Chapter 108: Guest and host enjoy themselves

Chapter 108 Guests and hosts enjoy themselves

Although the dining place is simple, the food is rich. There are fried crispy pork, braised pork, crystal sweet and sour pork, sweet and sour chicken, braised bamboo rat, and stewed chicken. These are all meat dishes, and the portions of each meat dish are the same. There are many, either two large pottery basins or two large pottery bowls.

Vegetarian dishes are naturally indispensable, including pan-fried five-spice tofu, fried egg with chives, Chinese cabbage in vinegar, fresh bean sprouts stir-fried in chicken soup, and rice noodles with gravy specially made by Gu Jinli for Shang Yuanyuan.

When making tofu at home, Gu Jinli took off the tofu skin and made a three-wire spring roll with the tofu skin. The inside was stuffed with blanched bean sprouts, shredded eggs, shredded chicken, and shredded green onions, and then smeared a little caramel and simmered with fresh fermented glutinous rice sauce. The sauce becomes a spring delicacy.

Every family knows that Shang Xiucai and his family are coming today. As long as there are no stalls selling tofu, they all come to keep company. The Qin family is also here.

But only Qin Lao and Qin Sanlang came, Qin Erlang still didn't come. He was still repelling them as before.

On the fire in the yard, Qin Sanlang was roasting three hares and four carps on an iron plate.

He went into the mountains to catch rabbits the day before yesterday, and he went to the river in Dafeng Mountain this morning to fish for carps. They are real delicacies from the mountains and rivers.

 The method of grilling fish was taught by Gu Jinli. Qin Sanlang has grilled it several times and now he has learned it.

He was busy in front of the fire alone, sometimes sprinkling seasoning on the rabbit, and sometimes applying sauce to the grilled fish. His movements were not hectic, but seemed to be flowing smoothly.

Shang Xiucai saw this interestingly and came over and asked: "Are you... grilling fish?"

He has never seen this method of grilling fish on an iron plate. When I went to attend cultural gatherings in the past, there were also those crazy people who grilled fish, but they always skewered the fish on branches and grilled it directly on the fire. It looked wanton and crazy, but the taste of the grilled fish was really unflattering. .

Qin Sanlang nodded: "Well, Xiaoyu said that the fish grilled on the iron plate is delicious. There is no smoky smell, only a burnt aroma."

Shang Xiucai was interested and stood aside to watch.

They were grilling fish and rabbit in the yard, and the hall was already filled with women and children from several families.

The third mistress knew that Mrs. Jiang was a lady from an official family, and was afraid that Mrs. Chen and the others would be too rude and bump into Ms. Jiang, so she set up two tables in the main room.

At one table, Lao Yan's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, Chen, and their children ate, and at the other table, she, Cui, Gu Jinli, Gu Jinxiu, and Cheng Geer accompanied Jiang's mother and daughter.

Gu Yumei was originally assigned to Chen's table, but she stood and refused to leave. The third grandmother was afraid that something would happen, so she had to let her sit down.

Since Jiang's father was a county captain, the family members did not dare to speak while eating and ate carefully for fear of losing face.

Yuan Yuan was not afraid of food. He still remembered what Gu Jinli said that there was something more delicious than sweet bean curd. Looking at the table full of food, he asked Gu Jinli: "Sister, sister, are all these things better than bean curd?"

With her chubby hand, she pointed at the plate of rice noodles with crystal clear gravy and asked, "Is this it?" It looked a bit like sweet bean curd, both of which were shiny.

"Yes, this rice noodle dish with gravy also counts." Gu Jinli nodded, pointed at several dishes with his hand, and said: "And this crystal sweet and sour pork, sweet and sour chicken, and bean skin spring rolls are all for Yuan Prepared by Yuan.”

"Wow~" Yuan Yuan almost drooled when she heard that there were so many dishes specially prepared for her, and said to Mrs. Jiang: "Mother, mother, if you want to eat, eat."

Mrs. Jiang hugged her and said, "Don't move around. Mom will clamp it for you."

Mrs. Jiang saw that the gravy rice noodles were very soft and glutinous, suitable for children, so she picked two pieces, put them into Yuanyuan's small bowl, and fed them to her.

Yuan Yuan stuttered, took a piece of rice noodles into her mouth, and chewed it with her millet teeth. After eating, she said to Mrs. Jiang, "It's waxy, delicious."

Ms. Jiang smiled and nodded her forehead: "Greedy cat."

He gave her two more pieces of crystal gourd meat. Yuanyuan fell in love with them as soon as he ate them: "It's sweet and delicious."

After hearing this, Mrs. Jiang also ate one. It was really sour and sweet, and very delicious. She sighed: "Are these the food from your hometown? It's really delicious, delicious, and very appetizing."

 Many of the dishes on this table were things she had never seen before.

The third grandma smiled and said: "Where is the food in my hometown? Xiaoyu figured it out by himself."

Ms. Jiang was very surprised when she heard this, but thinking about it, it is not surprising that this child can make tofu and several fresh dishes.

She praised Gu Jinli a few times and ate all the dishes on the table. The more she ate, the more delicious they became.

The third grandma saw that she was happy with her meal, and she was relieved.

Outside the house, the men also ate happily. Although Shang Xiucai was a scholar, he could drink wine and eat meat with them. He even carried a wine flask and a knife to cut the roasted rabbit. He was quite a fanatic. mean. But Shang Xiucai’s favorites are rice noodles with gravy and grilled fish.

The grilled fish on the iron plate did not have the smoky smell of grass and wood, only the burnt aroma and the deliciousness of the fish. When he took it into his mouth, it was crispy and juicy. It was so delicious that he ate half of it.

Next is the crystal sweet and sour pork, which is sour and sweet, and very appetizing. There are also fried bean sprouts in chicken soup. The crispy bean sprouts and the deliciousness of the chicken soup are really refreshing.

Especially in February, when there is no harvest, it is really uncomfortable to suddenly eat bean sprouts after eating cabbage and radish all winter long.

This meal is a feast for both host and guest.

 After eating, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon, and Shang Xiucai's family of three sat at Gu's house for another half an hour. When it was almost time to say goodbye, they left.

The third grandmother and Mr. Cui packed up a return gift and took it back to Shang Xiucai’s family: “It’s all home-made tofu, spices, bean sprouts and the like. It’s not worth much. You can take it home to eat.”

Shang Xiucai and his wife did not refuse and accepted the return gift.

Gu Jinli wrote down an embroidery piece by Gu Jinxiu, as well as the recipe for rice noodles, soy milk, and bean sprouts, and gave them to Mrs. Jiang.

Ms. Jiang was very surprised to see that she actually wrote down how to make these three things. In Dachu, almost no one would tell anyone about their skills. She hesitated whether she should accept them?

Shang Xiucai said: "Take it, this is the child's wish."

 Since we are going to make old friends, we can't be so polite.

Mrs. Jiang happily accepted it and promised: "Good boy, don't worry, my aunt will never spread these three things to anyone."

Gu Jinli didn’t care, it was just some food with no technical content.

Several families sent Shang Xiucai and his family out. Yuan Yuan was reluctant to leave. He grabbed the door of the courtyard and said, "I can't leave, I still want to eat delicious food."

 The food at Sister Xiaoyu’s house is so delicious that she wants to keep it instead of going back to eat steamed eggs.

Ms. Jiang patted her hand lightly and pretended to be angry: "You are so greedy, your sister Xiaoyu's family doesn't want you."

When Yuan Yuan heard this, he immediately looked at Gu Jinli with tears in his eyes and said pitifully: "Sister Xiaoyu... Yuan Yuan usually eats very little."

Gu Jinli almost couldn't help laughing. He took out a piece of fried five-spice tofu wrapped in yellow paper and handed it to Yuan Yuan: "Here, my sister left this for Yuan Yuan. Yuan Yuan can eat it on the way. After eating, Let’s play at my sister’s house again.”

Yuan Yuan let go of the hand holding the door leaf, hugged the bag of fried five-spice tofu, and nodded heavily: "Well, Yuan Yuan will come to my sister's house to play after eating."

Ms. Jiang seems to have lost her temper. Why did she give birth to a daughter who loves to eat so much?

After such a fuss, the Shang family finally left.

Until he left, Shang Xiucai did not ask Gu Jinan, Gu Dexing and Gu Dewang individually about their knowledge, nor did he talk about accepting disciples.

 Gu Dewang was relieved, Gu Dexing was disappointed, and although Gu Jinan was also disappointed, he thought that since Ajiu had accepted the words and articles they wrote, Shang Xiucai would definitely read them. As long as he waited patiently, there would be results.

 …

At the home of the village chief, He Dacang said to the village chief: "Dad, Jiang County Lieutenant's son-in-law and his family are gone."

Shang Xiucai came to visit the Gu family with two carts of things. There was quite a commotion. Everyone in Dafeng Village knew about it, including the head of He Village.

“What have you given away?” Village Chief He asked.

He Dacang said: "The people who went to see the people moving things said that they had given away a lot of things, including rice, noodles, meat, vegetables, iron pots, farm tools, carts, and wheels."

Village Chief He was surprised that he even gave away iron pots and farm tools and wheels. These were big items and couldn't be bought with less than a few dozen taels of silver.

However, given the wealth of the Shang family and the Jiang family, a gift of dozens of taels is not a big deal. The most important thing is to see what happens next.

 (End of this chapter)