Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 180 What comes and goes
After finishing get off work at 5 o'clock, Chen Fan tidied up and went to Master Lu's house.

As soon as I opened the door, I smelled a rich aroma of braised chicken with potatoes. Master Lu was holding a copy of "The Collected Works of Mr. Li" and reading it with great interest.

This is also the only book that is visible in his room.

Upon seeing Chen Fan approach, he closed his book and prepared to move the table.

Chen Fan quickly stopped him, "Slow down, old man, let me do it."

He's over seventy years old and still has a limp; I'm really worried he might bump into something and get into an accident.

Seeing his actions, Master Lu went along with it and refrained from showing off, chuckling as he went back to his room to put away his books.

When they came out again, Chen Fan had already set out the bowls and chopsticks, and even put a wooden board on top as a mat, then brought over the casserole and placed it there.

Master Lu took out a plate of braised fish and a small dish of tofu from the cupboard, and said with a chuckle, "During the New Year, we can do without meat, but we can't do without fish, because it's a good omen of 'abundance year after year.' As for tofu, it's said to be 'vegetarian meat,' and it also symbolizes that one should be honest and upright. So these two dishes are indispensable on the dinner table."

As Chen Fan poured the wine, he asked, "How about tofu balls instead? I don't have any fresh tofu on hand."

He did have a small stone mill to grind soybeans, but he forgot to buy brine. Without brine, he couldn't make brine, and without brine, he couldn't curdle tofu. Regular salt could also be used to curdle tofu, but the tofu would be too soft and only suitable for soup, so he simply didn't use it.

Hearing his words, Master Lu was both amused and exasperated. He shook his head and said, "If you don't have tofu, tofu balls will do. It's just for the sake of symbolism."

Then, with a touch of melancholy, he said, "In the early years, there were times when there was no tofu. What did we do? I would get some soybeans, cook them, grind them, and make soy milk to barely pass as tofu. Later, when even soybeans ran out, I simply sliced ​​cabbage stalks and pretended they were tofu. Since they were all white, it was plausible."

He didn't say what to do if there are no fish. In this place, there might be nothing, but there can't be no fish!
Whether it's a big fish or a small fish, catching a small crucian carp weighing about two ounces is still not difficult.

Chen Fan listened to the old man finish telling his story before lifting the lid of the earthenware pot.

A wisp of white steam rose up, and the aroma instantly became ten times stronger, spreading throughout the room.

The pot is filled with oily potatoes and chicken pieces, mixed with red chili sauce, and sprinkled with chopped green onions, making it look incredibly appetizing.

Despite the thick fog, Master Lu's face broke into a wide smile.

Having fish and tofu on the table is nice, but having meat and wine, and most importantly, having people, is what makes it a proper New Year celebration!
Whether it was from the fog or something else, Master Lu took out a handkerchief to wipe his eyes, then picked up his wine glass and said, "Come on, let's have a drink. Happy New Year to you."

Chen Fan held the wine cup with both hands, lowered the rim of the cup to touch it, and chuckled, "Happy New Year, Grandpa."

After taking a small sip, Chen Fan put down his glass and placed a piece of chicken leg on Master Lu's plate, saying, "Try my cooking."

Master Lu picked up his chopsticks, took a bite, chewed it with pursed lips, swallowed it, and then put down his chopsticks, giving a thumbs up. "It's no worse than the master chef at Wangjiang Tower in Yunhu."

Chen Fan was a little disappointed. Was his fifth-level culinary skill only at the level of a chef in a prefecture-level city restaurant?

Master Lu didn't see Chen Fan's expression. At this moment, his eyes were somewhat unfocused, as if he was reminiscing about the past. "Back in the 1930s, I went to Yunhu. Wangjiang Tower was right by the river. It was the best restaurant in Yunhu. Even many high-ranking officials and dignitaries from the provincial capital had eaten there. It is said that the master chef's skills were unparalleled even in the provincial capital. If I count, it's been almost forty years." Chen Fan also looked up and gazed into the distance. Almost forty years?

If I live for another forty years, it will be the new century.

This old man spans several eras, and those eras are full of upheavals and never a moment's peace!
After reminiscing about the past, Master Lu chatted with Chen Fan about food, from Shandong cuisine, which originated in the Spring and Autumn Period, to Huaiyang cuisine, which originated in the Han Dynasty, from Sichuan cuisine, which is unique, to Cantonese cuisine, which is known as "eating in Guangzhou". The old man could talk about everything in great detail.

Chen Fan thought to himself, "Looks like this guy was a foodie back in the day."

Having achieved Level 5 culinary skill and browsed countless websites, Chen Fan was never one to lose in a conversation. He chatted back and forth with the old man, saying, "You just said 'Food is best in Guangzhou,' but there are eight major cuisines in the world, so why is it specifically Guangzhou that's the place to eat?"

Master Lu's eyes flickered slightly. "I really don't know that. Do you?"

Chen Fan proudly raised his head, "Of course, but that's a long story. Back in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Guangzhou was a major commercial center. In addition, when foreigners came to our place by ship, they would usually land in Guangzhou first, and then go to Fujian and Tianjin. So Guangzhou absorbed the cuisines of the whole country and the West."

By the mid-Qing Dynasty, the Qing government had closed itself off from the world, and only the Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou were allowed to conduct foreign trade. This led to merchants from all over the country converging on Guangzhou. You could find all kinds of local specialties in Guangzhou, such as Yangzhou stir-fries, Nanjing dishes, Suzhou cuisine, Sichuan snacks, Beijing and Tianjin buns, Shanxi noodles, and so on.

Qu Dajun, a scholar from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, once said that the excellence of Lingnan cuisine stems from the fact that "almost all kinds of food and goods in the world can be found in Guangdong. And not all kinds of food and goods in Guangdong can be found in the whole world." This is the origin of the saying, "Eat in Guangzhou."

Master Lu nodded in realization. “I know Qu Dajun. He was a student of Chen Bangyan and one of the three great masters of Lingnan. Like his teacher, he was a righteous man who resisted the Qing Dynasty. He was a man of unyielding integrity and did not fear the Qing court in his later years. He wrote ‘Records of the Four Reigns of the Ming Dynasty’ to write biographies of the righteous men who resisted the Qing Dynasty in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. I never thought that this sentence would be related to him.”

The old man glanced at Chen Fan, and a mischievous thought suddenly came to mind. He smiled and said, "As the saying goes, give and take. I'll ask you a question too."

Chen Fan swallowed the chicken nugget, wiped his mouth, and said, "Please go ahead."

Master Lu laughed and said, "If you need to get rid of boils and swellings, go and participate in the treatment of 'entering the brambles and thorns' (a traditional Chinese medicine practice). Where does this saying come from?"

Chen Fan was slightly taken aback, and said helplessly, "Grandpa, you just gave me the recipe for soup, and now you're putting me to an exam? Isn't that a bit too hasty?"

Master Lu was also taken aback. "Oh, you've already seen it?"

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "I not only read it, but I also memorized some of it. I just finished memorizing 'Warming Agent'."

The formula for decoctions consists of 13 sections, namely: relieving exterior symptoms, purging, harmonizing, clearing heat, relieving summer heat, warming the interior, relieving both exterior and interior symptoms, tonifying, calming the mind, opening the orifices, astringing, regulating qi, and regulating blood.

The question that Master Lu just asked about is about "Jingfang Baidu Powder" in the "Supporting the Righteous Qi and Relieving Exterior Formulas" section of the "Exterior-Relieving Chapter".

If Chen Fan's basic attributes of spirit and intelligence hadn't both increased to 9.5, he wouldn't have been able to memorize it so quickly.

But now, I can easily memorize half of the material in an hour.

(End of this chapter)