How to eat pineapple buns on the immigration ship

Chapter 293 Coco
Rose-like plants and roses are not the same thing. This concept came to me when Kagawa was compiling information about edible legumes for the agricultural department, which he found on Geegle.

This broad category is further divided into one order and two subcategories, with beans belonging to the Fabales order being one of them.

However, the ornamental value of roses during their flowering period is still highly appreciated by people in the 21st century and modern times. So, shortly after Kagawa and his team entered the area, a large number of visitors flocked in and stopped to admire the plants in the display cases.

Kagawa was naturally drawn to the area where the beans were located. However, as she said, the edible beans had already been sorted and handed over by her and the three members of the Tongue Tip Club before, so there was naturally nothing new to discover on this return trip.

Seeing everyone's disappointed expressions, Kagawa felt quite helpless.

"Ultimately, our main purpose in coming here is to find nettles. Any other finds are just bonuses; it's great if we find them, but it's not a big deal if we don't. Since we're already here, why not take a stroll around? Uh... look, that plant over there has a huge fruit on its head."

As he spoke, Kagawa grabbed Nancy and Ouyang Yating and quickly squeezed into the crowd. The men were stunned for a moment before they hurriedly followed.

"Look, this big red one... uh?"

Kagawa tugged at the girls on either side of her, trying to get their attention to the plant in front of them, but when they looked up, she got stuck.

Seeing her like this, Ouyang Yating and Nancy exchanged a knowing glance: Is there a chance?

The two of them also looked up at the plants in the display case.

The plant isn't very tall, and its fruit is shaped like an oval, with a bumpy, cucumber-like skin, but unlike a cucumber, it's not as juicy; instead, it has many indentations. The fruit is a golden-orange color, and Ouyang Yating thinks that if the skin were smoother, the color would look even better.

But... is this edible?
She looked away and turned her head, just in time to see the same question in Nancy's eyes as she did.

"Kagawa, this..."

Ryoko, who followed closely behind, was the first to recover. His intuition told him that there must be something special about this crop. Whether this idea was correct or not, that would require Kagawa to verify. Just as Ryoko was about to call Kagawa back, he noticed that she had already turned on her blank light screen, her gaze constantly shifting back and forth between the display case and the light screen.

They were very familiar with this action; Kagawa had done it secretly quite often when visiting nature reserves and botanical gardens before.

In other words, this plant...

Everyone looked at the plant again and at the two apple-sized fruits hanging on it, their faces filled with indescribable emotions.

This plant, well, to be precise, this fruit... is it edible?

Aino made no attempt to hide her disdain.

Fortunately, half of the visitors around shared the same thought, and soon the number of people lingering around the display case decreased significantly.

Finally, Kagawa turned off her blank screen. Everyone held their breath, watching her nervously.

The comparison is now complete, which means there's something to say about the plant in front of us...?
"Yating, Liangong, please call Manager Ye over for me. We need to buy more things to take back this time. This new discovery will take our afternoon tea snacks to the next level."

Kagawa stood with her hands on her hips, her eyes shining as she stared at the display case in front of her. If it weren't for the obvious drool around her mouth, the scene might have been even more pleasing to the eye.
-
What they found this time was cocoa beans.

Kagawa compared the images and academic materials he found on Geegle with the descriptions in the display case almost ten times before finally drawing a conclusion.

Before Manager Ye arrived, she gave Ouyang Yating and the others a brief introduction on how cocoa, as a classic dessert and snack, was incorporated into the diet of ancient people.

Then she realized a problem: the taste of cocoa, or chocolate, was impossible to explain accurately with words or pictures, given her limited descriptions and the lack of taste experience among modern people.

"This thing is used as a snack and for making cakes...?"

Aino stared at the cocoa tree in disbelief.

"Are you sure the ancients' judgment was correct? Of course, it's hard to say since we haven't tasted it, but... how can you be sure that the ancients would have thought this was edible?"

Kagawa glared at him, annoyed. "It's just that the fruit looks ugly. The cocoa beans inside can be processed into chocolate, and that's when it's actually edible. And so what if it doesn't look good? You know, people in the 21st century can eat moldy tofu!"

"There's nothing to be proud of about this... and tofu is already like that, how could it grow hair? Hair follicle transplantation."

"Hmm... I guess you could call it a kind of species? To put it simply, it relies on fungi and fermentation."

Everyone: ...The mentality and tolerance towards food of the ancients are sometimes truly admirable.

They actually managed to eat food that had been eroded by fungi!
Thinking of this, the three members of the Tongue Tip Club suddenly paused and looked sharply at Kagawa.

"Kagawa, speaking of which..."

"You're not going to make this kind of moldy tofu too, are you?"

Kagawa looked at them as if they were idiots.

"How could we not make such good things as fermented bean curd and hairy tofu? They're amazing with porridge... I heard."

The three of them sighed deeply as they thought of the several large jars of yeast in the warehouse that were multiplying every day.

Nancy patted her childhood friends on the shoulders and comforted them:

"Look on the bright side, there's still some time before tofu is mass-produced, so at least you can have some peace and quiet for a while."

Ouyang Yating looked at her with resentment.

"But the reverse of that means that once tofu starts to be produced in large quantities, we will be forced to come into contact with foods that have been fermented by fungi."

When will this group ever stop?! Kagawa couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"You can accept bread made with dough infused with yeast, so why can't you accept fermented bean curd and hairy tofu made with fungi?"

"It's mainly because the name sounds kind of scary." Li Wei, who had been watching the others telling jokes, couldn't help but chime in, "It's 'rotten' and 'hairy,' it doesn't sound like normal tofu at all."

But I saw the three of you enjoying the lactic acid fermented cheese you made yesterday! Kagawa's lips twitched.
-
Unlike nettles, which are considered weeds due to their common appearance, crops like cacao trees, which produce fruits the size of two fists, store a considerable number of fruits. When the time is right, the botanical garden will transport them to relevant departments, where they will be converted into other useful resources using material conversion technology.

Kagawa is currently just before the deadline for this batch of cocoa beans to be packaged and shipped out, so the warehouse is filled with two large containers of cocoa beans.

Manager Ye was overjoyed at this moment.

Sure enough, the ancient names of these plants containing "bean" are all good things!
She couldn't wait to see these cocoa beans from their botanical gardens showcased as a featured crop at the next Agricultural Bureau meeting, presented to the entire Third Fleet.

Of course, the more the better.

"Kagawa-kun, how about we go check out the other areas? We've made some progress on the nettle issue at the nature reserve, but it will take some time for them to process it and transport it over. Instead of waiting here, why don't we go for a walk around a bit more?"

It would be even better if they could discover some plants during their visit that would make their botanical garden stand out in front of the entire group!
Kagawa couldn't help but twitch his lips when he saw that Manager Ye's thoughts were written all over his face.

But...

"It really does."

As Kagawa spoke, he turned on the blank screen that appeared to others.

"When you mention chocolate, you inevitably think of caffeine. Since we can find cocoa, we should be able to find another king of caffeine as well."