The Babysitting Experience (3)

Lin Xi was at an age where he could start to ingest half-solid baby food and therefore, Xiu Ling had introduced some into his diet.

As the future heir of the Lin family, Mrs. Lin definitely would not let her grandson be stuck with generic, store bought baby food that had unknown substance in them. She ordered Xiu Ling to make them from scratch for Lin Xi. Xiu Ling did not mind it that much, cooking was one of the few things that she enjoyed in life and cooking for her son was even better.

Normally, people used vegetables like green peas or carrot to make baby food but to introduce different kind of nutrients into Lin Xi's diet and to broaden his taste palette, Xiu Ling also used tropical fruits in her cooking.

The baby food Lin Kang was tasked to make that morning included such fruits as well. Lin Kang read the list left behind by Xiu Ling, stood in the large kitchen, looked around him and he was stumped. 'What is a mango?' was the question that was on his mind.

For young masters like Lin Kang who had servants to deal with every aspect of their lives, it was understandable that they were somewhat detached from everyday concern, concern like knowing the types of fruits and vegetables.

Of course, it would be too preposterous to say that Lin Kang did not know what a mango is. After all, the man was not retarded. The issue laid in the fact that whenever he was served mango, the fruit was already peeled, cut, sliced or quartered. Therefore, he had not seen the fruit, mango in its unprepared form.

He looked around the kitchen and his eyes eventually landed on a large bowl of various fruits that sat in the middle of the kitchen counter. Lin Kang walked towards it and he saw that the bowl was overflowing with various fruits that he could not name but at least he was confident mango was hiding among them.

Even though Lin Kang did not know how a mango look like but he did know how one smell like and that was going to be the method Lin Kang use to identify the mango.

First, he picked up a pink-reddish looking fruit that had layers of peel that looked like petals. To be honest, the thing looked more like a room decoration than an actual consumable food. Lin Kang sniffed it and it had a faded sweet smell, definitely not the thick, exotic smell of mango.

Lin Kang put it down and this time went for a yellowish fruit that was shaped like a star. The fruit did not have any distinct smell but the skin felt plastic-esque under Lin Kang's touch. He did not think this was the target he was looking for.

Lin Kang then picked up a fruit with greenish-yellow skin and before he raised the fruit to his nose, the heavy hint of ripe mango already hit his nose. His fingers felt sticky because a type of translucent sap was leaking out from the eye of the fruit. As Lin Kang went to wash his hands, he was confident he had found the correct one.

After he had identified the mango, it was time to prepare it. Lin Kang placed the oblong fruit in the middle of the chopping block and… well, he was stumped once more.

From his memory, mangoes were mostly served in slices so Lin Kang believed he needed to slice the fruit first. Lin Kang grabbed a nearby knife and made a horizontal incision right in the middle of the fruit before pressing down.

The yellowish flesh parted under the pressure of the sharp knife until the knife hit something hard.

'Huh?! What is this?' thought Lin Kang as he faced this unexpected obstacle. He expected the fruit to split beautifully in half but obviously that was not the case. With the knife etched into the pit, Lin Kang was caught in a rather awkward situation.

He could go and ask one of the maids for help but the thought of the rumours, "the young master does not even know how to prepare a mango" going around the house was enough to make his face burn from embarrassment.

In any case, he had started this journey and he was going to see it to the end!

Examining the fruit that was sitting on the chopping block with the knife sticking out of it, he was reminded of a similar fruit, one that he was familiar with. It was called the avocado, or the plant butter for the rich. It is an expensive fruit that was eaten fresh so it was little wonder that Lin Kang was familiar with the fruit.

'Could the method of preparation be similar?' thought Lin Kang.

He immediately put it to the test. He wiggled the knife slightly loose and made a circular incision around the pit. 'So far so good!'

He then yanked out the knife. The next step if he was dealing with an avocado was to twist the two ends and they would break cleanly apart from the seed and so that was what Lin Kang did.

The mango gave more resistance than Lin Kang anticipated. 'Perhaps it got stuck,' thought the man and he twisted even harder.

The half eventually came off and so did the structural integrity of the mango. The soft flesh of the fruit had crumbled under Lin Kang's excessive force and what he had made was rough, unprocessed mango pulp and a whole lot of mess.

Lin Kang surveyed his surroundings and after a moment's pause, he swept the evidence of his failure aside, down right into the sink and decided, "Alright, so this morning Lin Xi is going to have store bought garden peas baby food."

He rummaged through the kitchen cupboard and found some emergency supply that Xiu Ling had probably placed in there. Well, he was definitely off to a great start!