Ancient Foodie Survival Guide Chapter 7
Translated by Serena Love
Edited by and unsaltedfish
Chapter 7: Spicy Fragrant Hot Pot
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"I'm looking for Ah Zhao and Ah Yao," Xie Xun replied.
Ah Yao and Ah Zhao were called, but they only looked back at Xie Xun and greeted "Third Uncle," then turned back to the milk pudding.
"Third Aunt, can we eat it?" Xie Zhao held up a spoon, eager to taste the milk pudding.
Jiang Shuyao stopped him, "This is made for Ah Yao. You can only taste it."
Xie Zhao puckered his mouth but didn’t refute.
Xie Yao gently touched the double skin milk pudding with the spoon’s side. The soft milk skin swayed side to side, its magical texture made him slightly widen his eyes. "Huh?"
He pressed harder, breaking the outer skin, and scooped out a spoonful of tender white pudding. Then, he put the pudding in his mouth.
It melted in his mouth with a rich milky taste. With a light touch from his teeth, it broke apart, allowing him to swallow it smoothly down his throat and into his stomach.
"How does it taste?" Xie Zhao asked curiously.
There was still a faint flavor of milk lingering in Xie Yao's mouth. He pursed his mouth and nodded with his big eyes.
So cute.
Jiang Shuyao looked at him with her face in her hands and finally understood how the older generation felt while feeding children. "Now isn’t the best time to eat this. During the summer, you can pour mango or mulberry sauce on iced double skin milk pudding to cool off in the heat..."
"What do you mean by ‘mango sauce’?"
"Uh...it's not important."
One asked and one answered, a harmonious scene, completely ignoring Xie Xun who was standing at the door.
He felt that this courtyard wasn’t suitable for him. Every time he came, he would witness this scene.
Xie Xun didn’t mind it too much and walked over to rub Xie Zhao's head. "Did you notify your mother before coming here?"
Xie Zhao felt a little stunned hearing this and said, "Mother won't let us come..."
Xie Yao suddenly took over the conversation and whispered, "Third Uncle, why won’t Mother let us come to Third Aunt?"
Xie Yao had always been reserved. Because of his weak body, his voice was also weak when speaking. With round eyes like black grapes, he appeared innocent and pitiful.
Xie Xun immediately stopped talking. Why were they getting children involved with conflicts amongst adults?
He changed his wording, "Your mother is just worried about you. After all, your Third Aunt doesn’t know how to take care of children and you have a weak body. You must be careful about what you eat."
Jiang Shuyao was the only person present who listened to Xie Xun's words. After thinking about it, she was puzzled and said, "Eating this shouldn’t be a problem. It's quite healthy."
Xie Xun looked at the milk pudding and asked, "What is this?"
"This is double-skin milk pudding, made from milk. It has been cooked and steamed..." Jiang Shuyao said, looking at him sideways, "You don't want to try it, do you?"
Xie Xun's usually expressionless face suddenly came alive, and his eyes widened in astonishment.
"...Are you going to grab food from a child?"
Xie Xun was so angered by her words that he gritted his teeth and said, "I won't!"
"The last time we ate bridge rice noodles, you joined us at the table." He had a criminal record.
Xie Xun was able to speak eloquently since he was a child, but at this moment, he was so angry that he couldn't utter a word. Seeing the two little guys looking at him while holding ladles, his face flushed with shame.
"I didn't! I'm not that kind of person!" How could he receive such accusations!
"Okay, okay." Jiang Shuyao saw his strong reaction and stopped joking, "If you say you didn’t, you didn’t."
"I wasn't...What's with your tone!" A delicate wash of crimson rose to Xie Xun’s face, gilding his handsome countenance with a striking allure, a few lively hues softening that ethereal and unapproachable appearance.
Jiang Shuyao stared at him, rolled her eyes, and secretly sighed at his beauty.
It was best to look while she could. It was almost mealtime and the beauty would increase one’s appetite.
If Xie Xun knew what she was thinking, he would be angered to the point of coughing up blood.
Xie Xun felt that things weren't going his way so he flicked his sleeves and strode away.
When he exited the courtyard, he spotted Xie Ye waiting outside and suddenly realized that he’d forgotten his original purpose for seeking Jiang Shuyao out.
"Third Uncle..." Xie Ye wanted to ask, but when he saw that his uncle's expression was unpleasant, he immediately dropped the issue and held back his words.
Xie Xun restrained his expression and said, "Go back and tell my sister-in-law that they’re having a great time."
Fortunately, a maid from the first branch explained the situation to Jiang Shuyao and took Xie Zhao and Xie Yao out, easing his embarrassment.
Xie Ye led his two unconscionable younger brothers to run away, leaving Xie Xun to stand alone and look off into the sky, persuading himself not to worry about Jiang Shuyao.
Xie Xun returned to the study to read a book after his anger dissipated. However, Bai Zhi ran back to the courtyard in a hurry.
"Miss! There’s a problem!" She ran to Jiang Shuyao, her face twisted in anxiety.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Shuyao was thinking about what to eat tonight, and was shocked by her appearance.
"Just now, I sent the two little masters out and saw the young master who came to pick them up. He, he, he... I didn't expect to see him again after that day in spring when we went to the lake!"
"What are you talking about?" Jiang Shuyao was confused.
Bai Zhi sighed and explained in detail, "That year, Miss and the county princess visited the lake and saw the boat of the poetry society pass by. You both approached the boat to get a glimpse of the talented men and were discovered peeking. The boat also had a collision, causing several young masters to fall into the water. Don't you remember this?"
Jiang Shuyao took a deep breath. This idiot was so ferocious...
"I was also there at the time. Some of the young masters jumped down to rescue the people in the water, among which included the Eldest Young Master."
People from the Xie family were all born handsome, and Bai Zhi remembered Xie Ye's appearance after a few more glances. After Jiang Shuyao got married, Bai Zhi had been with her. But on the first day of her marriage, she had been waiting outside the main hall when the bride offered tea, so she hadn't seen the other sons of the Xie Mansion. Today was the first time she saw this person again.
It was too embarrassing. Jiang Shuyao felt uncomfortable just listening to her description, "It doesn't matter. It was just looking."
"Miss, have you forgotten? You followed the princess in reciting poems."
Jiang Shuyao felt that the sky was falling. So this skinless and faceless idiot who married Xie Xun by scheming had also "molested" his nephew?
This... Xie Xun's life is too unfortunate.
Thinking of the nonsense she had said to Xie Xun just now, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
She scratched her head, looked around in the kitchen, and touched her chin, "Then, I’ll apologize to him tonight."
Jiang Shuyao's groceries in the small kitchen were all purchased with her own money, and the servants in the kitchen were also brought from the Xiangyang Mansion. Yes, for the rich and powerful, ingredients were always readily available.
Seeing the abundant ingredients, she had an idea, "Just make spicy and fragrant hot pot[1]." At lunch, she noticed that Xie Xun had been eating Mapo tofu and boiled fish fillet. He must enjoy salty and spicy food.
No matter how picky an eater someone is, they wouldn't be able to resist the charm of spicy hot pot. All kinds of ingredients were simply treated with water and oil to maintain their original flavor. Meat and vegetables were put into a big pot and there would be neither the blandness of eating only vegetarian dishes nor the greasiness of eating only meat dishes. Stir-fry the wok with spicy chili oil, let the spicy chili oil fully cover each ingredient, sprinkle a layer of white sesame seeds on the surface before serving, fill a large bowl, and serve it with white rice. It would be appetizing.
Xie Xun was still reading in the study when the sky began to darken. He nodded when a close servant asked if he wished to set up a meal.
Since marrying Jiang Shuyao, he’d been sleeping in the study and eating in the main room. Jiang Shuyao was very considerate and ate in the east wing so as not to bother him.
Dinner in Duke Xie’s Mansion followed the tastes of the Old Madam, which was always light and simple. Today's simple dinner was chicken broth that had been simmered for a day.
A servant neatly placed the porridge and a few side dishes on the table. Just as Xie Xun was about to eat, he suddenly heard a familiar noise. Looking up, he saw Jiang Shuyao approaching with a large bowl in hand.
The young servant raised his hand in an attempt to stop her, but Jiang Shuyao ran past him like the wind and entered the hall with a big grin. She put the bowl down loudly shouting, "It's so hot, so hot!"
Xie Xun’s chopsticks froze midair.
To put it nicely, Jiang Shuyao was warm and enthusiastic, but to put it not-so-nicely, she was thick-skinned. She plopped herself across from Xie Xun and glanced at the dishes on the table, "It's something simple to eat at night."
Just as Xie Xun was about to speak, Jiang Shuyao's four maids entered, placed two bowls of rice and sweet drinks, and left the room just as quickly.
Jiang Shuyao was also a little nervous. After all, she hadn't figured out Xie Xun's temperament. She smiled and said, "I made a lot for dinner, so I brought it over to eat with you."
It was indeed a lot. Xie Xun didn't even know that there was such a large porcelain bowl in the house.
"This is a spicy fragrant hot pot. I noticed that you enjoy spicy food, so I made it specially for you. I’m using this to apologize for teasing you in front of the two little nephews today."
Xie Xun put down his chopsticks and rubbed his eyebrows, "I wasn't annoyed, you don't need to apologize...forget it, let it be."
The rich, spicy aroma entered his nose, making him swallow subconsciously as a pang of hunger suddenly appeared in his stomach.
He’d never seen such a mess of ingredients mixed so haphazardly into a giant pot of food. The jumbled mess didn’t have any plating, making it look unrefined.
But it was undeniable that when ingredients of various colors were coated in bright red spicy oil and mixed, the result was a full spectrum of colorful foods. It looked more enticing than the complicated dishes he’d seen previously.
"Then, let's eat." Jiang Shuyao wasn’t polite to him. She held rice in one hand and vegetables in the other.
Although the spices were less complete than modern ones, the taste wasn’t bad at all, especially considering the taste of authentic natural ingredients in ancient times was much better than modern ones.
Xie Xun watched as she immediately started eating, and after looking around, he noticed that there weren't even common chopsticks on the table.
Although Jiang Shuyao's eating posture wasn’t in compliance with etiquette, her enthusiastic eating, expression of contentment, and bulging cheeks made his chopsticks move.
He hesitated a little and took a piece of lotus root. The lotus root slices were covered in spicy oil, now dyed red and sprinkled with white sesame. He chewed carefully. It was crunchy and the taste was extremely fresh and spicy. After the spiciness faded, it left a lingering sweetness.
He immediately picked up white rice with chopsticks to suppress the spiciness. The rice grains were sweet, springy, and steaming, making the spicy lotus root slices taste even more delicious.
He looked at the spicy fragrant hot pot containing numerous ingredients mixed together and pondered which one to take.
He randomly picked up an emerald-green lettuce leaf and chewed it in his mouth. The roots were crunchy and refreshing, with a slight sweetness, but the leaves were the opposite. They fully absorbed the savory flavor of the spicy oil and other meat dishes, and had a pungent salty taste. He immediately took a large mouthful of white rice and ate it with the lettuce. The oil in the vegetable leaves penetrated the rice, neutralizing the salty taste and leaving only the fragrant and spicy flavor. The aftertaste was endless.
As he was chewing, he suddenly felt Jiang Shuyao's piercing eyes. He raised his eyes to meet hers, but only a strange silence followed.
Xie Xun's manner of eating rice was too proper, with his back straight and shoulders stretched. He picked food slowly and chewed slowly, all while maintaining an indifferent and unrushed demeanor. It was like eating a meal with an ethereal being.
Jiang Shuyao withdrew her evaluation of "a feast for the eyes." Although he was visually appealing, this didn’t increase her appetite at all.
"Why are you staring at me?" Xie Xun, the person getting stared at, felt extremely uncomfortable. After swallowing, he sat motionless and stopped picking up vegetables. In the end, he couldn't bear to break his rule of "not speaking to her."
"Nothing, let's continue eating." Jiang Shuyao was helpless. It was too inexplicable for a person eating spicy fragrant hot pot to be able to recite poetry after putting down his chopsticks!
What to do? She really wanted to see what he looked like when eating without control.
Footnote:
1. Spicy Fragrant Hot Pot (Mala Xiang Guo) is a Chinese dish prepared by stir frying. It often contains meat and vegetables, and has a salty and spicy taste. The preparation process involves placing the required ingredients in the pot, stir frying and adding the hot and spicy seasoning. Here in Australia, they call this "Dry Hot Pot" in Malatang restaurants. Do you have this in your country?
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