Chang’an Small Restaurant Chapter 42 (Part 2)
Translated by Pure
Chapter 42.2 Everyone’s Own Little New Year
In this era, the sacrifices to the kitchen god were much grander than in later generations. The line up must include chicken, duck, fish, meat, and various pastries, wine and malt syrup candy also could not be short of. In the imperial palace, a Mongolian gazelle was specially prepared to be slaughtered and roasted for this occasion.
These malt syrup candies were either in pieces or strips, nothing like the ‘sugar melons’ that Shen Shaoguang used to enjoy as a child.
Shen Shaoguang believed the sugar melons were more delicious. They were usually the size of a small egg and made into the shape of a pumpkin. The skin was very thin and the inside was hollow, sometimes there were even green or green patterns drawn on top. The sugar melons are first very crispy, but after chewing it a bit more, it would melt into a sweet and sticky texture.
What the current malt syrup candies lacked was that crispness.
No matter what kind of candy, the sole purpose was to sweeten the kitchen god, Zaojun's mouth. The same goes for the wine. The weirdest practice in this time was that the wine and sugar had to be smeared onto the Zaojun’s lips. Shen Shaoguang almost felt as if she was playing house.
Zaojun is a man, it wouldn’t be appropriate to ask A’Yuan to do the task of ‘feeding’ the Kitchen God, so A’Chang did it instead.
After he finished, Shen Shaoguang prayed with a smile. May Zaojun enter the gates of heaven with adequate food and wine; shortened or excess do not mind; business profits in exchange would be sublime…[1]
In fact, it was usually men who offered sacrifices to the kitchen god. As the saying goes, ‘Men do not worship the moon, women do not worship the kitchen god.’ However, because she was the last remaining member of Shen Residence, Shen Shaoguang had no other choice but to do it by herself.
Shen Shaoguang burned paper money, paper dolls, and so on while Yu San, A’Yuan, and A’Chang all kowtowed, sent off the kitchen god to heaven, and the ceremony was complete.
Then came the Little New Year dinner. At this time, the term ‘Little New Year’ had not been coined, and there weren’t special foods eaten specifically on this day, everyone just ate the same thing that was served to the kitchen god.
Shen Shaoguang prepared the cooker, closed the shop doors, and the four of them happily ate hot-pot.
Shen Shaoguang took out the tofu from the boiling broth, and ate it after dipping it into a sauce made up of a mixture of sesame paste, prawn sauce, and chives. She also cooked some napa cabbage, radish, taro, and other various vegetables, but ate a limited amount of meat; all she had was a couple of meatballs.
A’Yuan and A’Chang were from the carnivorous fraction; they couldn’t resist all the varieties of meat cuts, meatballs, tripe, and pork and duck blood tofu. Plate after plate they cooked and put in their bowls, consuming everything with enthusiasm and jubilance.
Yu San was much more restrained, and only cooked mutton and napa cabbage in the milky broth pot.
Seeing Shen Shaoguang place down her chopsticks after eating a few soup-filled meatballs, Yu San stood up and said, "I'll go make some botou noodles. Do any of you want some?"
A’Yuan and A’Chang both shook their heads. They were happily eating this, who would want to eat noodles? Why is it that they weren’t tired of it even after having hotpot so many times? Could it be that their Miss wasn't lying that she was a hot pot demon in her previous life?
Shen Shaoguang raised her hand. "I want a little bit. Make it on the thinner side, faster to cook through and easier to digest."
Yu San frowned and gave her a ‘why are you so picky’ look before getting up to make some noodles from the batch of already risen dough.
Shen Shaoguang was disdained by Princess Yu San on a daily basis. Lacking the dignity of a master, she just curved her eyes and smiled.
After a while, Yu San brought out some botou noodles on a bamboo cover. Some were in the shape of delicate thin petals, and the other half were in the shape of ordinary leek leaves.
Shen Shaoguang smiled and took the petal botou noodles and poured them into her pot cooker. Yu San threw the rest of the noodles into his pot.
Shen Shaoguang and Yu San soon ate their fill. They continued to sit at the table, sipping their beverages and watched the two little ones eat.
Shen Shaoguang remembered that she had a big appetite when she was still a teenager in her previous life; she could eat a roast chicken by herself and would still need an additional sesame flat cake to completely satiate her hunger. She was only nineteen years old in this life, so why doesn’t she have her previous voracity? Could it be that her appetite did not reset like her age when she transversed? Watching the two gluttons chow down to their heart's content, Shen Shaoguang could not help but feel envious.
The two little youngsters were full after finishing up all the meat and vegetables dippings, and didn't bother Yu San to make more noodles.
After dinner, Yu San led A’Yuan and A’Chang to tidy up the kitchen and clean the store while Shen Shaoguang slowly walked back to the back house carrying the lantern A’Yuan had lit.
Ol’Bai wrote a poem stating that after a small banquet, ‘the music and songs have come to a halt, returning the courtyard to its previous peace; the lights on the pavilion soon follow to be extinguished[2].’
Yan Shu believed that this was ‘a well expressed lifestyle of the wealthy nobles[3],’ whilst Master Kou’s ‘The gold by my waist grows heavier with age, as does my jade pillow, growing increasing colder[4]’ was vulgar, too vulgar and were ‘not words of the rich and honorable.’
Even Mr. Lu Xun later agreed that Bai Letian had a knack for composing writings about the wealthy nobles. Without a single mention of gold, jade, brocade, etc. when narrating his poems, with no words related to wealth used, but his writings were discernibly about the affluent.
Shen Shaoguang also felt that Bai's poems were full of sustenance, and believed that she had now achieved half of the success described in the poem written by Master of Writing Bai. Though there was no ‘music and songs’, she had a ‘courtyard’, and although there was no ‘pavilion’, there was ‘light’... When she reached this conclusion, Shen Shaoguang couldn’t help but chuckle. Alas, my sense of humor is truly out of the ordinary!
…
The one who had a real ‘pavilion’, but didn’t have much ‘music and songs’, was currently instructing his paternal grandmother’s servant women and maids who were preparing for night duty. The burning charcoal inside would inevitably desiccate the room of its moisture, so leave some warm water on the table. This way, the Elder Madam could also take a couple sips if she woke up. The maids all bowed and heeded his orders. After adding a few more pointers, Lin Yan left his grandmother's yard.
A servant woman closed the courtyard door behind him while a servant boy was holding a lamp in front of him. While making his way to his study, Lin Yan thought about the details of the capital city’s patrol arrangements for the New Year Day Grand Court Congregation[5].
The northern wind shook the withered branches in the courtyard, passed through the flower-carved railings in the piazza, and brushed across Lin Yan's somewhat stern face. It messed up the ties of his cloak, flipping the corners of his robe while harmonizing with the distant sound of drum and the footsteps of the master servant pair. The footsteps of a master and a servant, echoing in the cold and desolate winter night.
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Footnotes:
[1] May Zaojun enter the gates of heaven with adequate food and wine; shortened or excess do not mind; business profits in exchange would be sublime - This is adapted from '祭灶词' or roughly translated to Kitchen God Worshiping Poem by Fan Chengda. Fan Chengda was one of the best-known Chinese poets of the Song Dynasty, he served as a government official, and was an academic authority in geography, especially the southern provinces of China. There's no official translation and the wording was so confusing, I really tried my best. If anyone has a better translation, please let me know in the comments.
[2] The music and songs have come to a halt, returning the courtyard to its previous peace; the lights on the pavilion soon follow to be extinguished (笙歌歸院落，燈火下樓臺) - Another poem by our good ol'poet Bai Juyi. His courtesy name was Letian, hence the later paragraph. Poem’s title is ‘Banquet's End (宴散)’. I searched the whole web, but couldn't find a translation to the poem, but you can check out a number of his (translated) poems here- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Bai_Juyi
[3] Yan Shu believed that this was ‘a well expressed lifestyle of the wealthy nobles (善言富贵者也)’ - Yan Shu (晏殊; 991-1055) a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, poet, and politician of the Song dynasty. This is from a written record titled ‘Guitianlu (歸田錄 / 归田录)’, or otherwise known as 'Records after my retirement to the fields', a brush notes-style (biji 筆記) essay written by the Northern Song period (960-1126) scholar Ouyang Xiu (歐陽修). The whole paragraph was part of one of the short stories written in the Guitianlu.
Source: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Novels/guitianlu.html’
[4] ‘The gold by my waist grows heavier with age, as does my jade pillow, growing increasing colder (老觉腰金重，慵便枕玉凉)’ - A quote by Kou Zhun (c. 961-1023), courtesy name Pingzhong, who was a much-praised official of China's Northern Song dynasty. He was the chancellor from 1004 to 1006 during Emperor Zhenzong's reign. To explain, during the Song Dynasty, officials were made to wear gold tablets on their waist, and the higher ranking you are, the heavier this gold is. The reason why it's considered vulgar is because he’s making blatant mention of his wealth and status, basically how modern people wear Gucci or Chanel with conspicuous labels, obviously trying to show off.
[5] New Year Day Grand Court Congregation (元正大朝会 or 大朝会) is held at the beginning of each year. It is a morning court ritual with the highest etiquette that began in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which was then inherited by all dynasties from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Grand Court Congregation was where the Emperor makes his presence in front of hundreds of officials and various diplomates and exchanges new year wishes (as well as gifting tributes to the Emperor).
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Food:
(Malt) sugar melons - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dHN-DvO3jk
