Chapter 2 Minced Meat and Eggplant Rice Bowl
After verifying her identity at the yamen's office at the ferry crossing, Shen Miao settled accounts with the boatman. The porters carried her two large wooden crates of luggage to the cabin she had reserved. She gave them two copper coins as a reward before finally sitting down in the cabin and letting out a sigh of relief.
In ancient times, it was really not easy to travel far. Her "official certificate" can be understood as an ID card. She spent a whole string of cash to ask a lawyer to go to the yamen to squeeze her through the back door. Without this, ordinary people could not go out. Whether it was a river crossing or the city gate of a prefecture or county, they had to show it for inspection. If they could not produce it, they would be imprisoned!
Leaving aside the trivial expenses of buying food and vegetables for the journey, renting donkey carts, and hiring drivers and porters, the boat ticket alone was enough to make Shen Miao gasp – she had found a grain transport boat operated by the government. The grain transport boat could carry people back after unloading the grain. Although it was more expensive, it was safer and there were far fewer scoundrels and ruffians around.
When Shen Miao goes out alone, safety is the most important thing.
The journey from Jinling to Bianjing by canal costs 200 coins, and the waterway trip takes more than half a month. Naturally, it is better to stay in a single sleeper room. So, an additional 100 coins are charged, and 40 coins are charged for luggage accommodation.
Even on a boat, one needs to eat and wash. In ancient times, most people brought their own dry rations. Chen Miao followed local customs and ignored Aunt Rong's insults. Before dawn, he went to the market and bought enough naan bread for ten days, wheat and rice for five days, and vegetables and meat for one day. He also brought a small earthenware jar filled with oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. However, if he wanted to drink some hot water, heat up some dry bread, or cook a bowl of porridge, he had to borrow the boat captain's stove, which added to the water and firewood costs... No wonder the ancients said that a poor family should be rich on the road!
Fortunately, it was worth the price. The cabin, which cost 100 coins, was quite spacious and bright. There was also a free pot of hot water and a small basket of charcoal provided every day. She dusted off the dust on the slightly moldy hardwood bed, laid out her own mattress, and then took out a plump, round eggplant and a paper packet of pork belly marinated with oil and salt from the camphor wood chest. She also scooped out half a bowl of rice and soaked it in warm water.
Today is also a celebration of the original owner and myself for the new life. Shen Miao plans to go to the ship's kitchen to borrow a stove and make herself a bowl of minced meat and eggplant rice!
The ship was a mixed bag of people. She put on a veil, bent down and squeezed through the door, carefully locked it, and walked down the narrow wooden stairs to the next level of the cabin. After passing two large communal rooms, she reached the stern, where the sweltering boiler room was crowded with passengers fetching water. The steam, smoke, and all sorts of smells mingled together, making it very stuffy.
The boiler room wasn't big, but it was bustling with people. A boatman stood by the boiler, shouting loudly, "Freshly boiled hot water! Only three coins a scoop! Cool, clear Yangtze River water! One coin a scoop! Alright, three coins for you, next one—"
She was involuntarily squeezed into the crowd, but then a fat woman shoved her from behind, and she accidentally stepped on the blue cloth shoes of a tall young man standing diagonally in front of her.
The boy looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old. His simple blue robe made him look as sturdy as a pine tree. Suddenly, someone stepped on him, and he turned around in pain, revealing a face that was contorted with pain but was still exceptionally handsome.
The cloth shoes were brand new, and the white socks peeking out from the tops were also spotless after being starched. Now, there was a conspicuous shoe print on them, and Shen Miao was quite embarrassed. She quickly lowered her head and apologized: "Young master, please don't be offended. It's crowded here, and I really didn't mean to."
The young man glanced at Shen Miao, then quickly looked away, waving his hand and saying, "It's alright, I was just lost in thought and didn't notice, it has nothing to do with you, my lady."
He was good-natured and even took the blame upon himself. Shen Miao smiled and bowed slightly to him, and the boy hurriedly waved his hand again, turned around and walked away.
After finally squeezing to the other side, she paid a deposit to rent an old red clay stove with two eyes. The boatman tied a knot with straw rope so that Chen Miao could carry it. As she walked out of the boiler room, she looked back again. The scholar had paid for a pot of hot water and left as well.
Back in her room, Shen Miao breathed a sigh of relief, rolled up her sleeves, and began to cook.
There was only one small window in the cabin. Seeing the heavy smoke from the burning charcoal, Shen Miao worried about carbon monoxide poisoning while cooking inside, so she huffed and puffed as she moved the stove to the doorway. Her room was a single room, located just below the deck. It was the best room on the cargo ship, with about seven or eight rooms in a row. The doorways of each room were completely occupied—some people, like her, cooked with stoves, while others had servants with them. Straw mats and thin blankets were laid out by the door, and the servants slept there.
When she came out, she attracted a lot of attention—she was alone, a young and graceful woman, dressed as a married woman and dressed simply, yet she was still unique.
She didn't pay much attention to it, went back into the house, took out a kitchen knife from her luggage, and came out again.
Seeing that she was carrying a knife and skillfully twirling it between her fingers, those who had been watching her silently withdrew their eyes.
I bought this knife a few days ago on my way to see a lawyer. As a cook, you can't be without a good knife. Shen Miao isn't actually picky about knives, but she is particular about the basic shape, material, handle, and sharpening method. Her father used to say that a good kitchen knife can stay with a cook for a lifetime, but the iron smelting technology of the Song Dynasty can't compare to that of later generations. She browsed several knife and scissor shops in the market before choosing this knife.
The shape of kitchen knives in the Song Dynasty was already very similar to that of old kitchen knives in later generations. Shen Miao is a fan of Chinese kitchen knives. If she had to take a knife to escape, she would definitely take a Chinese kitchen knife. It can be used for "splitting in the front, chopping in the back, and cutting in the middle". It can be used for self-defense, cutting meat and chopping bones, and even smashing garlic. Even with a thick-backed kitchen knife, Shen Miao can quickly slice two-centimeter-long tofu into about 20 pieces. She can even make Wensi tofu without any problem, not to mention slicing raw fish. So a good chef doesn't need to carry a bunch of knives when he goes out.
Why was the original owner's wicked mother-in-law willing to let her go? The lawyer forced Rong Da Niang to hand over her dowry. After he left, Rong Da Niang was filled with resentment and wanted to take revenge on her. So she took out the knife and sharpened it in the yard to chop meat. She then grinned maliciously at Rong Da Niang and chopped the meat with loud thuds. People are all bullies who prey on the weak and fear the strong. Rong Da Niang thought she had gone mad and was so frightened that she withdrew her foot and dared not leave her room for a whole day.
In fact, Shen Miao simply enjoys sharpening knives herself. She always feels that objects have a spirit, and only by carefully sharpening and polishing them according to her own habits can the knife be considered to have completely submitted to her.
Of course, only the wealthy can afford to be pretentious. Given Shen Miao's current financial situation, she had to grit her teeth to buy this barely passable kitchen knife by today's standards. The knife in her hand cost as much as eighty coins, making it the best steel-clad knife she could find in any knife and scissor shop.
Although her mind was filled with random thoughts, her hands never stopped working. She squatted by the door, laid out a thin cutting board, and with swift strokes of her knife, she quickly and skillfully chopped the white eggplant into sections. She then poured the eggplant into a ceramic jar and steamed it in a small clay stove. At the same time, rice was being steamed in another burner, and soon the aroma of rice and eggplant filled the air.
During the Song Dynasty, eggplants weren't called eggplants; they were called "luosu," and most weren't long and thin, but rather round like eggs, with a white-yellow color. If it weren't for the original owner's memories, Shen Miao would never have guessed that these were the eggplants she remembered when she was browsing the market. However, after wandering around a few more times, she discovered that there were also vendors selling purple eggplants in the market, but in much smaller quantities and at a higher price—officials of the first to third ranks in the Song Dynasty wore purple robes, so purple was considered the most valuable color, and even eggplants were not exempt from this.
However, for Shen Miao, these were all things that needed to satisfy her hunger, so why should she care about appearance? Unlike a kitchen knife, which was a "valuable fixed asset," Shen Miao bought the cheap white eggplant without hesitation.
While the eggplant was steaming, she chopped some scallions and garlic, and prepared a sauce with oil, salt, and soy sauce. Although there were no chili peppers in the Song Dynasty, people there loved spicy food; at that time, spiciness should only be described as "pungent." Based on the original owner's memories, Shen Miao racked her brains before leaving home, chopping ginger, garlic, and chives, mashing them into a paste, adding Sichuan peppercorns, salt, and water to make a jar of classic Song Dynasty-style ginger-spicy pickled vegetables. Now, she scooped out a small spoonful and mixed it into the sauce to replace chili peppers for added flavor.
She worked quickly and soon took out the steamed eggplants to cool and set them aside. She then poured a spoonful of oil from the oil jar, heated it in the earthenware pot, sautéed chopped green onions until fragrant, and then, with a sizzling sound, added the minced meat and stir-fried it.
The aroma of meat and scallion oil filled the air. Shen Miao was generous with the oil, as she stir-fried the meat while adding the sauce she had just prepared, then added the whole eggplant pieces and minced garlic and continued to stir-fry until fragrant. Finally, she sprinkled chopped scallions on top and it was ready to serve.
The eggplant was stir-fried, and the rice in another earthenware pot was also cooked—she wasn't eating the rice of later generations, but rather cheap millet and foxtail millet, which was lightly crushed with the bottom of a bowl before steaming so it would cook quickly.
She poured the fragrant minced meat and eggplant, along with its broth, over the freshly steamed rice, then stirred it with a wooden spoon. Although the presentation was ruined, it smelled even better! The rice was infused with the aroma of meat and eggplant, and every grain was coated with the rich broth. She took a bite and thought, "Hmm, not bad. Despite the limited resources, my cooking skills haven't diminished at all."
Then she looked up and found that everyone in the corridor had been craning their necks and staring at her silently. There was also a chubby little pageboy in the doorway of the next room, with his hair in two topknots. He looked about seven or eight years old and was staring at the fragrant pottery jar in her hand, unable to move his feet and swallowing his saliva. The others were no better off, their eyes seemed to be glowing with greed.
Although this was just an ordinary home-cooked dish in later generations, it was a rare delicacy in the eyes of the servants who rarely ate much oil throughout the year. Moreover, the aroma lingered in the narrow passageway, making their mouths water. Seeing this, Shen Miao immediately protected the bowl and retreated into the house, quickly moving the stove in as well. Finally, she cautiously closed the door, knife in hand.
She's not wealthy, and she's traveling alone, so it's best not to be too kind.
She quickly finished her meal inside the house. Peeking out, she saw that everyone in the hallway had dispersed, and only then did she breathe a sigh of relief. She then went downstairs to the boiler room to fetch water to wash the dishes. She didn't plan to return the stove so soon; she still had a long time on the ship, and she needed to eat.
Next time, let's make something simpler.
She didn't feel very safe about the security situation in ancient times. Although the Song Dynasty was wealthy and there were few poor people on such expensive cargo ships, as a woman, she felt it was always better to be cautious.
After Shen Miao finished cleaning up the dishes, she was about to take a nap with the kitchen knife under her pillow when a hesitant knocking sounded on the door.
She picked up the knife, pulled the bolt back a little, and opened a small crack to look outside.
Standing in front of the door was none other than the little pageboy who had been drooling over her bowl of minced meat and eggplant just moments before. Seeing her looking over, the chubby little pageboy clutched his clothes and gave her a fawning smile.
Shen Miao did not open the door, but asked kindly, "What brings you here, young servant?"
"I apologize for my intrusion." The young page boy spoke with an air of maturity, mimicking an adult's gesture of bowing with his hands clasped. He then took out about twenty copper coins from his pocket, presented them to Chen Miao, and pleaded, "My name is Yan Shu, and I live next door. The food you cooked just now smelled delicious. If you have some free time, could you please cook dinner for my Ninth Brother?"
Before she could finish speaking, the young page's stomach began to rumble loudly in front of her.
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