Also eating two dishes is Shainin.

The two dishes are very good, one meat and one vegetable, and she eats it very fragrant. In her opinion, there was no need to fill a table. Although the idea of the dining room is that there are many things, even if you eat one bite of the same, you can eat a lot. But the reality is that you can't eat at all when you look at so many dishes, and at most you can eat a few bites.

Mrs. Lin left the palace on the fifteenth day and returned on the second day of the festival. Hu Rong personally helped Mrs. Lin to get into the soft sedan chair carried by the two of them, sent it to the palace gate, and watched Mrs. Lin get into the car, and then came back to resume his life.

There is no palace banquet in mid-autumn today, but the dining room is still not relaxed. When Hu Rong went to the dining room, the dining room was busy inside and out. Although there is no palace banquet this year, there are still seats in each palace, and it cannot be said that there are not even a few dishes added under the big festival. Before Hu Rong entered, a sharp-eyed little eunuch saw him and shouted, "Grandpa Hu is here." He greeted him attentively, and when he saw the posture, he wanted to kneel down and kowtow to him as a sign of respect.

"Why did Grandpa Hu come here in person? If you hit someone and say something, I'll do it for you properly. ”

Hu Rong smiled: "I'm afraid that they won't be able to say anything clearly, and besides, I haven't been here for a few days, and I miss the good soup and tea you have here." ”

Eunuch Huang hurriedly wiped a handful of oil and sweat from his face and came out of it. The sweat on his face was easy to wipe, but his body was already soaked with sweat, and he didn't have time to change his clothes, so he had to come out like this.

"Grandpa Hu is here? Hurry up, serve good tea, and bring the good tea that was sent the day before yesterday. He said to Hu Rong again: "It's hot in the house, it's better to have a cool wind in the yard, so I won't let you sit in the house." Come here now, what is the mother's order? Is it to enjoy the moon at night, how many dishes should be added? ”

The palace said that everything came according to the rules, but this could not be believed. Favored like the concubine Niangniang, if you want to add any extra dishes, you can order it, as long as there is something in the world, the dining room will try its best to worship. The kind of unfavored, the dining room is not dead, even if they are bad, if you want to add extra things, then you have to take cash and say good things, on a day like today, it is not easy to take money.

"It's not my mother's order." Hu Rong smiled and said: "It's the meaning of the two highnesses, the highnesses have drawn the appearance of moon cakes, I don't know if you can make it?" ”

Although it is not the errand of the noble concubine, Hu Rong does not dare to slack off on the two highnesses, and when Eunuch Huang heard that it was His Highness's errand, he was still full of smiles: "It is rare for His Highness to be raised, but I dare not say that I will be able to do it to satisfy His Highness, where is the pattern?" I personally took people to do it. ”

Hu Rong took out a piece of paper given by the eldest prince just now, and on it was the mooncake shape drawn by the eldest prince. Eunuch Huang was still a little worried, afraid that the master's painting would be too whimsical to do, but when he saw a heart, he immediately put it back in his stomach.

It's not difficult at all, and it doesn't take a lot of effort to elaborate, but it's really chic.

"It can be done, it doesn't take a lot of work, it can be done before dinner."

Hu Rong smiled and said, "Of course it's great." ”

After this plate of mooncakes was ready, the order was delivered, and it was placed in the middle of the round table.

The sun had just set, and the moon was showing out in a somewhat gray canopy. Princess Yuyao pointed to the moon and asked, "Why isn't it bright?" ”

At this time, the moon is indeed not very bright, and it looks like a piece of white paper has been cut and pasted lightly in the sky.

The eldest prince smiled and said, "You are too anxious, the moon has just come out, and you have to wait." ”

This year's mid-autumn was fine, and there was not even a single cloud in the sky. Not long after the eldest prince said to wait, the sky was completely dark, and only four palace lamps were lit in the pavilion, and the moonlight in the sky became more and more bright and bright.

The specially prepared large moon cake is a regular plum blossom shape, and it is placed on a plate in a staggered manner. The second prince didn't fancy any of the dishes, he just took a fancy to this moon cake, and refused to sit honestly, even if the eldest prince and Princess Yuyao coaxed together, he had to crawl to the table and grab the moon cake.

There was no way, so the eldest prince had to take a petal of the "plum blossom" to him.

Although it was only one petal, it also covered half of the second prince's fat face. He was also a little stunned at this surprisingly large moon cake, shaking his little head to look left and right, as if he was looking for a place to put his mouth down. After looking at it for a while, he finally opened his mouth and bit it.

The mouth is small, the teeth are few, and the mooncakes are very thick, more than one finger thick. The second prince had tried his best to open his mouth wide, but the little tooth just scraped over the mooncake crust and gnawed a little bit of cake crumbs.

The people at the table looked at him with a smile, the second prince was not disturbed at all, the left and the right were very cheerful, and the bite changed places, and it didn't take much effort to make a moon cake become potholed and unrecognizable, and it was full of sticky saliva.

Except for this little fat man, no one has ever eaten like this in front of the emperor.

But the emperor was not stunned at all, his eyes were full of smiles, and he looked at the three children sitting at the table.

He noticed that the moon cake made by the eldest prince was a complete plum blossom shape, but after being split apart, it became a moon cake with different fillings.

According to the number of people on the table, there are five people, one person has one petal, and the middle is left as the flower core.

The emperor looked at the remaining piece in the middle of the plate, and then glanced at the eldest prince.

"This piece can only be kept today, but by this time next year, there will definitely be no left."

Shainin also smiled.

The emperor motioned for Bai Hongqi to put the plate with only one piece of moon cake left in front of Xie Ning.

Yes, by this time next year, there will be no mooncakes left. At that time, there should be a chubby doll similar to the second prince, holding a piece of moon cake and gnawing hard.

Xie Ning smiled at the eldest prince.

Everyone understands who this mooncake is for—it's not that they didn't count the quantity and made an extra piece.

Eunuch Huang and Hu Rong's assurances were not empty promises, the moon cakes were made by him personally. Others don't know the tastes of their masters as well as he does. For ordinary people, dim sum should be delicious, it must be done with a lot of materials, sugar, oil, pickled marinated fruit and candied fruit, these are indispensable, and only those who eat will applaud and feel that they have eaten good things.

But for several of the most noble masters in the palace, what they have eaten since their birth are delicacies from the mountains and seas, fat chickens, big ducks, meat oil, white sugar, rose marinade, which have long been greasy and not uncommon, especially under such a big festival, they are even more impatient with these things.

At this time, we must pay attention to a light, how to say a sentence? That's right, it's called clear water out of hibiscus, and it is natural to carve and decorate. Don't think that light things are easy to make, in fact, it's the other way around. As long as there are good materials, any eunuch can make a plate of dim sum that looks good and tastes acceptable from the imperial dining room, which is no worse than those dim sum shops outside the palace. But after putting aside those commonly used materials, it is necessary to make the dim sum brilliant and satisfy the master, which is called the real skill.

Eunuch Huang can be the chief eunuch of the dining room, and he is a character who is better than a monkey. This dim sum is not for the emperor or the concubine, but the eldest prince wants this plate of moon cakes, definitely not for himself to close the door and eat in the house, so this dim sum is still made for the emperor and Niangniang. Thinking about this, Eunuch Huang immediately cheered up and threw off his arms, and tried his best to make such a plate of moon cakes.

The moon cake crust is thin and crispy, and the moon cake filling tastes very light and sweet, but it is not greasy at all, and there is even a slight astringency like clear tea in the mouth, but the aftertaste is a long fruity aroma.

That's right, it's fruity. The pie filling is a crushed fresh fruit, not a filling of jam or candied fruit that has been marinated, candied and air-dried.

When Eunuch Huang did this, his apprentices felt that it was too risky. It's not that I haven't made anything with fresh fruit, but this is making moon cakes, and no master has ever done this.

If you usually learn to try dishes by yourself, of course, you can try anything, and some people try to cook meat with Coptis chinensis, just to see if there will be any other wonderful taste.

But this is a meal for the emperor. If the emperor doesn't like it, he will blame it, but at least he will leave an impression of displeasure in his heart. What is the most important thing about being a minion? Of course, if you are loyal, you can do it or second. But there is another thing that everyone knows by heart, and that is the holy grace. In fact, it is the grace that counts. You have to be pampered, and everyone holds you. You've fallen out of favor...... There is no need to say anything more.

During dinner, the emperor drank alone, Xie Ning only drank a small cup of sherbet, and the eldest prince was the same as her. As for Princess Yuyao, she thought the sherbet was boring and clamored to taste the wine.

Bai Hongqi looked at the emperor with a smile.

The emperor also smiled: "Give her half a cup." ”

"Half a glass is too little, one cup."

Bai Hongqi obviously listened to the emperor more, and poured wine for Princess Yuyao with a pot, half a cup, no more, no less.

Xie Ning glanced at the emperor, and the emperor smiled and nodded to her slightly.

But Shainin was still a little worried.

This wine is not rice wine, Princess Yuyao is young, can she drink it?

Princess Yuyao picked up the wine and sniffed the wine first.

Shainin was a little nervous.

She doesn't like the smell of alcohol very much, and she doesn't drink much. Ever since I was pregnant, I couldn't smell alcohol. Princess Yuyao is still young, and she has never been touched with wine, so how can the wine smell good?

As a result, Princess Yuyao's little nose was one by one, her eyes were squinted, her expression was a little intoxicated, and she said, "It's so fragrant." She handed the wine glass to the eldest prince again: "Brother Huang, do you smell it?" ”

The eldest prince sniffed it, shook his head and said, "Where does the wine smell?" ”

Princess Yuyao handed the cup forward again: "It's really fragrant, there is a ...... Honey-like incense. ”

Xie Ning glanced at the emperor suspiciously.

What kind of wine did you prepare today? Can you still smell the honey?

She couldn't help it, and her eyes were fixed on the glass of wine in front of the emperor.

Or maybe she smelled it too?