Chapter 182: The History Of Rice
Seeing Manager Wu and the surrounding classmates with bewildered expressions, Xiang Chuan felt a helpless sense of not knowing where to begin.
She really wanted a Doraemon time machine right now to transmigrate back to when they started entering agricultural information, to ask who exactly failed to leave behind the correct way to eat grains.
But this was truly Xiang Chuan wrongly blaming the scholars of that time.
The institution responsible for entering various books and literature into the cloud network at that time believed that cooking was something that wouldn’t disappear from the DNA of people worldwide; otherwise, the most noted item in unearthed historical artifacts wouldn’t be the grains eaten by ancient humans and the vessels.
But they never imagined a Dark Virus Crisis, a massive disaster comparable to the great floods in the mythologies of various countries, which caused humans to almost lose all historical information.
During the Dark Virus Crisis, people lived in air-raid shelters or basements to isolate from the virus, eating solid food and liquid food for a very long time.
At that time, humans’ lifespan hadn’t reached the current level, so during the period of avoiding the virus, generation after generation passed away.
After the newborns grew up, the first things they chewed were solid food and liquid food.
By the time the crisis passed and people began rebuilding the various fleets in ruins, they had already forgotten the cooking methods for ingredients.
So this blame truly shouldn’t be shouldered by the scholars of that year.
Xiang Chuan scratched her head and threw out another question: “Don’t you all usually talk about eating, breakfast, dinner, and such? Haven’t you ever wondered what the word ‘rice’ originally meant?”
Hearing this, Manager Wu and some classmates’ eyes instantly lit up: There really is a story behind this!
Xiang Chuan casually reached for her water cup to sip some fruit milk, but grabbed empty air; only then did she remember that her water cup and the vacuum-packed fruit milk she brought were sent to their residence with the luggage, so she had to pick up the soup bowl instead and drink a mouthful of delicious chicken soup with shiitake mushrooms to moisten her throat.
“In the records of ancient literature, human history is the history of eating grains. Archaeologists studying even earlier ancient civilizations first found fossilized grains and the vessels preserved alongside them. The word ‘rice’ in ancient times referred to cooked food made from grain crops; usually, ‘rice’ meant rice. But it wasn’t just rice grain; wheat could also be made into wheat rice through the same process, with a flavor different from rice.”
“Rice grain is a high-yield crop and belongs to easily digestible refined grains, so it was favored by populous countries. Other grains, such as wheat and corn, because they are durable for storage and convenient for secondary processing, spread earliest as staple foods on other continents. By our current analogy, continents are like other fleets, right?”
“Rice itself has a relatively bland taste, but because it is refined grain, after steaming, it easily absorbs the influence of other dishes and seasonings. Plus, it is carbohydrates that can fill the stomach, so most of the time people choose it as the first option to fill up. Also because of this characteristic of rice, when ancient people cooked other dishes, they more or less considered whether they could pair with rice…”
“What are you all gathering here for?”
Ainuo’s voice interrupted Xiang Chuan’s eloquent rice speech.
She turned her head and saw Ainuo holding a lunch box in each hand, which instantly made her eyes light up, throwing the unfinished words to the back of her mind.
Not enthusiastic about eating rice means there’s a problem with your thinking.
Ainuo seized the moment to place the lunch box in front of her, then felt piercing gazes.
He looked up and saw Manager Wu and the Staple Food Department employees who had been “strolling” back and forth near their dining table for a long time glaring at him with murderous eyes.
What was this about? Ainuo looked puzzled at Ouyang Yating and Nancy.
Ouyang Yating raised an eyebrow, Nancy shrugged, and the two smiled in tacit understanding without speaking.
Xiang Chuan had just not only introduced the history of staple foods in the ancient world, but her words also mentioned a crop not included in staple foods: corn. This meant Xiang Chuan’s speech was very likely to change the upcoming staple food crop distribution pattern. Ainuo “timely” brought her rice and interrupted her, which now not only made the Agriculture Bureau and Staple Food Department stomp their chests in regret, but the Historical Research Institute would probably lose sleep too.
Fortunately, even the oblivious Xiang Chuan noticed Manager Wu’s resentful gaze toward Ainuo and naturally understood what he was resenting. She smiled and said, “The theoretical knowledge I know is roughly this much; the rest is just simple cooking methods for rice grain and corn. Later, I’ll compile the records I can gather and send them to you. I don’t understand those complicated things either, but I think they might be useful to Manager Wu and everyone in the Staple Food Department.”
As soon as she said this, Ainuo instantly felt the needle-like gazes on him disappear.
Manager Wu and the Staple Food Department members grinned like Sichuan Opera face-changing, saying things like “Classmate Xiang Chuan, just send whatever you think is fine” and “How could we impose,” but their hands operated personal terminals to exchange contact information without the slightest pause, afraid of being interrupted again.
This commotion lasted five minutes before the area around Xiang Chuan’s table finally returned to (surface) calm.
Xiang Chuan looked around and noticed Liang Gong was missing, so she asked, “Ainuo, where did Liang Gong go? Wasn’t he getting rice with you?”
Ainuo pointed with his chopsticks to the nearby Animal Husbandry Department’s dining area and said, “On the way back, he was called away by his mother; probably his portion of boxed rice is being divided up now.”
So tragic! Everyone couldn’t help lighting a candle for Liang Gong.
“Tonight, have their leader copy this side’s kitchen AI data to the kitchen AIs in other department canteens, and that’s it. That kid is still growing, so pitiful…”
Xiang Chuan frowned and shook her head, heartbrokenly eating a big piece of eggplant.
Foodie Chou Manman rolled her eyes and asked, “Xiang Chuan, are we eating this again tonight?”
Tonight?
Xiang Chuan blinked her eyes, chewing on dishes while thinking.
This white rice was hard to come by; even if they ate the same thing tonight, whether it was her, the “quick to like new and tire of old” leader, or modern people unchanging for centuries, no one would refuse.
But with Chou Manman saying that, Xiang Chuan had some new ideas.
“Well said, Man Man. Since we’re here, we definitely have to do something different.” Xiang Chuan hummed, “Hehe, rice is not just eaten in this one way!”
As soon as Xiang Chuan finished speaking, she felt her train of thought instantly broaden. If she weren’t reluctant to waste the rice finally in her mouth, she would rush out of the canteen right now to discuss some things with Manager Wu who had just left.
At this moment, Xiang Chuan was very glad that Manager Wu had half-forced her to exchange contact information earlier.
The others at the table exchanged glances: Tonight’s dinner was settled.
