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Outside of Xianyang, a large troop of cavalry cladded in silver armour was neatly arranged into two columns. Their armour was sparkling, their horses large and mighty, and their spears and swords gleamed in the light of the sun. A yellow colour banner was fluttering in the wind.
The leader of this group of solider is a handsome youth. His eyebrows were thick, and his eyes were filled with calm and intelligence. One of his hands held a long silver colour spear, while the other hand was holding to the reins of his horse. Under his armour, is a green colour robe that fluttered in the wind.
The chestnut colour horse he is riding on is extremely large and mighty, and snorted with pride as it led the troops and trotted on.
What a commanding presence from the man and horse!
This man is none other than the son of the Prime Minister, the champion of the military examination, the '6 likes' gentleman, Shen Yaoshan!
"General Shen, how are you?" Governor Zhao greeted.
That day, when Shen Yanshan had led his troops to eradicated the bandits, he and Governor Zhao met briefly.
"Thank you for your concern! I am ordered to escort Sir Song Tao, and had come here in advance to inform you." Shen Yaoshan reined in the horse, and his handsome face shows his commanding aura.
"Thank you for your troubles, General Shen. Xianyang is ready to receive Sir Song Tao!" Governor Zhao smiled.
"That's great!" Shen Yaoshan nodded his head.
"May I ask where is Sir Song Tao…" Governor Zhao looked behind Shen Yaoshan, and did not see any carriages. All he saw was rows and rows of cavalry.
"Governor Zhao, all you need to do is assign your staff to prepare for his arrival. Sir Song Tao does not like a fuss. Even when he left the capital, I have to protect him from afar and dared not to go too close, lest he becomes offended. Today, Sir Song Tao had already arrived at the outskirts. I have rush here just to inform you." Shen Yaoshan turned his 'red rabbit' horse around as he galloped off.
Under the light of the morning sun, Shen Yaoshan looks muscular and handsome, and his silver colour spear gleamed in the light of the morning sun.
"Aides, quickly inform all the officials to come to the city gates to welcome Sir Song Tao! You, get a group of constables and go to Drunken Immortal Restaurant! Tell them that Sir Song Tao will be coming soon!" Governor Zhao commanded.
"We hear and obey!"
It is now almost lunch time. Today, the business at Drunken Immortal Restaurant is really good. Not only is the dining hall full, even all the VIP rooms were fully booked.
"Stop eating! Get out of here!" Chief Constable Luo leads a group of constables on horseback as they surrounded the restaurant and shouted.
Manager Lee was alarmed, "Oh, Chief Constable Luo, how may I be of service to you?"
"Manager Lee, Sir Song Tao will be arriving shortly. Governor Zhao had assigned me to come to Drunken Immortal Restaurant. All the commoners are to leave the restaurant immediately!"
"Oh, yes, where is chef Wen? I will find him!" Chief Constable Luo did not have much time to explain and immediately dismounted and charged into the back kitchen.
All the constables under his command immediately dismounted and charged into the restaurant. One group of them rushed upstairs as they drove away all the VIP guest. The other group drove away the guests from the dining area.
The guests have no choice but to leave, shook their hand, sigh, scold, and it is chaos in the restaurant.
Manager Lee sighed, "This…. they have not paid for their meal!"
"Quick, I must inform old man Qiao! I must tell him that the super VIP is coming!" Manager Li immediately rushed towards old man Qiao's mansion.
"Chef Wen! Chef Wen!" Chief Constable Luo immediately shouted as he entered the kitchen.
"Oh, it is you, Chief Constable Luo! How may I be of service to you? Today, there are a lot of customers. Once I have served them, I will cook something good for you!" Wen Shouzhen's hands did not stop cooking while he greeted Chief Constable Luo.
"Chef Wen, right now, there are not more customers in the restaurant. Governor Zhao asked me to inform you that Sir Song Tao is coming! You better prepare the feast for him!" Having said that, Chief Constable Luo immediately turned around and left.
Wen Shouzhen was surprised, and immediately hollered, "What? So fast? Rou Er, Shi Tou! Everyone quickly come over!"
Luckily they have been preparing for a few days and had procured all the finest ingredients. Right now, all they need to do is to divide the work, and each of them completes their assigned task.
This is a super VIP, and the chefs dare not to take their time about it.
Chef Yang and Chef Zheng immediately took their disciples with them as they prepared the secondary dishes. Chef Zhang, in a change of heart, brought his disciple, Xiao Wu, with him as he prepares the desserts for Sir Song Tao.
Wen Rou and Fang Dashi stood beside Wen Shouzhen, and listened to his instructions.
"Shi Tou, you are in charge of cutting the ingredients; Wen Rou, you will help me to prepare the right portions of ingredients."
Fang Dashi immediately lifts up the cleaver, and "Sha Sha Sha" sounds rang out. Then the ingredients were chopped into threads, strips, slices, and large pieces. All kinds of patterns were cut.
"Father, this sea cucumber and shark's fin are for Sir Song Tao?" Wen Rou pointed at the two big bowls.
One of the bowls' contents is white in colour, the other is black is colour. These contain the superior grade shark fin and top grade sea cucumber.
"That's right, Rou Er! These are the main dishes for today! Come, stand over here, I will teach you how to cook this shark fin!" Wen Shouzhen replied.
Wen Rou stood at one side as she learns.
The shark fin is very expensive. That is why when cooking it, most of the chefs will use only a bit of it.
Wen Shouzhen took a very small stove burner. He lighted a candle, and placed it on the stove burner. Then he got a claypot and placed it on top of the stove. The gentle light of the candle seemed to dance within the stove, and the claypot slowly heats up.
Wen Rou watched on, fantasticated by the scene, "Father is this used to hold the shark fin later?"
"That's right. This superior grade shark's fin is a rare item. For something this good, it must take care of the eater's 3 senses. It should look good and appetising. It must smell good, and finally, it must taste good. In this cold winter, this type of claypot stove can be used to retain the heat of the dish. Even when the customers had eaten the last drop, it will not turn cold, or change flavour because it is no longer hot." Having said this, Wen Shouzhen ignored the claypot and turned his attention to cooking the shark's fin.
"Father, let me help you to clean the wok!" Wen Rou volunteered, and lifted up her sleeves as she gets ready to work.
"Silly girl! We cannot use iron, steel or bronze wok to cook the shark's fin. Or it will destroy the flavour contained within, and destroy the flavour of the entire dish! We must use a ceramic wok to cook it!" Wen Shouzhen smiled, and took out a two-eared ceramic wok. He allowed Wen Rou to wash it clean, and double checked. When he could not feel any oil, salt or anything else, he was finally satisfied and placed on the stove.
Wen Shouzhen carefully took out the shark fin, and placed it in a bowl of water. The kitchen does not have any mountain spring water, so he had no choice but to boil some water using bamboo containers, and after half an hour, he filtered the water and use it to cook the shark fin's soup.
"Rou Er, gather some soup." Wen Shouzhen pointed, and Wen Rou immediately complied.
There is a large smoking pot of soup that was boiled one day earlier just to use it for the feast.
This soup stock is cooked using high-quality chicken bones. After boiling it, the soup was discarded to avoid any form and residue, and a fresh set of water was used to reboil the cleaned chicken for more than a day. The end result is a crystal clear chicken soup without the oil or chicken residue.
Wen Rou picked up a bowl of chicken soup. Wen Shouzhen pointed at the ceramic bowl, indicating that Wen Rou should pour it into the ceramic bowl. After Wen Rou had done that, he placed the shark fin instead, and added some wine and turned the fire smaller. After 5 minutes, he took out the ceramic bowl.
"Rou Er, come over here. Now we need to pick away the meat and the bones from the shark fins. This is a pick. You need to be gentle and careful. You must preserve the shape of this fin, otherwise, it will affect the taste. After you have cleaned it, remember to use some water to wash away all the bones and sand, so that it will taste fresh and good." Wen Shouzhen instructed.
Meanwhile, he was busy as well, as he gathered the chicken, duck, pork, ham from Fang Dashi and stirred fried them. Then he added some wine, soy sauce, salt, ginger, onion and soup. This created a wok of very sweet smelling soup.
When he had finished cooking, Wen Rou had also finished her task. Wen Shouzhen checked the shark fin and was very pleased as he nodded his head.
The father and daughter pair worked well together. Wen Shouzhen used a clean cloth to wrapped the shark fin and carefully placed it into the washed and cleaned ceramic pot, and added the soup base that he had just cooked to it. He turned the fire to low. When the soup is boiling and thicker, he took out the packet of shark fin, and removed the cloth. Then he used a soup sieve to remove any residues from the soup and allow the soup to drip onto the claypot stove that he had prepare beforehand. He seasoned the shark fin with some sauce.
At the same time, he took some of the ingredients from the wok and placed it at the bottom of the claypot. Then he placed the shark fin on top of these ingredients. The bowl of shark fin is finally ready!
This dish is slightly yellow in colour, the fins are clear and bright, it looks soft and tender, the soup is thick, and it is very aromatic. This is indeed a dish worthy of being served to a VIP!
"Father, it smells heavenly!" Wen Rou gulped.
"Father had already prepared one more portion for you. Later after we have finished serving this guest, I will take it out and let you eat it!" Wen Shouzhen smiled with a smug expression on his face.
At this time, outside of Xianyang's city gates, the city gates were wide opened.
In the freezing weather, the group of court officials continued to wait.
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Recipes for food mentioned in this chapter: [Total: 4 Average: 4.5/5]