Travel to the early Tang Dynasty and become a salted fish

There is no other reason than that the food tastes bitter and astringent in the mouth, not the usual taste at all.

After taking a few mouthfuls of food, Chu Mo, who felt something was wrong the more he thought about it, ignored the people on the table who were eating happily and rushed into the kitchen.

Then, he started rummaging in the kitchen.

Today's dish, except for the white rice, has a bitter taste, so it must not be a problem with the ingredients.

Chu Mo, who claims to be an amateur detective, began his reasoning.

Since there is no problem with the ingredients, there must be a problem with the water. No, although the rice is steamed, it has also been washed.

If there is no problem with the water and ingredients, then there must be something wrong with the cooking tools. The contact surface of the props and other items is not large, and the only thing that is in complete contact is the pot.

Chu Mo quickly rushed to the stove, stretched out his index finger, drew a circle on the large iron pot, and then put his index finger in his mouth.

Yes, that's the taste, bah bah bah, it's really bitter and astringent.

Really, it seems that I need to change the pot. The food produced in this pot is bitter and astringent. No wonder there is no business coming to my door.

Chu Mo, who thought he was possessed by Conan Holmes, was so excited that he was about to lift the whole big iron pot. Suddenly, a voice came from behind him: "Uncle, what are you doing?"

It turned out that shopkeeper Liu saw Chu Mo suddenly throwing down the dishes and running into the kitchen. He was worried and followed him.

Sure enough, I saw my uncle dazed there stupidly for a while, and then got into a fight with the big iron pot.

"Shopkeeper Liu, you came just in time. I found something wrong with this pot. Please help me lift it up quickly. We need to replace it with a better one."

Shopkeeper Liu looked at Chu Mo doubtfully and then at the big iron pot that had been used for several years and said, "Uncle, this pot has been in use since the day the restaurant opened, and I haven't heard of any problems. , is there any misunderstanding?"

Chu Mo stretched out his finger and shook it in a pretentious manner: "Nonono, there must be something wrong with this pot. Didn't you notice that the taste of the food is wrong?"

"Uncle, what kind of meat is that? Didn't you make some meat at noon? Do you want to make the rest?"

Chu Mo was shocked by Shopkeeper Liu's words: "Are you a tease sent by the monkey?"

"What's so funny?" Yang Hongyu saw that both of them had entered the kitchen and hadn't come out for so long, so she came over to check. She happened to hear Chu Mo's funny words and asked.

"Funny means funny." Chu Mo explained casually.

"Oh." Yang Hongyu nodded, then looked at Chu Mo thoughtfully.

Chu Mo was a little confused when she saw her: "What's that look in your eyes? Believe it or not..."

He didn't dare to say the next words.

However, Yang Hongyu was not going to let him go and asked, "What do you think, do you believe it or not? Just tell me."

Chu Mo rolled his eyes and said, "Believe it or not, I fall in love with you?"

After saying that, he looked at the other person with eyes that he thought were full of affection.

Yang Hongyu's pretty face turned red when Chu Mo saw it, but out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Shopkeeper Liu's faint smile, and she was immediately secretly angry, causing herself to make a fool of herself in front of Shopkeeper Liu.

So, he swung his pink fist and hit Chu Mo on the left eye socket: "You disciple, don't look at me with that disgusting look."

Chu Mo covered his attacked eyes with one hand and cried secretly in his heart: Why did he become a traitor again?

Chu Mo, who didn't want to understand, was about to ask, when he met those beautiful eyes with a hint of evil, and immediately suppressed all his words.

Yang Hongyu noticed that Chu Mo was so understanding and snorted with satisfaction, then asked, "What are you doing here if you don't want to eat?"

Upon hearing this, Chu Mo realized that his chance to perform had come, and he hurriedly said: "Madam, there is something wrong with this pot. I am discussing with Shopkeeper Liu to replace it."

Yang Hongyu didn't know why, so she looked at the iron pot on the stove and said, "What can go wrong with such a good pot?"

Chu Mo chuckled, and without waiting for Shopkeeper Liu to speak, he said loudly: "Didn't you realize that there is something wrong with today's meal?"

The two shook their heads in confusion.

Seeing that the two of them were unaware, Chu Mo immediately asked, "Didn't you notice the bitter taste in the food?"

"Isn't it always like that? What's so strange?"

"Of course it's strange. How could normally cooked food have a bitter taste?"

Yang Hongyu and Shopkeeper Liu immediately understood why Chu Mo said there was something wrong with the pot.

"You don't think it's a problem with the pot, right?" Yang Hongyu asked.

"Is not it?"

Yang Hongyu and Shopkeeper Liu had strange looks on their faces at the same time.

"Uncle, that has nothing to do with the pot, it's a problem with the salt."

"Is there something wrong with the salt? No, I just knew it..."

At this point, Chu Mo also felt something was wrong. If it was the pot, it couldn't have such a strong taste. If it was replaced with salt, it would make sense.

So he hurried to the salt shaker, pinched a few and put them in his mouth to taste.

Sure enough, that familiar bitter taste mixed with a salty taste came out.

Chu Mo was about to cry but had no tears. Where was his own reasoning, his own argument, his own Sherlock Holmes and Conan?

Seeing Chu Mo's depressed look, the two of them were very puzzled.

"Uncle, this is the taste of this salt. Could it be that the kind of fine salt you ate before?"

"Fine salt? What fine salt?"

Seeing that Chu Mo didn't understand anything, Shopkeeper Liu could only give him some basic knowledge.

The current salt and iron system of the Tang Dynasty was inherited from the Sui Dynasty and did not implement government monopoly. It was both government-owned and private. The salt in Guanzhong was basically salt produced in the salt ponds in Puzhou and Xiezhou.

The salt imported into Guanzhong from these two places every year is only about a few thousand hu of dendrobium, and the maximum is less than [-] hu of dendrobium.

But just this little salt has to supply the entire Guanzhong, and even Longyou and Hedong, Henan, and Hebei provinces, which is simply unable to meet the current demand.

At present, the Tang Dynasty's production technology is so low that it cannot even meet its own supply, and the salt produced by aristocratic families is controlled by themselves or wealthy businessmen.

In order to obtain huge profits, they deliberately restricted the production and sales of salt, and deliberately raised the price of salt, making the supply of salt currently in short supply.

This also caused a shortage of salt in Datang and the price of salt remained high.

Now in Chang'an City, the price of coarse salt is maintained at a hundred wen per bucket, and the price of refined salt is between 150 and [-] wen per bucket.

Common people now cannot even afford coarse salt, let alone fine salt.

The bitterness Chu Mo mentioned is unique to coarse salt. I heard that only fine salt does not have such a strong taste.

Hearing what shopkeeper Liu said, Chu Mo immediately understood. Isn't this just because there are too many impurities and not refined properly, resulting in a poor taste? I thought there was something wrong with it.