Ancient Foodie Survival Guide Chapter 10
Tled by Serena Love
Edited
Chapter 10: Braised Pork Noodles
Since that twilight, Jiang Shuyao had never slept in again.
That wasn’t a major issue. After returning from morning greetings, she could always catch up with her sleep.
But within a few days, the Old Madam asked her to copy scriptures, which troubled her since she couldn’t write with a brush.
Still, it was absolutely impossible to not copy the scriptures. Even if she was mentally challenged, she would still understand that in this prestigious mansion, the Old Madam was the immediate authority figure over all the women and must not be offended.
It also wouldn’t work to have someone else copy it. In Duke Xie’s mansion, everyone reported to the Old Madam.
Therefore, she had to copy it herself. She copied the scriptures in the small Buddhist hall set up by the Old Madam during the day, and she had to light the oil lamp to continue copying at night.
However, there was no desk in the east wing and the height of an ordinary table was unsuitable. After two days of copying, her waist started to feel sore.
On the third day, when she came back with the scriptures in her arms, she found that the light in Xie Xun's study was still on, so she went over bravely.
Xie Xun wasn’t too careful in his own yard. There was no one guarding the door. Jiang Shuyao approached and looked at the door.
"What's the matter?" Xie Xun's cold voice came from the inside.
"It's me," Jiang Shuyao said, paused momentarily, and intentionally made her voice more pleasing, "Husband, may I come in?"
There was no response from inside.
Jiang Shuyao thought to herself, ‘How come?... My voice is so sweet. Why didn't he react at all?’
Xie Xun put his brush down, rubbed the goose bumps on his arm, and began to regret not having a manservant guard at the door. At least a manservant could block Jiang Shuyao directly.
"Husband?" Her voice resounded outside the door, this time even more pretentious.
Xie Xun's brows jumped. He had been married for so long, but this was the first time he heard her use this "gentle" tone.
He closed the book and said, "Come in."
Jiang Shuyao held a few thick volumes of scripture as she slammed the door open, displaying no manners at all.
"I don't have a desk over there. Can I sit here with you for a while tonight?" She added, "Don't worry, I’ll be quiet and won’t disturb you. I’ll ask someone to buy a desk tomorrow."
Xie Xun didn't want to spend any more time talking with her, so he nodded and Jiang Shuyao's maid immediately brought a chair in.
She stayed obedient, shrunk in a corner of the desk, not occupying much space.
Xie Xun originally suspected that she wanted to use this encounter to get closer to him and wanted to use this opportunity to make things clear with her and warn her to not try to ease the relationship between the two with a generous attitude.
Unexpectedly, she just wrote quietly after sitting down, not even giving him another look.
It was late spring, early summer. The temperature was comfortable in the evening. She only wore a thin, tender yellow dress that was unsuitable for her, unlike the red dress that she wore on their wedding day.
Living at home, Jiang Shuyao didn’t care about her appearance. Her ink-black hair draped over her shoulders, loose and half covered by a blue silk, with a jade hairpin inserted carelessly.
The candle light was soft, dyeing her bright face with a hazy tenderness, lazy and relaxed, but still radiant.
Xie Xun's eyes traveled to her dark hair. She wasn’t suitable for jade ornaments, but was more suitable for gold ornaments, which was rare for young girls. The noble ladies in Beijing preferred jade ornaments. They believed that although gold made them look rich and gorgeous, it was also tacky. However, it seemed that the "vulgar" look was more suitable for her charm that couldn’t be suppressed.
He retracted his gaze, his thoughts drifted away, and he didn’t turn any pages of the book.
It wasn't until Jiang Shuyao suddenly put the brush down that he recovered.
Due to the pain in her wrist from exerting too much strength, she frowned and constantly rubbed the area after she put down the brush with a bitter expression.
Xie Xun suddenly asked, "Have you never learned to hold a brush at home?"
Jiang Shuyao's calligraphy level remained at the elementary school level. She didn’t answer, she picked up the brush, and muttered, "How can I finish copying all this? I just want to get rid of this chore as soon as possible."
When he was younger, his mother had also used copying the scripture books to teach his eldest and sister-in-laws.
Xie Xun watched her frowning face with a smile in his eyes. He stood up and walked to her. When he bent over to look at her work, the smile that was not easily on his face suddenly disappeared.
Although he had some talents, he wasn’t the kind of person who would look down on others just because of his abilities, but Jiang Shuyao's handwriting...
"Are you writing? Or are you drawing a ghost talisman?" He had never seen such ugly characters in his entire life!
"Hey..." Jiang Shuyao picked up the book she copied and looked at it carefully. "How could you say that?" This level far exceeds that of most elementary school students, OK?
"You..." Xie Xun hesitated to say anything. He had heard of Jiang Shuyao's reputation for being uneducated and unskilled, but he had never thought that she was so unlearned, and her handwriting wouldn’t even be as good as that of his two little nephews.
Xie Xun couldn't help but say, "With characters like these, even if you finish copying, your writing wouldn't be much different."
His words were a big blow to Jiang Shuyao. She knocked her head on the table and exclaimed, "What can I do? I'm going crazy."
Xie Xun was helpless and disgusted but amused. He sat back in the chair and said, "Mother just wants to suppress your temperament. Instead of rushing to work at night, it is better to intensify your performance during the day. When the opportunity is right, hand the copy of the scriptures over to mother."
It was rare for him to say so much, but what he said comforted Jiang Shuyao. She glanced at him weirdly.
It turned out that he is a good person...
No, this is teaching her how to deceive and play tricks. So isn’t he a person who teaches her how to do bad things?
After Xie Xun finished speaking, he realized that he said too much. He ignored her and began to read the book again.
Is it okay for Jiang Shuyao to stay on the bench and think about how to "behave" and pretend to be improving?
When lost in thought, Jiang Shuyao would unconsciously show her habits, such as biting a pen cap.
As a result, Xie Xun saw her put the tip of the brush in her mouth.
Perhaps because this action was too childish, he glanced at it subconsciously.
She was half-leaning on the table, as if she was boneless, The blue silk slipped off from her neck, displaying her long and white neck. Her skin was frosty and the red lips that bit the brush were plump and soft, with pearly light giving her a delicate and rosy luster, as if she contained honeyed safflower, waiting to be picked.
Xie Xun's eyes seemed to be scalded, and he quickly retracted it after only one glance, trying to stabilize his thoughts.
He kept writing, as if reading the book seriously, but he had no idea what comments he was writing beside the book.
After Jiang Shuyao suddenly noticed, he was completely awake. When he took a closer look, he found that he was writing a few lines of scripture in the corner of his book: "Form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The same is true for perception and consciousness."
He closed the book with a loud "pop," and asked, "What's the matter?"
Jiang Shuyao looked at him with a serious face and was puzzled. Who is he angry at? Not sure what was written in the book. Could it be that the wise ministers in the history book were killed by traitors...
She replied, "I'm hungry. I want to go to the small kitchen to get something to eat. Would you like anything?"
Xie Xun was not hungry previously, but after she asked, he was a little hungry, so he nodded, "I'll go with you."
Jiang Shuyao had already got up, and looked back at him in surprise.
Xie Xun walked with his hands behind his back, "The room is a little stuffy. I'm going out to get some air."
"Oh." Jiang Shuyao nodded, and the two went out one after the other.
She thought Xie Xun just wanted to go to the yard and stand for a while, but she didn't expect him to follow her all the way into the kitchen.
She thought a lot, put down the lantern, and asked, "Isn't it said that the gentleman will be far away from the kitchen?"
Xie Xun walked in with her, "The praise 'a nobleman stays clear of the kitchen' comes chapter thirteen[1] of the <The Book of Rites>."
"A nobleman stays clear of the kitchen, he did not tread wherever there was such a thing as blood or (tainted) air. It means that all fleshy things should not be killed by your own hands, as far as benevolence is concerned, it has nothing to do with the kitchen."
"Oh, that's it." Jiang Shuyao actually listened carefully, as if she "learned."
Then, she folded her arms and looked at the stove. With a distressed expression on her face, she said, "I don't know how to make a fire..."
She was about to go out and call for people, but she did not expect Xie Xun to squat down and pick up the flint. The match lit the firewood, his movements were neat and smooth, and Jiang Shuyao was stunned.
"How can you do this?"
Xie Xun glanced at her lightly, "I've been on trips before, and I can't always take a servant with me." Wasn’t she previously infatuated with him? How did she not know this?
Jiang Shuyao was baffled by his glance, and couldn’t be bothered to care about it, so she poured two spoonfuls of water into the pot, put the lid on and waited for the water to boil.
Then, she turn around to find and wash vegetables, cut the green onion, and dice the shiitake mushrooms. After the water boiled, she added the diced shiitake mushrooms and noodles, let it cook for a while, then added the vegetables and blanched it in boiling water before serving the dish in a bowl.
She poured in soy sauce and vinegar, and sprinkled it with chopped green onions. Jiang Shuyao scooped out two spoons of simmered seeds from another small pot and placed them on the noodles.
"It barely qualifies as braised pork noodle," she said.
The two of them didn't go back to the study, but went to the east wing to have a meal.
This bowl of noodles was really simple to make, but it was very suitable for supper. The noodle soup was refreshing and had a light umami flavor due to the diced shiitake mushrooms. The savory aroma was mixed with a light green onion flavor, and the taste was light but not weak.
The braised pork was made by Jiang Shuyao in the afternoon. She originally planned to eat braised pork rice, but she finally returned to eat at night.
The fat and lean pork belly used for braised pork was cut into small cubes and thrown into the pot was stirred-fried with a little oil. Then she added aniseed, simmered it slowly, and finally added rock sugar which provided a caramel color. Afterwards, she controlled the heat, cooking until the diced pork was completely caramelised, though not charred, and each one was covered with brown-red sauce.
The braised pork was heated by the noodle soup and she stirred slightly, so that the light noodle soup will not spoil the original taste of the pork.
Xie Xun picked up a strand of noodles with chopsticks, and mixed it with braised pork.
The noodles were fresh, smooth and hot, and retained their original refreshing taste.
The braised pork simmered with seeds was mixed between fat and lean meat. The fatty meat was crispy and soft, as the lean meat had been stewed for a long time. The marinade was thick and was well absorbed by the diced meat, so it was rich in flavor, full of sauce but not greasy, and was addicting with one sip.
The green cabbage heart further removed the greasiness of the braised pork, leaving this obviously meaty supper with only fresh fragrance and warmth.
Xie Xun enjoyed the braised pork very much. He ate all the braised pork. Jiang Shuyao wanted to ask him if he would go to the small kitchen to get more, but seeing that he was eating quietly, she thought "you shouldnt speak while you eat,” and shut up.
The sauce of the braised pork was melted into the soup, and even the noodles were covered in the rich meaty aroma. Xie Xun chewed slowly and ate a bowl of noodles cleanly.
Xie Xun's bowl of noodles was twice as large as Jiang Shuyao’s. Seeing that he had cleaned up the soup, Jiang Shuyao couldn't help but wonder whether he had too much appetite or her craft was too good.
After supper, the two of them sweated slightly and were lazily content. After Xie Xun returned to the study, he read a book for a while before washing and going to bed.
.
.
.
Footnotes:
[1] Chapter thirteen of the <The Book of Rites> - here’s a full translation in case anyone is interested. http://chinesenotes.com/liji/liji013.html
If you enjoyed Serena’s work, buy her a ko-fi! 