Ancient Foodie Survival Guide Chapter 87
Tled by Serena Love
Unedited
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 eats steamed buns, but he eats meat. In such a comparison, is it to pour dirty water on him and say that he disrespects 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, move your chopsticks."
He looked at the sauce jar and calculated how many days required to return to Beijing.
If they don't have to hurry, and eat three meals a day on time, then add another supper, will it be enough?
Remembering the lesson of losing the sauce bottle carelessly last time, he said, "Let's follow the rules and don't 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, "I 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 could 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 is 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 doesn't pay much attention to food, he also hired a chef who knows how to cook. After adding oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, that is it. There is 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 is 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 is thick, red oil is floating on top, and a few meat pieces lay on the bottom of the bowl. The meat is soft, and it seems that the fat has 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 is freshness in the spiciness, numbness in the freshness, but it is not irritating. After swallowing, only the aftertaste and meaty flavor are left in his mouth.
This is really strange. He silently picked up the big white steamed bun that he swore not to eat, circle 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 Beijing, but it also takes 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 is a trivial matter. It is nothing more than a daughter of an official who wanted to go to Beijing with them.
She stopped Lian Liu and explained her intention. They are 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 are not eating, drinking, and having fun. They are rushing to Beijing. Can this beautiful lady stand it?
The answer over there is naturally "she can tolerate it."
In this case, everyone has no opinion.
But who knows that this young lady doesn't stay in the carriage well. She has to go out and swing around every day, especially when the group was resting at the inn. She often comes over to say thank you, while her eyes always look 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 admired his appearance?
Everyone cried silently while dipping their buns in the sauce.
Xie Xun is the most sensitive of this group of people. He is very responsive to the woman's small movements. However, everyone from the East Palace felt that Xie Xun was overreacting. Isn'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 outdoor, 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 out 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 pity the beauty and cherish the jade will whisper about Xie Xun privately, saying that he is too much or maybe he has 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 is 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 is purplish-black and dry, but the inside is really deep red and soft, with the unique charcoal aroma of smoked food. When it enters the pot, it immediately exudes 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" is. 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 is different.
Is he just a simple brother?
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No. He is 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 are awakened.
Xie Xun is married. His wife is Jiang Shuyao.
If Yingying and Yanyan pounced on Xie Xun, but they escaped, is 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 is 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 burnt 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 occupies all parts of his mouth. The marinated, smoked, and roasted bacon completely loses the greasiness of fatty meat. The fat becomes fragrant and mellow, and the saltiness is diluted by the bun, leaving only a complex umami taste.
There is 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 is 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 become. 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 is 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 are tender and were washed with the clear and sweet spring water. Once they put them in the pot, it immediately forces out the water vapor. The bacon's fat was rendered, leaving a thick layer on the bottom of the pot. After the oil was hot, it collided with the wild vegetables and suddenly made a crackling sound.
The wild vegetables were fried until softened, and the overflowing juice mixed with the oil from the bacon, exuding an extremely attractive aroma. After the wild vegetables are cooked, they opened the pot and saw that there is a layer of translucent oil and water. The juice from wild vegetables is mixed with the bacon's oil, which perfectly blends the umami, sweetness, and saltiness.
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When they picked out a wild vegetable piece, the wild green vegetable is wrapped in translucent oily color. It was crisp and refreshing when it was put in the mouth, and the oily fragrance is overflowing. The taste of bacon is so overbearing. It penetrates its strong smoked aroma and saltiness into the wild vegetables, making the wild vegetables delicious and attractive without any condiments.
After everyone rushed to grab the wild vegetables, there was still soup at the bottom of the pot.
They looked at each other, and someone broke their dried bun and put it in the pot for a soak. There are a lot of wild vegetables. The excess oil has already been absorbed into the wild vegetables. The soup left is more of the fresh vegetable juice with bits of bacon. After adding the dried bun, the dried bun sucked all the moisture and softened by the soup. It becomes soft and swelling, with the mellow and fresh aroma of bacon, the sweetness and refreshing of wild vegetables, and the faint aroma of 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 enjoy 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 will 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 will 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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