North and South groceries

When the corn in their area is ripe, many merchants and peddlers nearby will come to them to collect corn.

That's not harvesting on the basis of buckets, but harvesting on the basis of one cent. A ripe old corn cob that can be used as a seed is charged at a penny.But you have to let them pick and choose. If the quality is lower, you won't be able to sell it at such a price.

Recently, people from the Luo family yard brought corn every day. Back then, Luo Yong lent everyone corn kernels, but now they returned a lot of corn cobs.

How many big corn cobs can be rubbed to get a bucket of corn kernels, everyone has calculated, because the vendors who came to buy corn from them recently like the whole one, so they give it like this.

The children of Luo’s family stopped making bean paste recently, and spent the whole day drying corn in their yard. The corn cobs and corn kernels were all over the ground. If anyone came to buy corn cobs, they were asked to pick them by themselves. A few are just a few pennies.

Not to mention, there are quite a lot of hawkers coming to harvest corn from Shangxipo Village recently. As far as their Luo family yard is concerned, there are hawkers coming in and out all day long. Once you've chosen it, go over and collect the money. A corn cob costs a penny, which is absolutely indispensable.

Every night after dinner, these guys would go to Luo Yong's kang to count the money, and keep an account when they were done.

This summer, their family earned a lot of money just by selling corn cobs, and most of the other corn kernels were also sold. The urn was barely full.

"Brother, let's eat corn pancakes tomorrow." In the evening of this day, after putting the last corn kernels into the pottery urn, the girl Qiniang said to Luo Yong, swallowing her saliva.

"Okay, brother, I'll ask five pairs to grind cornmeal for us tomorrow morning." Luo stroked the broken hair on her forehead with the palm of her hand. Yep, my face got tanned a lot too.

In the early morning of the second day, Luo Yong not only ground the cornmeal, but also went to Xu's guest house to tinker for half a day, frying a large plate of glutinous rice dumplings for the children in the family.

If you want to fry the Guozi crispy, you have to put alum and edible alkali in it. Edible alkali is not rare. The Guanzhong area has used plant ash to make edible alkali since ancient times. As for the alum, it was brought to him by a merchant in the south. Come on, it is said that with the addition of this material to make paper, the final paper will be very fine and smooth. Luo Yong has not tried it yet, but he has kept these alums.

Eating too much alum is bad for your health, but Luo Yong doesn’t know if there are other things that can replace alum in the process of making glutinous rice balls, and if you only eat a small amount, there shouldn’t be any hindrance of.

"Brother, what is this?" Liu Lang was sweeping the yard with a big broom in his arms at this time. The corn in their yard was very dusty in the past two days. Liu Lang took the broom himself and started sweeping the floor.

At this time, when he saw Luo Yong came back with a pot of things, he dropped the broom and went up to it. He could already smell the smell, it was delicious!

"This is a glutinous rice ball, do you have a taste?" Luo Yong broke off half a glutinous rice ball and handed it to him.

"Brother! I want it too!" The girl Qiniang ran out of the backyard after hearing the voice.

"Okay, I'll give you half too." Luo Yong smiled and handed her half as well.

"Brother! What is this? It's so delicious!" The two children each held half a glutinous rice cake in front of them.

Sure enough, children love puffed food. When Luo Yong was a child, he also liked to eat fried dough sticks and glutinous rice balls. As long as they are crunchy in the mouth, they are very pleasant to eat.

"It will taste even better later." Luo Yong set up the pottery plate and began to spread the pancakes. The batter was also prepared earlier, the sauces, vegetables, leaves and eggs were also prepared, and the chopped green onions were also chopped.

How about pancakes? Pancakes have to be served with glutinous rice balls. Today’s batter is made by adding cornmeal ground from new corn that has just come down in the past few days to the white flour. It has a very good taste. That’s right, beat another egg, spread the sauce, serve with glutinous rice balls, put a few leaves of green vegetables, and then sprinkle with chopped green onion for a roll...

"Crack!" With this bite, these little dolls will know what the real pancake is like. It is no longer a semi-finished product, but it has been developed and matured for thousands of years. A delicacy popular in the north and south of the Yangtze River.

"Delicious!!!" The response from the little dolls was also very enthusiastic.

"Brother, I want more, you can make one with me!" the girl Qiniang begged.

"Hey, eat one first, and send some to Xu's guest house later, and I'll make you another one when I get back." Luo Yong was afraid that they would be full.

"Hey, what are you eating? Why didn't you wait for me?" Wu Lang yelled as soon as he came back, as if he had been wronged by the world.

"Hmph, if you don't study hard, you'll know how to eat all day long." Si Niang said while gnawing pancakes.

"Where did I not study hard?" Wulang stopped Yan Erfei, and ran to Luo Yong in a few steps: "Brother, fry me a big one, I'm so hungry."

Luo Yong made a lot of pancakes on this day. In addition to his own food, some were sent to Xu's guest house. After a taste, everyone said that Luo Sanlang was good at cooking.

But Luo Yong was only diligent once in a while, after this day, he refused to cook again, and all the meals at home were cooked by Si Niang.Si Niang wanted to learn how to fry Guozi. Luo Yong thought that she was too young, afraid that she would not be able to master the amount of alum and noodle alkali used, and also thought that deep frying was a bit dangerous, so he told her to teach her when she was 16 years old. give her.

Speaking of which, the difference between Si Niang and Luo Yong is also a bit big, Luo Yong has lost her age after Chinese New Year, and Si Niang is only thirteen, and if she is 16, she will have to wait for three years.

·

Not long after Xia Harvest passed, people who built roads all the way from Chang'an City poured into Lishi County. Because of sufficient manpower, and the officials in charge of organizing road construction work were also very capable and experienced, this section of road was repaired very quickly. .

This road started from Chang'an City in the winter of last year, and the corvée was continuously collected. The previous civilian husbands returned after serving the corvée, and when they arrived at new places, they continued to add new people. , have basically been replaced by the people in the Lishi area.

The work of repairing cement roads is not too tiring. This season is not in the harsh winter and the twelfth lunar month. As long as you finish the twenty days of corvee, you can save a lot of twine and linen this year. Many local people are very willing Yes, it's a pity that they don't need many people.

As His Majesty the Emperor said earlier, this cement road was only built to Lishi County, and after it was connected with the cement road leading to Xipo Village outside the county, the project was over.

For those officials who supervised the road construction all the way, Luo Yong inevitably had to entertain them. The place was on the terrace on the second floor above the living room of Xu's guest house. Although the food was not delicacies from mountains and seas, the delicious dishes in Xu's guest house were considered outstanding now. Well known, such hospitality is not considered rude.

During the dinner, the official who had talked with Luo Yong about canned recipes said, "Saburo doesn't need to worry about the toll, I've already told His Majesty for you."

"Thank you!" Luo Yong was happy in his heart, and quickly cupped his hands in thanks.However, by the way, are all the officials of the Great Tang Dynasty so versatile, who can be in charge of negotiations and supervise road construction, or... Could this guy be sent out to be in charge of road construction because of the tolls? Bar?

It's a bit embarrassing to think about it this way, Luo Yong also knows that the emperor is short of money, why do you think you haven't paid corvee all these years?You can collect more cloth and silk without paying corvees. That is all money, which is very useful in the process of foreign trade.

So Luo Yong said that he refused to pay the toll, so the old emperor must be unhappy, right?

"Eat, eat, come and taste this mapo tofu. The sauce used in this dish is newly made by me recently, and it is the first time to use it today. Although it is still a little undercooked, the taste is not bad." Luo Yong Warmly greet the official to eat food.

Chili is added to the new bean paste made by his family, so when cooking, no fresh chili is added. The fermented chili taste is a little more fragrant than fresh chili, and the spiciness is not so spicy. Strong, it is quite acceptable for those Tang Dynasty people who often eat various cold dishes with raw garlic.

The official stretched out his chopsticks and added a piece of tofu to taste, said yes, then changed the spoon to scoop it up, and ate the soup with tofu: "Why is this dish called Mapo Tofu?"

"..." Luo Yong was stopped by his question, and he didn't have time to make up this story.

"Hi, it's just a random name." Luo Yong typed a haha.

"It's kind of interesting." The official said seriously.

"If you like it, you can take a can of soybean paste from me. With that sauce, this dish is very simple to make."

Thinking of the fact that this guy lived in the open for more than half a year because of his relationship, Luo Yong is rare and generous. You must know that he doesn't have a few peppers on hand, and the amount of spicy bean paste he makes is very small. very.

"Impossible." The official waved his hands again and again, since Tang Jian was demoted for accepting other people's lambs, none of these petty officials would dare to collect things randomly.

"Since it can't be accepted, you can buy a can with me with the money." So Luo Yong said again.

The official scooped up another spoonful of Mapo Tofu and ate it, then nodded: "Good, then I'll buy a can with you."

"If you want to buy tofu, go to Auntie Luo's restaurant." After Luo Yong finished speaking, he ordered some bowls of white rice to be brought up: "Come on, this mapo tofu has to be eaten with white rice. It tastes the best. good."

Then, the official stayed in Xu's guest house for three days, and he ate mapo tofu with white rice for three days.

Before leaving, he spent [-] Wen to take away a small jar of bean paste from Luo Yong. The jar of bean paste was about two liters. Luo Yong only sold it as an ordinary sauce, and told him As long as ten Wen is enough, he insists on giving twenty Wen.

As for tolls, there will be special documents sent to various post stations. In addition, when this official built a cement road all the way here, he spent some effort to communicate with the officials of the large and small post stations that came along the way. Well, hello, as long as the road guide of the consignor clearly states that it is for Luo to transport the goods, the officials at the post stations will not charge them tolls.

Luo Yong originally thought that this matter might take some setbacks, but he didn't expect the other party to be so thoughtful. He is really a person who pays attention to promises, because he himself agreed to Luo Yong's matter before, so he had to do it realistically. Make sure that your promise can be implemented, even if the latter things have nothing to do with him, Luo Yong is grateful even if he admires this kind of person who keeps his promise and keeps his word.

Looking at himself again, he also said that he wanted to build roads before, but where is the road now.

Earlier, when Xu Erlang and the others returned after delivering the threshing machines, spring was already deep, and it was the time when spring plowing was busy. He didn't mention it when he used it. Later, after harvesting the wheat and corn, it came to this moment in a blink of an eye.

Even at this moment, Luo Yong still doesn't want to move.

Xu is that life is too comfortable now, and he has gradually become lazy before he knows it.