Chapter 46: Never heard of green beans, cucumbers and cauliflower?

“Eunuch Cheng, do you usually cook all these chickens, ducks, deer and goats for the people inside the palace?” Lu Yunluo was really curious, how could they still eat plenty of meat such as fish etc every day? Moreover the weather is still so hot.

“Yes, of course, the food in the palace is all delicacies from land and sea.”

“The day is so hot, don’t you get excessive internal heat?”

“Internal heat?” Eunuch Cheng stroked his chin, “It seems that the doctor did say that the Empress Dowager has some excessive internal heat. Her appetite has not been very good since the beginning of summer.”

“However, some green bean soup will be sent inside the palaces every day to relieve the heat. As for the food, it is always the same, if we don’t make this chicken and duck, venison meat etc, then what will we eat? We can’t let those Empresses eat vegetables every day, can we?”

Although he had always wanted to cook something different, the ingredients were just the same and he couldn’t make anything new or fancy even if he did the variety every day.

“You can have some seasonal vegetables ah, like beans, cucumbers, chives, cauliflower, etc. How can you run out of food? It’s a good combination  between meat and vegetables, so you can get all the nutrients.”

Isn’t this Eunuch Cheng the head of the Imperial Kitchen? How could he not even understand this point?

Lu Yunluo was a bit puzzled.

“I do have chives in the Imperial Kitchen, but what are green beans and cucumbers? Is it also edible? How come I’ve never heard of it?” Eunuch Cheng asked with a frown.

He knew that Xiao Lu Zi always liked to cook something new and innovative, but he had never heard of this kind of gourd or vegetable.

Lu Yunluo was dumbfounded.

He had never heard of green beans, cucumbers and cauliflower?

This Eunuch Cheng, is joking right?

Seeing Lu Yunluo’s dumbfounded look, Eunuch Cheng thought that Lu Yunluo had not heard clearly what he had just said so he repeated it again, “It’s those cucumbers or vegetables you mentioned just now. I’ve never heard of them before. Where can I buy it and how does it taste?”

If he could, he would like to make some new and innovative dishes, but unfortunately, the variety of ingredients is limited, so if he could really make some new and fresh dishes, he would certainly please the Emperor and the Empress Dowager.

Lu Yunluo looked at Eunuch Cheng with a suspicious expression. He didn’t look like he was joking.

But he was the head of the Imperial Kitchen, how could he not have heard of such common vegetables as green beans, cucumbers and cauliflower?

A terrible thought flashed across her mind.

Instead of answering Eunuch Cheng’s question she asked tentatively, “Eunuch Cheng, may I first ask what kind of vegetables you usually eat in this imperial kitchen?”

“It’s mostly just leeks, shepherds’ purses, certain herbaceous winter plants with big flowers and such. Besides that, there are also some edible wild herbs. In total, there are only a few vegetables. Moreover, in the spring and summer, we can only eat some of them, but when winter comes, we won’t even be able to eat these vegetables.”

“There are only a few kinds of vegetables, and they are only available in spring and summer, but when winter comes, we won’t be able to eat them.”

Sure enough.

The vegetables that she thought were  very common in her space had probably not yet appeared in this dynasty.

Perhaps those fruits and some of the foods in space might not have been available in this dynasty either.

It was strange to say that there was no memory of this in the original body’s memories that she had fused in her mind.

Seeing the puzzled look on Eunuch Cheng’s face, she decided that before she had a thorough understanding of all the varieties of vegetables and fruits in this dynasty, it was better for her not to tell anyone about it for the time being.

Thinking of this, she said with an apologetic face toward Eunuch Cheng, “I’ve been a bit confused these past two days, so I obviously dreamt of something that I thought, it was something you guys had in the imperial dining room, please understand and forgive me!”