The Little Officials of the Song Dynasty

While Zhao Yunchu was still eating, Yun Yan also watched the performance of the Kaifeng government officials who had greatly improved their sense of happiness due to the food in the cafeteria, and went to the back kitchen of the cafeteria again.He looked to see what meals were left, diced pumpkin, and sliced ​​pork cooked on the side.

When the pork is cooked, remove the meat, throw the pumpkin into the soup and continue cooking, remove it when it is boiled, and stir it with sliced ​​pork and cooked rice.

Finally, put a few slices of radish sprouts on top, and take the whole plate away.

After he came out, Zhao Yunchu had almost eaten, so Yunyan took Zhao Yunchu to Tianqing Temple when he came back. Because of the special nature of his office, Bao Zheng specially allocated a study room for him, which is considered to be the best paid among temporary workers of this level. up.

Liu Mao is now living here, and Yun Yan is carrying the basket, which is the cat rice that was mixed just now.

Several cats squatted on the table, some lay on the window sill, some lay directly on the ground, and some licked each other in pairs.As soon as they saw Yunyan come back, they meowed softly.

But as soon as Zhao Yunchu came in, the six hairs exploded. They pouted their buttocks, stared at Zhao Yunchu nervously, and let out nervous grunts from their throats.

"Huh?" Yun Yanhui still didn't understand what was going on, because in his eyes, no matter how tall Zhao Yunchu was, he was still that silly white sweet who could be trampled at will.

Zhao Yunchu retreated to the corner of the room, complaining: "It's like this again, my mother's cat saw me and my father also did the same thing, my mother said it was scared, Brother Yan, am I scary?"

It was only then that Yun Yan suddenly realized that although Zhao Yunchu was a bully in his eyes, in Mao's eyes, he was probably a huge monster with a dangerous aura.

"How old are you, how small are they, just stay there and don't move." Yunyan said back, stretched out her hands and hugged her two hands to smooth the hair, then rubbed the foot pads along the top of her head. Although the cat's body was still tense, it stopped purring.

Yunyan went back to do the same, silenced the six cats, and then poured the cat food she brought back into a big basin.When the kittens smelled the aroma, they wanted to go to the rice bowl.

But the cat rice is still a bit hot, so it's not good to feed them directly, for fear of burning their tongues, Yun Yanhui can only stand up with the basin in hand.The kittens picked his clothes with their paws and tried to climb up.

Yun Yanhui simply used a ruler to stir the cat rice, so that they could dissipate heat quickly, and did not put it down until it was almost cold.

The long-awaited Liumao plunged into the food bowl, getting a little excited, even stepped in with his front paws.

Liumao, the weakest one, was squeezed so hard that he couldn't get in. He was the only male cat in the litter, far less fierce than the others.After turning around outside for a few times, he couldn't find a gap, and stepped on San Mao's back and jumped into the middle of the food bowl, only to be pushed out by several other Maos.

Seeing Liu Mao wiping his face in disgrace, Yun Yan took out a ball of cat rice and handed it to Liu Mao.

"Meow~" Liu Mao yelled coquettishly, and began to eat in Yunyan's palm.

After taking two bites, Yunyan lowered his hands and put the food on the ground, telling him to eat by himself.

As a result, as soon as the food was put on the ground, Liu Mao stopped eating and looked up at Yunyan.

"Oh, you are quite clean." Yun Yanhui had no choice but to hold Liumao to eat.

Zhao Yunchu squatted in the corner, watching Brother Yan sitting on the ground, stroking the cat with one hand, and feeding it with the other hand, the kitten's tongue licked Brother Yan's palm from time to time, suddenly, he felt a little uncomfortable.

He couldn't help but compare in his heart. In terms of treatment, everyone had eaten the meals cooked by Brother Yan himself, which was considered fair, but Brother Yan had never fed him.

It's not that Zhao Yunchu insisted on comparing with cats, but that this cat reminded him of Zheng Xiaobao.

Back then when he was playing at Brother Yan's house, Xiao Bao was tired of collecting medicinal materials during the day, and sat there refusing to eat, saying that he couldn't raise his hands.Brother Yan just beat the food and fed it to Xiaobao with a spoon.

Later, Zhao Yunchu did the same thing, claiming to practice archery with his father, his arm was tired, he couldn't lift it up, and he couldn't eat.As a result, Brother Yan picked up the bowl——just when he was excited, Brother Yan poured the food in the bowl onto a plate, and said: In this way, you can eat without bowing your hands, and wash your face after eating...

Zhao Yunchu thought this way, and said sourly: "Brother Yan, it's fine once or twice once in a while, it will always spoil it like this, how can it give it whatever it wants."

Yun Yan said without looking back: "I know, it's the same with you and me, so we can't get used to it."

Zhao Yunchu almost burst into tears, so you didn't even treat me once or twice!

Yun Yanhui finished feeding the last bit of cat food, wiped her hands with a towel, walked to the table and began to write the recipe.

Zhao Yunchu didn't know what he was writing, and wanted to go over to have a look, but those cats were lying on the table after eating, playing with the wrists of Brother Goose with their tails, and when they saw him walking this way, they immediately stood up and bared their faces. tooth.

Zhao Yunchu could only stay where he was, poking his head, "Brother Yan, what are you writing?"

"Earlier recipes," Yun Yan replied, "I heard you say that you are going to attend the court meeting. I think I should enrich Shaoyin's breakfast. He is also going to attend the court meeting. He will bring breakfast in the cafeteria."

Bao Zheng was very easy-going, and he ate and drank with everyone in the cafeteria at noon, so Yun Yan didn't expect to upgrade the breakfast that Bao Zheng packed when he went to the court meeting. It seemed that he was dealing with two pancakes now.

It is also Yun Yanhui who did not increase the variety of breakfast too much, but only improved the quality.Now that I think about it, I still need to enrich the variety.

It's not just because Bao Zheng is the boss, after all, Bao Da Da doesn't care whether you flatter or not, the main purpose is that all the people who come and go at the meeting are officials, which will help the Kaifeng mansion cafeteria to gain a reputation...

As soon as Yun Yanhui had an idea, he wrote a week's recipe in one go.All can be promoted in cafeterias, the basic ones can be eaten by everyone, and the more refined ones depend on the grade.

After finishing writing, he went to the corner and showed it to Zhao Yunchu.

Holding the recipe in his hands, Zhao Yunchu read out the first one: "Fried dough sticks... what is this?"

In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were no deep-fried dough sticks, but in the future, this is already a common breakfast. Yunyan used to get up early for interviews, often carry two deep-fried dough sticks, and go out without soy sauce. Hungry.

"It's made in other places, a kind of fried fruit." Yun Yan replied casually.Basically, when someone asks him where the new dishes come from, he can answer with a sentence from other places or what he reads in the book.

Thanks to the underdeveloped information at this time, no matter what he says, it is not easy to verify.Because he has been in Daxiangguo Temple for so many years, and he is known to love food, so no one will doubt it.

Zhao Yunchu became deeply jealous, "I want to eat too..."

"Then make a copy and ask the kitchen in your house to make it." Yun Yan looked back at him with a look of reluctance, and added, "I also leave it to the master chef, why do you look like I did it?" It looks like the food is not for you."

The court meeting was so early, how could he get up earlier than Bao Zheng, make breakfast, and then go to work?That's too much effort!

"No..." Zhao Yunchu quibbled, "I just want to come to Kaifeng Mansion to eat with Brother Yan."

Yun Yan replied: "Forget it, are you tired?"

……

At five o'clock, the officials participating in the court meeting and their entourage rode towards the imperial city on horseback. There was a white paper lantern in front of the horse with the official position written on it.Lanterns traveled through the night, like clusters of fire floating out of thin air, and finally gathered outside the imperial city.This scene was called "Fire City" by the people at that time.

It is impossible for officials coming from all directions to arrive at the same time, and they have to wait outside the imperial city to gather. Therefore, there is a "waiting courtyard" outside the imperial city for officials to rest.

The number of officials and entourage is large, so the breakfast business before the hospital has been very good.

But there are also some officials who choose to bring their own breakfast, such as Bao Zheng, who just asks the kitchen to pack him a breakfast of the day.

This morning, Bao Zheng led Bao Xing to the outside of the imperial city, and entered the Waiting Courtyard to wait for the palace gate to open, while solving the problem of court food.

Many people in the waiting room were also eating breakfast, some bought it from outside, and some brought it by themselves.

Bao Xing took out an oiled paper bag, and took out a square pot and a cloth bag from his waist, and inside the cloth bag was a silver bowl.The oil paper bag was opened, and there were small pieces of browned cake-like food inside, and then the soup in the square pot was poured into a silver bowl. Fortunately, Kaifeng Mansion is close to the imperial city, and the soup was still steaming all the way.

Bao Zheng looked at it and asked in surprise, "What is this?"

Bao Xing said: "Lang Jun, this is a new breakfast in the cafeteria. Brother Yan added it. Today is baked steamed bun slices and mushroom ham cream soup."

"Even the breakfast has a new pattern?" Bao Zheng picked up a slice of baked steamed bun quite curiously, and took a bite. The taste was crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and there was a crunching sound when biting.

Immediately, the aroma of eggs permeated the mouth, and it could be distinguished that pepper powder, sesame, salt and other seasonings were sprinkled on it, and it was really salty and sweet.

At this time, take another sip of the soup from the silver bowl, it is also salty and sweet, with the sweet aroma of butter, the salty taste of ham, and soft and delicious mushrooms, each one is full of soup, bite When it goes down, the blossoms will bloom on the tip of the tongue. It is so delicious and delicate that people almost swallow their tongues together.

With a mouthful of toasted steamed buns and another mouthful of hot soup, Bao Zheng felt that his whole body was revived from the stiffness of getting up in the morning, and he ate his breakfast with big mouthfuls.

The officials sitting next to him watched silently.

……

On the second day, Bao Xing took out two fried dough sticks and a pot of soy milk from his pocket.

Bao Zheng eats deep-fried dough sticks, crispy and soft...

……

On the third day, Bao Xing took out a pack of thick eggs.

Bao Zheng baji baji ate thick fried eggs, which were soft and slippery...

……

On the seventh day, Bao Xing went back with a bag of money and told Yun Yanhui: "A lot of officials asked me to come to me and ask me where I bought it earlier. After knowing that it was made in the cafeteria, they asked me to bring an extra bag of money. I even forced the money to me..."

"I didn't expect that the breakfast really opened up the situation first." Yun Yan looked back and thought for a while, "Well, this is also a good thing, and you have a good opportunity to earn purchasing fees." Naturally, it is best to ask someone to buy on behalf of you.

"Purchasing?" Bao Xing thought for a while, "Do you mean purchasing on your behalf? I think it's good too, and Mr. Lang didn't say anything."

Therefore, Bao Xing became a professional early purchasing agent, and followed Bao Zheng to go to court every day with large and small packages, which can be regarded as generating income for Kaifeng Mansion.

However, with the increasing demand, Bao Xing was overwhelmed and could only limit the serving size.

Finally one day, Bao Zheng came back from court, and said to Yun Yan depressedly: "Today, Wang Xianggong found me."

Yun Yan replied: "Huh?"

Wang Xianggong, Prime Minister Wang Jian, did he find trouble with Bao Da?

Bao Zheng: "He asked me if I could help him buy fried dough sticks in the cafeteria..."

Yun Yan replied: "..."