Xiao Ming is not too familiar with the diet of the Song Dynasty, and his daily diet is also ordered by Gu Xiaoliu and Guo Shouxin to cook, and he doesn't eat too much every day, and he doesn't have to worry about meat and vegetables with nutritional balance at all, he even prefers the food in the army, fried in a big pot, and even eats beef and mutton.

However, when he saw the recipes prepared by Zhang Jun for this Daqing state banquet, he understood what the culture of eating is, and the food civilization of the Han people has experienced thousands of years of development, and the level of food has been continuously improved, and the variety of food has become more and more abundant. However, limited to the level of production in ancient times, the fruits of food civilization are often enjoyed by the upper strata of society, while the gap between the upper and lower strata of society is constantly widening.

With the development of the economy, the food industry in the Song Dynasty has made great progress. Compared with the previous generations, the diet structure of the people in the Song Dynasty has changed greatly, with more vegetarian ingredients, more artistic components of vegetarian food, and more styles. In the large and medium-sized cities of the Song Dynasty, the competition in the food industry was already fierce, and the recipes of citizens were increasingly diversified.

In this menu, there are no less than 10 rows of candied dried fruits before the main course alone! The reason why it is called "Xing" instead of "Dao" is because the pattern of these dried fruit candied fruits is enough to pose for a long time, rather than a big platter as people often say, and the relatively luxurious four dried and fresh four candied fruits are like ants seeing elephants!

A row is placed around a large fruit plate in the middle to fill a large table of eight immortals, and there are nine such eight immortal tables, the name of the big fruit plate is: "embroidered high gluttony eight fruit base", respectively, piled up fragrant rounds, real oranges, pomegranates, oranges, goose pears, milk pears, hawthorn, flower papaya.

Dried and fresh fruits are only for the sake of good looks, fragrant round is also called citron its "long as melon, there is a length and one foot four or five inches, the fragrance strikes people, put it in the bright window net a few rooms, quite can enjoy the fun", is an ornamental fruit. The hawthorn is slightly larger like papaya, its color is yellow and its taste is astringent. These eight fruits are not edible, but only for ornamentation. This kind of so-called "fruit" and "vegetables" named after gluttony.

This kind of food is very popular in the public and private banquets of the Song Dynasty, "Wulin Old Things" records a list of the queen's return to the province, and there are also famous halls such as "embroidered gluttony", "ten dishes of dishes", "ten pieces of food on the careful look", etc., it can be seen that the appetite will be opened when it is pleasing to the eye, but this practice of only watching and not eating is undoubtedly a waste.

Next is dried fruit and other snacks, this kind of thing can be eaten, not eaten, a total of 12 flavors of dried fruits, called "Lexian dried fruit fork bag", respectively, lychee, longan, fragrant lotus, quinch, hazelnut, pine nuts, ginkgo, pear meat, jujube rings, lotus seed meat, Lin Xuan, steamed jujube, it is difficult to confirm whether these also belong to the fruit.

Before the main course, you have to serve a total of thirteen "lines" to see the dishes and smell the coriander! "In addition to what you want to see and be pleasing to the eye, you also need to smell it! And looking at the dishes is far more than just dried fruit preserves, and the craftsmanship of various carved dishes is completely the craftsmanship of the chef, and the choice of smelling dishes is also very particular.

Judging from the menu, there are mainly ten boxes of "wisps of gold incense medicine": brain flowers, licorice flowers, cinnabar balls, woody cloves, water dragon brain, Shi Junzi, shrunken sand flowers, official osmanthus flowers, atractylodes ginseng, and olive flowers. Its function has nothing to do with eating, and it is assumed that it is just to make the air fresh and fragrant. Then there are 12 products of "carved honey fried", there are carved plum balls, red children, carved bamboo shoots, honey winter melon fish, carved red group flowers, papaya large sections, carved kumquats, green plum lotus leaves, carved ginger, honey bamboo shoot flowers, carved oranges, papaya square flowers, from the name is not difficult to imagine its exquisite and clear carved shape.

Xiao Ming was very staggered, and the dishes in the thirteen lines had their own names, namely: "Embroidery high line", "Lexian dried fruit fork bag line", "wisp of gold incense medicine", "carved nectar fried line", "fragrant salty and sour line", "preserved wax line", "hanging hand eight plates line", "cut fruit line", "new fruit line", "long tangled fruit line", "exquisite carved candied fruit and exquisite brick fragrant salty and sour line", "exquisite preserved line".

The formal main dish is called the appetizer, there are fifteen lamps, here the bowl is used instead of the plate, that is because the bowl is larger than the plate, the strong one person is flat, the larger one is two people flat, the food within one lamp is estimated to be eaten by two or three people can not be eaten, these fifteen lamps have to be placed up at a time, enough to fill nine large round tables.

The first one: flower cooking quail, lychee white kidney.

The second light: milk room sign, three crispy soups.

The third lamp: sheep tongue stick, budding dizziness.

The fourth: palm sticks, quail soup.

The fifth: belly belly, mandarin duck fried belly.

Sixth: pangasius and fried pangasius soup.

Seventh: fried horseshoe crab with eel, goose gizzard palm soup.

The eighth: crab stuffed with loat, milk room jade soup.

The ninth: fresh shrimp hooves, fried eel.

10th: hand-washed crabs, crucian carp, fake clams.

Eleventh: Five delicacies, crab soup.

The twelfth: quail crystal guan, pork belly fake river.

The thirteenth: shrimp and fish soup.

The fourteenth: jellyfish and two-color cocoon soup.

Fifteenth: Clams, blood meal.

In addition, there are also insertions, persuasion of wine and fruit library ten times, kitchen persuasion of wine ten flavors, four tables on the fine base and two tables of the second fine base, there are so many different patterns, Xiao Ming was a little angry and surprised from the beginning to the end! How much of these things can one person eat? Not counting alcohol, and at that time, many of the drinks used at banquets were moonshine.

Due to the abundance of food, this era of private brewing water has become a trend, which is also brewed in the court, among which the rose dew is the imperial wine drunk by the court, and the fragrant wine is used to reward the ministers, about the late Northern Song Dynasty, the dignitaries began to brew their own wine, and at this time the famous wine came out one after another, such as: "Blue Bridge Fengyue, Zijin Spring, Yuanxuntang Jade Liquid and so on!" ”

The wine pairing at the banquet is as many as dozens of bottles of imperial wine bottled in Jinni mist light jade bottles, each bottle is not less than 100 gold, which is only eaten by the emperor's family, and the princes and ministers have their own rules, although they are not so delicate on the menu, but the whole chicken and the whole sheep are indispensable, and the menu has some detailed instructions at the end.

The treatment of Zhengyipin officials is slightly higher, a bite of roasted sheep, dripping porridge, baked cakes, eating ten flavors, a large bowl of Baiwei soup, cake plate persuasion, cluster fifty steamed buns, blood soup, roasted sheep's head double, miscellaneous clusters from eating fifty things, belly soup, sheep tongue support placenta soup, double fire arms, three crispy soup, spread mutton flour rice, large clusters of dumplings, quails, honey fried thirty plates, a box of Shiguo (there are ten plates of cutting and squeezing), thirty bottles of wine.

This is also enjoyed by the princes and ministers and the relatives of the emperor, and the second class is the consul, the palace marshal, the relatives and the prince, each with ten flavors of food, a box of honey fried, a box of cutting and squeezing, a plate of roast sheep, and six bottles of wine; To the fifth class, the official only has three flavors of food and a bottle of wine.

The civil and military officials have their own customizations, and they must be placed into a flowing water seat, and thousands of people can eat and drink! Such extravagance, it is simply not to take money as money, people say that the Manchu and Han Dynasty banquet has one hundred and eight dishes, which shows the style of the Qing Dynasty, which is still used to entertain the state guests for their birthdays, but compared to this, it is simply a small thing!

Xiao Ming originally thought that the ** of the Manchu Qing Dynasty had roots, and thought that the Empress Dowager Cixi's practice of eating twenty dishes for breakfast must be a manifestation of brain water, and now look at Gaozong Zhao Gou, it is not just brain water, it is simply brain! It can be seen that this guy is usually extravagant and wasteful, plus the black fat man Zhang Jun in front of him!

The more Xiao Ming looks at Zhang Jun now, the more unpleasant it becomes! He forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart and said to Mr. Gao: "Your Majesty usually has such a way to eat in the palace? ”

Zhao Gou replied with a smile: "That's not it, it's rare to celebrate such a hundred years, Zhang Aiqing is so well prepared, and the widow didn't expect it!" ”

"That's that!" Xiao Ming also agreed, "Master Zhang's heart is as careful as a hair, he has done his best to serve His Majesty, his loyalty is commendable, and he is worthy of praise, but Wei Chen has a question and I don't know whether to talk about it or not?" ”

Gao Zong said: "Aiqing, but it doesn't hurt to talk about it!" ”

Xiao Ming arched his hand and said, "Your Majesty! When this is the matter of the country's grand celebration, the banquet is the top priority, and the bearing of the Song Dynasty royal can be fully reflected in this banquet, but such a feast, there are many dishes and dishes Don't talk about me, even Your Majesty may not have seen it, I want to ask Lord Zhang! He turned to look at Zhang Jun.

Zhang Jun hurriedly bowed down and looked at Xiao Ming: "Master Taishi, please speak!" ”

Xiao Ming said: "It's nothing, I want to ask Lord Zhang, are these dishes selected from the daily food in your house, or are they obtained from a famous restaurant and wine shop?" ”

Zhang Jun hurriedly said: "This is Xiaguan Guangguang's collection of famous chefs from all over the world, and the directors of thousands of families!" He didn't dare to say that he ate these on weekdays, and the menu he ate out, it was a truthful statement, the emperor didn't eat the torture and luxury, so luxurious, let Feng Lu, who supervised the subordinates, know that it is a trivial matter to participate in his own book.

Hearing this, Xiao Ming nodded, and said: "The minister has heard that Fusang Japan has a delicacy sashimi, which is caused by the deep-sea puffer fish used, their sashimi is indeed delicious, cod and other meats are very delicious, but the puffer fish is highly poisonous, although delicious but dangerous, so Weichen has a reluctant request, and I hope the official family will allow it!" ”

Gaozong Zhao Gou nodded and said, "Xiao Aiqing, please speak"

Xiao Ming seemed to be able to play Zhang Jun, and then said: "The menu made by Lord Zhang is very rich, but since some dishes have not been eaten by the official family, in order to ensure the safety of this 10,000-year celebration, I would like to ask Lord Zhang to prepare a feast on this menu, and I also hope that Lord Zhang will work tirelessly for His Majesty's celebration, how about it?" ”

When Gaozong heard what Xiao Ming said, he also looked at Zhang Jun with interest and waited for his answer.

Xiao Ming continued: "Only do it once according to this menu, and when the time comes, we will accompany Your Majesty to your Qinghe County Palace, and see if those are not suitable, or those should be added, Lord Zhang specializes in this, and I hope I don't shirk it, right?" ”

Xiao Ming stared at Zhang Jun with blazing eyes, and when Zhang Jun heard this, his eyes went dark and he almost fainted......!

Of course he knows the significance of Xiao Ming's move, in fact, whether he agrees or not, he has already fallen into Xiao Ming's trap, if he doesn't agree, you can't talk about the past over there, if you agree, all the expenses are really not small, although he is desperate to collect money on weekdays, but he can't lose a bottom for a meal, right?

Even if he gritted his teeth and agreed, he prepared this feast, such a large scale, from procurement to production, it is not so complicated, but it must be indispensable for him to surpass the crime of the Great Song Dynasty in his palace, he felt very painful in his heart, but he saw Gaozong's expectant eyes.

Finally, Zhang Jun nodded ruthlessly......!