The eastern sky has just turned white, the curfew of Chang'an City has finally been lifted, the doors of each square have been opened, Chang'an Avenue has become active again, if you say that the most lively place in Chang'an City, it is natural to count the east and west cities, but in the morning, most of the shops in the east and west cities have not yet opened, at this time the most lively place is the vegetable market, and almost every square in Chang'an City has its own vegetable market, but the largest and most complete vegetable market is the Le'an vegetable market near Anhua Gate.

Le'an vegetable market is naturally in Le'an Fang, and Le'an Fang is one of the markets closest to Anhua Gate, because it is convenient to enter and exit the city gate, so many vegetable farmers outside the city will send their own vegetables here to sell, and the powerful people in the city also like to choose fresh vegetables and meat here, over time, here has formed a largest and most complete vegetable market in Tokyo, as long as there is something to sell in the market, almost all can be found here.

Su Guan took two house slaves to the carriage to the Le'an vegetable market, got off the car and plunged into the vegetable market to select the ingredients needed in the house, rice, flour, oil and salt are all within the scope of his purchase, many vendors in the market also know him, see him have greeted him, and sell him his goods, but Su Guan is very picky about buying things, and he will never take a second look at the quality of things.

Speaking of the origin of Su Steward's affairs is not small, his master is Pei Lian, who is known as the first prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, when Li Yuan was still staying in Taiyuan, Pei Lin was the deputy supervisor of Jinyang Palace in Taiyuan, and the two of them already had old friends, so the two often drank and had fun together at that time, and even women could play with each other, and the depth of friendship was no longer like a friend, but more like a pair of good friends.

Later, Li Yuan raised troops, Pei Lin also made a great effort, after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, he was named the right servant of Shangshu, and Li Yuan is a person who misses the old love, even if he is the emperor, he still calls Pei Lin "Pei Jian", which is Pei Yuan's old name when he was in Taiyuan, which shows Li Yuan's favor to him.

A few years ago, Liu Wenjing, another important hero who raised troops with Li Yuan, was jealous of Pei Lian's official position higher than herself, and often targeted Pei Lian, but in the end Li Yuan actually killed Liu Wenjing, and later Pei Lian was defeated when he attacked Song Jingang, but he was only demoted symbolically by Li Yuan, and soon resumed his official position, and he was as favored as ever, with a master like Pei Lian, even if Su Guan was just a small procurement manager in Pei Mansion, it was not something that ordinary people dared to offend.

The staple food was quickly bought, but Su Guan was worried in his heart at this time, others only saw the scenery of his Pei Mansion steward, but they didn't know his difficulties, Pei Xianggong was famous for his mouth, and the ingredients for cooking had strict regulations, such as rice only eat Huainan rice, mutton only eat Guanzhong sheep, etc., although these requirements are cumbersome, but it can still be done with a little effort, but some requirements are more troublesome, such as in winter, Pei Xianggong requires at least one plate of vegetables every day, and it cannot be the same within three days, That's a bit of a hassle.

Eat fresh vegetables every day in winter, which is almost impossible for many big nobles, only the royal family can barely do it, there are hot springs on the Xishan side, and some vegetables can be planted in winter, but the yield is not high, and it can only be supplied to the royal family, but Pei Lin has a special relationship with Li Yuan, so he also enjoys the same treatment in his house, but this autumn there was a locust plague in Guanzhong, and the Xishan side was also affected, and the number of vegetables produced was less, and now it can only be delivered once every five days, and it is only enough to eat for two days, The remaining three days were up to him to figure it out.

Some time ago, it was better, because the weather was just cold, although the vegetables were getting less and less, and some money could always be found, but as the weather became colder and colder, the Su steward could not find vegetables now if he had money, and he had bought radishes for a few days in a few days, and this thing could be hidden in the ground for a winter, but his father-in-law was the prime minister of a country, and it was not a matter to always gnaw on radishes, and the housekeeper had already scolded him yesterday, if he bought radishes today, he would stuff the whole radish into his nostrils.

Thinking of this, Su Guan couldn't help but sigh, all the things he needed to buy today were bought, just fresh vegetables, now he only hopes to be able to see someone selling lotus root in the vegetable market, in the past, someone transported lotus root from the south every winter, but this year Liu Heimin came back again, occupying a lot of places in Hebei and Shandong, especially the northern section of the canal fell into the hands of the other party, without this waterway, it is difficult to transport goods from the north and south, so he has not seen anyone sell lotus root this year.

At that moment, the Su steward went to a few familiar vendors to ask, and the answer he got made him extremely disappointed, there was no lotus root to sell in the entire Le'an vegetable market, the reason was because of Liu Heimin's rebellion, which made him curse the other party secretly in his heart, I heard that this time in order to quell the rebellion, the prince personally led the troops, and the third lady with great achievements, that is, the prince's sister Princess Pingyang also went with him to quell the rebellion, it is estimated that Liu Heimin will not be able to jump for long!

Su Guan is just a small person, he is not very interested in this kind of military affairs, after cursing a few words of Liu Heimin, he can only wander around the huge vegetable market with his last hope, hoping to find vegetables other than radish, otherwise he will wait to admit punishment after going back.

"Huh? What smells so good? Just when Steward Su was wandering around the vegetable market aimlessly, he suddenly smelled a peculiar fragrance, very similar to the fragrance emitted by the kitchen when cooking, but he usually wandered around the kitchen in the house, but he had never smelled this fragrance, and this fragrance was particularly attractive, just this trace of taste already made him drool a little.

In fact, not only Su Guanshi, but also many people around also smelled this tempting fragrance, which made many people want to find out where this smell came from, and after a while, someone finally found the source of the fragrance in an inconspicuous corner of the vegetable market.

This is a somewhat strange vegetable stall, there are several large baskets on the ground, but the baskets are covered with white cloth, so that people can't see what is in the basket, behind the stall squatting two honest country men, who look no different from those who come to buy vegetables early, but these two people squatting there and don't shout, others don't know what they are selling?

Behind this small stall, there is a simple curtain set up with two rags, and the crisp collision sound of the iron spoon and the iron pot comes from behind the curtain.

With curiosity in his heart, Steward Su finally stepped forward and asked the two countrymen behind the stall: "Two brothers, how are you cooking here in the curtain behind you, this is a vegetable market instead of a restaurant?" ”

The two country men were very polite, and when they heard Steward Su's question, one of them immediately stood up and smiled honestly: "Wait a minute, this guest is waiting for a while, the dishes inside are about to be ready, and the guests can taste it later!" ”

This man didn't say what kind of dish it was, which made Steward Su even more curious, but as soon as his words fell, he finally stopped listening to the sound of cooking behind the curtain, and then the curtain was raised, and a country woman with thick hands and feet came out with a small basin, the basin was steaming, and it exuded an attractive aroma, which made Steward Su and the others all sniffle involuntarily.

Because of the attraction of the fragrance, the stall was surrounded by people, and then I saw the country man behind the stall and said loudly: "Brothers, we are farmers in Lijia Zhuangzi outside the city, this time a new vegetable is planted, the taste is very delicious, if you don't believe it, this is a dish that my mother-in-law has just made with vegetables, you can come and taste it, no money!" ”

The country man pointed to the small pot in the peasant woman's hand, and saw that the pot contained a strange vegetable, no more than a few inches long, very thin, crystal clear, and extremely beautiful, but no one had ever seen this kind of vegetable.

"I'll try it!" Steward Su has long been aroused by this fragrance, and he is not polite at the moment, so he picked up a few chopsticks on the small basin and put them in his mouth, fragrant, crisp, tender, and refreshing with a bit of sour taste that makes people appetite, there should be vinegar in it, so that people want to eat it again after eating.

"It's delicious, it's delicious!" Steward Su praised loudly while eating, as the purchasing steward of Pei's kitchen, he had tasted almost all the food in the world, but it was the first time he had eaten such a delicacy, and he was very keen to find that this dish itself tasted refreshing, and it was indeed a rare good vegetable, but the most important thing was this unknown cooking technique, he bet that the chefs in the mansion would definitely not use this cooking technique.

There are also a lot of other noble mansions around to buy stewards, some of them also know the steward of Su, seeing that even he praised this dish, immediately many people gathered around to taste, but after tasting all of them praised loudly, among which the steward of Su reacted the fastest, while others tasted it, he threw down his chopsticks and ran to the stall and shouted to the country man: "How much is your dish, give me ten catties!" ”

"II...... Twenty wen a pound! The country man said with some embarrassment, in his opinion, twenty wen a pound is already a sky-high price, and this price can buy a bucket of grain.

"No problem, take the money!" Steward Su didn't bargain at all, and immediately instructed the mother in the back, because at this time in previous years, the price of lotus root was much more expensive than this, and fresh vegetables for twenty yuan a pound were already very cheap.

Pei's house slave immediately took out two hundred wen and sent it to the stall, looking at the two hundred copper coins sent to him, the two country men behind the stall, including the mother-in-law who cooked, also showed a look of surprise, it is estimated that they didn't expect to sell so much so easily, but in the end, the country man suddenly smiled bitterly and said: "This guest, I can't sell it to you!" ”