How I Became Immortal

Chapter 28

      The Emperor was pleased with Yuna's answer for his first question. He applauded her wisdom, "I'm very satisfied with your answer to the first question. For my second question, it is also a difficult question that may be a bit difficult for even the princes. After listening to your answer for the first question, I have high hopes that you will give me a satisfactory answer for the second one. The second question is if there was a crisis in our kingdom and there was a food shortage, how would you go about helping starving citizens?"

The second question seemed to tie in with the first question. The most likely reason for a food shortage was because there would be less crop yield for the farmers that were facing the drought. This problem wouldn't be so prominent for the kingdom if the drought were prevented.

Food storage could also be the problem because there was no such thing as a fridge. During this time, Guwon didn't have a way to store food and they didn't realize that freezing food was an option. There was also a solution of drying food.

The country of Guwon heavily relied on vegetables. Meat was included in their diet, but they were only willing to eat pork, chicken, and fish. Beef was considered extremely rare because they were treated specially. They had the role of pulling carts in the farm. The reason was because of the lack of technology.

Yuna began to wonder if the citizens of Guwon would accept beef as a source of meat. She doubted the idea because of the culture that was instilled in their society. She thought of all the possibilities and she came up with a variety of different ways to combat starvation.

Another solution she thought of was the different types of seafoods that were not being used as food sources. In Guwon, people did not eat shrimp and Yuna thought it was a waste because shrimp was extremely delicious in her opinion.

Yuna formulated these thoughts into her head and answered, "I've come up with some solutions, but it requires people to be more open to change. I wouldn't want the citizens of our country to judge the dishes that I have in mind without actually trying them out. This may seem unusual, but there is shrimp in the sea that can be used as a food source. Most fishermen have seen shrimp as bait to catch fish but have not thought of eating shrimp because of its shell and how tiny they are. The shell can be peeled off and the head can be removed. After cooking the shrimp until it is a pink color, the shrimp will be complete and ready to eat. Shrimp is actually a great way to combat starvation because shrimp is the most populated species in the ocean. They play a great role in our food chain. Majority of sea creatures rely on shrimp to survive. So why can't humans?"

Some people seemed disgusted with eating shrimp because they were used to seeing shrimp as the bottom dwellers in the ocean. It seemed that they were reluctant to try it out. Although they didn't want to bother with the idea of eating shrimp, they did become curious after Yuna's explanation on how to cook it. Some adventurous foodies became curious about how shrimp would taste after listening to her explanation.

Yuna continued, "That is one solution, but I have another. The storage of food is extremely poor in our country. I've noticed that most foods are prepared immediately, and the ingredients are gone to waste after only a day. If possible, I would like to show everyone that food can be stored for months without it going bad."

The Emperor was curious as to how Yuna could come up with a solution to store food to prevent starvation in their country. He let her continue and no one bothered to interrupt her train of thought because they were extremely curious as to how she would go about storing food for months without it spoiling. The only food they could think of was rice.

Yuna explained, "If no one has known. Food can be frozen to last for months on end. It isn't common because vegetables and meat are readily available for people that can afford it. Most people that live in the tundra and cold environments are used to freezing their food and making it last throughout the cold winters. People may worry that the ice used to freeze food would melt instantly in this hot weather, but it is possible to maintain cold temperatures in dark and enclosed places like underground.