Chapter 1260 Family Banquet
The dinner was very lively, because Li Gongzuo came back from Fucheng, and the faces of the family were full of joy. Today's dinner is extraordinarily sumptuous. It's not dark yet, and a large table of dishes has been prepared, which is even more sumptuous than the New Year's Eve.
Grab the mutton with your hands and eat three times. This is a big dish, with white color and tender meat, and the taste is not greasy.
"Knowing that you are coming back today, you specially ordered mutton from the butcher Hu butcher in the village yesterday, and bought half of it. This sheep is very good. It is a live sheep from our Shuofang, and I don't know how big it is. With the ability to transport it all the way from outside the customs to our overseas country. Just half a piece of sheep chopped like this, and ten catties of meat cost 1,500 yuan. Good guy, when our family was in Shuofang, a sheep A fat sheep is only three to five hundred dollars, but here, a sheep can be sold for three to five thousand.”
Lao Li grabbed the mutton and served it on the table. This is the hardest dish today. People in Tang Dynasty valued mutton. It is enough to have a meal of haggis occasionally during festivals.
But now that he is here overseas, it is even more difficult to eat sheep, but his son has chosen a samurai and got the opportunity to go to Haidong, so the old man is very generous and generous.
This is because I had negotiated a good relationship with the butcher Hu at the east end of the village early, so I got half of it. After all, Ningyuan Fort is located at the mouth of the river. Although it has just started to be developed, it is still very important as an important river and sea port.
From San Francisco on the west coast to Xinjinshan on the north coast, the boats coming from there basically have to pass through the mouth of Ningyuan River when they come to Ningyuan Prefecture. Although it looks like Datunzhuang here for the time being, it is the first stop after entering Ningyuan Prefecture, the Dudu Mansion. A county is set up here, and a water and land post station is also set up.
It is also planned to build military forts, ports, and markets here.
Therefore, there are also a lot of goods that are in short supply here, such as mutton, which ordinary people can't eat even if they have money. Now the sheep in the entire Luzon are basically transported from the north of the mainland. The transportation cost is high and the quantity is low. It's rare, and it's hard to get it if you have money, especially in Ningyuan, which is a newly developed area.
Because there are ports, post stations and markets here, the Governor's Mansion will regularly transport some sheep to this place. These sheep are specially used for post stations, military forts, ports, county offices, etc., and are given to officials, military academies and passing officials. Waiting for preparation.
Hu butcher usually kills buffaloes, deer, pigs, etc., and occasionally helps the government kill sheep.
Li Gongzuo salivated when he smelled the fresh fragrance.
He knew very well that 1,500 yuan for ten catties of mutton was actually a favor from the butcher Hu, otherwise he would not be able to eat it if he wanted to. Although in recent years, outside the Great Tang Wei Jiayu, the tribes of Turkic and Tiele in the south and north of the desert were subject to them, the tribes of Xi, Qi, Qi, Shiwei, and Mohe in the Northeast were obedient, and the tribes of the Western Regions paid tribute. Livestock cattle and sheep outside the customs are supplied to the Central Plains in large quantities, which has indeed reduced the price of livestock a lot.
But the more beneficiary is the northern border and the Central Plains, especially the border, such as Shuofang, Daibei and other places. The mutton in places such as Shuofang and Daibei is often very cheap in the local area, and a live sheep is also very common.
But in places like Chang’an and Luoyang, the price of mutton is still not cheap due to the large consumption. Basically, the price is around 100 Wen per catty. As for the southern regions, mutton is generally at 123 per catty. Wen Yijin.
Being able to eat 150 Wen a catty of mutton in Luzon, especially in Ningyuan, which is considered to be a frontier of Luzon, is not a favor.
Especially this mutton is indeed a good variety.
Old Li ran to the Hu butcher's house like a thief in the morning to get the mutton, one hand of money and the other hand of mutton. After secretly trading, he quickly put it in a basket and carried it back.
The old woman boiled a large pot of water and boiled the mutton soaked in blood in a large pot, skimmed off the foam, put some sliced ginger, and then changed to a low heat and simmered for more than two hours.
The cooked mutton has meat and bones, and the aroma is amazing.
The old woman divided the ten catties of mutton into three portions, and one portion was eaten cold, and it was very fragrant when eaten with fine salt. The other one is fried, and it is fried in an iron pan on low heat. After the stewed lamb is fried slowly, the aroma is more attractive.
The other thing is to pick it up from the stew pot, put it in a pot with soup, sprinkle some fine salt and eat it hot, it is very refreshing to eat meat and drink soup.
"Ah Da, it's not a bad day, I eat ten catties of mutton at a time." Li Gongzuo laughed.
Old Li waved his hand generously, "You have been training outside for six months, and you have worked hard. You are home, and you have to make up for it."
"My food is good when I'm outside. When I was training in the state camp, the staple food was rice and steamed buns. I was full. In addition, there were dishes. Every meal had fish, fried, stewed, stewed and cooked in various ways. I also ate it every now and then. I can eat a meal of pork, and I can eat a meal of mutton in half a month."
"When I was trained in Fucheng, I ate better. I had fish every day, pork for three days, mutton for five days, and a catty of wine every ten days. At the end of the review, Wei Gong also gave wine and meat, chickens and ducks. Fish, pigs, beef and sheep are enough to eat."
He patted his body, "Don't look at me, I've grown a lot darker, but I've grown a lot stronger, full of oil and water."
Old Li sighed, "I didn't expect to be a soldier to eat food. There is such a good food here. Our Duke Wei is really a saint."
The Northwest is poor, and Lao Litou has seen the life of the frontier army in the Northwest before. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the life of the frontier army there was actually very hard. Later, various people fought against the king, and the treatment of the soldiers was even worse. The Great Tang unified the world. Afterwards, the place became stable, and it was rarely threatened by the grassland tribes outside the Great Wall. The life of a soldier was better, but this was good, and it was nothing more than being able to farm with peace of mind, eating enough, enough salt and pickles, but when it came to eating Fresh vegetables and expensive meat are difficult.
The parents and elders were invited to the top, and the mother was an honest old lady. Even if there were no outsiders for a family meal, she refused to go to the table and ate under the stove.
Sister-in-law, wife and younger sisters are naturally reluctant to go to the table.
"Our family eats around the table today." Li Gongzuo insisted, and said that when Wei Gong was at home, the whole family ate together. Not only Princess Taiping was at the same table, but also concubines and servants. It's for one table.
The old third Gongfu asked, "I heard that Mr. Wei has many wives and concubines and many children, so you can't sit down?"
"Naturally, Duke Wei's family has big round tables or large square tables, which can be divided into several tables to eat. Besides, it is said that although Duke Wei's family often eats together, sometimes they often share food. This is not a problem."
The Li family has a large population.
The eldest brother Li Gongyou is an honest man, and the elder sister-in-law Liu is also a serious woman. They have three sons and two daughters. When they were in their hometown, the elder brother guarded his wife and children and lived a poor life. Although he was poor, he never thought of going out. wandering. This is very different from the personality of the second child who left home with his fellow countrymen in his teens.
The third son, Gongfu, is just eighteen or nineteen years old, energetic and active, unwilling to be ordinary, always wants to go out and make a living, and has not yet married. Then the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh are all daughters, the kind of girls who have never left the village before, and have never even been to the village.
Old Litou actually had three daughters, but two of them died in infancy, and the other married early.
Now that they have moved overseas, there are nine people in the old couple plus three sons and four daughters, and both the eldest and the second are married, and the elders have five children, so there are actually sixteen people in this family.
Big family without compromise.
A large table cannot accommodate so many people, but Li Gongzuo insisted, so he sat and stood, and finally Li's mother was invited to sit with the old Li Tou at the top, and then Li Gongzuo's wife was pregnant. So I also sat down at the table.
The sister-in-law, three younger sisters, and two nieces all stood at the table to pick up vegetables to eat.
But the two little nephews, because they are men, also sat at the table.
In addition to grabbing mutton and eating three times, there are quite a lot of dishes today.
Braised lamb haggis made from sheep's head, sheep's feet, sheep's heart, tripe, intestines, liver, etc., adding a lot of green onion, it also looks very good.
The sister-in-law made a dish of carp baked noodles. This dish is made from Yellow River carp to make sweet and sour fried fish, and then covered with fried fine noodles. The fish is tender, and the dipping sauce is sour and sweet.
Ningyuan Tunbao is near the sea and along the river, but there is no shortage of fish, among which there are also many carp, which are big in size. Today’s carp was caught by Lao San Gongfu from the net early in the morning, and it is big and fat.
The last is the cold noodle skin. Make the noodle cold noodle first. Be very patient. Adjust the noodle with cold water. ··Finally, the dough is as thin as paper, cut into strips, topped with cucumbers, and seasoned with vinegar and sesame oil.
Today's cold noodles are even specially topped with minced meat, which is sour, spicy, delicious, and delicious.
The little fellows were obviously drooling over today's big meal. As soon as it was on the table and waited for Lao Li to say let's eat, they immediately started to grab it. The two little nephews first grabbed a large piece of mutton with their hands, I gnawed it before I had time to dip it in salt.
Gongzuo Li picked a fat and tender piece for Lao Li and his mother first, then picked a piece for his wife, and gave a big piece to each of the three nieces.
It is said that it is ten catties of mutton, but sixteen people can eat it all at once.
Cold fried ones with soup. After a while, there is not even a drop of soup left. A few little nephews are still gnawing on the bones reluctantly.
Old Li said even more, "Put these bones in this wooden basin, and you can still cook soup tomorrow."
No one objected, the taste of mutton is so good, even if the mutton bones are cleaned and returned to the pot again, there will still be some mutton flavor.
Li Gongzuo said, "Ada, this mutton has been stewed for several hours, and there is no meat at all, and the bones are all stewed out."
"Stew it again, there are still good things, don't waste it."
Li Gongzuo thought about it and said, "Why don't you use it to make soup for the servants? If we want to eat it, I will go to the butcher Hu to buy a sheep neck or spine to make soup."
(end of this chapter)