Chapter 208 There are always exceptions to everything
"What the official said is something that I am deeply sorry for." Chen Ke is a very affectionate person. When the official said something that touched his heart, he sighed deeply and said: "Yue'e is an upright person.
She is a kind, straightforward and good girl, but because of me, she has been burdened with an extremely heavy burden, and she doesn’t know what the future will hold. I can only do my best to compensate her..."
"How do you compensate her?" The official didn't want to listen to his clichés.
"I can do anything for her." Chen Ke said lightly.
"She is a proud daughter of heaven, what difficulties can she have?" The official said indifferently: "The only thing she needs is that you can't give it..."
"If the government approves..." Chen Ke has always been a smooth guy.
"Oh?" Guan Jia's original train of thought was interrupted. He was stunned for a moment, and then burst into laughter, "Hahaha..." Some people here also laughed, and they even wanted to pick up two houses on one shoulder, just to be his Qingqiu wife.
Dream!
Unexpectedly, after laughing, Zhao Zhen actually said leisurely: "It's not impossible..."
Everyone in the house was shocked. Chen Ke's eyes widened and he said after a while: "Really?"
"Really." The official said calmly: "As long as you can find a precedent..."
"This..." Chen Ke stopped talking.
At this time, Manager Hu led two eunuchs, carried a long tray in, and brought out exquisite dishes that were all delicious and delicious.
Chen Ke quickly put his worries aside and reported the names of the dishes to the officials: "Lion's head, steamed fish lips with snow clams, fried screw meat with vegetables, baked eel paste with sweet-scented osmanthus, braised herring in water, turtle with ham and bamboo shoots, bad oriole, Tianmo."
Grilled bamboo shoots, carved jujube soaked in honey, and pickled pork ribs with sugar... The officials will try the Shaoxing Nuerhong and Meizhou Huangjiao wine to see which one suits their taste better."
A table of rare and delicacies was put on the table. Facing these delicious dishes and drinks, Guan Jia forgot about the sorrow in his heart and had a rare appetite. He took a bite of the fragrant Zhiyan, and then tasted the refreshing fragrance.
Tianmo Sun was full of praise immediately. He glanced at Hu Yandui and said, "Old Hu, you can try it too. How do you compare with the palace's performance?"
"..." Hu Yandui was a royal chef. Hearing this, he took a pair of chopsticks and took a bite of each dish. He looked ashamed and said, "The palace can't make this taste."
"Yes." The official nodded. Seeing that no one was using their chopsticks, he gestured to them, "You can use it too."
"My son, if you can sit at the same table with your uncle, you are already doing your best. How dare you push it further?" Zhao Zongshi stood up and said, "My uncle and my wife can enjoy it. I will use the original one."
"No need..." Zhao Zhen looked at him, but then changed his words: "That's fine."
"..." Zhao Zongshi waited for a while and couldn't help but feel slightly surprised when he didn't hear what the official said... Ordinarily, the emperor's benevolence meant that the food would be shared, so how could they learn to protect their food if they shared several plates?
After Zhao Zongshi sat down, the atmosphere in the room was a bit dull. Zhao Zhen seemed to be attracted by the food and praised it while tasting it. When the emperor had almost eaten, Hu Yandui brought up another pot of hot soup. Chen Ke introduced: "Radish"
Shredded crucian carp stewed, this is a refreshing soup."
"Refreshing soup?" Zhao Zhen asked curiously.
"This refreshing soup is served in the middle. The idea is to prevent diners from getting tired of the taste, so they add a soup to rinse it off, so as not to dull the base of the tongue and make the subsequent dishes tasteless." Chen Ke said with a smile: "Although
The dishes here are famous for being light and tender. Even so, the chef is still worried that diners will get angry after eating the fat, so he uses white radish and two half-pound crucian carp to simmer over slow fire to make a soup, using the freshness of the crucian carp and the radish.
It’s so sweet, refreshing and clearing fire.”
Manager Hu filled a small bowl, and the official took it and took a spoonful into his mouth. It was indeed sweet and refreshing, with a delicate fragrance on the lips and teeth. After the queen tasted it, she was full of praise.
"You said there will be more later?" the official put down the bowl and asked Chen Ke.
"Yeah. According to the menu, there are eleven more dishes."
But the official said: "Don't go up there anymore. You can't enjoy all the delicious food, and it's a waste if you can't eat it."
"Yes." Manager Hu agreed and asked people not to serve the food.
"Where did the chef make this?" After the official drank the soup, he felt satisfied from head to toe, so he stopped moving his chopsticks and finally couldn't help but ask.
"He is the student's apprentice." Chen Ke said with a smile.
"Oh?" Zhao Zhen said with a smile: "How can a scholar have such exquisite cooking skills?"
"The student's apprentice is a cook."
"I'm talking about you."
"It's up to the master to bring him in for cultivation. A humble minister is far inferior to a rich man." Chen Ke said half-truthfully: "Most of these dishes are his own creations."
"How did a cook and a scholar get together and become master and apprentice?" the queen chuckled upon hearing this.
"I am quite curious about the chef." Zhao Zhen said with a smile.
"Just call him in and have a look." Chen Ke climbed up the pole and said.
"Yeah." Zhao Zhen nodded.
After a while, the fat and naive Cai Chuanfu was brought in. He was already the number one chef in Sichuan. He usually saw high-ranking officials and noble people like crucian carp crossing the river, but this was his first time to meet the emperor, and his cheeks were trembling with nervousness.
After he saluted, the official asked with a smile: "I heard that you and Chen Chengshi are master and apprentice?"
"My master taught me all my cooking skills." Chuanfu looked at Chen Ke gratefully.
"If you don't have ten years of experience in your craft, I'm afraid you won't be able to master it, right?" Officials are easy to fool.
"The officials have good eyesight," Chuanfu praised, "This villain has been learning the art for ten years."
"Hahaha..." Zhao Zhen laughed and said, "Chen Aiqing, how old are you this year?"
"Reporting to the official family, I am twenty years old." Chen Ke said.
"So, you can teach your disciples how to cook when you were ten years old?" Zhao Zhen laughed, and everyone present also laughed.
"Master accepted me as his disciple when he was ten years old." Seeing that they didn't believe Chen Ke, he was so anxious to get rich that he didn't care about being nervous anymore, so he thought that he had been unworthy since he was young, and he didn't know anything until he was in his twenties. As a result,
My father passed away suddenly, and the chef of the family restaurant was poached, and the story was about to be acquired. I told the story to the official, and he was excited: "The master not only taught me the cooking skills step by step, but also helped me borrow money to reopen the business."
, my restaurant has been able to open from a small county town to Chengdu Prefecture, many people in Shu know this, and it is absolutely not a lie!"
Zhao Zhen could naturally tell the truth as soon as he heard it. He looked at Chen Ke with admiration and said: "I can't believe that when Aiqing was ten years old, she could kill so many adults with shame." He looked at the crowd with a smile and said: "It seems that you are really a genius.
Just say it."
"It's a pity that Chen Chengshi didn't become a cook." Zhao Zonghui laughed.
"Haha." Chen Ke sneered, "I'm better at reading than cooking..."
"That's right." The official nodded with a smile and said, "The Song Dynasty lost a good chef and gained a good minister. What's more, Master Cai is better than his master, and he did not let this unique skill be lost."
"Haha, yes..." Zhao Zonghui felt depressed and secretly wondered why the officials kept talking to outsiders today?
"I haven't eaten so happily for a long time," the official said with a smile, "What can I give you as a reward?"
Chuan Fu looked at Chen Ke, and Chen Ke looked up at the roof, where there was a plaque with the name "Scholarly Family" hanging there. Chuan Fu brought blessings to his heart, and he immediately understood what the master meant: "You dare to ask the official to give you a name for your shop!"
"Oh." Zhao Zhen just heard Chuanfu say that his dream is to open the best restaurant in the world. He nodded and said with a smile: "This is a favor at no cost." Zhao Zhen has few hobbies, but he only likes calligraphy...
...It seems that all the emperors of the old Zhao family like to write, and Zhao Zhen's hand is in vain, ranking second only to the king who subjugated his country.
Scholars always have pens, inks, paper and inkstones on hand. Zhao Zhen then moved to Shu'an, where Chen Ke had already soaked a pen in warm water and presented it to the official with both hands.
Everyone else in the room also followed to the side to look at the official's inscription.
Holding the pen, the official was not in a hurry to dip in the ink. He frowned slightly and said, "What name should I give it?" Then he looked at his nephews and said, "What good ideas do you have?"
Zhao Zongshi cheered up and thought about it, and said: "Since Boss Cai is good at cooking Huaiyang cuisine, let's call it Huaiyang Restaurant."
Zhao Zonghui said: "Since we want to make the best restaurant, let's call it the first floor."
The official looked at Zhao Zongji noncommittally and said, "Ji'er, what do you think?"
Zhao Zongji smiled and said: "Huaiyang Tower is too plain, and the first floor is too ostentatious. It will attract Master Cai's hatred for no reason. Let's call it Yipin Tower. Yipin Jiangshan, the atmosphere will not hinder anyone."
"Yeah." The official nodded and said with a smile: "Yipinlou is indeed good." He concentrated his energy, filled the inkstone with ink, held the desk with his left hand, and concentrated all his energy on the right hand, wrote down one stroke
One horizontal stroke.
With nothing else in mind, the official wrote four powerful characters that penetrated the back of the paper:
‘One, Pin, River, Mountain!’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cai Chuanfu carefully caught the imperial pen and stepped back with a lot of gratitude.
Zhao Zhen felt so happy that he left the banquet and returned to the palace.
The nephews respectfully escorted the official out of the house. When they arrived in the courtyard, the guests quickly stood up and respectfully saw him off.
Zhao Zhen smiled at everyone and said, "I'm tired and I'm going back to the palace. You can play freely." He also knew that because he was there, the courtyard had been relatively quiet and the guests couldn't let go.
Under Zhao Zhen's order, no one was allowed to leave the table. Only Chen Ke escorted him out of the courtyard. On the way to the royal chariot, Zhao Zhen asked the guards and eunuchs to stay away, looked at Chen Ke and said, "Just now, you
It’s like he’s about to speak but stops talking.”
"Wei Chen wants to say that there are actually precedents. Although they are not many, they are not many." Chen Ke said softly: "But I dare not give examples rashly, so as not to embarrass the officials."
"Hahaha..." Zhao Zhen laughed loudly and said, "You brat, you are so crazy." He paused and said, "There is no one here anymore, so tell me."
"In the Spring and Autumn Period, Uncle Ji, the official of the Wei State, had two wives in one palace. Jia Chong of the Western Jin Dynasty had his left and right wives. In the same Western Jin Dynasty, Chen Shen, Cheng Liang, Wei Shou, and Liu Fang all had two legitimate wives. More recently, there was also the wife of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty.
The important minister Wang Maozhong also has two wives..." Chen Ke's strong memory was not a lie, and he quickly gave an example.
