Chapter 36 Chapter 36 Ruixue and the Hot Pot Snow Girl: Attempting to...
After the winter solstice, Chang'an entered the coldest period of the year, and the "Nine Days of Cold" began.
It is said that "Don't go out in the 19th and 29th days of the lunar calendar, and walk on the ice in the 39th and 49th days of the lunar calendar", which is absolutely true. In addition to daily management, Duan Zhiwei has another tough job, which is sweeping snow.
Often in the early morning, before daybreak, she, Apan and Zhen Hui would sweep away the snow piled at the entrance of the restaurant, and then spread a thick layer of hay on the entrance so that diners could step on it without slipping.
Duan Zhiwei also thought about using salt to melt the snow, but before he could take the salt jar from the fire room to the front hall, Aunt Duan stopped him and said, "What is the value of official salt? Do you think this is the imperial teahouse?"
Duan Zhiwei had no choice but to give up and get up early every morning to sweep the snow. Whenever they chatted casually, clouds of white mist came out of their mouths.
After finally sweeping the snow in front of the door, Duan Zhiwei hurried back to the front hall to light a fire. His ears and hands were red from the cold outside, and they even felt a little itchy when they were heated by the fire.
The summer bamboo mattresses in the restaurant were removed early and replaced with thick sheepskin blankets, which looked warm. At this time, you can sit on them, lean against the brazier, take a bowl of mutton broth that has been simmering on the fire for several hours, sprinkle with chopped green onions and pepper, and slurp a bowl of hot, spicy mutton soup dumplings. It is simply the best enjoyment in the world.
Duan Zhiwei leaned against the brazier and drew a few hot pot patterns with ink. When the sun cleared up, he went to the blacksmith shop again.
She felt that this hot pot was novel, and eating hot pot around the stove was fun and unique. It would definitely become a hit in Chang'an, and she would definitely make a fortune. Unexpectedly, the blacksmith looked at the hot pot pattern drawn by Duan Zhiwei against the light, and then said, "It turns out to be a warm pot. A certain store has it in stock, and restaurants in various districts have already ordered a lot of it. How many do you need, Madam Duan?"
After saying that, he pointed to the wooden shelf against the wall, where more than twenty shiny copper pots were displayed. There were even double-sided pots with grids, so different soup bases could be mixed in one pot.
Duan Zhiwei was silent for a moment, and then said dryly: "You are really smart. You can even make such cooking utensils."
The blacksmith looked at her strangely and said, "It has existed for a long time, in the previous dynasty... No, it has existed in the Han Dynasty."
Duan Zhiwei's dream was shattered, so he had to buy ten hot pots, tie them to the donkey cart, praise the wisdom of the ancients, and then go home in shame.
Since there is no way to innovate hotpot, we can only carefully prepare the soup base. I heard that there is a restaurant in Dongshi that specializes in chrysanthemum hotpot, so I made a special trip there.
Unexpectedly, he met Yuan Shenji who was off duty halfway, and he happily invited him to go with him.
"I'll treat you," she said, patting her chest.
It was different with Yuan Shenji around. There was already a long queue of people at the restaurant specializing in chrysanthemum hotpot. When the Wine Doctor saw Yuan Shenji, who was wearing a scarlet official uniform, he hurried to welcome him into the private room.
Unexpectedly, Yuan Shenji raised his hand to refuse, and actually did not want this preferential treatment. Duan Zhiwei was too embarrassed to cut in line, so he waited outside with him.
"Captain, have you been well lately? Did you have a smooth patrol on Suzaku Street on the winter solstice?"
"Speaking of this..." Yuan Shenji lowered his head and looked at her for a few times: "Chang'an has not been peaceful recently. Madam Duan should not go to places with few people unless it is necessary."
Duan Zhiwei originally just thought that the two of them were standing there in the winter wind, so he wanted to say something to break the silence, but he didn't expect him to suddenly say "Chang'an is not peaceful." This made people feel uneasy.
Perhaps the restaurant really didn't want to let the fourth-rank official wait in the wind for a long time, so the queues moved much faster, and soon a private room was vacated. The wine doctor hurried out to welcome the two in.
This restaurant uses gold-thread charcoal, which has no carbon smell and is extremely warm and comfortable. As soon as the two sat down, Dr. Wine quickly brought a bubbling hot pot.
Duan Zhiwei looked down and saw that it was a clear chicken soup base with three fresh chrysanthemums without stems floating in it. It not only looked elegant but also had a fragrant aroma. Duan Zhiwei scooped up some with a small spoon to taste it. The chef was very particular about the soup base, so in order to ensure the original flavor of the ingredients, he made it lighter.
The meat dishes were also served, four plates of pork loin, pork tenderloin, sea bass fillet, and chicken breast arranged in the shape of fish scales. Everything has been processed and cut very thinly, so you can eat it after just rinsing it.
The vegetables include soft tofu, spinach leaves, cabbage hearts and leeks. Duan Zhiwei was amazed. The cabbage heart was sweet and delicious after being boiled, but the cabbage was too wasted. No wonder this restaurant was doing so good business. You have to give to gain.
While eating the hotpot, Duan Zhiwei glanced at Yuan Shenji and asked, "Why is Chang'an not peaceful?"
Could it be that a war is about to break out?
Yuan Shenji comforted her, saying that it had nothing to do with the war: "After attending the winter solstice court meeting, the Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty wrote to the court, saying that it seemed that several monsters followed from Japan and got lost in Chang'an."
He said it so easily, just like sending a flying barbarian to the vegetable market to buy vegetables. Duan Zhiwei's eyes turned black. This monster from Japan, would it be possible that it were performing a hundred demons parade on Suzaku Street?
Yuan Shenji found her reaction quite interesting: "The Jinwu Guards are patrolling at night, and the Monster Catching Division has all returned to Chang'an. We should be able to catch the monster in a few days."
The last dish served was the restaurant's specialty, the "hemp leaf" dough, which is made of flour and four grams of water, cut into diamond-shaped hemp leaf shapes and poured into a pot to cook the noodles.
Apart from hearing the bad news about a monster, the hot pot meal was very satisfying. The vegetables were fresh and the meat was thin and tender. However, when Duan Zhiwei went to pay the bill with the wine doctor, she found that Yuan Shenji had already paid. She could only accept the purse awkwardly: "It was agreed that I would treat you. How can I not do this..."
"It's okay," Yuan Shenji nodded, "It's just a small amount of money."
Having said that, Duan Zhiwei decided to send some valuable gifts to Yuan's house during the New Year.
At that moment, Yuan Shenji insisted on sending Duan Zhiwei back to the restaurant, and Duan Zhiwei invited him to come to the restaurant to eat hot pot the next day.
Yuan Shenji smiled and said, "Yuan is looking forward to it," and then rode away.
At that moment, Duan Zhiwei roughly understood what the popular trend of hot pot was in Chang'an, and he felt relieved and started to prepare.
No matter how much you remove the mutton smell from mutton soup, it is still not suitable as a hot pot base. When people in the Song Dynasty ate hot pot, it was not popular to eat beef or mutton. Instead, it was more popular to eat rabbit meat. They just boiled it in boiling water and dipped it in the sauce before eating.
The Song Dynasty food list "Shan Jia Qing Gong" describes the rabbit meat hotpot as "waves surge like snow in the clear river, and the wind turns it into the sunset glow." It means that the soup base surges like river water, its color is milky white like snow, and the rabbit meat is as red as the sunset glow.
However, rabbit meat was hard to find, and only occasionally hunters would carry a few into the city to sell, so Duan Zhiwei let it go.
At the moment, they only decided on a thick soup made from pork shanks and a clear chicken soup made from a whole chicken. Many of the restaurant's diners were scholars, so to show his elegance, Duan Zhiwei also ordered a basket of fresh chrysanthemums from the flower shop to put into the chicken soup pot.
In addition to pork tenderloin, sea bass, chicken breast and other meat dishes, we also prepare a combination of fish balls and meat balls. The fish balls are made by chopping fresh white fish and herring into a paste, adding lard and bean powder, and stirring them evenly clockwise with your hands. Add scallion and ginger water to remove the fishy smell, and use the tiger's mouth to squeeze the fish paste into balls, and then put a small spoonful of crab meat in the middle. The fish balls are plump in shape and snow-white in color. If you cook them in soup and take a bite, they are so delicious that they will make your eyebrows drop.
The meatballs are made of half lean and half fat pork, chopped into a puree. Pine nuts, shiitake mushrooms, dried bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and chopped ginger are added to the puree. Then mixed with starch, two spoons of soy sauce and sweet wine are added, and fried in a pan. Soon the aroma of fried meat fills the air.
Pu Tao was watching from the side with his eyes wide open: "Madam, is this really something we can eat?"
Duan Zhiwei found it quite funny: "Why can't I eat this?"
Pu Tao wiped his saliva and said, "It feels like I've been to heaven. Even fairies can't eat such delicious food."
Duan Zhiwei couldn't stop laughing at the compliment. Before she could say anything, Aunt Duan came back to the restaurant with a bag in her hand, shook off the snow on her body and said, "Forget about the fairies in heaven, I ran into a monster outside!"
"ah?"
Mrs. Duan drank a bowl of red date and longan tea first, and said in horror, "I was walking on the bridge, and a woman with strange clothes and disheveled hair stood at the bridge entrance, staring at the water. I thought she was going to jump into the river, so I was about to persuade her, but suddenly a few people dressed as officials came and took the woman away."
Pu Tao continued, "It might be a criminal, why do you say it's a monster?"
Aunt Duan shook her head and said, "I took a closer look and found that the lady had no facial features. If this isn't a monster, what could it be?"
Duan Zhiwei listened from the side and thought, could it be that the person she saw was Qiao Ji... Thinking of Yuan Shenji's instructions, she also said to Aunt Duan and the others, "Don't go to remote places for the time being."
After all, the Monster Catching Department and the Jinwu Guards are still busy catching monsters everywhere. Fortunately, there is a big monster guarding his restaurant.
Thinking of this, she looked around for the figure of the Jinhua cat. When she turned around, she saw a cat stretching out a paw and secretly reaching for the freshly wrapped fish balls on the table.
Duan Zhiwei: "Forget it..."
God was kind to me. For some reason, it was exceptionally cold in Xuanyangfang the next day. I was shivering as soon as I stretched out my sleeves. Although the restaurant's charcoal was used up faster, the restaurant was packed with diners early in the morning to keep warm and eat hot pot.
The restaurant that sells chrysanthemum hotpot also provides seasonings, which are just some refined salt, soy sauce, vinegar and sweet bean sauce. Duan Zhiwei found it boring, so he used a stone mill to grind some sesame paste, and then boiled some dogwood paste with Evodia rutaecarpa and turmeric. Dogwood is spicy, which can make up for the regret that there was no chili pepper in this dynasty.
After the guests are seated at the dining table, the pot is brought up and various seasonings are placed in a five-inch plate for the diners to choose from.
Thinking of what Yuan Shenji said yesterday, I specially reserved a seat for him.
Yuan Shenji arrived in the afternoon. Duan Zhiwei served him a few dishes quickly and said, "My aunt encountered a monster under the bridge today. Fortunately, the officials arrived in time..."
Yuan Shenji was not in a hurry to pick up his chopsticks. After hearing what she said, he comforted her, "They have basically been caught. According to the Tang envoy, there seems to be one left."
Duan Zhiwei felt relieved and immediately served him two more plates of fish balls, saying, "Captain, try it. There's a spoonful of crab meat in it. It's very delicious."
Heavy snow fell again in the evening. All the customers had left the restaurant. A few people gathered around the brazier to eat the last serving of hot pot. Aunt Duan especially liked to eat thinly sliced kidney, which she dipped in some dogwood chili sauce and swallowed in one bite.
Duan Zhiwei made some dough and pinched some noodles to eat as the staple food. It was snowing heavily outside. Several people sat in the living room to eat. Aunt Duan told them some strange stories, which was quite heartwarming.
Unexpectedly, a figure suddenly appeared outside.
"Is there any food available today?" asked a faint female voice.
"Yes, yes, yes." Because of the Spring Examination, Zhen Hui did not help much during the day and stayed in the warehouse reading a book. Now he volunteered to stand up and prepare to receive the diners.
Although there is a curfew, there is no hindrance to moving around in the neighborhood. However, no one expected that there would still be customers despite the heavy snow today.
The person who came was wearing a thin white skirt, and her flowing black hair was covered with icicles and snow beads. She was a beautiful woman. Seeing Zhen Hui's fair skin, she smiled with satisfaction and said, "My dear, you are so handsome. I really want to freeze you and take you back to the mountains."
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