Palace Full of Delicacies Chapter 6   17 Feb 19, 2019

:'D Hello everyone…Something really good happened and I legitimately forgot that my translations were a thing…ahahahaha…sending all the apologies your way!!!!!

The foodp*rn begins this chapter, by the way. *cackles* Food, glorious food…

C6. Recipe Book

If you are seeing this text, you are NOT reading it on the original site. Head on down to lovelysweetdream 959085286 dot wordpress dot com to read the original!

When he returned to his room, the golden furball was already lying asleep in a starfish position at the centre of the bed. The tip of his tail, which had a tuft of downy white fur, waved about every now and then, marking its territory. This cat's fur was uniquely coloured: normally, cats with yellowish fur would have spots or stripes, but this cat was yellow from top to bottom, with only the belly and tip of the tail coloured white.

"I haven't fed you yet tonight, what did you eat?" Su Yu poked the bulging little belly, which clearly indicated a full stomach.

An Hongche rolled over leisurely, taking a long stretch. Yawning, he sat up, shook his tail, then raised his head to look at Su Yu's face for a while. Only then did he reluctantly move a little bit further in.

Su Yu immediately accepted the cat lord's kindness, climbing into bed to occupy the territory which the other had given up after making a big sacrifice. On the way, he caught the kitten, who was licking his paws, into his arms, sighing, "Saucey, you'll never guess how the Su family became founding pioneers."

An Hongche glanced at him, continuing to lick his paws out of boredom; there was nothing to guess about this. In the twenty-seventh year of the Chengping Emperor, the founding emperor of the An dynasty was stuck halfway when going to war in Mangzhou. A fish-seller with the surname Su presented him with three carts of live fish, which were found to be exceptionally delectable. The founding emperor praised him and gave him a nobility rank.

"This isn't loyalty at all…" Su Yu buried his nose in the kitten's leg, humming listlessly.

An Hongche looked at him quietly, his amber eyes starting to look as if he was smiling. He slowly lowered his head, licking near Su Yu's temple. What did this dumb guy know; only people who could present the royal family with fresh fish were the most loyal subjects.

The little barbed tongue felt ticklish against his face. Su Yu was pleasantly surprised to receive this treatment. He dared not move, meekly receiving the cat lord's unwarranted yet affectionate touches. Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.

Earlier that day, Lady Zhao told him a lot. His uncle and father weren't born to the same mother. Uncle's mother was a concubine who was promoted to the official wife after Su Yu's paternal grandmother died, so he could only be considered a partly official son. Thus, he and Su Yu were of similar status, and even now, the matter of the nobility rank still wasn't settled yet. But the daily labour had already drained Su Yu's energy, and he didn't have time for these household feuds.

It was the hour of the rat, and the moon was high in the sky. Half-dreaming and half-awake, Su Yu felt as if there were a pair of thin, slightly cool lips touching the corner of his mouth. He tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't see anything clearly. He vaguely felt that this person was a beauty.

As he struggled to open his eyes in the morning light, he realised the soft sensation was still there. Su Yu looked down, immediately noticing Saucey sleeping against his neck with limbs splayed. This fellow was extremely domineering; his long tail was wrapped around Su Yu's neck, and one front paw was against Su Yu's chin, forbidding him from moving about in his sleep.

Su Yu was a bit confused as he looked at the blanket covering him. Last night, he seemed to have slept directly on top of the blanket, so how did the blanket get on top of him?

"Squids, squids, freshly grilled squids!"

Loud calls from hawkers filled the path leading to Bodhi Temple. Lately, Su Yu's grilled squid had been selling well, and many people who'd heard about it came to try.

"This doesn't seem like anything special." Some found it fishy and unpalatable after trying a skewer.

"Of course it won't be good if you buy from this one." Seeing this, a regular customer pointed to the stall under the tree. That was the legitimate Su's Grilled Squid.

These days, Su Yu's business was doing well, leading many people to imitate him. Compared to other seafood, squid wasn't worth much and cost little, but since the hawkers in the capital had been fighting to buy them recently, the price of squids had doubled. Su Yu looked at the grilled squid stalls opposite; he wasn't worried that they'd affect his business, because it was very difficult to make squid delicious without cumin powder. What did worry him was that those unpalatable squids would ruin the dish's reputation and affect his great "chain store" plan.

"Meow!" Saucey's call brought Su Yu's attention back. Looking up at once, he saw a gorgeously dressed youth grimacing as he stroked his scratched hand, his slightly chubby face full of unspoken grievance.

Since there were many customers and Su Yu didn't have time to collect money, he placed a wooden box on the table for the buyers to throw in their coins before they collected the squid. This little fatty had probably wanted to eat the squid first, only to get scratched by the "fortune-guarding cat" next to the money-box.

"That'll be thirty coins." Su Yu rubbed the kitten's head, but his smile retracted. He recognised this plump man as the same guy who wanted to buy the cat half a month ago.

The little fatty had no choice. After rummaging for a while, he could only produce a bead of silver from his purse.

"This is too much, I don't have the change." Su Yu quickly stopped the little fatty from tossing the silver bead. That bead was probably at least two taels' worth, and even a full day's worth of earnings wouldn't be enough for the change.

The little fatty scratched his head, "I forgot to bring money today, you can keep the change."

"How could I do that." Su Yu immediately gave up on the matter. What if this person used this as an excuse to ask him for the cat? He pushed the silver bead back, at the same time taking the squid back, having lost the intention to sell it to him.

The little fatty snatched the squid skewer over, its oil still spitting, and took a bite without leaving any room for intervention. He hurriedly shoved a small jade tablet into Su Yu's hands and said, "Come get the money from my residence later." Having said that, he disappeared at once with the squid skewer.

"Ay!" Su Yu couldn't stop him in time. Looking at the two-inch-long jade tablet in his hand, he couldn't help but frown.

The jade tablet was made from green jade, with an intricately carved qilin on the front. Its features were clearly portrayed, and it looked as if it stood atop clouds in the sky. This thin piece of green jade was worth at least a whole bucket of squid rings. On the back, other than the fine print that was too small to read, there was a large 'ZHAO' inscribed.

The qilin was used to decorate items belonging to princes. Anyone could think of this jade tablet's owner without much effort; it was His Majesty's biological younger brother— Arch Prince Zhao, An Hongyi!

After packing up and going home, Su Yu drove the donkey cart absentmindedly. Arch Prince Zhao was clearly doing this on purpose, but he hadn't any idea why a respectable prince would keep coming to look for a skewer vendor like him.

The kitten who had been sitting in Su Yu's embrace now climbed up his arm to his shoulder and sat there, as if it was the one driving the donkey cart. This kitten was so unlike any other cat. Just like a dog, it wasn't afraid of strangers, and every day, it followed him wherever he went. In hindsight, Su Yu realised what a treasure he had acquired, for this kitten warmed his bed, accompanied him out on walks, played with him, and even helped him collect money. Forget about three taels; even if someone were to give him three hundred taels of silver now, he wouldn't sell this cat.

Su Yu's ear instantly felt ticklish when he got poked by the kitten's fur. He took the chance to nuzzle the kitten. Glancing sideways, he realised the fields were filled with large patches of cole flowers[1]. The vibrant yellow patches extended all the way to the horizon, and the kitten on his shoulder was gazing out towards those bright fields.

"Spring has arrived, huh." Su Yu stopped the donkey cart, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with the kitten. He watched quietly as the remaining light from the setting sun fell on the fields of flowers.

"Meoww." For once, the kitten gave a reply, its eyes fixed on the scenery before it. That pose made it seem like it would be able to come up with a poem on the spot.

A strange feeling surfaced in Su Yu's heart. Arch Prince Zhao most likely wouldn't be interested in a skewer vendor like him; everything might only be because of this special cat. In that instant, a ridiculous thought flashed by in his mind. As a transmigrated person, could the golden finger given to him by the heavens possibly be…

"Saucey, you aren't some demonic beast, are you?" Su Yu turned his head, staring into those large amber eyes.

"…" The cat didn't answer Su Yu's question, only swatting him upon hearing 'Saucey'.

You fool, how many times have I said that you are forbidden from addressing me as such!

Thanks to the cat lord's merciless strike, Su Yu tossed the matter of Arch Prince Zhao to the back of his mind. After reaching home and filling up his and his cat's stomachs, he lay on his bed, studying his family heirloom.

The increasing number of grilled squid stalls in the markets was making him feel endangered. Grilled squid wasn't a good long-term plan after all. If he wanted to earn big bucks, he had to make traditional seafood dishes. Only, this ancient world's seasonings differed greatly from those available in the modern day, and as someone who hadn't been in this world for long, Su Yu didn't really understand the ingredients available in this world. Only having good skills wasn't enough to make dishes that would be accepted.

According to the descriptions given by his mother, Lady Zhao, the Su family's ancestors had once been famed chefs in the East Seas region who specialised in preparing fresh produce from the seas. However, the people from the previous dynasty weren't as passionate about seafood as people in the current time were. Thus, despite being well-off, the Su family never became one of the richest.

This 'Su Family Recipe Book' was a record of dishes by the previous generations of the Su family. Many dishes had been lost in time, for this recipe recorded each dish's ingredients without giving even a word of the preparation methods, as could be seen from the first recipe—'Silk-Covered White Jade Scallops'.

The recipe said so: 'Fresh scallops, mung bean shreds, garlic, fresh ginger, sauce', nine words in all. There was a drawing of the finished product, a bare sketch that showed a scallop with its shell open and a pile of string-like things on top, the title being 'Silk-Covered White Jade Scallops'.[2]

Su Yu was befuddled. Adding mung beans to scallops; what the heck was this preparation method?

As he played with his own paws, An Hongche looked at that person's troubled appearance and suddenly thought it an eyesore. He looked at the old, yellowed tome. 'Silk-Covered White Jade Scallops'; this wasn't some rare dish. Even the palace chefs could make it.

"Mung bean shreds, mung bean shreds, are they supposed to remove the fishiness?" Su Yu scratched his head, burying his face in his blanket. He couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried.

Attracted by his act of scratching his head, the kitten pounced over and hugged his head, giving it a few quick scratches, which further messed up his already-unruly hair.

"Hey!" Su Yu quickly held down the offending front paw, but it made the mischievous little thing want to play even more, and it used its hind leg to kick his hair. "You damn brat, my hair's becoming like glass noodles…"

Su Yu laughed as he held down the fidgeting furball, then suddenly froze; that was it, glass noodles!

Modern people often consumed Longkou glass noodles, which were fine and transparent with a soft and slippery texture. The tastiest glass noodles were made from mung bean starch. Thus, 'mung bean shreds' meant glass noodles made from mung beans, not mung beans turned into powder.

No wonder it looked so familiar. In other words, weren't these Silk-Covered White Jade Scallops just steamed scallops with garlic and glass noodles?

Holding up the book in his hands, Su Yu quickly flipped to the later pages. The ingredients were listed in detail, the preparation methods were briefly described, but if he thought about dishes from his past life based on the given pictures, there wasn't much difference, except that the ingredients had all sorts of funny names.

At this point, Su Yu couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from tilting upwards slightly. To him, this book was a translation manual for the ingredients of this world. Although it wasn't some treasure map or record, this was what he needed the most right now.

"I love you so damn much, Saucey!" Su Yu scooped up the kitten who was still kicking him continuously and planted a hard kiss on that furry little kitten face.

New names:

An Hongyi = 安弘浥. (浥=moist, wet) Arch Prince Zhao's real name.

Footnotes here:

[1]: Original was 油菜花, which can refer to a few types of plants under the genus Brassica. These plants' seeds can be pressed for oil 油, hence they can all be known as 油菜. The important point here is: whenever 油菜花 appears, it's often associated with fields of bright yellow flowers. Awesome for photos.

[2]: (this footnote is one heck of a wild ride) Man, I really cracked my brains on the mung bean issue…See, the original was 绿豆粉, and in modern times this would be known simply as 粉丝 (glass/cellophane noodles). However, in modern times, anything with 粉 at the end is usually a powder or some kind of flour, and because of that, MC thought it was 'mung bean flour' but couldn't think of glass noodles.

Unfortunately, I couldn't just translate 绿豆粉 to 'mung bean flour' or 'mung bean noodles', because it would be hella confusing once Su Yu's realisation came up…but this part was very important to the story…you can see what I decided in the end, it's there in the text.

Finally: regarding the name for the scallop dish, the original was 缠丝白玉贝. Rather than a literal translation, I gave it a name to match the appearance. And why 'silk'? Because Chinese like their fancy dish names. Makes the dish feel more elegant, no?

If you are seeing this text, you are NOT reading it on the original site. Head on down to lovelysweetdream 959085286 dot wordpress dot com to read the original!