The Story of 033 Cultural Kitchen

  Fang Xian was uninterested in most things in this world, except for food. At this moment, he was full of curiosity and wondered if the old man had exaggerated about Suzhou cuisine.

  Two people walked into the inn and sat down at a table.

  The young waiter's attire was very standard, he took off the towel from his shoulder and quickly wiped the table.

  "What can I get for you two gentlemen?"

  At this moment, Fang Xian was at a loss. He had long been accustomed to ordering food by menu, and it would be best if there were some pictures on the menu. Now in a guest house in Southern Song Dynasty Suzhou, he really didn't know what dishes to order.

  Fang Xian looked at Zhao Ling'er, hoping for help.

  However, Zhao Ling'er's face was thoroughly bewildered. Her understanding of this place was not much more than her understanding of the real world. This little girl had been cooped up in Shuǐ Yuè Gōng all day long, and apart from those few vegetarian dishes, her memory of delicious food was a complete blank.

  No choice, just ask if you don't understand.

  "Waiter, what good dishes does your restaurant recommend?"

  The shopkeeper asked patiently: "Do you want to eat snacks or main dishes, desserts or tea, meat or vegetarian..."

  "Whatever...". Fang Xian shook his head, pulled out a few dozen coins and slapped them on the table. "Pick some local specialties that you're good at, bring them up, and come with two more jugs of good wine, thank you."

  "Goodbye!"

  The young waiter was overjoyed and hastily put away the silver, then ran towards the back kitchen.

  "Does he seem to be speaking in Beijing dialect?" Fang Xian asked Zhao Ling'er, looking puzzled.

  Ling'er was very calm: "Didn't you notice? Everyone here is from Beijing, and I am too."

  The young waiter was quite considerate and basically brought all their signature dishes.

  Suzhou cuisine is one of the eight major culinary traditions in China, belonging to the "Southern Sweet" flavor category. He originally didn't like this flavor style, thinking it was too greasy, and by comparison, he could more easily accept the spicy Sichuan cuisine.

  The sweetness here is uniquely sweet, elegantly sweet. It's better to say that the natural seasonings are impressive rather than the chef's skills.

  Braised duck, lion's head, squirrel mandarin fish, green shrimp and so on, seven or eight dishes, each with its own flavor. At the time of Shuiyue Temple, Fang Xian only tasted the ingredients here, and the cooking degree was basically zero. In this magical little inn, Fang Xian finally appreciated the profoundness of our country's traditional culinary art.

  Good dishes must be paired with good wine, but they just drink happily without knowing what kind of wine they are drinking.

  This wine seems to have a floral scent, with a slightly sweet taste, not the kind of sweetness that is adjusted, but rather like the nectar in flower buds. The aftertaste is rich and comfortable in the mouth, even leaving a lingering flavor after swallowing.

  At the same time, this meal once again subverted Ling'er's dietary views.

  "It's delicious!!" Ling'er chewed the lion's head like an ordinary meatball, her eating posture was extremely unrefined. "This is also a ball, how can it be so much more delicious than the ones in the spicy hot pot shop?"

  "This is a lion's head, not a meatball."

  "Isn't it just a bigger meatball?"

  "Alright, I think so too." Fang Xian savored the small wine, feeling that this moment and scene were also quite comfortable. The old man wasn't playing games, he was living life. What the old master said was indeed correct, a sparrow may be small, but it has all its internal organs, no matter how big or small Suzhou city is, restoring its flavors makes it a good city.

  In half an hour, the two of them had cleaned up all the dishes on the table, and the two jugs of wine had also been drained.

  "Waiter!" Fang Xian called out to summon the waiter over.

  The little servant ran over with a smile, gazing at the empty plate in dismay.

  "Sir... Your two dishes..."

  "Don't worry, we're full." Fang Xian rubbed his belly and asked, "What's the name of this wine? It tastes great."

  "Haha, sir, you have a good eye for this wine. This is the famous Osmanthus wine! It's not from around here, I'm not even sure where it came from. In my Song Dynasty, there was a poetess named Li Qingzhao, do you know her?"

  "Huh, I actually know! Is it the Osmanthus wine she invented?"

  "No, no, she just wrote a poem about Osmanthus wine, listen carefully, sir..."

  Xiao Er said, and with a flick of his body, he transformed from a 2B youth into a literary youth.

  "Faint light yellow body soft and delicate, sparse emotions distant only fragrance remains."

  "Why need shallow blue and deep red colors? It is naturally the best among flowers. Plum blossoms are jealous, chrysanthemums should be ashamed, the painted railing opens to crown the autumn."

  "A flirtatious person can be ruthless without emotional thoughts, what happened back then that it didn't end?"

  Fang Xian remained silent for a long time.

  "I don't understand."

  "You must be joking, even little kids in Suzhou can recite this poem."

  Fang Xian asked again: "Is this phrase referring to this wine? I don't feel it at all."

  "Not talking about Osmanthus wine, but talking about Osmanthus."

  Fang Xian was stunned again. As expected, people from the Song Dynasty were cultured. Even a small shopkeeper had such attainments. He felt that he had lost face for the 21st century Chinese people.

  "By the way, I have a favor to ask." Fang Xian got up and leaned in close to Xiao Er's ear, "Can you take me to meet your chef?"

  "This...the chef is very busy..."

  The old bridge was settled, Fang Xian knew how to handle it, and he stuffed some small change into Xiao Er's pocket, everything was taken care of.

  The little waiter put away the change and made sure the boss wasn't looking this way before pulling Xiang Ye to the kitchen, saying in a hushed tone: "Sir, please speak quickly."

  "Of course, I'm in a hurry." Fang Xian reminded Ling'er as he was about to leave, "Sit still and don't move around."

  When I arrived at the back kitchen, I saw a big fat middle-aged man looking up at the ceiling with a 45° angle, smiling slightly. His face was unremarkable except for being fat, his skull was smooth and shiny, not a single hair on it, even his eyebrows were very faint, looking somewhat comical.

  Didn't you say he was busy?

  "He's very busy, because there's a 'busy' character in his name." After Xia Er smiled wryly, he pointed to the cook and said, "This is the head chef - Fang Mang. You two chat quickly, don't let the boss find out."

  "Dad and mom, how did they come up with this name... it's really annoying..." Fang Xian muttered as he walked to Fang Mang's side, waving his hand, "Can we talk?"

  Only then did Fang busy himself with a sigh——

  "In Peach Blossom Valley, peach blossoms smile; in Humble Administrator's Garden, azaleas are lovely."

  "As if drifting in a paradise, at the third watch of the night, I dreamt of returning to Jiangnan afar."

  Listening to this ups and downs of words, Fang Xian only felt that his more than a decade of learning was all in vain.

  "What's the matter, young master?" The big chef continued to gaze at the ceiling, with an air of superiority, as a white and chubby person, he didn't have any of the cuteness that white and chubby people usually had, perhaps it was because he was a cultured person.

  Fang Xian couldn't help but immerse himself in the cultural atmosphere: "Please enlighten me, Brother Fang, with two questions, and I humbly await your teachings."

  The great chef smiled and waved his arm: "It's not worth teaching, but it doesn't matter if I say it."

  "Where are you from?"

  "...the great chef thought he was going to talk about poetry, but unexpectedly this brother is so crude. However, when someone asks a question, they still have to answer. 'Fang was born in Sichuan, traveled to Hunan and Guangdong during his youth, later drifted to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region, and a year ago had the good fortune to enter the Lin'an Imperial Palace as a chef. Unfortunately, he committed a great mistake, was demoted from the palace, and had no choice but to humble himself in a small shop in Suzhou.'"

  "Brother, speak slowly, I'm slow-witted."

  The chef said it again.

  After some careful consideration, it seems that this is a high-ranking person who is well-versed in Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine and more. He has even served as an imperial chef, and if he were to be placed in modern times, he would easily become the head chef of any restaurant.

  "Brother Fang is being humble enough, so I'll ask my second question now."

  "Please."

  "What have you done wrong in the palace?"

  "Can't we just skip this episode?"

  "It's a secret."

  "Ugh..." The head chef looked disheartened, "There was a time when the Emperor and many nobles had an intimate dinner, asking me to make a fresh exotic dish, the fresher the better, the stranger the better. I made one... Can we not talk about this anymore?"

  "It's come to this, let's just get it over with."

  "Alright, so I made them a dish - deep-fried cockroaches."

  "Hmm..." Fang Xian felt that it wasn't necessarily a good thing for a cook to know too much. After a brief moment of contemplation, he asked, "How big is the water cockroach?"

  The cook drew an ellipse about the size of a bowl.

  "What's with this size... who dares to eat it? They won't eat it anyway, why bother offending you?"

  "You don't know, I've improved the water bugs. Our country's dishes emphasize color, fragrance and flavor all together. So after frying the bugs, I processed them by removing their heads, tails and legs, then dyed and seasoned them with mustard sauce, and paired them with some radish flowers."

  "What's next?"

  "Then they all ate it up, even licking the soup, saying it was delicious. They asked me what I made it with, and after I told them the truth, I got beaten up and thrown out."

  "Alas... they don't understand, cockroach protein is rich." Fang Xian patted Fang Mang's shoulder, "Brother Fang, I've understood your situation. Let's part ways for now, we'll meet again someday."

  With that, Fang Xian strode away.

  Too busy to understand, just think this person is sick, idle and has nothing to do, running here to bother me, don't know how busy I am.