Miao Chu

Chapter 183 Freeloading
Han Li, carrying a lantern, naturally walked to the right front.

But after taking only two steps, he stopped and turned back to wait. Seeing that Song Miao had caught up and was almost side by side with him, he continued forward.

He extended the lantern further to the left to better illuminate the way, and began discussing the arrangements for the next day.

"Tomorrow is our first day of work, and breakfast time is tight. If we don't have time, please let us know. Everything can be discussed. We can move the mealtime back by half an hour, or try to bring some food from the city. We won't worry about not being able to make ends meet."

"This is also my first time handling such a large-scale event. In fact, Weizhou has recruited more than 800 people, but firstly, the ship capacity is insufficient, and secondly, we are afraid that if we suddenly start, there will be too many people and we will not be able to control them. Therefore, we have specially scheduled the people to come in batches."

“Kong Fuyang came to me early this morning and said that he was afraid that no one had experience with this kind of thing, and he himself had not experienced it either. He wanted to ask a few experienced people to help keep an eye on things. I asked a few stewards from the Zhang family in Weizhou to give me some pointers. I also asked them to divide the gathering time of the people into batches. In short, as long as we get through this day smoothly, it will be fine. We can summarize the mistakes and correct them later.”

"If it's like this in the front, then it'll be the same in your kitchen in the back."

Although not explicitly stated, the implication was clear: "Look, I'm using the same tricks, and everyone else is using the same tricks, so don't push yourself too hard."

Song Miao readily agreed, saying, "Don't worry, young master. If we can't make it in time, I won't force myself. Otherwise, I might make a mistake in the rush, which would be worse."

He added, “I asked around today, and since it’s the first day, everyone is very excited and eager to perform. Let’s make some estimates first.”

The two discussed their plan all the way.

The front hall and back courtyard of the official post station were not far apart. At first, Han Li was half a step ahead, but as they walked, they became side by side. Later, however, he slowed down and inquired in detail about any shortages of manpower and resources.

Seeing that it was getting late, although I still had a lot to say, I knew I would be busy tomorrow, so I didn't dare to keep the person too long and honestly saw them to the door.

As he was about to take his leave, he suddenly said, "Although the food for over a thousand people is divided into two batches, breakfast and lunch, there are only twenty or thirty of you. It will inevitably be hard work. If you are too busy to prepare the additional dishes that evening, then don't bother."

He added, "Whether it's soup or vegetables, Kong Fuyang is just greedy. You don't need to pay attention to him. When you return to the capital, just give him something to shut him up."

He had said this before, so Song Miao naturally accepted his kind offer.

She thanked him and went inside. Just as she was about to touch the tinderbox, a light suddenly appeared in front of her. It turned out that Han Liren was outside the door, holding the lantern up high to illuminate the room for her.

Song Miao lit the lamp, turned around and went out. She saw him off a few steps, and when she stopped, she saw him turn around and look at her. She couldn't help but smile and suddenly said, "Young Master Han only said that we don't need to pay attention to Young Master Kong. What about yourself?"

Han Li was taken aback.

Song Miao added, "If I'm too busy, that's fine, but if you have the time, would you like to eat some yourself?"

Han Li opened his mouth to speak, but for some reason, he hesitated.

Song Miao didn't wait for his reply. She just smiled, nodded, turned around, went back into the house, and closed the door.

Han Li stood rooted to the spot, feeling as if the slow thud of the door closing had gently struck his heart.

***
The next morning, before dawn, Song Miao had already gotten up.

After quickly washing up, she stepped out of the front hall and heard a low commotion in the front yard. When she opened the door, she saw that not only had several mule carts arrived, but also many women and aunts.

Lanterns were hung outside the official post station. When the crowd saw Song Miao come out, they hurried forward to greet her, chattering excitedly.

The man said, "My lady, our group is all here! We can leave immediately."

The man said, "Wife, we're all here now, except one of us just went inside to borrow a toilet. He'll be out in a bit and can leave right away!"

Some people were anxious because their own groups weren't all there. They hurriedly sent people to the street corner to check, urging, "Oh dear, those Liao sisters, they used to be so reliable, why aren't they here yet! We'll have to give them a good talking to later! They're just holding us back!"

Seeing everyone's reaction, Song Miao smiled and said, "There's still a little while before the appointed time. No rush, let's go inside and sit for a while."

Then the big pancake came out from behind.

Song Miao was somewhat surprised to see him and said, "Weren't you scheduled to stay at the post station this morning to meet up with the new people that Aunt Ma and the others brought? Why are you up so early?"

Dabing tugged at his sleeves, straightened his back, and said earnestly, "Today is the first day our construction site kitchen starts work. Although I have a different job, I still have to come and see my wife off. Otherwise, I'll be tossing and turning in bed and won't be able to sleep!"

Sure enough, once everyone was there, he took the initiative to run around, helping to confirm the number of people and distribute the mule carts. Despite his young age, he had already done a great deal of work.

When the mule cart finally set off, he was still standing at the door, leaning against the wall, waving goodbye with a look of reluctance.

The people on the mule cart, however, showed no sign of his sorrow at parting.

Although it was early, everyone had walked all the way to the official post station and was already fully awake. It was indeed their first day on the job, and they had never cooked for so many people before. No one was sure of what to do. Sitting on the mule cart, they were all discussing how to move faster.

The group set off very early, and when they arrived at their destination, it was only just beginning to get light—noon.

Several cars were already waiting at the entrance; it was the purchasing team who had brought the delivery personnel.

The people in charge of counting and checking were Aunt Xia and two other women. The three of them immediately jumped out of the car and went over to check.

The rest of the people went straight to the kitchen.

The kitchen was large, and as Song Miao had requested, it had four doors: front, middle, back, and side, each with a lock.

The lock is a triple lock, and three people each had a key yesterday. Now they all went up to open the door.

As soon as the door opened, everyone went about their assigned tasks according to the pre-arranged plan. Some went to check the water tank, while others went to inspect the stove, pots, knives, tables, and other places. Some even went outside to fetch firewood.

They had all worked in the laundry, and were of similar age. Apart from Zhang Si Niang, almost all of them had elderly parents and young children to support. They had done everything around the house, and were especially adept at managing the kitchen.

Seeing that everyone in the room was very skilled, Song Miao felt a little relieved.

She had already planned out the menu for today. After everyone had checked everything and reported back, she assigned tasks according to the groups. This time, it was a communal meal, with breakfast and lunch served separately, but each meal was for about six hundred people, which was quite different from the previous meal at the Kyoto government office.

The Kyoto Prefectural Government's kitchen catered to officials, had ample funding, and its requirements for food were a balanced mix of meat and vegetables, with as many flavors as possible.

This time, the target audience is the laborers who always have to do physical labor. Costs must be reduced as much as possible, and taste is not so important. The most important thing is to make sure people are full.

Song Miao knew that when a person sweats a lot and expends a lot of energy, the food should be as salty, oily, and flavorful as possible.

Due to cost constraints, it's impossible to produce a large quantity of meat; we'll have to find other ways to increase our meat production.

This morning was her first attempt. She made sauerkraut and pork steamed buns and cabbage steamed buns as planned, intending to serve them with soy milk. However, she did not expect that in just two days, Young Master Han would summon so many people from Weizhou, which made her original plan impossible.

It is said that there are three hardships in the world: rowing a boat, blacksmithing, and selling tofu.

Although there are three large stone mills and mules here, Song Miao is still a little unsure about making enough soy milk for 600 people in one go in the middle of the morning, and she is afraid that she will not have enough time.

However, the beans were soaked before I left yesterday. Besides soybeans, there were also black beans and other small beans. After half a day, they have become plump and round. Although they are no longer suitable for making soy milk, they can still be used to make something to go with steamed buns – thick bean porridge.

Beans are filling, and if you add other inexpensive grains, they'll all bloom when cooked. You don't need any extra sugar or salt for seasoning. It's simple and easy to make; just stir it occasionally to prevent it from burning.

Once the decision was made, she assigned tasks to each group, letting them do their own thing simultaneously: kneading dough, chopping meat, washing vegetables, starting a fire, and cooking porridge.

With only about 20 kilograms of meat for 600 people, each person received almost just a small amount. So, aside from reserving some for rendering fat, she simply chopped all the meat into extremely fine minced meat and mixed it into the filling before wrapping it up.

As long as the meat is chopped finely enough and the filling is mixed evenly enough, it can make people wonder while eating it – there should be meat in it, right? Did I just eat a meat star?
After the sauerkraut is washed, chopped, and squeezed dry, stir-fry it in a dry pan without oil. Wash the cabbage, blanch it, chop it, and squeeze it dry. Also, squeeze and chop a small amount of shiitake mushrooms.

The minced pork was chopped and half of it was stir-fried to render the oil and enhance the aroma. Additionally, the chopped shiitake mushrooms were stir-fried in the remaining lard in the pan with some rapeseed oil beforehand. These were used to season the raw and cooked fillings.

With too much filling, Song Miao calculated the proportions and weighed out the corresponding amount of salt and other seasonings.

By the time the seasoning was ready, the dough had risen to about 70-80%.

After everyone had their portions divided, except for those who were cooking porridge and tending the fire, the rest of them washed their hands and gathered around to wrap steamed buns.

Huazhou is located in the Central Plains, and people eat mostly wheat-based foods. Every household knows how to make steamed buns, but the methods of making them vary.

Song Miao prepared more than ten deep-bottomed round spoons, so that everyone could put a spoonful of filling in each bun, just spread it evenly, not too much or too little, to ensure that the size of the buns and the amount of filling were uniform.

As for the wrapping method, she chose the most common one and made a sample so that everyone could try to follow it, so as to avoid arguments arising from differences in the shapes people made, such as one person thinking their steamed bun was bigger or another thinking theirs had more filling.

Steamed buns are sold per person, two per person, one with sauerkraut filling and one with cabbage filling.

Both the filling and the dough were prepared in precise quantities, and they were used up just enough to wrap everything.

The two rows of stoves burned for a while, and the pots were filled with water. The steam was just right, so one large steamer after another was placed on them. With about ten stoves, one pot of steamed buns was steamed at a time. Before long, the kitchen was filled with the aroma of steamed buns.

The cook, of course, gets to eat first.

The fire needed someone to watch over it, and the large pots of porridge also needed someone to watch over them, so Song Miao divided the people into two groups.

The first batch of steamed buns was already cooked. The steam was more abundant and hotter at the top, so the buns cooked faster. Therefore, the top basket of buns was taken down first, and a group of people left the kitchen and sat down to eat breakfast in the next room.

Zhang Si Niang was among the first batch to be assigned.

Hot, thick bean porridge, hot steamed buns.

It's called "thick bean porridge," but actually, millet and sorghum are the most abundant ingredients, while beans are relatively few. The porridge is indeed very thick, not the kind of thick porridge that comes from having plenty of ingredients, but rather the kind of thick porridge that comes from long cooking. There is a layer of rice oil floating on top, neither too thin nor too thick.

The rice oil has a fragrance, a blend of grains and beans, but within that fragrance is an indescribable, familiar taste.

After boasting for a while, Zhang Si Niang took a bite and found it to be the most ordinary and homely taste, with a hint of the poverty she was used to—the grains and beans had obviously been stored in the warehouse for quite some time, and such grains were three or four cents cheaper than newly harvested ones—it was the same kind of food she would eat when she got up in the morning as a child and lifted the lid of her own pot.

Compared to porridge, the steamed buns were much better.

Song Miao prepared the filling herself. Although she didn't have enough money and only had a small amount of meat, she used it all in the most outstanding part.

The cabbage buns contain only a few shiitake mushrooms, and the sauerkraut buns contain only a few bits of pork, but the oil used is fully utilized. Everything that needs to be stir-fried is stir-fried, and the seasoning is just right. When you eat them, they give you a taste that completely exceeds their price.

Even though I chopped the meat myself, made the steamed buns myself, and used old flour, the dough didn't have enough of a wheat flavor. But when I tasted it, the filling perfectly masked the taste of the old flour, especially the sauerkraut and pork filling, which was sour, salty, and fragrant with a hint of spiciness.

The saltiness was a bit stronger than usual, but not excessive. There was so little meat that you couldn't taste any meat juice, but thanks to the fragrant, charred minced meat mixed in, there was a very distinct meaty aroma. Even when Zhang Si Niang was eating her steamed bun, she didn't dare to take big bites and instead chewed slowly and carefully—for fear that she might accidentally swallow a piece of meat whole. It was so obvious that if she couldn't taste it, it would be such a waste!
The cooks took turns eating quickly, and then it was naturally the turn of those who had worked to eat.

A large cart, with a large stove on it, was burning to heat the food in the pot. They pushed it all the way to the "new river channel" that had just been marked and had not yet been dug.

By this time, it was already bright outside. The day before, each team had just finished giving instructions and assigning tasks, and breakfast had been delivered.

The order of meals was also decided well in advance.

The patrol team carried whistles and blew them along the way, telling everyone to bring their own bowls and chopsticks and line up for food.

Each person had a large ladle of thick bean porridge, a steamed bun with pickled cabbage and a steamed bun with cabbage. They brought their own bowls to hold the porridge, and each person had a chopstick stuck in it and a steamed bun on each side. The group of newly arrived strong men ate their breakfast standing or squatting by the empty "new river channel".

Breakfast was substantial. The porridge was cooked long enough, not just watery porridge where you could count the grains of rice. The steamed buns were especially delicious. First, the cabbage buns. The cabbage itself was sweet, and the shiitake mushrooms were stir-fried. Although they were finely chopped, they still had a thick, meaty texture when you bit into them. Every bite was bursting with vegetable juice. The filling of the whole bun was very juicy. For a construction site meal, I actually tasted something delicious.

As for the sauerkraut steamed buns, needless to say, they are sour enough and salty enough to go perfectly with porridge. They even have meat inside. If you happen to bite into one, it's crispy, fragrant, and juicy—such a delicious treat! Unfortunately, you're either squatting or standing, so you can't even shake your legs.

What a generous meal!
At this moment, looking at the so-called "river" in front of them, which was no different from an ordinary wilderness, everyone felt that they were just here to earn some money and make a decent living.

　Good evening! It seems there will be double monthly votes at the end of this month. If you have any votes for someone with the surname Song and you can keep them, feel free to vote for Xiao Miao at the end of the month~ If you can't keep them, you can vote for someone with the surname Song now. Thank you, fellow foodies!
　　(End of this chapter)