The Manchu and Han Banquets in Qing Dynasty

"A man? How could your mistress be a man?" Cheng Li asked strangely.

Zixiu scratched his head and said, "I'm not saying that Mrs. Shi is a man, I'm just saying... If she was a man and treated you so well, would you like her?"

Cheng Li thought for a long time, and finally said: "Yes, your teacher's wife is your teacher's wife, regardless of male or female, there is only one woman in the world, and no one can replace her."

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Zixiu breathed a sigh of relief. In this way, men can indeed like men.He thought of Kangxi again, and Kangxi also said he liked him, so can they try together?

"Zixiu, what, do you like men?" Cheng Li's words scared Zixiu almost dropped his chopsticks.He stammered: "No...no, I just ask...ask."

"Oh, although it is said that there is no distinction between men and women, men like men are rare. Of course, if you really like men, Master will not say anything." Cheng Li patted him on the shoulder and said.

"Heh...heh, yes, yes." Zixiu spoke incoherently.

But how did he hide it from Cheng Li? Cheng Li vaguely guessed something, but he wasn't sure.He didn't dare to think about it deeply, for fear of encountering something terrible.

On the third day, Kangxi set off to return to the palace. The team marched for nearly five days, and finally rushed back to the palace on the eighth day of August.As soon as they returned to the palace, everyone started to get busy, and so did Zixiu, who were all preparing for the Mid-Autumn Festival feast.

No.20 seven dishes

The Mid-Autumn Festival banquet is considered to be a relatively important banquet among the festival banquets. Although Kangxi advocated frugality, it is inevitable to have a big banquet on this occasion.

Same as last time, all officials above the third rank were invited into the palace to celebrate together, but this time the banquet started earlier, and the ministers could go back to accompany their families after celebrating here.

Early in the morning, Zixiu received a gift from the eunuch of Yongshou Palace. When Zixiu opened it, it turned out to be a cute little wooden figure eating mooncakes.Zixiu laughed, knowing that it must have been sent by Rong Ruo, and he didn't have any gifts in return, so he wrapped two freshly made mooncakes and asked the little eunuch to take them back to Rong Ruo.

Zixiu gave the little eunuch two taels of silver, and the little eunuch left happily.After collecting the presents, Zixiu continued to cook. He has two tasks today, one is his specialty dish, Phoenix Spreading Wings, and the other is one of the pastries, Double Ninth Flower Cake.Due to the heavy task, Cheng Li assigned two people to help him, one to light the fire and the other to chop vegetables, which worked well together.

The ingredients of Chongyang flower cake are not complicated, mainly composed of glutinous rice flour and japonica rice flour.Zixiu cut the preserved red and green fruits into thin shreds, and made red bean paste into dry bean paste for later use.When all the preparations are done, it's time to steam the cake.

For steamed cakes, the heat is the most important.Before spreading the pasty powder, it should be steamed with boiling water on high heat. The red beans are not easy to cook, and the powder and preserved fruit can only be spread when the steam comes out of a layer of flour.After evenly spreading the flour slurry, you have to control the fire to be a little smaller until the cake is steamed.

Zixiu was afraid that the kid who started the fire would not be able to grasp the scale, so he did it by himself most of the time, thanks to his good stamina, otherwise he would have collapsed from exhaustion.

The Imperial Dining Room was bustling with activity, and the Qianqing Palace was also very lively. The creative designer hung a large round moon cake on both sides of the stage. Although it was made of paper, it really looked like that from a distance. .Upon closer inspection, even the pillars of the stage are carved into moon cakes stacked one on top of the other.

The ministers sat in the courtyard and listened to the opera. Kangxi supported the Empress Dowager who came late, and Empress Xueshan came with her. After the lesson from last time, she has restrained herself a lot recently.

The Empress Dowager Zhaosheng is over half a century old, and her clothes are not luxurious. Even so, the majesty and dignity she was born with made everyone dare not be presumptuous.Kangxi stood next to her, and his momentum was a little weaker.

Kangxi respected the empress dowager more than he loved him. Although the empress dowager always let Kangxi fight by himself, she would not be soft when it was time to teach.Kangxi helped the emperor's grandmother to sit on the high seat, and then sat down by himself.

Everyone shouted long live, and then sat down and opened the table.

The Empress Dowager seldom came to such occasions. This time, Kangxi invited the left and the right. Kangxi told her that a special troupe was invited from outside today, who could sing "Guanghan Stepping on the Moon, Simple Confucianism, Picking Laurels" " and "The Fragrance of Laurel and Dance in Dresses", Zhao Sheng only agreed to come.

Zhaosheng likes to listen to operas, especially these two, because there are few people who can sing well, which is even more valuable.

Not long after being seated, Liang Jiugong brought the play list to Kangxi to order, and Kangxi handed the play list to the emperor's grandmother, asking her to order first.The emperor's grandmother ordered "The Fragrance of the Laurel and the Dance in Neon Clothes", and then gave the list to Kangxi, who ordered "Guanghan Stepping on the Moon and the Simple Confucian Picking the Osmanthus".The Empress Dowager patted the back of his hand, as if talking about something.

Not long after, singing began on the stage, with a laurel tree in the background, and Fairy Chang'e flew down, holding a snow-white jade rabbit in her arms.The Empress Dowager watched happily and clapped her hands.

"Then Chang'e is tied with a rope, right? Otherwise, how would she fly down?" the Empress Dowager asked.

"Grandmother, this is the difference between this troupe and others. Everyone in this troupe knows martial arts, and that Chang'e is actually a man." Kangxi explained. That's all.

While speaking, the imperial meal has been passed on, and at this time it has been passed on to the seventh grade of appetizers, and the first dish is the phoenix spreading its wings.

Kangxi knew at a glance that Zixiu made it, so he said to the Empress Dowager, "Grandmother, try this dish, does it suit your appetite?"

The Empress Dowager tasted a piece of egg yolk cake, nodded with a smile, and said, "This year's dishes are even better than before."

"If the emperor's grandmother likes it, let the cook cook for the emperor's grandmother every day." When Kangxi saw that the empress dowager was eating happily, he was also happy.

The Empress Dowager said: "You know that the emperor's grandmother doesn't eat these things much these days, so it's hard for you to be filial. You should keep such a good cook to yourself."

"Hehe, Grandmother, let's listen to the opera."

The imperial meals were served one after another, and everyone enjoyed the delicious food while listening to the opera.

After listening to "The Fragrance of Laurel and Dance in Neon Clothes", and another play ordered by Kangxi, the Empress Dowager got up and went back to the palace. Kangxi knew that she liked quietness, so she no longer forced her to stay.

After more than ten dishes, several young eunuchs brought up a huge plate, and when the cover was lifted off, there was a moon cake with a diameter of about one meter inside!This mooncake is made by all the royal chefs. It has four flavors and eight kinds of fillings: sweet, salty, spicy, spicy, red bean paste, assorted, egg yolk and so on.

Kangxi asked people to cut up the mooncakes and distribute them to everyone, and the taste was the taste.It was the first time for everyone to eat such mooncakes, and they couldn't help being very novel.

Kangxi himself also got a piece of mooncake, which was half sweet and half salty, half bean paste and half egg yolk. It was strange to eat it.But it was precisely because of this strangeness that everyone ate happily.

At the end of the feast, many ministers expressed their willingness to take the remaining mooncakes home for their families to taste, so Kangxi asked them to cut the mooncakes into small pieces and let them choose which one to bring.

After the ministers left, Kangxi also returned to the palace. It was still early before the break, and he suddenly wanted to see what Zixiu was doing.

Zixiu didn't do anything. He was sitting outside and watching the moon. Everyone said that the moon at fifteen was sixteen round, but he felt that fifteen was quite round.Maybe it was because the moon was too round, and somehow he thought of his previous life.In the past, every mid-autumn festival was spent with Master, but tonight, Master was too tired and went to bed early, leaving him sitting here alone.

Thinking about it, he felt very lonely.

Then, he thought of Kangxi, and then, he thought of that night...

"Why are you sitting here alone?" Kangxi's voice came from behind, startling Zixiu, and those bad scenes just now disappeared, leaving only his cheeks flushed.

"Your majesty, why are you here? Is the banquet over?" Zixiu stood up and looked at him in embarrassment.

Kangxi narrowed his eyes, sat on the seat where Zixiu sat just now, and said, "I'm not welcome?"

"No, it's just weird..."

"I also find it strange that I suddenly want to see you and know what you are doing. Zixiu, do you think so too?" Kangxi pulled him to sit down together, their figures hidden in the dark, Kangxi And wearing the clothes of a little eunuch, it will not arouse suspicion.

"Yeah." Zixiu nodded, then shook his head, then nodded again, until the end he didn't know what he was thinking.

Kangxi laughed, knowing that he shouldn't push this person too fast, he took Zixiu's hand, Zixiu didn't refuse, but his heart beat a lot faster.The two of them are like first love Lengtouqing, they are happy to hold hands for a long time.

"Grandmother praised you for the delicious dishes today." Kangxi changed the subject, knowing that Zixiu would never speak up if he didn't speak.

"Ah? How do you know which dish was made by me?" Zixiu asked in surprise.

"Seeing how many times you have done Phoenix Spreading Wings, if you still don't know, then am I too stupid?"

Zixiu smiled and said, "But Master also knows how to cook this dish. I learned all my cooking skills from him."

"I've eaten your master's dishes for so many years, and I can still tell the difference. I'm pretty sure that tonight's phoenix spread its wings was made by you." Kangxi concluded.

"Then tell me, what else did I cook?" Zixiu also got excited and started discussing dishes with Kangxi.

Kangxi knew that he would be excited when he mentioned cooking Nanako, so he guessed, "Moon cakes."

"This doesn't count, this is what everyone did together." Zixiu shook his head.

"Panda crab meat?"

"wrong."

"Simmered pheasant bird's nest in a pot?"