Chapter 273: A Bite Of China
The viewers hadn’t even had time to digest the gourmet food scene they had just seen when, the next second, the huge difference between the acquisition price of matsutake mushrooms at the production site and the selling price gave them a massive shock.
【80 yuan acquisition, 700 yuan selling. This this this……】
【Is this the market economy of ancient people?】
【Too astonishing. We now have production escort ships, so we don’t have to worry about not being able to eat certain ingredients. But ancient people……】
……
Xiang Chuan glanced at the bullet comments on the screen and shrugged her shoulders.
Indeed, not to mention high-end ingredients like matsutake mushrooms, even the rice noodles from her hometown in Guangxi Province would multiply several times in price outside the province, and sometimes after working a whole day, she couldn’t even afford a bowl.
From this angle, the modern production escort ships were actually a better choice for modern people.
At least modern people didn’t need to worry about price differences due to production sites, and the agriculture bureau only needed to think about how to provide residents with higher quality and more abundant ingredients.
Xiang Chuan looked at the busy ethnic minority mother and daughter on the screen and recalled the dining table and kitchen at home that gradually became lively and abundant due to the “vegetable basket” during her school days.
——
As soon as the matsutake mushroom collection point scene passed, the rural scenery of Yun Province and the dense forest after rain once again made the bullet comments on the screen uniformly show a wave of 【Wow!】.
Watching the mixed mushrooms being endlessly picked by the ethnic minority mother and daughter and the narrator on the screen, the viewers and the agriculture bureau staff hidden among them grew more anxious one by one.
What kind of mushrooms are these? Are they edible? Are they tasty? Has their agriculture bureau kept genetic samples?
So anxious!
Xiang Xue and Lin Ming also didn’t have time to look at the bullet comments; they stared at the scene of the mother and daughter burying the mycelium pits after digging up the matsutake mushrooms and couldn’t help but exclaim “Wow.”
“Sister Xiang Chuan, did ancient people plant edible mushrooms like this? Was it always this laborious?”
Xiang Xue took advantage of the transition to ask a question.
“Of course not. By this time, there should already be large-scale farming of edible mushrooms, but the people back then all believed in the creed that ‘wild ones are the best,’ so they preferred the rare treasures growing in the mountain forests and wilderness.”
Xiang Chuan answered casually, then stuffed a potato wedge into her mouth.
Wild ones? Xiang Xue frowned in doubt and was about to ask more when the next scene cut in on the screen, drawing her attention away.
——
“What is this?”
Xiang Weiguo widened his eyes looking at this conical-looking plant on the screen.
Soon the narration revealed the answer: winter bamboo shoots.
Winter bamboo shoots? Bamboo shoots? Another new ingredient she’d never seen?
Xiang Weiguo touched his chin, pondering inwardly.
Then the scene changed, and dense bamboo came into view.
Ah? This thing is related to bamboo?
All the viewers off-screen were dumbfounded.
Bamboo is not unfamiliar to modern people. Because of its slender and upright stems, this plant is regarded by many property companies in residential areas as one of the good ornamental plants, and it is planted near many neighborhoods.
Only the area where Xiang Chuan, Ainuo, and others lived was an exception; after all, rich people all have their own ideas.
Some viewers who often carefully observe the surrounding plants naturally also recalled occasionally seeing these pointed little things under the bamboo.
So… this is edible?
The viewers in front of the screen, especially those living in apartments on the third floor or below in neighborhoods, were getting restless. After all, now chasing live streams is done using the terminal’s light screen, which doesn’t prevent them from taking the light screen out to dig bamboo shoots. If they dig some first, before the bans from the agriculture bureau and information turbulence processing office come down, they could try cooking it themselves using the method from the documentary… hehe.
Everyone thought of this simultaneously. Some impatient ones had even put on shoes and were ready to rush out the door.
At that moment, the discussion voices of the Xiang sisters happened to come from the screen.
“Sister, can winter bamboo shoots only be eaten in winter?”
The water spinach stir-fried bamboo shoots and meat stir-fried bamboo shoots on the screen made Xiang Xue swallow her saliva repeatedly; with no other choice, she picked up a bucket of french fries and potato wedges and started munching.
“Spring bamboo shoots and winter bamboo shoots are relatively famous… ah, the season has just passed.” Xiang Chuan glanced at the Geegle search page and clicked her tongue, “The season for spring bamboo shoots ends exactly in June, what a pity. It’s said that the bamboo shoots from the winter and spring seasons have the best texture.”
“Can’t eat them now?”
“Not exactly; from June to October is the season with the highest bamboo shoot yield, so if not entangled about texture, they can be eaten.”
As she spoke, Xiang Chuan stuffed a few more french fries into her mouth.
Xiang Xue figured it out: whenever her sister stuffed french fries into her mouth, it meant she wouldn’t continue explaining. Maybe it was too troublesome to explain? Or maybe her sister didn’t know much either?
She turned her gaze back to the screen in front of her.
Meanwhile, the crowds who had rushed out were all driven back home one by one by their neighborhood’s patrol robots.
The reason was that the bamboo and bamboo shoots in the green belts had been requisitioned by the agriculture bureau, and unauthorized picking was not allowed.
Hearing this notice, the crowds who had rushed out were all dumbfounded: Did the agriculture bureau’s workhorses issue the notice this fast? Don’t they need to sleep?
The agriculture bureau’s workhorses: Thanks for asking, currently doing overtime at headquarters on the company’s dime watching the live stream.
At this moment, the bullet comment section was also discussing this. The viewers had figured out the agriculture bureau’s intention, so they simply lay flat at home… as if! They were starving now!
The residents of the third fleet all simultaneously touched their stomachs in front of the screen.
They had clearly just finished dinner, so why were they so hungry!
——
Xiang Chuan in the live broadcast room wasn’t doing much better at this moment.
Because the scene had switched to Guangxi Province.
Looking at the bright red snail noodles and pickled bamboo shoots on the screen, Xiang Chuan instantly felt that the french fries, potato wedges, and steamed bun slices in her hand weren’t tasty anymore.
She remembered the night she transmigrated to the modern era, when she was still thinking about enjoying the two boxes of bagged snail noodles her family had asked her to take to the rental room the next day, even preparing water spinach and eggs, but then she closed her eyes and opened them to arrive 30,000 years later, in a place even more of a gourmet desert than Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province.
Looking at the snail noodles on the screen loaded with pickled bamboo shoots, wood ear mushroom, dried tofu skin, peanuts, green beans, and vegetables, Xiang Chuan envied, Xiang Chuan was jealous, Xiang Chuan stared blankly.
In this bowl of stuff, which ones could she manage to make now?
Pickled bamboo shoots… judging by the bullet comments, modern people seem to treat bamboo as an ornamental plant, so at least there’s a chance to try.
Vegetables… water spinach hasn’t been found yet; if worse comes to worst, substituting with rapeseed flowers wouldn’t be unacceptable to her.
Noodles… with rice paste, everything is fine.
But what about the others?
Dried tofu skin and pickled green beans are both bean-related products; the beans have just been planted, where would she find enough beans?
Peanuts are probably still lying in some corner of the botanical garden waiting for her to discover them; mass production? Wait!
Wood ear mushroom? Shiitake mushrooms and mushrooms haven’t even been settled yet!
Most crucially, the snail broth.
Xiang Chuan looked at the Yan Du Xian in the image and unwillingly bit down on the straw in her mouth. Most of the spices needed for snail noodle broth could be found in the botanical garden and pharmacies, but the snails? She hadn’t scooped up any snails by the riverside during field training before; if snails grew in other waters in the nature reserve, that would be fine, but what if there were none…?
Thinking of this possibility, Xiang Chuan gripped the cup in her hand tightly.
