Gourmet Emperor: Master Of Culinary World 131 Inspecting Goods

We start inspecting the wagon carts from the first wagon carts that arrived in the front yard. There are many sacks loaded in the wagon carts, we pull one sack out from the wagon carts and open the sack to see the content. The sack content is wheat, that's not surprising since wheat is the staple food in Harvard territory. So mostly taxes collected are in form of wheat that harvested by the local farmer. Uncle Jake's counting the number of sack inside the wagon carts, cross-checked with the number on the list before starting to inspect the second wagon carts. The second wagon carts also loaded with sacks with wheat content and once again, uncle Jake counting the number of sack inside the second wagon carts and cross-checked with the number on the list.

The content of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh wagon carts are the same with the first and second wagon carts, they all loaded with wheat. Looking at the number of wheat sacks that we receive this time, I'm sure our storage room will full with wheat before redistributed to soldier barrack and take out as part of the payment for the soldiers' salary.

"Uncle Jake, this amount of wheat…how long they will last in our storage room?"

"Mostly two months, young master. We still will receive taxes collected from east, north and south region too"

"Did they also send the same amount like this?"

"That depends on their harvest, young master. If the crops are good, maybe they will send the same amount like Lumon town send this time"

"I see. Let's check the next wagon carts, uncle"

"Yes, young master"

The sacks loaded in eighth wagon carts in containing the corn when we open it. Great! This ingredient is what I need to make the real tortilla, also maybe pop-corn, corn starch, or corn soup. My mind already busy for thinking of menus made using corn in the next day. The corn looks good and fresh, but still, need some peeling to take the corn from its cob.

"Uncle Jake, I want this corn put into my tab. I will use it for making the menu for the banquet later"

"Understand, young master. This corn will take to a separate place then"

We check some other sacks of the corn sacks in the wagon carts. What makes me delight is the corn comes from some different types. The first corn sack I check before comes from one variety of maize that will use make popcorn – Zea mays everta. While the next sack contains what in my previous world known as sweet corn.

After inspecting the number of corn inside the wagon carts, we move to the next wagon carts. The content of sacks loaded in ninth wagon carts also corn. So, we already receive seven wagon carts loaded with wheat and two wagon carts loaded with corn.

In the tenth wagon carts, the list mentions it loaded with 'horse feed' but I already know what is that. It's rice that brought into the salt camp before, which I accidentally found it.

"Uncle Jake, this wagon cart's content also put on my tab"

"Yes, young master"

Although a bit surprised with my request, uncle Jake just execute my order without asking too much. Well, later on, when I introduce rice to our diet, they will no longer call rice as 'horse feed'. I'm waiting for uncle Jake to finish his inspection on the number of rice sacks loaded in tenth wagon cart before we move to eleventh wagon cart. According to the list, the eleventh wagon cart carries ingredient that I'm waiting for, the soybean!

We open one sack that we take from the wagon cart to check the content. And it's really soybean inside the sack. That's great! I can start my soy sauce production once I can get my fermentation tools too. Not just soy sauce, maybe I also can make tofu with this soybean. I check the other sacks inside the wagon carts to check whether there're other types of soybean besides the first one that we already checked before. And like the corn before, I also find another variety of soybean inside the other sacks. It's black soybean which can be used to make sweet soy sauce. What good luck today! When I get a chance to talk with Gandolf later, I must ask about this soybean, rice and also the corn cultivation in the western region and ask for regular delivery from there if possible.

The last wagon carts contain sacks with many kinds of spices, mostly are basic spices like garlic, pepper, chili, and onion. Since spices not intensively cultivated, there are many spices stacked together in the carriage, but one day I believe these spices will more be cultivated in our land due to high demand. Most of these spices I already saw in the storage room and now there are two additional spices that not available in the storage room, they are dried plum and raisin.

I was about to ask uncle Jake to put these spices into my tab when I see him frown.

"What's up, Uncle Jake?"

"Young master, I didn't see any wine and grapes that should be shipped with this taxes. There should be 2 crates of wine and one box of fresh grapes included in the shipment"

I take a look on the list once again and there're indeed wine and grapes like uncle Jake mentioned. The twelve wagon carts already inspected, only one carriage that may be used by Gandolf to come here haven't checked yet.

"Maybe they put it in that carriage, uncle? Maybe because wine is too precious they put in the special carriage to avoid it get broken in the middle of the road, shall we check it?"

"Young master is right. Let's check the carriage also."

We go to the carriage and open the door. Like what I guessed, there are two boxes of wine and one box of fresh grapes inside the carriage. It seems there are some wineries near Lumon town which process grapes from some vineyards and pay the taxes with their wine products. This makes me want to visit Lumon town in the near future.

After I settled my business with this taxes shipment, I return to the castle, make a stop by in the kitchen before going to see my father and our guest, Gandolf. I've spent about half an hour to inspect the goods and I wonder what my father doing with our guest right now.