Miao Chu

Chapter 248 Come to the door
While Madam He was beaming with pride, just a screen away, Zhu Jie was also earnestly "selling her wares."

"Look! This is called a 'straw raincoat cucumber,' it's so much fun!!"

No child could resist the sweet and sour flavor of the sweet and sour pork, and it was all snatched up in no time. But when they saw the cucumber salad, without even needing Sister Zhu'er's introduction, their eyes widened in delight.

The cucumbers, arranged in a staggered pattern, are stretched out and coiled into concentric circles, with a large base and a small top, resembling a round pagoda. When they are on the plate, they are somewhat shrunken, making them appear only as a beautiful green color. When you pick them up with chopsticks from the top, the slices immediately separate, yet they remain connected at the uncut edges.

The cucumber rind is emerald green, and the flesh is a light bluish-white. It can be easily stretched out in one long strip, which is quite interesting.

"It looks like a nine-linked ring!"

"What nine-ring puzzle? This is clearly a bouncy ring!"

What is a bouncy ball?

“It’s just a long circle! Oh dear, you’ve never played with one before? My dad brought me a lot back when he went to Lintao. I’ll give you one next time!” Zhu Jie’er patted her chest eagerly.

"Is she the only one who has it? Why don't I have it?"

"Yes, yes, I haven't had a chance to say it yet!"

"Oh, we can talk about the circles later. Let me play with this cucumber, let me play with it!"

Having already received instructions from Song Miao, the maid who had taken out scissors to cut the cucumbers in the raincoat into sections had to step aside.

A group of children surrounded the cucumbers wrapped in straw raincoats, and they even knew to use serving chopsticks. One chopstick for you, one chopstick for me, you pull on mine, I tug on yours.

He said, "Hey, don't cut it off from my end! This is only a short section here!"

The other one said, "Let's all pull together and use our chopsticks to pull. Whoever pulls the most when the cucumber breaks can eat the most!"

Cucumbers are a common ingredient. Although Song Miao's sauce was well-prepared and the pickling time was just right, it was just a delicious cold cucumber salad. However, because of its unique presentation, a group of enthusiastic children, who had plenty of time, had a great time playing here, and even the other main dishes had to take a backseat.

The He family's kitchen was naturally outstanding. A table full of dishes, including stir-frying, braising, stewing, and long-simmered soups, made with expensive ingredients. But everyone present was from a wealthy family and had seen it all before.

After finishing the meal, everyone would naturally praise the taste. But if you ask ten people about the most memorable dish, they would all say it was the novel chilled sweet and sour pork, and the perilla cucumber dish that followed – this dish is perfect for the elderly to eat with rice, combining simplicity, freshness and richness in one.

But if you ask a child, it's much harder to choose.

Iced sweet and sour pork is of course the best, but the cucumber slices with their crisp, shredded texture are the most fun!

Sigh, even being a child has its share of troubles—how do you choose?!
In the afternoon, after admiring the lotus flowers, we went to the old garden of the He family next door to see the blooming magnolias. Everyone had a white magnolia in their gray hair. We strolled around for half a day and finally returned to Qingfeng Garden. When we were half hungry, the glutinous rice cakes were served along with the drinks.

The room was filled with elderly ladies who ate and sighed.

"It's so soft and smooth, I wonder how it was made!"

"This is good, it reminds me of the food I ate when I was a kid!"

"Hey, you know what, it's true!"

"That's the taste! It's just like glutinous rice balls!"

So a group of people started telling stories.

Some people recounted how they used to celebrate the Lunar New Year and the Lantern Festival, how they would sneak away from the maids and nannies to the kitchen to watch people make glutinous rice cakes and New Year's cakes, and how they would deliberately ask for some of the carefully prepared treats instead of eating them, and how a group of girlfriends would gather around the stove to roast and eat them, eventually resulting in indigestion...

Immediately, someone started recounting a childhood story—on a cold winter day, unable to get out of bed, they used the excuse of a headache from the wind to ask their tutor for leave. They stayed in bed, and the porridge brought by their nanny wasn't enough to satisfy their hunger. A kind maid brought them rice cakes, which they baked in a hand warmer and secretly ate wrapped with candied fruit.

Another person said that when he returned to his hometown to visit relatives many years ago, it was a cold and rainy day. As soon as he entered the door, his mother asked someone to bring him a bowl of hot brown sugar and ginger-cooked white glutinous rice cakes. The rice cakes were fragrant, sweet, and warm, and they were also soft and delicate. No matter how he cooked them or where he ate them afterward, they never tasted the same.

As they talked, they returned to the topic of mochi itself.

"I remember the food used to be harder and stickier, so it was supposed to be a bit harder to choke on!"

"Yes, yes! It also needs to be glued to the teeth. Without it, it's not quite right..."

"Your food is sticky, but the ones I ate back then weren't sticky!"

Madam He watched them discuss back and forth with a smile, then interjected, asking, "Is the cook still here? Shall I ask her to make something sticky and hard?"

Everyone immediately objected. Even the person who had just said that it should be stickier, harder, and more choking would shake his head vigorously—forget it, these loose teeth are just not good enough for me right now!

If things go wrong, the tooth might get glued off, which would be a real problem!

"The glutinous rice smells so good! This is how mochi should taste! No matter how many people I ask make it, it never tastes like this." One person couldn't help but ask Madam He, "Do you have the recipe? Did your wife, Tian, ​​make it? If you can tell me, I'll give her a gift and copy the recipe so I can make it in my kitchen!"

“It wasn’t Xiao Tian who made it.” Old Madam He’s words still carried a hint of pride. “It was a young lady named Song. The chilled sweet and sour pork, perilla cucumber, and this glutinous rice cake on the table today are all her handiwork—this young lady is so young, yet she has already opened her own large restaurant!”

"Luckily I had a keen eye and spotted it early on, otherwise where would you have gotten this bite to eat? And you're still here reminiscing about the past!"

—Ignoring the fact that there were only two tables in Song Miao's restaurant and no menu, they had already promoted it for her.

Hearing that it was made in an outside restaurant, everyone felt it was even simpler.

Doing business is great!

Who's short of a few bucks? Just come and buy it when you want to eat it; it's a quick and easy transaction.

On the contrary, if it is made by relatives and friends, it is a bit difficult to ask for the recipe. It is not appropriate to keep going to their homes to ask for it. They may not have it readily available at that time. Although it is only a matter of asking someone to do it, it is not appropriate to keep going to their homes.
Favors are always more valuable than money, and they're also inconvenient to repay.

Someone immediately asked, "Which restaurant is it?"

Madam He had only wanted to help Song Miao, an orphan, and Cheng Erniang, a widow with a daughter and a young boy. When she heard someone asking, she said, "I won't be a middleman, passing the word around. I'll invite them over myself!"

Soon, Song Miao entered the room.

A chair was brought over, and she didn't refuse. She thanked them, bowed to the group of old ladies, and then sat down.

As she was questioned by the crowd, she answered them one by one, only saying that her family lived at the end of Suanzao Lane near Zhuque Gate, and that they owned a small eatery called Song Ji Eatery. It was currently small, serving only private tables, students, government officials, and some local acquaintances. When asked about mochi, she briefly repeated what she had told Old Madam He that day.

"I used a thick gauze to hold the rice in place and rubbed it by hand. Ladies, you can ask your cooks at home to try it too. When choosing glutinous rice, it's not about choosing the most expensive kind. The best choice is the right variety. Look at the texture of the glutinous rice and wash and soak it once. Rub it immediately after steaming and don't let it sit for too long."

"The most important thing about glutinous rice is freshness. It should be kneaded as soon as it comes out of the pot and eaten immediately. Don't wait for it to cool down..."

After talking about mochi, they moved on to rice cake.

She started by explaining everything from the selection of rice varieties and planting locations, to the amount of germ to be ground after hulling glutinous rice and paddy rice, the methods of grain storage, and then to what kind of water to use for soaking in winter and summer, how long to soak, and why she did it this way.

After discussing the selection of rice, they went on to talk about soaking the rice and cooking it, each step requiring meticulous attention.

Even the hammer used to make rice cakes has a story behind it.

“I usually use a stone hammer, but it would be best to have a jade hammer. Some people are used to using iron hammers, which is not impossible, but I don’t like to use them at home—I always feel that there is a metallic smell that affects the aroma of the rice.”

"If you use a wooden or bamboo mallet, the smell of wood or bamboo tends to get mixed in, and fine particles may fall in as well. Besides, bamboo and wood, no matter how clean they are, will absorb odors unless you only use them once..."

Song Miao never spoke in a hurried or slow manner.

She talked about the ingredients, the utensils, and the special points to pay attention to in the cooking process. She talked in a very interesting way. Even though the content was very small and trivial, the feeling it gave people was completely different when expressed in different words.

The words that came out of her mouth were so compelling that you wanted to keep listening, so convincing. Yet there was no trace of artifice or pretension in her speech.

The group of elderly ladies were all shrewd and experienced, having seen many things and met many people, but almost all of them had a very good impression of this cook.

When she talked about the ingredients and the preparation, her eyes sparkled, her tone was cheerful and light, and she had a genuine smile on her face.

Even before tasting her rice cakes, just listening to her talk and watching her make you happy, and you feel that the finished product must be delicious.

No one interrupted; instead, whenever Song Miao finished speaking, people kept asking questions, wanting to hear more details.

After hearing this, an elderly lady couldn't help but exclaim, "Young lady, your cooking is so meticulous!"

Song Miao, however, did not take credit for it. She replied, "Thank you for your praise, Madam. But many chefs are very meticulous in their cooking. It's just that they don't have the opportunity to introduce themselves to you all. I am fortunate to be able to stand in front of you all and talk so much about this thanks to these glutinous rice cakes. Everyone else has their own skills and intricacies, but it's a pity that they can't stand out!"

"That's still different."

"It's still not quite the same."

Several people in the room spoke up simultaneously.

At first, everyone thought they should just copy the recipe from their own kitchens. But after listening to the young lady's detailed explanation, almost everyone—not just the old ladies, but even the servants standing by—wanted to find an opportunity to try making the glutinous rice cakes and rice cakes made by this young lady, to see if they were any different from those made by others, and if so, how different they were.

Song Miao laughed and said, "If there's anything different, it's only one thing—I genuinely love to eat—I believe I love it more than many other chefs!"

Suddenly, the whole room burst into laughter.

After they finished laughing, an old lady asked, "If I want to buy your mochi, how can I do it? Can I have someone come and order it?"

"It's hot right now, and mochi will easily go bad if left out for a while - rice and glutinous rice dishes especially like to turn sour. It's best to make them for delivery by late autumn, when winter is just around the corner, but that's when we can only deliver rice cakes."

"If any old lady wants to eat mochi, I can either come to your door to make it, or you can come to my restaurant when you have time. Otherwise, whether you send someone to the restaurant to buy it or I deliver it to your door, it will lose its flavor."

"I just boasted so much, if I were to serve the old ladies a mediocre meal, I would be too ashamed."

Song Miao smiled and said, "To be honest, besides the sweet and sour pork, cucumber, and glutinous rice cakes we ate today, as well as the rice cakes I just mentioned, I have many other dishes that I feel I am quite good at making, and I would like to invite the guests to try them as well!"

Suanzao Lane isn't exactly remote, but it's outside the inner gate. And with the weather being hot right now, and the whole house filled with elderly people, they naturally don't want to go that far.

But soon someone came up with a workaround.

"Autumn will be here in a month or so. I have a garden with lots of chrysanthemums. I'll invite you to a banquet then, with the same people as today, to come to my mansion to admire the flowers. I'll also ask Miss Song to cook a few dishes, just like today. I look forward to seeing your signature dishes!"

He Qi, who had been quietly standing to the side, suddenly said upon hearing this, "It's rare for all the ladies to gather here and visit my garden. It's just a pity that we don't have any produce right now, only a few flowers to offer. When the weather gets cooler, I'll ask Miss Song to make some New Year's cakes and send them to your homes. Is that alright?"

When He Qi offered to give them some rice cakes, everyone smiled and agreed.

He then said to Song Miao, "I'll have Bei Zhi write down the locations of each family's residences, and then I'll give them to Miss Song."

With just a simple sentence, the house of the eight or nine old ladies inside was openly and legitimately handed over to Song Miao.

Song Miao immediately agreed and thanked them. However, there were too many people in the room, so she kept quiet for the time being, though she was truly moved.

This Mr. He is truly kind-hearted.

Although everyone listened with great interest and said they wanted to buy Song Ji's rice cakes and glutinous rice balls, they were in high spirits at the moment, so they were naturally very happy. But as time goes by, they may very well forget about these things.

The elderly ladies present came from different social classes, and strangers rarely had a chance to enter. Most of them would be turned away at the gatehouse. Now that Young Master He had stepped forward, they could use the He family's name to get in—once they had opened the door, whether Song's food could gain a foothold inside would depend entirely on their own skills!
***
Early in the morning, Song Miao carried a large flatbread, along with only a gourd of vinegar and a gourd of soy sauce. After admiring the lotus pond and cooking a few dishes, she returned home with an extra basket—containing about ten lotus buds, a few lotus leaves, and a late-blooming white magnolia wrapped in a lotus leaf.

In addition, I received a banquet order for next month, and also got the home address of the old ladies—indeed, they are all rich and noble.

Song Miao returned home laden with her purchases and headed towards Suanzao Lane. Just two streets away, a young couple had just emerged from Guangji Temple.

"How about we deliver some snacks and fruits to your door?"

"Everything in the capital is really expensive. Even apples cost seven or eight coins a pound. I asked about summer pears on my way back, and they're sold by the piece. I don't know where those pears come from. They don't look very big, but they cost three coins each. Why don't they just rob people!"

"Don't worry, we're all making money! Although it took a few more days, it wasn't for nothing. I've already found a job, and I can start working at the docks tomorrow. Didn't you ask the laundry? They say you can get three coins for washing a set of clothes!"

"Those clothes are harder to wash than before, and it's quite a hassle. Sigh, it's not easy to earn money in the capital!"

　Thank you so much to Mikewei and Arturo for the sachets you each gave me, and to Arturo for the amulet! :)

　　Thank you to the bookstore for occasionally relaxing and sending me these two little gifts =3=
　　(End of this chapter)