Chang’an Small Restaurant

Chapter 5 Raining; Glutinous Rice Cake

Rain started to pour that night and Shen Shaoguang was woken up by the faint sound of thunder. Listening to the constant pitter patter of droplets, she inwardly thought: the drought should be resolved now, right? Recalling the Emperor's voyage two weeks ago, Shen Shaoguang smirked. Thankfully the Heavens had given their son on earth some face, otherwise it would have been quite an embarrassment.

Shen Shaoguang laid down,  wrapped the blanket around her, and assuredly closed her eyes again. How nice for it to rain. Perfect, that meant she didn’t have to open her stall and could sleep in today.

Small vendors could take a weather break, but those who worked for the government could not.

Sitting in the carriage, Lin Yan quickly noticed Court Scribe, Liu Feng, not far ahead. The latter was holding an umbrella and wearing sandals, listlessly waiting in the rain. Presumably the ground was too slippery, so he didn’t want to ride a horse, and chose to walk to work instead.

Lin Yan motioned to his servants outside, and one of them quickly got off their horse and went to Liu Feng.

Liu Feng turned his head to look over. He first saluted Lin Yan's carriage from a distance, then said a few words with the servant, and walked over together.

After getting into his superior officer's carriage, Liu Feng felt a little ill at ease. Unfortunately, his stomach didn’t share the same sentiment and started growling. Liu Feng's face instantly flushed red, he only hoped that the sound of the rain outside could cover it up.

Lin Yan glanced at him.

Liu Feng blushed, he cupped his hands[1] and made amends, "Please pardon this junior official."

"No matter." Lin Yan smiled faintly. After a momentary pause, he spoke up again, "Those crepes are really that delicious?" There was clearly a man in a cape and a hat selling flat cakes also close by.

Liu Feng's face turned redder, and he murmured, "This junior official, this junior official——"

Lin Yan raised his hand slightly.

Liu Feng quickly shut his mouth and no longer tried to explain.

Lin Yan then closed his eyes to rest.

Shen Shaoguang was a woman of action and really only got up at the 5th earthly branch(7-9 a.m). She leisurely tidied herself up, took an umbrella, and went to a restaurant to eat a bowl of chicken wontons soup. The skin of the wontons were a little thick, the filling was meager, and the soup base still had a light off putting taste.

After strolling around, Shen Shaoguang went to buy some raw rice and vegetables before heading back. When she walked by the back door of the Shen Residence's old house, Shen Shaoguang saw a begonia protruding from the courtyard wall, on the floor were many petals. Tsk tsk. Descending rain upon the begonias, concealed behind the unmoving door– alas what a poetic scene.

Shen Shaoguang searched her memory and soon recalled these begonias. The original's mother loves to collect those begonia petals. She would use it to create rouge. She once said it was because ‘the color was unique’, but when her father came over, he smiled and teased, "unfortunately there’s no fragrance." Her mother would glare at him but soon laugh along.

Shen Shaoguang’s memories then flashed to when the family was sent to the Lateral Courts in the imperial palace. Her mother was very much like the highborn begonia; how could a noble lady like her endure such hardships? She passed away after only one year, leaving behind the original owner who was only nine years old back then. Alas, her daughter also didn’t last much longer and died the following year. After her death, her soul was then replaced with a foreigner’s.

Shen Shaoguang looked at this "home" she had never lived in, and was reminded of her own home; she couldn’t help but feel somewhat melancholy.

From what she had heard, the person living in this house now was the city’s Deputy Magistrate, an out-and-out high-ranking official in a scarlet uniform. Although they have been neighbors for so many days, she had yet to catch a glimpse of him. I wonder when the ‘deputy mayor’ of Chang'an will inspect the street stalls... Shen Shaoguang was amused by her own humor, she held up her umbrella, and pranced back to the nunnery.

When she returned to the nunnery, Shen Shaoguang soaked the glutinous rice, and spent the rest of her afternoon with some light reading and writing.

For lunch, she simply kneaded some noodles, added some leafy vegetables, and topped it with a poached egg; a simple bowl of Hand-pulled-dough noodles. Before eating, Shen Shaoguang added two spoonfuls of homemade garlic chili sauce, which added a bit of complexity in flavor.

After her meal, Shen Shaoguang took a quick afternoon nap. Once refreshed, she got up and began to work on a more tedious snack.

Since she had stumbled upon some quality glutinous rice today, Shen Shaoguang decided to make aiwowo rice cakes.

Sweet pastries were often made in the imperial palace of this dynasty; to name a few, there were Dragon and Phoenix rice cakes, Amethyst Dragon rice cakes, and Jade Beam rice cakes. During the new year, there were always Cornelian Cherry rice cakes, Chrysanthemum cakes, and Ma Ge Cake readily available. Each had a fancy name, but none of them were Shen Shaoguang's taste— probably because the Tang Dynasty’s people had a strong sweet tooth. Else, why would they not eat cherries unless it was soaked in cane syrup. Therefore, at every change of season, Shen Shaoguang would crave the aiwowo rice cakes from her previous life.

Aiwowo rice cake was not too troublesome to make. Just mix the cooked soft glutinous rice into glutinous rice dough. Then split the dough into small even pieces, flatten them out and fill it with various sweet fillings such as hawthorn, sesame, jujube paste, or bean paste.

After sealing the stuffing, it’s rolled on in cooked glutinous rice flour. The white speckles looked rather similar to a gentle drift of snow. Some might use regular heat-treated flour, but since her family had always used cooked glutinous rice flour, Shen Shaoguang believed glutinous rice flour was more authentic.

The Aiwowo rice cake Shen Shaoguang made today was different from her past aiwowos. The difference was not in the glutinous rice flour, but in the stuffing; she used the peony brine she made a few days ago.

There was a rather large peony tree in the nunnery. When in full bloom, there are hundreds of flowers, covering the whole tree in a gorgeous crimson. Shen Shaoguang originally wanted to create scented sachets with the petals, but suddenly remembered the famous rose brine from the <Dream of the Red Chamber>. So she changed her mind and grinded the flower petals with a mortar, pickled them in sugar and honey, and let it sit. After a few days, although it had lost its floral fragrance, the taste turned out quite nice.

Shen Shaoguang was too lazy to make a filling, so this brine came in extremely handy.

Not to mention a glutinous rice cake with a red peony brine looked exceedingly pleasing. The bright red stuffing against the soft, snow white dough almost looked too good to eat.

Shen Shaoguang placed the completed aiwowo rice cakes on a white porcelain plate and took it to share with the ‘foodie’ abbot.

"How exquisite!" The abbot exclaimed before eating.

When the senior nun finished chewing, she was even more surprised. "Is this peony flower?"

Shen Shaoguang smiled, "Isn't there a peony tree in the courtyard? This thoroughly embodied the saying ‘presenting the Buddha with borrowed flowers[2]’."

The abbot laughed and patted Shen Shaoguang’s shoulder. The two often chatted and became quite close despite their difference in age.

"We also ate those peony petals before. However it was fried and was as sweet as this, the color is also not as pretty."

Shen Shaoguang didn't hide her recipe and explained the method of making peony brine. The two then spent some time discussing how to improve the recipe.

The plate of aiwowo cake was quickly finished over tea. Shen Shaoguang and Jing Qing both ate two, while the remaining four were consumed by the abbot.

Nethertheless, the abbot was still unsatisfied.

Shen Shaoguang laughed. "It just happened to be the right season. Most of the time, I would use bean paste or jujube paste as fillings."

The abbot suddenly remembered. "It will be Lixia (Start of Summer) soon. Compared with this cake, the bean cake we usually steamed in the nunnery is too coarse. Why don't we replace it with this rice cake this year?" Steamed cakes were often said to prevent miliaria.

Jing Qing quickly agreed with her Master’s suggestion. How great for this senior nun to have become the abbot–Shen Shaoguang thought.

…

Not long after, Jing Qing unexpectedly came to ask Shen Shaoguang for help. "If this cake was provided for everyone in the nunnery, then I would not have bothered Benefactor Shen. However, during this festival, we are to deliver pastries to all the donors near us. This includes the surrounding Lanes, so it wouldn’t be good if the cakes weren’t made well.” Jing Qing wholeheartedly pleaded, “Please advise us.”

Since I'm renting from them, it's best to do this favor. Shen Shaoguang readily agreed.

Due to the limited manpower and the large quantity, Shen Shaoguang suggested making bean paste stuffing. This was because no matter whether it was steamed, pounded, or strained, the volume of beans would always remain the same.

Bean paste stuffing was considered a luxury during this era. Not because the material was expensive, but because it was terribly troublesome to make. It was said that during the Tianbao Era[3], the bean paste made by Lady Guoguo's Residence was the best and was given the nickname ‘Lin Sha Huo’. That bean paste was then used as a filling for their glutinous rice cake. It was said that their glutinous rice wrapping was ingeniously prepared and was completely translucent, clearly showing its filling, so their aiwowo rice cakes were dubbed as ‘Tou Hua Ci’[4].

While watching Shen Shaoguang instruct the nuns in charge of cooking the bean paste, the abbot briefed her of a certain story, "In the early years, there was a cake shop in the East Market of Chang'an. Their Tou Hua Ci were created with meticulous care. Moreover, because their pastries were all so well made, the owner was conferred a title, he became an external official, the ‘External Official of Pastries’.

Shen Shaoguang laughed. It seemed true that there was a master in every trade.  However, she quickly felt it was just a pity that she was a woman in this era. Otherwise this could have been a possible path to take to become an official.

Standing by their side, Jing Ci was surprised to hear Shen Shaoguang happily chatting with the abbot. It wasn’t often she’d seen the abbot be so talkative and happy. Could it be that this surnamed Shen had used witchcraft on the abbot? She then looked at the batches of bean paste filling and couldn’t help but calculate their costs and potential profits.

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The author has something to say: What Deputy Magistrate Lin said today will come back to hit him in the face. Poor baby...

Deputy Magistrate Lin smiled faintly. “It doesn't hurt.”