Indoors.
After coming out of the kitchen, Mrs. William first set the cauldron on the table, wiped her hands on her apron, then turned to Lisa Askew.
"Lisa, could you divide up the bread?"
Lisa stopped her blinking at once, stood up, and replied:
"No problem, Mom."
Then she led the Ailula Sisters over to the dining table and quickly took a little basket covered with a white cloth from beneath it.
She lifted the cloth and began handing out the bread.
Mrs. William returned to the kitchen and, a moment later, brought out another, smaller cooking pot.
Setting the table was simple, but cheerful—since they had a guest this time, Mrs. William had gone out of her way to prepare an extra meat dish.
The girls' lively chatter, along with the warmth spreading from the fireplace, gradually warmed Xu Yun's heart.
In seventeenth-century England, cooking in common households was generally the women's responsibility, except among the wealthy, who employed servants. Sometimes, they even drove the men of the family away when they tried to help.
So while Mrs. William, Lisa, and the others set out the food, William remained seated by the fireplace, unruffled, telling a story about Manchester's blue skies.
When everything was ready, he finally brought Xu Yun and Little Ox to the table and invited him to sit.
"Please sit here, Mr. Fat Fish."
Hearing this, Andrea, one of the twin sisters, sensibly went around behind Xu Yun and pulled out his chair.
Xu Yun thanked her politely. As he sat down, he used the corner of his eye to inspect his first lunch in the seventeenth century.
The table stood on the right side of the living room. It was rectangular, about two meters long and 1.2 meters wide, and made of wood. One of its legs was damaged, with a wad of cotton cloth wedged beneath the bottom.
William and Mrs. William sat alone at opposite ends, while everyone else took their seats in two groups of three.
The Ailula Sisters and Lisa sat on one side; Xu Yun, Little Ox, and Lilani sat on the other.
A piece of bread lay before each person. It looked rather rough, like homemade bread baked without a mold, but seemed substantial.
Xu Yun's plate had been hastily made while chopping firewood earlier. It hadn't been sanded or polished, but he had washed it again and again in a stream, so it could just about hold food.
A jar of butter sat in front of the plate. It was about thirty percent full, and whether by accident or design, Mrs. William had placed it closest to Xu Yun's seat.
His gaze shifted inward, toward the very center of the table, where two iron pots, one large and one small, sat on cotton-and-hemp potholders.
Both contained stews, the English people's favorite way of cooking. Just as practically anything could be paired with Sichuan pepper back home, in England, practically anything could go in a stew.
The better-known varieties included Lancashire hotpot and Liverpool stew. No special stock was needed; as long as you had onions and potatoes, you could even throw a shoe in and eat it after stewing.
Legend had it that when Li Hongzhang first visited Britain, he saw an English woman stew eight different dishes together. That was why British stew was also called "Eight-Dish Stew of the Foreign Lady." Ahem.
The little iron pot in front of Xu Yun seemed to contain a vegetable medley. At a glance, he could make out lentils, cauliflower, wild greens, Bramley apples, and more.
Perhaps because it had absorbed the chlorophyll, the broth looked grayish green and kept bubbling away.
The food in the big pot was simpler: a basic eel stew.
As an island nation, Britain had long had a thriving fishing industry. Even in the seventeenth century, fish was very cheap.
So when books and videos said that meat was scarce in seventeenth-century England, they meant red and white meat from land animals. Fish was still easy to come by.
For example, the William family probably couldn't scrape together even a single guinea, but they could still eat fish fairly often. That was one of the advantages of living on an island.
Once everyone was seated,
William clasped his hands and led them in a brief prayer of thanks.
Xu Yun wasn't religious, but out of respect for the culture of the time and the William family, he closed his eyes and went along with it.
Three minutes later, the prayer ended.
When he opened his eyes, William stood up, scooped a small bowl of fish and broth from the big pot, and handed it to Xu Yun.
"Mr. Fat Fish, this is your fish soup. Be careful, it's hot."
Xu Yun accepted it politely and watched as William served everyone else in turn.
Mrs. William had skinned the eel before putting it in the pot. The large pieces of fish were easy enough to swallow, at least, but the way they looked was another matter.
Xu Yun glanced at the cloudy fish soup in his bowl, his eyes lingering on its sides for a few seconds.
At last, he gathered his courage and took a small sip.
Five seconds later,
Xu Yun set down the bowl without changing his expression. His stomach churned furiously, and he clenched his back teeth, forcing himself not to make a scene.
Well, how to put it...
It was about as bad as Laoshan Snake Grass Water.
As mentioned earlier,
Xu Yun had honed his cooking skills while studying abroad in Britain, so he knew a fair bit about British sea fish.
The moment he tasted the soup, he knew what Mrs. William had done wrong.
First, she hadn't marinated the fish with scallions, ginger, garlic, cooking wine, and salt, which left it fishy and gave it a poor texture.
Second, she hadn't cleaned out the fish's dark membrane, gills, or throat bones. The fish's bloodline was a source of the fishy smell. To remove it, you only had to make a cut just below the gills and pull out the bloodline. Then, with one hand lightly patting the fish and the other tugging the line, you could draw it out.
That would reduce the fishy smell.
After putting down the bowl, Xu Yun sighed silently.
Well, it looked like he wasn't going to be able to drink this fish soup.
Then he turned his attention to the others around the table.
William had already served his family their fish soup and was rapidly stirring the vegetable medley with a spoon, so he hadn't had a chance to talk to Xu Yun yet.
Little Ox and Lisa were still chattering away in their little group. The foul-mouthed, hot-tempered guy was now as quiet as a portrait—uh, as quiet as a painting.
The Ailula Sisters were talking with Mrs. William, and one of them waved her little hands whenever she got excited.
Lilani remained silent.
At the same time,
Xu Yun noticed something else.
Apart from a spoon and a table knife, there wasn't a fork in sight.
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