The two women gave Liu Haojia a Western-style salute, and Liu Haojia returned the salute. At this time, I only heard Mrs. Shania say: "Dear, the food is ready, you can invite the guests to take a seat!"
Santos said: "Mr. Liu, you have heard it, are you willing to start our lunch now?"
Liu Haojia smiled and said, "Of course it's up to the guests to do as they please!"
Then the group of people came to the restaurant and saw that the restaurant table was filled with dishes! Liu Haojia recognized the dishes placed in two huge porcelain basins in the middle of the table at a glance. One was a traditional Portuguese stew, which is called the king of stews by Westerners and can be said to be second only to Northeastern stews!
Ingredients for this stew include a variety of meats such as chicken, pork, and beef! There are also various pork derivatives, such as sausage, ham, and bacon! There’s also a smorgasbord of vegetables, like carrots, cabbage, potatoes, beans, and more! If you choose to eat this dish for lunch, you can skip dinner!
Another dish is also a traditional Portuguese dish, Boiled Clams in Bourlão Pato style! This dish is basically clams cooked with cilantro, garlic, olive oil, white wine, pepper, etc. The light soup brings out the delicious aroma of clams, which is a representative work of Portuguese seafood.
This dish was not well-known at first, but at the end of the 19th century, a famous Portuguese writer, Bourlião Pato, kept mentioning this delicacy in his works, which made it popular! Therefore, the cooking method of clams is named after this writer, which is a bit like our Chinese "Dongpo Pork"!
In modern times, Liu Haojia went to Portugal and tasted the food there, and was deeply impressed by this dish! So he subconsciously called out the names of these two dishes! This surprised everyone present!
Santos also said in surprise: "Mr. Liu is so knowledgeable, you even know our traditional Portuguese dishes!"
Liu Haojia nodded politely and said, "I've always heard of it. These dishes smell delicious. I can't wait!"
Santos happily invited Liu Haojia to sit down and said: "Dear Mr. Liu, I know that Chinese customs do not allow women to eat at the table, but we are Portuguese, and we are more accustomed to sitting at the same table as a family to eat. , hope you can understand!"
Liu Haojia said: "No problem at all, I can understand your customs and habits!"
Santes laughed when he heard this and said: "Very good, Mr. Liu! In fact, in my opinion, the way you Chinese treat your wives is very uncivilized! As a wife, she is also our family member and is fully qualified to eat on the table. !”
Liu Haojia was a little angry when he heard this, but after all, he is a modern person and is used to men and women sitting at the same table, so he explained: "Mr. Santos, it seems that you don't understand our customs. In fact, in private, we are also My wife ate together. It’s just that when there are guests, in order to show respect for the guests, we let someone who can represent the rights of the family accompany the guests. This is Eastern etiquette! So you can’t use your civilization to measure others. The civilization of the nation! You know, if you do this, China is more qualified than you, because China has a history of at least 5,000 years, and how far back can your Portuguese history go back?"
Santos didn't know Liu Haojia's identity. Although he had a vague guess, he was in the fearless state of an ignorant person, so he didn't dare to show weakness and said: "But what about China's concubine system? Don't you think this is very uncivilized? ?A man can possess so many women, this is a great disrespect for women, this should be uncivilized, right?"
Liu Haojia laughed and said: "I seem to have heard that you Westerners love to find lovers, even after getting married, and even openly do so without hesitation, and you also want to compare yourself. Isn't this also disrespectful to women? And it's also To add betrayal of marriage! And in some respects, at least our Chinese habits are more upright, unlike you Westerners who hide their ears and steal the bell! By the way, Mr. Santos, do you know what it means to hide your ears and steal the bell? "
Santos's face turned red all of a sudden! His efforts to gain some sense of superiority in front of Liu Haojia all failed! Just as he was about to say something, he heard his wife holding his hand and saying, "My dear, if you don't eat, the food will get cold!"
Santos managed to breathe out and said: "Okay, let's start dinner!"
Mrs. Shania performed the responsibilities of a hostess very well and distributed food to everyone. After everyone present tasted the delicious food, the awkwardness they felt just now gradually disappeared.
Liu Haojia sighed in his heart that at this time, Westerners' self-confidence had been cultivated with the expansion of colonization! They have now begun to despise other civilizations, so if they really want to avoid this situation, they can only hurt them so that they will face up to Eastern civilization!
At this time, Santos' eldest son Todd said: "Mr. Liu, you are from the north of China. Is there any difference between the north and the south of China?"
So the two sides opened the topic like this. Liu Haojia introduced some Chinese history and customs, as well as scenic spots in various places. The Santos family introduced them to the situation in Europe. At the same time, he also learned that the Santos family were really the descendants of the first immigrants!
The first people to arrive here were Santos' grandfather and his father. They then worked in the shipyard. Because his grandfather had very good skills, he opened a small shipyard by himself after working for nearly ten years. He started by repairing ships and has been operating it until now.
It’s just that the shipyard’s operation is getting more and more difficult now! The main reason is that there are too many shipyards in Macau, and wood is getting more and more expensive! But even so, Santos did not give up. Instead, he adhered to his grandfather's ideals and wanted to open the largest shipyard in Asia!
Now the stagnant development of his shipyard made him very annoyed, so when he heard Liu Dahai say that a nobleman from the Ming Dynasty came here and wanted to hire shipbuilders, he felt that the opportunity had come! Because he knows one thing very well. If he wants to make his shipyard bigger, his only hope is to gain connections with the government! Just like the big shipyards in Lisbon, only by building ships for the official can the shipyard grow bigger and bigger!
After lunch was over, Liu Haojia also learned what he wanted to know, which gave him an idea. But before he could say anything, Santos stood up first and said, "Mr. Liu, let's go to the living room to drink tea together. Let the woman clean up these things."
