The Great Tang's King of Provisions

Chapter 18: Hungry?

Do It Yourself After tasting the flatbread as his staple food, Li Xuanba picked up some side dishes with his chopsticks. How to describe these side dishes? The taste was passable. After all, in the Tang Dynasty at this time, Sichuan pepper, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, and dried tangerine peel were all available, as were fermented black beans, soybean paste, scallions, ginger, and garlic—and salt, of course. With these seasonings, once the dishes were prepared, they could actually be described as—edible. There were just a few flaws, though. First, the oil used to stir-fry these dishes was all animal fat; there was none of the soybean oil, peanut oil, or olive oil found in later eras. As a result, all the dishes had a faint gamey taste when eaten, unlike the fresh, fragrant aroma of stir-fried greens in later times. Of course, Li Xuanba could roughly guess why people in the general population used animal-based oils. At this time, only the imperial family and the most prominent clans could afford vegetable oil; after all, vegetable oil back then was almost exclusively pressed from rapeseed. Second, the method of “stir-frying” at that time was, in reality, more like boiling. Third, and most importantly, cumin and chili peppers hadn’t been introduced yet, which meant that even the stir-fried lamb still had a very strong gamey odor. “Master, how do you like the meal I prepared?” Watching Li Xuanba nod or shake his head after tasting the dishes, the cook couldn’t help but wonder: had his culinary skills really taken a turn for the worse? “Um, it’s okay,” was all Li Xuanba could say. It was unlikely he’d say the food was good, but it was also unlikely he’d say it was bad. Those two words, “not bad,” pretty much summed it all up. “Phew… Thank you, Master, for your feedback!” Hearing Li Xuanba’s “not bad,” the chef surnamed Huang breathed a sigh of relief—those two words were all he’d been hoping for! If the master had actually praised his cooking, he would have felt embarrassed—after all, he knew his own skills better than anyone. After a “hearty” lunch, the three women were stuffed, but Li Xuanba had only had a small bite to tide him over. After sending the idle chefs and kitchen staff home for the day, Li Xuanba, unable to resist the hunger gnawing at his stomach, scampered off to the kitchen himself to prepare his own lunch. Seeing this, Du Xingxuan and Du Shuangshuang exchanged a glance and “quietly” followed him, even bringing along the curious Mei Hanxue who was standing nearby. Once in the kitchen, Li Xuanba paid no heed to what the three women who had followed him might be thinking; he chopped firewood, set up the pot, and added water. When the water came to a boil, Li Yuanba found a large basin, poured twenty jin of spatial flour into it, mixed the spatial spring water with hot water, and then, while gradually adding the warm water, stirred constantly with chopsticks. Once there were no dry lumps left in the dough, he began kneading it vigorously. “W-where did you get such snow-white flour? You…,” Mei Hanxue gasped in astonishment as she watched Li Xuanba produce twenty jin of flour—as white as pearl powder—with a single wave of his hand. Was this really the “Number One Hero Under Heaven,” Li Yuanba, she’d heard so much about? Wasn’t he supposed to be good only at fighting? How could he possibly turn into flour like this? “Haha! I told you, I went up to the Celestial Realm for a while and just recently returned. I’m not just some dim-witted warrior anymore!” Seeing Mei Hanxue’s stunned expression, Li Xuanba raised an eyebrow smugly and repeated his half-true, half-false story. “Thump! With Li Xuanba’s strength, it took him less than five minutes to knead a large ball of dough—enough to feed ten people. With the dough ready and the water in the large pot boiling, Li Xuanba covered the dough with a cloth, found a sizable piece of pork, and—under the stunned gazes of Mei Hanxue and the others—began chopping it vigorously with two large kitchen knives. “Swish, swish, swish!” Amid the flashing blades, in less than a minute, Li Xuanba had chopped that large piece of pork into small cubes. “Young Master Li, are you going to cook?” It wasn’t until Li Xuanba dropped the pork cubes into boiling water to blanch them that Mei Hanxue snapped out of her daze. Her beautiful eyes fixed on him in astonishment as she voiced her confusion. Li Xuanba sorted through the seasonings, adding them to a small bowl beside him, all while answering Mei Hanxue’s question. “That’s right! I didn’t eat my fill earlier, so this young master is going to cook a meal for himself!” Mei Hanxue blinked her beautiful, large eyes. “But didn’t Master Meng say that a gentleman keeps his distance from the kitchen? Besides, how can someone like you eat this filthy pork?” “Haha!” Hearing Mei Hanxue’s hesitant words, Li Xuanba paused what he was doing, gave her a grinning look, and burst out laughing: “Master Meng was talking about gentlemen. This young master is just a rough-and-tumble guy—not a gentleman at all! As for this ‘filthy pig,’ I’m starving! Why should I care if it’s filthy or not? I’m no ‘aristocrat from a wealthy family’—” What a joke! In these early days of the new dynasty, people couldn’t even get enough to eat. It was only the wealthy and noble who looked down on eating pork; for ordinary folk, having a meal of pork was a true blessing. After making fun of himself, Li Xuanba took out a bamboo tube. Looking at the slightly grayish, granular substance inside, he tugged at the corner of his mouth, glanced at Mei Hanxue, and shook the bamboo tube in his hand. “Is this salt?” “Yes, that’s salt—and official salt, at that,” Mei Hanxue nodded, though inwardly she found Li Xuanba’s response somewhat amusing. This “Number One Hero Under Heaven” was, after all, a member of the imperial family—a prince, no less—and apparently even an immortal. Yet here he was calling himself a “good-for-nothing.” How amusing! Hehe! After confirming that the bamboo tube in his hand contained salt, Li Xuanba frowned, picked up a piece, tasted a tiny bit, and then pursed his lips. As expected, the government-produced salt of that era wasn’t as good as the salt of later generations; it contained small amounts of potassium, calcium, and magnesium ions. No wonder his mouth had felt a bit astringent while eating the vegetables earlier. Still, the salt at this time shouldn’t pose any harm; after all, salt-making techniques in the Tang Dynasty had already improved significantly, and the salt produced was very similar to the coarse salt of later generations. After selecting the ingredients, a fresh pot of water came to a boil. Li Xuanba tossed the blanched pork directly into the pot, added some bay leaves, star anise, cinnamon bark, Sichuan peppercorns, and dried tangerine peel, then sprinkled in some large chunks of salt and a bit of sticky malt sugar. He covered the pot and reduced the heat to a low simmer. While the meat simmered, Li Xuanba lit another stove. He divided the kneaded dough into small balls and began pan-frying the flatbreads he intended to eat—Bai Ji Mo—in another skillet. “Sizzle!” The moment the dough touched the scorching pan, several wisps of white smoke rose instantly. At the same time, a faint aroma of freshly baked bread wafted through the air—an aroma so tempting that Mei Hanxue and the other two girls, even though they were already full, couldn’t help but swallow hard. Du Shuangshuang rubbed her already rounded little belly and looked at Li Xuanba with a hungry expression. “Brother Xuanba, make some more—Shuangshuang’s hungry again!” “Haha! Don’t worry! There’ll be enough for all of you.” Hearing Du Shuangshuang’s words, Li Xuanba wiped her little nose with his hand, dotting it with a bit of white flour, before flipping over the half-baked baiji bread. He’d used twenty jin of flour just so these two little sisters—and that sweetheart—could see his culinary skills. “Yay! That’s great, Xuanba, let me help you!” “I’ll help you, too!” Hearing Li Xuanba say there was enough food for all three of them, the three girls scrambled to help him—though they ended up getting in the way. After each of the three girls had burned a white steamed bun, they stuck out their tongues and stood beside Li Xuanba, their faces flushed, cheering him on—but making no mention of helping anymore.