The term "empty talk misleading the country" comes from "Qing talk misleading the country", which comes from the summary of Mr. Gu Yanwu at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Gu Yanwu, a native of Kunshan, JS, was an outstanding thinker, economist, historian and phonologist in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and was known as the "Three Great Confucians" in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties together with Huang Zongxi and Wang Fuzhi.

If Ivan remembers correctly, Gu Yanwu has another identity, that is, he, like these scholars here, is also a person of the Restoration Society.

Ivan calculated the time, Gu Yanwu at this time should be twenty-six or seven, and he should also be in Jinling at this time.

"Do you know Gu Yanwu?"

Ivan asked casually.

"Gu Yanwu? ”

Fang Yizhi couldn't react for a while.

Of course he knows Gu Yanwu, but in the Restoration Society, Gu Yanwu is a strange person, and he and another member of the Restoration Society named Zhuang are friends of Mo Zhi, and the two have unique personalities, and they are called "Strange Gu Wei".

In the eyes of Fang Yizhi and others, Gu Yanwu, who emphasizes "being ashamed of oneself" and "erudition in literature", and is not very keen on communication and gatherings, is a strange person who is not very gregarious, so Fang Yizhi does not have a deep relationship with him.

Ivan suddenly said again: "Oh, there is a chance to bring him to Xiaowan's private restaurant, I want to meet him." ”

For Ivan, instead of talking about Fengyue and poetry with these literati in front of him, it is better to talk about family life with thinkers like Gu Yanwu.

He really admired Gu Yanwu's kind of empty talk and misleading the country.

"Oh. ”

Fang Yizhi was still a little puzzled why Ivan was so interested in Qi Wonderful Gu, but he was not interested in a great talent like Mao Xiang.

He wondered why, but held back.

Ivan's table finally quieted down, and began to wait patiently for the overlord Farewell Concubine to come to the table.

The long-awaited Farewell My Concubine was finally served, and Ivan observed it carefully.

If you don't watch the cooking of a dish, you can only tell the ingredients used and the process by looking at and tasting it.

But even if you look at and taste, it is difficult to tell the whole thing, and how much you can see depends on whether the ingredients and processes of the dish are complicated, and the level of cooking skills of the person who sees and tastes it.

For Ivan, his cooking skills are far from enough, and he does not expect to steal the details of this overlord Farewell Concubine by watching and tasting, but hopes to get a clue.

That's right, just a hint of it.

Because of the need for innovation, he only wants an innovative inspiration, not a complete cooking secret.

It's just that this clue is not so easy to obtain.

It's like saying that the bowl in front of you is Farewell My Concubine, the whole chicken and turtle are packed in a ceramic bowl of moderate size, and the chicken and turtle meat are covered with a layer of turtle shells, and around the shell of the turtle, there is also a circle of carrots......

Through these, Ivan could only see that this dish was still a little particular about the presentation, and the rest could not be seen at all.

If you can't see it, you can open the shell.

But when you open the shell, you still can't see anything.

After the shell was lifted, Ivan saw the chicken and turtle meat stewed whole, as well as some black fungus, and nothing else could be seen.

Ivan frowned, poked a piece of chicken into his mouth, and savored it.

The taste is good, the chicken is indeed tender and crispy, and from the taste of the chicken, Ivan can vaguely taste the spicy ginger, the fragrance of green onions, the mellow aroma of wine, and a taste that he is difficult to distinguish, and he still knows nothing else.

By looking and tasting, he could analyze that this overlord farewell concubine should have seasonings such as ginger and chopped green onions, but all the seasoning residues should have been removed after cooking.

Is this to prevent stealing?

Ivan frowned again.

"Xiao Wan, can you taste it and see what you can taste?"

Because he couldn't taste the hint he wanted, Ivan had to pin his hopes on Dong Xiaowan's super taste.

But in fact, he didn't have much hope for Dong Xiaowan.

In his opinion, even if Dong Xiaowan has a super sense of taste, she is still in her infancy in terms of cooking knowledge and understanding of ingredients, and even if she tastes the subtleties of the taste, she may not be able to say one, two, three, four.

But the result surprised him.

"The chicken should be six to eight years old, and it should be cooked with ginger, green onions, tangerine peel, longan, etc., and it should also use Jinhua ham to hang the flavor, as for the rest, I can't taste it. ”

There's no need for anything else!

This result was far beyond Ivan's expectations.

At the very least, he himself did not taste the taste of tangerine peel, longan, and Jinhua ham.

And in this, Ivan is keenly aware that using Jinhua ham to hang the flavor is likely to be the kind of inspiration he wants.

But Ivan put the hint aside for a moment, and asked another curious question.

"How can you tell if it's a six- to eight-month-old chick?"

It was indeed a question he was curious about.

Even if it was him, it was difficult to tell the size of the chicken, but Dong Xiaowan said it very firmly.

"What I saw in the book, "Food Collection" and "Food Materia Medica" accurately mentioned the identification methods of various chickens. ”

Ivan was slightly taken aback again.

"Food Collection" and "Food Materia Medica" are two names that he is familiar with.

When he studied the food materials of the Ming Dynasty, he had already learned that because the Ming Dynasty paid attention to eating and drinking from top to bottom, it became a common practice to give birth to many gourmets in the Ming Dynasty.

These are gourmets who are not only good at tasting and cooking, but also good at summarizing the theory and techniques of cooking. Their gastronomic treatises were well-known for a while, and were regarded as elegant by Shilin, and were admired by many literati.

Among these gastronomic treatises, many of them are famous even in later generations, such as Wu Lu's "Food Collection", Gao Lian's "Notes on Eating and Drinking", Han Yi's "Yi Ya's Last Will", Hong Yi's "Yiyou Matters" and so on.

As for the "Food Materia Medica" mentioned by Dong Xiaowan just now, together with the "Compendium of Materia Medica", it is known as two bright pearls in the treasure house of Chinese traditional Chinese medicine culture.

Unfortunately, Ivan had only seen the names of these books, but had not yet had the opportunity to read them.

This is definitely a pity for him.

At the very least, Dong Xiaowan can distinguish the subtleties in this overlord farewell concubine just by reading a few food treatises, which shows that these books are really worth reading.

For a chef, these gastronomic treatises of the Ming Dynasty are likely to be the existence of "the golden house in the book".

"Mizhi, do me a favor and collect all the gastronomic treatises you can find, Ivan. ”

Ivan made a request to Fang Yizhi.

He has found that the biggest shortcoming that restricts his cooking skills to the next level is the lack of knowledge of food theory.

It's time to slowly make up for this shortcoming.