Miao Chu

Chapter 283 Dressing up
That night, Song Miao had no dreams.

Since the next day was the day Liu Hanlin was to re-book the chef, she handed over the food stall in the alley to Cheng Erniang and slept in late, which was a rare treat for her.

She slept very soundly, waking up once around 1:00 AM. Just as she was getting fully awake, she heard Cheng Erniang carefully washing up. Fortunately, she still half remembered that she didn't have to go out to sell her wares today. She squinted, lifted the bed curtain, and groped her way to check the water clock on the side. Estimating that it was still early, she quickly lay back down.

Gradually, people came and went in the courtyard, fetching water and washing vegetables. There were also soft voices and the sound of people doing things. It was familiar and reassuring, and Song Miao slept soundly.

When she woke up again, it was only dawn, and it was just past 7 a.m., so she felt relieved and went back to sleep.

I slept three times in one night. Although I couldn't sleep through the night, I felt a great sense of relief every time I woke up.

Since it was still early, she got up slowly and deliberately. When she was washing up, she saw the clean water in the copper basin and couldn't help but think of the conversation in the front hall yesterday. It was all water and mud. She paused for a moment and then lowered her head.

The water was like a mirror, reflecting people's faces very clearly—their eyebrows and eyes were slightly curved, and they were smiling.

Once you understand what the other person is thinking, you'll gradually realize that you also have your own thoughts. Those thoughts are subtle, yet they can evoke a unique feeling, as if the sky is a little bluer, the grass a little greener, and even the water tastes a little sweeter.

She looked at the water, thought for a moment, and then slowly tidied herself up.

As she stepped out of the front hall, Zhang Si Niang was already there, packing her things. Upon seeing Song Miao, she greeted her first, then asked somewhat awkwardly, "Madam, am I dressed too flamboyantly?"

Song Miao looked her up and down.

Zhang Si Niang wore a blue and white outfit that fit her perfectly. The sleeves were tied around her legs, and the cloth bag that wrapped her hair was rose pink with several small flowers embroidered on it, making it very bright. She carried a small cloth bag on her back, which was also embroidered with a few small flowers.

She exclaimed, "It's beautiful—it's gorgeous! What's so flashy about it?"

"I see everyone is dressed very plainly, and today is the first time we're cooking outside, so I'm afraid the colors will be too eye-catching..."

“Bright colors have their own appeal, and simple colors have their own appeal. Second Madam is too busy right now, but once she has some free time, she will probably buy more clothes. You don’t need to pay attention to others, just wear what you like—we don’t need to be so particular about those things in our restaurant right now.”

After Song Miao finished speaking, she took a step back, looked carefully at Zhang Si Niang's outfit, and smiled, "It really looks good. Who chose the headscarf? It makes your face shine!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Si Niang blushed, awkwardly touched the cloth on her head, and said, "San Lang chose it, saying it looked good on me. I thought he was just saying nice things to flatter me, but now that you're saying the same thing, it seems he does have some taste!"

He added, "I've noticed that in many reputable and large restaurants in the capital, the waiters and employees all wear the same clothes when they're working. My lady, when our restaurant opens in the future, should we do the same?"

Song Miao smiled and replied, "I have the same idea. I just mentioned it to Second Madam last time. But we need to wait until we're less busy. Then we can pick a day and go to the embroidery shop together to take a look and choose a dress that everyone likes. If you have any suitable embroidery shops or embroiderers, or if you have any styles you like, you can also give Second Madam your opinions."

As they were talking, the carriage that had come to fetch Liu Hanlin arrived at the door.

The two packed up their kitchen utensils and other items, counted them, got into the carriage, first went to the meat and vegetable stalls to make purchases, and then headed towards Xinzheng Gate.

After leaving the city and traveling another five or six miles, the carriage finally stopped in front of a garden.

Soon, a steward came out to greet them. Upon seeing Song Miao and Zhang Si Niang, he quickly called several servants to help move things around and flattered them, saying, "The master instructed us long ago that Miss Song's skills are excellent and told us to prepare well so as not to hinder her performance. If there is anything, just let us know."

Song Miao had no choice but to thank him, offering a few modest words before following him inside.

The garden was nestled against a mountain and beside a river. The mountain was a low hill, and the river was the Bian River. Because there were often torrential rains in front of the capital, some of the plants in the garden had even drowned. The flowers and trees looked withered, and the Bian River was muddy and yellow, which looked quite pitiful.

Song Miao's heart skipped a beat, and she asked, "I asked before, and they said there was water in the garden—I wonder where the water is used?"

The steward hurriedly said, "Don't worry, madam. It's spring water drawn down from the mountain. This spring water is very sweet. We borrowed this garden today precisely to fetch water for brewing tea. Otherwise, since there are no flowers or scenery here and it's far away, we wouldn't have made a special trip here."

Once we arrived at the destination, we had to first meet the customer.

As soon as Song Miao entered, Master Chen and Master Cao, along with two unfamiliar faces, stood in front of the table, admiring a piece of calligraphy. Beside them was the plump old man, Liu Hanlin.

Upon seeing Song Miao, they stopped looking at the names Chen and Cao and came out of their desks to greet her.

One of them said, "Little Song is here!"

One of them said, "You've finally arrived! If Old Liu hadn't said he'd invited you to be the head chef, I wouldn't have bothered coming—is there any fatty char siu to eat today?"

Liu Hanlin was already stuck at the very back, and because his legs were shorter, he was a little slower. Seeing that things were not going well, he hurriedly caught up. He was nodding to Song Miao when he heard the two talking and laughed and scolded, "You mouth! Old Cao, instead of learning from the virtuous, you want more! That's enough!"

He added, "I know you like that black char siu, I like it too! I already told my young lady about it!"

Song Miao greeted everyone with a smile, and then went to ask them about their dietary restrictions.

This time, several unfamiliar faces had dietary restrictions. Some couldn't eat Sichuan peppercorns, some didn't eat poultry like chicken, duck, or goose with protruding beaks, and others didn't eat cilantro or chives.

After Song Miao finished asking around and made a note of each question, Liu Hanlin pointed out the window and said, "There are two more people fishing over there..."

He walked to the window and said through it, "Gentlemen, if you don't have the fate of Jiang Taigong, don't try to catch his disease—stop fishing, you don't have any dietary restrictions, do you?"

Before he finished speaking, the two fishermen turned around at the same time and glared at him angrily.

"What's all the noise about! The fish are about to escape!"

"That one was about to bite, I was even starting to move it, but your unnecessary shout scared it away!"

"That's right! I saw the fish ring just now! It's all your fault!"

The two complained for a while until they saw Song Miao come up and, seeing that she was a young woman, they finally shut up.

One of them said he had no dietary restrictions, while the other, with a headscarf covering his head and a few sparse white hairs and a thinning white beard, clearly looked quite old. He replied, "Young lady, just do as you see fit. I have no dietary restrictions—not to mention, I don't even have many teeth left."

Because everyone has different preferences and dietary restrictions, we had to ask about everything in a short time. It turned out that several items on the original menu could no longer be used.

Song Miao made adjustments on the spot and asked Liu Hanlin, who had no objections. He even pointed to an old fisherman outside and whispered, "Try to make it a bit softer. I just found out that Old Tang lost two more teeth the other day!"

After the menu was ordered and the time for serving the food was agreed upon, the manager personally escorted the people to the kitchen and called two servants over to help wash the vegetables and do odd jobs.

After giving instructions to the servant, Song Miao asked Zhang Si Niang to help. Just as she started cooking the rice, a man came in excitedly, leaning on a cane in one hand and carrying a bucket in the other, calling out, "Where is Miss Song?" Song Miao turned around and saw Old Tang, who had "almost no teeth left," standing in the kitchen.

She quickly went up to greet him.

Old Tang was extremely pleased with himself. Holding up the bucket in his hand, he said, "Young lady, look what I've caught!"

He then asked, "Can this fish be cooked at noon?"

Song Miao looked down and saw a fish swimming around in the bucket. It was a double-backed carp, several centimeters longer than her arm, and weighed at least two pounds.

—He actually caught a fish!
Song Miao laughed and said, "Old sir, you have amazing fishing skills! You are indeed skilled, but the Bian River has been muddy and the Yellow River has been turbid lately, so most of the fish taste fishy and muddy. I will try my best to suppress the fishy smell, but I may not be able to suppress it completely. In that case, I will have to ask you to make do with the fish."

When Old Tang heard the praise for his fishing skills, he felt all the sweat from his journey disappear, and he felt refreshed. He quickly said, "It's alright, it's alright! Just do it! As for whether it's fishy or not—who dares to say that the fish I catch are fishy!"

He walked away with his head held high and his back hunched, leaning on his cane.

As soon as Old Tang left, Zhang Si Niang came over, looking worried, and said, "Wife, what should we do? It's been raining a lot lately, and the river fish have such a muddy taste that the stalls aren't selling much. And some of the people at the table don't eat spicy food. What can we use to mask the fishy smell? Should we add more ginger?"

Song Miao said, "I'm afraid adding ginger won't be enough to suppress the stagnation, and it's not good to add dogwood and mustard seeds. Let's try frying them in oil and then braising them with soy sauce to see if that works."

He added, "Luckily, it's a double-backed carp with few bones; otherwise, if the bones were removed, the scales wouldn't be complete."

In the kitchen, Song Miao and Zhang Si Niang were preparing dishes with two servants. In the waterside pavilion in front, a group of old men admired the calligraphy and paintings and fished for a while. After all, they were getting old and were a little tired, so they slowly sat down to drink tea and chat.

A group of people with missing teeth, hunchbacks, poor eyesight, and hair loss. They even have to put a bag to protect their beards when they sleep. If they accidentally press on it and lose an extra hair, their hearts will ache when they see it in the morning.

When people gather together, they naturally reminisce about the past, first praising themselves, then praising others, and finally expressing their feelings. They circle around the topic again, talking about how each generation is worse than the last, how they were in their time, and how their descendants are now.

Normally, when talking about the beginning, Master Chen would talk on and on, but once he got to the end, he would usually shut up and just listen quietly to everyone's complaints.

After all, although he had no children, he had a junior brother whom he raised like a son since childhood, and he was quite remarkable.

As soon as the junior apprentice is mentioned, eight out of ten people will stop talking, finding it very disappointing.

But today, as he ate the fruit and snacks on the table, he gradually felt that something was not quite right.

Cao Du, who usually complains incessantly with everyone, was unusually quiet this time. He just kept his head down, drinking tea and eating, and hardly said a word.

Knowing that Cao Du only had one son born late in life, who was nearly forty years old, and that he always doted on him, he nudged the other man with his elbow and asked in a low voice, "Old Cao, how is your Ling An doing lately?"

Cao Du could only manage a wry smile, shake his head, and remain silent.

The table was full of acquaintances, and everyone knew each other's situation. Naturally, Master Chen wasn't the only one who noticed that something was wrong with Cao Du. Soon, someone else followed suit and asked, "Old Cao, we haven't heard from Ling An for quite some time. When he was transferred to a higher position last time, did he go to Chanzhou? How is he doing now?"

Cao Du shook his head and said, "I'm already this old. Whether things are good or bad, it's up to my children and grandchildren to have their own fortune. How can I possibly control them?"

He then casually changed the subject, asking, "Old Tang, I heard last time that you're going back to your hometown this year, is that true?"

"Like fallen leaves returning to their roots, it's time to go back home. I'll set off in two months when the weather cools down..."

As everyone was talking, they gradually stopped talking one after another.

"What is the taste?"

"It looks like dried fish..."

"It smells so good—is that young lady making dried fish today? I can't chew it!"

"Something seems off. It smells like meat, and it's even slightly charred! Why does it also have a sweet taste?!"

"Why do I smell soy sauce?"

"I think I can even smell the aroma of braised food—it's so fragrant it's practically wafting into my nose!"

As everyone discussed this, they couldn't help but look towards the main entrance.

Sure enough, after a short while, two servants came and served two dishes each.

First came a dish of warm mixed vegetables and a plate of black char siu.

Needless to say, the char siu was delicious. As soon as it was served, Liu Hanlin had just offered a toast, and everyone at the table reached for the meat with their chopsticks. In no time, the plate was empty.

Cao and Chen, who were used to eating at Song's Small Dining Table, immediately noticed the difference.

The char siu was fattier and more fragrant than usual. When you bite into it, you can taste a distinct caramelized aroma. The lean meat is tender and juicy, and the fat and lean meat melt in your mouth without being greasy at all. It doesn't stick to your teeth or leave a residue in your mouth after you finish eating it.

"This char siu seems a bit softer and juicier today!"

"Yes! Yes! It smells even better!"

Along with the black char siu, a plate of mixed vegetables and a small pot of mustard green and salted bone soup were also served.

Previously, everyone was busy dividing the char siu. By the time the char siu was finished, there wasn't even time to eat rice. They ate it on its own and swallowed it whole. It wasn't enough at all. They told the servant to hurry back and ask if there was any more. Meanwhile, some were serving soup and others were serving vegetables.

The mixed vegetables are not cold-dressed, but warm-dressed, and include shredded spinach, shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, shredded shiitake mushrooms, shredded eggs, and mung bean vermicelli.

The spinach and bok choy were shredded, blanched, and squeezed dry. The egg crepes were fried very thinly and were very fragrant, also shredded. The shredded carrots and shiitake mushrooms were stir-fried separately with sesame oil until the carrots were soft. A little bit of dogwood was added for flavor, giving it only a hint of spiciness. The sauce contained soy sauce, a little balsamic vinegar, a seasoned oil, and was sprinkled with crushed white sesame seeds.

Picking up a piece with chopsticks and putting it in my mouth, the spinach is tender, the cabbage is sweet, the shiitake mushroom shreds and carrot shreds are fragrant and sweet respectively, both with a slight spiciness, the mung bean vermicelli is smooth and soft, the egg shreds are fresh and fragrant, each one is fully mixed with the sauce, salty, fresh, sour and fragrant, and also has the sweetness of the vegetables themselves. The texture and flavor are so rich that they are like a colorful burst in my mouth, fragrant and refreshing.

(End of this chapter)