Chapter 44 Chapter 44

Upon hearing this, Xiao Jingzhao subconsciously glanced at the food on the table. They were all Jiang Huai's favorite dishes.

Could it be that I have eaten too much recently and felt sick of it? After all, compared with Kyoto, the dishes in Anyuan Prefecture are indeed inferior. It’s not that the cooking skills are bad, but that there are not enough ingredients.

Especially since they arrived in Anyuan Prefecture just before winter, the food was even more scarce. After eating for so many months, Jiang Huai, who was a picky eater, was almost tired of it.

At first, Xiao Jingzhao didn't know that Jiang Huai was picky about food. After all, there was food during the exile, and Jiang Huai was not picky. But later, Xiao Jingzhao found that Jiang Huai was not picky because he had no choice.

After earning money from yarn, Jiang Huai was very tolerant of other things when it came to food, clothing, housing and transportation. He didn't ask for the best clothes, as long as they were wearable. He didn't ask for a luxurious house, as long as it could shelter him from the wind and rain and keep him warm. He could walk or take a car when going out. The only thing he was extremely picky about was the taste of food.

A dish cannot be eaten for two consecutive days, even if the dishes are different. Today it is stewed, tomorrow it is roasted, and when this dish is still on the table the day after tomorrow, Jiang Huai will rarely touch it. Occasionally, he will take a bite, but it is simply to enrich the food he eats that day.

"Why don't you ask the kitchen to buy some fresh vegetables tomorrow? You can cook whatever you want to eat and don't worry about me." Xiao Jingzhao said.

After hearing what Xiao Jingzhao said, Jiang Huai knew that the other party had misunderstood and sighed.

In fact, he liked all the dishes on the table, but when he saw the iron pot, he thought of the dishes he particularly liked and had not eaten for a long time, and he felt a little uninspired when looking at these dishes.

And if you want to buy some fresh vegetables, there is actually nothing to eat. If you talk about what makes Jiang Huai uncomfortable in ancient and modern times, food is the most important aspect. The time of domestication of fruits and vegetables is still short. After eating them for a long time, you have become accustomed to them, but they are still not very delicious.

Moreover, due to inconvenient transportation, food ingredients from all over the country are difficult to transport to other places. For example, if he stayed in Anyuan Prefecture, even if he had money, it was basically impossible for him to eat fresh sea fish, unless it was dried seafood, but he didn't want to eat dried seafood. Moreover, it was winter now, and there were not many kinds of fresh vegetables, just those.

As for poultry such as pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks, Jiang Huai actually eats more chicken and mutton. Cows are hard to find, and pigs nowadays are raised in toilets. Thinking of the pig farms he had seen before, Jiang Huai had no appetite at all. If he wanted to eat pork, he could only wait for the pigs he raised to grow up.

But the problem is, he just raised this pig and specially hired someone to castrate it. Even if it grows fast, Jiang Huai estimates that it will take half a year. After all, this is not a specially bred pig, but a local pig of Da Zhou. Even if it doesn't like to move after castration and is easy to grow meat, it still takes time.

Damn it, the more I think about it, the less there is to eat.

Jiang Huai felt a little discouraged as he thought about it, and it showed on his face unconsciously.

"If you don't want to eat, why not go to a restaurant?" Xiao Jingzhao stopped Jiang Huai from reluctantly extending his chopsticks and suggested.

Restaurant?

Jiang Huai hesitated for a moment. He and Xiao Jingzhao had rarely been to a restaurant in all the time they had been here. After all, the experience of standing in front of a restaurant for the first time was not so good. Even though Jiang Huai fought back at that time, it still gave him a somewhat uncomfortable experience. Later, he ate at home every day and had no intention of eating in a restaurant.

"Have you ever been there? Which one is delicious?" Jiang Huai asked curiously.

Xiao Jingzhao shook his head. He actually hadn't been to a restaurant very often, but when he was collecting information about Anyuan Prefecture, he naturally knew where many people talked, and the restaurant they often went to must have something special.

…

Arriving at Chunfeng Tower, Jiang Huai looked up and was somewhat surprised to find that this restaurant was actually three stories high. In fact, the actual height of a three-story building is not that much, but when the surrounding shops are only one or two stories high, the three-story building stands out from the crowd.

It is noon now, which is not actually the meal time for most people, but those who can come to the restaurant to eat don’t care whether it is meal time or not, and there are still quite a few people coming.

Seeing so many people in the restaurant, Jiang Huai felt a little relieved. After all, he had never eaten in this restaurant before. But with so many customers coming, it couldn't be that they were all new customers. The food must be really good, otherwise it wouldn't attract so many customers.

Jiang Huai and Xiao Jingzhao entered the store, and soon a waiter came to greet them with a very friendly attitude. Jiang Huai took a look at the guests in the lobby and chose a private seat on the second floor.

The waiter warmly invited them upstairs and eloquently introduced the restaurant's dishes and drinks to them. Jiang Huai was not interested in the wine, but was more interested in the dishes. He asked about them carefully and then picked out a few dishes that he had never eaten before, but became interested after listening to the waiter's introduction.

"Do you want some wine?" Jiang Huai turned his head to look at Xiao Jingzhao. Although he didn't drink, he knew that it was rare for someone like him not to drink, and Xiao Jingzhao might not refuse to drink.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Jingzhao shook his head after hearing his question, not wanting to drink either: "Drinking is harmful to the body, it's best not to drink. But ordering only food without drinks is not good either. Waiter, do you have any hot soups or teas?"

The waiter was secretly amazed, as in the past, customers who came to their restaurant would always order drinks. However, he did not show it on his face. He just offered some soups, and Xiao Jingzhao ordered a sweet soup.

After the waiter responded, he saw that the two had nothing more to say and was about to turn around and leave. However, as soon as he stepped out of the private room, Xiao Jingzhao's voice rang out again.

"Waiter, let's use the salt we brought with us for this dish." Xiao Jingzhao said, taking out a small bag of salt, which he had prepared before going out.

Although he had never eaten outside, he knew that even the salt in the palace did not taste as good as the salt purified by Jiang Huai. This time he went to the restaurant to eat to make Jiang Huai happy, but if he used salt from outside, who knew what it would taste like.

The waiter was really stunned this time. After all, no matter how knowledgeable he was, he had only seen people bringing their own ingredients to the restaurant, most of which were the harvest from hunting. Who would bring seasonings to a restaurant? It would be fine if they were some rare spices, but it was the most common salt.

This is really unbelievable.

"Sir, the salt in our shop is..." The waiter was about to explain the name of his salt, but Xiao Jingzhao was unwilling to delay any longer. After all, in order to come to the restaurant for dinner, it was already past Jiang Huai's usual meal time, and it would be bad if he was too hungry.

Looking at the salt handed to him, the waiter realized Xiao Jingzhao's attitude and didn't know what to say. He could only take the salt, put on a polite smile, and prepare to leave.

"Remember to bring it back after you're done." Xiao Jingzhao said. Although the salt was not very precious now, Xiao Jingzhao didn't want the things made by Jiang Huai to be left outside. The sweaters and other things were prepared to be sold from the beginning, but the salt was different.

The waiter responded and came out of the private room with a strange look on his face. Originally, he saw that Jiang Huai and Xiao Jingzhao had a good attitude and thought that these two people were the kind of guests who were easy to get along with. But now it seems that the problem lies somewhere else.

However, although the guest was strange, he seemed okay. Compared with the difficult guests they had met before, Jiang Huai and Xiao Jingzhao were not too difficult to get along with. The waiter just muttered a few words in his heart and went to the kitchen with the salt.

If Xiao Jingzhao had handed the salt to him without having to deal with Jiang Huai, he would not have dared to take it so carelessly. What if there was something wrong with the salt? However, Xiao Jingzhao gave it to him in front of Jiang Huai, so there would not be anything wrong. The waiter went with confidence.

The chef in the kitchen looked at the bag of salt handed over by the waiter. Although he felt it was a bit strange, he didn't think much about it. After all, the request was just strange, but not difficult to do, and it could also save the restaurant some salt. However, the meal still had to be paid, so it was no big deal.

But when he heard the waiter say that the customer asked to take it back after use, his expression changed slightly, because to the chef, this meant that he suspected that the kitchen staff would steal salt, so he gave this reminder.

The waiter also noticed that the chef's face was not good, so he quickly hid away. After all, he was just responsible for delivering a message and really didn't want to be implicated.

However, when the chef opened the salt bag and saw the snow-white salt inside, he was stunned.

The salt used in Chunfeng Tower is a rare good salt. Although there is some gray, it is not much. But compared with this snow-white table salt, the difference is obvious.

Maybe it just looks good, but it may not taste good.

The chef thought about it and wanted to reach out and dip some salt to taste it, but when he looked at his hands and then at the snow-white salt, he was a little afraid to do it, for fear that his hands would be dirty with salt. After hesitating for a long time, he found a chopstick, dipped it in some water, and then dipped it in some salt to taste it.

I don’t know how salty this salt tastes, so how can I cook without tasting it?

The chef comforted himself in his heart, hesitated for a moment, and still tasted it. As soon as he took a sip, a strong salty taste spread in his mouth. It was a very pure salty taste. It can be seen that the quality of this salt is extremely high. Compared with the previous salt, less should be used when cooking, because the salt in the store is not so salty.

After the chef finished summarizing, he suddenly froze because he remembered why the salt in the store was not as salty as this one. This was because the salt used in the store had a bitter taste, and even if other seasonings were used to cover it up, the bitterness could not be covered up.

Especially for some lighter dishes, the bitterness will be more obvious, but if not enough salt is added, the dish will not taste good.

Because the salt I have eaten since I was a child has always tasted bitter. Even though I know that good salt will be less bitter, in the eyes of the chef, salt will always taste bitter. Good salt will at most be less bitter. But the salt brought by this customer has no bitterness at all.

How is this possible?

The chef looked at the small pile of snow salt in front of him, puzzled. The curiosity and excitement in his heart made him feel uneasy. If this salt was his own, he would definitely cook a light meal to see what the food made with this non-bitter salt tasted like.

But this was the salt brought by the guests, so no matter how curious he was, he couldn't touch it. The dishes ordered by Jiang Huai were all those with stronger flavors, which made the chef sigh.

As for secretly adding some salt, the chef had this idea in mind, but he didn't dare to carry it out at all, because the chef knew very well that anyone who could get such good salt and dared to let the people in the restaurant use it to cook without worrying about others peeping at him must be someone who was not easy to mess with.