Chapter 108: Hot and Noisy
Time passed quickly. The liveliness in Wang Laosi's house continued. Zhulan's family had more children and their life was also lively and noisy. In the blink of an eye, it was New Year's Eve.
Zhulan and Zhou Shuren's first New Year in ancient times had different meanings. Early in the morning, Zhou Shuren took his son and grandson to worship their ancestors. After returning, he took out the red paper he had bought early to write Spring Festival couplets.
Zhulan also discovered a new skill. She cut paper-cuts based on her original memory and did it very well.
After the couplets and window decorations were pasted, Zhulan took her daughter-in-law and daughters to prepare lunch. Zhulan's family had one more meal than other families. They prepared hot pot at noon and had a reunion dinner as in previous years.
Hot pot is what Zhulan and Zhou Shuren have always missed. Hot pot has been around for a long time. The way to eat hot pot was refined during the Song Dynasty. Northerners like it very much in winter, but they mainly stew it. Hot pot was quite popular in the fictional dynasty in winter, so it was not unusual for the two of them to eat hot pot. The restaurants in the county would offer hot pot every winter.
In order to eat hot pot, the couple bought a large ceramic pot and charcoal. Zhou Shuren also went to the restaurant to buy the restaurant's hot pot charcoal base.
The meat for the hot pot was mutton, which Zhulan had always been reluctant to eat. Unfortunately, she couldn't buy beef, and as there were many people in the family, she cut a lot of pork slices. During the Chinese New Year, the family bought five grass carps weighing more than three pounds. Zhulan asked Li to slice a grass carp for the hot pot. The vegetarian dishes were simple, with only frozen tofu, tofu, radish, cabbage, and potatoes.
The soup base is chicken soup and big bone soup. Forget about the sauce. The hot pot in the county’s restaurant doesn’t have any sauce either. There are just some chopped green onions and chili powder on top.
In fact, to put it bluntly, hot pot is very different from modern hot pot. According to Zhulan, the hot pot in the restaurant is just a stew, a mess.
Zhulan has a large family and they don't have time to cook them one by one, so they put the fish slices neatly in two pots and stew them directly over charcoal fire. The fish slices are not resistant to boiling and can be eaten alone, but the other ingredients are not afraid of being stewed together.
The whole family sat down for lunch. As soon as the lid of the hot pot was opened, both adults and children started drooling. The children's eyes were all on the meat. No, it should be said that except Zhulan and Zhou Shuren, the whole family was staring at the meat.
This is the first time I’ve been so generous during Chinese New Year and eaten as much meat as I can!
Zhou Shuren picked up his chopsticks, but couldn't stand the looks from his sons. He coughed and said, "It's delicious. Let's pick up our chopsticks!"
As soon as the words fell, chopsticks started flying.
No one in my family has ever eaten hot pot. We have only heard of it and never dared to dream of having it. But today our wish finally came true.
Zhulan and Zhou Shuren are the heads of the family. Zhulan is in charge of the meals. They no longer like meat and instead prefer to eat something light. The two of them eat tofu and cabbage the most. At first, no one touches the fish slices except Zhulan and Zhou Shuren.
Later, seeing how they were enjoying the meal, the sons' eyes lit up after trying it. It was a pity that the whole fish was so filling that each of them finished it with just one chopstick.
Li's eyes were filled with tears as she ate the food. It was so delicious that she passed some to the children while she was eating.
Mrs. Zhao's speed was not slow either. Because she was only taking care of her daughter, she ate more than Mrs. Li. Mrs. Zhao felt that she was lucky because she was out of confinement before the Chinese New Year, so she did not miss out on any delicious food.
Because Zhulan was taking care of Jiang Du, Xuemei only had to feed her daughter, and she ate a lot. Since she moved back to her parents' home, Xuemei had long accepted the fact that the food there was good. For lunch, eight pounds of mutton alone was cut, and there were five pounds of pork. Whose family is so extravagant during the New Year? If it weren't for the fact that it was not good for a married daughter to live in her parents' home with her son-in-law for a long time, Xuehan would have wanted to live there with her children for a long time.
Jiang Sheng at the next table felt embarrassed to eat for free at first, but gradually he became comfortable with it. The Yue family really didn't despise their family, especially these days, not only did he make money by copying books, but he could also read the books brought back by his father-in-law. Not to mention that his sons and daughters kept talking about living in the Yue family for a long time, he didn't want to leave!
It's a hot pot, and the food is so noisy that people would fight over a piece of meat.
Zhulan smiled and said, "It's good to be lively. The more lively it is, the more affection there is. No matter if people are blood relatives or strangers, they can only develop deep feelings after getting along with each other. Look, Chang Lian is not targeting Rongchuan anymore."
After eating hot pot, the whole family felt warm and both children and adults felt drowsy.
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