My Magic Age

Originally! I originally planned to use pheasant and guinea pig meat instead of pork, but a pork chop like this will definitely enhance the stew.

As for why there are vermicelli, it is because a few days ago, Kuz picked up a basket of sweet potatoes from outside. This stuff has a lot of starch and will be a little sweet if left for a while.

Although this thing is usually used as coarse grain for slaves, many orc tribes will also reserve this abundant food to replace grain during disaster years.

Kurtz likes to eat it raw. It not only makes him hungry but also quenches his thirst. It tastes very crispy when eaten raw. Later I discovered that this thing is a bit like a sweet potato, except that the sweet potato has a very thick skin. You need to use a machete to break the hard and thick skin. Only then can you eat the crisp and tender roots inside.

Seeing these sweet potato-like potatoes reminds me of some past events from my childhood.

My family was very poor at that time. Even if we were making dumplings during the Chinese New Year, it was difficult to afford a lot of meat, and there were so many people in our family.

In autumn, my mother would prepare a large vat, put the mashed sweet potatoes in it, fill it with water and stir it constantly. Then, after filtering out the sweet potato residue, she would slowly wait for the water in the vat to settle. After skimming off the water, the purest sweet potato starch will remain at the bottom of the tank.

Put the wet starch into a small leaky pot with small round eyes. The starch paste flows into the boiling hot water along the round eyes, and it will turn into vermicelli. Put these vermicelli on the steamer to dry. , it can be kept until the next summer without breaking.

When the New Year comes in winter, even if there is no meat, just use shredded radish, vermicelli, a little shrimp skin and stuffing, cornmeal and wheat flour to make a skin, and you can have a delicious meal of vegetable buns.

If it is a New Year's Eve dinner, if there is less meat in the dumplings, some vermicelli will be put in them, and they will be equally delicious.

When I grew up, maybe because I was hungry as a child, I became a cook when I grew up.

But from then on, no dish tasted the same as when I was a child.

In this new world, all my efforts have been just to prove one thing: I am still alive!

I am still the same me, but no one can understand the loneliness in my heart. I miss those people and things, and I am afraid that I will slowly forget them eventually. I want to work hard to remember them, so I Only when he saw Kuz eating sweet potatoes, he couldn't help but make some vermicelli, just to prove it to himself.

So Kuz and I made a bag of vermicelli like this. Kuz was very new to vermicelli, but because it is made from sweet potatoes, usually giving sweet potatoes to people in the caravan is a way of scolding them. That is It was ironic that he was a slave, a prisoner, a pariah or a destitute wanderer, so when I decided to cook such a pile of vermicelli with meat for this meal, I couldn't help but be a little worried.

"Jijia, do you think we can really do it?"

"Well, Kurtz, go and get rid of those guinea pigs. We don't want those internal organs this time. There are too many guinea pigs and we can't handle them."

"I understand, Jijia, you said those people need to know that what we feed them is..."

"It's vermicelli! Vermicelli, Kuz, you have to remember that this is the starch essence that we have worked hard to extract from some plants. It is very delicious and nutritious." I quickly brainwashed Kuz.

If those people in the caravan knew that I treated them to sweet potatoes, I would not have a good life. In human society, sweet potatoes were eaten by slaves. They were only used as food in times of famine.

"Okay! Vermicelli, is this really edible?"

"Kuz!" I drawled.

"Okay! It's delicious, delicious! It must be. Jijia, how about making a pot of broth? You see we have so much meat, it's more than enough to make a pot of soup. In fact, I think we should add a little tree rice, then The stuff is great." Kurtz's mouth was hanging from his chin, and he was skinning the guinea pig obscenely with a thin leather knife in his hand, trying to persuade me to change the recipe.

I definitely can’t agree to this. I’ve been waiting for this bite for a long time. Now that I have such an opportunity, I won’t give it up no matter what. Besides, it’s definitely wrong to question whether a chef’s food is delicious. My insult, I cannot accept it.

Uncle Anlu, the fat cook, was squatting on the edge of the stove, staring at me and Kuz with his big eyes. He would hear everything we said word for word. I was worried that he was listening to us. After being around for a long time, Kurtz is not strict with his words. When I said it, I wanted to push the fat cook, Uncle Anlu away for a while, and then said: "Oh, dear Uncle Anlu, you see this iron pot is too dirty, can you help me get a bucket of water to clean it for us?" Pot?" I pretended to be cute and asked the cook Anlu.

When the fat cook An Lu heard this, he was a little reluctant at first, but after a pair of huge toad eyes, he immediately agreed. He said to me with a smile: "It is a great honor to serve you. As long as you two little guys promise me not to climb on the stove casually, the task given to me by Master Leipas is to take good care of you two."

"Uncle Anlu, I will take care of myself, and I will also keep an eye on Kuz and take good care of him." I promised, patting my chest. It seemed that Fat Anlu was a little doubtful, but he did not refuse. With a fat and round belly, he walked slowly towards the lake not far away, holding two huge wooden barrels in his hands and muttering without knowing what to say.

Holding the two round ears of the guinea pig in one hand, a light tap on the back of the head will kill it, but in this way, the blood will not come out and the meat will appear a little dark red.

Hanging the incisors of the dead guinea pig on a thin rope, Kuz quickly peeled off the fur with a small knife for cutting meat. Kuz was very skilled at this. Before I could even see his movements, he had already peeled off the complete mouse skin and hung it aside, and said to me: "Ji Jia, let's make a mattress with this skin, it is moisture-proof and warm."

Guinea pig meat needs to be soaked in cold water for a while to remove the earthy smell. The exquisite bone-cutting knife in my hand is one of the three-piece knife set given to me by Fred. There is also a skinning knife curved like a cow horn and a sharp bayonet. The bayonet is used to kill large animals.

For example, antelopes, as long as the bayonet is inserted into the heart of the chest along the gap between the collarbones, even I can kill a sheep tied to a tree. These three knives were placed in a calfskin knife holder and I had kept them well.

I chopped the bright red guinea pig meat into fist-sized cubes, and the cubes were piled in the copper basin to gradually form a small meat mountain. I also had seven wild pheasants. I originally wanted to smoke them with fire and make some cured meat for Kuz to taste, but now I had to change my mind and contribute them. Adding some chicken to the guinea pig meat would make it taste especially delicious.

At this time, the cooks in the dance troupe came back from the lake one after another, carrying huge wooden barrels and wooden basins. The food in the dance troupe has always been much more exquisite than that of the merchant troupe, with richer varieties and better taste.

Many wealthy drivers in the merchant troupe would occasionally take out some copper coins to exchange food with the cooks in the dance troupe. Fred once treated me to a box of sweet glutinous rice.

Their large wooden basins were filled with tender shepherd's purse, which was washed clean and had water droplets hanging on the leaves. There was also a large pot of mutton. The cooks were not very old, but each of them was strong enough to carry at least two wooden buckets of water without too much effort.

They walked to the stove, chatting and laughing. Seeing that only Kuz and I were cooking the ingredients, the leader, a tall woman with fair skin and a few freckles on her face, who was about thirty years old, stared at me with her blue eyes and asked, "Why is the fat man Anlu not here? Who asked you to come here to play, little guys?"

"Uncle Anlu went to the lake to fetch water. We are preparing food for dinner here with the permission of Master Leipas. My partner Kuz and I are going to treat everyone in the caravan to a stew. Look, this is the guinea pig we caught. It's very fat and tender." I straightened up, holding a bloody guinea pig's hind leg in one hand and looking at the woman in front of me with a smile, even though I didn't even know her name.

"You are very brave? Are you the apprentice of the witch doctor Kuru?" I don't know whether the woman's words are a question or a compliment. After saying that, she walked to another big pot without comment and put the wooden barrel in her hand on the ground.

I could only nod to the air. It seemed that she just needed to know that Kuz and I were not here to make trouble. She didn't want to talk to me at all. This might be the pride of the cook!

"Is he the child picked up by the old orc in the caravan?"

"Didn't you say he was very young?"

"He looks pretty good!"

The women passed by me and talked a lot. Some of them looked at me from time to time. It seemed that they knew I existed.

Maybe it was because the women were somewhat surprised that the caravan sent two children to cook. They were very curious about Kuz and me.

There was even a woman with a knife-like face who smelled like chopped green onions and ran to my side and stared at me, which made me a little hairy. Later, the strong woman looked at me fiercely, and then I moved back there angrily.

The dance group's dinner was very rich, also because they camped very early today, because they would walk a long winding mountain road to enter the Pai Plateau.

Before that, they would rest for two days by the lake with lush grass and water. I saw a slightly fat white woman pouring water from the lake into a big pot, rolling up her sleeves to reveal her white and round arms, stacking the washed mutton in the big wooden basin into the big pot one by one, and someone was making a fire below, and someone was throwing some tender green wild onions into the soup pot.

The women in the group knew how to cherish fuel better. After walking out of the mountains, it was difficult to get enough dead wood or hay on the grassland, so some dried rhino dung was also a good fuel, but these things were also scarce, and it was necessary to try not to waste any heat.

So everyone was busy and moved very quickly. Everyone had a clear division of labor and cooperated well.

Seeing their happy smiles on their faces, you can tell that the life of the dance troupe makes them feel very happy. I thought to myself: There may be no lack of happiness in any corner of this world. The key is whether you can find it.

Kuz was very happy. He was still staring at the guinea pigs with their fur peeled clean. He was drooling over the pork chops and pheasant pieces in the copper basin. When he saw me looking at him, he quickly retracted his gaze and began to tan the leather. Kuz told me that guinea pig skin is not a precious fur, but it is very suitable for making sleeping bags. It is warm and waterproof, and it does not take up space when rolled up. When traveling, many humans like to sew sleeping bags with guinea pig skin.

I asked: "What kind of sleeping bags do orcs like?"

"Wolf orcs like to sleep on cowhide. Most of these warm guinea pig skins will be sold to human travelers and merchants. A sleeping bag can be exchanged for 100 pieces of white bread." Kurtz told me proudly, and then shook the bloody guinea pig in his hand. Leather, put on the wooden pole on the side. "My grandpa said that these guinea pig skins are enough to make a sleeping bag for you, Jijia!"

"Do I need a sleeping bag?" I was a little surprised. Even in the severe winter in the New Siakis Mountains of the dwarf country, I didn't need to wear an extra leather jacket. The fire poison in my body made me prefer colder places. The warm and humid south-easterly trade winds have been making me uncomfortable lately, and I never thought I would need a warm sleeping bag at night.

Kuz thought for a while and didn't understand why I, who was never afraid of the cold, would need a sleeping bag, but he still said stubbornly: "My grandma said I gave it to you, so it's definitely not wrong!"

After all the ingredients were prepared, I started to cut into sections the wild onions and purple ghost ginger that I had collected.

Kurtz brought over the two clay pots in my luggage. These two clay pots used to be Uncle Fred's wine jars, but after the wine dried, I asked them to put things in. One jar was white. Huahua’s animal fat, and another jar containing half a jar of honey. When he opened the clay pot, Kurtz looked at me in a daze: "Why do you still have honey? You didn't eat the honey you took when you were given medicine?"

"I'm not afraid of hardship, so I keep it naturally. This thing is very scarce. Look, I'll tell you a little secret. When stewing meat, put a few drops of honey into the pot. Just a few drops will do. The meat will It tastes amazing!" I proudly shared my secret with Kurtz.

This guy went to a bear cave deep in the mountains to search for this jar of honey. When he came back, he was slapped firmly on the back by the sleeping earth bear. That day, he watched Kurtz holding several A piece of beeswax climbed onto the Thunder Rhinoceros covered in blood. I was completely frightened. This guy didn't even think about me and made a face.

So sometimes I feel that friendship is priceless.

Thunder Rhino's cow dung smelled faintly of green grass when it burned, and the whole can of milky white lard gradually melted in the pot. As the oil temperature gradually heated up, a large amount of oily smoke began to emit.

Kuz had never seen such a cooking method. He stood on the edge of the big pot and stretched his neck to look into the pot. He shouted eagerly at me: "Jijia, the pot is smoking, it's going to burn!" "Kuz will speak Orcish when he's in a hurry.

I asked Kuz and the two of them to pour the whole pot of meat into the big iron pot. The fresh meat slid along the edge of the pot and into the bottom of the pot, and was fried in the hot oil, making a sizzling sound.

After that, Kuz started to stand on the pot platform according to my instructions, waving the shovel in his hand to stir-fry the meat, while I carried various small pots, minced the brains, wild ghost ginger segments, and some similar wild peppercorns. Flavorful herbs were also thrown into the pot one after another, and finally I got some honey into the pot. Seeing Kuz's somewhat distressed look, I decided to stop.

When the cooks at the dance troupe noticed that we had started cooking, Kuz and I had already cut the meat into pieces, removed the fishy smell, and thrown in all the seasonings.

Then pour the two large buckets of water next to it into the pot. I let Kuz light the fire while I dealt with the vermicelli.

Uncle Anlu had already fetched the water back, and when he saw that we were doing a great job, he was so happy that he went to join the dance group cook who was watching the excitement. Pretty close.

Obviously the cook over there was familiar with Fat Anlu, but she didn't look down upon Fatty Anlu. The young woman with eyes like bells and a knife-like face even mocked Uncle Anlu and said, "What's the matter, Fat An?" , is it not I can't do this job as a cook anymore. Mr. Leipas would rather use his two children to cook than you. Doesn't he think the soup you make is too delicious? Hey, I heard that you used to raise dolphins in the countryside. Damn it, is this true?"

"Ah! Who's the one who hid me behind my back? What's so bad about the food I cooked? This is how the caravan has always cooked. This is how the dried meat and wild vegetable soup with black bread tastes!"

Anlu turned around and glanced at me. When he saw that I was concentrating on washing the vermicelli, he lowered his tone twice and said, "Kuzi and Jijia are from the caravan witch doctor father. These two children They are usually very diligent! They also do a lot of cooking. They are all good children. They caught a bag of guinea pigs in that pasture and offered to stew a pot of meat for our caravan. Hey, I have some help too. I just helped them fight. The water is gone, but they are too small to carry it!”

The afternoon sun warmed the entire camp. There was a mountain-like pile of grain bags not far from the stove. At this time, many people were leaning on the grain bags to bask in the sun.

There will be chatting wherever there are people. While looking at the fire, the cooks gradually got together and started chatting all over the place. Fatty Uncle Anlu was very talkative. Although he was a bit wretched, he was very talkative. Sometimes he would inadvertently talk. Even if he throws out a dirty joke, the women won't pay much attention to it, and they will laugh and scold him for a while.

The aroma of mutton began to waft out of the dance team's cauldron. Maybe it won't be long before the mutton is almost cooked.

The mutton soup has begun to turn white, and the oil is rolling in the water. On the other side, thin pancakes have begun to be baked on the stone slab. The white and delicate flour slowly turns brown on the hot stone slab, exuding the unique aroma of wheat flour. .

Luxurious food like pure white wheat flour was not available in the caravan. Only the dancers in the dance troupe could afford it.

Kuz stuck his butt out, holding a blackened wooden stick in his hand and trying to make the cow dung burn fully. Our guinea pig meat soup pot also began to emit a different aroma, a smell that I remembered. I don’t know how long it has been since I last smelled it, but now it is floating in the air, giving me a tingling pleasure in my joints.

Kuz obviously also smelled this fragrance that could drift far away, so he worked extra hard to light the fire.

Under Kuz’s sad eyes, I threw the whole bundle of vermicelli into the pot. I seemed to see Kuz’s heart at this time: Jijia, can we not put that thing...

Braised pork with vermicelli!