Chapter 364: Miao Chu Chapter 365: Presenting the Invitation

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Protagonist:

Song Miao

Song Miao soon received word and came out from the back courtyard to the front hall.

Among the foreigners there was one who spoke fluent official language, along with an official from the Si Fang Guan helping to interpret between them, so communication between the two sides was not difficult.

After several rounds of back-and-forth, she finally learned the reason: it turned out that a few days ago, a foreign envoy had happened to eat Song Ji's meat jerky and balanophora candy, and liked them very much.

Especially the meat jerky, because the place the envoy came from also often dried beef, mutton, and other meats, but their method was rough, completely different from Song Ji's pork jerky, and he found it both familiar and novel, with a taste that suited him, so he could eat it without difficulty.

Since their return journey was imminent, they very much wanted to take some back as Da Wei local specialties.

Song Miao first asked everyone about the journey, and upon learning it would take several months, she did not rush to sell, but instead advised: "If it's just for eating on the road, there's no fear, but if the guest wants to take it back, it's really too far away; no matter how good the meat jerky is, it's hard to keep for several months, especially in damp weather, when it will mold and spoil in just a few days."

"As for the candy, the candy itself is fine, but it contains roasted balanophora kernels, and what you eat is that nutty fragrance and crispness, the taste of burnt sugar mixed with cow's milk; as long as it's left open for two more days, the kernels won't be crisp enough, and the flavor will lose eighty or ninety percent."

"Taking such things back, I'm afraid it would ruin my reputation and also ruin Da Wei's reputation for food—why not buy less, just eat some on the road?"

That foreign envoy actually understood some Da Wei official language; before the person beside him could relay it, his face already showed much disappointment.

Travel between the two countries was inconvenient; having brought tribute items, besides the court's bestowals, they naturally wanted to buy many local products to take back.

Other goods were easy to carry, but only food was hard to find that could keep for long, so upon seeing the candy and meat jerky, they were originally very happy, never expecting such a result.

But he still did not give up, asking in a somewhat stiff accent: "Our meat jerky, kept for half a year or a year, doesn't fear spoiling; why would yours spoil?"

That was because the method was different, and the climate was different.

Song Miao explained a few sentences.

She originally thought of the other party and refused to do such business, but she didn't know that upon hearing such a reply, the two foreigners instead thought this storekeeper was honest and reliable, and became even more insistent.

They discussed opposite her for a while, then one of them came out again and talked back and forth, only asking if she could think of a way, as their side really wanted to buy.

One said: "You make it! We'll buy!"

The other, through the accompanying official-language speaker, said: "If it changes flavor, we'll just eat it up on the road; the storekeeper doesn't need to worry, just sell it!"

The customers had said all this; with business delivered to her door, Song Miao had no reason to refuse anymore.

But to make the things keep longer, this time she made some meat jerky with heavier saltiness, controlling the degree so the jerky could keep a bit longer without being overly salty.

Besides the meat jerky, the balanophora candy was also individually wrapped tightly with oil paper and coarse paper again and again, then wrapped and buried with wood ash, with another layer of paper wrapped outside, layer upon layer.

After asking around, she learned the envoys had also bought many ceramic utensils, lacquerware, and such, so she suggested they put these wrapped foods into vessels, stuff wood charcoal around them without leaving gaps, and cover them tightly.

For long-distance travel, this was troublesome and cumbersome, and might not be very effective, but it was the only way.

Song Miao here only considered it a small business; it was troublesome and she didn't earn much money, but many queuing customers outside saw it, and on the day of loading goods, the instructed storekeepers pushed over a cart full of empty porcelain and ceramic vessels; after filling them, they pushed them out again, back and forth, making a great commotion, naturally drawing attention.

That day, customers queuing outside Suanzao Alley began spreading rumors to each other.

"I heard even Hu people have come to eat Song Ji's steamed buns!"

"Nonsense, not Hu people, but Fan people!"

"Whether Hu people or Fan people, I heard the storyteller at Xian He Lou say those people are all hair of one kind and blood of another; the Si Fang Guan canteen prepares food according to their local customs, not daring to cook the meat fully!"

Someone didn't believe it: "Fake, what year is this now, who still eats raw meat; don't let those Fan people hear and say we're making things up!"

"A bit of stomach capacity, we are Da Wei people! A bit of stomach capacity, okay—but I think the things they usually eat probably aren't good; I saw with my own eyes, they came to Song Ji to buy steamed buns and ate ten at a time! All mutton ones!"

"Wow! No wonder they all have curly hair! I bet their intestines are like their hair, curled much longer than our Da Wei people's intestines, with more space to hold things—eating that many steamed buns in one breath!"

"You say this, it's too exaggerated! Making it sound like those Fan people have never eaten anything in their lives! Ten Song Ji steamed buns in one breath, that's not a pig!"

"Not ten, then eight—most likely they're like us, coming to soak up the Taixue scholarly atmosphere!"

"Who's 'us' with you! I just think the steamed buns are delicious!"

The crowd chattered and squeaked, actually all taking things out of context and spreading errors, but when it was their turn to buy, each one was like those Fan people, buying several more mutton steamed buns, so Song Ji's back kitchen had to assign another person to wrap that flavor.

Besides, many people inquired what else the Fan people had bought, and also wanted to rush to buy that meat jerky and balanophora candy.

Even though these two items were not cheap, no one dared to ask for much, but it made Song Ji's orders backed up for many days—originally the pork jerky was always in short supply.

From this, Song Ji Food Shop gained another nickname, called "Fan Ren Shi Fan"; the balanophora candy, called and called by customers, was given a new name, called "Fan Sugar."

Some "smart" out-of-town merchants came here, bought "Fan Sugar" back, changed its appearance, put it in a fine box or case, and claimed it was transported from a foreign country thousands of miles away, that they had gone through great hardships to get it, and sold it at a high price to local wealthy households.

Among the wealthy households, some were going to the capital, or had relatives in Jingcheng, or some merchants with insufficient knowledge actually fell for it; getting this sugar, they thought there were many wealthy households in the capital, so they specially sent it into Jingcheng, hoping to get a higher price.

Several groups of people brought things into Jingcheng, each thinking it was truly foreign sugar, either giving it as gifts or trying to sell it; but when people in Jingcheng saw it—"Eh? Isn't this Song Ji's balanophora candy! What foreign sugar! Hey! This is clearly sugar made by our own Da Wei! What does it have to do with those foreign countries!"

As for those two things, brought back by the foreign envoy, carefully preserved, isolated from inside and outside, and since it was already autumn with the climate getting drier all along the way, they actually didn't spoil; this later even triggered a small amusing incident, but that is another story.

When the autumn wind rose, besides itching for crab legs, the weather gradually became dry.

Taking advantage of this time, Song Miao had the food shop staff make cured sausage, phoenix cups, and such in their spare time, and also tried making autumn snacks; first to prepare for the Mid-Autumn business, second, when opening, they could be used as return gifts for guests' congratulatory gifts.

These days, more Guanghan cakes, chestnut cakes, round cakes, and such are made in autumn, plus the earlier fu character, cai character, sheng character cakes, and mung bean cakes; although these are all seasonal items, most cannot be kept for two days.

As the opening drew near, the food shop naturally became busier; Song Miao thought to make more snacks suitable for young and old in advance, first to test how long they could be stored.

She compared the snacks her family used to eat in autumn and winter with those commonly seen on the market now, and finally chose orchid strips, pine flower sugar, rice flower sugar, and ma tong, four kinds.

The first three are often made by people on the market, but the last one, ma tong, since coming to this place, Song Miao had never seen before.

Ma tong is also called liao hua zao; according to what her father said when she was young, it was named because its shape resembles tong grass and is wrapped with sesame; but according to her mother, it was because the master who first made this snack had a pockmarked face, and also because this food melts crisply and gives way at a poke.

Her parents had even argued about this once, each presenting facts and reasoning, but neither convinced the other.

Arguing further, one said the other was not rigorous, the other criticized the opposite for not knowing how to make things interesting for children; in the end, they still didn't reach a conclusion.

But Song Miao had always liked eating this; it was just really troublesome to make, and one of the main ingredients was taro, which was only available in a limited season.

Taro had just come out not long ago, and most were red sprout taro; although not as good in texture and fragrance as after frost's descent, it could already be used.

She had prepared early: soaked the glutinous rice for a long time and drained it, ground it into glutinous rice flour, mixed it with steamed peeled taro into a dough, rolled it flat and cut it into pieces, dried them in the shade for several days; at this time she heated an oil pot, stir-fried white sesame until fragrant, melted maltose and mixed it with oil to make sugar syrup, only waiting to start frying the plain dough.

This thing's ingredients were very simple, but making it was not easy; besides the difficulty of the ratio of taro to glutinous rice flour, the concentration of the sugar syrup, and the control of the shade-drying degree, the most important was the frying technique and heat control.

First heat the oil pan for deep-frying, fry the cut strips — originally no bigger than a fingertip — until they puff up and swell, then use a hot oil pan over high heat to fry and set the shape.

Once fried, toss the su ma tong into the sugar syrup to coat, roll them in white sesame seeds, let them tumble around until covered tight with sesame — then they are done.

Song Miao brought Zhang Siniang together with Dabing and the others, demonstrated twice herself, explained the key points in detail, and taught them hand in hand.

Everyone took turns trying; either the puffing was poor, or it puffed well but the outside burnt.

By the later stage of frying, Zhang Siniang was gritting her teeth: "How can a single rice ball be this hard to deal with!"

A short-term hired woman also tried her own fried ones, compared them with Song Miao's, and couldn't help saying: "Same oil pan — how come the ones from the young lady's hands eat so crisp and melt-in-the-mouth!"

Song Miao smiled: "Take your time, these ma tong are perfect for you to practice your skill — whoever learns first, tonight I'll fry a whole box for her to take home as a reward."

The whole room was already very enthusiastic; now, on top of that, everyone's spirit rose another hundred and twenty percent.

Busy for half a day, barely managed to teach out two that were passable, when a short-term hired woman came in the front door asking: "Young lady, there are customers outside asking what we're making that smells so good — are we selling it!"

Though the ma tong are fried in the back kitchen, even the front hall is fragrant.

The aroma has the richness of stir-fried sesame, the sweetness of stir-fried maltose, and the special fragrance of the ma tong itself — inside there's taro and glutinous rice, even unseen, one sniff tells you something extremely fragrant and crisp is being made.

Selling is naturally not yet possible.

It was already afternoon, nearing closing time; usually few people, but after asking about the situation outside, Song Miao had the short-term hired woman pack a small tray and go out, asking the queuing crowd to help taste and see if they had any suggestions.

Before long, even through the second gate, inside they could hear quite a commotion outside.

Very quickly, that short-term hired woman came back as if fleeing for her life.

She wiped a hand of sweat, voice tight: "Young lady, it's chaos out there! Those customers all say our food shop won't do business, and claim they're your old acquaintances, clamoring for you to come out and speak!"

Song Miao listened and her scalp tightened too.

She already thought of that day at the Taixue gate setting up a stall, surrounded by a crowd of students.

Back then she could run pushing her cart, but now she's inside the food shop — the monk can run but the temple can't...

She hurriedly carried a large teapot to the front hall, just showed her face, and outside several voices already shouted.

"Song Xiaoniangzi!"

"Thought you became the boss, business grew big, and stopped caring about people!"

"Is there anyone who does business like this? Steamed buns can't be bought freely, meat jerky and ba lan ren candy can't be bought freely, mung bean cakes also need queuing for fresh batches — fine, let that pass — but now even a fried wrap, after letting people taste it, still can't be bought!"

"Song Xiaoniangzi doing things like this deserves a scolding!"

"Hire people already!"

"Didn't the Empress Dowager bestow the opposite house — why hasn't it been fixed after so long? Hurry and move over, add people where needed! Expand the building where needed!"

"Customers come once, can't buy, always have to queue — anger full to bursting — later they'll go out and badmouth you! I've explained for you several times already!"

A group clamoring noisily, worrying even more than Song Miao the real boss, yet every face familiar — Wang Chang at the lead, bringing several Taixue students who had helped copy books for her back then.

Her slight tension vanished completely, she couldn't help laughing, and asked: "Gentlemen, how come you have free time? No classes today?"

Then she ushered the crowd into the front hall.

A group laughing cheerfully.

"Still have to rush back to the study hall in a bit."

"Today we went to City West for the mounted archery exam, just finished, on the way back everyone said, haven't seen Song Xiaoniangzi in so long! All wanted to come see!"

"Although the canteen now has Song Ji's steamed buns and glutinous rice, can't eat the rice noodle rolls Song Xiaoniangzi makes, haven't seen your cart in ages, feels so unfamiliar!"

"Right! Now the canteen's breakfast is supplied by Song Ji, also very tasty, but I always feel compared to what Song Xiaoniangzi personally made back then, it's still lacking by more than a notch!"

Song Miao smiled: "Then another day I'll make some specially, invite you all to eat!"

Since they also asked about the new shop opening date, she replied: "Not fixed yet, once it's finalized, I'll properly send invitation cards to invite everyone."

A group each let out hehe, huohuo, heihei laughter.

Song Miao chatted with the crowd for a while, seeing they were in a hurry to leave, she packed several food boxes with the freshly fried ma tong and various orchid-strip snacks for them to take back, and also asked Wang Chang to help deliver a box each to Chen Fuzi and Cao Fuzi.

Just as she sent them off and returned to the back courtyard, Zhang Siniang hurriedly chased in after her.

"Just now someone rushed in, delivered a letter to the young lady saying urgent matter, put it down and left."

?? I'll try to resume normal updates starting tomorrow……e=(′o｀*))) sigh, no face to see people QAQ