The noodles were in clumps without any shape at all, probably because they were soaked for too long and so they stuck together.
Su Wan stared at the "noodles" in the bowl in amazement. She had never seen noodles like this!
Not only was the soup watery, it was also slimy.
No wonder the eunuchs at the door all looked unhappy when they heard about eating.
No one would look happy with this expression.
However, when the five new palace maids came to help, they were stopped by the headmaster and others and asked to eat first.
I originally thought I could sit down and have a full meal, but I didn’t expect to face a scene like this!
The young eunuch who had just come in looked at the five newcomers and quietly stuffed a plate of pickled vegetables into their mouths: "My mother made this herself. Eat it with the pickles. It's OK as long as you're full. You won't die from eating so much here anyway."
Looking at the pickled vegetables, Su Wan inexplicably thought of a famous joke, and subconsciously said, "Could it be the old-style pickled vegetables?"
The young eunuch was surprised: "What is this old-style pickled cabbage?"
Su Wan coughed lightly. She was overthinking. This was from ancient times! It was made by the young eunuch’s mother herself! There must be no problem!
Su Wan didn't eat much for dinner, which was called noodles but was actually dough lumps, with pickles.
Even though she wasn't a picky eater, she still couldn't eat this.
It’s the same for everyone else, as long as they can fill their stomachs!
After the young eunuch and the guards had their meal, he fled from the west kitchen.
Never come again!
They want to save some money and eat out!
They are in the outer palace, and there are not as many restrictions on entering and exiting the palace as there are in the inner palace.
Su Wan cleaned up the dishes and went to the kitchen. After all, she had to provide meals for more than 1,500 people. The kitchen was huge, with a yard and warehouse at the back, which were where the ingredients were stored and processed.
Su Wan was very small. At the age of twelve, she was not even as tall as the sink, so she had to stand on a small stool before she could start washing the dishes.
She washed several bowls cleanly, and the other four little palace maids were also very discerning in looking for work to do.
Seeing that what they were doing was not dangerous, the left leader on duty acquiesced.
But I still have to say that you are too young! How can you wash dishes while standing on a stool?
As they were washing the dishes, someone outside complained, "The food you cook in the western kitchen is too bad! Is this pig food?"
"Are you a pig? Yes, your words are for you to eat!"
Zuo Zhizhang immediately retorted: "I'm the chef today, is it really not delicious?"
As soon as this was said, noises came from outside one after another.
"Delicious, delicious. Aunt Yonglan's cooking is excellent."
“Yes, it’s delicious!”
"We'll come back tomorrow!"
When the last sentence was spoken, everyone looked at the eunuch who was speaking with resentment.
The other cooks in the west kitchen looked outside, then at Aunt Yonglan, and quickly lowered their heads to work.
This Aunt Yonglan is the left-hand man of the west kitchen, wearing a light green official uniform.
A kitchen will have a prime minister and two assistants.
Most of the time, the prime minister and his deputy did not work in the kitchen, but only worked in the official office in the west kitchen. One person on the left or right took turns on duty every ten days, managing the three meals a day in the kitchen.
It is now the ninth day of April, and Aunt Yonglan, the left lord, is on duty.
On April 11, the right hand was in charge.
Su Wan watched silently and knew that Aunt Yonglan had a bad temper and no one dared to offend her.
Yes, now I can still eat a few bites. If I offend someone too much, I’m afraid I won’t be able to eat even a single bite.
You can offend anyone but not the canteen chef! This is always true!
After finishing this "dinner", Su Wan followed the other four new palace maids back to their residence. After exchanging information, they found out why the food in the west kitchen was so bad!
As soon as the word "unpalatable" was spoken, everyone immediately thought of the word "pig food".
What should I do if I think this is true?
One of the maids named Xiaoyue whispered, "I established a good relationship with an older maid, and she told me the reason."
"The reason is that the cooks who cook the worst and most inexperienced food in the entire Shangshi Division are all in the West Kitchen."
"Another reason is that our western kitchen has the least money allocated to it, and we don't have any good ingredients at all."
My goodness, there are neither capable people nor ingredients, no wonder the food tastes so bad.
Because the West Kitchen was located in a remote area, the five departments it was responsible for were not given much attention. As a result, things got worse and worse.
The more capable cooks would either go to the South Kitchen or the North Kitchen, or, if that didn't work, leave the palace and work as private cooks for others, which was still better than working in the West Kitchen.
The former could be promoted to a female official, but the West Kitchen had no chance at all. If one wanted to be promoted, one had to make good friends with the nobles, but there were no nobles to be found in the West Kitchen.
They were just cooking for the most ordinary palace servants, which was a waste of time. For the enterprising cooks, they would definitely try to leave.
As time goes by, there will definitely not be many skilled cooks coming. She only gets two taels of silver a month, and being promoted to a senior palace maid only gets ten taels.
The cook who stayed behind must not be very skilled.
Or they are young palace maids like Su Wan, who have just entered the palace and have not learned anything at home.
After these words were spoken, except for Su Wan, the other four people all lowered their heads.
Among the five people, the youngest, Su Wan, is twelve years old, and the oldest is fourteen. They are said to have skills, but if they really had skills, they would not have been assigned to the west kitchen.
The ones who are good at it are the ones who have the ability! So he went directly to the South Kitchen, a place with a promising future.
Su Wan finally understood. In other words, the chief of the Imperial Food Department knew exactly how capable the sixty palace maids and cooks who had just entered the palace were.
The talented ones are assigned to good classes, the poor students are assigned to poor classes, and they are kept away from the rich people. This is good for the rich people, and also for these "poor students".
Indeed, with her original cooking skills, it would be difficult for her to enter the palace.
They were said to be good at investigating cases, but when they were at home, the wife would not allow the concubines to learn such skills.
The original body's cooking skills were almost zero.
Asking her to go to the South Kitchen to cook plain dishes was almost the same as harming someone.
Since the cooks here have poor skills and few in number, the palace maids in charge also have low status.
The funds allocated by the higher authorities were naturally very small.
Anyway, due to several reasons, the food in the western kitchen was not cooked well.
Those who are enterprising have all left, and those who are not enterprising are just doing their job, and those who can stand a little bit of support have no skills.
Over time, the meals in the West Kitchen became famous.
It’s not that the prime minister and the deputy prime minister don’t want to take care of it, but there has to be one of the people and the ingredients.
But there is also a shortage of manpower in other places.
Didn’t you see that the chief of the Imperial Food Department, Jiang Hongye, who had just produced a very skilled cook, was immediately taken away by the Empress?
What a miserable western kitchen.
There are no people and no money.
It is also called pig food.
After hearing this, Su Wan felt sorry for the West Kitchen for a second.
What a miserable West Kitchen! It’s not easy for the Prime Minister and his deputy to keep it running.
But when she thought about tomorrow's breakfast, she felt dizzy.
She was born in China, a country full of delicious food. She usually eats things like pancakes with soup, crystal steamed dumplings, hot dry noodles, and pearl meatballs and steamed purple sweet potatoes.
If all else fails, you can go to the roadside and eat some soy milk and fried dough sticks, which are delicious.
Now we are trapped in the dark cafeteria of the west kitchen!
Su Wan has silently given the West Kitchen the nickname of the Dark Canteen. Even the canteen for modern middle school students is better than this.
It’s better to take a nap and meet the delicious food in your dreams.
Roast duck, roast goose, roast chicken, roast pork ribs, she’s here!
When Su Wan woke up early the next morning, she found that two people were missing from the room. After asking, she found out that two of them had run away overnight.
They were scared away by the "noodles" and the news, and left with their luggage overnight using their connections, without even staying the whole night.
The remaining ones are Su Wan, Chunxiang, who have no connections, and Xiaoyue, who likes to inquire about news.
Su Wan understood even more clearly. No wonder the food in the western kitchen was so bad! Those who could escape had really escaped!
But the three of them still packed up and hurried to report to Aunt Yonglan, the left lord.
Today we will assign tasks!
When I went to the hall, I found out that out of the ten palace maids who had come yesterday, six had already run away.
Su Wan, Xiaoyue, Chunxiang, and the cook named Yu Shu were the only ones left in the next room. Four people had run away from her room.
Aunt Yonglan, who was in charge of the left, was used to it. It was like this every time a new person was brought in. But they definitely had other things to do besides picking and washing vegetables.
The affairs of the West Kitchen are complicated and everyone has multiple responsibilities.
Among them, Yu Shu and Xiao Yue are fourteen years old and can do more things, such as helping to cut vegetables.
Chunxiang is the Thirteenth. From now on, the job of serving meals to the palace servants will be hers.
Finally, he looked at Su Wan, who was twelve years old, skinny and small. She probably couldn't even carry water steadily and had difficulty washing vegetables.
Aunt Yonglan thought of how Su Wan had to stand on a stool to wash dishes yesterday, and she held her forehead with her hand and said, "You should go to Guandi Temple to offer sacrifices every day. Occasionally there will be little disciples serving Guandi there, and it's not easy for him to leave, so he needs to deliver food to them."
Su Wan knew that it was Aunt Yonglan who was taking care of her, but she said seriously: "Master Zuo, I can cook. I know how to cook."
The original body couldn’t cook, but she can!
Aunt Yonglan pinched Su Wan's cheek lovingly: "You are almost as tall as the stove, it's hard to move."
After saying this, the other three little palace maids couldn't help laughing.
Seeing that the atmosphere had eased a lot, Auntie Yonglan, the left-handed chef, said seriously, "I believe you all know the situation in the West Kitchen. We don't seek merit here but only avoid mistakes. No matter why you come here, you can all be safe."
"As long as you do your job well, everyone in the West Kitchen will get along well."
"It is said that the East is the most precious, and the opposite of the East must be the West, so our place is also remote. Although it is remote, there are fewer troubles."
"From now on, you are all members of the West Kitchen. The West Kitchen has always been a harmonious place. Don't make trouble out of nothing and engage in intrigue, otherwise you won't even be able to stay in the West Kitchen."
The Western Kitchen is already considered the lowest level in the palace. If one cannot even stay in the Western Kitchen, he or she will probably be expelled from the palace.
But this expulsion does not mean you can just open the door and leave. You will definitely be beaten, and your family will be implicated as well.
This punishment is extremely severe and everyone is afraid of it.
The four young palace maids immediately agreed, changed into the light-colored clothes of the West Kitchen, and officially became members of the West Kitchen.
What Su Wan has to do is to offer offerings to the Guandi Temple.
The Guandi Temple is located on the west side of the outer palace of the entire imperial palace, on the north side of the same side as the western kitchen.
This place is close to the cold palace, and few nobles go there to offer sacrifices, so it has always been very deserted.
But tea and snacks are indispensable at all times, and because the west kitchen is close, it is responsible for the offerings here.
Delivering offerings is a small matter and can be completed in about half an hour. However, from time to time, a young disciple who serves Guandi will come over and only occasionally take care of his meals.
But the little disciple is not there every day. Sometimes he goes to other temples and Taoist temples in the palace to do work. Su Wan just needs to take care of this.
This is a very easy job, and it was arranged this way because Su Wan is young.
The other three palace maids had no objection. If they really had ulterior motives, they would not have stayed in the west kitchen.
No wonder there is less work in the western kitchen, this must be one of the reasons?
After changing their clothes, the four people went directly to the west kitchen. It was their first day here, and some palace servants had already gone to the west kitchen to eat.
In the morning, I had rice porridge and pickled radish.
These two dishes are not difficult to make, so they shouldn’t be bad, right?
Su Wan tried a bite and almost spit it out.
Why!
Why is rice porridge so unpalatable?
Isn’t this the simplest food?
Su Wan swallowed it with difficulty, but Chunxiang next to her had already pushed the bowl away. This was really pig food!
The thin rice porridge had a burnt smell, which was fine, but some of the rice grains were still raw.
The two flavors mixed together are as unpalatable as can be.
Su Wan smelled it again, then looked at the big pot of porridge, and understood what was going on.
After all, it was canteen food, so the pot for cooking porridge was relatively tall, and the porridge was stirred too seldom while cooking, so the bottom of the pot was mushy and the top was not cooked yet.
Stirring it occasionally not only fails to ensure even heating from top to bottom, but also turns up the mushy bottom, making the whole pot of porridge become mushy and undercooked.
In this case, one reason is that the pot is too big, and the other is that the fire is too big.
This will result in a pot of porridge with some parts cooked and some parts half-cooked.
A small pot is okay, but a big pot is doomed. In even more extreme cases, the rice at the bottom may be cooked while the water at the top is still warm.
Canteen meals are not that easy to prepare.
Su Wan stared at the porridge that tasted like Chinese medicine, and said to herself, "This is not the porridge that tastes like paste and is half-cooked. This is not the porridge that tastes like paste and is half-cooked."
"This is preserved egg, lean meat and shrimp porridge. This is preserved egg, lean meat and shrimp porridge."
After she finished half a bowl of porridge, the other palace maids and eunuchs around Su Wan applauded her.
Amazing! I drank half a bowl!
Su Wan was an adult after all. She drank half a bowl of rice porridge, forcing herself to remain calm. She picked up the offerings for Guandi Temple and said calmly, "I'm going to Guandi Temple to deliver the offerings. See you later."
Su Wan walked out of the west kitchen under everyone's admiring gaze, turned around and went to the deserted Guandi Temple in the north, she covered her face with her hands and said, "Wow, wow, wow, it's so disgusting!"
So unpalatable that it makes me cry!
Su Wan didn't notice at all that the handsome young man next to the Guandi statue was looking at her with amusement.
She cries cutely.
But what is really so unpalatable?
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