The Journey of Immortal Cultivation-Chapter 315 - 189 Minced Soup_2
Every small shop will add their own secret recipe, Ning Xiaoxian tasted the spicy flavor in this bowl of soup, which comes from a seasoning very familiar to the Huaxia people: pepper seeds. Besides removing the gamey taste and enhancing the aroma, the flavor of pepper is also indescribably wonderful. This shop did not grind the pepper seeds; instead, they dry-fried them in advance, fully releasing their fragrance. It seems that pepper, as a major flavor weapon, has also been developed in this world and is used to perfection.
Ning Xiaoxian also identified another taste in the soup, which is hawthorn. The sweet and sour flavor of hawthorn can perfectly neutralize the greasiness of sheep and cattle fat, making the soup taste fresher. Moreover, it plays a crucial role: when cooked with beef and mutton, it makes the meat tender much faster.
In front of her, He Xiaojiu was also eating quickly, but his manners were incomparably more elegant than those of the surrounding patrons. He whispered with a laugh, "The miscellaneous soup here, with sheep offal is common, but they use a giant cow for the beef offal. Although this kind of cow is large, its meat is very fresh. It likes to eat Huo Mai Grass, making the soup have a light herbal fragrance." Huo Mai Grass is a type of aquatic plant commonly found in the water-rich Leizhou.
"Another secret, there is a hot spring behind the restaurant, and cooking with this spring water makes the dishes particularly sweet. The owner of this shop is also lucky, he didn’t have a spring when he first bought this land. The second year, during a drought, he dug a well in the backyard to get water, and unexpectedly hit a hot spring. This spring is his alone, no one else has the right to use it."
Ning Xiaoxian nodded, there were previous examples of cooking with spring water, but the mineral content varies in each spring, not all are suitable for cooking. The owner of this small restaurant is indeed very lucky.
As they talked, the food in the bowl was almost finished, and now they could choose either to add beef meatballs or a bread pancake. The restaurant owner’s youngest son, said to be an apprentice blacksmith, his skills in blacksmithing are unknown, but his craftsmanship in hand-hammering meatballs must be the pinnacle. The meat needs to be hammered for two hours before it can be shaped into balls, each blow must be evenly strong to achieve excellent elasticity. Right next to them, a table of guests also brought their friends to eat, and to demonstrate, they threw a meatball onto the floor. It bounced up without hesitation and almost hit a friend’s eye. Even more rare is that the meatball maintained a considerable amount of juice, exploding with flavor in just one bite.
The bread pancake, on the other hand, is a piece of dough as big as an adult man’s palm. After repeatedly kneading the dough, they add butter and scallions, and then pan-fry it. Here, the patrons finish the solids in the miscellaneous soup, then break the bread pancake into small pieces and soak it in the soup, waiting a minute before eating. By then, the pancake has absorbed the soup, becoming soft and fine, extremely delicious.
Ning Xiaoxian was unreserved, finishing a bowl of miscellaneous soup, adding a beef meatball, and trying a piece of bread pancake, which made He Xiaojiu beside her marvel at her real appetite. Fortunately, the people around them were busy eating, and both of their attires were very ordinary, not attracting too much attention.
The food here seems to follow the "fast food" route of later generations, no need for knives and forks, just spoons and hands are enough to solve the problem of eating, and it can indeed be described as good value for money. An adult man needs only eight silver coins to have his fill, so patrons come and go, but the seats inside the restaurant are always occupied.
After finishing the hot soup, He Xiaojiu led her through several streets to another small shop at the entrance. This place only offers takeout, not dine-in, and despite the cold outside, there were still quite a few people lined up, mostly female customers. The popular item here turned out to be yogurt cream, a food made by fermenting milk until it becomes thick and creamy. They add berries and a little bit of honey, ready to be eaten with a spoon. Interestingly, even though the outdoor weather is very cold, the yogurt does not harden into chunks, maintaining a soft and smooth texture. Eating such a sweet-and-sour, slightly alcoholic cold snack in the cold weather is a challenge for the stomach, yet it has a unique taste that many girls adore.
He Xiaojiu then took her to visit many local specialty snacks, mostly located in deep alleys. Although these foods are not refined, they are very distinctive and leave a lasting impression after tasting.
The next two days were uneventful. Xia Banhua’s men still incessantly caused trouble for the Cloud Tiger Trading Team, but as an outsider, Ning Xiaoxian didn’t want and had no right to interfere. At the moment, she was sitting in the new residence of whistle, chatting leisurely with Tan Qinghe. Tu Jin would not want to listen to women talking about household trivialities, he silently sympathized with Lord Changtian who had to listen despite not wanting to, then wandered off alone.
Ever since this charming widow followed whistle, her originally elegant appearance had increasingly shown a dazzling trend, clearly showing that she was quite satisfied and happy with her current life.
The courtyard was arranged in two sections with rooms on each side like in Rock City, and there was even a small pond dug in the yard to keep carp. In his bones, whistle was still a fugitive, although he used his savings to buy this residence, the house was registered under the name of Tan Qinghe. Since the Cloud Tiger Trading Team had joined Qingfeng Chamber of Commerce, henceforth he might be able to come back every three to five months, and arranging Tan Qinghe to stay here couldn’t be more suitable.
The real name of whistle was Hua Yunfeng. For many years, he was committed to making Hua Yunfeng invisible in this world. Therefore, considering the safety of Tan Qinghe and her son, no matter how deep their affection was, they could not get married. Even though the rites of this world were not prevalent, but for Tan Qinghe, a mortal, to follow whistle without formal acknowledgment, it was truly an astonishing courage to Ning Xiaoxian.
As they were speaking lively, there were urgent footsteps outside the courtyard. Ning Xiaoxian knew that whistle had deliberately made his steps heavier to remind the people inside that he had returned. This man, though plain in appearance, was meticulous at heart. However, by the sound of his footsteps, he seemed a bit worried? (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to visit qidian.com to vote with a recommendation ticket, Monthly Ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
