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

Liu Mei was very dazed now——what's the situation?

Sister Feng didn't want the Xue family to be in the limelight, but she didn't want to.

Furthermore, Liu Mei clearly remembered that in the original book, it was recorded that Sister Feng ate crabs happily, and Ping'er accidentally smeared the crab roe on her cheeks.Without such a witty character, the crab banquet in Jia's mansion must have lost its color.

The two little girls Liu Mei and Lin Xiaohong couldn't come to an agreement, so Lin Xiaohong could only promise Liu Mei that she would send any news to the garden immediately.But Liu Mei went back first, and discussed with Liu Mu, first deciding which crab dishes to cook tomorrow.

Back in the Grand View Garden, Liu Mei was a little upset, Yue Xing didn't go back to the small kitchen, but walked around the garden to see the sights everywhere.

She strolled to the vicinity of the Osmanthus osmanthus, where the view is the best and the brightest, and a few osmanthus trees were planted nearby, which is a suitable place to appreciate osmanthus.

Sure enough, in the lotus root Champs, the maidservant has prepared two bamboo tables here.Looking aside, the tea stove for warming wine and making tea has also been moved here.Presumably there will be someone here tomorrow to guard the wine, warm the wine, and cook the tea.

Those who appreciate osmanthus and crab can taste the freshly cooked tea and wine while facing the scenery in front of them-Liu Mei feels comfortable just thinking about it.

It can be seen that the person in charge is thoughtful.

Liu Mei thought about this, and saw Ying'er, the big maid next to Baochai, turn around, looked around, felt quite satisfied, nodded, gave a few more instructions, and then went.

Liu Mei just noticed that the maids and servants here are not very familiar, presumably they should be from Hengwuyuan, or even Xue's family came in to help.

——Shouldn’t the person hosting the crab feast be Shi Xiangyun?Liu Mei wondered secretly in her heart.

This crab feast can almost be regarded as another grand event in Daguanyuan since Yuanchun family visit.The organizer is Shi Xiangyun in name, but in fact, it is the Xue family behind Xue Baochai who pays for the money and goods and produces the crabs.

In name, Baochai only said that she was "helping" Xiangyun, but now it seems that she is taking care of everything.In the end, in front of Jiamu and other elders, Baochai not only appeared to be virtuous and friendly, but also gained a reputation as a good manager of affairs and family, killing two birds with one stone.

No matter how you look at it, Baochai is the one who gains in the end.

And what about Xiangyun?Xiangyun just went out to treat guests, but she didn't actually do anything... However, given Xiangyun's embarrassment now, she can't do anything, she can only give Baochai a chance for nothing, and she owes Baochai a favor for it.

Thinking of this, Liu Mei frowned, thinking, Miss Shi, alas, autumn is here, let's take nourishment and make up for it!

She turned and went back to the kitchenette.At this time, the person from Xue's family who sent crabs had arrived, and he brought a large basket of crabs to Mother Liu to see, and was about to hand them over two times.

"This summer is very hot, such a big crab must be quite rare!"

Mother Liu greeted the members of the Xue family with a warm face.Pointing to the palm-sized crabs in the basket, she said, "Such a basket would cost ten taels of silver to get it?"

The maidservant of the Xue family nodded and said with a smile: "Isn't it? But these are from the family's property, and the consumption is limited after all."

The woman went on to say: "You have one basket here, and one basket in the big kitchen. If you buy it outside, it will cost at least 20 taels of silver. You see, they are still alive. If you clean them tonight, you have to remember to finish them." Tie them all up with ropes, otherwise they will crawl all over the ground."

Saying that, the maidservant of the Xue family got up and said goodbye.

"Mother, I found out!" Liu Mei hurriedly told Mother Liu about the cook of Xue's family.

Unexpectedly, Mother Liu also spoke up, "I found out too."

The mother and daughter exchanged the news they had heard with each other.The more Liu Mei heard it, the more startled she became, and she couldn't help but admire her mother for being well connected, and she had heard much more things than what was reported by Sister Feng.

It turns out that for tomorrow's crab feast, not only the cooks from the Xue family will use the big kitchen of the Rong Mansion, but also the cooks from the Dong Mansion will be brought over by You and others, so there are three chefs in total, who will cook together in two places.

The reason why the Xue family sent a cook over to make crab dishes is said to be because Xue Pan saw that the business of Jingzhong restaurants is booming recently, especially those restaurants that only serve high-end noodles. Still hard to find a seat.The Xue family was also tempted, and since they already had capital, the Xue family wanted to open another similar one.

Now that the Xue family has found a cook they like, they want to use this crab feast to try the taste of the chef's cooking, whether they like the big families in Beijing or not.So when Aunt Xue talked to Mrs. Wang, Mrs. Wang nodded and allowed Xue's cook to use the big kitchen tomorrow.

After hearing the news, Mother Jia named Ningguo Mansion after thinking about it, and ordered Youshi Ming'er to bring the cook from Ningguo Mansion too.This means that it seems that there is a bit of reluctance—at least not that the Xue family will dominate the crab feast tomorrow.

When she heard Mother Liu talking about the restaurant business, Liu Mei was secretly dumbfounded: Isn't this just talking about Hongshun Tower?

She followed this line of thought and thought one by one: Sister Feng opened Hongshunlou, and Xue's family envied such a business as Hongshunlou, so the old Xue's family wanted to follow suit and open a family, so they planned to take advantage of tomorrow. It's a chance to show off the newly hired cook at the crab feast—that's right, there's nothing wrong with it!

It seems that this is a small change caused by a small move by Sister Feng in the world of Red Mansions.And this change finally affected Jia's mansion and her Liu Mei in turn.

Liu Mei is in a daze here, but Liu Mu is worried.

"Mei'er, Lian Er|Grandma pointed out that we should not lose our reputation in the house, but I heard that Xue's cook is a famous chef hired from outside... Tell me, what kind of dishes do we make so that we don't lose our reputation so much? ?”

"Mother, what kind of dishes did you cook when you ate crabs in the mansion?" Liu Mei thinks that Mother Liu is more experienced.

"Where do you make any dishes? Crabs, just steam them. After steaming, take out a big steamer. The wives and grandmas can take as much as they eat. The rest are still in the steamer. What if the steamer gets cold? , and then return to the pot to steam. In fact, crabs are cold, and the house is full of wives, grandmas and girls, and they can eat one or two at most, which is almost the same.”

Liu Mei asked: "Then...if there are still crabs left, what should we do?"

"The rest must be steamed on the same day. Take out the crab meat, add minced ginger and fry it in oil, and then eat small dumplings with crab fillings together with minced chicken."

"Eh..." Liu Mei remembered this, and she also remembered Jia's mother's evaluation of it, which seemed to be, "Greasy, who eats that!"

"Then—" she asked her mother mutteringly, "Have you found out what Xue's cook is going to do?"

Mother Liu said angrily, "I thought your mother was asking for information!"

She sighed depressingly, and said: "I heard that they are all big dishes, such as dried abalone, sea cucumber, yuan scallop... always bring a lot of precious materials into the kitchen, as if the Xue family got these things for free .”

"If tomorrow... Minger loses face to Lian Er|Grandma, then it will be good!" Mother Liu sighed.

The trainee chef in the small kitchen, who has not been in office for a long time, panicked when he saw it - if he messed up the crab feast this time, he would lose face to Sister Feng.Mother Liu remembered very clearly that Ping'er said to her face, "You were recommended by grandma, if grandma loses face, grandma won't dare to use you again" and other words.

"Mother, don't panic, our primary goal should be to defeat the cooks of the East Mansion first." Liu Mei began to come up with crooked ideas to comfort her mother—at least we can't be the bottom ones!

"That's not going to work. You said it yourself just now. Grandma passed down the message that you can't teach the Xue family to show off all the limelight. Does that mean..."

Liu Mei thought about it, yes, in the end they would PK the cooks from the Ning Mansion, but taught the cooks from the Xue Family to take the lead, maybe Sister Feng would blame them even more.

"Mom, let's think about it first, what dishes can stand out. Look through the kitchen again to see if there are any ingredients that are suitable for crabs... Prepare everything that needs to be soaked and served. .”

When talking about materials, Liu Mei paused for a moment, she suddenly thought of her system - the Shiqing system is not online at the moment, and she has nowhere to buy materials.Liu Mei was silent for a moment, then clenched her fists and decided to be stronger, after all, she couldn't rely on the system for everything, and she didn't want to rely on others for everything.

"That's the only way to go." Mother Liu sighed, and then she remembered that she had to bring people to prepare dinner for everyone in the Grand View Garden tonight.

By the time the work is done and cleaned up, the sky is full of stars.

Liu Mei was alone, standing outside the small kitchen, quietly thinking about the crab feast she knew from the beginning to the end, but she couldn't think of any particularly brilliant dishes, which she was sure could beat the ones hired from outside. of professional cooks.

Mother Liu thought she was going back to Yihong Courtyard, so she quickly took out a cellophane-covered palace lantern, handed it to Liu Mei, and said, "I borrowed this from Xiang Ye's mother-in-law, make it brighter, Meier, you!" Be careful, don't walk on that big rock, be careful to step on the moss and slip..."

Liu Mei also felt nagging, she was no longer a child, so she would naturally be careful when walking at night.But listening to mother Liu's nagging, my heart warmed, and I turned to look at my mother, and said, "Don't worry, mother! We can definitely figure out a way."

Mother Liu stretched out her hand and patted her on the head, saying, "Go! Don't delay too late, come over to Mother's place tomorrow morning to help!"

Liu Mei nodded, holding up the lantern, discerned the direction, and went to Yihong Courtyard.

Passing Hengwuyuan on the way, Liu Mei saw that Hengwuyuan was brightly lit.Liu Mei knew that it should be Xiangyun and Baochai who were drafting the title of the chrysanthemum poem overnight.As for Baochai, I am afraid that he still has to make detailed preparations for tomorrow's crab feast.

She went forward with a lantern.

When passing the Xiaoxiang Pavilion, Liu Mei saw that the light in Daiyu's bedroom was still on in the Xiaoxiang Pavilion, and knew that Daiyu was probably reading at night.

In fact, Liu Mei had a secret thought in her heart, whether she should come forward and ask Daiyu.With Daiyu's profound knowledge, maybe she can give her some advice.Just like in Qiushuangzhai earlier, when Daiyu gave a hint, she immediately understood it.Daiyu could also understand her good intentions and explained her fish soup perfectly.

But she hesitated all the time, Daiyu needed maintenance, and she didn't want to trouble Daiyu rashly for such a troublesome matter.

Sure enough, just as Liu Mei walked a few steps, the light in Daiyu's bedroom was turned off.Liu Mei knew that Daiyu needed to go to bed early, so of course she didn't want to disturb her.

But... But what about tomorrow's crab dishes?

Liu Mei remembered Daiyu's words, the book has its own golden house - she simply put aside the original work and recalled the records about crab eating recorded in the previous books.

Mr. Yuan Mei, Mr. Yuan?Needless to say, this one, as can be seen from the length of "Suiyuan Food List", this old gentleman obviously likes tofu more than crab.

Regardless of Yuan Mei, Li Yu also remembered a crab dish in "Idle Love Occasionally". She remembered that it was "land mushrooms, water shields, crab yellows, and fish ribs"—that is, shiitake mushrooms, water shields, and sea bass fillets. , cook the soup together, and finally pour a spoonful of crab powder on top. The name is Simei Geng, which means to collect delicious food from all over the world.

Thinking of this, Liu Mei became depressed again—she didn't have water shield, and she couldn't buy it from the system.

Forget it, this is really not an option, she sees if there is a way tomorrow morning, and sneaks out to buy—but, thinking about this, she feels very aggrieved, Xiangyun treats guests, Baochai shows off, why do you want her? Take out your body and go out to buy materials?

Liu Mei walked a few steps, and Yihong Courtyard was in front of her eyes.The lantern in her hand was shaken by the wind, Liu Mei thought, after all, she is a cross-traveling party, and those delicacies of later generations will not help her at all?

Molecular gastronomy?Or creative dishes?Or the seasoning that only came later, the spicy crab?Curry crab?Butter crab? ...Liu Mei was almost taken aback by herself.

Liu Mei thought a lot, but in the end, she always felt vaguely that her direction seemed to be wrong—she was always thinking about what dishes to use to beat the professional chefs outside, but...does she need this?

Back to Yihong Courtyard, the lights-out time of Yihong Courtyard is obviously later.At this point, the maids and maids in Yihong Courtyard were still chatting, laughing and playing.

Qingwen looked at the flower Chunyan drew for her under the lamp, sighed and said, "I asked you to draw a delicate pattern, so that it can be embroidered on the side of this golden thread peony, but you can draw me a peony." Come on, what's going on here?"

Chunyan pursed her mouth, and came out again with a new look, took it under the lamp, and prepared to draw another intersection.

"Hey, Liu Mei is back?" Chunyan turned her head to look at Liu Mei, "What's so good, why are you so happy?"

Liu Mei was indeed smiling.

She had already thought about it.