Tang's dining table

There is a widespread rumor among the common people that the best food in Chang'an is in Jinchangfang. However, these rumors are still not worth mentioning to the nobles.

It doesn't matter, and there is nothing surprising. Since ancient times, the lives of the powerful have been incompatible with the lives of the common people.

The more the Guizhou leaders like something, the more the nobles should avoid it, lest they pick up some Guizhou habits and make others laugh.

The things that Guizhou leaders like are generally like a gust of wind. They will dissipate immediately after blowing over, leaving nothing behind.

There seems to be something different this time. There are more and more legends about Jinchangfang, and gradually many people can't sit still.

If King Ji Li Shen doesn't eat a bowl of light scallion noodles every morning, he will feel that he has no energy for the whole day.

Ji Wang Li Shen has his own understanding of eating noodles. He believes that the first pot of noodle soup every day is the essence of the noodle soup.

Put the noodles into the pot and turn them around a few times, and then pick them out from the pot. While they are hot, add scallions and boil them in oil until they are yellow and fragrant. Then sprinkle some green onions and toss them vigorously. Mix the noodles well.

When you take the first bite, you must open your mouth wide and pick up enough noodles with your chopsticks, because in the first bite, you basically eat more than half of the value of the bowl of noodles.

You need to chew the first bite a few times before eating it, because you need to take advantage of the aroma of scallion oil still lingering in your mouth to quickly find the few shredded pork in the toppings, wrap the shredded pork with noodles, and serve it quickly again In the mouth, when you take a bite, the aroma of meat will burst out, and then the salty and fresh taste will appear again. Even because of the meat, the aroma is far less than the first bite.

After eating two mouthfuls of noodles, Li Shen basically lost his appetite for the remaining noodles, and would usually give them to his personal eunuch to eat.

He wanted to save his appetite and continue to taste the tender tofu, as soft as white jade.

Of course, it must be the first spoonful that comes out of the first pot. Sometimes the women in the cafeteria are too stupid to control the heat well, which makes the soft tofu at the bottom of the pot taste a little burnt.

When Li Shen eats soft tofu, he doesn't need anything except pouring some icing sugar water on it.

He discovered this way of eating it himself, because he really didn't like adding dark salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and dogwood water to the white jade-like soft tofu.

He thought it was a waste of natural resources, and talked about it with Yun Chu many times, thinking that icing sugar water should be used, and it must be icing sugar water made by boiling the icing sugar until it is brown and then boiling it with water, so that the tender texture will have a strong caramel flavor. Tofu is the delicacy in the world.

As a result, he was sternly rejected by Yun Chu for one reason. A bowl of soft tofu only cost two cents, and the icing sugar used by Li Shen to make caramel water cost at least twenty cents.

Thinking of this, Li Shen felt very depressed. He quickly took five bites of soft tofu and immediately moved the battlefield to the bun area.

Although the name of pig meat has long been changed to pork by Yun Chu, the name has changed, but the content remains the same. This cannot deceive a knowledgeable person like Li Shen. Therefore, even though the pig meat buns look good and smell delicious , he still didn’t want to eat steamed buns, he only ate beef and leek fillings.

In the Tang Dynasty, it was a serious crime to slaughter cattle without permission and you would be exiled.

The beef here in Yunchu comes from the Hu people. It is said that it is a kind of black cattle on the plateau with long hair that is useless except for eating meat.

The Hu people would use the cattle to carry goods when there were not enough camels. After the goods arrived in Chang'an, the cattle lost their use and were eventually eaten by the people.

No matter how delicious the buns are, he will only eat three, and he will only eat one for each meal. This is the rule Sun Simiao set for him, and he has adhered to it for more than 20 years.

After eating the steamed buns, it usually happens to be a good time for the sun to rise, and also when the gate of Jinchangfang opens wide.

Don't ask how Li Shen got in. Even if a Yongzhou shepherd no longer has the power, he still has the power to open a door from the market wall for his own house. No matter how he has no power, he can still open a small door to Jinchangfang.

He would quietly come in and leave through the small door every day. Although the young bathhouse owner in Jinchangfang always wanted him to go into the bathhouse and experience it again, Li Shen always scoffed. He had better ones at home. The people who were waiting for him to take a bath were all beauties, not the little guys here who had lumps and muscles on their arms.

Today was the day to enter the palace and express brotherly love with the emperor. He actually wanted to give his brother some of the delicacies he had tasted in Jinchangfang, and also asked him to taste the flavor of fireworks.

It's a pity that his brother doesn't dare to eat the food he sent, so he can only eat the food given by his brother.

It's actually not easy to think about my brother. Recently, Chu Suiliang once again rejected the idea of ​​promoting Wu Gongren to Zhaoyi.

Li Shen believed that the reason why his brother recruited him into the palace at this moment was to gain royal support from him.

Li Shen felt that Chu Suiliang was a bit unnecessary. This was a matter within the palace and had nothing to do with him, a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty.

Even if the Wugong people had served their father, now that the emperor is the emperor, as long as the emperor does not dislike him, it would not be a big deal. You must know that the father did not even let go of the former Empress Xiao of the Sui Dynasty who was over forty years old. Now The imperial brother just wants a woman who has been abandoned by his father long ago. This is really nothing.

When the carriage and horses entered the Tai Chi Palace, Li Shen felt inexplicably irritable. If the emperor hadn't invited him here, he would never have wanted to step into this deep, hot, humid, and bloody old palace.

While waiting at the steps of Hanyuan Hall, Li Shen saw a colorful butterfly dancing on the gardenia tree. He wanted to catch it, but he stood up straighter to make his figure look taller.

There was no need to go to court today, so Li Zhi got up a little later. Wu Mei personally opened the heavy curtains and opened the windows to let the morning sun shine into the deep hall.

Li Zhi looked at Wu Mei, who was bloated and bathed in the sun, with a smile on his face. This woman was good at everything, but she got pregnant too easily.

"Your Majesty, King Ji Li Shen wishes to see you."

After hearing the report from the chamberlain, Li Zhi stood up and asked the palace servants to help him get dressed. When he was finished wearing his clothes, he said to Wu Mei, "Just wait to be your Zhaoyi."

"Will King Ji agree?"

"He will." Li Zhi replied and left the palace and went straight to Hanyuan Hall.

After respectfully seeing the emperor off, Wu Mei said to a palace maid: "Chunzhi, go to Hanyuan Hall to deliver some snacks to His Majesty and Prince Ji. Your Majesty got up late today and hasn't eaten yet."

The palace servant agreed and hurriedly went to prepare. She knew that sending meals to the emperor and Prince Ji was a lie, and listening to what they said was the most important thing.

When she arrived at the Hanyuan Hall, she found that the emperor and Prince Ji were talking very happily, but did not mention anything about the empress' promotion to Zhaoyi. However, seeing the emperor so happy, it must have been settled.

Li Shen happily accepted the invitation to eat, and deliberately picked up the food sent by the palace servants into his own plate one by one before the emperor, and then ate it hungrily.

After eating, he wiped his mouth and said to Li Zhi with a smile: "Brother, I am not talking about you as a younger brother, but the meal you ate is not as good as the meal my younger brother eats in the morning."

Li Zhi ate a quail egg and said disdainfully: "It's not as good as what you eat. You were so greedy just now."

Li Shen looked around and found that only the palace servants and eunuchs were there, so he said with a smile: "The emperor gave you food. As a younger brother, you must eat sweet food. This is a courtesy, just like the emperor gnaws at the end of paying homage to his ancestors." Cold pork, isn’t that delicious?”

Li Zhi snorted noncommittally and said, "Asshole, can this be compared?"

"Hahaha, my brother is guilty, but today I had my morning meal at Jinchangfang. Brother Huang, you might as well guess how many types of court food there are in Jinchangfang."

Li Zhi pointed to the dazzling array of food on the table with his chopsticks and said, "It won't be as rich as here."

Li Shen smiled and said: "My brother just counted, there are only sixteen kinds of court food in front of the emperor, two kinds of soups and four kinds of cakes, a total of twenty-two.

My younger brother asked the steward of the dining hall and found out that there are sixty-eight kinds of food in the Jinchangfang dining hall, six kinds of soups, and twenty kinds of cakes. "

Li Zhi's hands stopped picking up the vegetables, and his eyes became cold at the same time. He looked at Li Shen and said, "Is this the end of luxury in the world? Whose family spends so much on their breakfast?"

Li Shen said with a smile: "These foods belong to the people of Chang'an. As long as you have a few dollars in your pocket, you can go in and choose the foods you like."

After hearing Li Shen's explanation, Li Zhi's cold eyes gradually warmed up, and he said calmly: "It turns out to be a restaurant. Could it be said that the cook in your Prince Ji's Mansion is not as good as the cook in a restaurant?

If you like, you can take the cook away from that restaurant and it will be considered a reward from me. "

Li Shen smiled and said, "Thank you, brother, for the reward, but I can't afford to keep so many cooks."

Li Zhi was stunned for a moment and said: "How much?"

Li Shen said: "If we continue to buy and run away, including all the people cleaning up, there will be no less than five hundred people."

"Five hundred people?" Li Zhi was so surprised that he almost threw away his chopsticks. He slowly put down his chopsticks and said, "You said that there are only five hundred people in a restaurant, just the cooks and cooks?"

Li Shen said disapprovingly: "There are a lot of people eating. I wonder, brother Huang, have you ever seen thousands of people dining together?"

"Thousands of people are still together. Are these people all Chang'an people?"

"My brother, I can guarantee this. They are all Chang'an people, there are also many barbarians, and scholars who went to Beijing to prepare for the exam. Of course, there will be more merchants, and some people go there to eat almost every day.

The imperial brother didn't know something. Every day when he saw those people saluting the giant phoenix before entering the square gate, his eyes were actually a little moist. "