They chose a small city at the junction of the great Red Dragon Desert, the Mountains of Light, and the last great Central Asian plains.
The city has been famous for the last 2000 years. In ancient times, on the site of the city, there was an outpost, where customs taxes were collected from travelers coming from China, Persia, India, Afghanistan. In the Middle Ages, the city became a fortress and was part of the fortifications of two more cities (the city of wandering monks and the city of artisans).
The three cities of the fortress formed a kind of defense triangle that reliably blocked the strategic mountain passages. They led into three valleys, and from them, the path lay east to China, south to India, west to Persia, and north to the Kingdom of the Seven Rivers. Centuries passed, the strategic position was lost, the once-famous cities that occupied their place in the security and logistics system of the Silk Road, in the 21st century turned into provincial cities.
Nevertheless, many ethnic groups of Asians lived there - Turks, Koreans, Chinese, Russians, Ukrainians, Mongols, Iranians, Arabs, and many others. Therefore, the two cousins simply decided to interview their uncle's neighbors in the block about what their ancestors ate, what recipes were preserved, maybe there were some vegetables or fruits left in their gardens. And then, based on this data, they could compile a recipe book. From a dozen recipes, it would probably be possible to find one or two old, previously little known.
And then sell them to collectors from metropolitan restaurants and help out a couple of hundred dollars or maybe thousands. Shir-Ali doubted that there were still vegetables left in the city from the time of feudalism, but he was sure that ancient relics might remain in the mountain gorges. Therefore, he wanted to go to the mountains but was stopped by Dara.
Who in their right mind goes to the mountain in winter ?! Having stopped their choice in the city, they got down to business. We invited the neighbors to a feast, preparing food, boiled meat with potatoes, a lot of forfeits, sprite, halva, dried fruits, and nuts. Since it was a working day, only old men and women could get away. Thus, the greedy Dara, the compartment of the young, could sniff out and steal their idea to make money quickly.
The old men, after a hearty meal, set off in their stories about the past. Two cunning people learned from them how their ancestors lived, what they ate, what were the tricks in making food. So Grandpa Park, his uncle's neighbor, revealed that they made delicious steamed rice cakes. Southerners did not add "brew" to the base of the cakes, so their cakes turned out to be drier and spoiled faster.
Whereas here, among the Hangul, these cakes lasted up to 10 days, remaining soft and elastic. Grandfather Mergen said that they caught sparrows with nets and then gutted them, removed the feathers, and boiled soup from them, he increased male strength. Grandma Holis remembered the ancient recipe with which her grandmother treated her cough. "She gave us flour halva to eat, literally two or three slices, and then, she gave us a glass of pure, pomegranate juice. This helped me to cough up phlegm better. It was delicious, sweet, and most importantly, we were treated faster. No chemistry like now. And they were healthier. " The others also shared their memories.
Who remembered the wonderful recipe for pilaf on beet juice, and beets came to the Small-An region in the 17th century. Shir-Ali already prepared a similar recipe for pilaf on pumpkin juice, and later on carrot juice. The roots of this recipe are the same, just someone decided to slightly change the structure of the recipe. Only now Shir-Ali was not sure that such changes would not bring harm to those who ate such pilaf. Indeed, in cooking, you need to know which foods are combined and which are not.
Some products help a person, while others, on the contrary, harm. The ancestors used to eat unhealthy food, there were a lot of carbohydrates and fats, proteins, macronutrients, and a few vitamins. But they compensated for this by engaging in an active lifestyle. They plowed their plots of land on horseback, worked, hoeing up the gardens.
We walked tens of kilometers to the field. They rode on horses grazing cattle.
We climbed the mountains in search of nuts, medicinal herbs, and roots. That is, they spent a lot of energy, fat did not accumulate in their bodies, everything went to the formation of muscles. The food was scarce, it still needed to be found.
Therefore, the meat of snakes, birds, fish was used. Edible roots and plants were dug up. In winter, when there were no vitamins, people ate dry, fermented herb - parsley, dill, celery. There was practically no sugar, it was very expensive, only rich merchants, merchants, aristocrats could afford it. But artisans, peasants, guards at the gates, the urban poor, if instead of sugar, dry fruits, nuts, less often honey, which they exchanged with the nomads for grain or the products of artisans. Conversation with old men brought only 10 recipes to cousins.
Of which only two could bring some money, one of which was pilaf made from beetroot juice. With knowledge, contacts, you could make money practically out of thin air. Shir-Ali stayed with his uncle to clean the dishes and wash them. But the cunning and lazy Dara quietly slipped away, in English.
Going out for a walk, he walked down the street. On the left side, there were high hills and then mountains, dark blue. On the left side were high-tech buildings. Small 2-3 story buildings. Now no one lived in them, they were echoes of the times of the second northern empire. There were practically no trees, a dull landscape, somewhere they say, the city history museum was located. However, he was not conspicuous.
Walking forward towards the mountains, Dara unexpectedly came out to a small square, where, despite the cold wind blowing from the mountains, people were squatting on small chairs and selling simple belongings. There were knitted socks made of dyed red wool, knives made of tractor springs, mirrors decorated with broken and polished glass, glasses made of bottles.
A few beautiful glass "carnelian" brought by tourists from the sea during the second northern empire. Shells with broken edges. Old imperial books of the 20th century. Volumes of works by Lenin and the leaders of the world proletariat.
Old cassettes and videotapes, CD, DVD. But nobody paid attention to them. Cuts of silk and tweed fabric were immediately sold. Wadded and linen robes hung. Galoshes. Embroidered leather boots. Decorative sabers and embroidery for wall decoration. Trampled old carpets. Loose coins of the second and first empires. Round glass balls, they were gray from bearings. Wooden carvings. Cupronickel and steel spoons and forks. Corkscrew, all sorts of kitchen tools. Aluminum pots, cast iron pans, steel mugs. Every little thing. Badges, stamps, labels from matchboxes.
Old letters that were given to the communists for their hard work. Orders and medals of the last great war, known in the world as the Second World War. Some sets of polished stones, tiles made of stones, aluminum basins made from under cans of beer and Pepsi-Cola, red plastic basins made from Coca-Cola lids. Eyes could have run wild, but Dara knew that it was all rubbish, maybe coins ?! A rare one could accidentally fit into them. So he went to look at them. The grandfather who sold them knew about it. Therefore, I set the price too high.
Dara went on with a chuckle. He looked around. His attention was attracted by the well-knitted red slippers, usually worn by nomads. Nicely patterned, well-knitted, warm, and comfortable. They were sold by an old woman, all wrinkled, with clear and kind eyes. Dara, without bargaining, bought 5 pairs of such slippers from her for $ 30. Next to her was a large plastic bowl with broken edges, and there was a bunch of coins of different denominations and different countries. First, second empire.
The grandmother wanted to sell them because they got in the way at home. The grandmother did not know their price and sold all the coins for 10 dollars. Dara, on the other hand, noticed a couple of silver coins in this heap, another rare one, and another.
Therefore, in order not to deceive the old woman, he immediately paid her 50 dollars. She was happy.
Dara hurriedly went to his uncle's house and began to sort out this heap of coins. He was lucky to find 10 more rare coins of the second empire and 5 silver coins of the first empire. The coins were rare, somewhere there were not enough spikelets, somewhere there were more of them than in the original. Some coins had silver instead of a tin-copper alloy. It all cost money. For such mistakes at the mint, collectors were ready to immediately give up without an auction and bidding for 200-300 US dollars.