher agricultural technology, irrigation, and climatic conditions than wheat, barley, corn, potatoes, and soybeans.
With the lack of irrigation or agricultural technology, one would only see wheat and corn fields even if the climate was suitable for growing rice. Due to these objective conditions, most people's plates only contained bread, corn, and various processed potatoes.
Similar circumstances existed on Earth as well. In East Asia, countries influenced by Chinese agriculture had been eating rice for centuries, while people on the same landmass in Europe still nibbled on rye bread.
As far as Wagner knew, other than some nobles, who would cultivate a plot area of rice on their own estates for a change of taste, he had never heard of rice made into meals like this, displayed in a roadside ready-to-eat shop, available to anyone who came in and paidthis sort of hearty meal only cost 15 copper coins!
When Wagner left with three packed standard meals, he also saw several housewives coming in with covered glass plates, buying a small portion of a single dish at the price of three copper coins as extra food for their families
Wagner further lost his mind once he tasted the food in the meal box. He originally thought that the strange stew he had last night (self-heating hotpot) was used by Yang to win him over. But now, it seemed that he had made an over-assumption!
People here already ate such flavorful items, and it was Wagner who was ignorant!
Whatever delicacies he had eaten before weren't true to their name!
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