Records of the Cattle and Horses of Chang'an

Jiang Shangxian replayed Madam Xia's morning instructions twice in his mind, then simply ignored them and continued to chatter on. "There's a saying in the cooking trade: there are only people who can't cook, but no unpalatable ingredients. Take shepherd's purse, for example. If it's not cooked well, it has a bitter and muddy taste, but if it's cooked well, it has a refreshing fragrance. It's also mild in nature, and has the benefits of soothing the spleen, promoting diuresis, and improving eyesight. It's also very good for your health. Madam, you might want to try it."

"Hmph, if it doesn't taste good..." Zhao Yue raised her chin threateningly with a somewhat arrogant look.

"If it doesn't taste good, I'll drink three cups myself!" Jiang Shangxian is very confident in her cooking skills. She is extremely confident. After more than half a year of hard work, her cooking skills are even better than when she first came to Lexianlou!

She never gets tired of eating shepherd's purse these days. Not to mention fried shepherd's purse with rice cake, shepherd's purse in a stinky pot, she even eats the fragrant shepherd's purse and bacon fried rice. Her three apprentices follow her to eat shepherd's purse, and they are also very addicted to it. They are thinking about whether they should find a way to grow some shepherd's purse in the backyard.

As for her chubby little hands, although they cannot be compared with those of the noble ladies from aristocratic families, she has not done any rough work in the past six months. Mother Jiang takes care of everything at home, and she has three apprentices to take care of her at Lexianlou. Her hands are already pretty good compared to those of ordinary young ladies. It's just that she is still in the development stage and is a little fleshy. When she grows up, she will definitely have slender hands!

Seeing that she didn't accept the challenge, Zhao Yue secretly cursed the young lady in her heart for being so shameless, but she still picked up the shepherd's purse with chopsticks and put it into her mouth with some suspicion and disgust. She opened her eyes slightly in shock.

After all these years in the Cui family, her appetite had been spoiled. Although she still liked to eat more meat, it was still very different from when she was in Guazhou.

She really didn't expect that shepherd's purse could be made so refreshing and delicious, without a trace of bitterness: "It's really good."

Zhao Yue said this sincerely. No wonder Miss Jiang was able to gain a foothold in Lexianlou. Her cooking skills were truly amazing, much better than the chef of the Cui family, and she had more varieties.

Jiang Shangxian didn't rush to pour her wine, but instead picked up a fried quail for her. Jiang Shangxian only liked to eat quail in three ways: fried quail, stir-fried quail, and quail in sauce.

These three ways of eating have their own characteristics. Except for fried quail, the other two are very suitable for drinking.

Zhao Yue stared at the quail, frowning: "This fried quail seems different from the usual ones."

Fried quail is a dish from the Tang Dynasty, and Zhao Yue has eaten it a lot, but this fried quail seems different from what she usually eats.

"It's marinated and sprinkled with special powder. It's guaranteed to taste better than usual." Jiang Shangxian could tell that she probably just didn't want to dirty her hands, but how could you eat something like this without using your hands?

She immediately picked one up for herself and put it in her bowl. She reached out and pinched the two hind legs to tear the quail in half. "This quail is delicious only when it's torn apart. Don't worry, Madam. I've already prepared water soaked in dried chrysanthemums and bath beans. When you're done eating, wash your hands with it. I guarantee there won't be any smell at all."

(Before the Song Dynasty, when washing face, hands, or bathing, there was no soap in the form of balls. Instead, mung beans were ground into fine mung bean powder as the main ingredient, mixed with medicinal herbs and spices to make fine pills, which were called bath beans.)

Zhao Yue looked up at her and the strange feeling in her heart became stronger. "You come from a common family, how come you know so much?"

Bath beans have always been exclusive to the aristocracy and are expensive. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, when spices were just beginning to become popular, Emperor Wu of Jin recruited a young man from a famous family, Wang Dun, as his son-in-law. The son-in-law had never heard of bath beans before the marriage. When he first saw this fragrant thing, he thought it was some novel food. After eating one, he thought it tasted quite good, so he ate the bowl of bath beans clean, which made the palace servants laugh.

Even now, bath beans are only used by noble families. Ordinary people rarely buy them, let alone know about them. It would be good enough if they can clean themselves well!

That would be fine, but she even knew to use dried chrysanthemums to wash her hands. This was probably just a custom among wealthy families, right? The Zhao family in Dunhuang didn't have such a custom anyway.

Jiang Shangxian thought to himself: I just read it in novels!

But she gave the credit to Li Xueyan: "I am a close friend of the Fifth Lady of the Jiangxia County Prince's family, and she told me all this. I found this method elegant and clean, so I thought that a person as precious as Madam should usually wash her hands in this way."

"Oh?"

Zhao Yue tore the quail apart with her bare hands, and she became even more curious: "The young lady from the Jiangxia County Prince's family is actually willing to date you?"

She didn't say the second half of the sentence: Are you so shameless as to say that you are someone's friend?

She felt that this idea was very close to the truth. After all, the thickness of this young lady's face was really beyond reach.

These words sounded very contemptuous, but Jiang Shangxian was very excited in his heart - here it comes, time to show off!

Jiang Shangxian slowly wiped the oil off her hands with a handkerchief, and then filled the empty wine glass. Alcohol makes cowards brave, and she had to drink a glass to boost her courage before telling a big lie.

After drinking a glass of wine, she felt the heat rising from her abdomen and the pores all over her body opened up, then she began to tear the fried quail and slowly started to show off.

The expression on her face was a light, nonchalant smile, the kind you could take a picture of ten times while peeing and still be perfectly accurate. "Perhaps Cui Lang forgot to tell Madam that Li Wuniang and I are close friends. We had agreed to have a meal together during the New Year, but we didn't expect that before the New Year, the royal family would suddenly go to Luoyang to celebrate the New Year with Your Majesty. Although Chang'an and Luoyang are close, it's freezing cold. I was worried that she would be bored on the road and that she wouldn't have enough to eat, so I made some long-lasting food to keep her entertained."

She paused, and seeing Zhao Yue quickly finish a quail leg, she couldn't help but speed up her movements. "The other things are easy to deal with, they're just snacks. But there's a kind of flatbread that doesn't need to be cooked, just soak it in boiling water and mix it with meat sauce. It's delicious. On the way back, she couldn't resist eating it, and His Majesty sniffed it while she was cooking it in the carriage."

Zhao Yue paused, somewhat incredulous: "How could a small piece of bread cause His Majesty to ask about it?"

There was a look of great shock on her face. Although she married into the Cui family, the Cui family was far away from Chang'an. Cui Zhe was not an official, and she had never seen the current emperor.

When Zhao Yue thought that Jiang Shangxian, whom she looked down upon, might have a relationship with His Majesty, she felt that this world was still a little bizarre.

Is it possible that if you live closer, you’ll have a better chance?