Ancient Foodie Survival Guide Chapter 87
Translated by Serena Love
Edited by Azure
Chapter 87: Bacon
Lian Liu felt that this matter was suspicious. Several generations of military commanders in his family had racked their brains, trying to get along with civil servants. Since childhood, the elders in the family taught him to be careful when dealing with these people. So he looked at the stew in front of him and dared not move his chopsticks.
If everyone ate steamed buns, but he ate meat. With such a comparison, was it to pour dirty water on him and say that he disrespected the prince?
When he was wondering, the crown prince stared downstairs from the upper floor.
He had just bathed, simply tied his hair, and rushed towards the dining table with joy and excitement, and even a little bit of playfulness, not at all like the lofty appearance that Lian Liu imagined.
The crown prince looked at the sauce jar and his smile got bigger.
He sat on the main seat and lifted up his robe, "You have been waiting for a long time. Let's have a meal. We are all brothers, don't be cautious." After speaking, he caught a glimpse of Lian Liu, who was sitting at the table.
Although the prince was hungry and couldn't wait to eat, he still remembered his demeanor as a prince and nodded to Lian Liu, "General Lian."
Lian Liu salutes consecutively, "His Royal Highness."
Generally, everyone would say some greetings at this time, such as explaining the day's itinerary, politeness, etc. Still, the crown prince did not follow the common sense and only said hello perfunctorily. "Okay, everyone, let’s eat."
He looked at the sauce jar and calculated how many days till the return to Chang’an.
If they didn’t have to hurry, and ate three meals a day on time, then added another supper, would the sauce be enough?
Remembering the lesson of losing the sauce bottle carelessly last time, he said, "Let's follow the rules and not splurge."
Even Lian Liu pointed his ears. Splurge? Splurge like on gold and silver jewelry? He felt that he heard something incredible.
The sauce jar was placed in front of him, and the crown prince smiled slightly, "We should divide it."
He picked up a clean spoon, scooped out a spoonful, and sprinkled it in the stew. Then he stirred it with public chopsticks, and the pale white stew suddenly turned brownish red.
People are always greedy, and the crown prince sighed, "It's a pity that we could only taste it in the soup. It is not as tasty."
Xie Xun took out the letter and read the cooking guide given by Jiang Shuyao, "My wife said it could be used to stir-fry rice. It is very simple. It can also be used to stir noodles and tastes good. You can also add it to stir-fry with meat, add a spoonful to taste, making it better. It's a pity that the cooks in the inn do not know how to cook."
The prince listened with great interest and asked the chef to prepare a large bowl of plain noodles. Then he added the mushrooms and minced meat sauce and mixed it. The white and firm noodles are wrapped with fried mushrooms and minced meat. It was tender and springy, sometimes mixed with a few crushed peanuts. The taste was very rich.
So everyone divided the noodles and the sauce. After slurping the noodles, they finished the steamed buns and finally drank the salty and spicy soup with minced mushroom sauce. It was very satisfying.
Even Lian Liu was suspicious. Seeing that everyone was so happy while eating a large white steamed bun and plain noodles, he couldn't help but suspect a conspiracy in this matter.
Isn't it just a spoonful of sauce? What is the fuss about?
Although his family didn’t pay much attention to food, he also hired a chef who knew how to cook. After adding oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, that was it. There was nothing new to enjoy in a stew.
He ate and sipped slowly. He waited until the group of East Palace people ate and drank enough, then held their bellies and went upstairs to rest, before he dared to drag the stew bowl to him.
Fragrant, the stew was really fragrant.
He picked three little pieces of meat and his eyes fell into the remaining liquid in the stew.
Only the bottom of the stew bowl was left. The soup was thick, red oil was floating on top, and a few meat pieces lay on the bottom of the bowl. The meat aws soft, and it seemed that the fat had melted into the sticky soup.
He no longer hesitated and dragged it over to take a bite.
He imagined that the stew with sauce should be very salty, but he realized that it was not like that when he took a sip. First, the taste that bloomed on the tip of his tongue was spicy, not the spiciness of garlic, but a delightful one. There was freshness in the spiciness, numbness in the freshness, but it was not irritating. After swallowing, only the aftertaste and meaty flavor are left in his mouth.
This was really strange. He silently picked up the big white steamed bun that he swore not to eat, circled it around the bottom of the bowl, and ate it happily.
*
The next day, the group officially set off.
Like marching for a war, Lian Liu had planned the route to escort the prince long ago. He has planned when to stop and when to go. This way, it saves more energy than rushing on the road like when they left Chang’an, but it also took more time.
The group of people stopped and continued. It was not long after they got out of their way, when they encountered a problem.
In fact, it was a trivial matter. It is nothing more than a daughter of an official who wanted to go to Chang’an with them.
She stopped Lian Liu and explained her intention. They were not marching to war anyway, so even Lian Liu felt it was normal to help.
But the crown prince was the one who came up with some opinions first. They were not eating, drinking, and having fun. They were rushing to Chang’an. Could this beautiful lady stand it?
The answer over there is naturally "she can tolerate it."
In this case, everyone has no opinion.
But who knew that this young lady didn’t stay in the carriage well. She had to go out and swing around every day, especially when the group was resting at the inn. She often came over to say thank you, while her eyes always looked at Xie Xun.
It was sad to say that she was not after the most powerful crown prince, nor the richest Guan Ying, but the most handsome Xie Xun.
By the way, back then Miss Jiang also had to marry Xie Xun even if she had to die. Didn't she just admire his appearance?
Everyone cried silently while dipping their buns in the sauce.
Xie Xun was the most sensitive of this group of people. He was very responsive to the woman's small movements. However, everyone from the East Palace felt that Xie Xun was overreacting. Wasn’t it just a woman who showed her affection? Just ignore it.
But it was hard for Xie Xun to ignore her. When he lay down at night and took out Jiang Shuyao's letters to reminisce, his room's door was knocked. When everyone stopped on the road, he took out Jiang Shuyao's letters to reminisce, and she came to talk to him. When they camped outdoors, and he was resting, he leaned on the carriage, watching the bright moon and missing his wife, she came "by chance" again...
Xie Xie was so annoyed that he gave her a cold face, but she was not discouraged.
Xie Xun finally said something serious to her, "Miss, please respect yourself. I already have a wife."
As soon as she said this, the young lady cried immediately. Except for her maids, the team was full of men. When they heard a woman's cry, they didn't dare to speak and kept looking at Xie Xun.
Even those soldiers who pitied the beauty and cherished the jade would whisper about Xie Xun privately, saying that he was too much or maybe he had a shrew at home.
During the two days of traveling, Lian Liu and Xie Xun had only spoken a few times. They were not familiar with each other, but he couldn't control his own mouth. He came over to gloat with the grass in his mouth and said, "Sometimes, one more romantic story is also a good story."
Xie Xun sneered. When he watched the people in the East Palace avoiding the young lady like a snake and scorpion, but no one dared to step forward to help him resist, he finally decided to use his "big gun".
At night, Xie Xun opened the wooden box and took out the bacon.
The bright moonlight illuminates his clear eyebrows. He smirked and knew that he was bound to win. His already cold facial features become colder.
If you want to solve an evil wolf, you have to release a pack of evil wolves.
At noon the next day, a group of people took a break for lunch on the road. As in the previous few days, they boiled water in a pot and steamed the dried bun with sauce.
Seeing that the young lady was about to come over again to talk to him, Xie Xun started his plan.
According to Jiang Shuyao's letter, he threw the cut bacon into an iron pot. The bottom of the pot was hot. After a while, he heard the sound of sizzling grease.
The bacon's outer layer was purplish-black and dry, but the inside was really deep red and soft, with the unique charcoal aroma of smoked food. When it entered the pot, it immediately exuded the heavenly aroma.
Xie Xun fiddled with chopsticks in the pot twice and turned the bacon over. At this time, the aroma became more intense. The white and tender fatty meat gradually turned into a transparent color when heated. It was crystal bright and oily, like a soft and elastic jade sipping out salty oil and water.
Jiang Shuyao said in her letter that she processed the bacon meticulously. It would be delicious whether it was dry-fried, braised with green onions, or paired with bamboo shoots, green vegetables, or even boiled noodles.
The East Palace people, who were far away from Xie Xun because they were afraid of the crying woman, suddenly remembered what "righteousness" was. The thick and rich aroma of salty meat suddenly reminded them of the delicious street food market, and then they thought of Jiang Shuyao.
Brothers shared all blessings and avoided all difficulties together, but Xie Xun was different.
Was he just a simple brother?
No. He was Jiang Shuyao's husband!
Yingying and Yanyan pounced in front of Xie Xun, but they still followed their habit before he was married, hiding as far as possible to prevent them from getting in trouble.
But now they were awakened.
Xie Xun was married. His wife was Jiang Shuyao.
If Yingying and Yanyan pounced on Xie Xun, but they escaped, was this worthy of their loyalty to Jiang Shuyao?
[T/N: Yingying and Yanyan literally means "swallows and orioles." It means a large number of women, usually concubines or brothel women. But in this case, it means a random woman.]
So they walked to Xie Xun mightily and sincerely admitted their mistakes.
Xie Xun sneered, but it seemed like nothing on his face, "Don't be sorry, why are you wrong? After all, it was not like I got into a trap set by others and almost married the schemer."
Everyone was embarrassed.
Xie Xun took the pot from the fire and placed it on the mud, then he picked up a steamed bun and put a few pieces of bacon in it.
After frying, the bacon shrank slightly, and the fatty part appeared to be much thinner, while the tender and nonchalant lean part was coated with bright oil. The corners of the meat were fried with a slight burn and crispiness.
Under the gaze of the group of people, Xie Xun put the homemade bacon into his mouth.
At the first bite, a salty taste quickly occupied all parts of his mouth. The marinated, smoked, and roasted bacon completely loses the greasiness of fatty meat. The fat became fragrant and mellow, and the saltiness was diluted by the bun, leaving only a complex umami taste.
There was a complex herbal aroma of pepper, cinnamon, clove, amomum, other herbs, sauce aroma of sweet hoisin sauce, black soy sauce, and other sauces, then the fruity aroma of fruitwood from the smoking process. It starts with a charcoal-grilled flavor and ends with endless freshness. The exhaustion from traveling for many days was dissipated in this fat but not greasy, oily, and salty bacon.
Even though the pot had been removed from the fire, the strong and domineering salty scent still lingered over the nearby sky. The soldiers who had been resting nearby kept sniffing and inhaling.
"It's so fragrant."
"How can meat be so fragrant? It's not like normal meat."
"It's because we haven't seen it before. The boss must have eaten this kind of meat."
Lian Liu nibbled on his own dry buns. The more he gnawed, the more annoying their discussion became. He moved a little farther away from the alluring aroma.
But the wind blew the scent away, and he couldn't avoid it. Even the lady dressing up in the carriage opened her carriage's curtain, sniffing where the scent came from.
Lian Liu looked at the dry bun in his hand. He sighed and silently ended today's lunch.
Xie Xun mercilessly ate two or three pieces of bacon in the pot. Someone brought a cup of tea, he took a sip, and stretched out his whole body.
He took out the letter, pointed to a line of words, and read, "If you are resting on the way and if there are wild vegetables on the side of the road, you can also choose some to fry with the bacon."
It was great that Xie Xun can ignore the past. The group of people hurried into the woods to find wild vegetables, washed them with spring water, and returned. Under Xie Xun's command, they put the wild vegetables into the pot.
The wild vegetables, tender and fresh, were rinsed with the clear, sweet spring water. Once they were added to the pot, a burst of steam instantly rose from the heat. The fat from the bacon began to render, forming a thick layer of oil at the bottom of the pot. As the oil heated up, it met the wild vegetables with a sizzle, sending crackling sounds into the air.
The vegetables softened as they cooked, their juices mixing with the bacon fat to create a tantalizing aroma. When the pot was opened, a shimmering layer of translucent oil and water greeted them. The juices from the wild vegetables had combined seamlessly with the rich, savory bacon oil, blending umami, sweetness, and saltiness into a perfect harmony.
When they picked out a piece of wild vegetable, the green leaves were wrapped in a translucent, oily glaze. It was crisp and refreshing when they bit into it, and the oily fragrance overflowed. The taste of bacon was so dominant, its strong smoked aroma and saltiness penetrating the wild vegetables, making them delicious and irresistible without the need for any additional condiments.
After everyone rushed to grab the wild vegetables, there was still soup left at the bottom of the pot. They glanced at each other, and someone broke off a piece of their dried bun and dropped it into the pot to soak. There had been plenty of wild vegetables, and the excess oil had already been absorbed into them. The remaining soup was mostly fresh vegetable juice mixed with bits of bacon. Once the dried bun was added, it soaked up all the moisture and softened in the soup. It became plump and tender, infused with the mellow, smoky aroma of the bacon, the sweet freshness of the wild vegetables, and the faint, comforting scent of the bun.
Everyone gobbled up the bun before it was too late. When they swallowed in their mouths, they realized that they didn't chew slowly and enjoyed the delicious food.
They could only touch their cheeks, reminiscing about the taste from just now.
At this moment, the young missy, who they avoided like snakes and scorpions, came over. She blinked her big watery eyes and asked softly, "Well, sir, what you are eating..." She was extremely confident, thinking that they would pity the beauty and cherish the jade.
Before she finished speaking, she saw these charming young men turned their heads and looked at her like wolf pups protecting their food. As if she was not a woman but another wolf who would fight them for food.
She was dumbfounded and was immediately frightened enough to take a few steps back. Without understanding the situation, she desperately returned to her carriage.
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