Even Foreigners Are Drooling Over My Cooking (Republican Era)

Shen Jinyan has a wife chosen for him by matchmakers. In their two years of marriage, he has seen her only once, on their wedding night.

He remembers only her young, inexperienced face. He neither likes nor understands her much, so when a letter from home says she is coming to Switzerland to find him, he is deeply reluctant.

Never mind. He'll let her come tour Europe, teach her what it means to give up when the odds are against her, then send her back home. That is Shen Jinyan's plan.

He goes to the harbor to meet her on time, prepared to find a timid country bumpkin who thinks her husband is the center of the universe.

But he never imagined that the moment they meet, she would throw an iron pot straight at his head.

She says briskly, "Catch! You're so big, how can you have so little sense?"

Shen Jinyan: ...

Apparently, he no longer understands the phrase "a wife should treat her husband as her whole world."

Later, he discovers that his little wife doesn't gawk at foreign novelties. On the contrary, she loves them.

Telephones, jewelry, cosmetics, Western dresses, high heels, watches... She never deprives herself of anything. She's incredibly fashionable, and she's even signed up for a language class at a community school. In no time, she knows all the neighbors, chatting up a storm with a mix of words and gestures.

Most importantly, she's an excellent cook!

His Chinese stomach is finally saved!

Of course, it would be even better if a bunch of foreigners didn't keep coming over to freeload on her cooking!

Tan, the woman in charge of the imperial kitchens in the Great Yong Dynasty, transmigrates into the body of Zhao Tan, a young lady from a prominent family in the Republic of China era.

The original Zhao Tan married at fifteen. The day after her wedding night, her husband left to study in Switzerland. Two years later, his family decided that it made no sense for the couple to live apart, so they sent her overseas alone to serve her husband and try to give birth to a healthy baby boy to take back home as soon as possible.

Afraid those around her would discover she wasn't the original owner of the body, Tan wastes no time boarding a ship abroad with a bundle of spice seeds. In her previous life, she was confined to the palace's inner quarters, and she has long wanted to see the world outside.

As for having a son? Hah. Women of Great Yong know their own likes and dislikes. That's the original Zhao Tan's husband, and she absolutely will not touch him.

When it's time to go, it's time to go. She can't let her old skills go to waste. With a cleaver and an iron pot, Tan sets off on her grand European adventure.

In Europe, Tan sees the foreigners, with their high-bridged noses, deep-set eyes, and blond hair and blue eyes, eating bread and sausages hard enough to knock someone out. They savor every bite and speak of "deliciousness," their expressions full of arrogance: "Could poor, inept China ever eat food like this?"

Tan thinks, Poor foreigners. They look like they've never had anything good to eat.

Her brows knit, her temper flares, and she rolls up her sleeves to cook a full Manchu-Han banquet.

The foreigners: Suddenly, the bread in their hands doesn't taste so good...

When sandwiches meet roujiamo, and steak meets lamb skewers, as the saying goes, when rivals meet, the tastiest wins!

What kind of bread, cheese, sausages, and jam are those? In front of Chinese food, they're all second-rate!

And that man who keeps staring at her: Could he stop looking at her with those creepy eyes?

There isn't any more. Really, not a single piece of meat left.

Reading Guide:

1. Shen Jinyan is not the male lead. The male lead is someone else, an incredibly adorable guy. One-on-one romance, both leads' first time. Despite the Republican-era setting, this really is a sweet romance.

2. Great Yong is a fictional dynasty, similar to the Tang Dynasty. It had an empress, society was open-minded, and women held a high status. So the heroine isn't a timid, submissive young lady from the late Qing Dynasty, and she doesn't have bound feet.

3. During the war, the heroine raises funds to save the country and sends medicine and supplies. Later, she returns home as a patriotic overseas Chinese woman.

4. Switzerland is the setting because it is a permanently neutral country (even though it leaned toward Germany during World War II), and conditions at home were comparatively peaceful.

5. In the 1930s, when Chinese people faced widespread discrimination, the heroine uses a cleaver and an iron pot to uphold her country's pride in Europe.

6. The recipes will not be shared with outsiders. The heroine knows who is close to her and who isn't.

Theme: Let Chinese cuisine shine!