Among the many buildings in the West Garden, there is one that cannot be ignored, and you can smell the mouth-watering fragrance next to this building.

This complex is known as the Imperial Dining Room.

Emperor Jiajing cultivated immortals and alchemy pills day and night, but in addition to giving himself one long immortal number after another that people couldn't read in one breath, there was no trace of immortal involvement in his body, and Emperor Jiajing, who was mortal in the flesh, naturally couldn't survive by drinking wind and dew, and couldn't live without three meals a day, so this imperial dining room was the key department in the West Garden.

The imperial dining room was originally in the southeast direction of the Forbidden City, according to the I Ching Bagua east main wood, south main fire, wood and fire, the imperial dining room attribute is fire, so it is distributed in the southeast direction of the Forbidden City. However, after Emperor Jiajing took refuge in Xiyuan, the imperial dining room was also transferred from the Forbidden City to Xiyuan, and the direction was also in the southeast of Xiyuan.

The imperial dining room in the West Garden is mainly a kitchen serving Emperor Jiajing, and most of the most delicious delicacies in the world are born here. The imperial dining room is an independent hall, there are more than 30 large rooms, and there are more than 20 imperial chefs in the imperial dining room, all of whom are chefs in charge; There are also 50 kitchen servants, these are small chefs who work for the imperial kitchen, responsible for picking vegetables, washing vegetables, cutting meat and noodles and other hands-on work; In addition, there are 30 husbands and servants, all of whom do some manual work, fetching water, carrying vegetables, and so on. In addition to these people, there are more than 80 eunuchs in the imperial dining room, and the imperial kitchen cannot walk in the West Garden, these eunuchs are responsible for serving food, and are specifically responsible for passing meals, attendants, sitting and other things.

In fact, I have to say that Emperor Jiajing was a frugal emperor in terms of diet. The size of these personnel is generally more than 100 people less than Zhengde and other predecessors, not to mention compared with the later Manchu Qing Dynasty, if compared with the Empress Dowager Cixi who had more than 100 dishes at every turn in later generations. Emperor Jiajing's diet can be described as simple.

At this time, it was already past noon, and the sunlight reflected colorful light on the glazed tiles of the imperial dining room.

There were two eunuchs at the door of the imperial dining room, and the two of them looked out anxiously at the door of the imperial dining room, pacing back and forth with Buddha dust in their hands, and the soft sighs came and went. The two had been waiting here for more than an hour, but they had not yet seen the return of the little eunuch who had gone to deliver the meal list, and had already sent the two little eunuchs to inquire about the news. The news is only temporary.

"The saint hasn't eaten two meals, what can I do if I am hungry and the dragon body is broken." A shorter eunuch sighed as he paced.

"No, our family's hearts are pinched. It can't be that we did something wrong in the Imperial Dining Room. The other eunuch was equally anxious, with an unapprehensive concern.

"What are you talking nonsense, you crow's mouth, you were rewarded for your meal last night." The slightly shorter eunuch hurriedly waved the Buddha dust twice, as if the Buddha could swing away the bad luck.

"Yes, yes. What Gonggong Liu said was. The other eunuch nodded repeatedly. The heart is a little wider.

It's no wonder that he was worried at first, Emperor Jiajing can be said to be the most severe emperor to eunuchs except for Emperor Yuanzhang and Emperor Yongle, Emperor Jiajing looks down on eunuchs, and the eunuchs are only worthy of cleaning the toilet to the toilet.

"Dare to ask the two fathers-in-law, hasn't the meal list arrived yet, what are you going to do?"

While the two waited. Imperial Chef Liu, the chef of the imperial dining room, walked out and asked the two eunuchs standing at the door.

"Lord Liu. Our family is more anxious than you, but today is not the same as before, the saint has not eaten two meals, but you have to ask for instructions before you can sit, if it is not in line with the taste of the saint, we are punished for a small time, the saint is hungry and the dragon body is a big deal. "The eunuch is also in a hurry.

"The Holy Lord's fasting for half a month has been a vegetarian for half a month, so I have to take some meat supplements." Liu Yuchu said.

"We all understand what Lord Liu said, but this meal list has not been sent back yet, or Lord Liu should prepare according to the meal list you mentioned first." The eunuch thought for a while and said to Imperial Chef Liu.

"That's all it can be." Imperial Chef Liu nodded, and was about to return to the imperial dining room to prepare the Holy Meal.

At this moment, I suddenly heard the excited voice of another eunuch, "Hurry up, see Xiao Dezi is back." ”

The little Dezi in the mouth of the eunuch is the little eunuch they sent to deliver the meal list, Xiao Dezi ran very fast, and ran over without breath, just like a general who had won a big battle, and excitedly handed over the meal list in his hand to the eunuch who was waiting at the door.

The eunuch took the meal list and couldn't wait to look at it, and his face was a little strange after reading it.

It wasn't until Liu Yuchu saw the meal list that he understood why the two eunuchs had strange expressions, the meal list that was passed back was completely different from the one they submitted, and none of the dishes were the same.

Braised pork with bamboo shoots, steamed fish head, braised eggplant, braised chicken, shredded fish-flavored pork, braised chicken thighs, steamed crab (no salt), sweet and sour fish, spicy chicken wings

The more Imperial Chef Liu looked at this menu, the more strange he felt, these dishes were generally a bit difficult to get into the elegant hall, and I didn't know why the saint suddenly wanted to eat these dishes.

Still, I finally know what to do.

Imperial Chef Liu took the meal list and walked back to the imperial dining room, passed the menu in his hand to the chefs, and then the food machine in the imperial dining room began to move. The imperial chef is worthy of being the imperial chef, and the dishes on the menu are soon presented in front of everyone one by one.

There are a total of nine dishes on the menu, and nine dishes in one meal must be a luxury for ordinary people, but for the emperor, it is still too little.

In order to enrich the delicacies of the saints, the imperial chefs also prepared six additional dishes, made up fifteen dishes, and sent them to the palace where Emperor Jiajing was located by the eunuchs.

When Zhu Ping'an was sorting out the tenth bookshelf, Zhang Siwei came again, saying that the saint had passed a small note again. Hearing that there was another note from the saint, Zhu Ping'an put down the book in his hand and followed Zhang Siwei to the hall of the Hanlin Academy.

This time, it was a small yellow door who ran errands for Emperor Jiajing and came to deliver the note, it was Zhu Ping'an's acquaintance Feng Bao, and it was no longer Huang Jin in the morning. Also, Huang Jin is a big celebrity around Emperor Jiajing, and he is the first to take charge of the East Factory, how can he have so much time to do errand work.

When Zhu Ping'an entered the hall, he felt that the atmosphere in the hall was a little strange, and the Hanlin people in the hall were all looking at him.

"Lord Zhu, this is given to you by the Holy Lord." Feng Bao unfolded the small note in his hand and said to Zhu Ping'an.

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For me?

No wonder the atmosphere in the hall is so strange, no wonder they all look at themselves, it turns out that the saint is a small piece of paper specially for himself this time. When I first arrived, I received a small note from Emperor Jiajing, and it is no wonder that they were like this. It's just that Emperor Jiajing sent him a note, he was just a newcomer, and Zhu Ping'an was very curious about the content of the note.

"Minister, Commander." Zhu Ping'an knelt down and took the note.

After Zhu Ping'an took the note, he opened it, and after reading the content of the small piece of paper, he couldn't cry or laugh, because there was only a simple sentence on it:

"Sweet and sour fish is better than rice." (To be continued.) )