Chapter 29 For the Safe

  "Alright, no need for me to go back and ask, boss, can you help me shave the hair off the pig's feet, then cut them in half and chop them into small pieces about an inch long? Later, you can send them to the inn and we'll take care of all your pig's feet from now on. We'll process them according to what I just said, as for the price, it's fine if it's the same as before. However, there's one condition, you must make sure they're clean when you send them over." Wang Kuang thought for a moment and decided to bring his father's braised pig's feet recipe to the Tang Dynasty. As for the dish name, he had already thought of it - "Brother Pig's Feet", a kind of nostalgia.

  "Will that do?" The butcher's owner hesitated, even though almost everyone in Jian'an who knew Wang Kuang called him Young Master Dong, but to the butcher, he was just the master of Fuli Inn doting on this Wang Dalang. Could his words be counted?

  "Whether it works or not, you'll know once you send it off. If I'm not around after you've sent it off, just say what I said and that's fine. I'll mention it to my uncle later. It's a small matter, but what I say still counts." Wang Kuang saw that the shopkeeper was still worried, so he simply pulled out a wooden token from his pocket. "Here, take this token and go. Whether it's real or not, consider it sent." Wang Kuang usually carried several of these tokens in his pocket, which could be exchanged for a pot of wine. The tokens had a hidden mark that was imperceptible to the naked eye but could be felt by touch. Only Sun Zhang and Sun Er knew about this mark at the inn, and they were the ones who handled the transactions when someone came to exchange a token for wine. There had been instances where people tried to take advantage of the system by asking a carpenter to make fake tokens, but as soon as Sun Er took the token, he could immediately tell it was fake. He wouldn't say anything out loud, but would still serve the person a pot of wine before quietly telling them that the token was counterfeit. This way, the person's dignity was preserved, and they would usually pay for the wine without making a fuss. This was all according to Wang Kuang's instructions, as he believed in being low-key and avoiding conflict. If Sun Er had handled it differently in the past, by loudly exposing the fake token, it could have led to the person becoming angry or even seeking revenge later on, which would have gone against Wang Kuang's intentions.

  When Wang saw the wooden sign, the butcher's eyes lit up immediately. Regardless of whether what the young master said was true or not, he would absolutely not suffer a loss. He quickly got to work. Originally, in order to sell well, the pig's feet had already been cleaned very thoroughly, but he still wasn't at ease. He used a small knife to scrape them again before starting to chop.

  Wang Kuang didn't have the time to wait, he still had to hurry back to the inn to wait for Lin Xianglian. But first, he had to go and pick out a clay pot for braising pig's feet, the kitchen in the inn had some clay pots, but none of them were very well-sealed, which didn't meet Wang Kuang's requirements, braising pig's feet required a tightly sealed clay pot that could trap the flavors well and make it easy to cook. He turned into a small shop at the north gate that sold miscellaneous goods, after picking through over ten clay pots, he finally managed to find one that was somewhat suitable, for this, he even gave out a token of appreciation, the shopkeeper's face wasn't very pleasant when he saw Wang Kuang picking through his wares.

  Returning to the inn, Lin Xiang had not arrived yet, but Zhuo Jiao had already delivered the goods. The butcher was sitting in the hall, enjoying his wine. The wine exchanged with wooden tokens at the inn could only be consumed within the inn and not taken home. The butcher had ordered half a catty of braised pork large intestine and a dish of mixed vegetables. Seeing Wang Kuang enter, he quickly stood up to greet him: "Young Master Dong, come have a drink? It's really true what you said, from now on my butcher shop won't have to worry about not selling any pig trotters every day. Thank you, Young Master Dong, you've helped me out greatly!"

  "Hehe, don't thank me, shopkeeper. You sell pork feet and we need ingredients at the inn, isn't this a win-win situation? Wang Kuang chuckled and pointed to the plate of braised large intestine: "Why didn't you eat it all at home?" Wang Kuang was referring to the past when Fu Lai Inn hadn't started selling braised dishes yet. The butcher shopkeeper would almost always have leftover intestines every day, which he would eat himself. If it were up to Wang Kuang, he would have been tired of eating them long ago."

  "Heh heh." Perhaps it was because the butcher had eaten too much pork in his daily life, but he looked quite plump. He scratched his neck with his greasy hands: "It's really strange to say, usually when I'm at home, I'm fed up with this large intestine, sometimes I see it and I'm afraid of it. But as soon as I come to your inn, I smell the fragrance, yeah, that's where it comes from." He pointed to a nearby table, where a customer was eating with his eyes closed, savoring each bite of wine and large intestine. "I took a look, and it turned out to be pig intestine, which is strange too. When I smelled that fragrance, I especially wanted to eat it, so I also ordered half a catty to try. I didn't expect it to be delicious, your inn really has a master chef! Ordinary things that no one eats, become signature dishes at your inn." Seeing Wang Kuang walking over, the butcher quickly waved his hand: "Young Master Wang, you'd better not come over, or you'll get your nose dirty. My body smells strongly of pork." Generally, people who slaughter pigs often have a strong smell of pork on their bodies, which is difficult to wash off without effective cleaning products, so the butcher said this.

  After arriving in the Tang Dynasty, Wang finally understood why being fat was considered beautiful during that time. It was because after the fall of the Han Dynasty, the entire Central Plains and even the Min region were plagued by war for a long time, with very few periods of peace lasting over 50 years. As a result, the population was severely lacking, and production could not keep up, so for a long time, ordinary families rarely had enough to eat, and it was already good if they had something to eat at all. In this situation, being fat indirectly showed that you didn't lack food, which also reflected that your living standards were much higher than those of ordinary people. Of course, it made people envy. Just look at the butcher's owner, who was also a high-cholesterol thing, eating too much and getting fat to the point where his face would shake when he spoke.

  Wang Kuang's father was originally working in a food company, relying on killing pigs and selling meat to support Wang Kuang until his university graduation. Wang Kuang had long been accustomed to this taste, so he didn't mind it at all. He sat down directly next to the butcher, pointing at the braised intestines: "The flavor is not bad, right? This is Auntie Zhu's craftsmanship. I think these pig trotters can also be braised and eaten, that's why I asked you to reserve them for me. In the future, if there's any unsold meat or whatever, feel free to send it over and we might be able to use it." Sun Er happened to pass by and took over the conversation: "Yes, Chen Nian, you don't know, our young master is quite particular about food. Whatever can be eaten, after being handled by the chefs in the kitchen, really becomes delicious. So when you said it was sent by our young master, we accepted it."

  "Then I must really thank Xiao Dong's family. From now on, if Xiao Dong's family wants to eat something, they can just come to my shop and take it away. My surname is Chen, 20th in the generation order, everyone calls me Chen Er, but I don't deserve to be called the boss of Xiao Dong's family, after all, I'm just a butcher."

  "What's the new food? Where is it?" Wang Kuang wanted to say something, but then he heard a loud noise outside. Who else could it be but Lin Xuanmiao? As soon as he heard there was new food, he didn't even go back home, and rushed straight to the inn from school. He had just arrived at the door when he started shouting.

  During this time, Lin Xuanmiao was the undisputed leader in the state school. He had a copper medal and was the only son of Lin Zhubu, so he wasn't short on followers. After getting the copper medal, he became even more unapproachable. Lin Xuanmiao usually treated people decently and wasn't one of those spoiled rich kids, so now even some of his former classmates who looked down on him were extremely respectful towards him. This made Lin Xuanmiao very proud. As soon as he heard that someone from the Rich Come Inn was inviting him, he agreed and thought to himself that he would have something to show off about in front of his classmates tomorrow. Why wouldn't he go? So when Gao San mentioned new food, Lin Xuanmiao immediately took off running without needing any wooden sign to prove his identity. Along the way, Gao San, who usually ran errands in front of the hall, was instead being urged by Lin Xuanmiao to "hurry up and walk faster."

  Lin Xuanmu stepped into the hall, and at a glance, she saw Wang Kuang sitting there. Without regard for her identity, she plunked herself down beside him. This startled Chen Nian so much that he hastily stood up: "Young Master, this is really too much for a humble person like me! How dare I sit with Young Master? I'll move to another seat."

  "Not bad, not bad. How did the Rich Guesthouse put it again?" Lin Xuanmu asked Wang Kuang with a smile. For this Wang Dalang who could stump the usually clever little girl, he had a pretty good impression, and what's more, after hearing his father's investigation say that the idea of the copper plate was still from this Wang Dalang, so when he saw Wang Kuang, he felt particularly close, although there was a big age difference, and Wang Kuang wasn't someone with an official title or anything, but it didn't matter. If it were someone else, he wouldn't have given them the cold shoulder, but would have been indifferent, after all, he was a somewhat famous young talent in the prefecture.

  "All guests are treated equally." Wang Kuang said with a smile.

  "Right, right, since you're staying at this inn, you should follow the rules, shouldn't you? So, Old Chen, don't be so formal, you eat your food, and I'll chat with Wang Dalang about our own things." Lin Xuanmu patted the table and suddenly furrowed his brow: "What's that strange smell? Is this really your new dish? The smell is really too awful." It seemed he had only just noticed the smell on Chen Nian's body.

  Seeing Chen Yan's face turn red, his hands were at a loss, neither eating nor not eating. Wang Kuang had to lead Lin Xuanmu to sit down beside the window in a corner of the case, which made Chen Yan slightly calm down. But then he didn't dare to stay any longer, and quickly finished eating, went to the cabinet to settle the bill and slipped away.

  At this time, Gao San stepped in and clapped his legs with both hands. He saw that Lin Xiang had already started chatting with Wang Kuang, so he hurried over to flatter him, saying: "Young master has great leg strength, I couldn't even catch up."

  "Haha, that's right. Don't think that we bookworms are weak and can't withstand the wind. Besides, there's new food to eat, I'd better hurry up or I'll miss the opportunity."

  Sun Er personally brought over a pot of tea: "Young master, please sit for a moment, the new dish will be ready soon. Actually, it's not really a new dish, just added a seasoning, I'll bring it to you in a while."

  "Oh? Just add a seasoning? Then I really want to try it, if you can say it's a new dish, it must be very different." Lin Xuanmu was very interested when he heard this, he knew that if it wasn't for the vastly different flavor, Fuli Inn would never call it a new dish.

  "Heh heh, apart from this, there really is new food to eat. Young master, you sit down, I'll go take a look in the kitchen if it's done." Wang Kuang suddenly remembered that braised pork feet could be considered new food too, but if they were to make it now, it would still take about an hour to cook. However, for the sake of the safe, he probably had to think of a way to whet Lin Xiangming's appetite first.

  You asked Wang Kuang why he was so particular about the individual peppers and had to make a safe. Wang Kuang, who loved to eat, knew that hundreds of years later in Western or American countries, there had been many wars over spices like vanilla and chocolate, which were now ordinary foods. This showed that although peppers were small, they would bring huge changes to the food of the Tang Dynasty. Sun Mingqian and he currently had no way to protect themselves, so they could only think of ways to do a good job of keeping secrets in advance, and wait until later when they had a powerful backer to make plans. And the safe was not just for storing pepper seeds, it would be useful in many other places in the future.

  Division -

  Some book friends questioned the safe deposit box issue, which was an oversight by Ash Sparrow. Originally, Ash Sparrow intended to gloss over unimportant things, but now it seems that approach won't work. In the future, Ash Sparrow will pay attention and make sure to clarify every detail.

  Outdoor barbecue tips: Many people now like to go outdoors or in their own backyard for a barbecue and beer. Here's a little trick from Grey Sparrow: just spray some beer onto the food that's almost done grilling, and the flavor will be absolutely perfect.

  Still asking for votes, recommendations and collections, your support is the motivation of gray sparrow.