[Red Mansion] A little chef came to the Grand View Garden

Lin Xiaohong was right, Chef Shao, the head chef of Hongshun Building, was indeed on the verge of death at this time—partly because he was anxious to death, and partly because he was frightened to death—mainly the latter, because he had never seen such a big dish before. battles.

"Is the red girl here yet?"

Chef Shao leaned his body out, looking anxiously at the endless stream of vehicles and pedestrians at the gate of the tea garden, "If it is a moment later, and the gate is closed, no one will be able to enter the garden again tonight—"

"Die!" Chef Shao thought of this, stretched out his arms, and slapped heavily on the white jade railing in front of him.

Not far from him, also in front of the white jade railing, stood a tall and handsome young man. Hearing the words, he said indifferently: "Tonight will definitely be a rare event. I will spend my whole life waiting for a cook. It may not be possible to meet such an opportunity, why did Master Shao say such a thing?"

Chef Shao was choked back by this man, but he couldn't refute.He was really excited, but he was unavoidably nervous. Hearing the other party's taunts, he couldn't help but angrily said: "Brother Xie, we should be on the same side tonight!"

Although the weather is already cold, Ke Xie Xiaochuan is still wearing the blue cotton robe.Similar to Liu Mei's usual habits, the long sleeves of Xie Xiaochuan's padded robe were rolled up and tied tightly with string, exposing his muscular forearm.

"The one on my side should be the one you're waiting for!" Hearing Chef Shao's retort, Xie Xiaochuan just leaned on the white jade railing, his expression unchanged, and he replied lightly.

Chef Shao was shocked immediately.

Yes, who told him that he has no tolerance or confidence from others?

Chef Shao sighed, unable to think about it, he could only look down at the gate of the garden again.

In fact, at this time, Liu Mei and the others' car were also driving into the tea garden along with the slow traffic at the gate of the garden.

"What kind of place is this?" Liu Mei had an unbelievable expression on her face, she was slightly opening the curtain hanging on the side of the cart and looking outside.

The place is already quite noisy, and there are voices of yelling and selling from time to time: "Proprietary steamed buns: steamed buns with filling, thin-skinned shrimp meat buns, mixed fish noodles, and boiled big bone soup!..."

"...This shop also sells blood tofu, tofu soup, fried tofu, boiled snails, and clam meat. It's great with wine!"

"'Dawantou', three or two bowls are acceptable, guests and officials are welcome!" ①Liu Mei likes to hear the cries of these market snacks the most, which seems to make her travel back to her own time and space, where the most ordinary, but Look for the most down-to-earth delicacies in the most vibrant streets and alleys.

The surprise on her face was also seen by Xiao Hong who came with her.

"Have you forgotten that you are Master Liu now?" Xiaohong smiled narrowly at her, Liu eyebrows were startled, and then she realized that she is no longer the humble little maid in Jia's mansion, she is at least now Possess the appearance and identity of a man.

So she opened the curtain of the cart openly and poked her head out to have a look.

There was a lot of noise outside, and Liu Mei's exclamation or admiration was immediately drowned in the rushing sound waves.

She could hardly believe her eyes—

The car that Liu Mei was in was slowly driving into a huge courtyard like many other cars around.On both sides of the courtyard at the entrance, there are restaurants and tea shops. The doors of the shops are all painted in gold, with crimson green curtains and gardenia lamps pasted with gold and red gauze. , I don't know how much deeper it is.

However, this is only the entrance, and if you walk tens of feet further in, you can see that the buildings on both sides are getting taller and taller, and the sound of hawking and shouting has gradually changed to the sound of silk, bamboo and drum music.Looking around, I can see that there are seats on the north and south corridors. At the moment, the lights are brightly lit, and there are dozens of girls with heavy makeup sitting along the corridors, waiting for the call of the drinkers at any time.And Liu Mei can't enjoy such a beautiful blessing, but looking from the bottom up, she only feels that the person above is extremely beautiful, like a delicate flower in full bloom.

She turned her head and saw that directly in front of the vehicle was a fortified building with brilliant lights, towering into the sky.

At this moment, Liu Mei heard a rattling sound behind her, and when she looked back, she saw that the garden gate she passed by when she came here had been slowly closed.

For some reason, at the moment the garden gate was closed, there was a burst of cheers in the garden, and the surrounding lights suddenly turned on a little bit. Liu Mei only heard a beautiful female voice singing in the distance: "You are born less than a hundred years old, and you are always pregnant." Worrying for a thousand years; the days are short and the nights are long, why not swim with a candle?"

As soon as the ending sound fell, the whole garden seemed to sing along with it, singing the lyrics from the beginning again.

This is a nightless carnival city, a city of entertainment, where food and wine are shuttled, adding ultimate enjoyment to people.

Seeing the singing and laughter in her ears, Liu Mei didn't realize that the blood in her body was gradually churning and heating up.She hurriedly sat back, turned her head to look at Xiaohong, and asked, "This...what is this tea garden?"

Seeing that Liu Mei looked like a grandma Liu who had just entered the Grand View Garden, Xiaohong couldn't help but cover her mouth and chuckle.

"This is a place for people to have fun and entertainment all night long." Xiaohong explained to Liu Mei, "There is a curfew outside the unitary hour, but there is no such thing here. You saw the garden gate closed just now, that is exactly the time of Xu .”

"Mingyuan?" Liu Mei lowered her head again, and said the name twice, after all, she didn't remember it.She can guarantee that such a huge amusement facility has never been mentioned in the original book.

Xiaohong next to her smiled at her: "Have you ever heard a poem, 'Fangyuan is built to the west of the imperial city'②? Fangyuan is talking about this place. It's just that the word 'Fang' once violated the taboo of the former empress. , so it was changed to 'Mingyuan'; over time, everyone only remembers Mingyuan, not the old 'Fangyuan'."

"Fang Garden is built to the west of the Imperial City?" Liu Mei thought, and felt that this poem was very familiar, but couldn't remember it for a while.

At this moment, Lin Xiaohong also poked her head out to look around, and said, "Mei'er, we're almost there!"

Seeing that Liu Mei didn't respond in a daze, she went to pull her sleeves, but saw Liu Mei was staring at the distant buildings at the moment, a tall and tall figure with complicated eyes, unable to speak a word.

The tea garden was unprecedentedly grand, radiant and lively, full of laughter, swallows dancing and singing.But in Liu Mei's eyes, there was only that one person.

"Meier?!" Xiaohong asked her friend in surprise.

Liu Mei was patted and questioned by Xiao Hong, suddenly her whole body shook, and then she seemed to wake up suddenly, but she just lowered her head and retreated into the car.She gritted her teeth and said nothing.

Could it be - he really came back from Ping'an Prefecture?

The slender figure in royal blue uniform, without any other evidence, she knew that he was the loyal and obedient Prince Shiqing.

It's just that since that person has returned, where has her system gone?

Liu Mei kept calling quietly, but in her consciousness, the system never went online.

Liu Mei only cares about herself in a daze, but Xiao Hong beside her panicked, she hurried forward and hugged Liu Mei's arm tightly, and whispered in her ear.

"Mei'er, listen carefully, what happened to you today is a rare event."

Xiaohong knew that telling this matter would definitely cheer up Liu Mei - after all, she is a girl who loves to eat so much and knows how to cook like that.

Sure enough, the more Liu Mei listened, the more curious she became. She really put Shiqing aside for the time being, and turned to ask Xiaohong: "The four major cuisines are coming to Beijing? Is this true?"

The four major cuisines of later generations, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, and Huaiyang cuisine, were basically finalized in the early Qing Dynasty, and later developed into eight major cuisines in the late Qing Dynasty, and then extended many innovative schools.

But she didn't expect that in this world of Red Mansions, there would be such a big event as the entry of the four major cuisines into Beijing.

Xiaohong counted her fingers: "Simeiju in Jinan, Jiudawan in Chengdu, Sanhe Pavilion in Yangzhou, and Yangquan Restaurant in Guangzhou..."

Liu Mei: Er, how come there is Yangquan Restaurant?

"These four come to Beijing, and name the restaurants with the best dishes in Beijing." Xiaohong continued to add background knowledge to Liu Mei, "The president of the Jingli Chamber of Commerce recommended Taibailou and our Hongshunlou. But Taibailou Mr. Bai has retired for many years and has no plans to come out again, so he recommended the chef of a new restaurant..."

Speaking of this, Xiao Hong glanced at Liu Mei, "Speaking of it, you can recognize her, his surname is Xie..."

Liu Mei: Er, Xie Xiaochuan...

She looked at Xiaohong: "Could it be that Xue's restaurant business has started?"

Xiao Hong nodded helplessly.She was ordered by Sister Feng to run around and take care of the business of Hongshun Building.At this time, suddenly there was a very powerful competitor, and the Xue family was behind him, and Xiaohong herself was very embarrassed.

"What's the name of the restaurant?" Liu Mei asked.

"Call 'and stop'!" Xiaohong replied.

And stop - stay for a while, just have a drink and rest for a while.

Liu Mei thought about it, this name, of course, could be an elegant name for a restaurant, but it would actually be good if it were a snack shop selling road vegetables next to the official posthouse.

Sure enough, Miss Xue started to implement her plan.

Liu Mei thought for a while, and then suddenly came to her senses: "Old Master Bai knows Xiao Chuan a little better, so he wants to be with us tonight..."

Lin Xiaohong nodded and said, "Fight side by side."

Liu Mei imagined that lifeless, neither salty nor dull face out of thin air, thinking that such a person would be her teammate, she couldn't help but flatten her mouth.

But Xiaohong still hugged Liu Mei's arm, and said: "It's all my fault—you also know that Master Shao has been working hard since you tamed him, but he still lacks a little bit of your kindness." Kind of arrogant. Unfortunately, I just mentioned that you once outperformed Xie Xiaochuan in the garden with your real skills, and he was willing to admit defeat. Then Master Shao begged me to bring you here, saying that there was no more. You, he really has no confidence."

Liu Mei was really speechless to this Chef Shao.

It seemed that she had overcorrected last time, a dish of tofu beat Chef Shao back to his original form, although he also helped him up, but in the final analysis, compared with Xie Xiaochuan, this person still lacked a lot of youthful and frivolous arrogance.

Although it's better to be humble at ordinary times, but on this kind of occasion, you just need the courage of no one in the world dares to PK with me.Even if he is really inferior in skills, can he still be able to bluff people?

"How do you compare?" Liu Mei asked Xiaohong softly.

But Xiao Hong cheered at this, and rushed forward and hugged Liu Mei's neck tightly, "I'm afraid you won't agree!"

"That's right," Liu Mei pulled her friend off her body, "Now the two of us look like two big men, so it's shameless to hug each other like this!"

Xiaohong didn't care about this, she still hugged Liu Mei's arm, shook it for a while, and then explained the competition system to Liu Mei in detail.

The competition system is very simple, the organizer does not limit the materials, and the materials are prepared by each family before the closure of the tea garden.After the garden was closed, each family began to make their special dishes, which were presented one by one in the order of cold dish, stir-fried, stewed and soup, and tasted by the judges.In every link, the jury will select the worst one and kick it out of the competition.

After four rounds of competition, the one remaining in the end is naturally the winner.

For each side, there are four cold dishes, four stir-fries, four stews, and two soups.

Liu Mei heard about the characteristics and advantages of these major cuisines, and suddenly remembered something, and quickly asked Xiaohong: "Since the four major cuisines have entered Beijing, what kind of cuisine are we?"

What she is good at, after all, is the Red Mansion cuisine.The dishes of the Red House are similar to Huaiyang cuisine, with southern flavors as the mainstay and northern flavors as well.Competing with the four major cuisines, it is not an easy task to beat the three powerful factions of Lu, Sichuan and Guangdong, but also to compete with Huaiyang cuisine from the same source.

After hearing this, Xiaohong said: "It's the name given by Mr. Bai. He said that the two restaurants are mainly engaged in the business of high-ranking officials and dignitaries in Beijing. Named, it is simply called 'official cuisine'."

After hearing this, Liu Mei silently extended her thumbs up to praise the old man's ability to summarize.However, later generations did indeed, as the old man Bai said, the official cuisine was born.

In fact, Liu Mei has always had a dream in her heart. She hopes that the dining style of the Red House can be carried forward and become a self-contained, forming a cuisine.Even if there is no chance to form a cuisine, it would be good if she can open a private restaurant with this theme.It's just that her dream was too far away before time travel, and after she time travel, this dream became even more out of reach.

The car stopped for a while, Lin Xiaohong flicked the long braids on the back of her head, walked through a porch with Liumei, and quickly went upstairs along a bright and dark spiral staircase.I don't know how long she climbed to the high place, Xiaohong turned into a bright corridor with Liu Mei, and the sight suddenly opened up, and the grand view of the whole tea garden came into view.

With eyes of admiration, Liu Mei couldn't help stepping forward, reaching out to hold the white jade railing.Beside her, a young man in a blue robe turned his face slightly, nodded at her, and said flatly, "Master Liu, hello!"

Liu Mei knew that she couldn't hide Xie Xiaochuan's disguise like this, and it was rare that Xie Xiaochuan was so obedient and refused to expose her daughter's identity in person.

"Master Xie, hello." Liu Mei greeted back and went back, remembering what Xie Xiaochuan said last time, the next time we meet, we will still be opponents.It's a pity that God failed to fulfill people's wishes. This time they met on such an occasion, they actually needed cooperation.

"Miss Liu..." In it, Chef Shao and the "inexperienced" second chef ran out of it together in surprise and joy.After being gouged out by Lin Xiaohong and Liu Mei at the same time, Chef Shao knew how to change his words, and called out embarrassingly, "Master Liu!"

"I just arrived, and I plan to rest for a while. For the first batch of cold dishes, please leave it to the two of you!" Liu Mei said honestly.

"This..." Chef Shao was obviously still not confident.It should be noted that without the diamond, how dare you take on the porcelain work?Since the four restaurants in Beijing can represent their respective cuisines, they must all have their own famous skills.

"Five into four in the first round, don't tell me I can't do it!" Liu Mei reached out to knock on the blackboard... There was no blackboard to knock on, so she could only pat on the white jade railing beside her.

The author has something to say: This chapter has a little more notes, so let’s take it slowly: ① For the description of the snacks sold at the entrance of the tea garden, refer to the chapter “Wine House” in Volume [-] of “Meng Liang Lu”, which actually describes After the Song dynasty crossed south, the bustling scene in the city of Hangzhou (emphasis is drawn, it has nothing to do with the background of the Red Mansion).The situation in the tea garden below is about eighty percent, and this article is also referred to, but it is not copied from the original text.

② "Fangyuan is built to the west of the imperial city", originally the first sentence at the beginning of a custom poem written by Baochai when Yuanchun was visiting relatives, originally meant the Grand View Garden.This place has become a tea garden because... this world is a little abnormal.