Chang’an Small Restaurant

Chapter 30.1 Shaoguang Economics

Shen Shaoguang was pleasantly surprised by the new chef Yu San's fish cooking skills. He later cooked more varieties of fish dishes including Vinegar Gravy Fish, steamed fish, and Fresh Fish Mutton Soup.

Diners were also very appreciative of these fish dishes, especially the Fresh Fish Mutton Soup.

This dish was quite complicated. The mutton was first blanched, then stewed, and then put into the belly of the fish to simmer. It was so exquisite and complicated that Shen Shaoguang ruthlessly set it as the most expensive dish on her menu.

There were some dishes in this dynasty that were so complicated that it rendered Shen Shaoguang at a loss for words. For example the infamous ‘Hunyang Shenhu’, the dish that required a tender goose to be stuffed with seasoned meat and glutinous rice. The stuffed goose would then be put in the belly of a whole lamb. The lamb would then need to be roasted on an open fire, and once everything was thoroughly cooked though, both the lamb and goose caress would be discarded...

There was also pàoshǐ*; this recipe called for a whole pig. After stuffing the pig’s belly with dates, it would be then wrapped in reed and covered in mud, and roasted in the fire. Once completely roasted, the mud and reed would be peeled off, and the pig hair would also naturally fall off, revealing the tender meat— This was very similar to the so-called Beggar Chicken in later generations. However because pàoshǐ was a noble’s food, it was much more tedious than the Beggar Chicken that beggars ate. The cooked pork would need to be submerged in oil, and then simmered in boiling water for three days and three nights before it could be seasoned for taste... 

There were quite a number of intricate dishes served in the imperial palace. Shen Shaoguang collectively categorized them into the series titled ‘Not food, just troublesome’. This series of dishes was probably the product of the peaceful days, when the aristocrats had nowhere to spend their energy, so they just ‘polished and refined’ what they had. It was similar to the complicated and exquisite piping embroidery on the Qing Dynasty’s dresses.

However, Shen Shaoguang approved of the Fresh Fish Mutton Soup(鱼羊鲜) provided by their store. The reason for the pre-processing of the mutton was because mutton was harder to cook through and not because it was done to ‘fancy-fy’ the recipe. It was pre-blanched until the meat was about eighty percent cooked and then put into the belly of the fish. The fish (鱼) and mutton (羊) would mend their flavors together to form something ‘fresh (鲜)’.

Perhaps because the people of this dynasty didn’t have the habit of consuming pork, Yu San was not very good at pork dishes.

In fact, Yu San was equally taken aback by Shen Shaoguang's ‘Cornelian Meat’ and ‘Lion Head’; he had never expected someone would be able to use pig meat to create such flavors...

While discussing the value of pork dishes, Shen Shaoguang took A’Yuan and Yu San out for an autumn excursion.

It was an old custom to travel to a higher altitude during the Double Ninth Festival[1]. Shen Shaoguang took advantage of the holiday and made another killing selling Double Ninth Cakes, but it was sold the day before the festival. On the day of the Double Ninth Festival, everyone had left early, either on horse or by carriage, for an autumn outing.

Originally, Shen Shaoguang had considered opening up another stall in one of the ‘tourist attraction spots’, but there wasn’t a centralized area for these autumn outings. Those who want to save trouble chose to visit Leyou Garden, while the more enthusiastic would climb Zhongnan Mountains, and some elegant literati chose to make a trip to Qujiang Pavilion or Linwei Pavilion and have a winding stream party[2] while composing poetry. The temples and monasteries inside and outside the city were also places for autumn excursions.

With the flow of people not concentrated in one area, moreover, alpinism required one to be in constant movement; there would only be a limited number of people who would stop and get off their horses to buy food.

After everything was considered, Shen Shaoguang decided she might as well close the shop for the day, took A’Yuan and Yu San out, and relax.

Shen Shaoguang was a realistic person, since she wasn’t out to make money, there was no need for her to follow and get squeezed in a crowd. After narrowing down the choices to Leyou Garden and Qujiang Pavilion, she chose the latter— Compared to the other ‘benevolent[3]’, Shen Shaoguang believed she leaned more to the ‘wise[3]’.

Shen Shaoguang was really wise this time, the people of Chang'an frequented Qujiang Pavilion three hundred and sixty-five days a year, but not many people came today. It made sense after all, the first choice of Double Ninth was ‘climbing’.

The late autumn sky was resplendent blue while the water in Qujiang district was clear and glistened like sapphire. There are three boats on the river, and occasionally a man on horseback and his servants would pass by on the road. With all the people heading in the same direction, Shen Shaoguang guessed that there was a banquet being held at Qujiang Pavilion. 

Since it was irrelevant to them, the ‘wise’ Shen Shaoguang took her servants towards the opposite direction of Qujiang Pavilion for a while, and only stopped when she found a spot with a good view. They spread out the large cloth felt, took out the jug of buttermilk, and laid out the snack box containing walnut cookies, sweet pea pudding, aiwowo rice cake, and chrysanthemum cakes, as well as a bunch of minced meat pies in a paper bag.

A’Yuan cheered; she was obviously more excited for the savory foods than the various available sweets.

Looking at A’Yuan's ever-expanding waist, Shen Shaoguang held back in the end– it’s best to allow the children to enjoy the holidays.

The pie was stuffed with meat stuffing usually made for their Lion's Head meatballs. Although it was a bit cold, it didn’t affect the fragrant taste.

Recently, Shen Shaoguang's pork dishes had reached close to perfection, and could often change the most rotten of cuts into something magical.

A’Yuan took a bite and boasted, "Miss, you cook the most delicious food!" Then added after another bite, "There is nothing tastier than pork dishes cooked by you!"

Yu San was initially surprised at the exquisite and delicious pork dishes provided by their store, but after a few days, it became a normal affair.

At A’Yuan's unsuppressed praises, Yu San leisurely interrupted her, "But of course, otherwise how could such a cheap thing be sold so expensively?" A plate of four Lion Heads was almost the same price as a plate of stewed mutton, but how much did raw pork cost? Compared to the cost of raw mutton?

A’Yuan despised Yu San’s eccentricness the most. "How could you say it like that?!"

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Footnotes:

[1]  Double Ninth Festival -  According to the I Ching, nine is a yang number; the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar (or double nine) has extra yang and is thus an auspicious date. Hence, the day is also called "Double Yang Festival" (重陽節). It is customary to climb a mountain, drink chrysanthemum liquor. On this holiday, some Chinese also visit the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Ninth_Festival#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20I%20Ching,Festival"%20(重陽節). 

[2] winding stream party - A winding stream party (流觴曲水/曲水流觴) is an old Chinese custom in which the participants wait by a winding stream and compose poems before their cups full of rice wine float down to reach them. It was popularized by Wang Xizhi, and dates back as far as 353.

Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winding_stream_party 

[3] ‘benevolent’ and ‘wise’ - This is referring to a idiom '仁者见仁，智者见智' which literally translates to 'The benevolent sees benevolence, the wise sees wisdom', it can be interpreted as ‘The benevolent sees it and calls it "benevolence and righteousness"; the wise sees it and considers it "wisdom".’ The meaning of this is that different people have different views; opinions differ.