The owner of the Pingqiao Inn is a Khitan, but he married a Han lady, hired a Han man, and put on Han clothes, if it weren't for his accent, it would not be easy to find out that he was a Khitan.

The boss entertained Yang Huairen and these Han people, and he really showed his sincerity, just like Yang Huairen said, his eyes will not deceive people.

Perhaps this is also the kindest Khitan person Yang Huairen has seen since he came to Liaojing.

There weren't many guys in the inn, and Yang Huairen didn't see how many people were in the back kitchen, but in the store, in addition to the two shopkeepers, there was another pair of younger Han men and women.

The menu hanging on the counter has only eight dishes, the dishes are very ordinary, and they are not uncommon, but Yang Huairen found that these dishes are really Han Qi matching, with meat and vegetarian.

For example, the first dish of roast mutton and the second tiger dish made Yang Huairen full of interest.

The dish of roast mutton is actually also available in the Great Song Dynasty, but the roast mutton made in the Pingqiao Inn has a different taste, using Khitan-style ingredients, and the first half uses the cooking techniques of tight meat and boiled meat of Khitan customs, but the seasoning and firing of the second half are the cooking techniques of the Han people.

In the first half of the process, large pieces of mutton are boiled in a large pot of boiling water for about a quarter of an hour, and in this process, the large pieces of mutton become firm and even hard because of the heat on the outside, so it is called tight meat.

The second step is to cook the meat, the same cauldron, the same seasoning, in order to prevent the mutton from being cooked, first put a layer of mutton bones at the bottom of the pot, and then add the mutton cut into medium sizes, and stew for about half an hour, at this time the mutton is already cooked, but in terms of taste, it is much better than the simple cooking mutton of the Khitan people who usually graze.

The further processing of the second half is the cooking method of the Han people.

The lamb is simmered in the miso broth for one to two hours, allowing the flavor of the miso soup and seasonings to be simmered into the mutton until the soup is almost dry.

The last step is to fire, or to divide the mutton into small pieces and dry fry or dry stir-fry, the effect is similar, all of which make the mutton crispy and delicious.

Although the chefs at Pingqiao Inn are not very skilled, the fact that they have such an ingenious way of handling mutton, combining the Khitan and Han Chinese ways of cooking mutton to create a delicious dish, already shows that this little-known chef is unique.

Another tiger dish is different from the cold dish called tiger dish in the north in later generations.

Later generations of tiger dishes were rich in seasonings, and there were many types of vegetables and other ingredients, so it was only necessary to use the sweet, sour and spicy flavors to bring out the refreshing taste of the fresh ingredients.

At this time, the main ingredient of tiger dishes turned out to be bracken, which originally tasted a little bitter, and in the choice of seasoning, there were no condiments such as chili peppers.

However, the chef is still very clever in using a limited number of condiments, bracken, and several other wild vegetables that were collected and dried earlier, boiled in water or warm water, and then added green onions, ginger, garlic and other flavors, and stirred.

After Yang Huairen tasted it, he felt that although it did not have the crisp and refreshing taste of fresh vegetables, it was very rare to be able to eat green vegetables in this season under the conditions of Pingqiao Inn.

What is even more rare is that bracken has a bitter taste, not to mention several other wild vegetables, but after the chef's ingenious proportioning and seasoning, the taste of several wild vegetables is harmoniously blended together, not only the bitter taste is greatly reduced, but also some natural sweet taste.

The seasoning is completely different from the heavy taste that the Khitan people are used to, but it tends to be light, and the special preparation is with roast mutton, which is the best match for a reasonable diet.

Although roast mutton is delicious, it is warm, and the fire added to it during the production process makes it very easy to catch fire if you eat too much, and it is also a big burden on the human digestive system.

And the next tiger dish happens to be a combination of several cold wild vegetables, which not only has a refreshing taste, but also neutralizes the fire of mutton.

This is something that Yang Huairen never expected, not to mention that Pingqiao Inn is just a remote wilderness inn, even the chefs in the top restaurants in the big mansions and big cities may not all have such ingenuity in food matching.

The level of cooking skills, many times people think that it is judged by a very high-end dish, Yang Huairen feels that in fact, the more simple and limited conditions, the simplest ingredients can be made into all kinds of delicious, this is the embodiment of advanced cooking skills.

Pingqiao, as well as this small inn, is really not very eye-catching, especially in a relatively barren place in the territory of Liao, it can make such a delicious food, Yang Huairen feels that he sincerely admires this cook.

Yang Huairen praised the chef of the inn and hoped that the shopkeeper could invite him out for Yang Huairen to meet.

The shopkeeper excused himself before finally agreeing to invite the cook out.

When Yang Huairen saw this chef, he was really surprised, to everyone's surprise, the chef of Pingqiao Inn turned out to be a Khitan man, listening to the introduction of the shopkeeper, this is one of his brothers.

Yang Huairen was curious, so he asked him where he learned his craft.

Although the Khitan chef looks like he is in his thirties and is almost forty years old, his personality is very different from the Khitan people Yang Huairen has seen in the past.

Perhaps it was because he saw so many people, and they were all Han Chinese, so the chef was a little embarrassed, and told the process of learning to cook in his not very proficient Chinese.

It turned out that he was originally an ordinary Khitan, with a large family population, few cattle and sheep, and often did not have enough to eat, so he left the tribe and came to Zhongjing alone, wanting to find a job to make ends meet.

After a long time, he came to the Prince's Mansion and entered the back kitchen as a handyman. Although he is silent, his brain is not stupid, although he only does some tiring work of lighting the fire and cleaning, he still learns some cooking skills from the chef of the prince's mansion.

There are dishes that the Khitan people like, as well as traditional dishes of the Han people, and later the Han chef saw that he liked it, so he also mentioned him from time to time, so he had the current level of cooking skills.

Later, when his work contract arrived, he left the Prince's Mansion and wanted to find a restaurant in Zhongjing to be a chef, but unfortunately those restaurants did not invite him when they saw his stupid appearance.

Later, he was lucky enough to meet the innkeeper's two sons, at that time, they were not treated well by the Khitans and Han people, so they left Zhongjing together, came to a remote place like Pingqiao Town, and opened this Pingqiao Inn.